Boston police are investigating an attack that happened to three gay men after a group of people physically and verbally assaulted them right after they left the popular gay bar Jacque’s Cabaret around 12:15 a.m Saturday morning.
According to a statement from the men, “the group was shouting homophobic slurs while they punched and kicked one of the victims on the ground before putting him into a chokehold.”
The suspects ran off before police officers arrived. The Boston Police Department has confirmed they responded to the attack and are investigating.
“What we were always scared of happening to us as finally happened,” said one of the victims.
None of the victims wanted to be identified but they said they plan on filing hate crime charges.
Openly gay Holyoke, Massachusetts Mayor Alex Morse is no stranger to letters criticizing his way of doing things.
But a note that arrived at his home address this week was different: it targeted his being gay, and took a “threatening” tone, he said.
“Alex, you are one of the most selfish people I know due to your ‘gay’ lifestyle,” the note began. “You are going down.”
There was no return address, and no name written at the bottom.
Morse, , posted an image of the anonymous note to Facebook Friday. He said he decided to make the message public to bring awareness to what he sees as the challenges ahead, as President-elect Donald Trump prepares to enter the White House.
“It’s a more threatening message than usual, and given the context of the culture that seems to have been elevated since the Trump election, I thought it was important to shine a light on this language and behavior,” said Morse in a telephone interview. “It’s different than writing a note that says, ‘I don’t support gay marriage,’ or ‘I don’t support rights for someone.’ But to demean someone’s humanity based on their sexuality takes it to another level.”
Morse plans to have a discussion with the city’s police chief about the note, to document the incident in the event it becomes a recurring theme, he said.
Since receiving the targeted message, Morse said there has been an outpouring of support from his constituency. People have called and left messages at his office and expressed concern about the hateful scribble, he said. More than 400 people have left comments on Facebook, calling the note “sick” and “disgusting.”
“Like any community, be it in Holyoke, Mass., or anywhere else across the country, there are going to be people who are small-minded and bigoted,” he said.
But, he added, “I know that the good always outweighs the bad.”
A Massachusetts judge has ruled that an all-girls Catholic school in Milton, Massachusetts violated state anti-discrimination law by rescinding a job offer to a gay man in a same-sex marriage.
Matthew Barrett was offered a job as Fontbonne Academy’s food services director, but the offer was withdrawn after he listed his husband as his emergency contact and the school realized that he was gay.
Barrett sued. A judge ruled Wednesday that the school discriminated against him based on sexual orientation and gender. The judge rejected Fontbonne’s claim that it should be exempt from the law because it would infringe on free exercise of religion. The Catholic church opposes same-sex marriage.
Norfolk Superior Court Judge Douglas Wilkins rejected that argument, ruling that the exemption within the nondiscrimination law does not apply, because Fontbonne accepts non-Catholic students and employees, regardless of their faith. According to Wilkins, the religious exemption only applies to organizations that limit membership or admission to members of a certain religion This follows the tenets in the 1964 Civil Rights Acts that ONLY allows religious institutions to favor people of the organizations faith over all other faiths.
Additionally, Wilkins ruled that the First Amendment’s protections for religious expression did not apply to the case, as hiring a food service worker who happened to be married to a same-sex spouse would not interfere with Fontbonne’s ability to express its opposition to same-sex marriages
Fontbonne’s attorney did not returnphonecalls from this news-site seeking comment
Openly gay Republican politician Richard Tisei who isendorsed by The Victory Fund, a LGBT political action committee has consistently portrayed himself as a moderate Republican. Tisei states that he is pro-choice and pro-same sex marriage and is running on those issues in his current campaign for the Massachusetts 6th District seat currently held by progressive Democrat and LGBT ally John Tierney, to whom he narrowly lost the same seat in 2012.
But now just a month after Tisei skipped the state Republican convention to protest his party’s anti-gay marriage stance, will be fundraising with Frank Guinta, a New Hampshire politician with links to the Tea Party who himself opposes gay marriage and is anti-abortion through the newly formed joint fundraising committee called the New England Majority Fund.
Tisei said it was no big deal on Thursday that the issue boiled down to convenience.
“There are individuals who know both Frank and myself, who want to have an event for the both of us,” he said. “Establishing a joint fundraising committee for the event is the cleanest way to do it, logistically.”
Obviously integrity is an inconvenience to Tisei. And the Victory Fund also it seems.
After Scott (Cosmo) Brown amped up rhetoric accusing Democratic challenger Elizabeth Warren of using her Native American heritage to her professional advantage a video shocking video surfaced showing Brown staffers making racist Native American ‘war whoops’ and tomahawk chops in a face-off with Warren supporters, mocking Warren’s Cherokee heritage.
Here you can see Brown’s staffers making “war whoops” and “tomahawk chops”, presumably in reference to Warren’s Cherokee heritage. In the video identifies as making the air chop is none other than Brown’s Constituent Service Counsel Jack Richard (camouflage shirt) and Massachusetts GOP operative Brad Garrett, (tan baseball cap and gray hoodie), leading the war whoops.
When confronted with this “It is certainly something that I don’t condone,” said Brown. But it certainly wasn’t something that he condemned either using the moment to attack Elizabeth Warren’s racial heritage once again. “The real offense is that (Warren) said she was white and then checked the box saying she is Native American, and then she changed her profile in the law directory once she made her tenure.”
Well Elizabeth Warren responds new ad political ad to about Brown’s racist attacks and her Native American background:
“As a kid, I never asked my mom for documentation when she talked about our Native American heritage. What kid would? But I knew my father’s family didn’t like that she was part Cherokee and part Delaware — so my parents had to elope. Let me be clear, I never asked for, never got any benefit, because of my heritage. The people who hired me have all said they didn’t even know about it. I’m Elizabeth Warren, I approve this message. Scott Brown can continue attacking my family — but I”m gonna keep fighting for yours.”
