Follow up to my NYC post last year...NYC ain't shit for black LGBTs!

I said yesterday I was moving, but this foolishness has moved me to post while I am in transition.

NYC ain't shit!  I mean how many black and Latino gay/bisexual males have to be killed in prominent places for somebody that NYC is more hype than substance on the front of LGBTs?  Yesterday, a black gay man was gunned down in Greenwich Village, the supposedly most gay-friendly portion of Manhattan.  I'm like WTF is going on with this city.  First, stop and frisk with all blacks and Latinos, but now this B.S.  I've never bought into the bullshit P.R. campaign NYC and its deluded boosters has been trying to shove our throats that "it's the gay mecca".  For whom, wealthy, white gay and bisexual men that live the "high life"?  Reality check, if you are black and/or of Latino descent and LGBTs and reside in New York, you better watch your surroundings at all times because that city seems to be more dangerous than most originally though.

As quiet it has been kept, NYC has seen a skyrocket in the number of hate crimes involving LGBTs in the past few years (2011 NYS Hate Crime Annual Report here shows a continuation of the increase 16% in 2010 to 25.2% in 2011).  Both reports shows that anti-homosexual male hate crimes has been in the increase in New York in the past few years.  This is the reason why I was so against moving to NYC years ago when my idiotic ex and his dreams of sugarplums of NYC deluded him out of reality thinking I was going to move up there with him.   (To my ex: Yes, this is exactly what I was talking about when we were conversing about NYC years ago.  This is why I don't fuck with NYC like that.  Hell, at least I know what I'm dealing with while here in Atlanta or DC and Chicago for that matter.)

H/T to V and his blog Maybe's It's Me for the photo and links.

Yeah, another one of these situations...

When will the deranged and white males stop gunning down black male youths because they think they are a threat?  I honestly don't know but this incident in suburban Jacksonville will go down as another one of those situations.

Jordan Davis was gunned down last Friday (November 23rd) at a  gas station on Jacksonville's Southside while in a car with friends.  Apparently, the music in the vehicle was "too loud" for Michael Dunn's tastes.  In return, Dunn confronted the teens in the vehicle over the music which led to Dunn getting his gun and shooting into the vehicle hitting Davis.  Davis suffered multiple wounds from the gunfire and was pronounced dead on arrival to the Shands Hospital on Jacksonville's Southside.  *SIGH*

Dunn was arrested in Brevard County at his condominium and charged the following day.  While arraigned before a Brevard County justice as his reason for shooting up the vehicle was him feeling threatened by the black teens. (WTF?)  Dunn was extradiated back to Duval County (which is the City of Jacksonville) and had the audacity to say "the teens had a shotgun in their vehicle".  (WTF?) 

Jordan Davis will be buried in Marietta, Georgia in the Metro Atlanta area.

I knew something was up when actual study showed that anti-black animus was up.  This is just more prove that some white Americans have to slow their groove on anti-black & brown racial animus because this nation is becoming more and more racially diverse with time...

Links and photos courtesy of WJXX/WTLV.

Another suspicious house fire, but this time in North Carolina then the incident in Opelika

Another suspected anti-LGBT hate crime in form of arson has occurred but this time in the Triangle.  According to Raleigh-Durham CBS affiliate, WRAL-TV, on February 4th, in suburban Clayton in northern Johnston County, a house fire was reported early morning before dawn.  Luckily, the male couple were out of town, but a neighbor reported that 2 other incidents had occurred there before and were reported.  However, the Johnston County Sheriff's Department said they knew about it but wouldn't comment.

More anti-LGBT oriented incidents seems to be getting reported more often.  I have a feeling this has been occurring for awhile now, but with more technology and vigilant citizen journalism, these incidents 

Also I'll speak on the situation that happened in Opelika.  About 2 weeks ago, Laura Gilbert and her friend, Shelia Siddell, went to a bar in a rural portion of the Lee County (Alabama), where Gilbert was allegedly attacked by 12 people for being a lesbian.  Gilbert mentioned that "I don't think they like my kind there." and was attacked.  Columbus (Georgia) CBS affiliate, WRBL, reported about the story and even did a follow-up. Initially, the incident was seen as a joke or fodder by media across the state like the Mobile Press-Register.  FYI, Alabama doesn't recognize hate crimes involving sexual orientation or gender identity.  Now after so much exposure involving the incident, the Lee County Sheriff's Department is trying to follow up on the crime and apprehend the alleged attackers.  


This doesn't bode well for Alabama's reputation since it already seen as a state doesn't respect people of color, but add to this injury to insult is the lack of respect for LGBTs.  Considering I'm in the area for school at the moment, the area does strike me as aversive to about anything "different' than the norm of the area...

Oh while I was away taking care of business...

I was taking care of some graduate school business, but did have my ear to the blogosphere and the news...

