Police Stick Rainbow Stickers in Bid to Have The Community Have Confidence

 

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER

 A police force yesterday announced it would be placing rainbow stickers on the front desks of police stations in order to make gay and lesbians feel more confident about reporting crime.

North Wales police said it hoped that displaying the rainbow would make the gay, lesbian and transgender community feel safer and less apprehensive about talking to officers, especially if reporting homophobic offences.

The rainbow, it said, was a globally recognised symbol of acceptance that would help reinforce the constabulary’s commitment to equality and diversity.

Accepting: PC Manus Sheridan and Greg George with the rainbow stickers. Police said the rainbow was a globally recognised symbol of acceptance

Pc Manus Sheridan, of North Wales Police Gay Police Association, said police officers came into contact with people of different races and sexualities and it was important that they offered a good level of service to all members of the community.

'Some individuals, for a number of reasons, may feel apprehensive of approaching the police to report incidents,' Pc Sheridan said.

 

'It is essential that all members of the community feel confident enough to enter our stations to report any incident, whatever background they are from.

'This initiative is a further sign of our commitment to the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) community that NWP are here and can be trusted to deliver our service without prejudice.'

Greg George, head of diversity development at the force, added: 'The force is committed to tackling all crimes including homophobic hate crime and the stickers, which will be placed in all front counter areas, are a further symbol of our pledge.

North Wales police hoped displaying the rainbow would make the gay, lesbian and transgender community feel safer and less apprehensive about talking to officers. Picture posed by models

'We know that homophobic hate crime is still under reported.

'All police officers within the force are trained to deal with all types of crime, however we also have designated diversity officers to support investigation and victims of such offences. The force also runs a self reporting initiative where victims can contact the police without giving their name and details.'

North Wales police has a history of coming down strongly on those accused of homophobic crimes.

In 2006 they were criticised after hauling one of their own retired police officers through the courts when he called a woman colleague a ‘dyke.’

Former Detective Sergeant John Atkinson, 46, who had repeatedly apologised for the remark, was eventually cleared of any wrongdoing by magistrates and criticised the force for wasting taxpayers’ money.

During the hearing it emerged that Mr Atkinson, who served with North Wales Police for more than 22 years, faced trial even though the force’s then chief constable escaped prosecution for uttering a similar word. 

Richard Brunstrom was apparently not charged despite referring to homosexuals as ‘queers’ during a meeting.

 

Billion $ Walmart Heiress Arrested for DWI

BY KRISTIN BOEHM  People

 Walmart heiress Alice Walton's birthday ended in jail Friday night. The 62-year-old billionaire daughter of Walmart founder Sam Walton was arrested by Texas Highway Patrol for driving while intoxicated when she was pulled over for speeding in a construction zone. 

Walton, who refused a breathalyzer, "was determined to be intoxicated during a field sobriety test," according to Senior Trooper Gary Rozzell. 

She was booked into the Parker County Jail after 11 p.m. Friday,reports the local news,and released on $1,000 bond around 8 a.m. on Saturday. Walton is listed by Forbes as worth $20.9 billion, the 10th richest person in the U.S. and 21st in the world. 

Her attorney, Dee J. Kelly, said in a statement: "She was returning home from a birthday dinner with friends at a Fort Worth restaurant. She accepts full responsibility for this unfortunate incident and deeply regrets it."

‘Allow Guns in Bars’ Tenn Rep DUI With Gun Will Travel: Arrested

   Tennessee GOP state representative person with comical pirate name Curry Todd sponsored one of these “what could possibly go wrong?” gun rights laws so popular with the wingnuts these days that allows handgun owners to march around inside their favorite local liquor establishments while carrying weapons. What a good law that is! And what does a Tennessee lawmaker do with a good law? He puts it to use: Toddwas arrested for driving around wasted with a loaded handgun in the console of his truck last night in Nashville. 

From AP:

Rep. Curry Todd, a lead sponsor of a law allowing handgun carry permit holders to bring their guns into bars, has been arrested on charges of drunken driving and possession of a gun while under the influence.

Police say in court documents that the Collierville Republican was pulled over in Nashville late Tuesday. He allegedly failed a roadside sobriety test and refused to take a breathalyzer. A loaded Smith & Wesson 38 Special was found in a holster stuffed between the driver seat and the center console.

