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Wednesday, February 10 – Rally against proposed cuts in campus diversity programs, including the LGBTQ center. 12 noon, University Hall, University of Illinois-Chicago (Circle Campus).
Friday, February 12 – Gay Liberation Network live call-in show on CAN TV, 6:30-6:55 PM on Cable Channel 21 in Chicago. Buddy Bell will recount his experiences as a participant in the very effective “Witness Against Torture” protests in Washington, DC in January against Guantanamo Bay, Abu Ghraib and other scenes of U.S. torture. You can watch past shows on GLN's new YouTube Channel. Just go to: www.youtube.com/gayliberation
Sunday, February 14 – Freedom to Marry Day (aka, Valentine’s Day) activity in Chicago! Informational picket 10:30 AM at Holy Name Cathedral, 735 N. State Street, pointing out the Catholic hierarchy’s pivotal role in opposing equal marriage rights and other civil rights for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender people.
Wednesday, March 3 – Monthly organizing meeting of the Gay Liberation Network. Meeting starts promptly at 7 PM (we recommend that people arrive at 6:45 PM) at a NEW LOCATION -- Berger Park Cultural Center -- 6205 N. Sheridan Road (corner of Granville Street & Sheridan Road). For more information call 773.209.1187
Friday, March 12 – Gay Liberation Network live call-in show on CAN TV, 6:30-6:55 PM on Cable Channel 21 in Chicago. You can watch past shows on GLN's new YouTube Channel. Just go to: www.youtube.com/gayliberation
Friday-Sunday, March 12-14 – Join GLN at Equality Across America’s midwest regional conference at Chicago’s Columbia College. See http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=231780844861 for more info. More details forthcoming soon.
Thursday, March 18 – Join the LGBT contingent in the big anti-war march in downtown Chicago on the 7th anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq. The main slogans of the march are: End the Wars & Occupations Now! / Fund People's Needs, Not Corporate Greed. Short rally @ 5:30 PM, Federal Plaza, corner of Adams & Dearborn Streets, followed by a march on Michigan Avenue. More info: LGBTliberation@aol.com More details forthcoming soon.
Pope AGAIN Condemns Gay Rights
Get ready for Freedom to Marry Day 2010!
We will be protesting against the promotion of inequality against LGBT people by his personal representative in Chicago, Cardinal George.
GLN permalink 2-3-2010
Freedom to Marry Day – Valentine’s Day
Sunday, February 14 - 10:30 AM
In front of Holy Name Cathedral
735 N State Steet
Not sure whether you should protest the Pope’s anti-gay bigotry?
Well just read of his latest doings:
Pope condemns gay equality laws ahead of first UK visit
Benedict XVI says legislation safeguarding rights of same-sex couples violates 'natural law'
Pope Benedict XVI has condemned British equality legislation for running contrary to "natural law" as he confirmed his first visit to the UK later this year.
More at:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/feb/01/pope-condemns-british-equality-bill
Help Build the Feb. 14th
Freedom-to-Marry Day Protest
Against Cardinal George
GLN permalink 2-6-2010
The protest aims to expose the anti-gay, anti-women’s equality agenda of the church leadership, which is odds with the pro-equal rights feelings of many millions both within and outside of the Church.
The protest will be on Freedom-to-Marry Day (Valentine’s Day), 10:30 AM, Sunday, February 14th in front of Holy Name Cathedral, 735 N State Street, Chicago.
PLEASE HELP BUILD THE PROTEST by going to the Facebook “Event” for it:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=281885059470
Indicate that you will attend, and even more importantly, INVITE ALL OF YOUR FRIENDS!!!
Thanks!
Picket Holy Name Cathedral on Freedom-to-Marry Day!
GLN permalink 1-29-2010
In opposition to the desires of millions of lay Catholics for simple justice for all, the hierarchy of the Catholic Church has long alligned itself with, and often led, the forces of hate and bigotry opposing equal rights for gays and women.
At 10:30 AM on Freedom-to-Marry Day 2010 – Sunday, February 14, Valentine’s Day – the Gay Liberation Network will host an informational picket of Chicago’s Holy Name Cathedral, 735 N. State Street, to highlight the role the Church’s leadership has played in promoting inequality.
For many years the Catholic leadership has attempted to fly under the radar screen with its opposition to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender equality. A key secret to their success has been their stealthiness, ironically often assisted by gay rights “leaders.” These “leaders,” not trusting rank-and-file Catholics to be fair and too worried about hurting their fundraising base with well-connected and wealthy Catholics, are too cowardly to call out Catholic leaders for promoting hate and discrimination.