Kudos to Charles Barkley for speaking his mind about Bernice...Bernice King, whom is the current sitting president of the SCLC, for her lack of regard for LGBTs of color yet want to take claim to "carrying the torch" of her father.  Speak the truth and shame the demons amongst us...

Auburn University QB soon to be NFL draftee, Cam Newton giving away his education for something as unstable and unpredictable as a career in professional football.  Now very wise at all if you ask me, and Dr. Boyce Watkins agrees with me on that.  As a matter of fact, Watkins went even further and said that his giving away a paid for education is just further the "plantation mentality" for black Americans.  WOW, WOW, WOW!  I don't wholeheartedly agree, but he has a some strong points about them taking advantage of these talented individuals.

Then there was the Over-the-Mountain Democrats forum of last Tuesday (January 18th) about "How Will the Democrats Rise Again?" at the Birmingham Botanical Gardens.  My buddy, Mooncat at Left in Alabama, covered it quite well links here, here, and here.  The truth is the Alabama Democratic Party is screwed because white Democrats are too busy trying to "chase after rainbows", i.e. "the elusive rural white vote" while running away from being associated with President Obama (whom isn't popular with a faction of white Alabamians) then the "Joe Reed Problem".  The man that is the human equivalent to "a runaway train from hell" while playing up the Bojangles angle.  I've covered that thing for awhile now and have nothing else to say about it...

Finally, the incident in Carroll County, Georgia of the Metro Atlanta area.  According to the Times-Georgian of Carroll County, 43-year-old Chris Staples was residing at his mother's residence on disability since he had injured himself on the job many years ago, and has been openly homosexual for nearly 20 years.  WSB-TV reports that on Sunday, there were two incidents that occurred at the residence, first a rock thrown through a bedroom window with a message from the assailant conveying their knowledge of Staples' sexuality and he was going to hell then a fire set to the residence.  One has to wonder who in the hell in 2011 still spins their time worrying about what some low-key individual especially a homosexual does with their life?  Nuttiness

I should be back to somewhat regular posting later on this week after getting caught up with other things I'm handling involving my Masters' program...

CORRECTION: According to last Friday's Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Bernice King turned down the role of president of the SCLC, but that doesn't excuse her track record on LGBT rights...

Oklahoma bill that would block local law enforcement from assistancing in a federal hate crime investigation is dead

Another thing that occurred while I was away in Atlanta was the death of the bill in the Oklahoma State Legislature that would have blocked law enforcement from assisting in the investigation of a hate crime.  Oklahoma State House Representative Mike Shelton of Oklahoma City, co-chair of the House Judiciary Committee, and member of the Oklahoma Black Caucus took the State Senate bill and being the House sponsor of it and killed it.  Shelton asked specifically for the committee to not hear the bill and essentially killing it.  However, the bill's senatorial author socially conservative Republican Steve Russell also of Oklahoma City said if local law enforcement didn’t object to turning over the information, court approval would not be needed, Russell said.  Also that the law is needed to protect free speech after the passage of a federal law that added sexual orientation or gender identity to the categories protected under the federal hate-crimes law would have prohibited Oklahoma law enforcement agencies from cooperating with any federal agency in the investigation of a federal hate crime.  (Bigoted idiot...  Oh well...)

Oh, WOW! Step away for a week and all hell breaks loose...

In Virginia, Bob McConnell pretty much tells his own State Attorney General to STFU on the whole removal of non-discriminatory language from state colleges and universities.  McConnell's own words:  "It was very important for me... to say discrimination will not be tolerated, and there will be sanctions for anyone that engages in discrimination."  Now, that's what I call COMEDY!  He told Mr. Cuccinelli to shut his shit the fuck up on the political grandstanding against LGBTs in Virginia.  Also McConnell is covering his own ass so he won't be seen as an overt bigot but not as a "traitor" to the socially conservative cause. 

The officials in Itawamba County, Mississippi, decided to cancel the main county high school's prom because of a lesbian couple want to attend together as a couple.  Now, unlike what went down at Thraptown High School in Franklin County last year in Northwest Alabama, these students both attend this high school, so the circumstances have a more internalized effect.  Whereas, the Franklin County situation was their "justification" of outside-of-district, but it was soon resolved when the lack of logic and rationale of the argument was exposed for the world to see.  However, in the case of Itawamba County in Northern Mississippi, the officials are standing by their guns so one of the teens has filed a lawsuit against the school district in federal court.  In all likelihood, she will win because the school isn't violating any real policies since they are both students of the school at an event just hosted by not an official event of the school. 