And oh look! We just found his mugshot:

By KIRSTEN BOYD JOHNSON   wonkette.com/

Gay marriage activists in push for recognition in Australia

BY NOEL TOWELL, CHIEF ASSEMBLY REPORTER

Ivan Hinton has the blessing of his 89-year-old grandmother for his marriage to Christopher Teoh. All he has to do now is convince the Australian Government to recognise their union.The Canberra couple, accompanied by Mr Hinton's grandmother Fay Abbott, were at Parliament House yesterday with 60 other same-sex marriage activists trying to convince federal politicians to support the push for Australia-wide full legal recognition of gay partnerships.
Mr Hinton said he used his meetings with ACT Senator Kate Lundy and Fraser MP Andrew Leigh to impress upon them the importance of full recognition of same-sex marriage rights.
Mr Hinton and Mr Teoh tied the knot in Canada, where their marriage is fully recognised, three years ago, just days after they held a non-legally binding ceremony here in Canberra.
''Our marriage is recognised in Canada and we just celebrated our third anniversary,'' Mr Hinton said. ''It's not just the same legal standing but the same symbolism, the same recognition. And the reason why we chose Canada is because there is no segregation between people of different sexual orientation, so what we participated in was simply a civil wedding.''
Mr Hinton said that the civil unions on offer in the territory were not acceptable to him or his husband.
''We wouldn't participate in what is available here in the ACT,'' Mr Hinton said. ''Even though it was a groundbreaking move by the Legislative Assembly, it wasn't satisfactory for us to participate in something that segregated us from the rest of the citizens of the ACT.''
Spokesman for the Marriage Equality Goes to Canberra campaign Alex Greenwich said that the push for federal recognition of gay relationships was gathering momentum.
He said that the 60 ''ordinary Australians'' at Parliament House yesterday spoke about marriage equality with more than 40 MPs, including cabinet ministers and senior opposition politicians.
Mr Greenwich said he believed that changes to federal laws to allow same-sex marriage would reflect the attitude of the majority of Australians.
''Today we hope to encourage our federal decision-makers to support positive social reform that will change the lives of so many ordinary Australians,'' he said.
The campaigner said that the movement had been buoyed by the support of every state ALP branch except NSW, and the Tasmanian lower house's decision to become the first in Australia to support same-sex marriage.
http://www.canberratimes.com.au/

GOP & Tea Bagger Kelsey Grammer/Puts on Brakes over Gay Marriage

KELSEY GRAMMER SAYS NO TO TEA PARTY, OVER OPPOSITION TO GAY MARRIAGE: VIDE

Republican Kelsey Grammer was asked last night by Piers Morgan about his allegiance to the Tea Party.

Says Grammer: “I’m not sure they say anything that I would object to. I’ve just been told that they’re lunatics."

Morgan tells him that most of the Tea Party is opposed to gay marriage.

"I wouldn't sign on to that. Absolutely. I played several [gay characters]. I guess I'm more Libertarian in that way. I think marriage is up to two people that love each other. And if you find the church that you want to get married in you go right ahead ..In my mind the state of marriage is something that has been endorsed by the idea that it is a sacrament within the context of a faith...the word marriage comes out of the religious side of our experience and our history. So I tend to think our government shouldn't be involved in any way..."

 

 

 

Dan Savage: “I told my mom I suck D###"

Courtesy of MTV

Dan Savage will lead a Q&A about sexuality on campus Thursday.

Dan Savage, famous for his sex and relationship advice column, "Savage Love," is known for his frankness and honesty. He has a simple answer for why he's so comfortable talking to students openly about sex and relationships.

"Because I'm gay," Savage told The Lantern. "I told my mother I suck d---, I think you can tell your boyfriend or girlfriend what you reallywant."

For the past dozen years, Savage has been traveling to colleges around the country, listening to student's questions and answering honestly. This week's stop was at Ohio State's campus where MTV is filming a new show, also called "Savage Love."

On Thursday, Savage will lead a campus-wide Q&A where students can anonymously submit note cards with questions that will be answered at the event.

"Students are much more honest this way," Savage said. "They can ask whatever they want and no one will judgethem."