As a local example, Chicago's Catholic leader Cardinal Francis George has worked tirelessly -- albeit from behind the scenes -- to block our path to full legal equality. George attempted to kill LGBT inclusion as a protected class in the Illinois Human Rights Act, which now protects us from housing and employment discrimination. He and other Catholic bishops circulated petitions in a failed effort to force an advisory referendum on "gay marriage," and George is the head of the national Conference of Catholic Bishops which spent big bucks backing Prop 8 hate in California. Back in Illinois, George is working hard today to block same sex-marriage and/or civil unions.
On Sunday, February 14th, with our picket of Holy Name Cathedral, we will make a start in dragging Francis George's bigotry out of the closet.
But Cardinal George is no lone voice in the wilderness. He is joined by almost the entire hierarchy of the Catholic Church whose record of activism against gay equality is long and sordid:
** Speaking of the current pope, the Associated Press reported that “Benedict, the former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, spearheaded a Vatican campaign against same-sex unions in 2003, issuing guidelines for Catholic politicians to oppose laws granting legal rights to gay couples when he was prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.” Associated Press, 6/6/05
** The Portland, Maine Archdiocese gathered more than a quarter of the funds recently used to defeat marriage equality in Maine. In addition, Marc Mutty, the chair of the principal statewide organization in Maine that fueled anti-gay discrimination there, was the Portland Archdiocese’s head spokesperson until taking a leave of absence from his job to spearhead the successful effort to rob gays and lesbians of their equal marriage rights.
** The Catholic fraternal organization Knights of Columbus bankrolled California’s anti-gay Proposition 8 to the tune of over $1 million.
** As California’s East Bay Express noted about newly-minted Oakland Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone, “What almost no one knows is that without Bishop Sal, gay men and lesbians would almost surely still be able to get married today. As an auxiliary bishop in San Diego, Cordileone played an indispensable role in conceiving, funding, organizing, and ultimately winning the campaign to pass Proposition 8. It was Bishop Sal and a small group of Catholic leaders who decided that they had to amend the state constitution. It was Bishop Sal who found the first major donor and flushed the fledgling campaign with cash. It was Bishop Sal who personally brought in the organization that took the lead on the petition drive. And it was Bishop Sal who coordinated the Catholic effort with evangelical churches around the state. Bishop Sal even helped craft the campaign's rhetorical strategy, sitting in on focus groups to hone the message of Proposition 8.“
While Catholic leaders decry any attempts to label them as haters and bigots, their own scapegoating statements tell a very different story about their true feelings:
** Former pope Karol Wotija, aka John Paul II, condemned gay foster parents for doing "violence" to children. He called us "disordered," and "against the natural law." He railed against civil marriage equality for all same-sex couples whether Catholic or not, condemning our civil marriage contract as an act "against God," and proclaimed defeating marriage equality his "primary task" for 2005.
** In a 2005 pastoral letter read in every church in the diocese of Calgary, Alberta, Bishop Frederick Henry called on his flock to stamp out same-sex marriage. “Since homosexuality, adultery, prostitution and pornography undermine the foundations of the family, the basis of society, then the State must use its coercive power to proscribe or curtail them in the interests of the common good." (365Gay.com)
** In an end-of year address in 2008, the current pope, George Ratzinger (aka Benedict XVI), said that the existence of gay people threatens humanity as much as the destruction of rainforests and that "blurring" genders through acceptance of transgender people would kill off the human race.
** Beginning in 1986, Ratzinger wrote a series of church documents that branded sexually active gays as "evil," told church officials to kick Dignity chapters off church property and even warned Catholic lawmakers that voting in favor of gay-rights legislation is "gravely immoral" because "the approval or legalization of evil is something far different from the toleration of evil." (Deb Price, Detroit News)
** Ratzinger has disparaged lesbian and gay couples as engaging in “pseudo-matrimonies by people of the same sex.”
** Bishop Cordileone has called same-sex marriage a Satanic plot: "The ultimate attack of the Evil One is the attack on marriage.”
** In 2007 Chicago’s Cardinal George wrote that same-sex behavior "brings people's salvation into jeopardy" in a column for the Archdiocese of Chicago newspaper.
When haters garb themselves in clerical robes, their statements and activities must be exposed.
The Gay Liberation Network encourages all people of good will, regardless of faith background, to join us at 10:30 AM, Sunday, February 14 for an informational picket of Holy Name Cathedral, 735 N. State Street, Chicago.
