8th Alleged Scum-bag Arrested In Anti-Gay Gang Torture In NYC

Law enforcement officials escort several purported members of the “Latin King Goonies” gang on Oct. 8, 2010, following their arrests in an alleged series of anti-gay attacks in the Bronx. (Photo: CBS 2)

(AP) — Police say an eighth suspect is in custody in the horrific anti-gay gang attack on three men in the Bronx.

Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly told reporters at City Hall that the man turned himself at a police precinct in the Bronx Saturday afternoon.

Investigators are still seeking a ninth suspect.

The abandoned home that served as a clubhouse — and allegedly a torture chamber — for a street gang accused of trapping and brutalizing three gay men sits in a neighborhood where homosexuality is both common and tolerated, residents said.

Gay men and women lived openly, and while neighbors were disturbed by some past violent behavior by the group of young men alleged to have been involved in the attacks, some said they hadn’t previously targeted homosexuals.

“I was friends with all of them,” said Natty Martinez, a gay 16-year-old who lives in the Bronx neighborhood.

“They were chill. There was no beef,” she said. “I had no idea they had no heart.”

New York City leaders continued to express outrage Saturday over the attacks, which police say took place over several hours on two nights.

Police said the nine members of a gang that called itself the Latin King Goonies went berserk after hearing a rumor that one of their new recruits, a 17-year-old, was gay.

Investigators say the teen was stripped, beaten and sodomized with a plunger handle until he confessed to having had sex with a 30-year-old man who lives a few blocks away.

Then, the group grabbed a second teen they suspected was gay and tortured him, too. Finally, they invited the 30-year-old to the house, telling him they were having a party. When he arrived, they burned, beat and tortured him for hours. The attack included sodomizing him with a miniature baseball bat, police said.

Five City Council members and other elected officials visited the block Saturday and stood outside the empty brick townhouse where the attacks had taken place.

City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, who is gay, passed out leaflets imploring residents to turn in the two suspects still being sought. She and her colleagues were joined by area ministers, civic leaders and residents, who marched in solidarity with the victims.

“People were very, very clear that they wanted it to be known that the acts of these individulas do not represent their neighborhood,” said Quinn. “They were as stunned as anyone that something so violent, so premeditated … could happen here.”

The first of the attacks happened in the early morning hours of Oct. 3. The next two began the next night, and lasted into the early hours of Oct. 4th.

Sitting on the steps of the home where the attacks took place Saturday, Martinez and three teenage friends said the accused men had frequently partied in an empty apartment on the block.

The girls said the young men, who ranged in age from 16 to 23, were “the nicest ever.” Some even went to church, they said. But they added that when the group drank heavily, they did bad things and sometimes beat up people.

Word of the assaults apparently reached residents long before police had pieced together what happened. Jaymarie Mendez, 16, said she heard about the attack, “the next day,” but said that, like other young people in the area, “We don’t talk to cops. We don’t like them.”

The victims, authorities said, didn’t call the police either.

Residents on the block said they were shocked by the violence.

“How can people do something like that?” asked Keith Handsford, 35, an air conditioning repairman who lives next to the building where the assaults took place.

He said he had two teenage nieces who were gay, and lived in the neighborhood, who have had no problems with serious harassment.

A spokesman for the Bronx District attorney said the seven suspects in custody were awaiting arraingment Saturday on charges that would include abduction and sodomy as a hate crime.

'Family' Honored For Portrayal Of Diverse America

by THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

EnlargeAssociated Press

Actors Rico Rodriguez, left, and Nolan Gould pose together at the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network's Respect Awards in Beverly Hills, Calif., Friday, Oct. 8, 2010.

Associated Press

Actress Jeanne Tripplehorn arrives at the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network's Respect Awards in Beverly Hills, Calif., Friday, Oct. 8, 2010.

EnlargeAssociated Press

Rob Reiner arrives at the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network's Respect Awards in Beverly Hills, Calif., Friday, Oct. 8, 2010.

EnlargeAssociated Press

Actress Florence Henderson arrives at the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network's Respect Awards in Beverly Hills, Calif., Friday, Oct. 8, 2010.

