Just One Look...#106

Radio Hosts Refer To Transgender People As 'Freaks'

SACRAMENTO — Bank of America, Verizon, Chipotle and other companies have pulled advertising from a Sacramento radio station after talk show hosts referred to transgender people as “freaks” with mental disorders.
During a May 28 show, one of the three hosts on KRXQ’s “Rob, Arnie & Dawn” show said he would hit his son with his shoe if he put on high heels. Another said he would tell a boy he was “a little idiot” if he asked to wear a dress.
Officials with Bank of America Corp. and Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. said Friday their companies pulled advertising because they found the comments offensive.
“We listened to the segment and the follow-up comments, and found it quite difficult to defend,” Bank of America spokesman Joe Goode said.
Representatives of Verizon Communications Inc., Nissan Motor Co. and Carl’s Jr. restaurants also said they stopped advertising.
Transgender advocates and the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation have sought an apology from two of the show’s three hosts, Arnie States and Rob Williams. The third host, Dawn Rossi, defended transgender people on the show.
“Our issue here is that Rob and Arnie advocated violence against children because of who they are and have failed to take responsibility for their dehumanizing and defamatory words,” said Rashad Robinson, senior director of programs at GLAAD.
John Geary, vice president and general manager of KRXQ, did not return a telephone message or e-mail Friday.
During a follow-up show Wednesday, States said he never advocated abuse. He said his comments were meant only as a joke and that he didn’t do anything wrong, according to a report in The Sacramento Bee.
During the May 28 broadcast, States and Williams discussed the California Supreme Court ruling upholding Proposition 8, the initiative on last November’s ballot that banned same-sex marriage. The hosts then turned their attention to transgender lifestyles.
“If my son, God forbid, if my son put on a pair of high heels, I would probably hit him with one of my shoes. I would throw a shoe at him,” States said on the air.
Williams suggested transgender people suffered from a mental disorder.
“They are freaks. They are abnormal,” he said. “Not because they’re girls trapped in boys bodies, but because they have a mental disorder that needs to be somehow gotten out of them.”
from Entertainment Daily

Moscow Mayor Sued for 'Queer' Comments

MOSCOW - Gay rights activists in Moscow plan to take the city's rampantly homophobic mayor to court for insulting their dignity during an interview in which he said "queers" undermined a morally healthy society.
A Moscow court rejected a previous case made by gay rights campaigners against 72-year-old mayor Yuri Luzhkov in 2007 after he described their marches as "satanic" and banned one.
Prominent gay rights activist Nikolai Alexeyev said on Wednesday that lawyers would present a new case against Luzhkov to a Moscow court this week and later to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.
"Nobody in Russia can win against the authorities. This is about raising awareness," he told Reuters by telephone.
Besides banning several gay parades in Moscow, Luzhkov has also blamed homosexuals for the spread of HIV/AIDS.
The issue of gay rights in Russia heated up in May, which saw the rejection of a lesbian couple's attempt to apply for a marriage license and the banning of a gay rights march to coincide with the Eurovision Song Contest, held in Moscow for the first time.
Police detained around 80 people, including Alexeyev, who tried to hold the march anyway.
Luzhkov's latest comments, urging Alexeyev and other activists to take him to court, were broadcast on Tuesday by a state-run television program.
"Our society has healthy morals and rejects all these queers," Interfax news agency quoted Luzhkov as saying on TV Center. "If you even imagine that they get permission to hold their parade and gather, they will simply be killed."
In 2006, militant Russian Orthodox believers and neo-fascists attacked a gay rights protest, injuring some of the demonstrators.
The gay scene in Moscow is relatively small and low profile but accessible. Most clubs and bars aimed at the gay community are known through word of mouth rather than being openly advertised.
Alexeyev said Luzhkov was using security concerns as a smokescreen and did not want to see gay activists on Moscow's streets.
"If the mayor of Moscow cannot provide security for a group of 100 people then he should not be mayor," Alexeyev said.
The vocal gay activists are a minority in Moscow's homosexual community and have not attracted large numbers to their protests.
from Reuters India