BE COUNTED —
Research Study on LGBT Political Movement
The sociology department at Northwestern University is looking for volunteer participants to help with a new study on the political beliefs of men and women in the LGBT equality movement. You'll be asked to fill out a short survey about your political opinions and potentially to participate in a follow-up interview. This research will help Gay Liberation Network and other groups understand what drives political action.
If you would like to help out, please e-mail the researcher, Paul Schrodt, at schrodt@u.northwestern.edu with the subject line "research study."
If you would like to help out, please submit your contact information on the study's web page, or e-mail the researcher, Paul Schrodt, at schrodt@u.northwestern.edu with the subject line "research study."
http://www.cafepress.com/gayliberation
NEW GLN BIBLE-THUMPER T-SHIRTS!
Get your new GLN t-shirts to sure warm the hearts of your local Bible-thumpers:
CLICK HERE TO VIEW T-SHIRT GRAPHIC PDF
"The Bible says:
Slavery good.
Gays bad.
Snakes talk."
Available in sizes small to triple-X large.
$15 per shirt plus $4.50 flat-rate postage, no matter how many shirts you order.
Make your check payable to "GLN" and mail it to:
GLN BIBLE T-SHIRT OFFER
4404 N Magnolia, Ste 420
Chicago, IL 60640
Racist, Anti-Gay Band
“Evil Incarnate”
Defeated Once AGAIN!
GLN permalink 2-6-2010
For the second time in three months the neo-Nazi heavy metal band “Evil Incarnate” was canceled after protests initiated by the Gay Liberation Network (GLN) and our allies in South Side Anti-Racist Action (ARA).
The band was to have performed tonight, Saturday, February 6th at “Memories Bar,” 4358 N. Cicero, Chicago, until the bar’s management received a flood of protest phone calls and pulled the plug on the show. Last December another Chicago performance by the Chicago-based band was also canceled after community protests initiated by GLN and ARA.
Evil Incarnate explicitly calls for the murder of African Americans and gays in the lyrics of its songs and employs fascist imagery.
Here is a sample of the lyrics from the song, “Killer of Faggots,” which was recently released on the “Smashing Rainbows” label:
N---er lovers and faggots
Bullets in your head
N---er lovers and faggots
Now your dead
Luftwaffa nazi arial assault
Pounding from air never to halt
Flak 88's and panzer divisions
Bombing the faggots into oblivion
(repeat)
Bombing the n---ers into oblivion
Once again, community activism has won an important victory over the forces of hate and violence.
MANY THANKS to all of you who called Memories Bar and explained to them why they should cancel the show, and thanks to Memories Bar for doing the right thing!
Cook County Machine Covers for Its Own – Again
Officer Fiorito Beats the Rap
GLN permalink 2-3-2010
On Monday afternoon Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez announced that she was taking a pass on criminally prosecuting a Chicago police officer who currently faces 34 federal lawsuits alleging that he cooked up phony DUI charges in a ploy to collect tens of thousands of dollars in overtime pay for appearing at court dates.
After a high-profile campaign of public protests, last year Officer Richard Fiorito was finally put on desk duty and prohibited from testifying in his DUI arrest cases.
The only problem with Monday’s announcement clearing Fiorito was that it contained – let us put this delicately – a bold-faced lie, or at best a half-truth.
“Our investigation included all of the alleged victims...” wrote State’s Attorney Alvarez in a letter to Police Superintendent Jody Weis.
Really? Then why did you interview only five of the 37 victim-plaintiffs?
Indeed, some of the State’s Attorneys Office’s comments seemed designed to re-victimize Fiorito’s victims rather focus on his alleged lawbreaking. The Tribune reported that “Sally Daly, a spokeswoman for State's Attorney Anita Alvarez, said Alvarez passed on felony charges because of inconsistencies in the allegations and the refusal of many of the motorists to submit to blood-alcohol tests.”
Problem – many of Fiorito’s victims said that he refused them the opportunity to take breathalyzer tests to let them clear their names.
Besides revictimizing the victims, the focus on alleged inconsistencies in witnesses’ statements conveniently shifted focus away from the mountains of objective evidence showing Fiorito is a perjurer:
*** The criminal courts have tossed literally hundreds of his cases. But that’s okay. At a time of city layoffs, unpaid furloughs and service cutbacks, Fiorito still collected his thousands of dollars in overtime pay for showing up at court dates. He was so lacking in credibility that Alvarez’s own office stopped calling him to the stand in his arrest cases.
*** In case after case, videotape footage from the dashboard of Fiorito’s own squad car directly contradicted his sworn statements. Cars allegedly being driven erratically were proceeding normally down the street. Drivers allegedly failing sobriety tests were clearly passing them.
