Texas Bar Raid Agents Fired
They actually followed through!
After apologizing and promising changes in the wake of the violent raid of Fort Worth's Rainbow Lounge in
June, the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission has fired two agents and a supervisor, disciplined two other
supervisors and changed several policies.
The agency altered its stance on the use of force in various situations along with shortening agents’ shifts,
increasing cultural diversity training and reviewing the agent trainee field training program.
“It is essential that every employee understands our core value: We do the right thing, not what we have the
right to do,” said TABC administrator Alan Steen.
Agent Christopher Aller and trainee Jason Chapman have been let go along with their supervisor Sgt. Terry
Parsons as they participated in the raid without approval, wore inappropriate attire and did not alert their
supervisors that they made any arrests or used physical force.
Six people were arrested that night for public intoxication and Chad Gibson was hospitalized with a severe
head injury.
One of Our Greatest Allies, Sen. Edward Kennedy Dies at 77
Massachusetts Senator Edward Kennedy, the last remaining Kennedy brother and a tireless champion for
LGBT rights, died early Wednesday morning after a yearlong battle with brain cancer. He was 77.
The Kennedy family released a statement announcing that he died at his home in Hyannis Port, Mass.
"We've lost the irreplaceable center of our family and joyous light in our lives, but the inspiration of his faith,
optimism, and perseverance will live on in our hearts forever," the statement said. "We thank everyone who
gave him care and support over this last year, and everyone who stood with him for so many years in his
tireless march for progress toward justice, fairness and opportunity for all. He loved this country and devoted
his life to serving it. He always believed that our best days were still ahead, but it's hard to imagine any of them
without him."
Kennedy, who became known as the "lion of the Senate" over the 47 years he served in the chamber, scored
a 100 percent rating from the Human Rights Campaign, introducing historic pieces of pro-LGBT legislation and
making critical votes. He was one of only 14 senators who voted against the 1996 Defense of Marriage of Act
that prohibits the federal government from recognizing same-sex marriages.
During the unsuccessful attempt by conservatives to pass the 2004 Federal Marriage Amendment
constitutionally banning same-sex marriage, Kennedy said from the Senate floor, "We all know what this issue
is about. It's not about how to protect the sanctity of marriage, or how to deal with activist judges. It's about
politics and an attempt to drive a wedge between one group of citizens and the rest of the country, solely for
partisan advantage ... The Constitution has never been used as a tool to entrench currently popular views at
the expense of an unpopular minority – and it should not be used that way now."
Among his slate of progressive legislative sponsorships, Kennedy pushed such bills as the Matthew Shepard
Hate Crimes Prevention Act and the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA).
In 2007, he introduced the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Act, which passed as an amendment to the Defense
Department reauthorization bill but was eventually dropped from the legislation after President George W.
Bush threatened to veto it. Kennedy reintroduced the measure this year with 45 cosponsors and again it was
attached as an amendment to the 2010 defense appropriations legislation, which must be reconciled with the
House version of the bill before being sent to President Obama's desk.
Kennedy also introduced ENDA in 2007 after the House legislation went through a tumultuous journey that
ultimately stripped it of protections for transgender individuals. This year, he and lead senate sponsors Jeff
Merkeley, Olympia Snowe, and Susan Collins, reintroduced the legislation, which became the first transgender-
inclusive bill in the senate's history.
One of the Democratic Party's elder statesmen, Senator Kennedy was elected to the Senate in 1962 and
called the latest round of debate in Congress to reform health care "the cause of my life." He campaigned for
President Obama during the 2008 election cycle, where he promised, "we will break the old gridlock and
guarantee that every American ... will have decent, quality health care as a fundamental right and not just a
privilege." In July, the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions committee, chaired by Kennedy and
under the stewardship of Senator Christopher Dodd, passed health care legislation that Kennedy had helped
to write.
Kennedy famously made a bid for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1980 but lost to then-president
Jimmy Carter. Many credited his loss to the 1969 accident at Chappaquiddick Island in which the senator
drove his car off a bridge, causing passenger Mary Jo Kopechne to drown. Accepting defeat that summer at
the Democratic National Convention, Kennedy orated some of his most revered words: "For all those whose
cares have been our concern, the work goes on. The cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall
never die."
The senator received the nation's highest civilian honor in July, when President Obama awarded him the
Presidential Medal of Freedom alongside out tennis icon Billie Jean King and slain gay politician Harvey Milk.