Timothy Boham Murder Trial Begins

DENVER, COLORADO - The mother of a man accused of first-degree murder testified against her son Wednesday, telling the jury that she telephoned police after he confessed to her.
Susan Strong gave an emotionally charged account of how her son, 28-year-old Timothy Boham, came to her in November 2006 and told her of shooting to death his former boss, Denver businessman J.P. Kelso.
Boham is being tried in Denver District Court on charges of first-degree murder after deliberation, felony murder and aggravated assault. He told police he had tried to rob Kelso of $100,000 — which he believed to be in Kelso's home safe — but accidentally shot him during a struggle.
Breaking into tears twice while on the witness stand, Strong said her son called her the day after the shooting, drove over to her house and said he had shot someone to death.
Asked by Chief Deputy DA Bonnie Benedetti what she did next, Strong said: "I was in a lot of pain from back surgery, so I went to sleep. The next day, I called in my husband, my daughter and my brother, who was a retired Aurora police officer."
After talking with them, she said, she asked her son to turn himself in, then telephoned police and told them.
Boham had fled to Arizona, but he phoned Denver police, then waited for officers to arrest him a few days later and return him to Denver.
Strong said she and her daughter have visited Boham in jail every weekend and she has spoken with him more than 100 times on the phone.
Benedetti played a recorded phone call from Boham in Denver County Jail to his mother, during which he talked about his "craziness" in making up stories about the shooting. He said he was conflicted about lying to police but reasoned that he might avoid the mandatory life sentence without parole by lying in order to get a hung jury.
"I feel I might have a fighting chance if I just lie," he said in the recording, which was played for the jury and Judge Will Hood Jr. "If I get one juror to hold out, I will get a hung jury. Two or three hung juries, and I may get a deal for six to 10 years."
Defense attorney Amber St. Clair immediately challenged the recording, saying the telephone call lasted 30 minutes but the recording lasted only a few minutes. She said the DA's office didn't tell Strong or her that 28 minutes had been cut out. She said she would file a motion today for a mistrial.
Stepping out of the witness stand at the end of the day, Strong tearfully mouthed "I love you" to Boham as she walked past where he was sitting.
from The Denver Post

Cheney Comes Out For Gay Marriage, State-By-State

Former vice president Richard Cheney waded into another simmering public debate today, suggesting he supports legalizing gay marriage as long as the issue is decided by the states rather than the federal government.
Cheney, whose youngest daughter is a lesbian with a longtime partner, said during an appearance at the National Press Club that "people ought to be free to enter into any kind of union they wish, any kind of arrangement they wish."
He said he does not support federal action allowing gay marriages, however. "Historically the way marriage has been regulated is at the state level," Cheney said. "It has always been a state issue and I think that is the way it ought to be handled, on a state-by-state basis."
Cheney has long departed from conservative orthodoxy on the issue of gay marriage, saying during the 2000 presidential campaign that the matter should be left to the states. He also prompted an uproar during the 2004 race when he appeared to distance himself from a proposed constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage, which was strongly supported by his boss, George W. Bush.
But his endorsement of state-sanctioned marriage for gays and lesbians appears to put him to the left of President Obama, who has said he supports civil unions rather than marriage for same-sex couples.
"With the respect to the question of relationships, my general view is freedom means freedom for everyone," Cheney said at a 2004 campaign stop in Davenport, Iowa, using language nearly identical to his remarks today. "People ought to be free to enter into any kind of relationship they want to."
As he has in the past, Cheney specifically cited his family's experience during his comments in Washington today. "As many of you know, one of my daughters is gay and it is something we have lived with for a long time in our family," Cheney said.
Cheney's youngest daughter, Mary, and her longtime partner, Heather Poe, have a son, Samuel, who was born to Mary Cheney in 2007. Both Mary and her older sister, Elizabeth, have been prominent supporters of their father and Republican causes, although Mary has said in interviews that she considered quitting the Bush re-election effort in 2004 because of the gay marriage issue.
from The Washington Post

Homosexual Group Founder Given Federal Education Department Post

WASHINGTON DC - The founder of the homosexual activist group GLSEN, which promotes homosexual clubs in high schools, middle schools and grade schools and is the driving force behind the annual "Day of Silence" celebration of homosexuality in many districts, has been handed a federal appointment where he will be responsible for overseeing "safety" in the nation's public schools.
Linda Harvey of Mission America, which educates people on anti-Christian trends in the nation, said it is nothing more than a "tragedy" for an open homosexual who has "had an enormously detrimental impact on the climate in our schools" to be in such a position.
The appointment of Kevin Jennings was posted – with little fanfare – on a government list of federal jobs recently. He was named by U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan to be the Assistant Deputy Secretary in the Office of Safe Schools.
He previously worked to raise money for the presidential campaign for President Obama.
In the new post, he'll be working on "safe schools" programs for educational institutions
nationwide, said Harvey.
"In his own writings and books listed on the GLSEN [Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network] Website, I've reported, Kevin Jennings has given tacit nods of approval to sex between young teens and adults," Harvey told WND. "In addition to that, the writings and books, many of which I've read and are incredibly graphic, seem to normalize early teen same-sex sexual behaviors."
"It is unconscionable. This is educational malpractice and child corruption," she said.
On Jennings' own website, a biographical sketch talks about how his work as an activist started when he used a school assembly in a district where he was a teacher to announce his homosexuality.
He soon started the GLSEN activist group and, the report said, "has spent the last 12 years building GLSEN into a national organization at the forefront of a bold movement that now works with over 3,000 Gay-Straight Alliances."
But a blogger who calls himself Beetle Blogger cited another statement from Jennings about his early promotion of homosexuality in schools.
The blogger quoted Jennings saying, "We immediately seized upon the opponent's calling card – safety – and explained how homophobia represents a threats to students' safety by creating a climate where violence, name-calling, health problems, and suicide are common. Titling our report, 'Making Schools Safe for Gay and Lesbian Youth,' we automatically threw our opponents onto the defensive and stole their best line of attack. This … short-circuited their arguments and left them back-peddling from day one."
Harvey said the appointment really is not surprising, given the pro-homosexual position adopted by Obama and Jennings' fund-raising for the Democrat.
But she warned when "safe" is combined with "LGBT" as is happening at the federal agency, "What you have is the silencing of any conservative opinion. That's what they consider safety."
"This is an outrageous 'in-your-face, take this, we don't care about your version of safety' for kids," she said.
She also cited the introduction in Congress of H.R. 2262 by U.S. Rep. Linda Sanchez, D-Calif., which is "to amend the Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities Act" to include pro-homosexual language that could use the issue of bullying to force indoctrination sessions for both students and teachers.
The proposed training would relate to "real or perceived" sexual orientation and gender identity, she said.
"How does this work? Well, let's look at an example from a state that already passed a similar law. In Iowa, teachers in some school districts endure the most outrageous in-service training imaginable. The Council Bluffs, Iowa, school district, Loess Hills Area Education Agency 13, gives a two-day teacher training course called 'How to Make My Classroom Safe for LGBT Students.' As part of the training, 'Videos will be used from Anderson Cooper 360, 'Will & Grace,' and several popular film segments like 'Brokeback Mountain' and 'Latter Days,''" Harvey said.
"This man's work and his agenda are exactly why we've seen the radical pro-homosexuality curriculum
pushed across California. He is now more strongly positioned to implement his agenda nationwide," said Karen England, executive director of Capitol Resource Institute.
In Duncan's announcement appointing Jennings, he said GLSEN "works to make schools safe for all students, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity."
from World Net Daily