*** In case after case, the timeline of the arrests and bookings, backed up by police radio transmission times, show that there was no physical way Fiorito could have had the time to perform the allegedly incriminating field sobriety tests he claimed to have performed.
*** On two separate occasions, his arrest reports showed deaf drivers failing verbal sobriety tests – duh.
*** A particularly laughable case – if it wasn’t so outrageous – was the alleged drunken driving case of Black gay motorist James Dean. After spending an hour an half at the Town Hall police station, Dean walked out of the station and a few minutes later was arrested for DUI by Fiorito. Now unless cops at the Town Hall Station are in the habit of hosting keggers – Fiorito’s arrest report once again was objective evidence of perjury.
Alvarez’s clearing of Fiorito is not the first time the State’s Attorneys Office has bungled of cases of cops allegedly pimping DUI arrests to earn overtime:
*** Officer Joe D. Parker wrote the fourth highest number of DUI tickets in the city in 2006, but then successful lawsuits for false arrest started piling up and dozens of his DUI cases were tossed as video footage from his squad car contradicted his arrest reports. But after costing the City tens of thousands of dollars in lawsuits and overtime, the State’s Attorneys Office declined to criminally prosecute Parker.
*** Officer John Haleas was honored several times for making the most drunk driving arrests in Illinois. But in 2008 Officer John Haleas was charged with perjury, official misconduct and obstructing justice. More than 50 of his DUI arrest cases were tossed. But the Andy of Mayberry prosecution by the State’s Attorneys Office allowed Haleas to walk. As the Tribune reported last November, “prosecutors improperly used statements given by Haleas to Internal Affairs investigators looking into misconduct charges against him. A U.S. Supreme Court case prohibits statements from administrative disciplinary proceedings from being used against officers in criminal cases.” Oops, they ignored a minor precedent, a mere Supreme Court ruling!
The real danger of Alvarez’s clearing of Fiorito is the message it sends to other corrupt cops on the force – don’t worry, despite mountains of objective criminal evidence against you, you’ve got nothing to fear from the Cook County State’s Attorneys Office. They’ll used your perjured testimony to try to convict innocent defendants, and if the cash-strapped City then a few years later pays out tens of thousands for the resultant lawsuits, who cares? It’s not like its their money. The system grinds on, more people’s rights are violated, their lives disrupted, the city gets broker in the bargain, and “hero” cops laugh all the way to the bank.
What can you do when you’re looking for justice and the Cook County Democratic machine covers for itself? Call for the State’s Attorneys Office to hire Special Prosecutors? That was shown to be a disaster in the notorious police torture / Jon Burge cases. The Special Prosecutors’ resulting report was widely seen as a whitewash.
Which leaves us with the feds. After two-and-a-half decades of police torture of 100+ African American men by Jon Burge and his colleagues, the only effective criminal prosecution of the cops occurred when the Feds finally stepped in – unfortunately after the statute of limitations had rendered most of the charges moot. After years of collecting a City pension, if he doesn’t die first, Jon Burge will finally be tried in federal criminal court.
How might the feds deal with Fiorito, et al? With a Chicago-connected Democrat in the White House, blessed by D’Mare, even U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitsgerald’s vaunted independence from the Chicago machine may not be sturdy enough.
One thing is for sure – we cannot rely on the Cook County State’s Attorneys Office to deliver justice. The only times that they have been prodded into conducting even weak-kneed prosecutions of cops who abuse civilians has been when the glare of protest and bad publicity has forced them to.
No criminal charges for cop accused of fake DUI arrests
Monday, February 01, 2010 abc7chicago.com LINK
GLN permalink 2-2-2010
February 2, 2010 (CHICAGO) (WLS) -- A Chicago police officer who was taken off the streets after being accused of making false DUI arrests will not face criminal charges.
ABC7 has learned that Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez has decided not to press any criminal charges against Chicago police officer Richard Fiorito. Her decision comes after a nearly year-long investigation by her office into allegations that he was making hundreds of phony DUI arrests.
To his accusers, dash-cam video scenes taken from inside Officer Richard Fiorito's own squad car made it an open and shut case. In his police report, Fiorito wrote that one driver was swerving and nearly hitting parked cars. Attorneys representing nearly 40 people who say Fiorito trumped up charges against them say it shows exactly the opposite.
But on Monday night, Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez's office has ended its criminal investigation and has decided that no charges will be charged against Officer Fiorito.
