by John Wright
Your lunchtime quickie from Instant Tea:
• Federal judge blocks enforcement of anti-gay El Paso ballot initiative, questions definition of “traditional family values.” Gay rights group protests outside Barnes & Noble during book-signing by pastor who was behind initiative.
• New president of Houston GLBT Political Caucus discusses group’s agenda.
• Texas ENDA introduced again but unlikely to pass.
• Slain gay Portugese journalist’s family dumps ashes down Times Square subway grate.
• Did host Ricky Gervais go too far at the Golden Globes? (video above)
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Showing posts with label El Paso. Show all posts
Showing posts with label El Paso. Show all posts
Monday, January 17, 2011
Thursday, January 13, 2011
El Paso may put DP benefits back on ballot
by John Wright
After a ballot measure passed in November to rescind domestic partner benefits for El Paso employees, the City Council is considering another ballot measure to restore them. The November ballot measure sponsored by religious groups aimed to take away benefits for the partners of gay and lesbian employees. However, because it was so vaguely worded, the ballot measure also threatened benefits for the partners of retired city workers, and it’s now the subject of a federal lawsuit.
The El Paso Times reports on the latest development:
After a ballot measure passed in November to rescind domestic partner benefits for El Paso employees, the City Council is considering another ballot measure to restore them. The November ballot measure sponsored by religious groups aimed to take away benefits for the partners of gay and lesbian employees. However, because it was so vaguely worded, the ballot measure also threatened benefits for the partners of retired city workers, and it’s now the subject of a federal lawsuit.
The El Paso Times reports on the latest development:
The El Paso City Council on Tuesday introduced a proposed ordinance for a May ballot initiative that would restore health benefits to gay and unmarried partners of city employees.source
The public rescinded those benefits in the Nov. 2 election, but they remain in effect while the courts hear a lawsuit in the matter.
The council did not discuss the proposed ordinance or take public comment on it. A public hearing will be held in coming weeks. If the City Council does not vote to put the matter on the ballot, supporters still can do so by gathering enough signatures on a petition.
Monday, January 3, 2011
Mistake in El Paso Antigay Law
Encouraged by local religious leaders like pastor Tom Brown (pictured), El Paso, Texas, voters stripped domestic-partner benefits from gay workers in November, but now the city is discovering they may have also taken benefits away from retired police officers and elected officials.
The ordinance, which passed with 55% of the vote November 2 and went into effect January 1, asked voters to endorse "traditional family values" by limiting benefits to "city employees and their legal spouse and dependent children." The wording of the measure came from its religious proponents — the church leaders couldn't get an attorney to advise them on the verbiage. Now not only are El Paso's gay residents furious, but so are union leaders, because thousands of their retirees could lose benefits for their heterosexual domestic partners (the partners of elected officials could lose health benefits too, because city politicians are not considered city employees). While El Paso officials are looking at amending the ordinance, the unions are preparing a lawsuit.
"I have no regrets," Brown, the pastor, tells TheWall Street Journal. "We did what was right."
Read the full story here.
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Friday, December 31, 2010
In El Paso hate crimes few, but gays are majority of victims (4:50 a.m.)
by Daniel Borunda \ El Paso Times
A man allegedly beaten up by men who told him they didn't want gays in their Lower Valley neighborhood is one of three hate crimes reported to police this year.
Though the number of hate crimes in El Paso is less than in similar-sized cities, El Paso mirrors a national analysis that found gays are more likely to be the victims of violent hate crimes than other minorities.
Gays were victims in two of three hate crimes reported this year and in three of four cases reported in 2009, according to information from El Paso police. The remaining cases targeted a black Baptist church and a synagogue.
Police point out the number of hate crimes is small but local gay rights activists feel cases are going unreported. A hate crime is defined as a crime motivated by a bias against race, ethnicity, religion or sexual orientation.
"We know there is more than three or four a year. Those who are harassed or victims of hate crimes are afraid (to report) because of the stigma from mainstream society," said Jonathan Kennedy, chairman of the gay rights group Rio Grande Adelante.
