Author: Brett

An Assassination in Silver Lake

Brett

The windy backstreets of Silver Lake are pretty quiet in the predawn hours. At around 5 a.m. last Aug. 7, Juan David Vasquez Loma decided to take one of those residential roads — Effie Street — to drive home two co-workers after a late shift at Garage Pizza on Sunset Boulevard near Fountain Avenue.

But Vasquez Loma, 25, encountered a greenHonda, at or near the intersection of Effie and Micheltorena Street, that was stopped and partially blocking the way.

Vasquez Loma, a well-liked busboy at popular Mexican restaurant El Chavo, who often pulled a night shift on his second job doing deliveries for the nearby pizza joint, pulled out to pass the green Honda. As he did so, his passengers, Luis Lopez and Jonathan Mendoza, saw the Honda’s male driver and a female passenger. The driver “looked at me and I won’t ever forget that look,” Lopez later said.

 

http://www.laweekly.com/2012-02-23/news/silver-lake-murder-tagger-busboy/

Anoka-Hennepin Timeline

Brett

http://www.twincities.com/localnews/ci_20109301/anoka-hennepin-timeline?source=pkg

ANOKA-HENNEPIN TIMELINE

The controversy over handling issues of sexual orientation in the Anoka-Hennepin school district goes back more than 15 years.

 

Departments of Justice and Education Resolve Harassment Allegations in Anoka-Hennepin School District in Minnesota

Brett

www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2012/March/12-crt-286.html

WASHINGTON – The Departments of Justice and Education, together with six private student plaintiffs and the Anoka-Hennepin School District, filed a proposed consent decree today in the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota, resolving complaints of sex-based harassment of middle and high school students in the school district.  Title IV of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 each prohibits sex-based harassment, including harassment based on nonconformity with gender stereotypes and sexual harassment.

In November 2010, the Department of Justice received a complaint alleging that students in the school district were being harassed by other students because they didn’t dress or act in ways that conform to gender stereotypes.  The Departments of Justice and Education conducted an extensive investigation into sex-based harassment in the district’s middle and high schools.   Many students reported that the unsafe and unwelcoming school climate inhibited their ability to learn.    The parties worked collaboratively to draft a consent decree addressing and resolving the allegations in the complaints.

Dharun Ravi Wrote of Wanting to Keep ‘Gays Away’

Brett

NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. — A former Rutgers University student sent a message to a friend about wanting to “keep the gays away” and urged her to watch a feed from a webcam that he had trained on a bed where he expected his roommate to have a tryst with another man, according to text messages shown in court on Monday.

“Do it,” the former student, Dharun Ravi, told his friend Michelle Huang in a message on Sept. 21, 2010. “I have it pointed at his bed and the monitor is off so he can’t see you.”

The next day, the roommate, Tyler Clementi, jumped to his death from the George Washington Bridge. Mr. Ravi is now on trial on charges including invasion of privacy and bias intimidation, accused of spying on Mr. Clementi as he had sexual encounters with another man. Mr. Ravi is not charged with causing Mr. Clementi’s death.

Sigourney Weaver to Make TV series Debut in USA’s ‘Political Animals’

Brett

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/sigourney-weaver-usa-network-political-animals-greg-berlanti-297237

The Oscar nominee has been tapped to star in Greg Berlanti and Laurence Mark‘s USA Network six-hour original series Political Animals, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.

Weaver will star as Elaine Barrish, the divorced former first lady and newly appointed secretary of state who throws herself into the job after recovering from the dissolution of her marriage and losing the presidential nomination. Elaine will rely heavily on her son Doug (Happy Endings‘ James Wolk), an ambitious politico who also serves as her chief of staff but is tormented by his twin brother’s battle with addiction. Brittany Ishibashi (Parenthood, Fairly Legal) co-stars as Doug’s fiancée.

Forget Hollywood. The future of queer filmmaking will be directed and produced by you.

Brett
The future of queer filmmaking will be directed and produced by you. With a little help from Kickstarter.

