More Questions About Taylor Garrett

Over at Gay City News, Duncan Osborne examines a curious aspect of the alleged assault on GOProud's Taylor Garrett, who claims he was beaten because he's a conservative Christian who's friendly with Ann Coulter.

According to Dallas Police Department reports, officers were called to 2800 Knight Street in Dallas, where the assault happened, at roughly 10:20 pm. Garrett was attending a birthday party at 3000 Knight Street and left the party to get a gift he left in the car. It was then that he came upon the man. The man punched him once in the face and the punch knocked him to the ground, Garrett said. Garrett’s nose was bleeding and his left ear struck the curb, which also caused a cut and bleeding. The police report notes that “Comp refused PES to the location.” The police department press office said that “comp” stands for complainant and “PES” stands for Physical Evidence Section, or the department’s crime scene unit. It is not uncommon for complainants in minor crimes to refuse crime scene services because they may not want to wait for detectives or they may not want to clean up after them. In Garrett’s case, however, it could be perceived differently.

Help! The leftist gay Gestapo assaulted me! No, don't take fingerprints. Don't collect evidence. And no photos, please. This is a job for Daily Caller, not the police.

WIKILEAKS: American Gov't Kept Quiet About Murders Of Gays In Iraq

Gay City News reports today that according to a portion of latest documents revealed via Wikileaks, the Pentagon knew about the murders of gay men in Iraq for more than a year before news outlets reported them. Via Duncan Osborne:

“The male was shot (___) times in the chest, and a note was discovered on the body stating that the man had been killed by ___ for stealing cars and being homosexual,” read the January 1, 2005, memo, in which some words were redacted. The body was discovered in Ramadi, a city in central Iraq, and a note was left at the scene by the gunmen who killed the man. The fact that the note was written in advance of the killing suggests that the gunmen knew whom they were targeting and why they were killing him, and had time to plan and prepare for the murder.

“After talking with the locals (through an ___), a CO discovered that the male was killed at approximately 1545C by gunmen driving past in a vehicle,” the memo read. “The vehicle drove past, fired, dropped the note, and then fled. The note is being brought back to - -___ for further analysis. No friendly casualties or damage to equipment reported.”

Gay City News found the memo by searching on wikileaks.org with keywords such as gay, lesbian, homosexual, fag, and faggot. The 2005 memo was the only document Gay City News found that related to the killings of gay Iraqis. Gay City News first reported on such killings in March of 2006. Reporter Doug Ireland, who authored that first story, found killings that occurred as early as April of 2005. An April 2006 report from the United Nations added further evidence that gay, lesbian, and transgender Iraqis were being targeted.

Read Duncan Osborne's complete report.

October 18th In NYC: The 14th Annual Anti-Violence Project Courage Awards

Hosted once again by Law & Order's BD Wong, this year's Anti-Violence Project Courage Awards honorees are the Paul Rapoport Foundation, Gay City News journalist Duncan Osborne, and Village Voice columnist Steven Thrasher. Get tickets here. AVP executive director Sharon Stapel raves about Thrasher to the Village Voice:

"Your work at the Village Voice, particularly your coverage of proposed state funding cuts for domestic violence, has been exemplary. In recognition of your work as a community activist, advocate and journalist, we would like to honor you with a 2010 Courage Award. In accepting this award, you will join the distinguished company of past awardees including: progressive LGBTQ bloggers -- Bill Browning, Joe Jervis, Pam Spaulding and Andy Towle, Tony Kushner, Emil Wilbekin and George C. Wolfe to name but a few."

The NYC Anti-Violence Project is the city's primary civilian organization dedicated to immediate responses to incidents of violence against the LGBT community. Please consider supporting their vital work.

What's Up With AFER Donor Paul Singer?

This weekend the New York Times reported that Wall Street financier Paul Singer, who calls himself a "Barry Goldwater conservative," has secretly donated millions to LGBT causes. Singer will be hosting the upcoming Ken Mehlman fundraiser for AFER in his Manhattan home.

But Duncan Osborne reports on his blog Herd & Scene that Singer has also been a heavy backer of anti-gay GOP candidates around the nation.

When Mehlman came out in an August 25 story in The Atlantic it was clearly timed to coincide with the fundraiser so as an organizer of the 2004 campaigns it would seem that he was doing penance for those earlier anti-gay efforts. Singer and Thiel bring plenty of their own right wing baggage to this fundraiser. Call me cynical, but the same people who helped Mehlman spin his coming out may be helping Singer. For years, Singer has been a reliable and generous donor to many state and federal Republican political organizations, candidates, and office holders including some of the most anti-gay members of that party, such as Rick Santorum and Bill McCollum, who lost a bid to become the Republican nominee for Florida’s governor’s office on August 24. Singer has also supported moderate Republicans and has donated to Senator Chuck Schumer, a Democrat. In New York, he has donated to Democrats and Republicans, but his largest donations have gone to the state Republican and Conservative parties. In 2008, the Paul Singer Family Foundation gave $275,000 to the Manhattan Institute, a right wing group that has Singer as the chair of its board. Plenty of the experts at the institute have opposed gay marriage and other gay causes. The foundation gave the institute $30,000 in 2007. Also in 2008, the foundation gave $50,000 to the Witherspoon Institute.

