New York City’s police commissioner has issued a belated apology for the 1969 police raid at the Stonewall Inn which became a catalyst for the gay rights movement.
Commissioner James O’Neill said Thursday that “the actions taken by the NYPD were wrong” at the gay bar in New York City’s Greenwich Village.
He called the actions and laws of the time discriminatory and said:
“I’m certainly not going to stand up here and pretend to be an expert on what happened at Stonewall. I do know what happened should not have happened. . The actions taken by the NYPD were wrong plain and simple. The actions were discriminatory and oppressive and for that I apologize.”
The commissioner made the remarks at a kick-off event for Pride month at police headquarters.
I for one and on the behalf of my late uncle Bob Kohler, Stonewall veteran. longtime gay activist, and Mayor of Christopher Street say thank you to the N.Y.P.D.
Almost six days after her anti-LGBT remarks surfaced, Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii, posted a video to Twitter Thursday apologizing.
In 2002, Gabbard boasted about supporting her father, an anti-gay activist, in his effort to promote the constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage passed in 1998. After her election, she continued to espouse anti-gay views. In 2004, she opposed a bill legalizing civil unions.
“To try to act as if there is a difference between ‘civil unions’ and same-sex marriage is dishonest, cowardly and extremely disrespectful to the people of Hawaii,” Gabbard said at the time, according to CNN’s KFile. “As Democrats we should be representing the views of the people, not a small number of homosexual extremists.”
In her apology Gabbard said:
“In my past, I said and believed things that were wrong, and worse, they were very hurtful to people in the LGBTQ community and to their loved ones.
“My father was very outspoken. He was an activist who was fighting against gay rights and marriage equality in Hawaii – and at that time, I forcefully defended him, But over the years, as I grew up, I formed my own opinions, based on my life experiences.”
“I know that LGBTQ+ people still struggle, are still facing discrimination, are still facing abuse and still fear that their hard-won rights are going to be taken away by people who hold views like I used to,I regret the role I played in causing such pain, and I remain committed to fighting for LGBTQ+ equality.”
Gabbard’s father was more than just a “conservative activist”. As well as his working with Alliance for Traditional Marriage, Gabbard’s father was also the director of Stop Promoting Homosexuality and served on the steering committees of the National Campaign to Protect Marriage and Save Traditional Marriage, according to CNN. He also hosted an anti-gay radio show called “Let’s Talk Straight Hawaii.”
The Canadian government has tabled [introduced] a bill that will allow people convicted of historical same-sex offences to have their criminal records expunged.
Proposed legislation aims to correct a “historical injustice” now recognized as the criminalization of same-sex activity by consenting adults, effectively removing from the record convictions that would today be inconsistent with the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
The announcement is part of a historic apology that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will deliver in the House of Commons at 3 p.m. ET today. CBCNews.ca will carry it live, followed by a news conference with six cabinet ministers with affected files and the prime minister’s special adviser on LGBT issues.
He will formally apologize for actions the government took against thousands of workers in the Canadian military and public service in the 1950s to the 1990s, including thousands who were fired because of their sexuality as part of a “national security” purge.
While many websites are reporting the apology is aimed at the “LGBTQA2”, community to keep this in a historical perspective the majority of those who suffered under the purge were gay men and lesbians.
In doing so, Canada will join countries like the UK, AustraliaLater this year, the Canadian government is expected to apologize to all those in the federal civil service, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and the CAF who were subjected to a campaign of interrogation and harassment from the 1950s to the 1990s because of their sexuality.
During the Cold War, gay men and lesbians in the civil service and the military were believed to pose a security risk, vulnerable to blackmail by Soviet agents.
Official figures are hard to come by, but hundreds of people are believed to have lost their jobs over the course of some four decades. Others were demoted, transferred or denied promotions.
Earlier this month, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the government will not only issue the formal apology but will expunge the records of people criminalized for their sexuality.
Liberal MP Randy Boissonnault, Trudeau’s special advisor on LGBTQ2 issues, says he has heard many “heartbreaking” stories like Thwaites and Bernie’s and says it is “critical” for the government to acknowledge past wrongs.
“It’s the right thing to do,” Boissonnault says. “People’s lives and careers were turned upside down.”
The apology is planned for this year, as many civil servants and former military personnel who were targeted are advancing in age.
