Year: 2011

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Homophobic Sue Stanton?

Change.org has a petition up in support of a gay club that’s gotten some homophobic response from city government over noise complaints.

The Cottage, 522 Lucerene Avenue, Lake Worth, FL has been under attack by a small group of local residents who are using the city’s noise ordinance to harass The Cottage.  Noise complaints have been made by four residents on almost a daily basis for the past three years.  The noise complaints began shortly after The Cottage began its Sunday Tea Dances and branded itself as the only gay-friendly, downtown restaurant in Lake Worth. Many times when the police have responded to a complaint, The Cottage has not even had any live music playing.  The police in general are sympathetic and understand that The Cottage is being unfairly targeted but must continue to respond to the calls.

After a year of harassment, The Cottage reached out to the city for assistance.  Unfortunately, the City chose to enable and feed the underlying homophobic current, instead of helping a viable and community oriented business as well as honoring its own civil rights ordinance which provides protection for sexual orientation and gender expression.

In May of 2009, Loretta Lutfy, proprietor of The Cottage, along with family friend and local gay rights advocate, Mike Zewe, met with City Manager Susan Stanton to seek assistance to stop the harassment.  Instead of receiving support from Ms. Stanton, they were dismissed from her office with homophobic remarks.

Ms. Lutfy says, “She (Stanton) first asked if I would consider stopping the Tea Dance for awhile.  I responded that I would close my entire business first. She dismissed Mike and me from the office ending the conversation by saying that “men in dresses, and men dancing with men is offensive.  If you continue, you will just have to suffer the consequences.'”

For the next year, The Cottage, knowing that they had no support from the City, felt the only choice was to bear the harassment and hope it would stop.  Unfortunately, it has not and Susan Stanton has joined the four complaining residents in their crusade to chip away at the business until it has no choice but to close.  Stanton has added to the attack by sending code enforcement daily to The Cottage to look for violations. She went as far to change the hours of the code enforcement office to send employees at all hours of the day and threatened criminal prosecution.

What isn’t mentioned is that Stanton herself is trans; she quite famously & publicly transitioned a few years back, so I’m certainly not outing her.

First, I’d love to hear some verification of these claims from someone in that neck of the woods: I know you’re out there, so either post a comment or send me an email.

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WI Votes Tuesday, April 5th

On Tuesday, it’s Election Day in Wisconsin, and it’s one of those elections for which most people don’t bother to show up, most years. This year, I suspect, will see a much higher turnout because progressives, democrats, and sensible conservatives alike are frustrated at the strong-arm tactics of Governor Walker. Oh, you know who I mean: the guy who just decided collective bargaining is a disposable aspect of democracy, a hurdle in the way of the fiscal bottom line. It is, rather, the heart of democracy: that the many get a vote, that they get a say, that we get some modicum of a voice in our government, in our employment, and so, in our lives. The guy & his cronies will be recalled, but in the meantime, even if people did hear about Walker and the subsequent protests, you may not realize how motivated people are here.

I’ve had a couple of people from out of state write to me about the Kloppenburg campaign, which I’m happy to say is getting no small amount of attention now, and which is at least one of the big reasons progressives will be coming out to vote. Believe me, we’re paying attention to the Kloppenburg campaign, and so are many political orgs (including the LGBT one).

But here, in tiny Appleton, I’ve had the pleasure of watching two people step up to run for City Council exactly because they knew they had to. The first is Teege Mettille, who is running in Appleton’s 11th District. He’s a foster parent, as well as an adjunct faculty member and admissions counselor for two local universities.

The second is Christoph Wahl who lives in Distict #1, a district where the only candidate left running was a Tea Party Republican with possible connections to “White People’s Heritage” group (which, in a city that is home to the John Birch Society, you don’t laugh off). His opposing candidate dropped out, & Wahl, who has lived in Appleton all of his life, decided to step up. He didn’t have time to get added to the ballot; he’s running a write-in campaign in a district with about 4500 residents, about 1800 of which are registered to vote, and of which, about half voted in the last election. That is, he is running to win in a district where every single vote will count.

