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Is it OK for restaurants with a mostly white clientele to play rap songs that use the N-word? This man says no.
Several weeks ago I was in a North Side coffeehouse, trying to ignore the usual hodgepodge of music blaring from the speakers, when a rap song came on.
It made me stop and listen. Over and over, it used the racial epithet we euphemistically call “the N-word,” and with each repetition I felt more bothered.
Was this OK? For this racially charged word to be so cavalierly broadcast into this public space? A space occupied entirely by white people? If there had been any black people there, would it have been better? Or worse? Was it OK because the word was being used by a black person?
I stewed over those questions for the time it took to finish my coffee, then on my way out stopped by the counter. I told the barista I thought it was wrong to casually blast that word in here, to treat it, in this space, as background entertainment. He shrugged.
Chicago Tribune
Music should be written for everyone to enjoy. 18-Feb-2019
CBP facing lawsuit after border agent detains women for speaking Spanish
Two women who were detained by a Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agent for speaking Spanish at a grocery store in Montana are suing the agency.
Mimi Hernandez and Ana Suda filed the lawsuit on Thursday with the assistance of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) after May’s incident, which was recorded and went viral.
In the footage, CBP agent Paul O’Neal can be heard telling the women — both American citizens — “I saw that you guys are speaking Spanish, which is very unheard of up here.”
O’Neal also says the women are being detained because of “speaking Spanish in the store, in a state where it’s predominantly English-speaking.”
Think Progress
A Pedophile Doctor Drew Suspicions for 21 Years. No One Stopped Him.
At first, officials at the U.S. Indian Health Service overlooked the peculiarities of their unmarried new doctor, including the children’s toys he hoarded in his basement on the reservation. They desperately needed a pediatrician at their hospital in Browning, Mont.
By 1995, after three years, they became convinced Stanley Patrick Weber was a pedophile and pushed for his removal from the government-run hospital.
“You’re going to have to leave,” Randy Rottenbiller, its clinical director at the time, recalled telling the doctor after learning a child patient had stayed the night in his house.
But the Indian Health Service didn’t fire Mr. Weber. Instead, it transferred him to another hospital in Pine Ridge, S.D. He continued treating Native American children there for another 21 years, leaving behind a trail of sexual-assault allegations.
WSJ
Vacaville Man Arrested On Suspicion Of Child Sexual Assault
After allegations of sexual abuse, Afghanistan women’s soccer team fights for justice
Theodore McCarrick expelled from priesthood after sexual abuse scandal
Teacher awarded over $500K after principal sexually harassed her
CRUISE SHIP SEXUAL ASSAULT: EX-CHEERLEADING COACH ATTACKED DRUNK COLLEAGUE
Woman who alleged rape by Fairfax, Maggette spotlights issue of revictimization
Public Help Sought to Find Man Accused of Sexually Assaulting Woman in Riverside
Instagram just banned longtime gay historian Tom Bianchi, & it’s part of a troubling anti-gay trend
Tom Bianchi is a longtime male erotic photographer and HIV activist whose photographs have helped document gay men’s sexual history on Fire Island and elsewhere. But as of this morning, you won’t be seeing his images on Instagram anymore because the photo-sharing platform recently banned him.
The shot that got Bianchi banned was called “Untitled, 457,” a picture from his collection entitled Fire Island Pines: Polaroids 1975-1983. The shot simply showed a naked man sitting on a bedside with his back to the camera. It showed the top of the man’s buttocks but was otherwise non-obscene. At the point of its deletion, it allegedly had over 5,000 likes.
Bianchi’s banning isn’t necessarily surprising. The Facebook-owned photo-sharing platform has a habit of deleting supposedly risqué homoerotic content, including tasteful pictures of nude athletes, an image of Queer Eye food guy Antoni Porowski in his underwear and even a lovely image of a lesbian couple cuddling in bed with their child.
LGBTQ Nation
No Charges In Police Killing Of Mall Shopper Mistaken For Shooter
The fatal police shooting of an armed Alabama man after he was mistaken for a mall shooter in November was “justified and not criminal,” authorities said Tuesday.
Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall decided that the Hoover, Alabama, officer who fatally shot 21-year-old Emantic “EJ” F. Bradford Jr. will not be criminally charged in the Thanksgiving night shooting.
Huffington Post
The Trump Administration Just Asked The Supreme Court To Let It Enforce Its Transgender Military Ban
The Trump administration on Friday asked the Supreme Court to take up three cases challenging the administration’s repeated efforts to bar transgender people from serving in the military. The move is the latest unusual filing at the high court by an administration that appears eager to leapfrog over appeals courts that have previously sided with challengers to the administration’s policies.
The effort to reverse Obama-era policies allowing for open transgender military service began when President Donald Trump tweeted out news of the ban in July 2017 and has been met with heavy skepticism from courts around the country since that morning.
Buzzfeed News
Supreme Court asked to mandate segregation for transgender students
The Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), an anti-LGBTQ hate group, has yet another case it wants the Supreme Court to consider. This time, they’re hoping the justices will mandate that schools must segregate transgender students to single-use restrooms for the sake of other students’ “comfort.”
In its petition to the Court, ADF asks it to overturn a decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit that upheld a trans-inclusive policy at Boyertown Area Senior High School in southeastern Pennsylvania. The Third Circuit recognized that it is important to transgender students’ well-being to be recognized according to their gender identity and that excluding them from facilities is detrimental to both their physical and mental health. While the students ADF represents may have been uncomfortable, they are not suffering comparable discrimination or violations of privacy simply for being expected to share facilities with their transgender classmates.