EnlargeAssociated Press

Actor Jesse Tyler Ferguson arrives at the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network's Respect Awards in Beverly Hills, Calif., Friday, Oct. 8, 2010.

EnlargeAssociated Press

Actress Sofia Vergara arrives at the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network's Respect Awards in Beverly Hills, Calif., Friday, Oct. 8, 2010.

 

BEVERLY HILLS October 9, 2010

It was a night to celebrate, but the mood was subdued on the arrivals line at the GLSEN Respect Awards, presented by the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network.

ABC's Emmy-winning sitcom "Modern Family" was honored Friday night for its portrayal of a diverse America, including a family headed by a gay couple, played by actors Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Eric Stonestreet.

And yet some of the event's celeb attendees said the recent string of widely reported bully-inspired gay-teen suicides is proof that acceptance still has a long way to go.

"I do have the same sort of mixed feeling, in the light of everything that's happened," noted Ferguson, who is openly gay. "However, I think an event like this echoes the sentiment that we need to change. This cannot continue happening."

The Emmy-nominated Ferguson, 34, said he was "very bullied" in school.

"I actually had to leave eighth grade and go to another school because it got so bad, so I certainly sympathize with these kids," he noted, adding that bullied students should keep reminding themselves that school won't last forever. "Honestly, back at my 10-year reunion, I didn't even remember any of those bullies' names. Frankly, they weren't doing nearly as good as me. So, it was very vindicating."

Ferguson's Colombian-born co-star, Sofia Vergara, said acceptance of gays and lesbians in the Latin community "is very hard, because it's very taboo," she explained.

"The Latin community is a very Catholic community," continued Vergara, 38. "So, it's always a problem for people to accept it, and they live in denial for many years, the parents, and prefer not to address the problem. And that's when tragedies and things happen. And, you know, it's hard. You're not going to change things in one day."

Others in attendance included the event's host, director Rob Reiner, as well as actresses Chloe Sevigny, Jeanne Tripplehorn and Ginnifer Goodwin from "Big Love."

Actress Florence Henderson walked the red carpet with her "Dancing With the Stars" partner Corky Ballas, and discussed her big gay fan base. "Well, 'The Brady Bunch Variety Hour' was enough to seal me with the gay community forever," Henderson said, with a laugh.

Online: http://www.glsen.org

Gay Teen Denied Prom Constance McMillen Story Coming To ABC Family

PUBLISHED: OCTOBER 09, 2010

ABC Family is developing a made-for-tv movie based on the real-life discrimination faced by lesbian teen Constance McMillen.

McMillen, with the assistance of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU),

 sued her rural Mississippi school district in March after it decided to

 cancel the annual prom dance for junior and senior students rather

 than allow McMillen to attend the event with her girlfriend and wear

 a tuxedo.

School officials in July agreed to pay the teen $35,000 in damages plus

 attorneys fees and adopt a policy prohibiting discrimination. Officials, 

however, did not admit to any wrongdoing in their offer.

The case drew nationwide attention, turning the teen into an overnight

 gay rights celebrity. She served as a grand marshal for New York's Gay 

Pride Parade.

According to Nikki Finke's Deadline Hollywood, ABC Family is in the 

early stages of developing the film. The movie is being helmed by

 openly gay producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron. John Gray, creator-

executive producer of CBS' Ghost Whisperer, will write the script and is

 expected to direct.

Previous gay-related productions by the Zadan-Meron team include

 GLAAD Media Award-winners Serving in Silence: The Margarethe

 Cammermeyer Story and What Makes A Family.

BY ON TOP MAGAZINE STAFF 

Activism of Supremes Clarence Thomas’s Wife Could Raise Judicial Issues

Stephen Crowley/The New York Times

Virginia Thomas, left, of the organization Liberty Central, and Diana Reimer, in May lobbying against the health care bill.

By JACKIE CALMES NYTimes 

RICHMOND, Va. — As one of the keynote speakers here Friday at a state convention billed as the largest Tea Party event ever, Virginia Thomas gave the throng of more than 2,000 activists a full-throated call to arms for conservative principles.