Kennedy, the youngest sibling in the Kennedy family, was elected as Massachusetts' junior senator at a time
when the family led the momentum of progressive change in the 1960s. His brothers, President John F.
Kennedy and Senator Robert F. Kennedy, remain political icons even after their untimely deaths by
assassination in 1963 and 1968, respectively. The eldest brother, Joseph P. Kennedy, died during a World
War II bombing mission in 1944. One of his sisters Kathleen Kennedy died in a plane crash in 1948. Two other
sisters have also died in the past few years, Patricia Lawford Kennedy in 2006, and Rosemary Kennedy in
2005. Most recently, on August 11, his sister Eunice Kennedy Shriver, a champion for disabled people and
founder of the Special Olympics died at 88.
Doctors diagnosed Kennedy with a malignant glioma, after he suffered a seizure in May 2008. He underwent a
partial tumor removal, as well as proton-beam radiation, and chemotherapy.
Last week, Kennedy wrote a letter to Gov. Deval Patrick, state senate president Therese Murray, and state
house speaker Robert DeLeo about speedily finding a replacement for his senate seat.
The senator is survived by his wife Vicki; sister Jean Kennedy Smith; sons Edward Kennedy Jr. and U.S.
Representative Patrick Kennedy of Rhode Island; his daughter Kara Kennedy Allen; step children Curran
Raclin and Curran Raclin, and four grandchildren.
POSTED: 8/26/2009
_____________________________________________________________________________
US Marriage Equality Trial to Start in January 2010
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – A federal court case which could legalize gay marriage in the United States will
begin trial in January 2010 with high-profile lawyers but not longtime gay and conservative antagonists lined
up on opposite sides of the debate, a district judge ruled on Wednesday.
Aiming to speed a contentious case that could be destined for the U.S. Supreme Court, San Francisco District
Court Judge Vaughn Walker denied requests to join the case from gay advocacy groups and social
conservatives who said they would not be adequately represented.
Ted Olson, the conservative lawyer whose Supreme Court arguments put President George W. Bush in the
White House, and David Boies, his opponent in the 2000 case, joined forces to overturn California's
Proposition 8 gay marriage ban and the Wednesday hearing left them in firm control.
"The lawyers will multiply like locusts!" David Thompson, whose firm Cooper and Kirk is defending the ban,
warned in a courtroom already filled with about 30 attorneys.
"At bottom, they tender nothing new to this case," except experience, Olson told the court.
Six U.S. states, mostly in the northeast, have allowed same-sex marriage, but 40 forbid it. Californians voted
their ban in place last November, ending court-approved legality and sparking national protests.
Gay advocates had planned to continue a state-by-state battle for legitimacy and avoid the conservative
Supreme Court, but the two political odd-couple star lawyers, outsiders to the cause, launched the federal
case and then argued the gay groups should be sidelined in order to speed it to trial.
Lambda Legal lawyers and other gay advocates said afterward they would continue to help Olson and Boies.
But the lawyer for the conservative Campaign for California Families left the courtroom quickly; she had
argued that lawyers defending the ban were giving away too much, such as by agreeing that same-sex
orientation did not impair judgment.
Judge Walker, clearly eager to focus and speed arguments, did allow the city and county of San Francisco to
join the case as a government representative. Calif. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has signaled his
administration will not actively join the case.
"I am surprised by the governor's position in this case," Walker told a state lawyer, telling him to urge
Schwarzenegger, who personally favors gay marriage, to get involved. "This is a matter of some importance to
the people."
Walker set a January 11, 2010 date to start the trial, an aggressive schedule.
Two same-sex couples represented by Olson and Boies say marriage is a federal constitutional right which
they are being denied. They are expected to argue that gays and lesbians are routinely discriminated against
and deserve a special level of protection, such as that afforded racial and disabled groups.
The Supreme Court's rulings that marriage is a fundamental right do not exclude gays and lesbians, they say.
Social conservatives led by lawyer Charles Cooper say the people of California had the right to limit marriage
to a man and a woman, since it is in the state's interest to limit marriage to couples of opposite sex.
They say gays and lesbians do not deserve a special class of protection, which is afforded to very few groups,
and that so long as the state has a legitimate cause it can ban gay marriage. One major reason, they say, is
that limiting marriage to same-sex couples promotes "responsible" procreation.
