Tag Archives: QPOC

Tyler Perry Offers $100,000 Reward For Info On Murdered Gay Man.

Tyler Perry Offers $100,000 Reward For Info On Murdered Gay Man.

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 Perry wants to ensure that Josiah “Jonty” Robinson’s killer is caught.

Actor and filmmaker Tyler Perry best known for his “Madea” franchise is offering a reward of $100,000 to anyone who has information about the killing of a Black gay man in Grenada.

Perry posted earlier this week that Josiah “Jonty” Robinson, 24, was “like a son” to Perry’s friend Yvette Noel-Schure, the celebrity publicist.

“My soul ached as she shared that he was a young, gifted singer who was murdered because he was gay,” Perry wrote in the post, which included several images of Robinson. “My mind immediately went to Mathew Shepard, and all the other victims of racist, homophobic, antisemitic, xenophobic, senseless violence. – ” Perry wrote in his Instagram post. “So with that said, Yvette and I are offering a $100,000 dollar reward to anyone who brings forth information that leads to the conviction of the murderer of Josiah ‘Jonty’ Robinson.”

NBC news

Robinson’s body was found on a beach in St. George’s, Grenada, on June 18, according to the local newspaper The New Today Grenada. It reported that an autopsy found that Robinson had been strangled before he was thrown into the sea. It said police have questioned several people but have not had any breakthroughs.

Where it is a nice thing that Tyler Perry is doing. If only every murdered LGBT person had a connection to someone with money.

Sacramento PRIDE Reverses Decision, Will Now ALLOW LGBT Police To March In Uniform

Sacramento PRIDE Reverses Decision, Will Now ALLOW LGBT Police To March In Uniform

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Following immense push-back from the greater LGBT community uniformed police officers will again be allowed to participate in Sacramento PRIDE events this weekend, and a new set of police department policies will be enacted to build trust with the LGBT community.

The announcement made Thursday by the Sacramento Police Department and Sacramento LGBT Community Center, reversed a decision the center announced last week that uniformed officers would not be allowed to participate in order to “protect” transgender people and QPOC who “experience fear and anxiety provoked by the uniform.”

After an immense outcry from the greater LGBT community that exclusion is not an LGBT value and further negotiations with SPD, the police department agreed to create an LGBTQ liaison in its outreach unit, and create a standing “LGBT Community Advisory Committee” to recommend policies to better serve the LGBT community and “remove all barriers” for the community to interact with law enforcement. The SPD will also co-create a new training program that “elevates the voices of the “marginalized” trans and QPOC communities and discusses the role of implicit bias,” the release said.

Meanwhile the roughly 16 lower staff members with the Sacramento LGBT Community Center released a statement Thursday night saying they have taken a no-confidence vote against their Board of Directors following the decision to allow officers in uniform to attend PRIDE events and are demanding the immediate resignation of Carlos Marquez, the board’s president, and any board members who agreed to allow officers to march in their uniforms.

We wholeheartedly disagree with the decision that this concession to the police force is a powerful symbolic and visual cue that prioritizes those with the most power and influence over our most marginalized community members whether they are transgender, nonbinary, Black, Brown and other POC folks, intersex, undocumented, disabled, unhoused, sex workers and others in the community that are often ignored, misgendered, abused and murdered by folks in SacPD and other law enforcement uniforms.

There is no word on what the “collective action” will be.

Sacramento PRIDE will take place June 8-9 at Capitol Mall.

Massachusetts Man Kills Boyfriend To Hide Gay Relationship

Massachusetts Man Kills Boyfriend To Hide Gay Relationship

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Kian Willis of Brockton, Massachusetts was arrested and arraigned in Brockton District Court on Nov. 29. 2018 for killing his boyfriend to hide their gay relationship

He was indicted on a murder charge Monday by a Plymouth County grand jury.

Prosecutors from the Plymouth County District Attorney’s Office told the Brockton Enterprise they used phone records and surveillance footage to trace Willis to Keith Avenue, where Willis shot and killed his boyfriend Patrick Sequeira-Ferreira, 

When police interviewed Willis, he was concerned that people would find out about his relationship with Sequeira-Ferreira, and was afraid of losing his job, given that both him and the victim worked together at the Office of Community Corrections where relationships with co-workers are forbidden.