The US is 40 years behind western Europe in terms of racial issues. How can it be allowed for a politician to criticize someone based on their ethnicity? Do that in Europe and you lose your career.
This is just just another checkmark on a long list that proves that Scott Brown is not qualified enough or intellegent enough to hold public office
The Victory Fund a political action committee dedicated to increasing the number of openly LGBT politicos in public office has joined in the chorus of Gay Inc. organizations that are in a politically correct tizzy that Frank as of late has been calling out “gay republicans”.
Barney Frank opposes the election of gay Republican congressional candidate Richard Tisei from his home state of Massachusetts. ‘‘The fact that Richard Tisei is openly gay is a good thing,’’ Frank said in a conference call with journalists, the Associated Press reports. ‘‘The problem is that it is of no use to us.’’ Frank said Tisei’s first vote as a Republican would be to reelect John Boehner as House speaker, and Boehner would not let pro-gay legislation, such as a bill to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act, come up before the chamber.
Victory Fund CEO Chuck Wolfe (pictured above left) issued the following statement:
“As a nonpartisan organization working to bring LGBT voices to the table on both sides of the aisle, we disagree with Congressman Frank’s assessment of Richard Tisei, an openly gay, socially progressive Republican.
Just as Congressman Frank was able to help persuade Democrats to turn away from an anti-LGBT record over the more than 25 years he served as an openly gay member of the House, we believe Richard Tisei’s personal influence in the Republican caucus has the potential to change the hearts and minds of colleagues. That is how real change begins.”
• Tisei voted against final passage of the bill to prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. (H. 5427. Roll Call #483 on 10/23/89)
• Tisei voted to prohibit the Department of Social Services from placing children in its care with gay or lesbian foster parents. (Massachusetts State House Roll Call Vote #94, 5/17/90)
• Tisei voted against a bill to make it unlawful to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation in employment, housing, public accommodation, and insurance in Massachusetts. (HR 3123 and Roll Call #701 on 9/23/85)
It is absurd for the Victory Fund in 2012 to support someone just because they are gay and not because of the issues at hand. If a person supports a party with a platform like the Republicans, a platform includes anti-women, anti-gay and anti-minority planks even if they are “gay” they shouldn’t be supported with “gay money” and should not be endorsed by any self respecting LGBT group.
The absolute proven joke of bipartisanship after these 12 years is well proven. And for the Victory Fund to fall into such an asinine strategy by backing a “gay republican” just because he is “gay” over a proven straight progressive Democrat who is 100 percent behind LGBT equality is insulting not only to the Democratic party but to the LGBT community.
They’re rude, crude, and socially unacceptably and thankfully there seems to be a lot less of them now. (Thank God!)
Case in point. One lone demented “teatard” who tried to disrupt a townhall meeting in Brocton, MA with Elizabeth Warren talking about Occupy Wall Street and Elizabeth being the “mastermind behind it” and that she was a “socialist whore”
The audience quickly gay the guy a Sha na na na Sha na na na, Hey hey hey, GOODBYE!
Senator Scott (Cosmo) Brown who will be receiving an award tonight at the 2011 Spirit of Lincoln Awards Dinner, hosted by the Log Cabin Republicans released the text of the speech he will deliver tonight after his extreme anti-gay voting record has been brought up.
Browns defense on his voting record?. I voted for the DADT Repeal didn’t I?
After I won, I pledged to keep an open mind on every issue, including the military’s `don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy. From the start, I made clear that I wanted to review the findings of the Pentagon report to ensure that a change in policy would not negatively affect in any way our troops currently serving around the world. After I reviewed the Pentagon report, spoke extensively to active and retired military service members, the Joint Chiefs, and discussed the matter privately with then-Defense Secretary Gates and many others, I accepted the findings of the report. I supported repeal based on the secretary’s recommendations that it will be implemented when the battle effectiveness of the forces is assured and proper preparations have been completed.”
But Massachusetts Democratic Party Chairman John Walsh puts Brown’s anti-gay voting record out on the table.
When he was in the state Legislature, he voted three times for a constitutional amendment to ban equal marriage and opposed funds for the commonwealth’s commission on gay and lesbian youth.”As to Brown ultimately voting for the repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell,” Walsh said: “Scott Brown only stepped forward to do the right thing after it was clear that the repeal would pass without his vote. That’s not leadership by any definition, and it shows Scott Brown is only willing to vote the interests of the LGBT community in Massachusetts when its in his best political interest.”
Scott Brown also refused to make an “It Get’s Better” video to gay teens who might be otherwise contemplating suicide.
Massachusetts Democratic Party will hold a conference at 2 p.m. today to “officially” discuss Brown’s gay rights record.
(Boston) As same-sex couples in New York prepare this weekend to tie the knot, their brethren in Massachusetts – the first state to legalize gay marriage – have some advice.
Enjoy the wedding because afterward, they will realize that there are 1,000 or so benefits gay couples can’t get because of the federal Defense of Marriage Act: Joint federal tax returns, federal health plans for spouses, and access to spouses’ federal pensions.
“Let them enjoy their joy, but they will soon realize that their marriage is not being seen equally at the federal level,” said Dorene Bowe-Shulman, who married her longtime partner, Mary, in 2004 in Massachusetts, the first state to legalize gay marriage.
New York’s law takes effect at 12:01 a.m. on Sunday, with the state where the gay rights movement began more than 40 years ago joining five other states and the District of Columbia in legalizing same-sex marriage.
While many married gay couples are hoping for the repeal of the 1996 law, known as DOMA, the measure’s supporters are pushing back, arguing that marriage is a union between a man and a woman and that repeal would violate the views of most Americans.