Savage said questions range in variety but the most popular ones pertain to threesomes, porn and oral sex. Being in the business for a long time now, there aren't many questions that will surprise him, he said.

"I'm hard to shock," he said.

Savage said the best way to go about talking about these sometimes taboo topics is "openly and bluntly."

"I use the language people use when they talk about sex with their friends," he said. "You have to have a sense of humor. It releases tension, eases people and generates laughter. And people are more receptive to that."

Savage said he found the most success with that honesty.

"I was the first person to say c---sucker," he said. "People liked that."

Communication is the message that the show is trying to broadcast, Savage said.

"People get in trouble when they don't communicate and this show helps them talk," he said. "They think ‘Oh, sex is natural and should come without communication,' and that's not how it works. You have to talk about your wants, needs and desires."

Savage said feeling awkward and shying away is what causes the problems.

"Use your words," he said. "It's what you have to say."

Savage has followed his own advice from a young age.

"I came out at 15 and that was a different time compared to now," he said. "You have to achieve a certain degree of confidence to tell your Catholic parents you're gay."

Now, Savage says being gay helps him hold the hand of others.

"The issue of being gay is enormous," he said. "So everything else seems small to talk about. I think I'm in a good position to tell people that aren't gay, ‘It's OK to have this certain feeling, just man up to it.'"

Savage said the decision to come to OSU was the producers' but they all wanted to come to a big state school.

"I'm from the Midwest and I like it here," he said. "It's a good way to show future students what college is like."

At least one student won't be attending Thursday's event, though she's heard a lot about it.

"I've heard people talking about it in the Union and seen flyers," said Katie Anousheh, a second-year in social work and Spanish. "I do think it's a good idea though."

She said she thinks anonymous questions will ease students' embarrassment.

"I think more people will have questions if no one is going to judge them for it," she said.

For students that do attend, Savage said they can expect a funny show and to get their questions answered.

"Absolutely nothing is off limits," he said.   thelantern.com

Rich People Help NY Republicans Who Risked Voting For Same-Sex Marriage

  Happy couples (Katie Sokoker / Gothamist)To thank four Republican State Senators who agreed to vote for gay marriage, wealthy mover-and-shakers areholding a big fundraiser in Manhattan tonight "expected to raise about $1.25 million to help finance their re-election bids next year," according to the NY Times. One of the wealthy donors who promised to support the Republicans is Mayor Bloomberg, who already contributed $10,300 each to Mark Grisanti of Buffalo; Roy McDonald of Saratoga; James Alesi of Rochester and Stephen Saland of Poughkeepsie this summer.


Besides Bloomberg, the event's other hosts are "the philanthropist and gay rights activist Tim Gill; and several top-tier Republican donors, including the hedge fund managers Paul E. Singer and Daniel S. Loeb." The Times notes, "Invitations asked potential donors to contribute up to $16,800, the maximum total allowed, for each senator’s re-election effort... About $900,000 is expected to be spread among the four senators... which would amount to a windfall by Albany standards. In the first six months of this year, state senators raised an average of $103,000 apiece, according to the New York Public Interest Research Group."

  

Grisanti, McDonald, Alesi, and Saland will be fighting anti-gay-marriage pushes from the National Organization for Marriage, which has been placing billboards criticizing the politicians in their districts. NOM northeast coordinator Christopher Plante said, "What we have are the people and voters of New York, who expect more out of their politicians, and we expect that they will stand up. The people of New York will not forget what these senators did." Yeah, these senators made a step forward in civil rights.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com  http://gothamist.com

The BlackBerry solution

Two big stories out of Europe this week.

First, geneticists announced that they had reconstructed the genome of the bug that caused the so-called Black Death, the plague that killed about 30 million people in Europe from 1347 to 1351. 

Then, Research in Motion executives announced that the company had fixed the problem that caused the so-called BlackBerry Death, the outage that began in Europe and killed the BlackBerrys of about 70 million customers on five continents this week.

Now, you might think the plague was worse.  But only if you don't own a BlackBerry. For those folks, this week was a look into the abyss:

Denise L. White, 40, chief executive of Entertainers & Athletes Group, a sports management company in El Segundo, realized something was wrong at 7:43 a.m. Wednesday when there were no new messages on her BlackBerry.