Michael Stabile is trying to make a film about a gay porn mogul. But Seed Money, his documentary-in-progress detailing the life of late Falcon Studios founder and political philanthropist Chuck Holmes, was, like many independent films, continually mired in financial uncertainly. He’d worked on the project without funding for four years, filming and interviewing porn stars, friends, politicians, and celebrities, such as John Waters. By the fall of 2011, the film was indefinitely stalled, as Stabile faced a chunk of post-production costs he couldn’t cover.

 

http://www.out.com/entertainment/movies/2012/02/23/kickstarter-movies-filmmaking-funding-gay?page=0,0

New Analysis Looks at Same Sex Parenting

Brett

In a new report on same-sex parenting, a UCLA researcher concluded that proportionally fewer same-sex couples are raising children now (16 percent), as compared to 2006 (19 percent). The researcher, Gary J. Gates, Ph.D., also noted that the racial/ethnic and socioeconomic diversity among these families is greater than commonly perceived.

The publication of Gates’ report, which was based on decennial and intermediate census data, was announced by the Williams Institute (williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu), an LGBT-focused think tank at the UCLA School of Law

 

http://www.campkc.com/campkc-content.php?Page_ID=1805

Flashback: Burke Keeps His Promise

Brett

http://sports.nationalpost.com/2011/03/21/flashback-burke-keeps-his-promise/

Post Sports columnist Bruce Arthur on Monday received his first National Newspaper Award nomination for a piece on Toronto Maple Leafs general manager Brian Burke marching in Toronto’s Gay Pride Parade. Published on July 4, 2010, here it is in full:

TORONTO — On the 156th day of the rest of his life, Brian Burke woke up and he tried to keep another promise. He would march, he said. So he marched.

And marching was easier, in a way. Not that it was easy. As Brian Burke walked the streets of Toronto, sweating in the sun and waving at the sea of people at one of the world’s grandest Pride Parades, he thought about his son. He thought about Brendan, his beautiful boy. How could he not? Brendan was why he was here.

***

“He was a really bright, motivated kid, but his best attribute was his people skills,” Patrick Burke, Brendan’s older brother, says over the phone. “When he was a kid we’d go to the playground and he’d run around, and by the end, when it was time for my mom to take him home, everyone would be going, ‘Bye Brendan.’ ‘Bye Brendan.’ ‘Bye Brendan.’ He’d just go around and introduce himself. ‘Hi, I’m Brendan. How are you?’ He just had a natural way with people, and that alone would have made him a great success.”

Patrick Burke Spreads Message of Inclusion in Memory of Brendan Burke

Brett

http://sports.nationalpost.com/2012/03/04/patrick-burke-spreads-message-of-inclusion-in-memory-of-brendan-burke/

A few weeks after Patrick Burke made his brother Brendan swear on the Stanley Cup that he really was gay — that was what the boys always did when you wanted to prove something, swear on the Stanley Cup — he went to Brendan and he apologized. He said he was sorry if he ever said anything, did anything, to make Brendan feel uncomfortable before his younger brother came out of the closet to his family in December of 2007. He said, “I’m sorry if I ever made your life hard.”

Sunday, Patrick launched You Can Play with a public-service announcement during the first intermission of NBC’s game of the week. NHL player after NHL player spoke into the camera, as did Patrick and his father, Brian. The message was simple: It doesn’t matter if you’re gay. If you can play, you can play. Sports should welcome everyone.

Pro Hockey Players Fight Homophobia With ‘You Can Play’

Brett

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/03/04/pro-hockey-players-fight-homophobia-you-can-play/

BOSTON (Reuters) – Thirty players in the National Hockey League have joined a campaign intended to promote gay and lesbian equality in sports with a television ad that will premiere during Sunday’s matchup of the New York Rangers and Boston Bruins.

The campaign, called “You Can Play,” aims to combat what its organizers call an atmosphere of “casual homophobia” in locker rooms, in which slurs are carelessly used, creating a difficult atmosphere for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender athletes.

“You’ve got this thing where people don’t think there are, or choose not to believe there are, gay athletes in their locker rooms,” said Patrick Burke, a talent scout for the Philadelphia Flyers who is one of the co-founders of the program.