Posted: 08/19/2009
Forth Worth Police Revising Inspection Policies
Forth Worth police chief Jeff Halstead (pictured) said on Tuesday that his department would revise bar
inspection policies that contributed to a controversial raid on a gay establishment in June that left one patron
seriously injured, reports the Associated Press.
Halstead told a city council meeting that the Rainbow Lounge was raided in the early morning of June 28
because his department lacked specific guidelines to direct the behavior of officers, some of whom were
accused of excessive force and unprofessional conduct.
Halstead, who gave the council a progress report on his department's internal investigation, said a final report
should be complete by late September or October with new rules for bar inspections and any
recommendations on disciplinary actions. The department also appointed an officer as a liaison to LGBT
residents and plans to provide more diversity training to officers.
Five Fort Worth police officers and one sergeant led the inspection, with two agents from the Texas Alcoholic
Beverage Commission. Earlier this month, the commission completed an internal investigation that found its
agents had failed to receive approval to participate in the raid and failed to inform their supervisor that Chad
Gibson, a patron they arrested, sustained a severe head injury.
Gibson, who was released from the hospital after one week, said the incident left him with a blood clot behind
the right eye.
Posted: 08/17/2009
Texas Agents in Bar Raid at Fault
The Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission agents involved in a June raid at a Fort Worth gay bar violated
agency policies and face disciplinary action, says an internal agency report released on Thursday, according
to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram .
The 32-page TABC document details what transpired on June 28 when agents and Fort Worth police officers
entered the Rainbow Lounge to conduct a bar check. The controversial operation on the 40th anniversary of
the Stonewall riots resulted in six arrests for public intoxication and the hospitalization of one patron, Chad
Gibson, for one week with a head injury.
According to the report, agents Christopher Aller and Jason Chapman violated TABC policy because they
participated in the operation without approval, failed to follow bar inspection procedures, failed to report using
force against patrons, and failed to report a patron was injured, among other reasons.
The agents' supervisor, Sgt. Terry Parsons, who was not at the Rainbow Lounge and did not approve the
operation, is also charged with violations.
Disciplinary actions, which could range from a verbal warning to termination, are pending against the agents.
A separate report will be released later this summer on the agents' use of force, including the actions that led
to Gibson's injuries.
The Forth Worth police department, which was also involved in the raid, continues its internal investigation.
Also on Thursday, the U.S. attorney for the area, James Jacks, said that his office would not conduct an
independent investigation into the raid as requested by city officials. Jacks said it was the responsibility of the
FBI to investigate violations of federal civil rights statutes, if warranted.
Posted: 08/08/2009
_____________________________________________________________________________
Gay marriage lawyers say no to help from S.F.
The prominent lawyers leading the fight to legalize gay marriage in California on Friday formally told San
Francisco officials and three other groups supportive of same-sex weddings "thanks, but no thanks" for trying
to join their federal lawsuit.
Attorneys David Boies and Theodore Olson petitioned U.S. District Court Judge Vaughn Walker with legal
arguments meant to block the city and the groups from standing together with the lawyers at trial. San
Francisco put gay marriage front and center on Valentine's Day 2004 when Mayor Gavin Newsom opened City
Hall to same-sex weddings.
Boies and Olson argued that allowing San Francisco into the legal fight would needlessly delay the case's
resolution.
A spokesman for San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera didn't return a telephone call late Friday night.
Boies and Olson also asked that three other gay-rights groups should be barred from joining the case on
similar grounds. They also argued that the conservative Campaign for California Families be prevented from
joining the case in opposition, saying the group also doesn't have standing in the case.
"Campaign has failed to offer any argument that differs from those raised by" the parties already officially
fighting the lawsuit, Boies and Olson wrote. The lawyers said all of the organization's concerns are being
addressed by lawyers with the Alliance Defense Fund, which the judge has allowed to intervene to argue
against the lawsuit.
Boies and Olson, who represented Al Gore and George W. Bush respectively in the legal fight over the 2000
presidential elections, filed the lawsuit on behalf of two gay couples seeking to marry in California. They
argued that they are now in the best position to legalize gay marriage in the state with arguments that the ban
violates federal anti-discrimination protections.
The court filing highlighted the continuing disagreement among gay marriage supporters over how best to fight
for same-sex weddings in the state.
Many influential gay rights groups fear a fight in federal court will ultimately end up before a U.S. Supreme
Court comprised of a socially conservative majority that could deal the same-sex marriage campaign a
significant setback with an adverse ruling.