"I am an African-American gay man and I hear more from within the gay society from victims because of their homosexuality than from the African-American community," Kennedy said.
A national analysis by the Southern Poverty Law Center's Intelligence Report stated gays are more than twice as likely to be attacked in hate crimes than blacks or Jews, more than four times as likely as Muslims and 14 times as likely as Hispanics.
The recently-published analysis looked at 14 years of federal hate crime data. The Alabama-based Southern Poverty Law Center tracks hate groups.
The cases in El Paso did not appear to be connected to each other.
The most recent case was Aug. 2 when a woman and her gay best friend were driving on Prado Lane in the Lower Valley when they were waved down by acquaintances to talk.
According to complaint affidavits filed by police, an argument erupted regarding hickeys a man had left on the neck of one of the assailant's younger brothers. The man was beaten while two other men grabbed the woman to keep her from helping her friend.
During the beating, the attackers said they did not want gay people in their neighborhood.
One of the attackers allegedly took out a knife that the man kicked away before managing to run away.
Police spokesman Detective Mike Baranyay said officers arrested Tomas Madrid, 36, Moises Lopez, 31, and Edgar Lopez, 25, in connection with the beating on suspicion of engaging in organized criminal activity-assault.
The other cases this year were:
Shortly after 2 a.m. May 18, a 25-year-old man was arrested after allegedly breaking stained glass windows and attempting to bust down the door of the Friendship Missionary Baptist Church at 7615 Matamoros in the Lower Valley.
Alex Guzman, using racial slurs, told police he hated blacks, according to a complaint affidavit. "Take me to jail I don't care," he told officers. "I broke the windows. I know it's a hate crime. I don't give a (expletive)."
On April 7, a man punched another man in the 1900 block of Olive Avenue on the South Side because he thought the victim was gay, police said. Baranyay said detectives talked to the victim but he did not want to prosecute. The case is now inactive.
A police spokesman said there were four hate crimes reported in 2009, though the FBI data only shows three. The reason for the discrepancy was not immediately clear.
The four cases reported by the Police Department were:
A man accused of slapping a woman who, according to police documents, he said didn't count because she was gay after she defended a female friend in the Cincinnati Avenue Entertainment District. Aaron Levar Haynes, 32, pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct after an assault charge was reduced because the victim was unavailable for trial, a spokeswoman for the district attorney's office said.
A case in which a gay man received harassing phone calls, threatening to burn him alive and kill him. The calls stopped and the man did not want to prosecute, police said.
Graffiti spray-painted at a house in Sunset Heights using a slur and stating that two gay men lived in the residence. There were no arrests.
And an unsolved vandalism case where swastikas and tagger-style graffiti were spray-painted outside the Chabad Lubavitch synagogue. There are less than a handful of hate crimes reported each year in El Paso, keeping in line with the city's overall low violent crime rate. Police reported two hate crimes in 2008 and four each in 2007 and 2006.
Daniel Borunda may be reached at dborunda@elpasotimes.com; 546-6102.
Hate crimes
Hate crime numbers in 2009 for select regional cities and incidents per bias motivation:
City - Race - Religion - Sexual Orientation - Ethnicity
El Paso - 0 - 1 - 2 - 0
Austin - 3 - 1 - 4 - 3
San Antonio - 3 - 1 - 3 - 2
Midland - 2 - 0 - 0 - 0
Fort Worth - 3 - 2 - 0 - 1
Odessa - 0 - 0 - 0 - 1
Albuquerque - 3 - 0 - 5 - 1
Tucson - 3 - 6 - 2 - 0
Source: FBI's Hate Crime Statistics, 2009.
source
A man allegedly beaten up by men who told him they didn't want gays in their Lower Valley neighborhood is one of three hate crimes reported to police this year.
Though the number of hate crimes in El Paso is less than in similar-sized cities, El Paso mirrors a national analysis that found gays are more likely to be the victims of violent hate crimes than other minorities.
Gays were victims in two of three hate crimes reported this year and in three of four cases reported in 2009, according to information from El Paso police. The remaining cases targeted a black Baptist church and a synagogue.
