Arrested Hollywood Protester Tells His Story

In an e-mail sent to friends about his arrest in Hollywood on Nov. 6, the first night of the peaceful protests against Prop. 8, Kevin Miniter described his encounter with the LAPD (which was videotaped youtube.com/watch?v=NbXM ZEO6lv8).

“Three LAPD officers in riot gear grabbed me, hit me with their batons, threw me to the ground, jumped on me, continued to hit me and handcuffed me,” Miniter wrote in an e-mail obtained by Frontiers. “I spent the next four hours handcuffed to a bench, bleeding onto the floor of the Hollywood Community Police Station.”

Miniter was sent to “L.A. County Jail, where they stripped me down and took pictures of my bruises and cuts and then finally I got to see a doctor.”

He spent two nights in jail “charged with resisting arrest, but as you can clearly see in the video, I acquiesced immediately. I was held with a $25,000 bail, the other protesters were charged with inciting a riot (a lovely 19-year-old girl who had her back to the police and was pulled by her hair to the ground). And her two 19-year-old, 135 lb. Mexican gay boys, wearing their super tight jeans and knit sweaters, were charged with lynching and attempted lynching!…

“Friday morning at 7 a.m., they pulled me out, handcuffed me again to another felon, put me into a cage inside a bus and took me with 40 other prisoners to the L.A. County Court, where I was segregated in another gay cell, now jammed 20 people in a 15 by 5-foot room. These were half new arresties[sic] like myself and other criminals from the L.A. County Jail waiting for their new sentencings[sic]...

“After waiting the whole day, eating food that is processed with dirt and watching everyone defecate in the one toilet that stands prominently in the corner of the room, me and the other protestors were brought out and told we were being released, not being arraigned for our crimes. After being handcuffed one last time and harassed for being gay by a few of the officers ... one last time, they walked us to the jail parking lot and set us free.” —KAREN OCAMB

Obama Consulted Gay Bishop During Campaign

President-elect Barack Obama sought the advice of openly gay Episcopal Bishop V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire during the recent presidential campaign, the Times of London Online reported Nov. 6.

Robinson's consecration in 2003 widened a rift in the 80-million member worldwide Anglican Communion between the Episcopal Church, the American Anglican body, and more conservative branches of the denomination overseas, as well as within the Episcopal Church itself, over issues of homosexuality and scriptural interpretation.

Robinson said Obama's campaign had contacted him and that he had the “honor” of three conversations with Obama in May and June. “The first words out of his mouth were, 'Well, you're certainly causing a lot of trouble,'” Robinson said. “My response to him was, 'Well, that makes two of us.'”

The bishop described Obama as “impressive,” “smart” and “an amazing listener,” characterizing him as “the genuine article,” and adding, “I think he is exactly who he says he is.”

“He certainly indicated his broad and deep support for the full civil rights for gay[s] and lesbian[s],” Robinson said.

Obama does not support same-sex marriage, but expressed opposition during the campaign to the recently passed Proposition 8, which re-imposed California's gay marriage bar by writing it into the state constitution.

The LGBT community should not expect much initially. "Starting with Obama's first high-level appointment [Congressmember Rahm Emanuel as Chief of Staff], the community has essentially been put on notice that the door to the Oval Office will not likely be opened wide enough to accommodate gay civil rights in the new president's first year," syndicated journalist Lisa Keen wrote. She noted that while Emanuel now has a 100 percent rating from the Human Rights Campaign, when he was a senior adviser to President Bill Clinton he threw up roadblocks to LGBT political progress.

The New Face of Equal Rights

It's a new day in LGBT politics! The ongoing and massive rebellion against the passage of Prop. 8 has profoundly energized young—LGBT and straight—who previously never internalized the injustice leveled at LGBT people.

Fifteen-year-old straight allies Andrea Marguez and Vanessa Melendez held candles against discrimination at the Sunset Junction rally and march. Others are motivated social networking sites, e-mail listservs, and Web sites such as endH8now.com, justfair.us, and jointheimpact.wetpaint.com. Bloggers are also engaged, including Andy Towleroad (towleroad.com), Rex Wockner (wockner.blogspot.com), the Courage Campaign (couragecampaign.org) and the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center (lagaycenter.org). —K.O.

Schwarzenegger to Prop. 8 Foes: “Never Give Up”

As protests against the passage of Proposition 8, the constitutional same-sex marriage bar, continued almost a week after election day, California's Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger Nov. 9 urged marriage equality proponents, “[N]ever ever give up,” the Los Angeles Times reports. Schwarzenegger said he hopes the California Supreme Court invalidates Proposition 8. The governor's statements were his strongest yet in support of same-sex marriage. He opposed Prop. 8 during the campaign, but has vetoed legislation to legalize gay marriage, and has said he believes marriage should be between a man and a woman.

Silver Lake Bar Designated Historic Monument

Silver Lake's Black Cat bar, now Le Barcito, was designated an historic-cultural monument Nov. 7 by the Los Angeles City Council, the Los Angeles Times reports. Alterations must now be approved by the Cultural Heritage Commission. Police raided the bar on New Year's Eve, 1967, sparking protests involving hundreds, two years before the New York Stonewall riots widely considered the start of the modern LGBT rights movement. The neighborhood was the site of another huge rally the evening of Nov. 8, this time against Proposition 8, the constitutional same-sex marriage bar passed Nov. 4.
—PETER DELVECHIO

Gay Couples Wed in Connecticut

Same-sex couples began marrying in Connecticut Nov. 12, a stark affront to the religious zealots who eliminated the “fundamental” constitutional right of gay couples to wed in California. On Oct. 12, the Connecticut Supreme Court ruled 4-3 that same-sex couples had the right to marriage equality, rather than accepting the 2005 civil union law. "Today, Connecticut sends a message of hope [and] inspiration to lesbian and gay people throughout this country who simply want to be treated as equal citizens by their government," said plantiff's attorney Bennett Klein.