Pool photo by Francisco Kjolseth

Virginia Thomas and her husband, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas in Salt Lake City on July 19, 2010.

For three decades, Mrs. Thomas has been a familiar figure among conservative activists in Washington — since before she met her husband of 23 years, Justice Clarence Thomas of theSupreme Court. But this year she has emerged in her most politically prominent role yet: Mrs. Thomas is the founder and head of a new nonprofit group, Liberty Central, dedicated to opposing what she characterizes as the leftist “tyranny” of President Obamaand Democrats in Congress and to “protecting the core founding principles” of the nation.

It is the most partisan role ever for a spouse of a justice on the nation’s highest court, and Mrs. Thomas is just getting started. “Liberty Central will be bigger than the Tea Party movement,” she told Fox News in April, at a Tea Party rally in Atlanta.

But to some people who study judicial ethics, Mrs. Thomas’s activism is raising knotty questions, in particular about her acceptance of large, unidentified contributions for Liberty Central. She began the group in late 2009 with two gifts of $500,000 and $50,000, and because it is a 501(c)(4) nonprofit group, named for the applicable section of the federal tax code, she does not have to publicly disclose any contributors. Such tax-exempt groups are supposed to make sure that less than half of their activities are political.

Mrs. Thomas, known as Ginni, declined through a spokeswoman to be interviewed without an agreement not to discuss her husband. In written responses to questions, Sarah Field, Liberty Central’s chief operating officer and general counsel, said that Mrs. Thomas is paid by Liberty Central, with the compensation set by the group’s board, and that the group has “internal reviews and protections to ensure that no donor causes a conflict of interest for either Ginni or her husband.”

Nonprofit groups with political agendas like Liberty Central are operating in this election cycle under evolving legal and regulatory standards, most notably the ruling last January by the Supreme Court in the Citizens United case, which eased restrictions on independent campaign spending by corporations and unions. In that case, Justice Thomas, long an advocate of dismantling campaign finance restrictions, was in the 5-to-4 majority. Wealthy individuals and some corporations, emboldened by the ruling, are giving to such groups to influence the election but still hide their tracks.

Unlike many other conservative nonprofit groups that are pouring donations into television advertising to benefit Republican candidates, Liberty Central has not done so, and it is not clear whether it will.

This month, Liberty Central began what it called its first ad campaign, but the ads were limited to Web sites for the conservative talk-show hosts Rush Limbaugh and Mark Levin — suggesting an effort to build membership for Liberty Central, not elect candidates. The ads link to Liberty Central’s Web site and a video of Mrs. Thomas soliciting 100,000 signatures against the “Obama tax increase” — referring to the scheduled expiration of theBush tax cuts on Dec. 31.

The bigger question for many is how she is financing these activities. Liberty Central reported the initial $550,000 on its 2009 tax return, though the identities of the two donors are redacted.

A federal law requires justices to recuse themselves in a number of circumstances where real or perceived conflicts of interest could arise, including in cases where their spouses could have a financial interest. But the decision to step aside is up to each justice; there is no appeal from the nation’s highest court.

“It’s shocking that you would have a Supreme Court justice sitting on a case that might implicate in a very fundamental way the interests of someone who might have contributed to his wife’s organization,” said Deborah L. Rhode, a law professor and director of theStanford University Center on the Legal Profession.

“The fact that we can’t find that out is the first problem,” she said, adding, “And how can the public form a judgment about propriety if it doesn’t have the basic underlying facts?”

Steven Lubet, who teaches legal ethics at Northwestern Law School, said Mrs. Thomas’s solicitation of big contributions raised potential recusal issues for her husband. But he added, “There’s no reason to think that Justice Thomas would be anything other than extremely careful about it.”

“I think this is the world we live in, where two-career families are the norm and there are no constraints on the political activities of judicial spouses,” Mr. Lubet said.

Stephen Gillers, a law professor at New York University, said: “There’s nothing to stop Ginni Thomas from being politically active. She’s a private citizen and she has all of her constitutional rights.”