Critics of that tack complain about the failure of the same-sex marriage campaign to defeat Proposition 8,
which passed in November with 52 percent of the vote and limited marriage to a man and a woman. Boies,
Olson and many others now contend the fight is ripe for a federal anti-discrimination challenge and at least
three other federal challenges have been filed in Los Angeles and Boston.
On Friday, Boies and Olson argued that the case should proceed to trial before a judge without a jury before
the end of the year. Lawyers with the Alliance Defense Fund argued in court papers Friday that the case could
be decided rapidly without a trial.
Posted: 08/08/2009
_____________________________________________________________________________
N.Y.'s Dromm Victim of Smear Campaign
Daniel Dromm, an out candidate for the 25th district of the New York City Council, is the subject of a
homophobic smear campaign run by anonymous opponents.
Empire State Pride Agenda executive director Alan Van Capelle said in a release that Dromm's past run-ins
with local law enforcement are surfacing in a way that does not truthfully represent their context.
"As a teenager in the 1970s, Dromm endured encounters with law enforcement officers that were typical of
those times -- when being gay was reason enough to be arrested," Van Capelle said. He added that charges
brought against Dromm and subsequently dropped are not reflective of Dromm's quality as a candidate.
Leaflets mailed selectively throughout the 25th district highlight Dromm's criminal record. The material claims
Dromm was arrested at 16 for prostitution. He told news channel NY1 that he was simply kissing his boyfriend.
"In those days, being gay meant that you could be put away against your will in a mental institution, so I feared
that happening to me," Dromm told NY1. He said that telling police it was about money would flip the crime from
illegal taboo to a paycheck.
He said the climate of the 1970s also clouded the circumstances of other charges, and his sexual orientation
almost ensured errors in arrest reports.
He is calling on his two Democratic opponents, Stanley Kalathara and Helen Sears, to condemn the ads.
Kalathara has now done so, calling them "dirty politics." A spokesperson for councilwoman Sears had no
comment.
Posted: 08/08/09
_____________________________________________________________________________
DA’s office files reply in Yakovleff case
The Suffolk County District Attorney’s office released a reply on August 3 in opposition to a motion to dismiss
the indictment of Steven Odegard for the January 2008 murder of South End hair stylist Daniel Yakovleff.
Yakovleff had been found stabbed to death in the defendant’s apartment early on the morning of January 17.
Odegard was charged with the victim’s murder.
Attorney John Swomley filed a motion to dismiss Odegard’s indictment, claiming that the DA’s office
misrepresented DNA results and other evidence.
District Attorney Daniel Conley said in August 3 response that the "defendant’s motion [to dismiss the
indictment against him] should be denied since he has failed to establish any of the...elements necessary to
justify a dismissal of the indictment."
"Our belief is that the legal foundation for the case is quite strong, but more than that, the evidence is quite
strong as well.," District Attorney spokesperson Jake Wark said on August 5. "There is some evidence in the
defense attorney’s motion to dismiss that suggests that there’s a third party unknown DNA, which is simply not
true."
Wark went on to say that every DNA sample recovered at the scene of the crime can be linked to the
defendant, the victim, or a man that the victim had been intimate with prior to his death.
The trial is expected to begin on December 14.
_____________________________________________________________________________
60,000 Mainers sign on to defend marriage equality
Marriage equality organization Maine Freedom to Marry announced July 30 that 60,000 Mainers have signed
pledges defending the state’s marriage equality bill.
"Volunteers, ready and willing to go door to door and speak neighbor to neighbor to protect marriage equality,
are the fuel of our campaign to defeat Question 1," Jesse Connolly, Campaign Manager of Maine Freedom to
Marry, said in a statement July 30.
"These 60,000 pledges, collected by Maine volunteers and the campaign’s professional field staff,
demonstrate that our grassroots effort is a campaign about Maine, by Maine people and consistent with Maine
values. Ours is a campaign of Mainers committed to talk to their families, their friends and their coworkers to
preserve marriage equality."
Opponents of the bill, signed into law on May 6 by Maine Governor John Baldacci, have gathered more than
100,000 signatures garnering support for a referendum on this November’s ballot. The Secretary of State’s
office has until September 4 to verify at least 55,087 of the signatures collected by marriage equality
opponents Stand for Marriage for the referendum to appear.
"Theirs is a campaign fueled not by Maine volunteers but by paid out of state operatives," Connolly said of the
bill’s opponents. "Fairness and equality are too precious to be sold to the highest bidder."