Gay Teen Voted Prom Queen

LOS ANGELES - Sergio Garcia stood in the gymnasium and told the senior class at Fairfax High School not to worry: If he was elected, he wouldn't wear a dress.
"I will be wearing a suit," Garcia said, "but don't be fooled, deep down inside, I am a queen!"
Garcia, 18, spent most of his years at Fairfax openly gay and wanted to be part of the Los Angeles school's prom court -- but not as prom king. He felt that vying for prom queen would better suit his personality, so he decided to seek that crown, running against a handful of female classmates.
He said it started out as a bit of a stunt and challenge -- he wasn't sure the school would allow it. But his campaign for queen ended up being serious and sparking dialogue about gender roles on campus.
A few days before the dance and election, the contenders gave short speeches on why they deserved the crown.
"At one time, prom may have been a big popularity contest where the best-looking guy or girl were crowned king and queen. Things have changed and it's no longer just about who has the most friends or who wears the coolest clothes," Garcia told the crowd of seniors. "Sure, I'm not your typical prom queen candidate. There's more to me than meets the eye."
The audience erupted in applause after his speech, and a group of his female friends spent the rest of the week wearing pink crowns and campaigning for him.
On Saturday night at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, wearing a charcoal-gray tuxedo and a black bow tie, he was named prom queen.
"I felt invincible," Garcia said.
He's among the first male students in Southern California to take the title usually owned by female high school beauties.
"It just shows how open-minded our class is," said Vanessa Lo, 18, the school's senior class president.
Lo said that she, like many students, had initially been against the idea of Garcia running for prom queen. But she said he "spoke with complete confidence" and carried himself in a way that made students believe he was serious, not a class clown or joker just trying to get attention.
"His speech was great," recalled Unique Payne, 17, a senior who said she voted for Garcia. "I did it because I support the gay community," she said.
Although many students were supportive of Garcia's run, others were upset and didn't understand why Garcia chose to run for prom queen.
"I'm not really happy about that. He should've run for prom king," said 17-year-old senior Juan Espinoza.
Espinoza said he has nothing against Garcia but believes many students voted for him as a joke so they could see the prom king dance with another guy on prom night.
One member of the prom court also said she didn't think it was right for a male student to take the crown.
Garcia, who lives in Mid-City and is an aspiring choreographer and hairdresser, said he didn't plan on running for prom queen until notices were posted around school. The qualifications didn't include gender, and he said running for king didn't quite feel right.
"I didn't really know if the school approved. I thought 'Why can't I do it?' " Garcia said. "I see myself as a boy with a different personality. . . . I don't wish to be a girl; I just wish to be myself," he said.
Some teachers and students were encouraging, others told him not to "stir things up," he said. But his close friends continued to support him, and after his speech, the campus community seemed to be coming around to the idea.
Fairfax High, which is near West Hollywood at the intersection of Melrose and Fairfax avenues, has often been at the forefront of the gay rights struggle. It has a Gay-Straight Alliance student group on campus, and Project 10, an on-site support program for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender youth, was started there in 1984 after a social worker wanted to help a gay student who was being harassed by his peers. The program has since been expanded to encompass the entire Los Angeles Unified School District.
Project 10's founder, Virginia Uribe, said she was encouraged by news of Garcia's crowning. She said that in the last two years, there have been similar elections to prom and homecoming courts in high schools and colleges around the nation.
"I think that indicates where our society is right now. That the young people, they are not involved in this whole argument about gay rights. They think this whole fight is silly. They just accept people for who they are," Uribe said. "Gender-bending is just kind of in," she said.
from The LA Times