Watch: Top Mandopop star Stefanie Sun supports Pink Dot Singapore
Stefanie Sun, a Mandarin popstar popular across East Asia and Southeast Asia, says she supports the ‘Freedom to Love’ and calls on fans to attend Singapore’s pro-LGBT Pink Dot rally
sylviat
www.gaystarnews.com/article/watch-top-mandopop-star-stefanie-sun-supports-pink-dot-singapore140614
Restaurant manager says he fired server for writing slur on check
A bartender at Bistro 18 wrote the words ‘GAY BITCHES’ on the check of a transgender customer and eight friends last summer. (Photo courtesy of Lambda Legal)
The manager of an Adams Morgan restaurant whose bartender wrote the words “GAY BITCHES” on the check for a transgender customer and eight friends who were with her said he immediately fired the bartender for writing the slur and apologized, according to gay blogger Bil Browning of the Bilerico Project.
The New York-based LGBT litigation group Lambda Legal announced in a press release on Tuesday, June 10, that it filed a discrimination complaint against Bistro 18 restaurant and hookah bar at 2420 18th St., N.W., over the slur and other alleged discriminatory actions by the restaurant before the D.C. Office of Human Rights.
Lambda said it filed the complaint on behalf of Amira Gray, a transgender woman who was sitting with eight friends, two of whom are gay men, when a female bartender who’s not identified in the complaint delivered the check to their table.
The issue of whether the bartender printed the slur on the check is not in dispute.
But in a development not common in LGBT discrimination cases, at least two prominent gay activists — Deacon Maccubbin, founder and owner of D.C.’s now closed Lambda Rising bookstore and Rick Rosendall, president of the Gay and Lesbian Activists Alliance — are siding with the accused party. Both say Bistro 18 shouldn’t be held responsible for a single employee’s action and that the restaurant has taken all necessary steps to remedy the situation.
The incident took place in August 2013, the complaint states. A Lambda Legal official told the Blade that Gray chose to come forward to file the complaint this week after considerable reflection, deciding that she and her friends were wronged, even though the manager cancelled the bill that came to $152.30.
Lambda Legal’s announcement of the filing of the complaint, which is posted on its Facebook page, triggered a flurry of social media postings highly critical of Bistro 18. Some of the postings called for a boycott of the restaurant.
Browning, editor and publisher of the Bilerico Project blog, triggered a separate flurry of postings by some LGBT activists and others condemning Lambda Legal for publicizing an allegation implying that Bistro 18 was a homophobic or anti-trans establishment that condones discrimination.
The Blade could not reach a representative of Bistro 18 for comment through repeated phone calls and through a visit to the bar Thursday night. The Washington Post and Washington City Paper reported their attempts to reach a representative of the restaurant were also unsuccessful.
According to Browning, Mohammad Elhoda, Bistro 18’s manager, told him his restaurant welcomes LGBT customers, gay employees currently work at the establishment, the restaurant has hosted LGBT events, and it has a strict policy of non-discrimination covering everyone, including LGBT people.
Gray states in her complaint that in addition to the anti-LGBT slur on the check, which she kept and turned over to Lambda Legal, her party was being denied service at the table in which they were seated. She walked to the bar and ordered drinks for her friends, which she brought to her table, the complaint states. No server came to the table except one who delivered the hookah smoking pipe while people seated at nearby tables were being waited on regularly by servers, the complaint says.
Browning reports that Elhoda said service at the restaurant was slow on the night Gray and her friends were there and he intervened to help his staff, providing Gray’s party with at least one round of free drinks to make up for the delays. At least some of the people in Gray’s party returned to the restaurant in the following weeks and appeared to be enjoying themselves, Browning reports Elhoda as saying.
Elhoda also claims that some of the people in Gray’s party yelled insults at the bartender and threatened her after the check with the slur was delivered to their table, prompting the restaurant’s security staff to intervene, Browning reports.
Browning, who appears to be the only media representative with whom Elhoda has spoken so far, wrote in his blog that Lambda should have investigated the allegation of discrimination further before publicizing it on Facebook.