Posted: 08/06/2009
____________________________________________________________________________
NEXT PAGE >>>>
They actually followed through!
After apologizing and promising changes in the wake of the violent raid of Fort Worth's Rainbow Lounge in
June, the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission has fired two agents and a supervisor, disciplined two other
supervisors and changed several policies.
The agency altered its stance on the use of force in various situations along with shortening agents’ shifts,
increasing cultural diversity training and reviewing the agent trainee field training program.
“It is essential that every employee understands our core value: We do the right thing, not what we have the
right to do,” said TABC administrator Alan Steen.
Agent Christopher Aller and trainee Jason Chapman have been let go along with their supervisor Sgt. Terry
Parsons as they participated in the raid without approval, wore inappropriate attire and did not alert their
supervisors that they made any arrests or used physical force.
Six people were arrested that night for public intoxication and Chad Gibson was hospitalized with a severe
head injury.
One of Our Greatest Allies, Sen. Edward Kennedy Dies at 77
Massachusetts Senator Edward Kennedy, the last remaining Kennedy brother and a tireless champion for
LGBT rights, died early Wednesday morning after a yearlong battle with brain cancer. He was 77.
The Kennedy family released a statement announcing that he died at his home in Hyannis Port, Mass.
"We've lost the irreplaceable center of our family and joyous light in our lives, but the inspiration of his faith,
optimism, and perseverance will live on in our hearts forever," the statement said. "We thank everyone who
gave him care and support over this last year, and everyone who stood with him for so many years in his
tireless march for progress toward justice, fairness and opportunity for all. He loved this country and devoted
his life to serving it. He always believed that our best days were still ahead, but it's hard to imagine any of them
without him."
Kennedy, who became known as the "lion of the Senate" over the 47 years he served in the chamber, scored
a 100 percent rating from the Human Rights Campaign, introducing historic pieces of pro-LGBT legislation and
making critical votes. He was one of only 14 senators who voted against the 1996 Defense of Marriage of Act
that prohibits the federal government from recognizing same-sex marriages.
During the unsuccessful attempt by conservatives to pass the 2004 Federal Marriage Amendment
constitutionally banning same-sex marriage, Kennedy said from the Senate floor, "We all know what this issue
is about. It's not about how to protect the sanctity of marriage, or how to deal with activist judges. It's about
politics and an attempt to drive a wedge between one group of citizens and the rest of the country, solely for
partisan advantage ... The Constitution has never been used as a tool to entrench currently popular views at
the expense of an unpopular minority – and it should not be used that way now."
Among his slate of progressive legislative sponsorships, Kennedy pushed such bills as the Matthew Shepard
Hate Crimes Prevention Act and the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA).
In 2007, he introduced the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Act, which passed as an amendment to the Defense
Department reauthorization bill but was eventually dropped from the legislation after President George W.
Bush threatened to veto it. Kennedy reintroduced the measure this year with 45 cosponsors and again it was
attached as an amendment to the 2010 defense appropriations legislation, which must be reconciled with the
House version of the bill before being sent to President Obama's desk.
Kennedy also introduced ENDA in 2007 after the House legislation went through a tumultuous journey that
ultimately stripped it of protections for transgender individuals. This year, he and lead senate sponsors Jeff
Merkeley, Olympia Snowe, and Susan Collins, reintroduced the legislation, which became the first transgender-
inclusive bill in the senate's history.
One of the Democratic Party's elder statesmen, Senator Kennedy was elected to the Senate in 1962 and
called the latest round of debate in Congress to reform health care "the cause of my life." He campaigned for
President Obama during the 2008 election cycle, where he promised, "we will break the old gridlock and
guarantee that every American ... will have decent, quality health care as a fundamental right and not just a
privilege." In July, the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions committee, chaired by Kennedy and
under the stewardship of Senator Christopher Dodd, passed health care legislation that Kennedy had helped
to write.
Kennedy famously made a bid for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1980 but lost to then-president
Jimmy Carter. Many credited his loss to the 1969 accident at Chappaquiddick Island in which the senator
drove his car off a bridge, causing passenger Mary Jo Kopechne to drown. Accepting defeat that summer at
the Democratic National Convention, Kennedy orated some of his most revered words: "For all those whose
cares have been our concern, the work goes on. The cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall
never die."
The senator received the nation's highest civilian honor in July, when President Obama awarded him the
Presidential Medal of Freedom alongside out tennis icon Billie Jean King and slain gay politician Harvey Milk.
