JetBlue Spotlights Coming Out Day Stories of LGBTQ Employees

The airline also promised a “special surprise” for those who share their own #ComingOutDay stories.

www.advocate.com/business/2019/10/11/jetblue-spotlights-coming-out-day-stories-lgbtq-employees

Judge declares mistrial in case of cop who allegedly beat teen and called subordinates “f*ggots”

A federal judge just declared a mistrial in the case of a former police chief from New Jersey who was facing a hate crime charge and a civil rights violation.

Former Bordentown Township Police Chief Frank Nucera Jr. was on trial regarding the 2016 arrest of Timothy Stroye, an 18-year-old African American teenager.

Stoye was arrested after being accused of trying to sneak into the pool at the Ramada hotel in Bordentown Township. He was taken into custody and held on a $7,500 bail, which he was unable to afford. During his three week stay in Burlington County Jail, his father died.

While in custody, Nucera allegedly abused Stoye, verbally assaulting him and slamming his head into a doorjamb. Later, when questioned about it by the FBI, Nucera denied ever touching the teenager.

During the trial, prosecutors argued the assault was motivated by racial animus and played over 80 recordings made by another office that captured Nucera using racial slurs while on the job, including saying Black people are “like ISIS” and deserved to die.

“I’ll tell you what, it’s gonna get to the point where I could shoot one of these motherf*ckers,” Nucera said in one of the recordings. “And that n*gger b*tch lady, she almost got it. F*cking nipple hanging b*tch. I’m so tired of them, man.”

In addition to being caught on tape saying horrific and racist things, Nucera also has a long history of making derogatory remarks about LGBTQ people, women, and pretty much every other marginalized community.

HuffPo reports:

Nucera called President Donald Trump the “last hope for white people” and referred to his officers in expletive-laden terms. He called his subordinates “millennial c*nts,” “f*ggot p*ssies,” and “softer than baby sh*t.” Multiple officers said that Nucera was obsessed with ticket revenue, with one calling him a “traffic Nazi” who oversaw a small department that patrolled a 10-square-mile township and issued more tickets per year than the township had residents.

Jurors deliberated for almost 45 hours over the course of eight days before telling U.S. District Judge Robert Kugler they were deadlocked on the hate crime and civil rights charges, prompting the judge to declare a mistrial.

The Philadelphia Inquirer reports:

www.queerty.com/judge-declares-mistrial-case-cop-allegedly-beat-teen-called-subordinates-fggots-20191011?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+queerty2+%28Queerty%29

Remembering and Honoring Matthew Shepard

HRC marks the tragic death of Matthew Shepard 21 years ago. As we mourn with the Shepard family, we recommit to our shared work combating hate and advocating for laws that protect LGBTQ people and mandate the accurate accounting of crimes against our community. 

Shepard was attacked in Laramie, Wyoming, in an anti-gay hate crime on Oct. 6, 1998. He died from his injuries six days later. In his memory, HRC remains vigilant in its work against hate and to ensure that no one is targeted because of who they are or who they love. 

Since his death, significant progress has been made to expand protections and support for victims of hate-motivated crime, including the 2009 Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act. Just months before Shepard was murdered, Byrd, a Black man, was beaten by a group of white supremacists, tied to the back of a pickup truck and dragged three miles before dying. The Shepard and Byrd families worked tirelessly to pass the historic act. 

At this year’s HRC Foundation’s Time to THRIVE conference, Judy and Dennis Shepard were presented with the Upstander Award for their steadfast commitment to advocacy after their son’s horrific murder. 

Even with the Hate Crimes Prevention Act, we still have a long way to go. Too many in the LGBTQ community, particularly transgender women of color, are targeted with violence. Just this year, 19 transgender people have been killed — and most were victims of gun violence. 

That’s why during her remarks at HRC’s Time to THRIVE conference, Judy Shepard emphasized the importance of protecting LGBTQ people nationwide. 