“With LGBT activists and netizens constantly ready to retaliate against any perceived slight and conservative Christians regularly claiming that many businesses are unfairly attacked by activists, what responsibility does Lambda Legal have to ensure that they aren’t damaging a business’ reputation without reason?” Browning wrote. “Should they be held responsible for any harm they cause the establishment – particularly if the bar is found innocent by the city’s human rights commission?”
In a follow-up statement posted on its website, Lambda Legal questioned the accuracy of Elhoda’s version of what happened.
“The statements of the restaurant’s manager, as recounted in the blog as if they were accurate, however, are in sharp contrast to what our client and her friends experienced,” the Lambda statement says.
“Lambda Legal doesn’t make decisions lightly about how to proceed, and gathered confirmation of the allegations in the OHR complaint before it was filed,” the statement says. “Not only do we have the receipt clearly showing the anti-gay slur, but multiple members of a large group of friends who were with Amira at Bistro 18 have corroborated what actually happened that night.”
Maccubbin, who notes that he helped lobby for passage of the city’s Human Rights Act in the 1970s, said in a comment posted with the Blade that Bistro 18 was getting a “raw deal” by Lambda Legal.
“There is no history of discriminatory actions on the part of this business, its management or employees, other than this one incident by this one former employee,” he said. “The business responded appropriately and should not be castigated, by Lambda Legal or anyone else.”
Maccubbin added, “It’s fine for Lambda Legal to represent the complainant, but they should do so within the parameters of the complaint process, not by fomenting unjust and defamatory vigilantism in social media.”
In her complaint Gray said, “As a transgender woman, I was extremely hurt, embarrassed and upset. I felt that the slur was meant as a slap in the face because of my gender identity and expression, my perceived sexual orientation, my personal appearance, and my association with my friends who are or may have been perceived as being lesbian or gay.”
Lou Chibbaro Jr.
Restaurant manager says he fired server for writing slur on check
Marcha Guadalajara LGBT 2014 COLEGA
GRUPO DE JÓVENES QUE PARTICIPAN EN EL CONTINGENTE DE LA ASOCIACIÓN COLEGA.
LGBT on bisexuals
LGBT on bisexuals, Loving Yourself!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=XrXXRgOPziM&feature=youtube_gdata
Judge halts same-sex marriages in Wisconsin
A federal court has stayed same-sex marriages taking place in Wisconsin (Photo by Bigstock).
A federal judge has agreed to halt same-sex marriages taking place in Wisconsin in the same order in which she spells out the injunction for an earlier ruling against the state’s marriage law.
In a 14-page order handed down on Friday, U.S. District Judge Barbara Crabb issued the stay pending appeal in response to an emergency request to halt the weddings by Wisconsin Attorney J.B. Van Hollen.
“IT IS ORDERED that defendants’ motion to stay all relief in this case…is GRANTED,” Crabb writes. “The injunction and the declaration shall take effect after the conclusion of any appeals or after the expiration of the deadline for filing an appeal, whichever is later.”
Last week, Crabb ruled the 2006 ban on same-sex marriage in Wisconsin violated the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. However, she included neither an injunction, nor a stay as part of her decision.
Even without an injunction, as many as 15 counties began granting marriage licenses to same-sex couples, much to the chagrin of Van Hollen, who insisted the ban was still in effect.
In a statement, Van Hollen crowed over the judge’s decision to halt any further same-sex marriage from taking place within the state.
“I am very pleased that Judge Crabb has followed the lead of courts across the country, including the United States Supreme Court, and fully stayed her ruling,” Van Hollen said. “By staying this ruling, she has confirmed that Wisconsin’s law regarding same-sex marriage remains in full force and effect.”
On Monday, Crabb rebuffed an earlier request for a stay, saying she would decide the issue after all parties in the case submitted proposed injunctions in the aftermath of the ruling.
Van Hollen has appealed the case to the U.S. Seventh Circuit of Appeals, which is now one of six federal appeals courts considering the issue of marriage equality.
Now that the stay is in effect, a situation is created in Wisconsin along the lines of what happened in Utah and Michigan, where questions linger about whether the same-sex marriages in the state will be recognized by the states and the federal government. In both cases, state officials determined they wouldn’t grant benefits same-sex couples married in those states, although U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder determined they would be valid in the eyes of the federal government.