"Based upon that investigation, it was determined that there were a number of inconsistencies. A number of the witnesses had severe credibility issues. And it was ultimately determined we wouldn't be able to meet our burden which in a criminal case is beyond a reasonable doubt," said Dan Kirk, Alvarez' chief of staff.
In early October, the Chicago Police Department placed Fiorito on administrative leave after ABC7 news aired dash-cam video that seemed to show inconsistencies in his written police reports.
But the state's attorney's office says many of the alleged victims were not credible after reviewing their testimony in different hearings.
"Individual witnesses' testimony differed in ways that can't be explained between different hearings and that is all I can really say about it," said Kirk.
"Here we are on the eve of the primary election and this is when they dump the bad news, so this was entirely predictable," said Andy Thayer, co-founder, Gay Liberation Network. Thayer, an activist leading the charge against Fiorito, says the decision from Alvarez isn't surprising.
"I'd say it's a shock. A punch in the gut," said Mary Cay Marubio, defense attorney.
The federal civil suit against Fiorito will continue on. And the Chicago Police Department tells ABC7 that Fiorito will remain on desk duty until an Internal Affairs investigation has been completed.
ABC7 was unable to reach Fiorito or his attorney for comment.
In response to the charge that Anita Alvarez is only protecting one of her own, her chief of staff points out that five Chicago police officers have been charged with felonies within the past year.
(Copyright ©2010 WLS-TV/DT. All Rights Reserved.)
Alvarez decides alleged dirty cop won’t face charges
Tue. February 2, 2010 1:57:32 PM ChicagoPride.com LINK
GLN permalink 2-2-2010
Chicago, IL — A Chicago police officer who has had several federal civil rights lawsuits filed against him will not be indicted.
Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez will not press criminal charges against officer Richard Fiorito, who works the night shift in the heart of Boystown. Of the nearly 40 people who have filed lawsuits against Fiorito, a large proportion are gay or lesbian and claim the officer made anti-gay comments during allegedly phony DUI arrests.
The Cook County State's Attorney's office claims it investigated the cop for nearly a year following allegations that he was making false DUI arrests in order to rack up overtime pay, but ended its investigation Monday night.
Alvarez spokesperson Sally Daly told ChicagoPride.com, "After a thorough and complete investigation, the evidence was not sufficient enough…to prove in a court of law accusations such as perjury or official misconduct."
Daly said that Fiorito will not face criminal charges because of inconsistencies between the allegations made in civil lawsuits and the evidence Alvarez' office obtained during its criminal investigation. Daly added that there were also inconsistencies in the testimony given by several witnesses.
An attorney familiar with the case told ChicagoPride.com that while Alvarez' office claims that the investigation took a year, they only spoke with four individuals last June, "so the ‘year-long investigation' was one month."
Because Alvarez' office continued to use Fiorito as a witness in cases long after they began their investigation, the attorney added, not charging the cop was the only "politically tenable" position they could take.
"If they indicted, they would have to admit they were using a dirty cop against innocent people," the attorney added. "This decision was made a long time ago."
In response to the criticism Alvarez has received and the accusations that she made up her mind a long time ago, Daly said, "That couldn't be further from the truth."
"She has not been reluctant or afraid or shy or intimidated when it comes to investigating police officers. But we have to have the evidence."
Daly added that Alvarez was upset by the accusations, and took the investigation very seriously.
Activist Andy Thayer said he is not surprised by Alvarez' decision. He noted that weeks ago, he revealed that an inside source leaked information that Alvarez would not indict Fiorito, but her office labeled his allegation a rumor. "That was a bald-faced lie. They did it right on the eve of the primary election in hopes of getting it buried," Thayer said. "The decision itself was purely political."
According to the Cook County State's Attorney's office, Fiorito will not return to being used a witness in DUI cases quite yet. The Chicago Police Department is still conducting an internal investigation. Alvarez' office, according to Daly, will make a decision following the results of that investigation.
Attorney Jon Erickson, who represents a large number of individuals with lawsuits against Fiorito, would not comment.
Chicago Reacts To Obama's First State Of The Union Address
Huffington Post LINK First Posted: 01-28-10 12:58 PM
Last year, Chicagoans were basking in the glow of our new, hometown president: Barack Obama. With our "Hope" t-shirts on and "Change" bumper stickers, we were ready to watch our South Side guy change the world. A year later, with the recession still hammering the middle class and health care seemingly out the window, we watched with baited breath as Obama gave his first State of the Union Address. Does Chicago still think our most famous White Sox fan has what it takes to make real change?