“We have a situation in this country right now that is temporary, but even in this temporary time, it becomes extra important because those who don’t want us here are emboldened in their beliefs… We need to work with the Human Rights Campaign, our own state legislators, our senators because state by state we can do this but we really need to do it federally,” she said. 

In the states, it is imperative that local and state law enforcement expand trainings and infrastructure so they can better serve diverse communities — and fully and accurately report on the extent of anti-LGBTQ violence. HRC has also called on state legislatures to pass inclusive non-discrimination protections and hate crimes laws, and the U.S. Senate to pass the Equality Act, which would provide explicit protection for LGBTQ people nationwide. Lawmakers must also act to ensure that training and data-collection around all hate crimes is mandatory, not voluntary. 

We must combat the divisive rhetoric and dangerous policies that dehumanize large swaths of the public. The combination of transphobia, homophobia, misogyny, xenophobia and racism can inflame hate, often leading to deadly consequences. That’s why the LGBTQ community needs lawmakers to act with the urgency this ongoing crisis demands.

HRC vows to continue honoring with action the memory of Shepard, Byrd and all those whose lives have been ended by hate. 

www.hrc.org/blog/remembering-and-honoring-matthew-shepard?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss-feed

10 Celebs Sending Love to LGBTQ Youth on National Coming Out Day

www.advocate.com/people/2019/10/11/10-celebs-sending-love-lgbtq-youth-national-coming-out-day

Queer couple shocked by new ‘gay-bashing’ neighbor. Their response is priceless.

What happens when a liberal bubble gets popped by an uncomfortable encounter with unhinged bigotry?

We all know from watching the news that hatred and ultra-conservative viewpoints have become emboldened in recent years, but suddenly having to confront them face-to-face is another matter.

Marcia Wilke of Los Angeles recently learned that the hard way, but her reaction is worth paying attention to.

In an LA Times op-ed, Wilke, who lives with her wife, writes about what happened when their “delightfully diverse, liberal-leaning, bake-sale-for-charity Hollywood neighborhood” got a new neighbor — a “gay-bashing ranter” who hung “an assortment of hostile T-shirts printed with anti-feminism, anti-Islam, anti-gay and pro-1st Amendment sayings” in his front yard for all to see.”

He’d spend his time in the yard, yelling “at anyone walking by, calling them ‘progressive scum’ or ‘socialists.’ If he got no response, he would chant and sing, ‘Lock her up’ or ‘Build the wall’— for 30 minutes.”

The neighborhood felt terrorized, and Wilke and her partner were all too aware that the man was vehemently antigay.

But one day when he was locked out of his house without a cellphone, Wilke and her partner offered a helping hand.

No one in the neighborhood would open their door to him except us. My partner let him use her cellphone. He called his mom to rescue him.

He handed back the phone. “Why are you being so nice to me?”

She replied, “Oh. Human being.”

Later, when someone took down his hateful t-shirt collection and scattered them down the block, Wilke gathered and returned them to her neighbor. Instead of thanking her, the man complained that one was missing.

“I knew which one — a black T-shirt with a derogatory definition for each letter of LGBTQ,” Wilke writes.

She asked him to describe what it looked like, what it said. He wouldn’t do it.

Wilke concluded:

All I know is that he wouldn’t tell me to my face the words on his gay-bashing T-shirt. He could not look at me and verbalize what he thought was his “right” to express. When it was human being to human being, the hate was unsustainable.

Read Wilke’s full story here.

www.queerty.com/queer-couple-shocked-new-gay-bashing-neighbor-response-priceless-20191011?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+queerty2+%28Queerty%29

Gay Man Who Fled Chechnya Describes How Captors Staged His Execution: ‘I Started Painting the Wall with My Blood’ — WATCH

ABC’s Nightline previewed an upcoming segment in which they look into the detentions and persecution of gay men in the Russian republic of Chechnya which has been going on for years.

ABC News foreign correspondent James Longman spent a year talking to several victims of the anti-LGBT campaigns.