Willis will be arraigned in Superior Court at a later date.

NEW Gallop Poll Shows LGBT American's American's Hold at 7.5%. Very Few Self Identify as "Queer"

LGBT Website Survey Finds That 93% Of Gay Men Polled Don’t Want To Be Labeled “QUEER”

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A recent survey done by the website The Gay UK has found that 60% of those polled find using the term “Queer” to describe members of the LGBT community is offensive and inappropriate.

The poll which was done in July 2017 asked over 200 people whether they thought queer as an umbrella term for the LGBT+ community was acceptable and sixty percent did not. Some commented that the word was “deeply offensive”, particularly to men who identified as gay.

The word queer is still used as a slur against many people in the community, particularly gay and bisexual men, and although some may refer to themselves in this way, the website says it’s probably best not to use language that causes offence to others.

Only seven percent of the gay men surveyed thought that the term “queer” was acceptable

Case in point: John Kichi, a 66-year-old writer and marketing expert in Sewickley, Pa., recalled how decades ago he was thrown out of an apartment and later lost a prestigious job because he was gay.

So when he began an online application for a job at Colorado College recently, he was shocked by a question that asked applicants to check one of five genders: “not disclosed,” “male,” “female,” “transgender” — or “queer.”

 “It would be like if they put down for race: ‘white,’ ‘Latino,’ ‘black’ and then the ‘N’ word,'” Kichi told ABCNews.com. “Every one of my gay friends is appalled by this.

 “I think queer harkens back to a time when being gay was a documented medical abnormality,” he said. “Queer is also not a gender, and if you want to list sexual orientation, that’s even more egregious.

While certain direct action groups began in the late 1980’s like Queer Nation used the word in the militant vernacular. Lately many QPOC (LGBT people of color), and millennial have begun to reclaim queer in response the ever widening LGBTQ!A+ umbrella without any thoughts or concern to those in the LGBT community that were harassed and harmed in the past and many  who still are in the present by the word “queer”.

 With PRIDE month coming fast everyone should be proud of who they are. Gay, lesbian, bi-sexual, transgender.

I am a proud gay man. 

Proud of the word “queer”? 

 Not so much.

 How do you feel about the queer?  Sound off in the comments below.

 

 

QPOC Protesters of Columbus Pride Found Guilty on 6 of 8 Misdemeanor Counts for Blocking Parade

QPOC Protesters at Columbus Pride Found Guilty on 6 of 8 Misdemeanor Counts for Blocking Parade

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Yesterday a Franklin County jury convicted 3 QPOC Black and Trans activists on six misdemeanor counts of “disorderly conduct” and “failure to obey”  from a 2017 Columbus Pride protest of police violence, violence against trans women and marginalization of people of color within the LGBTQ community.

On June 17, 2017 a week after a similar protest at Capital Pride in Washington, D.C. that delayed the Pride parade for hours, a group of 10 people blocked the Columbus Pride parade. The participants, who said they were unaware of the D.C. action, wanted to protest the June 16 acquittal of the Minnesota police officer who killed Philando Castile during a traffic stop. The group also hoped to raise awareness about the violence against and erasure of black and brown queer and trans people, and in particular the lack of safe space for black and brown people at Pride festivals”

During the demonstration, the protesters linked arms and stepped into the street and refused to move despite numerous warnings by the police. Wriply Bennet, Kendall Denton, Ashley Braxton and Deandre Miles — were duly arrested.

After refusing a plea bargain consisting of no jail time and doing community service. Yesterday the jury convicted Bennet of disorderly conduct, failure to comply with a police officer’s orders and resisting arrest; Braxton of disorderly conduct and failure to comply; and Denton of disorderly conduct. 

Deandre Miles, the fourth person arrested on June 17, faces a felony charge and will be tried separately. He’s charged with aggravated robbery, accused of jumping on a police officer’s back during the incident and reaching for her gun.

During the trial, prosecutors argued that Bennet, Braxton and Denton interrupted the Pride parade as it moved past Columbus City Hall and that they ignored repeated police commands to move back onto the sidewalks.