We asked some locals about their thoughts on the president's speech, and here is what they had to say:
Andy Thayer, Chicago LGBT activist and co-founder of the Gay Liberation Network: "Tonight President Obama reiterated his pledge to repeal 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell,' but as many bloggers have noted, he could have issued a stop/loss order to stop the anti-gay purges on Day 1 when he had the political capital to do it. Now, when he's politically considerably weaker, with double-digit unemployment, his health insurance plan withering and Democratic congressmen running for political cover, he has reiterated this pledge, this time saying he'll do it this year...President Obama tonight noted that 'We face a deficit of trust.' What he failed to note was that with broken promises and proposals like 'separate but equal,' is it any wonder?"
Chicago blogger Blair Fabian wrote this after Obama's speech: "Nothing has changed y'all. Obama is the same dude fighting the same fight. Stop picking him apart and do what you should do to make this country better. Help out people with less than you. Be patient. Jobs don't come overnight. This place is a mess. It'll take a while to fix. He's setting the foundation for something we can hopefully upkeep."
Local blogger Jeff Ramone voiced his opinion on Twitter: "Love that he called out GOP who have no solutions, only 'NO.' Lotta good stuff, but he needs to turn words into action."
Chicago writer and poet Justin Sherwood was not so impressed. He tweeted: "[The State of the Union Address] was an adjustment of expectations, a list of fairly conservative policy positions, and an investment in optimism."
Chicagoan Kate Lowry had this to say via Twitter: "Positive: Repealing DADT, withdrawing from Iraq, equal pay for equal work (can you believe this has to be discussed?) Immediate GOP opposition to DADT repeal is disheartening, but talk of jobs, budgets, & a transparent government scream optimism."
Chicago resident Brian Norton wrote to HuffPost Chicago: "I was not so much impressed with the content as I was with the President's tone. It was both predictable and necessary that the speech focus on domestic economic issues. I had, however, expected him to be a bit less bold in light of rising criticisms and dipping poll numbers. Instead, he called out congress on its unconscionable inertia and the lack of resolve shown in the Senate democrats, in particular...I appreciated that despite all the pragmatic issues like jobs and trade that absolutely needed to be addressed, he still felt inclined to insert the statement about eliminating DADT. I'm anxious to see how that goes."
Obama's tough talk on gay military ban met with mixed reactions
ChicagoPride.com LINK Thu. January 28, 2010 5:54:40 AM
Thayer: Obama's broken promises have lead to 'deficit of trust'
Washington, DC — In his first State of the Union address, President Barack Obama again promised to address the discriminatory Don't Ask Don't Tell (DADT) policy which has haunted LGBT military members for years.
"This year," Obama said, "I will work with Congress and our military to finally repeal the law that denies gay Americans the right to serve the country they love because of who they are."
No time frame was offered as to whether this process would begin or be concluded in 2010.
Congress approved DADT, the ban which prohibits gay and lesbian service members from revealing their sexuality at the risk of losing their jobs, in 1993 under President Bill Clinton.
"I applaud President Obama for making it crystal clear that the United States military cannot continue the discriminatory policy of 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell'," Congressman Mike Quigley (D-IL) told ChicagoPride.com. "To prohibit some of our bravest men and women from serving the country they love simply because of who they love is unacceptable. It is not only morally repugnant, but it undermines our national security and makes us less safe at a critical juncture."
"On behalf of the estimated 13,000 men and women who have left the military, the thousands who have been deterred from entering it and those who are forced to live a life of hypocrisy solely because of this demoralizing and discriminatory policy, I say to the President, it is about time," Democratic Senate candidate Jacob Meister told ChicagoPride.com Wednesday night.
The openly-gay candidate went on to offer startling numbers, saying: "Our government has spent more than $1.2 billion on a policy that forces gays into the closet or out of the military. Our government would sooner provide waivers to felons convicted of rape and murder, and happily wave goodbye to more than 13,000 honest men and women. The actions amount to a high-priced billion-dollar witch hunt."
A new study released Tueday by the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law indicated the US military has spent between $290 million and more than a half a billion dollars implementing DADT.
Obama has been under fire from LGBT activists for a failure to follow through on campaign promises, including DADT and the Defense of Marriage Act.
Despite the tough talk last night, some remain skeptical of the President's message.
"Tonight President Obama reiterated his pledge to repeal 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell,' but as many bloggers have noted, he could have issued a stop/loss order to stop the anti-gay purges on Day 1 when he had the political capital to do it," Andy Thayer, co-founder of the Gay Liberation Network, told ChicagoPride.com after the address. "Now, when he's politically considerably weaker, with double-digit unemployment, his health insurance plan taking on water and Democratic congressmen running for political cover, he has reiterated this pledge, this time saying he'll do it this year. "
"President Obama tonight noted that 'we face a deficit of trust.' What he failed to note was that with broken promises and proposals like 'separate but equal,' is it any wonder?," concluded Thayer.
