La Presse en Rose

The Wizard has decided to start a newsletter type post for GLBTT news and views. It will be called "La Presse en Rose" and following is the first edition! Enjoy!

Gay Couple Cuffed Over Kiss In Utah

A gay couple has been banned from property owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the Mormons) after an altercation with security guards over a kiss, the Salt Lake Tribune reported.

The men say they were roughly cuffed and banned from the Mormon Church's headquarters campus in Salt Lake City, Utah after one man kissed the other on the cheek.

In the altercation, Matt Aune, 28, and his partner Derek Jones, 25, were detained by church security guards, and cited by city police for trespassing.

The pair crossed the Main Street Plaza, which belongs to the church, Thursday night holding hands as they walked home from a concert. Near the edge of the plaza, Aune says he stopped, hugged Jones and kissed him on the cheek.

The couple was cuffed and detained when they protested against requests by the guards that they leave. Guards told them public displays of affection are not allowed on the plaza.

“They targeted us,” Aune told the paper. “We weren't doing anything inappropriate or illegal, or anything most people would consider inappropriate for any other couple.”

In a statement, church officials denied discriminating against the couple, saying they were asked to leave as any other couple would be. But when the paper asked what is considered inappropriate behavior, spokeswoman Kim Farah refused to answer.

Farah said the two men were detained and the police were called because they “became argumentative,” used profanity and refused to leave.

Aune admits he used profanity: “When I was handcuffed, I was very pissed and I unleashed a flurry of profanities.”

The Mormon Church has been under intense criticism by gay rights advocates after its members, at the request of church leaders, donated millions of dollars – and thousands of volunteer hours – to the campaign to ban gay marriage in California, Proposition 8. (By On Top Magazine Staff)

List of Anti-gay companies

Many anti-gay businesses and their owners or top managers will gladly take (fleece) Gay Dollars. They may offer a product or service that looks friendly, fun or enticing to the GLBT community. But they use their profits to turn on you and stab you in the back by supporting anti-gay causes or to deny equal benefits.
This list is meant to educate the public so consumers can make informed choices. Some of these choices one makes might include the following: take your business elsewhere; boycott or pick the business; write or email the company to inform them why they have lost your business; educate your friends and families about the company. Eventually corporate leaders and businesses will learn that anti-gay bigotry is bad for business.

A-1 Self Storage Company: Terry Caster is the owner. It is a family (third generation) run company. They have over 40 locations in California. The Californians Against Hate blog reports: “Mr. Caster and his family have contributed $693,000 to the Protect Marriage campaign. That makes the Casters the 2nd largest individual donors to Yes on Prop 8.”

CBRL Group Inc. (Cracker Barrel restaurants) Operates 579 full-service Cracker Barrel restaurants and gift shops in 41 states. The business has a long history of discriminating against gays and blacks, both as employees and dinners. It had an HR policy from 1991 until 2002 that said "It is inconsistent with our concept and values, and is perceived to be inconsistent with those of our customer base, to continue to employ individuals in our operating units whose sexual preferences fail to demonstrate normal heterosexual values.” Seventeen workers were fired because they admitted or were assumed to be gay after the first few months that the policy was created. [Wikipedia] A spokesperson in 2008 said Cracker Barrel “welcomes all guests, and our equal opportunity employment statement clearly states that we will not tolerate discrimination based on sexual orientation." However, it does not offer diversity training, domestic partner benefits or any support for their GLBT employees. It has a Corporate Equality Index score of 15/100.

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Political IQ - Close your wallet, open your mouth

by Diane Silver (Gay and Lesbian Times)

What we have here is a teachable moment. It would be a shame to waste it.
In June, the Obama administration touched off a firestorm in the GLBT community. The ignition point was a Department of Justice brief that defended the Defense of Marriage Act so vigorously people first thought it was written by holdovers from the Bush administration.

Surely progressive Obamites, representing a president who claimed to hate DOMA, couldn’t have compared same-sex marriage to the nuptials of an uncle to a niece? They couldn’t really have written that DOMA is neutral and, thus, hurts no one? It turns out that Obama’s justice department could and did just that.

The blogosphere erupted. Some GLBT donors pulled out of a Washington, D.C., fundraiser for the Democratic National Committee, and protestors picketed outside. Another DNC fundraiser in Boston was also picketed.

Obamites hastily convened an Oval Office ceremony where the president signed a memo providing limited benefits to same-sex partners of federal employees. These benefits don’t include health insurance and were labeled too little too late by many, myself included. At the same time, even the mainstream media began reporting that the always loyal gays were considering a political divorce.

I’m not ready to divorce Obama or the Democrats – at least not today. But I do want to note that all of this upheaval has provided us with a teachable moment.

Here’s the point: People who should be our greatest supporters – straight progressives and liberal politicians – are sometimes our biggest roadblocks. This isn’t necessarily because they’re secret homophobes or political cowards, although a serious lack of spine can be an obstacle.

The problem is their ignorance.

I bumped into this at lunch with a straight journalist. This kind soul doesn’t have a homophobic bone in his body. His beat is progressive politics, which keeps him in touch with a range of issues, including GLBT rights.

When I told him GLBT Americans were unhappy with Obama, he was surprised. When I mentioned that handing out a few, minor benefits to a few federal employees wouldn’t placate us, he was flabbergasted.

He didn’t understand the depth of suffering DOMA inflicts. He had no idea that immigration law tore our families apart. He was shocked that we took the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” military ban so personally.

Our meal was cordial, yet I sensed that he was struggling to understand what I was saying. I suspect that on a gut level he didn’t grasp the fury and despair that GLBT people know too well.

My liberal friend isn’t alone in his ignorance.

Nadine Smith, executive director of Equality Florida, reports that focus groups with heterosexuals show that even those with gay friends and family are ill-informed.
“A panel of straight people who knew gay people said they did not believe discrimination was real or nearly as bad as we described it because their gay friends or family would have told them,” Smith wrote on her organization’s blog.
Gays confirmed to Equality Florida that they didn’t talk to their straight friends and family about discrimination. Smith reports that gay participants in their focus groups said about heterosexuals that “if they cared, they would ask.”
I don’t think the lack of questioning comes from lack of caring. I think the problem is that straights are simply clueless. They don’t know they need to ask. If you had always lived in the comfort of heterosexuality and your concept of GLBT life is “Will and Grace,” smiling Ellen Degeneres and gay Pride marches, how are you supposed to know about our suffering?

If we don’t tell our friends, family and coworkers what it’s like to be treated like second-class human beings, how are they going to understand? The religious fanatics who campaign against equality aren’t going to tell them.

Obama and his staff should know better. I agree with those who say it’s time to close the Gay ATM. The GLBT community has to send the message to Obama and the Democratic Party that we will not support them if they don’t support us. And “support” means taking concrete action to repeal the policies and laws that hurt us.
Closing our wallets and refusing to donate is a fine first step, but I think we have to do more. (Diane Silver is a former newspaper reporter and magazine editor, whose work has appeared in The Progressive, Salon.com, Ms and other national publications.)


Don't Ask - Don't Tell The Truth


-- A fun upbeat video on the facts surrounding the Don't Ask - Don't Tell Policy --



uploaded by dontfwithmefellas

La Press en Rose ©, 2009, The Wizard of 'OZ'