Los Angeles Times:
Todd Camp and some friends had just marked the 40th anniversary of the police raid on New York's Stonewall Inn by screening a documentary on the historic gay riots and then heading for drinks at the Rainbow Lounge.
Camp remembered looking across the bar, packed with gay and some straight couples, and marveling how much times had changed since Stonewall -- the spark that ignited the gay rights movement.
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This country is so sad. It is filled with hate and fear. When are people going to wake up and realize being gay is not a crime? Why are straight people so afraid of gay people?
Gay anxious straight people are generally more afraid of the judgment of their own family, friends, culture. I doubt that gay people are found to be deeply and genuinely scary. Gay anxious straight people would be completely petrified to confront their church or their parents if they were to come out of the closet, or even just state that being gay is okay. To them, being gay is equivalent to severe and particularly shameful troublemaking.
It doesn't surprise me in the least that police in a Texas town were particularly rough when entering a gay bar.
This echos of governors standing in schoolroom doors against black schoolchildren ... standing against gay rights on the anniversary of Stonewall may in fact be popular in Fort Worth, TX today as standing against desegregation was iouth for years after Civil Rights passed - but the stand will ulitmately be as futile as it is mean-spirited.
Beating up members of the public is neither good law enforcement nor wise long-term political strategy.
The notion that Gibson "felt up" an officer is beyond preposterous. Yeah. Right. Sure. A gay guy is going to grab the crotch of a uniformed policman. And the backtracking of the chief just makes it all the more obvious that it's a "gay panic" defense.
It's going to be interesting to see how this plays out.
" . . . [The police] entered a hostile environment and were taunted by patrons with "sexually explicit movements."
There you have it America. If we let the Gays taunt us like THAT, then peaceniks will begin sit-ins. This could lead to individual freedoms and and and... Oh stop shaking your booty at me!
I really feel sorry for intelligent people who live in Texas.
If I lived in Texas right now, I'd be looking for a new home in a less backward part of the country.
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Los Angeles Times | P.J. Huffstutter
First Posted: 07- 6-09 08:33 AM | Updated: 07- 6-09 09:40 AM