Duncan Osbourne: "This fundraiser for the American Foundation for Equal Rights looks increasingly bizarre. When donors to a gay group must hire publicists to plant stories about the alleged secret philanthropy of one to gay causes or another’s struggle with his gay feelings as he attacked the gay and lesbian community it seems to me that the message is that they have doubts about their commitment. Or they think the rest of us will question their motives. The solution would have been to approach Mehlman’s coming out with some humility, but I doubt he knows what that is."

In a follow-up post today, Osborne examines Singer's donations to anti-gay candidates in Virginia such as Gov. Bob McDonnell and AG Ken Cuchinelli.

Does Elena Kagan Favor "Religious Liberty" At The Expense Of LGBT Rights?

Duncan Osbourne of Gay City News has uncovered some troubling history from Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan. From Osbourne's blog, Herd & Scene:

Despite knowing that religious freedom laws could invalidate state and local anti-discrimination statutes that protect bisexual, lesbian, transgender, and gay taxpayers, Elena Kagan, a nominee to the US Supreme Court, championed such laws in her later years in the Clinton administration. “I’m the biggest fan of [the Religious Freedom Restoration Act] (now [the Religious Liberty Protection Act]) in this building, but you should not take this advice right now,” Kagan wrote in a May 20, 1999 memo to Ron Klain, then the chief of staff to Al Gore, the vice president. “You’ll have a gay/lesbian firestorm on your hands. (Alternatively, if you come out for a version of RFRA that has a civil rights carve-out, you’ll have a religious groups firestorm on your hands.)” Kagan’s advice came in response to a memo by Bill Galston, a Gore advisor, that circulated among Gore’s staff and suggested the position he should take on the law.

Read Duncan Osbourne's complete story.

Still Alive: Oklahoma DOMA Challenge

A lesbian couple in Oklahoma has filed a new federal challenge to DOMA and their state's constitutional ban on same-sex marriage. The couple apparently filed their suit without the consultation of any LGBT group, despite pleas from such organizations that gay couples refrain from acting alone. Duncan Osborne at Gay City News:

The lawsuit has had a troubled history. Filed in 2004, the year Oklahoma amended its state constitution to ban recognition of same-sex marriages, the couples sued the governor, the state attorney general, and the federal government. A district court allowed the suit to proceed, but the state appealed that ruling in 2007. In a decision in June of this year, a three-judge appeals panel reversed the lower court and dismissed the case against the governor and attorney general.

Marriage licenses in Oklahoma are issued by court clerks who work for Oklahoma’s judicial branch of government, not the executive branch. The 2004 amendment made it a misdemeanor to issue a marriage license to a same-sex couple, but that law, if enforced by the attorney general, would apply to a court clerk, not the couple requesting the license. “The alleged injury to the Couples could not be caused by any action of the [governor and attorney general], nor would an injunction (tellingly, not requested here) against them give the Couples the legal status they seek,” the panel wrote. In their amended complaint, the couples sued the court clerk in Tulsa County and the federal government.

Gay Bashing Victim: I Deserved It (And Thanks For Beating The Queer Out Of Me)

Well, this has got to be the strangest story of the year. Dwan Prince, 31, has sent an apology to the man whose 2005 attack in Brooklyn left Prince partially paralyzed, telling him that it was Prince's own flirtatious behavior that brought on the assault and that thanks to the beating, he is no longer gay. Duncan Osborne at Gay City News:

In a move that may complicate the retrial of Steven Pomie in the 2005 attack on Dwan Prince, Prince sent Pomie a letter in which he blamed himself for the brutal, anti-gay assault and expressed the hope that Pomie serve just five years in prison, with five years post-release supervision for the crime. “First please allow me to deeply apology for my hated comment,” Prince wrote in the July 20 letter, which Gay City News is quoting verbatim. “Please I do hope you know I am truly deeply sorry for what ever was sayed that night. I have made some big mistakes in my life and that was the stupidiest and biggest one of all.”