Police point out the number of hate crimes is small but local gay rights activists feel cases are going unreported. A hate crime is defined as a crime motivated by a bias against race, ethnicity, religion or sexual orientation.
"We know there is more than three or four a year. Those who are harassed or victims of hate crimes are afraid (to report) because of the stigma from mainstream society," said Jonathan Kennedy, chairman of the gay rights group Rio Grande Adelante.
"I am an African-American gay man and I hear more from within the gay society from victims because of their homosexuality than from the African-American community," Kennedy said.
A national analysis by the Southern Poverty Law Center's Intelligence Report stated gays are more than twice as likely to be attacked in hate crimes than blacks or Jews, more than four times as likely as Muslims and 14 times as likely as Hispanics.
The recently-published analysis looked at 14 years of federal hate crime data. The Alabama-based Southern Poverty Law Center tracks hate groups.
The cases in El Paso did not appear to be connected to each other.
The most recent case was Aug. 2 when a woman and her gay best friend were driving on Prado Lane in the Lower Valley when they were waved down by acquaintances to talk.
According to complaint affidavits filed by police, an argument erupted regarding hickeys a man had left on the neck of one of the assailant's younger brothers. The man was beaten while two other men grabbed the woman to keep her from helping her friend.
During the beating, the attackers said they did not want gay people in their neighborhood.
One of the attackers allegedly took out a knife that the man kicked away before managing to run away.
Police spokesman Detective Mike Baranyay said officers arrested Tomas Madrid, 36, Moises Lopez, 31, and Edgar Lopez, 25, in connection with the beating on suspicion of engaging in organized criminal activity-assault.
The other cases this year were:
Shortly after 2 a.m. May 18, a 25-year-old man was arrested after allegedly breaking stained glass windows and attempting to bust down the door of the Friendship Missionary Baptist Church at 7615 Matamoros in the Lower Valley.
Alex Guzman, using racial slurs, told police he hated blacks, according to a complaint affidavit. "Take me to jail I don't care," he told officers. "I broke the windows. I know it's a hate crime. I don't give a (expletive)."
On April 7, a man punched another man in the 1900 block of Olive Avenue on the South Side because he thought the victim was gay, police said. Baranyay said detectives talked to the victim but he did not want to prosecute. The case is now inactive.
A police spokesman said there were four hate crimes reported in 2009, though the FBI data only shows three. The reason for the discrepancy was not immediately clear.
The four cases reported by the Police Department were:
A man accused of slapping a woman who, according to police documents, he said didn't count because she was gay after she defended a female friend in the Cincinnati Avenue Entertainment District. Aaron Levar Haynes, 32, pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct after an assault charge was reduced because the victim was unavailable for trial, a spokeswoman for the district attorney's office said.
A case in which a gay man received harassing phone calls, threatening to burn him alive and kill him. The calls stopped and the man did not want to prosecute, police said.
Graffiti spray-painted at a house in Sunset Heights using a slur and stating that two gay men lived in the residence. There were no arrests.
And an unsolved vandalism case where swastikas and tagger-style graffiti were spray-painted outside the Chabad Lubavitch synagogue. There are less than a handful of hate crimes reported each year in El Paso, keeping in line with the city's overall low violent crime rate. Police reported two hate crimes in 2008 and four each in 2007 and 2006.
Daniel Borunda may be reached at dborunda@elpasotimes.com; 546-6102.
Hate crimes
Hate crime numbers in 2009 for select regional cities and incidents per bias motivation:
City - Race - Religion - Sexual Orientation - Ethnicity
El Paso - 0 - 1 - 2 - 0
Austin - 3 - 1 - 4 - 3
San Antonio - 3 - 1 - 3 - 2
Midland - 2 - 0 - 0 - 0
Fort Worth - 3 - 2 - 0 - 1
Odessa - 0 - 0 - 0 - 1
Albuquerque - 3 - 0 - 5 - 1
Tucson - 3 - 6 - 2 - 0
Source: FBI's Hate Crime Statistics, 2009.
source
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