Man at centre of gaybashing faces charges
Lesbian student in Mississippi fights for tuxedo photo
By The Associated Press
(Jackson, Miss.) Everyone at Wesson Attendance Center knows 17-year-old Ceara Sturgis is gay because she’s never tried to hide it.
But when Sturgis – an honor student, trumpet player and goalie on the school’s soccer team – wanted her senior photograph in a tuxedo used in the 2009-10 yearbook, school officials balked. Traditionally, female students dress in drapes and males wear tuxedos.
Now, the American Civil Liberties Union of Mississippi has gotten involved, issuing a demand letter to Principal Ronald Greer to publish the picture of Sturgis in the tuxedo. The ACLU says it’s giving the school until Oct. 23 to respond before pursuing court action, said Kristy L. Bennett, the ACLU’s legal director.
A secretary for Greer referred questions to Copiah County Schools Superintendent Rickey Clopton, who declined to comment on Thursday.
Sturgis said she should get to decide how she looks in the senior photo.
“I feel like I’m not important, that the school is dismissing who I am as a gay student and that they don’t even care about me. All I want is to be able to be me, and to be included in the yearbook,” Sturgis said in a statement.
Veronica Rodriguez, 47, said school officials are trying to force her daughter – who doesn’t even own a dress – to appear more feminine.
“The tux is who she is. She wears boys’ clothes. She’s athletic. She’s gay. She’s not feminine,” said Rodriguez during an interview Thursday at the ACLU office.
Rodriguez said Sturgis took her pictures over the summer instead of with the other students last year, but she used the same studio.
In August, Rodriguez said she received a letter from the school stating that only boys could wear tuxedos. Rodriguez said she met with assistant Superintendent Ronald Holloway who told her he didn’t see regulations about the issue in the student handbook.
But when she talked with Greer, she said he told her it was his “conviction” that Sturgis wouldn’t appear in the yearbook in a tuxedo.
Bennett said the teenager’s constitutional rights are being violated. Bennett said similar cases, including same-sex prom couples and girls wearing tuxedos to proms, have been successfully challenged in court in other states. ACLU officials said they were unaware of any other constitutional disputes involving gay teens at Mississippi schools.
“You can’t discriminate against somebody because they’re not masculine enough or because they’re not feminine enough. She’s making an expression of her sexual orientation through this picture and that invokes First Amendment protection,” Bennett said.
There’s no state policy that deals with the yearbook photo issue, said state Department of Education spokesman Pete Smith.
The deadline for the photo to be accepted for the yearbook was Sept. 30. But advertisements for the publication are still being taken so Sturgis has time for her photo to be included, Bennett said.
Sturgis lives with her grandparents in Wesson, a town of about 1,700 founded during the Civil War in southwest Mississippi. The town’s Web site said residents “pride ourselves on our quiet way of life.”
ONTARIO / Thunder Bay supporter "shocked"
By Kaj Hasselriis
Thunder Bay police have charged five people in a gaybashing case that caused community members to organize a massive rally against violence. One of those charged is the gay man at the centre of the incident.
Jake Raynard, who sustained head injuries after an assault outside Thunder Bay's gay-friendly bar on Sep 5, has been charged with one count of assault and two counts of assault with a weapon. Four young men, ranging in age from 16 to 18, are also facing charges.
"I'm taking the weekend to look over the evidence that's been levelled against me," 
says Raynard, who returned to work last week. "I want to make sure I don't misstep. I obviously want the court case to go well."
Raynard refuses to say if he will plead guilty or innocent when he makes his court appearance on Dec 2. He says he will meet with his lawyer on Monday.
"I was pretty shocked," says Ellen Picard Chambers, who spoke on behalf of Egale at the September rally. "The community that knows [Raynard] certainly didn't see this coming."
Picard Chambers believes the attack involving Raynard was a hate crime. So does Michael Sobota, who is helping to organize an anti-violence group with Raynard called Unity in our Community.
But the police say they don't believe a hate crime took place on the night of the attack. "There were insulting remarks made by several parties that were involved in this incident," Bob Herman, Thunder Bay's police chief, told local media. "The remarks were insulting in nature and certainly shouldn't have been made. But they weren't the motivating factor that led up to the assaults. So in the absence of that, we can't classify this as a hate-motivated crime."
"I'm angry that they're saying insults don't amount to anything," says Sobota. "Obviously they do." He feels Raynard has a good case for self-defence. "If you're being chased by more people than you and being called a fairie or a fag, I would defend myself, too," says Sobota.
The weapons that were allegedly used by both sides in the Sep 5 incident were bricks. But Sobota says Raynard only threw them to defend himself.