Think Progress
Education Dept. Proposes Enhanced Protection For Students Accused Of Sexual Assault
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos announced sweeping rules on how colleges handle cases of sexual assault and harassment that she says will fix a "failed" and "shameful" system that has been unfair to accused students. In what the administration is calling a "historic process," the proposed rules aim to significantly enhance legal protections for the accused and reflect a sentiment expressed by President Trump that men are unfairly being presumed guilty. More than a year in the making, the rules replace Obama-era policies on how to implement Title IX, the law barring gender discrimination in schools that get federal funding.
The new rules are drawing both applause and anger.
Among the most significant changes is that schools can make it harder to prove allegations by raising the level of proof needed. Instead of requiring only a "preponderance of the evidence," as the Obama administration had directed, schools could demand "clear and convincing evidence." And many schools may well be forced to raise the bar, since the regulations also require that the standard for students be the same as that used for faculty and staff.
npr
Inside the Fight to Uncover the Truth About Trump’s Anti-LGBT Crusade
In the wake of an explosive anti-transgender memo leaked from the Department of Health and Human Services and published by the New York Times, LGBT advocates have questions: Who proposed that “sex” be defined by original birth certificate? Was there any pushback? Who, if anyone, was consulted?
But under an administration that has not exactly been forthcoming on LGBT issues, the only way to get answers might be through Freedom of Information Act requests, the Human Rights Campaign says.
The Daily Beast
Trans man kicked out of London gay sauna for not having a penis
A London gay sauna kicked out a trans man for not having a penis.
26-year-old Jason Smith (not his real name) identifies as bisexual and says he’s a ‘very passable trans man’.
He decided to go to the Sailors Sauna in Limehouse in London’s East on Monday night (29 October) with a friend.
The transgender man was a little unsure about going to the sex-on-premises venue so he checked their website beforehand for any trans-specific policies.
Gay Star News
UK man jailed for homophobic bus attack on gay teenager
Almost half of all LGBT people in the US live in states with no workplace protections
A new report reveals how far the United States has to go before achieving workplace equality for LGBT people.
The Movement Advancement Project (MAP), American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), and Lambda Legal released the report today.
Are LGBT Workers Protected from Discrimination? assesses the current state of federal and state-level protections for LGBT employees.
A little over half (52%) of all LGBT adults in the US live in states with some employment protections. 48%, however, live in places with no protections in the workplace whatsoever.
Gay Star News
More Americans Supported Hitler Than You May Think. Here's Why One Expert Thinks That History Isn't Better Known
These days, and especially since the deadly rally in Charlottesville, Va., last August, it has become clear to many Americans that the specter of Nazism in their country is not resigned to 1930s history. But until very recently, even that part of the story was less well known than it is today.
In fact, when Bradley W. Hart first started researching the history of Nazi sympathy in the United States a few years ago, he was largely driven by the absence of attention to the topic. Hart’s new book Hitler’s American Friends: The Third Reich’s Supporters in the United States argues that the threat of Nazism in the United States before World War II was greater than we generally remember today, and that those forces offer valuable lessons decades later — and not just because part of that story is the history of the “America First” idea, born of pre-WWII isolationism and later reborn as a slogan for now-President Donald Trump.
Time
Sex abuse scandal in German Catholic Church sparks celibacy debate
For a long time now there has been argument within the church in Germany about the obligation for priests to remain unmarried. The sexual abuse scandal has reignited the discussion. A celibacy debate could tear the Catholic Church apart. But perhaps the impetus for reflection about the obligation to remain celibate is not in fact coming from academic reflection or long conferences of German bishops, but from the other side of the ecclesiastical world.
DW
Chicago archbishop removes priest who burned rainbow banner
India’s Gay Prince Just Called Out Religious Hypocrites Who Propositioned Him for Sex
271 Indian Christians accused of using drugs to force conversions
Archbishop: Maryland AG investigating records in abuse probe
FOUR BROOKLYN BOYS REPEATEDLY RAPED AT CATHOLIC CHURCH REACH $27.5 MILLION SETTLEMENT
Four men who were sexually assaulted as boys by a teacher at a Roman Catholic church have reached a $27.5 million settlement with the Diocese of Brooklyn, one of the largest ever payouts for victims of abuse within the church.
Each victim, now aged between 19 and 21, will receive around $6.8 million from the diocese and an affiliated after-school program after they repeatedly abused by Angelo Serrano, 67, while he taught at St. Lucy’s-St. Patrick’s Church in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn, reports The New York Times.
The abuse is said to have occurred between 2003 and 2009, when the victims were aged between 8 and 12.
Newsweek
Rape of 7-year-old in India marks the latest in series of attacks on girls
Vatican temporarily suspends Indian bishop accused of raping nun
A Teen Escaped an Alleged Kidnapper and Human Trafficker by Fleeing Into a Restaurant Bathroom
Anti-abuse activists pan US Catholic bishops' new proposals
Jehovah's Witnesses accused of mishandling abuse in Montana
Bryan Singer Tag: Opinion IF BRYAN SINGER IS HIRED TO DIRECT RED SONJA, IT WILL PROVE HOLLYWOOD HAS FAILED #METOO
Father arrested for chauffeuring teen son to late night park hookup
A Florida man was arrested for driving his son to a local park so the teen could have sex, The Smoking Gun reports.
To be clear: The father wasn’t having sex with his son; he was acting as his chauffeur. Sorta like a soccer mom driving her kid to practice.
According to police reports, an officer was called to investigate a Toyota that was parked after hours outside the McChesney Park in Port St. Lucie, Florida on September 6.
When the officer approached the vehicle, he found 53-year-old Laurence Mitchell sitting in the driver’s seat. When asked what he was doing there, Mitchell replied that he had just dropped off his son and his friend so they could “do their thang” in the woods.
Queerty