In Texas, a state that I've always considered a lost cause socially and politically, the state board of education has approved a referendum that would enforce an ultra-conservative curriculum in state public schools.  An ultra-conservative faction within the Texas Board of Education was successful in injecting conservative ideals into social studies, history and economics lessons that will be taught to millions of students for the next decade.  They want to remove mentions of the Enlightenment period and Thomas Jefferson from the state curriculum and replace these with the discussion of John Calvin and the Judeo-Christian ideology of the nation.  Also mention the nation is not a democracy, but constitutional republic.  Now, that is true about the last part, but the rest is bologna.  However, I stand my statement that Texas is a lost cause politically because it is one of those places where you see more ignorance-based emotional foolishness pedaled than logic.  Let's be real, the only real election there is the Republican elections because outside of Dallas, Houston, and Austin, there is little to any progressiveness in the state, and even then I wouldn't waste my time trying to move there.  Honestly, Austin doesn't count because it is too damn whitewashed for politically because the non-white population is too small to make any real affect, so that "Keep Austin Weird" crap is for the birds.  It's a crazy state where you have to give the side-eye to altogether. 
 
Also in Oklahoma, another lost cause, the state senate has approved a bill that would become an amendment of the state constitutional allowing the law enforcement to chose not to assist federal officials in the investigation of hate crimes.  Here's some of the bill's language:  Under the new provisions of Senate Bill 1965, reports that were collected during investigations of possible hate crime that did not end in a conviction would be destroyed or kept by the Oklahoma Bureau of Invesigations.  The bill originally was to investigate the Oklahoma Secondary School Activities Association, but state senator Steve Russell, a socially conservative Republican from Oklahoma City and former army commander at Fort Hood in Texas, was the one who perverted the bill into its current form.  I'm going to take some words from Dr. Martin Luther King, "an injustice anywhere is an injustice everywhere".  Especially in a racially-aversive state like Oklahoma, where if you are non-white, LGBT/SGL, or anything out of the WASPy-ordinary then you are subject to be a victim of this ignorant law.

Meanwhile, here in Alabama, a caravan of idiots, OOPS!  I mean Birmingham City Council members, mayor, and some of their staffers are going to the National League of Cities conference in DC this week.  However, they are practically leaving the city without any really leadership.  The jackal, William Bell, just announced last week that the city is going to have to make cost-cutting measures such as delaying funding and contracts for the rest of the fiscal year, yet he along with the rest of the caravan of idiots are going to DC blowing $31,000 of city funds.  Now, Carole Smitherman is staying behind and politically grandstanding saying "somebody has to man the shop".  Yeah, the judgment is clear that all of the leadership in Birmingham is idiotic and irresponsible as hell as far as I'm concerned.  Who in the fuck goes on a trip and then takes their staffers as well to when you have a $77 million gaping hole in the budget?  Smitherman, you are just as irresponsible as the rest in my book because you knew what has been going on since jump and just trying to reconcile your reputation with folks, but it's tarnished so save the drama for ya mama.  SMDH

Oh yeah, the jackal and that xenophobic third-generation Greek immigrant mayor of Hoover, Tony Petelos, wanted to question the financing of the monstrosity that is being forced-fed on people in the Greater Birmingham area.  Here's a clue you two morons, why don't you flat out and oppose the thing instead allowing this bullshit to be constructed? Also the Battle Royale of 2 white women with power trips is amusing to me, Jefferson County Commission President Bettye Fine Collins and Jefferson County Treasury Jennifer Parsons Champion over the distribution of federal funds that were allocated from the federal stimulus package last year.  CUTE, BUT YOU BITCHES ARE BOTH STUPID...

That's what been going on that I want to talk about in the past week, and I'll be back to regularly posting probably this week...

In 2008 hate crimes down in Alabama, but...

The FBI report dubbed "2008 Hate Crime Statistics" on the number of hate crimes annually publish that details crimes and incidents reported in 2008 that were committed based on race, religion, sexual orientation, ethnicity or disability reported in Alabama are minimal compared to other states.  According to the report, Alabama has the fifith lowest number of hate crimes reported with just 12 incidents, according to the report. Only Mississippi, Alaska, New Mexico and Georgia reported fewer than Alabama.


However, the report doesn't require anything, but the statistics were reported voluntarily by law enforcement agencies. In Alabama, 163 agencies, representing about two-thirds of the population, participated in the report.  In other words, they only gave what information they wanted to give.  Also Alabama is one of the many states that doesn't including sexual orientation or gender identity within their definitions of a hate crime. 

Oh yeah, I do love when social conservatives and the ignorant comes in saying that a hate crime is a "thought crime". 

Hate crimes (also known as bias-motivated crimes) occur when a perpetrator targets a victim because of his or her perceived membership in a certain social group, usually defined by racial group, religion, sexual orientation, disability, ethnicity, nationality, age, gender, gender identity, or political affiliation. "Hate crime" generally refers to criminal acts which are seen to have been motivated by hatred of one or more of the listed conditions. Incidents may involve physical assault, damage to property, bullying, harassment, verbal abuse or insults, or offensive graffiti or letters.

