|
The Milwaukee Gay Arts Center is suing the city for shutting down its production of the popular musical revue, Naked Boys Singing. From the AP:
|
|
Activists down in Louisville announced today that they plan on protesting two employees' anti-gay actions this summer. From the press release: In July, five visitors were waiting for their food to be prepared at McDonald’s when an employee behind the counter referred to them as “faggots” to another employee. The visitors asked to speak with a manager. As they waited for the supervisor on duty, the employee who had called them “faggots” started arguing with them, repeatedly calling them “faggots” in front of other customers and calling one of them a “cocksucker” and “bitch.” That incident no doubt pleases the American Family Association, which yesterday claimed victory in their own protest against McDonald's, whom they accused of being in cahoots with the queers. Full release after the jump… |
|
Ryan Marlatt and Ryan Teddy Eggers were visiting McDonalds in Louisville, Kentucky with a few friends on July 26th when they were harassed by employees. They were called "faggots" and "cocksuckers" by several of the employees and management failed to do even issue them a simple refund. The guys took their case to the ALCU and are filing an official complaint with the city. "Although their complaints have gone unanswered by McDonald's, Louisville has a law that protects people from this kind of treatment from any business," said Christine Sun, a senior staff attorney with the ACLU. Earlier this month, an HIV+ man sued an Iowa McDonald's for firing him because of his status. |
|
|
|
» Liberty!
The American Civil Liberties Union donated $1.2 million to beat California's Proposition 8, which would overturn this year's gay marriage victory. [San Diego 6] |
|
The ACLU and the student, Heather Gillman, have since successfully sued Davis. The educator found himself demoted, Ponce de Leon High School faculty must now take sensitivity training and the school must pay Gillman's $325,000 legal bills. While one would think all this would teach the town a lesson, it has not… |
|
» Extracurricular Win.
"A school district in rural Florida must allow a Gay-Straight Alliance to meet on campus and must provide for the well-being of gay and straight students, a federal judge ruled, capping a nearly two-year legal battle over First Amendment rights… The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit on behalf of Okeechobee High School senior Yasmin Gonzalez in 2006 after the school principal said the club could not meet on campus. The school gave various arguments, claiming first there were too many clubs, and later that the school had an abstinence-only policy." [Florida Times-Union] |
» "Symposium."
The American Civil Liberties Union invited activists, pundits and media types - like Pam Spaulding, Rachel Maddow and John Aravosis - to write a few words on gay pride. And, for some reason, they asked our editor, who wrote a surprisingly earnest piece. Here's but a taste: "When I think of gay pride, I don’t think of gay people. Okay, well, that’s not true. I do think of gay people… But, more than all those communities, that proverbial melting pot, I see America: a nation built on the revolutionary idea that citizens should live as individuals, free of tyranny." [ACLU] |
|
Former volunteer Jeremiah Johnson contacted the group after being booted from the Corp for contracting HIV. Obviously the experience was not positive: I joined the Peace Corps because I wanted to learn more about the world and help people. It was hard enough to learn that I had contracted HIV, but to then be shipped home and told I was unworthy of finishing my service was incredibly humiliating.” |
|
Just ask Jason Smith and Settimo Pisu, a civil unionized couple from Hartford, Connecticut. The boys tried to file their taxes on H&R Block's TaxCut Online website, but received quite a rude message: "We don't support Connecticut civil union returns." When will the internet learn manners? Connecticut passed civil union laws over three years ago, but the national tax company has yet to update their online system. Instead, it directed them to a local H&R Block office or an "online professional," which apparently costs a pretty pink penny. The perfectly suburban Smith and Pisu are incensed. As they should be… |
|
» It's A Date!
A date has been set for Floridian student Heather Gillam's lawsuit against the Holmes County School Board. Gillam and her ACLU allies allege the Board suspended her for supporting gay rights. [NFD Daily] |
|
» ACLU Helps Student Fight Tight-Lipped Principal
Heather Gillman did the right thing when she defended a bullied lesbian peer. Her principal, however, didn't. She alleges he attempted to keep her quiet. Now the ACLU's backing Gillman in court. |
|
The [ACLU] supports Senator Larry Craig’s attempt to have his guilty plea withdrawn because the Minnesota law under which he was arrested is unconstitutionally broad. The statute punishes “offensive, obscene or abusive language” which tends to arouse “alarm, anger or resentment” in others. Clearly, this law has the potential to ensnare and criminalize legal, constitutionally protected free speech, including solicitation for private sex. Also, Craig's political action committee, Alliance for the West, has closed up shop. |
|
In an effort to help Sen. Larry Craig, the American Civil Liberties Union is arguing that people who have sex in public bathrooms have an expectation of privacy. Craig resurrected his case earlier this month. Apparently he's a masochist, which makes sense. |
|
Darryl Stephens Takes The Plunge
The mag's tight-lipped about the honorees, but their celebratory blog posted this picture of 2007's "Rabble-rousers". We don't know how they did it, but the Out staffers and photographer François Rousseau managed to get Joe Solmonese and Lane Hudson in the same frame. The men, of course, worked together at Human Rights Campaign until Hudson outed Mark Foley and subsequently left the powerful non-profit. Also pictured: gay soldier Jason Knight and ACLU's leader Anthony Romero. In other Out 100 news, we hear that honoree Darryl Stephens will finally acknowledged his homo inclinations. This will be the first time the Noah's Arc actor publicly "comes out". As if we didn't know… |
|
A Lesson In Imaginative Discrimination
The Okeechobee County School Board has banned so-called "sex-based" clubs, a move the ACLU has called another attack on members of the Gay-Straight Alliance of Okeechobee High School. So, the school not only gets to ban the group, but successfully boiled sexual identity down to sex acts. A for effort, F for equality. |