“These orders were given as officers arrived … and were given throughout this incident,” Prosecutor Isaac Rinsky told jurors in closing arguments.

But instead of following police orders, Rinsky said, Denton pushed forward against officers, while Bennet continued to lock arms with other activists. Braxton pulled away from a police officer as he tried to subdue her, the prosecutor said, causing the officer to injure a knee.

It’s not a surprise how we’re going to respond to certain events,” Sgt. Weiner said, referring to CPD’s standard protocol, an “Action-Response Use of Force Continuum,” which he explained is public information. He also said police presence and verbal commands to move are forms of de-escalation and that charges by the protesters that they did not try to de escalate the situation are unfounded.

Protesters and groups such as Black Lives Matter, No Justice, No Pride and GetEqual are making demands of Stonewall Columbus, including: an official call for charges against the #BlackPride4 to be dropped; ask for an investigation by the Department of Justice into CPD’s “use of force against people of color”; pay for the #BlackPride4′s legal fees; and hire community-based security for future events.

To date, Stonewall Columbus has not agreed to any of the demands.

From June 2017

 

Sources: Bob Vitale of PRIZM and Columbus Alive

L’Oreal Drops QPOC Trans Spokesperson After Facebook Post Calling “All White People” Racist

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L’Oreal Paris has dropped London-based  QPOC transgender model, and activist Munroe Bergdorf from a campaign after a Facebook post she wrote saying that “ALL white people” are racist.

Said Bergdorf in the post (since deleted), which was published in full by the Daily Mail:

“Honestly I don’t have energy to talk about the racial violence of white people any more. Yes ALL white people.

“Because most of ya’ll don’t even realise or refuse to acknowledge that your existence, privilege and success as a race is built on the backs, blood and death of people of colour. Your entire existence is drenched in racism. From micro-aggressions to terrorism, you guys built the blueprint for this s***.

“Come see me when you realise that racism isn’t learned, it’s inherited and consciously or unconsciously passed down through privilege.

“Once white people begin to admit that their race is the most violent and oppressive force of nature on Earth… then we can talk.

“Until then stay acting shocked about how the world continues to stay f***** at the hands of your ancestors and your heads that remain buried in the sand with hands over your ears.”

L’Oreal released the following  statement : “L’Oréal supports diversity and tolerance towards all people irrespective of their race, background, gender and religion. We believe that the recent comments by L’Oréal Paris UK Spokesperson Munroe Bergdorf are at odds with those values, and as such we have taken the decision to end the partnership with her.”

After being fired Bergdorf took to Facebook to “clarify” her stance, saying that her words, which were “a direct response to the violence of white supremacists in Charlottesville,” were taken out of context. “Identifying that the success of the British Empire has been at the expense of the people of color, is not something that should offend ANYONE. It is a fact. It happened. Slavery and colonialism, at the hands of white supremacy, played a huge part in shaping the United Kingdom and much of the west, into the super power that it is today,” she wrote. “When I stated that “all white people are racist”, I was addressing that fact that western society as a whole, is a SYSTEM rooted in white supremacy – designed to benefit, prioritize and protect white people before anyone of any other race. Unknowingly, white people are SOCIALISED to be racist from birth onwards. It is not something genetic. No one is born racist.”

Thoughts?

 

LGBT Community Center Torched By Arsonist In Dallas

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Dallas firefighters are saying that someone intentionally started a two-alarm fire at an LGBT resource center in South Dallas Friday morning.

The fire was determined to be incendiary in nature, and was set at some point at the rear of the building,” he said.

The facility is operated by Abounding Prosperity, Inc. Representatives for the organization said the facility is heavily damaged and will affect the services that can offer to people in the community. Services included HIV testing, programs and other resources for the QPOC – LGBT community.

Abounding Prosperity, Inc. was founded in November 2005 with the express purpose of responding to social and health disparities that continue to have a devastating impact on Black men and their families in Dallas County. Our mission: to provide services to address health, social and economic disparities among Black men with a particular emphasis on gay, bisexual and male to female Transgender individuals.

Firefighters said they responded to a call about the fire at the center in the 1800 block of Peabody Avenue at about 6 a.m. They extinguished the fire within an hour.

No injuries were reported.