"It's been horrible for me. I'm someone who relies on my BlackBerry every second," said White, who normally receives hundreds of emails a day. "It never ceases to amaze me that we can put a man on the moon, but we can't get our BlackBerrys to work."

Which is really a silly thing to say. Because, although we did put men on the moon decades ago, we can't do it anymore.  We can't even send astronauts to the space station.

But we can invent complicated stuff to make our lives easier -- which the stuff does, until it stops working.

But do we blame technology?  Oh no. We blame the device:

White said the "huge inconvenience" of the latest BlackBerry outage was leading her to think about other options.

"I know there's quirks with technology and it's not perfect, but this certainly makes me rethink the iPhone," she said.

Good thinking: An iPhone, or an Android phone, that's the ticket.  Nothing can go wrong then. Just askScarlett Johansson.

Still, perhaps the most serious impact was felt in our nation's capital:

In Washington, D.C., many lawmakers and staffers struggled to do their jobs without their BlackBerrys.

People live and breathe with these things here," said Zachary Coile, a spokesman for Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.). "It's the go-to device on Capitol Hill."

So now we know why President Obama's jobs bill is sitting there: It's fallen victim to the BlackBerry Death.

Perhaps Congress could form a committee to look into the whole debacle; you know, hire a big staff, hold hearings (televised, or streamed on the Web straight to your smartphone), subpoena records and the like.

But take heart.  Humans are resilient.  As The Times’ story on the Black Death said:

Bubonic plague still strikes somewhere between 1,000 and 3,000 people each year, according to the World Health Organization.  The U.S. Centers for Disease Control report that on average, 10 to 15 Americans get the disease each year, mainly in rural areas… Bubonic plague responds to antibiotics if discovered and treated quickly.

Likewise, we can now easily overcome BlackBerry Death:

In a conference call with reporters Thursday morning, [Mike Lazaridis, RIM's president and co-chief executive], said any continuing problems experienced by BlackBerry users were likely caused by the lengthy backlog of messages due to the three-day outage.

He also suggested that customers still experiencing problems remove their BlackBerry's battery for a short time to reset the device because the lengthy outage could have affected its ability to synchronize with the network.

So simple, so elegant: The cure for BlackBerry Death -- unplug your phone.

--Paul Whitefield

Photo: The BlackBerry logo on a Curve 9300 smartphone, manufactured by Research In Motion. Credit: Simon Dawson / Bloomberg/   latimes.com

NJ Teacher Spreading Homophobic Messages All Over Facebook

 
Viki Knox's Facebook

Further proof that teachers and Facebook don't mix: A Union Township, New Jersey teacher is being investigated over the homophobic comments she allegedly posted on her Facebook, calling homosexuality "perverted" and criticizing Union High School LGBT month events, reports the Star-Ledger today.

Viki Knox, a Special Education teacher who is also the faculty adviser to the high school’s student prayer group, The Seekers Fellowship, reportedly referred to homosexuality as, "a perverted spirit that has existed from the beginning of creation," and a "sin" that "breeds like cancer" on a Facebook thread. The page has since been taken down, but Garden State Equality, a gay rights group, has posted a PDF of the comments here.

Local attorney John Paragano is calling for Knox to be fired, saying, "Hateful public comments from a teacher cannot be tolerated. She has a right to say it. But she does not have a right to keep her job after saying it." Garden State Equality agrees with Paragano: "Teachers are supposed to be role models for our children, not hatemongers," said GSE chair Steven Goldstein. He also referenced the state's newly passed, extra-tough anti-bullying law, saying "I don’t see how this teacher could possibly be effective in implementing the state’s new anti-bullying law, designed precisely to teach children that bullying, including cyber-bullying, is unacceptable."

Knox has yet to comment, but the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey released a statement defending Knox’s First Amendment right to make the comments: "Although we do not agree with the sentiments expressed on Ms. Knox’s personal Facebook page, her comments are protected by the First Amendment," said representative Ed Barocas.

Earlier this year, a former "Teacher of the Year" in Florida also used his Facebook to express his disgust with gay marriage in New York, and was later suspended. Union Chief School Administrator Patrick Martin said the district is investigating the Knox incident.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com