Amin Dzhabrailov, who was captured and tortured and beaten for days, described his experience, telling Nightline that his captors staged his execution: “They tell me that they know that I’m gay, and [to] tell [them] about more gay guys… The sense was [they would] probably just torture them also. … I didn’t give any name[s]. … They took off my shoes… and they put me on the wall, put [a] bag on my head…. That guy charged his gun, and put [it] right here on my head. And I started painting the wall with my blood. And he said that it’s my last seconds.

The post Gay Man Who Fled Chechnya Describes How Captors Staged His Execution: ‘I Started Painting the Wall with My Blood’ — WATCH appeared first on Towleroad Gay News.

Gay Man Who Fled Chechnya Describes How Captors Staged His Execution: ‘I Started Painting the Wall with My Blood’ — WATCH

HRC Celebrates 31st Annual National Coming Out Day

HRC is celebrating the 31st annual National Coming Out Day (NCOD). Every year on October 11, NCOD emphasizes the importance of coming out and creating a safe world in which LGBTQ people can live openly as their authentic selves.

“National Coming Out Day is an important opportunity to celebrate the power of visibility to change hearts and minds and how coming out can transform our lives and our movement,” said HRC President Alphonso David. “The tragic reality is that there are still far too many LGBTQ people across America and around the globe who are forced to live in fear. At a time when transgender people, especially transgender women of color, face an epidemic of violence, it is imperative we address this crisis at all levels of government and in every community. If you come out but cannot be safe, you are not free. The only way to triumph over fear is with love — love of ourselves, our LGBTQ community and the diversity of communities and experiences that enrich our humanity. We must turn that love into action — by living our truths and fighting for a world where every person is safe to live theirs.”

In honor of NCOD, HRC launched a powerful video and digital campaign highlighting inspirational stories of celebrities and influencers who have come out over the past year, including Jonathan Van Ness, Lil Nas X, Ryan Russell, Willow Smith, and Lilly Singh.

In recent years, the LGBTQ community has made great strides toward full equality in the U.S. through legal victories and political change built on decades of grassroots activism. This May, for the first time, a chamber of Congress passed a comprehensive LGBTQ civil rights bill — the Equality Act.

Yet at the same time, the LGBTQ community faces unprecedented attacks from the Trump-Pence administration, including the rescinding of key protections for transgender students, the banning of transgender troops from serving openly and the advancement of policies that would open the door to discrimination against LGBTQ people in health care, housing, public accommodations and other aspects of life. In addition, 50% of LGBTQ Americans live in the 29 states that still lack statewide legal non-discrimination protections, leaving their residents and visitors at risk of being fired, denied housing or refused service. And in 2019, at least 19 transgender people have been killed in the United States, nearly all of them Black transgender women.

Research shows that when an individual knows someone who is LGBTQ, they are far more likely to support LGBTQ equality. For example, a 2016 survey commissioned by the HRC Foundation — the educational arm of HRC — found that 35% of likely voters know or work with a transgender person, twice as many as a report from 2014 found. Significantly, more than two-thirds of those who said they know a transgender person expressed support for full LGBTQ equality.

Last year, HRC worked with Twitter to mark the occasion for the first time in history with a dedicated National Coming Out Day emoji in conjunction with the hashtag #ComingOutDay. Social media users can use the hashtag again this year to elevate their voices, connect with the community and share their stories.

The HRC Foundation has launched several resources available to encourage and support individuals in their coming out journey, including guides on coming out as your true identity, in communities of faith, among different racial and ethnic identities, in the workplace, at the doctor and in a variety of other contexts. Visit hrc.org/comingout for more information.

For more information and resources on NCOD, visit HRC’s Coming Out Center.

‘ ! ! !

Today is National #ComingOutDay and we want to celebrate every brave soul that has decided to come out and live their truth. pic.twitter.com/jFnUjEhxU1

— Human Rights Campaign (@HRC) October 11, 2019

www.hrc.org/blog/hrc-celebrates-31st-annual-national-coming-out-day?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss-feed