I just love when (white) people say that "liberals" came up with hate crimes yet they were saying the same thing when ethnicity and racial group was included with in federal definition.  However, they were silent when religion was included. 

Anyways, the Shepard/Byrd Hate Crimes Act does help, but only when local law enforcement agencies fails to do anything and in most cases they will fail to even report the act as a hate crime since the state laws doesn't include sexuality or gender identity as protected groups.  How convienent, sometimes society worries me...

An opinion that appeared in the Baltimore Sun

In this past Sunday edition of the Baltimore Sun, a teacher in the Baltimore City School district pinned his views of the distrubing behavior occuring with black youths towards the SGL/LGBT members in their ranks.  This is in response to the distrubing murder of Jason Mattison, Jr., after his body was found in an abandoned house near his aunt's home, whom he was staying with.  The author asked the simple question that I just asked last week:  Why are black folks so against black SGL males?

As a Baltimore City public school teacher, I hear about one homophobic slur an hour. Usually, this homophobia is reserved for gay men rather than lesbians, who are somewhat more accepted. Even intelligent, educated adults I meet will often surprise me with such prejudice, and this is especially true in the black community.

Usually this prejudice is justified by religious convictions, but slave owners used to go to church on Sundays and quote the Bible too. Gay people have always existed, in every culture and country in history, yet we are told their sexual orientation is unnatural and perverted. What is the threat that these people pose to the rest of us that they must be denied their full rights of citizenship? What disqualifies homosexuals from the principles of equality set forth in the Declaration of Independence as inalienable?

Further, the moral superiority that the intolerant award themselves on this issue offends me even more.

You would think that the leaders of the black community, a group that has experienced so much discrimination and prejudice over the course of American history, would be the last to turn around and stigmatize other people, but the opposite is true.

I asked myself the same question everytime I listen to certain black folks that have issues with SGL males when in reality there are so many of them amongst them just either deeply-closeted or creeping.  I can only speak for myself, that I am out to friends and a number of members of my family, so I don't have any qualms about my sexuality.  However, so many black folks frown upon the being open about yourself in the realm of acceptance or tolerance of SGL males.  Then you see the hypermusculine behavior of males even the SGLs to protect themselves from this stigma with whole faux stance of "swag", "homothugs", etc.  

Now, I don't agree with the urban myth that floats around that the heavy turnout of blacks in states like California and Florida are what mainly contributed to the passage of same-sex unionship bans on the ballot in November 2008, but black folks in general homophobic when it comes to black SGL males.  Black SGL women have much more acceptance and even fetishized by some black males over the lesbianic sexual contact, but the proof is in the pudding...



 

How many hate crimes associated with the South will we have?

First the incident in Baltimore where a black teenage male was murdered, now this incident in Houston.  Ironically, all of them are black males and the alleged assailants were black as well.  I know I usually stay out of this arena of things because it has more to do with your surroundings and the people you are around, but this got to cease and desist.

The teen's mother said since the district's officials didn't do a damn thing about the threats that teen himself informed them about before it occured that they are moving to another district.  It's so bizarre and ridiculous how people are so callous about threats when involves sexuality.

The real question I ask is "What in the hell is up with black folks in the South and the acceptance of black LGBTs?"  I guess too many black males are uncomfortable with their own sexuality that they got to throw a fit and attack someone else who is comfortable with themselves and in their own skin.  Just as I said last week, the South is home to the majority of the nation's black population, but it seems to be the worst place to be open and honest about yourself for black LGBTs aside from the cities.  Black folks, we got to get it together and stop impeding other black folks' happiness.  As the old omen says, "let it be, let it be".

Here's the video of the report from Houston CBS affiliate KHOU, Channel 11, on another teen was beatened with a pipe:

Woman is beaten in front of daughter in Morrow, Georgia (Metro Atlanta)

I don't know if this is a sign of the times or just random,

An black Army Reservist and her daughter were leaving a Cracker Barrel in Morrow, in southern portion of Metro Atlanta, when a white male, Troy Dale West, attacked Tashawnea Hill by beating her in the head several times.  Hill alleges that she did nothing other than told West to "watch it when going through doors" because he hit her daughter.  Also he used the epithet, "black, nigger bitch" while pummeling Hill in the head. This incident occurred last week. 

According to Hill herself on CNN Newsroom quoted, "Some white people were even standing around and smiling while the incident occurred", and witnesses also said they said the same.  However, West claims that she spat on him, but the same witnesses said that didn't occur at all.  The Atlanta FBI office is investigating this as a potential hate crime.

All I got to say is it does like a hate crime and this is Metro Atlanta once again proving what I said about Atlanta.  It's not paradise in there no more than it is in Birmingham...