But as for the big donors, Mr. Gillers, citing a 1988 Supreme Court decision, said, “She has to tell him because the public is going to assume he knows,” and, Mr. Gillers said, fair-minded citizens could question Justice Thomas’s objectivity as a result.

The Supreme Court’s public information office said Mrs. Thomas had told court officials of her plans but it declined to provide any more information.

“Around the time of the launch of Liberty Central, Mrs. Thomas reviewed her involvement with the Supreme Court legal office. Discussions with the legal office that are part of efforts to obtain legal and ethics advice are not made public,” Kathy Arberg, the court’s information officer, wrote in an e-mail.

In past interviews, Mrs. Thomas has suggested she is being singled out unfairly; other spouses of judges are politically active, she has argued, usually mentioning Gov. Edward G. Rendell of Pennsylvania, a Democrat who is married to a judge on the Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. Mr. Rendell has to disclose direct contributions to his campaigns. And parties can appeal to the Supreme Court should his wife not recuse herself when her impartiality is questioned.

Mrs. Thomas’s political work has drawn criticism before from Democrats. In the weeks before a 5-to-4 majority of the Supreme Court, including her husband, decided the 2000 election for George W. Bush over Al Gore, Mrs. Thomas was compiling résumés for potential appointees to a Bush administration from her job at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative, Republican-leaning research group
.

Beware of the Military in the Service of God

Four years ago Mikey Weinstein, the founder of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, led the fight to cleanse the Air Force Academy of Christian proselytizing. At that time cadets were pressured by faculty members and chaplains in command to accept Jesus. The football coach displayed a banner proclaiming “Team Jesus Christ.” Pressure was put upon cadets to view Mel Gibson’s movie, “The Passion of Christ.”

When a Lutheran Air Force chaplain complained that the cadets were being abused by “systematic and pervasive” proselytizing she was immediately transferred to Asia. Finally the superintendant of the Academy acknowledged the problem and predicted that it will take years to rid the campus of religious intolerance: “If everything goes well, it’s probably going to take six years to fix it.”

Apparently everything is not going well. This month Weinstein is preparing legal action against the Academy in light of new evidence that Cadets for Christ, an organization that many consider a cult, including Evangelicals like Pat Robertson, is actively proselytizing on campus with the help of officers and some faculty.

When confronted with evidence of this activity by the Military Religious Freedom Foundation the Academy Superintendant Lt. Gen. Michael Gould answered through a press release that, “To date, the allegation is not substantiated.” But at the same time Gen. Gould has not released the annual Climate Survey for the first time in the history of the Academy. The obvious question is what does he know that he doesn’t want us to know?

Veterans Today published a first-hand report by Darryl Wimberley, a former Air Force Academy professor, who wrote: “The cadets don’t harass other cadets under religious pretext on their own; they take their cues from officers, junior and senior, a core of whom believe, or at least behave as if, the USAFA is the seminary of God’s Air Force.” He continues, “One of the officers speaking with Gen. Gould, at the meeting where I was present, spoke of how his own son had been punished for not attending a ‘voluntary’ prayer service.” He also reported that the wife of an officer was told that her husband would never be promoted unless he started to attend Sunday school.

Mikey Weinstein has allegations from 51 cadets who have corroborated that Cadets for Christ is actively influencing cadets on the academy grounds. One of those cadets writes: “Mr. Weinstein, USAFA is literally overrun with Christian conservative fanatics…I keep ‘Christian” books and ‘Christian CD’s in my room so others will be fooled and leave me alone.”

Why does this cadet feel pressured? He explains: “We all need those discretionary academic instructor points. We all need our AOCs and Wing and Group and Squadron staff to want to support us. We all want more playing time with our athletic teams. We all need help from ‘the system’ in an infinite number of ways, but we will never get that help if we do not appear to be extreme conservative evangelistic Christians in every way.”

This past month has not been a good time for the separation of church and state, the bedrock of religious freedom as guaranteed by the First Amendment. The Army Times reported that 80 soldiers at Fort Eustis, Virginia were confined to their barracks and put in “lockdown” because they refused to attend a Christian rock concert. Pvt. Anthony Smith, one of those soldiers said, “Anybody in the military will tell you that lockdown is a form of punishment. When we don’t want to go to this concert and we’re not allowed to use our laptops or our cell phones or music, we’re not allowed to be sitting in our beds – that’s a form of punishment.”