Kennedy, the youngest sibling in the Kennedy family, was elected as Massachusetts' junior senator at a time
when the family led the momentum of progressive change in the 1960s. His brothers, President John F.
Kennedy and Senator Robert F. Kennedy, remain political icons even after their untimely deaths by
assassination in 1963 and 1968, respectively. The eldest brother, Joseph P. Kennedy, died during a World
War II bombing mission in 1944. One of his sisters Kathleen Kennedy died in a plane crash in 1948. Two other
sisters have also died in the past few years, Patricia Lawford Kennedy in 2006, and Rosemary Kennedy in
2005. Most recently, on August 11, his sister Eunice Kennedy Shriver, a champion for disabled people and
founder of the Special Olympics died at 88.
Doctors diagnosed Kennedy with a malignant glioma, after he suffered a seizure in May 2008. He underwent a
partial tumor removal, as well as proton-beam radiation, and chemotherapy.
Last week, Kennedy wrote a letter to Gov. Deval Patrick, state senate president Therese Murray, and state
house speaker Robert DeLeo about speedily finding a replacement for his senate seat.
The senator is survived by his wife Vicki; sister Jean Kennedy Smith; sons Edward Kennedy Jr. and U.S.
Representative Patrick Kennedy of Rhode Island; his daughter Kara Kennedy Allen; step children Curran
Raclin and Curran Raclin, and four grandchildren.
POSTED: 8/26/2009
_____________________________________________________________________________
US Marriage Equality Trial to Start in January 2010
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – A federal court case which could legalize gay marriage in the United States will
begin trial in January 2010 with high-profile lawyers but not longtime gay and conservative antagonists lined
up on opposite sides of the debate, a district judge ruled on Wednesday.
Aiming to speed a contentious case that could be destined for the U.S. Supreme Court, San Francisco District
Court Judge Vaughn Walker denied requests to join the case from gay advocacy groups and social
conservatives who said they would not be adequately represented.
Ted Olson, the conservative lawyer whose Supreme Court arguments put President George W. Bush in the
White House, and David Boies, his opponent in the 2000 case, joined forces to overturn California's
Proposition 8 gay marriage ban and the Wednesday hearing left them in firm control.
"The lawyers will multiply like locusts!" David Thompson, whose firm Cooper and Kirk is defending the ban,
warned in a courtroom already filled with about 30 attorneys.
"At bottom, they tender nothing new to this case," except experience, Olson told the court.
Six U.S. states, mostly in the northeast, have allowed same-sex marriage, but 40 forbid it. Californians voted
their ban in place last November, ending court-approved legality and sparking national protests.
Gay advocates had planned to continue a state-by-state battle for legitimacy and avoid the conservative
Supreme Court, but the two political odd-couple star lawyers, outsiders to the cause, launched the federal
case and then argued the gay groups should be sidelined in order to speed it to trial.
Lambda Legal lawyers and other gay advocates said afterward they would continue to help Olson and Boies.
But the lawyer for the conservative Campaign for California Families left the courtroom quickly; she had
argued that lawyers defending the ban were giving away too much, such as by agreeing that same-sex
orientation did not impair judgment.
Judge Walker, clearly eager to focus and speed arguments, did allow the city and county of San Francisco to
join the case as a government representative. Calif. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has signaled his
administration will not actively join the case.
"I am surprised by the governor's position in this case," Walker told a state lawyer, telling him to urge
Schwarzenegger, who personally favors gay marriage, to get involved. "This is a matter of some importance to
the people."
Walker set a January 11, 2010 date to start the trial, an aggressive schedule.
Two same-sex couples represented by Olson and Boies say marriage is a federal constitutional right which
they are being denied. They are expected to argue that gays and lesbians are routinely discriminated against
and deserve a special level of protection, such as that afforded racial and disabled groups.
The Supreme Court's rulings that marriage is a fundamental right do not exclude gays and lesbians, they say.
Social conservatives led by lawyer Charles Cooper say the people of California had the right to limit marriage
to a man and a woman, since it is in the state's interest to limit marriage to couples of opposite sex.
They say gays and lesbians do not deserve a special class of protection, which is afforded to very few groups,
and that so long as the state has a legitimate cause it can ban gay marriage. One major reason, they say, is
that limiting marriage to same-sex couples promotes "responsible" procreation.