Chris Johnson
Fun Facts | LGBT & Disabled Facts | FUN FRIDAY
Here are some random fun facts about coffee, butterflies, and stamps, as well as some important facts about people who are both LGBT & disabled! I hope you like it! MERCH: www.christinasdou…
Same-Sex Marriages End in Wisconsin, for Now
Judge Barbara Crabb halted the marriages while her ruling striking down the state’s ban on such unions is appealed.
Trudy Ring
www.advocate.com/politics/marriage-equality/2014/06/13/same-sex-marriages-end-wisconsin-now
Wisconsin Gay Marriages Halted By Federal Judge Who Struck Down Ban
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A federal judge on Friday put same-sex marriages in Wisconsin on hold, a week after she struck down the state’s same-sex marriage ban as unconstitutional, a move that allowed more than 500 couples to wed over the last eight days.
U.S. District Judge Barbara Crabb’s ruling Friday means that gay marriages will end while the appeal from Republican Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen is pending. Couples who were in the middle of the five-day waiting period to get a license, which most counties waived, are caught in limbo. Van Hollen requested Crabb put her ruling on hold, arguing that allowing the marriages while the underlying case was pending created confusion about the legality of those marriages.
In her order, Crabb expressed mixed feelings.
“After seeing the expressions of joy on the faces of so many newly wedded couples featured in media reports, I find it difficult to impose a stay on the event that is responsible for eliciting that emotion, even if the stay is only temporary,” Crabb said in her order. “Same-sex couples have waited many years to receive equal treatment under the law, so it is understandable that they do not want to wait any longer. However, a federal district court is required to follow the guidance provided by the Supreme Court.”
The ruling came exactly one week after Crabb declared the state’s ban on gay marriage unconstitutional. But Crabb didn’t issue any orders on how state officials were to implement her decision, and amid the uncertainty, nearly every Wisconsin county — 60 of 72 — issued licenses.
Crabb issued an order preventing clerks from denying same-sex couples marriage licenses, but then put that on hold as well as her earlier ruling striking down the law as unconstitutional.
John Knight, attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union, which challenged the law, called Crabb’s decision to put her order on hold disappointing.
“But we will fight for a quick resolution on appeal and are confident that marriage will be a reality in Wisconsin very soon for lesbian and gay couples who have waited much too long already,” he said in an email.
Van Hollen said he was “very pleased” with the ruling.
“County clerks do not have authority under Wisconsin law to issue same-sex marriage licenses,” he said in a statement. “Judge Crabb’s stay makes this abundantly clear.”
Van Hollen said he will appeal her ruling striking down the law to the 7th U.S. Circuit Court.
Allen Rasmussen, 46, and Keith Kitsembel, 49, who have been together for 14 years, asked the Portage County clerk nine times since Monday to get a marriage license.
“I think it’s ridiculous,” Kitsembel said after the ruling Friday. “I furthermore am very, very, very disappointed in our county clerk in Portage County. We had a small window of opportunity to get married, and she refused to grant us a license nine times in five days.”
They were part of a silent protest Friday outside the Portage County courthouse.
As of midday Thursday, 555 same-sex couples had gotten married in the state, based on an Associated Press survey of all 72 counties.
Van Hollen said Thursday that same-sex couples with marriage licenses aren’t legally married because Crabb hasn’t issued an order telling county clerks how to interpret her ruling striking down the law. Van Hollen also said district attorneys could charge clerks who issued licenses with a crime.
Crabb reiterated in Friday’s 30-minute hearing that clerks were issuing licenses to same-sex couples on their own.
“I never told them not to and I never told them to do it,” Crabb said.
The ACLU and others say because Crabb found the law unconstitutional, and didn’t order clerks not to issue licenses, they could legally give them to couples seeking to get married.
Crabb’s order did not address whether same-sex marriages completed over the past week are valid.
Wisconsin’s constitutional amendment, approved by 59 percent of voters in 2006, outlawed gay marriage or anything substantially similar. The ACLU said the ban violated the constitutional rights of eight gay couples to equal protection and due process and Crabb agreed.
Gay rights activists have won 15 consecutive lower court cases since a landmark Supreme Court ruling last summer, with Wisconsin being the latest.
Wisconsin is among 13 states with gay marriage cases pending before appeals courts.
_____
Associated Press writer Carrie Antlfinger contributed to this report from Milwaukee.
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