Dallas Fire-Rescue investigators asked anyone with information about the incident to call them at 214-670-4312.

 

4 QPOC Protesters Arrested At Columbus PRIDE After Altercation With Police – [Videos]

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Four people were arrested and one could face aggravated robbery charges after a PRIDE protest that left a Columbus police officer injured and with one protester arrested for attempting to disarm one of the officers. 

According to a post published on the International Socialist Organization Columbus Facebook page, “a group of Black queer activists interrupted Columbus’ corporate pride parade to bring attention to the not guilty verdict for the officer who murdered Philando Castile, as well as other POC [people of color], particularly trans POC, who have been murdered by police.”

The group with messages on their shirts like “pride is political” and black tape on their mouths. were trying to draw attention to racism at pride and in LGBT community.

The official Stonewall Columbus Pride Festival and Parade Facebook page posted the following update about the incident later in the afternoon:

“We are aware that several people were arrested at the Pride Parade today. We have contacted the highest county and city officials in order to guarantee their safety. We have sent legal representation from Stonewall to assist those that have been arrested. This situation is ongoing, and we will comment further when we have more facts and can be sure those in custody are safe.”

The Columbus Division of Police reports:.

The suspects wouldn’t obey officers orders to leave the roadway at the parade this morning,” stated the CPD via social media. “Charges range from, Resisting Arrest-Causing Harm to a Police Officer, Fail to Comply with a Police Officers Order or Signal to Disorderly Conduct-Hindering Movement.

Another protester attempted to disarm an officer who was arresting the other two. He was arrested and charged with aggravated robbery.

Police say someone tipped officers off about a group of protesters blocking off the parade route.and once they arrived on their bikes to move the protesters some began to resist.

The QPOC protesters are suspected to be part of Black Lives Matters and No Justice, No Pride movement

 

 

BLM/QPOC Activists Crash Philadelphia OutFest Opening With Demands From LGBT People of Color (VIDEO)

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BLM/QPOC Activists Crash Philadelphia OutFest Opening With Demands From LGBT People of Color (VIDEO)

A crowd of about 50 LGBT citizens and their supporters gathered in the mayor’s reception room at Philadelphia’s City Hall last on Sunday morning to attend a ceremony celebrating the seventh year city officials have raised the LGBT Pride flag outside City Hall  as a kickoff to OutFest, Philadelphia’s celebration of National Coming Out Day (Oct. 11).  Shortly after it began QPOC activists — from the Black and Brown Workers’ Collective, Black Lives Matter, and other groups marched in disrupting the ceremony with signs bearing slogans stating “Anti Blackness Anywhere Is Anti Blackness Everywhere!” and “#GetOutfest” and began shouting over D’Ontace Keyes, the newly appointed commissioner on the Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations, who was speaking at the podium.

The QPOC activist angry about nightclub dress codes they see as racist and a three-year-old viral video of a club-owner using the N-word (which the owner apologized for) had harsh words for Mayor Kenney. They argued his ties to the Mummers (oft-criticized for racism and homophobia) and Democratic Committeeman Michael Weiss, a Kenney donor who owns Woody’s, one of the bars with an allegedly racist dress code, show the mayor is insincere about fighting racism in the Gayborhood. They also complained Kenney hasn’t done enough to end police stop-and-frisk practices.

“Why haven’t you made a formal statement about Gayborhood racism?” shouted Abdul-Aliy Muhammad, a collective organizer.

Kenney did address the racism controversy just before the activists arrived, talking about his upbringing in a neighborhood that “wasn’t always open-minded,” dealing with Mummer racism last year and getting emotional as he implored everyone to “be decent human beings.”

“We need to change our hearts if our hearts are cold, we need to change them, we need to look at each other in each other’s eyes … and love your fellow human beings,”

When Kenney then tried speaking with the activists and offered his hand for handshakes, the activists ignored the gesture and shouted chants such as “If we don’t get it, shut it down!”with one “activist” giving the Mayor the middle finger.  Kenney and others at that point left the room and the QPOC activists took over the podium to outline their demands.

The activists’ demands, as collective organizer Shani Akilah outlined at City Hall, are:

Funds allocated to support the development of “black and brown spaces” in and out of the Gayborhood, as most of the city’s LGBT people of color don’t live in the Gayborhood.