According to a CBS News Poll following the State of the Union address, 83% of those interviewed approved of Obama's proposals. Only 17% did not.
Alvarez staffer, Fiorito attorney worked together
by Sam Worley Windy City Times LINK 2010-01-27
While the fate of the Cook County State's Attorney's investigation into Chicago police officer Richard Fiorito remains uncertain—that office recently denied rumors that it had decided not to pursue charges—records show a past close working relationship between the state's attorney's chief of staff, Daniel Kirk, and the lawyer representing Fiorito.
Fiorito is alleged to have falsified numerous DUI arrest reports, particularly targeting LGBT motorists. Separately, he is the subject of a federal civil-rights lawsuit filed by alleged victims of false DUI arrests.
Pending resolution of the investigation into his actions, Fiorito, who works out of the Chicago Police Department's 23rd District, has been placed on desk duty.
Daniel Kirk and Fiorito's attorney, Daniel Gallagher, worked together on a number of cases as special state's attorneys under the previous Cook County State's Attorney, Richard Devine. Notes from 2007 Cook County Board of Commissioners Finance Committee meetings list the law firm Querry and Harrow, including Kirk and Gallagher, seeking reimbursement for those attorneys' work on cases in which they participated.
Prior to joining the staff of current Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez, Daniel Kirk worked for six years as a partner at Querry and Harrow—where Gallagher is a shareholder.
Sally Daly, a spokesperson for the state's attorney's office, confirmed that Kirk had worked for Gallagher at Querrey and Harrow. But, Daly said, "Mr. Kirk is not involved in the investigation involving Mr. Fiorito."
Daly went on to characterize insinuations that the case might be tainted by the two mens' prior working relationship as "absolutely ludicrous." She said that the attorney in the civil lawsuit, Jon Erickson, has "taken every opportunity to make inaccurate statements about this investigation."
"We refuse to stoop to that level," Daly said. She said that the investigation into allegations leveled against Fiorito is "continuing."
Erickson, the plaintiffs' attorney, declined to comment on the record for this story.
Andy Thayer—whose organization, Gay Liberation Network, has organized protests demanding that Fiorito be fired from the police force—said, "Anita Alvarez needs to come clean" about the relationship between her staff member and Fiorito's lawyer.
The fact that it "took [ another newspaper ] reporter to dig it out," said Thayer, raises questions about the integrity of the state's attorney's office. "I think that speaks volumes about the mendacity of the whole process."
Asked if he thinks that the state's attorney's office can responsibly prosecute the case, Equality Illinois Director of Public Policy Rick Garcia said, "Frankly, yes."
"I have complete trust in the state's attorney," said Garcia. "She has demonstrated impeccable ethics."
Garcia said that he planned to meet with representatives of the State's Attorney's Office later in the week to discuss the case, but that he was confident that it will move forward. "I think the State's Attorney will handle this case in an appropriate way."
Neither Gallagher nor representatives of the state's attorney's office could be reached for comment at press time.
The Murder of Jorge Steven López-Mercado
Lessons From a Lynching
By ANDY THAYER
GLN permalink 11-24-2009
In vigils and marches in cities around the country last night we mourned and protested the murder of gay Puerto Rican teenager Jorge Steven López-Mercado on the evening of November 13th.
His murder was so gratuitous – Jorge was decapitated, dismembered and partially burned – that he may pass into popular memory as the Puerto Rican Matthew Shepard (aka the gay Wyoming college student whose 1998 lynching spawned a similar wave of protests and jump-started the gay-straight alliance movement on high school campuses).
Most in the vigils and marches last night acted out of grief and anger, and with good reason. But left at that alone, the growing awareness of what Jorge López’s murder means for what the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) movement needs to do will be left unanswered, and a budding movement, stillborn.
Back in 1998 the myriad of Matthew Shepard vigils and marches focused almost exclusively on the simple messages that hate and violence are bad – messages that were frankly so basic that even the most reactionary conservatives could mouth agreement with them. Literally hundreds of protests in the U.S. and internationally occurred, but aside from a huge mushrooming of gay-straight alliances in the nation’s schools, little of permanent importance was achieved. This is why drawing correct conclusions about next steps from last night’s vigils for Jorge López is so important.
To the extent that a political understanding seeped into last night’s events, it was largely a diversionary debate around the issue of hate crimes legislation, pro- or con-.