Gay “Not OK” in Dallas

About 100 people singing “Jesus Loves Me” protested a sermon entitled “Why Gay Is Not OK” outside a prominent Dallas church, Dallas-Fort Worth's WFFA.com reported Nov. 10. First Baptist Church of Dallas Pastor Dr. Robert Jeffress told his congregation in the sermon that homosexuality resulted from gays rejecting God.

“What they are preaching from the pulpit is hate,” said Michael Robinson, founder of Unified Community Against Gay Hate Crimes, “and that breeds these type of people to come out and do these type of crimes.”

Jeffress says he does not advocate “disrespectful” treatment of gays.

Third Episcopal Diocese Breaks With National Church

A third conservative Episcopal diocese has voted to cut ties with the national church over issues of homosexuality and biblical interpretation, the AP reported Nov. 9.

The diocese of Quincy, Ill. joins dioceses in Fresno, Calif. and Pittsburgh, Pa. that have already made the break. The three dioceses will now align with Argentina's “Anglican Province of the Southern Cone.”

The diocese of Fort Worth, Tex. was to vote on severing ties with the national church Nov. 15.

“We lament the departure” of Quincy, Episcopal Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori said in a statement. —PETER DELVECCHIO

This page compiled by Peter DelVecchio from The Associated Press and other news reports.

L.A. County Joins Lawsuit Against Prop. 8

Equality activism is on fire. Bloggers and activists are combing through the Secretary of State's Web site looking for contributors to the Prop. 8 campaign—some taking their wrath out on companies where perhaps only an employee of the company donated.

In Los Angeles, a press briefing at gay-friendly El Coyote restaurant over manager Marjorie Christoffersen's donation apparently resulted in the tearful manager standing by her church-requested contribution and activists picketing outside.

Bill Marriott, of the hotel chain that includes the Renaissance Hollywood Hotel, issued a statement saying that while he and his family are Mormons, “Marriott International is a public company headquartered in Bethesda, Md., and is not controlled by any one individual or family. Neither I, nor the company, contributed to the campaign to pass Proposition 8.”

Meanwhile, on Nov. 12 the L.A. County Board of Supervisors approved a motion by Supervisors Zev Yaroslavsky and Gloria Molina to join the City and County of San Francisco, County of Santa Clara and City of Los Angeles v. Mark B. Horton, et al. lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of Prop. 8, which eliminated the right of same-sex couples to marry. With Republican Supervisors Don Knabe and Michael Antonovich out of town, the final vote came from longtime LGBT-supportive Supervisor Yvonne Burke, who is retiring after the board's Nov. 25 meeting.

About 15 witnesses testified before the Board, urging them to join the suit, including San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera, L.A. City Attorney Rocky Delgadillio, straight and gay civil rights and religious leaders, and a lesbian mother who took in five foster children after the Sept. 11 tragedy.

Yaroslavsky said that while it should be difficult for a court to overturn “the will of the people” expressed through an initiative, it is appropriate “when a measure is on the ballot that is approved that fundamentally takes away a constitutional right that people have,” which is what happened with Prop. 8. Yaroslavsky recalled passage of Prop. 14, when “discriminatory practices in housing accommodation was approved by the people of California in 1964 by almost 2-to-1. It was overthrown” by the court. “This is a tough one, but at the end of the day, we need to stand with the constitution.”

Molina, who publicly fought Prop. 8, said, Prop. 8's passage “saddened and angered me for several reasons:” First, it “basically mandates that certain people have fewer rights than others;” second, the right to marry is a civil right “that has nothing to do with religion,” noting that in 1967, 16 states had miscegenation laws. “Back then, like now, opponents of this change used the same religious arguments being made today. President-elect Barack Obama's parents would not have been able to get married in those 16 states.”

And lastly, said Molina, “as a Latina, I am well aware of discrimination,” having long fought against “abuses of power” affecting immigrant women. “While the focus is on the gay and lesbian community, I think this is a civil rights issue for everyone. Every vulnerable minority group in this state should be extremely concerned about the ability of the majority to reach into the constitution and change it to single them out and opt them out of the constitution's protections. That is something no one in this state can or should support. And it is something I intend to fight against.”

Burke, who was the first African-American woman elected to Congress in 1972, noted that she opposed Prop. 8, which she said passed in her district by a margin of approximately 54 percent to 56 percent. As a lawyer, Burke said, her primary goal is “to make sure that there is equal protection of the law. … As a lawyer, as a person who believes very strongly in Christian principles, I believe that part of those principles is respecting the right of others to have those principles, and to have their own religion and also to enjoy the same benefits and rights that I enjoy, whether or not it's same-sex or heterosexual. ... I am very, very disappointed that in my district Proposition 8 passed... particularly since I believe the Second District is one where people have always stood up for civil rights and equal protections.” —KAREN OCAMB