“We can’t move forward as a country, we can’t move forward as a community, until this is done.”
Former BJU president Bob Jones III and a leader of the Moral Majority issued a public apology Saturday for anti-gay comments he made in 1980 calling for homosexuals to be stoned.
“I take personal ownership for this inflammatory rhetoric,” Jones said in a statement. “This reckless statement was made in the heat of a political controversy 35 years ago.”
The long absent apology comes after BJUnity, a group which offers support for past and present lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender BJU students, mailed a 2000 sinature petition to Jones asking for his apology.
Jones was president of the university in March of 1980 when he and a group of fundamentalist ministers went to the White House with 70,000 signatures on a petition opposed to extending provisions of the Civil Rights Act to homosexuals.
“I’m sure this will be greatly misquoted,” Jones said. “But it would not be a bad idea to bring the swift justice today that was brought in Israel’s day against murder and rape and homosexuality. I guarantee it would solve the problem post-haste if homosexuals were stoned, if murderers were immediately killed as the Bible commands.”
Saturday, Jones called those comments “antithetical to my theology and my 50 years of preaching a redeeming Christ.”
“Upon now reading these long-forgotten words, they seem to me as words belonging to a total stranger — were my name not attached,” he said in a statement.
“I cannot erase them, but wish I could, because they do not represent the belief of my heart or the content of my preaching. Neither before, nor since, that event in 1980 have I ever advocated the stoning of sinners.”
According to an AP article , the 1980 petition urged then-President Jimmy Carter to oppose any presidential action that would legalize homosexuality within the federal government.
“We are here to tell the president that homosexuality must not become a protective way of life; an alternate life style,” Jones said in the AP story.
He added that Carter, “who claims to be a Bible-believing Christian,” is not fit to be president and that there is “no question that Ronald Reagan is the unanimous choice of Bible-believing people all over the country.”
Barilla swears he’s “never discriminated against anyone” and promises to meet with LGBT activists. He had already apologized via a series of statements, including one in which he claimed to “respect” gays.
“Yesterday I apologized for offending many people around the world. Today I am repeating that apology,” he says in the video. “Through my entire life I have always respected every person I’ve met, including gays and their families, without any distinction. I’ve never discriminated against anyone. I have heard the countless reactions around the world to my words, which have depressed and saddened me, it is clear that I have a lot to learn about the lively debate concerning the evolution of the family. In the coming weeks, I pledge to meet representatives of the group that best represent the evolution of the family, including those who have been offended by my words.”
PLEASE NOTE: In the video below that the camera only recorded Guido from ABOVE the waist to disguise the fact that his pants are on fire.
Some of you may remember embattled singer and American Idol winner Fantasia Barrino and her numerous problems but now comes news of an anti-gay rant using her instagram account. During this so called sermon, Barrino felt for some reason that condemning other people because others have condemned her would have been something Christ-like? I have no clue so here it is for yourself:
I Rise ABOVE IT ALL!!! THE WORLD IS GONE MAD. KIDS, THE GOVERNMENT THE church House… Everybody Trying!!!!!!! Its a lot that going on that the Bible speaks about we should Not be doing. Weed legal in some places, Gay Marriage Legal BUT YET IM JUDGED!!! I’m not doing Nothing for you… My Life!!!!
Now a spokesman has come out in response to this damning statement with this to say:
Comments made by Ms. Barrino through her Intragram account were recently taken far out of context, and the purpose of this release is to set the record straight. Ms. Barrino is not now, nor has she ever been an opponent of the LGBT community. She has supported and performed at numerous events that are sponsored by the LGBT community. Whether it’s through a live performance or placement on social media, Ms. Barrino uses every opportunity to reach out and connect with her fans, all of her fans.
Barrino recently posted her own apology on instagram saying she has always loved the gay community:
Okay, so they claim that the entire incident was out of context and a heat of the moment situation (which doesn’t excuse it) but can they really use this excuse since this sin’t the first time this has happened?
So can Barrino explain this tweet that was later removed? You can’t say that this rant was out of context when there are tweets that exist calling us sinners. Even more problematic that Barrino is condemning us when she had a child of wedlock with a married man so the next time she claims to be a child of God then she should remember her own past isn’t very Christian.
In an apology she released to the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD.)