Posted: 08/19/2009
Forth Worth Police Revising Inspection Policies
Forth Worth police chief Jeff Halstead (pictured) said on Tuesday that his department would revise bar
inspection policies that contributed to a controversial raid on a gay establishment in June that left one patron
seriously injured, reports the Associated Press.
Halstead told a city council meeting that the Rainbow Lounge was raided in the early morning of June 28
because his department lacked specific guidelines to direct the behavior of officers, some of whom were
accused of excessive force and unprofessional conduct.
Halstead, who gave the council a progress report on his department's internal investigation, said a final report
should be complete by late September or October with new rules for bar inspections and any
recommendations on disciplinary actions. The department also appointed an officer as a liaison to LGBT
residents and plans to provide more diversity training to officers.
Five Fort Worth police officers and one sergeant led the inspection, with two agents from the Texas Alcoholic
Beverage Commission. Earlier this month, the commission completed an internal investigation that found its
agents had failed to receive approval to participate in the raid and failed to inform their supervisor that Chad
Gibson, a patron they arrested, sustained a severe head injury.
Gibson, who was released from the hospital after one week, said the incident left him with a blood clot behind
the right eye.
Posted: 08/17/2009
Texas Agents in Bar Raid at Fault
The Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission agents involved in a June raid at a Fort Worth gay bar violated
agency policies and face disciplinary action, says an internal agency report released on Thursday, according
to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram .
The 32-page TABC document details what transpired on June 28 when agents and Fort Worth police officers
entered the Rainbow Lounge to conduct a bar check. The controversial operation on the 40th anniversary of
the Stonewall riots resulted in six arrests for public intoxication and the hospitalization of one patron, Chad
Gibson, for one week with a head injury.
According to the report, agents Christopher Aller and Jason Chapman violated TABC policy because they
participated in the operation without approval, failed to follow bar inspection procedures, failed to report using
force against patrons, and failed to report a patron was injured, among other reasons.
The agents' supervisor, Sgt. Terry Parsons, who was not at the Rainbow Lounge and did not approve the
operation, is also charged with violations.
Disciplinary actions, which could range from a verbal warning to termination, are pending against the agents.
A separate report will be released later this summer on the agents' use of force, including the actions that led
to Gibson's injuries.
The Forth Worth police department, which was also involved in the raid, continues its internal investigation.
Also on Thursday, the U.S. attorney for the area, James Jacks, said that his office would not conduct an
independent investigation into the raid as requested by city officials. Jacks said it was the responsibility of the
FBI to investigate violations of federal civil rights statutes, if warranted.
Posted: 08/08/2009
_____________________________________________________________________________
Gay marriage lawyers say no to help from S.F.
The prominent lawyers leading the fight to legalize gay marriage in California on Friday formally told San
Francisco officials and three other groups supportive of same-sex weddings "thanks, but no thanks" for trying
to join their federal lawsuit.
Attorneys David Boies and Theodore Olson petitioned U.S. District Court Judge Vaughn Walker with legal
arguments meant to block the city and the groups from standing together with the lawyers at trial. San
Francisco put gay marriage front and center on Valentine's Day 2004 when Mayor Gavin Newsom opened City
Hall to same-sex weddings.
Boies and Olson argued that allowing San Francisco into the legal fight would needlessly delay the case's
resolution.
A spokesman for San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera didn't return a telephone call late Friday night.
Boies and Olson also asked that three other gay-rights groups should be barred from joining the case on
similar grounds. They also argued that the conservative Campaign for California Families be prevented from
joining the case in opposition, saying the group also doesn't have standing in the case.
"Campaign has failed to offer any argument that differs from those raised by" the parties already officially
fighting the lawsuit, Boies and Olson wrote. The lawyers said all of the organization's concerns are being
addressed by lawyers with the Alliance Defense Fund, which the judge has allowed to intervene to argue
against the lawsuit.
Boies and Olson, who represented Al Gore and George W. Bush respectively in the legal fight over the 2000
presidential elections, filed the lawsuit on behalf of two gay couples seeking to marry in California. They
argued that they are now in the best position to legalize gay marriage in the state with arguments that the ban
violates federal anti-discrimination protections.
The court filing highlighted the continuing disagreement among gay marriage supporters over how best to fight
for same-sex weddings in the state.
Many influential gay rights groups fear a fight in federal court will ultimately end up before a U.S. Supreme
Court comprised of a socially conservative majority that could deal the same-sex marriage campaign a
significant setback with an adverse ruling.