On the pro- side, liberals have framed demands of the vigils as focusing almost exclusively on enforcement in Jorge’s case of recently enacted federal hate crimes legislation which mandates, among other things, stiffer penalties for felonies motivated by anti-LGBT hate. But as with enhanced penalties legislation generally, and the death penalty specifically, there is no evidence that such legislation deters violence.
On the side of those opposing hate crimes legislation, some left-wing critics rightly point out that governments often use increased policing powers to further already discriminatory “law enforcement” against minorities. Unfortunately these same critics often speak as though hate crimes don’t exist, that there is little or no difference between the murder of an Emmett Till or a Matthew Shepard – lynchings designed to send messages of hate and intimidation to whole communities – versus other more “routine” murders.
Worse, such “left-wing” commentators typically are dismissive of, if not opposed to equal marriage rights and legislation mandating equal employment rights in the military. In justification of this attitude, they note that such institutions are quite reactionary (re: the military, I would agree; re: marriage, it’s changed more than just a little bit since the time when women were literally owned by men). But this misses the point. The American workplace, with its dictatorial organization and huge gaps in compensation is perhaps the most reactionary institution in U.S. society, but does this mean that we abstain from struggles for equality within it, whether based upon race, gender, sexual orientation or other categories?
Rather than focusing on the issue of hate crimes legislation, pro- or con-, as the key to preventing future lynchings like that of Jorge Steven López, we need to take a much broader perspective. We need to take a look at the history of lynchings and the prevention of such.
Doing so will highlight one very important fact: It was the sweeping change in social attitudes brought about by the Civil Rights Movement and the legislative gains of at least de jure equality it created that finally put an end to routine lynchings of African Americans.
It is no accident that the height of lynching violence against African Americans coincided with the height of “legal” segregation and racist Jim Crow legislation. Government and religious sanction of discrimination explicitly endorsed violence against African Americans. Removal of American apartheid in the 1960s obviously did not end racism, but it did remove a powerful justification for lynchings – the government endorsement of racial inequality – and such lynchings diminished dramatically a few years after the movement finally won broad enforcement of equal rights legislation.
The LGBT community has yet to achieve formal legal equality, an initial step towards the far more ambitious goal of social equality. Today hatred of us is explicitly endorsed from pulpits and the podiums of politicians, and the dominant – read federal – legal framework within which we live. Thus it should come as no surprise that there are lynchings like that of Jorge López, Matthew Shepard and many, many virtually anonymous scores more. Government- and religious-sanctioned discrimination are major bulwarks supporting anti-LGBT violence in the United States.
The struggle against Jim Crow segregation of lunch counters was never so much about the lunch counters as such, but about the dehumanizing message such petty segregation sent to the African American community as a whole. In warfare as in other kinds of violence, dehumanization is the first step towards making it “okay” to harm another human being.
Similarly, the struggle against anti-LGBT legal inequalities – whether on the issues of marriage, employment, housing, access to public accommodations, immigration law, etc – is not even mainly about the specific rights that come with such, as important as those are for the life choices they might make available to innumerable individuals. It’s about removing the dehumanizing impact that official discrimination has in fostering routine, everyday hatred and discrimination against LGBT people. (This is a major reason why domestic partnership legislation, rather than marriage rights, is not “good enough” for same sex couples).
Losing the anti-LGBT repressive social climate, rather than preventing Sally from marrying Sue, is the main reason why anti-gay leaders oppose equal rights legislation. They couldn’t give a damn about who any of us marry, any more than we care whom they marry. What they really value is officially-sanctioned bigotry and the bolster to their social power that it gives.
Jorge Steve López-Mercado was a victim of social anti-LGBT hate, a hate powerfully endorsed by the United States’ legal inequality and the hate officially endorsed by most religious denominations. If we wish to make the most direct assault upon the conditions that fostered López’s murder, we must directly confront the politicians of both political parties, including President Obama, who oppose our legal equality or who at best, give us pro-equality rhetoric instead of pro-equality policies.
Moreover, we must call out as bigots the powerful religious figures, leaders of the Catholic Church and various Protestant denominations, who use religion as a cover for their bigotry, not unlike those religious right figures like Jerry Falwell who used religion as a cover to justify Jim Crow a generation ago.
López’s lynching demands not just grief and anger, but a political strategy that attacks the conditions which led to his lynching.
Andy Thayer is a co-founder of the Chicago-based Gay Liberation Network, a direct action group formed in 1998 in response to three Chicago gay-bashings just weeks before Matthew Shepard’s murder. He can be contacted at LGBTliberation@aol.com
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