Two of the young men facing charges are still at large. Warrants have been issued for their arrests.
Gay blood donor Kyle Freeman remains defiant
NATIONAL / Facing five government lawyers, a 36-year-old ex-military man makes the case for reform
By Neil McKinnon
After seven years of delays, the trial against a Toronto gay man who dodged questions on a Canadian Blood Services questionnaire in order to give blood began this week.
Kyle Freeman, 36, is challenging the Canadian Blood Services' (CBS) ban on gay blood donors, which has been in effect since 1983. He admits he lied on CBS's pre-screening questionnaires, but says he did so because the rules don't make sense. Canadian law forbids gay men from donating blood unless they have not had sex with a man since 1977.
Queer groups have long argued that the ban does not reflect accepted scientific 
knowledge or common sense. They argue that only unprotected anal sex should disqualify gay men who want to donate blood and that any prohibition based on oral sex amounts to spreading misinformation about what is considered to be high-risk activity. For years, university students have led the battle to repeal the ban, since blood drives are a frequent sight on campus.
Freeman donated blood 18 times between 1990 and 1999, but the lawsuit focusses on four donations between 1998 and 2002. In 2002, Freeman wrote an anonymous email to CBS and Canadian media after his donation:
"I am a gay man and have been involved in a long-term committed relationship," the email says. "Both my partner and myself [have] been tested for the HIV virus and are both negative and intend to stay that way. We are both very honest people and are both blood donors."
Investigators for CBS tracked Freeman through his IP address and filed its claim. Their claim asks for $100,000 in damages, accusing Freeman of being negligent while filling out the screening form. Freeman's countersuit clocks in at $250,000.
In an exclusive interview with Xtra, Freeman says he now regrets the inflammatory nature of the email he sent to CBS and the media. He also says he regrets sending the email from his home computer, saying he should have emailed CBS from a library where his IP address could not be tracked. However, he does not regret donating blood.
"When people came to my door to serve me with a subpoena, they didn't know who to ask for. It was originally John Doe v Canadian Blood Services. A friend told me I should've lied and says someone hacked into my internet account, but I wasn't going to lie. I wasn't going to hide," says Freeman.
"I think it's less about what you do [than] how you do it. You can have just one sex partner and get HIV. Or you can have multiple partners and be safe," says Freeman.
Freeman also says he knew that gays were excluded from giving blood, but decided to disregard the rule as a youngster after he got advice from a fellow client at the 519 Church Street Community Centre in Toronto.
"When I was 18, I talked to a lesbian about not my being able to give blood. She said, 'I know lots of guys who do it and lie about their sexual orientation,'" says Freeman.
So far, media coverage of the case has been largely critical of Freeman's position. At the start of the trial, The National Post ran an extended editorial that called the case an example of "self-indulgent identity politics." Freeman often answers questions from hostile mainstream reporters outside the Ottawa courtroom.
During the proceedings, Freeman spoke about coming out of the closet to his family in his late teens.
"My father told me I should try being straight because the life of being a gay man is very tough," says Freeman.
Freeman was asked to explicitly describe his first anal sex experience at age 18 — when he bottomed without a condom because he was in a long-term relationship with his partner.
Freeman characterizes himself as vigilant and careful when it comes to matters of his sexual health. He testified he considered himself to be a "hypochondriac," going to hassle-free clinics so many times he was asked to come less often.
"The rationale given to me for not getting tested so many times was the actual cost of the tests," says Freeman.
In 1999, the Canadian Red Cross — CBS's predecessor — found Freeman's blood to be infected with a non-contagious strain of late latent syphilis. He also says he had once contracted gonorrhea. Both syphilis and gonorrhea can be spread easily through oral sex, unlike HIV.
Freeman says he once donated blood and, afterward, called CBS to confirm that he was HIV-negative. Contrary to mainstream media reports, Freeman says he never used CBS as a way to test his blood.
"I never used Blood Services as a vehicle to test my blood for STIs," says Freeman.
Freeman went on to say that he has donated blood so many times because his father was also a blood donor, and he believed that donating blood was act of patriotism and the "ultimate gift you could give someone". But, he says, the CBS questionnaires made him feel "nauseous" —due to the questions about having sex with other men.
"[When answering the blood donation questionnaires], my stomach would turn. I'd be embarrassed, ashamed. I felt like a criminal. It felt like I was doing something bad, even though I was trying to help people. I knew my blood was pure, but I just felt guilty," he says.
The Freeman case is likely to continue until early next year.
La Press en Rose ©, 2009, The Wizard of 'OZ'
No comments:
Post a Comment