What is truly scary is that this concert was part of the “Commanding General’s Spiritual Fitness Concert Series.” I understand the need for physical fitness, but I question the legitimacy of born-again generals to define spiritual fitness. There should not be such a program in the military. But there is and it’s expensive.

The Military Religious Freedom Foundation reports that a Christian headline group costs between $30,000 and $100,000. Weinstein looked into the Department of Defense contracts for other spiritual fitness events and programs and discovered that one outside consulting firm was paid $3.5 million. A columnist in the dailypress.com commented: “Praise the Lord and pass the military contract.”

Rabbi Warshal is the publisher emeritus of the Jewish Journal and is the author of “Provocative Columns"

Straight football team part of gay league

From BBC Wiltshire:

A football team from Wiltshire [UK] has become the only straight team in a regional gay football league. The Trowbridge Tigers have got together with five other teams to form the south west Gay Football League.

Team founder Tim Brown said although the majority of teams in the league were gay, the Tigers were 80% straight. He said: "Trowbridge is a smaller catchment area compared to the other teams and it really doesn't have a gay scene like say Bristol."

One of few gay players on the team, Nick Pitcher, said: "It's a pioneering team - a straight team in the gay league. "But the stick the straight guys must put up with - they're much more likely to get ribbed at work for playing in a gay league then we are."

Less testosterone

It was back in early 2000 that Tim, the Tigers' straight player-manager, began playing in the gay league. "I'd wanted to play more games, and a mate at work was playing on Saturdays and Sundays for the Bristol Panthers and I asked him if I could come along.

"He said he didn't think it would be my cup of tea as it was a gay football team."

But it was. So much so, that in July last year Tim and his friends decided to set up their own club - the Trowbridge Tigers.

He said: "The social aspect was really good. "We'd meet up before and after the matches and although it was competitive you didn't get the same aggression. "The testosterone levels were sort of taken out."

Nick agreed saying the league was very sociable. "It is competitive but it's good football. You don't get players, for instance, trying to break your leg," he said. And when we play, all 19 players get to play. It's absolutely fair and down the line."

Gay Games

It's been a fast moving year for the team, who despite a poor opening match, are performing well in Division 2 of the Gay Football Supporters Network (GFSN) national league.

"Although we're mainly straight we've been accepted into the league," said Tim. "We were quite up front about it.

The Tigers also recently competed in the Gay Games in Germany where they were the second highest placed UK team and took part in both the opening and closing ceremonies. The team also has aspirations to play in the Euro Cup in Manchester and in the Euro Games in Holland.

But despite having 40 players signed up for the season, both gay and straight, the team is always on the look out for more gay friendly players. "It's not just about skill," said Nick, "people are accepted with the right attitude. "Macho men are not acceptable."

Cooper Unhappy with Use of “Gay” in Trailer

October 8, 2010 

UPDATE:

According to a press release from GLAAD:

Today, after Anderson Cooper also spoke out against the scene, Universal confirmed to GLAAD that the offensive joke will be removed from promotional campaigns from this point forward, including in the trailer currently playing in movie theaters.

It’s yet been confirmed or denied if the scene will be deleted from the final cut of the film.

As reported earlier:

Earlier this week on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Anderson Cooper spoke out about being upset over the derogatory use of the word “gay” in a trailer for the upcoming Universal Studios film “Dilemma” starring Vince Vaughn

Cooper stated:

“I was sitting in a movie theater over the weekend and there was a preview of a movie, and in it, the actor said, ‘That’s so gay,’ and I was shocked that not only that they put it in the movie, but that they put that in the preview, they thought that it was okay to put that in a preview for the movie to get people to go and see it.

“I just find those words, those terms, we’ve got to do something to make those words unacceptable cause those words are hurting kids.”

The REALLY disturbing part, most of the comments left on YouTube – here!

by Gay Agenda News Team