Critics of that tack complain about the failure of the same-sex marriage campaign to defeat Proposition 8,
which passed in November with 52 percent of the vote and limited marriage to a man and a woman. Boies,
Olson and many others now contend the fight is ripe for a federal anti-discrimination challenge and at least
three other federal challenges have been filed in Los Angeles and Boston.
On Friday, Boies and Olson argued that the case should proceed to trial before a judge without a jury before
the end of the year. Lawyers with the Alliance Defense Fund argued in court papers Friday that the case could
be decided rapidly without a trial.
Posted: 08/08/2009
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N.Y.'s Dromm Victim of Smear Campaign
Daniel Dromm, an out candidate for the 25th district of the New York City Council, is the subject of a
homophobic smear campaign run by anonymous opponents.
Empire State Pride Agenda executive director Alan Van Capelle said in a release that Dromm's past run-ins
with local law enforcement are surfacing in a way that does not truthfully represent their context.
"As a teenager in the 1970s, Dromm endured encounters with law enforcement officers that were typical of
those times -- when being gay was reason enough to be arrested," Van Capelle said. He added that charges
brought against Dromm and subsequently dropped are not reflective of Dromm's quality as a candidate.
Leaflets mailed selectively throughout the 25th district highlight Dromm's criminal record. The material claims
Dromm was arrested at 16 for prostitution. He told news channel NY1 that he was simply kissing his boyfriend.
"In those days, being gay meant that you could be put away against your will in a mental institution, so I feared
that happening to me," Dromm told NY1. He said that telling police it was about money would flip the crime from
illegal taboo to a paycheck.
He said the climate of the 1970s also clouded the circumstances of other charges, and his sexual orientation
almost ensured errors in arrest reports.
He is calling on his two Democratic opponents, Stanley Kalathara and Helen Sears, to condemn the ads.
Kalathara has now done so, calling them "dirty politics." A spokesperson for councilwoman Sears had no
comment.
Posted: 08/08/09
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DA’s office files reply in Yakovleff case
The Suffolk County District Attorney’s office released a reply on August 3 in opposition to a motion to dismiss
the indictment of Steven Odegard for the January 2008 murder of South End hair stylist Daniel Yakovleff.
Yakovleff had been found stabbed to death in the defendant’s apartment early on the morning of January 17.
Odegard was charged with the victim’s murder.
Attorney John Swomley filed a motion to dismiss Odegard’s indictment, claiming that the DA’s office
misrepresented DNA results and other evidence.
District Attorney Daniel Conley said in August 3 response that the "defendant’s motion [to dismiss the
indictment against him] should be denied since he has failed to establish any of the...elements necessary to
justify a dismissal of the indictment."
"Our belief is that the legal foundation for the case is quite strong, but more than that, the evidence is quite
strong as well.," District Attorney spokesperson Jake Wark said on August 5. "There is some evidence in the
defense attorney’s motion to dismiss that suggests that there’s a third party unknown DNA, which is simply not
true."
Wark went on to say that every DNA sample recovered at the scene of the crime can be linked to the
defendant, the victim, or a man that the victim had been intimate with prior to his death.
The trial is expected to begin on December 14.
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60,000 Mainers sign on to defend marriage equality
Marriage equality organization Maine Freedom to Marry announced July 30 that 60,000 Mainers have signed
pledges defending the state’s marriage equality bill.
"Volunteers, ready and willing to go door to door and speak neighbor to neighbor to protect marriage equality,
are the fuel of our campaign to defeat Question 1," Jesse Connolly, Campaign Manager of Maine Freedom to
Marry, said in a statement July 30.
"These 60,000 pledges, collected by Maine volunteers and the campaign’s professional field staff,
demonstrate that our grassroots effort is a campaign about Maine, by Maine people and consistent with Maine
values. Ours is a campaign of Mainers committed to talk to their families, their friends and their coworkers to
preserve marriage equality."
Opponents of the bill, signed into law on May 6 by Maine Governor John Baldacci, have gathered more than
100,000 signatures garnering support for a referendum on this November’s ballot. The Secretary of State’s
office has until September 4 to verify at least 55,087 of the signatures collected by marriage equality
opponents Stand for Marriage for the referendum to appear.
"Theirs is a campaign fueled not by Maine volunteers but by paid out of state operatives," Connolly said of the
bill’s opponents. "Fairness and equality are too precious to be sold to the highest bidder."
Posted: 08/06/2009
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