As anyone close to me knows, I always have been and always will be a huge supporter of the gay community. I am so sorry and so upset that I caused pain to my gay friends, fans and their families with the comments heard this morning. I was having this private conversation with a friend of mine who is gay and our conversation was in no way towards the entire gay community. It is the last thing that I would ever want to do and I cannot put into words how much I wish I could take back every word.
HIV/AIDS can hurt anyone, gay and straight, men and women. It’s something I take very seriously and should not have been thrown around in conversation.
Gay people are the strongest and most inspiring people I know. It is so wrong when people bully or put down others for being gay. No one should have to go through that. Again, I am so sorry from the bottom of my heart and I feel absolutely horrible. I hope that everyone can accept my apology and know that it is not who I am or how I feel in any way.
Meh. Words, words, and more words.
Perhaps Paris you could write a million dollar check made out to the Gay Mens Health Crisis and do a year volunteering deliver food though “Gods Love We Deliver” to AIDS patients as restitution and penance for your slander Paris?
Yesterday following a segment about Kansas Pastor Curtis Knapp, who believes the government should kill gay people and that we should all be out into concentration camps. CNN anchor Ashleigh Banfield called homosexuality a “voluntary lifestyle choice”
“Pedophilia is not by choice, last I checked. In his sermon, Pastor Knapp blamed the Bush administration for its tolerance of gay people. Says that he claims that set the stage, in fact, for the Obama administration to endorse same-sex marriage. Like I said: they can’t make this stuff up. Unbelievable. Speechless, right? Again, we gotta outline here, when he says ‘they punish incest and pedophilia’… Please. Those things are often not by choice and are crimes. Homosexuality is a lifestyle choice by people; it is voluntary.”
Banfield realizing she made a horrible mistake and used a very poor choice of wording immediately took to Twitter to apologize.
Today Ashleigh took it one step further and on her CNN newscast today, attempting to clarify what she said and let it be known it wasn’t what she meant at all.
I made some comments yesterday that ended up getting a lot of traction out there, not only on Twitter but elsewhere. And I want to be very, very clear about what my comments were about. I probably misspoke and mangled words, but I want to be very clear.
When I said that incest and pedophilia involve people who don’t have a choice — victims who don’t have a choice — and then said a gay relationship, you do have a choice, they are not crimes. Gay people involved in relationships are not committing any crimes at all. However, those who perpetrate incest and perpetrate pedophilia are committing crimes. I don’t know that my comments were taken in that light and I certainly hope they were, but in no way did I ever want to suggest that being gay is a choice. It is not. And I probably used the word “lifestyle choice” — not what I meant to say at all. Being gay is not a choice; being in a voluntary gay relationship is a choice. It is not a crime. So I hope that at least clears up any of the comments I made after that story of the pastor. And in no way do I agree with or stand by any of the comments that that pastor made either.
The media should never schedule a far-right anti-gay partisan for an on-air discussion, without a “fair and balanced” approach and having gay advocate on-air at the same time to provide the counter argument. (I am available and will do much better with the counter argument than any stuffed shirt spokesperson from the HRC by the way.)
The Associated Press is reporting that Joseph and Jane Clementi, Tyler Clemti’s parents, have released their own statement today, regarding the “after the fact” apology from Dharun Ravi’s two days ago in which he apologizes for his actions which led Tyler Clementi’s to commit suicide.
As to the so-called ‘apology,’ it was, of course, no apology at all, but a public relations piece produced by Mr. Ravi’s advisers only after Judge Berman scolded Mr. Ravi in open court for his failure to have expressed a word of remorse or apology.
A sincere apology is personal. Many people convicted of crimes address the victims and their families in court. Mr. Ravi was given that opportunity but chose to say nothing. His press release did not mention Tyler or our family, and it included no words of sincere remorse, compassion or responsibility for the pain he caused
Ravi checked into a New Brunswick, NJ jail this afternoon to begin his “slap on the wrist” 30-day sentence while lawyers from both side appeal his sentence.
I just want to go on record here that I AM NOT one of the LGBT community who thought that Dharun Ravi’s should have been shown leniency and still believe he should have received the maximum sentence under the law for his actions which led to Tyler’s suicide, his perjury within the case, and witness tampering.
His sentence was a grave miscarriage of justice and all that called for leniency for Dharun Ravi’s should be ashamed.
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