Which is why it’s about a million times more important for progressives and Democrats to get out & vote on Tuesday — or, if you live in WI, before Tuesday, as we’ve got early voting here. So go do it. Give someone else a ride to the polls. You don’t (yet) need a photo ID. BUT GET OUT & VOTE, WISCONSIN!

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Institute of Medicine Recommends Studying LGBT Health Needs

& That’s not an April Fool’s joke! Honestly, you’d expect it would be, but it’s not: the IOM released a report that in order to address LGBT health disparities, LGBT health issues need to be studied further.

Seems nutty, right, to find out what people need in order to provide it.

Tammy Baldwin will be introducing an Act (the Ending LGBT Health Disparities Act) based on the IOM’s findings.

Continue reading “Institute of Medicine Recommends Studying LGBT Health Needs”

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Women’s History Month: Sylvia Rivera

For the last day of Women’s History Month, I give you Sylvia Rivera, proud, out, trans woman who participated in the Stonewall Rebellion in 1969, and only a year later watched as gender and trans rights were disappeared from the new Gay Rights’ movement’s agenda.


On June 27, 1969, Rivera was in the crowd that gathered outside the Stonewall Inn after word spread that it had been raided by police. The sight of arrested patrons being led from the bar by authorities riled the crowd, but it was Rivera who threw one of the first Molotov cocktails that actually initiated the riots and sent Stonewall into the history books.

In 1970 Rivera joined the Gay Activists Alliance (GAA) and worked on its campaign to pass the New York City Gay Rights Bill. She attracted media attention when she attempted to force her way into closed-door sessions concerning the bill held at City Hall. In spite of Rivera’s (and other drag queens’) participation in the GAA, the organization decided to exclude transgender rights from the Gay Rights Bill so that it would be more acceptable to straight politicians.

Rivera was shocked and betrayed by this decision. She also became disillusioned with the gay rights movement in general and dismayed by the backlash against drag queens that had developed by the mid-1970s.

Perhaps already sensing that transgendered people could not rely on the gay rights movement to advocate for their civil rights, in 1970 Rivera and Marsha P. Johnson had formed a group called Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (S.T.A.R.). The members of this organization aimed to fight for the civil rights of transgendered people, as well as provide them with social services support.

At this time, Rivera and Johnson began operating S.T.A.R. House in the East Village, which provided housing for poor transgendered youth. S.T.A.R. House lasted for two years, but was then closed because of financial and zoning problems. Although in existence only a short time, S.T.A.R. House is historically significant because it was the first institution of its kind in New York City, and inspired the creation of future shelters for homeless street queens.

Shelters seems like an exaggeration, since the only other I know of is Transy House (which was around the corner from where we lived in Park Slope). I’m pleased to see the Day of Silence and GLSEN are honoring her as well this year.

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Which Side Are You On?

Rachel Maddow presents a long overdue analysis of the difference between the rhetoric (“limited government”) and what’s really going on (eg mandatory drug testing).

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

This has baffled me for a long time — how it is, exactly, that the people who stand for small government still want the government big enough to make sure women don’t get abortions and gays don’t have sex (or employment, or legal rights, etc).

So conservative friends, family, readers: which is it?

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ENDA

ENDA has been re-introduced in the House as of today, according to NCTE and TLDEF. More updates as they come through.

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Filtered, No Doubt

It turns out that some high schools are filtering out sites like GLAAD’s, or the It Gets Better campaign. Honestly? It just pisses me off. God forbid we help save the lives of at-risk youth; somehow that’s perceived as advanding the so-called gay agenda.

If White Power youths were committing suicide at alarming rates, we would all want to see them stop. What is it about LGBT youth that people are so hateful about? Is it this proposed ‘gay agenda’? How is it that homosexuality has trumped even suicide as a sin against God?

They drive me nuts. At least the ACLU is on it. You can check your school’s filtering and report them if necessary.