Pomie, now 26, allegedly attacked Prince in Brooklyn’s Brownsville section after the now 31-year-old flirted with him. Pomie first beat and kicked Prince with two other men, and then made a second assault with another man, witnesses said during Pomie’s 2006 trial. When Pomie returned alone to deliver a third beating, witnesses prevented him from attacking Prince, who was lying unconscious on the sidewalk. One witness testified that as Pomie walked away from the scene, he quickly turned back and “kicked [Prince] with his Tims,” referring to the Timberland brand of boots. “Then blood started gushing,” the witness said.

Pomie was originally sentenced to 25 years in prison for first degree assault as a hate crime, but his conviction was overturned last year and Pomie was ordered to be retried on lesser charges. He remains in prison awaiting that trial. Since the attack, Prince says he has been attending bible studies and told Pomie in his letter that the beating turned him straight, saying, “Steve you changed me! So hopefully when you get out we can hang out. You know me. I know you. I help you calm that angry machine down. And allow you to know I am not gay but a lover, and you can find me a female I can love and can love me.”

Read Duncan Osborne's entire story to get all the crazy details. I don't know what to say about this.

Guilty Verdict In Murder Of NY Gay Man, Killer Had Called Victim A "Faggot"

A 18 year-old Brooklyn man was found guilty of second-degree murder yesterday for stabbing a 20 year-old gay man to death after calling him a "faggot" and accusing him of coming on to him. Duncan Osborne at Gay City News covered the trial, which nearly ended in a hung jury due to the poor credibility of witnesses.

Following a roughly three-day trial and four days of deliberation, a Brooklyn jury found Omar Willock guilty of second-degree murder in the 2007 stabbing death of Roberto Duncanson, a 20-year-old gay man. "Justice was served," was the only comment from Howard Jackson, the prosecutor in the case, following the March 18 verdict. The trial began on March 9, and the jury started deliberating on March 12. The 12 jurors spent the morning of March 13 listening to trial testimony. A verdict appeared to be in doubt at several points in the deliberations, with the jury repeatedly sending notes to Neil J. Firetog, the trial judge, saying they could not reach a verdict.

"The status from the get-go until Tuesday afternoon was nine to three in favor of conviction," said Beriah Wall, one of the jurors. "It wasn't until Tuesday afternoon that the foreperson really came around... At the point, it was ten to two." The prosecution relied primarily on two witnesses - Belinda Toon, who knew the 18-year-old Willock, but did not see him stab Duncanson, and Jeimar Brown, who saw a man stab Duncanson, but never identified Willock as that man. Wall said one juror, a retired Army sergeant, put the case together for the reluctant jurors. "He was truly patient and tenacious in connecting the dots," Wall said. "Neither of the witnesses were totally credible, especially Belinda... We really had to, step A, step B, run through the narrative numbers of times."

The judge dismissed the hate crime count of the charges, even though the prosecutor cited the Willock's repeated use of "faggot." Willock faces 15 years to life in prison; the hate crimes enhancement would have added five years to his sentence.

Activism CAN Work

All those protests and rallies about the NYC gay men falsely arrested for prostitution at the city's adult bookstore have seen results. Duncan Osborne at Gay City News reports on the latest development:

Activists who met with Robert Morgenthau report that the district attorney said he would investigate the 2008 prostitution arrests of at least 30 gay and bisexual men in at least six Manhattan porn shops, and may dismiss the cases against five of the men who are contesting the charges. "The first thing Morgenthau said was, 'We are going to investigate all these cases,'" said Joey Nelson, coordinator for the Queer Justice League and a member of the Coalition to Stop the Arrests. "That was the first thing out of his mouth."

The March 6 meeting lasted roughly an hour, and included coalition members, elected officials or their representatives, community groups, and Leroy Frazer, the executive assistant district attorney for governmental affairs and community relations. "They were going to go back and start looking at all the individual cases," said Robert Pinter, also a coalition member and one of the men who was arrested last year. "They really seemed genuinely concerned that something wrong was happening here."

In addition to the investigation into NYPD's campaign, activists want the five men who plead guilty to have their pleas vacated, the charges dismissed, and then for the cases to be sealed.

NYPD's Internal Affairs Now Investigating False Arrests At Porn Shops

Saturday's protest at Mayor Bloomberg's UES home has drawn the attention of the NYPD's Internal Affairs Bureau which is now looking into the allegations of false arrests of gay men at the city's adult bookstores. The most vocal victim of the campaign, Robert Pinter, was visited at his home by the IAB early this week. Via Duncan Osborne at Gay City News:

Pinter was visited by two IAB detectives at his East Village apartment the evening of February 15. The officers, identified by Pinter as a Lieutenant Hickey and a Sergeant Prentice, told him that the "differences" between his account of his arrest in press reports and that given by his arresting officer had prompted the inquiry. Pinter, who spoke with the two officers for no more than 15 minutes, said they told him, "We need to talk to you before we can launch the investigation." The two officers also asked Pinter if he was going to sue the city.