That homeless LGBT youth be part of conversations about Gayborhood racism.

That anyone guilty of racial discrimination “be fined, reprimanded and relieved of duties, according to public hearings.”

 That Kenney, Fitzpatrick, Philadelphia Fight executive director Jane Shull and Mazzoni Center CEO Nurit Shein be subpoenaed to the human relations commission’s Oct. 25 public hearing.

Outside oversight to ensure transparency of the human relations commission’s investigations and hearing follow-up.

Trauma therapists of color be present at the Oct. 25 public hearing to counsel, at city expense, anyone upset by the proceedings or the recent viral video of club owner Darryl DePiano using a racial slur.

Dionne Stallworth, who has been an activist for 30 years in the LGBT community, confronted the activists, urging them to resolve their complaints without confrontation.

“What I have not seen is the willingness to come to a table without antagonism,” Stallworth said. “I know personally that your issues have merit … I congratulate you for holding them accountable here, but there is a process.”

Activist Erica Mines responded: “We do not sit at the table with our oppressors!”

NYC Chelsea Dallas BBQ Gay Chair-Basher Bayna Lekheim El-Amin Found Guilty On Four Counts Of Assault

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NYC Chelsea Dallas BBQ Gay Chair-Basher Bayna Lekheim El-Amin Found Guilty Of Assault

Just a little over a year ago on May 5th, 2015,  Jonathan Snipes and Ethan York-Adams were dining at the Dallas BBQ at West 23rd Street and 8th Avenue.   Snipes knocked over his fishbowl margarita drink, and overheard Bayna Lekheim El-Amin say he was “a white faggot spilling drinks.”  A tipsy Snipes confronted him, and later admitting to hitting him with his “light purse”.  A fight ensured with the much larger El-Amin stomping on Stipes and then bashing him over the head with a heavy wooden chair, knocking him unconscious while he was walking away. El-Amin then left the restaurant and went underground only to surrender himself to the authorities a few months later. The whole confrontation was caught on videotape.

On Wednesday Bayna Lekheim El-Amin was convicted of two counts of first-degree attempted assault and two counts of second-degree assault

El-Amin’s lawyer unsuccessfully argued that his client, who they made a point of stating is also gay, was acting in self-defense. “The defendant has a right to defend (himself),” he told the jury.

Prosecutors said El-Amin attacked out of rage:  “The defendant didn’t attack these men because he was scared for his life — he attacked them because Jonathan Snipes humiliated him and he was pissed off. The defendant was angry, he was humiliated, and he wasn’t about to let these girly men get the last word,” said ADA Leah Saxtein

NYPD Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce describes El Amin a “career criminal.”

A cursory internet search reveals several clues into El-Amin’s criminal past. In 2005, he was arrested for violating probation and for failure to appear in court. In 2006, he was locked up for about three months on a forgery charge and was also arrested fo: invasion of privacy, credit card fraud, a violation of Georgia Controlled Substance Act, and a miscellaneous misdemeanor according to Mugshots.com, That site lists his height at 6’6” and his weight at 325 lbs.

Waddie Grant Jr. owner of the QPOC website G-List has been a supporter of El-Amin since the incident claiming that El Amin was  actually the victim charging racial discrimination and that El-Amin was a victim of “white privilege” mistreated by the press.  Grant also knew the whereabouts of El-Amin while he was in hiding and a search warrant was issued and never contacted the NYPD.

Grant allowed El-Amin a platform to speak on his website.  In his account of the story, York-Adams and Snipes never spilled a drink but got into a fight near a table where a few women were seated. El-Amin says he shouted:

‘Hey, guys! There are ladies here’…. Snipes…walked towards me and said, ‘And YOU calling us ladies!’ And, he struck me. He struck me in the head with an object. I’m not sure what it was, but it felt like a heavy blunt object — and it hurt….I knew that I needed to react quickly because I was afraid that if I didn’t that I would be hit again. Or, someone else at my table would have been hit. So, I immediately went at him.

El-Amin is expected to be sentenced on June 14 by Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Arlene Goldberg. He faces up to 15 years in prison.