Betty Bowers Was Right: Prosecutors Say No Charges to be Lodged Against Would Be Pedophile

Prosecutors drop case in Ramsey slaying
By JON SARCHE, Associated Press Writer

Prosecutors abruptly dropped their case Monday against John Mark Karr in the slaying of JonBenet Ramsey, saying DNA tests failed to put him at the crime scene despite his insistence he sexually assaulted and strangled the 6-year-old beauty queen.

Just a week and a half after Karr's arrest in Thailand was seen as a remarkable break in the sensational, decade-old case, prosecutors suggested in court papers that he was just a man with a twisted fascination with JonBenet who confessed to a crime he didn't commit.

"The people would not be able to establish that Mr. Karr committed this crime despite his repeated insistence that he did," District Attorney Mary Lacy said in court papers.

The 41-year-old schoolteacher will be kept in jail in Boulder until he can be sent to Sonoma County, Calif., to face child pornography charges dating to 2001.

The district attorney vowed to keep pursuing leads in JonBenet's death: "This case is not closed."

Karr was never formally charged in the slaying. In court papers, Lacy defended the decision to arrest him and bring him back to the United States for further investigation, saying he might have otherwise fled and may have been targeting children in Thailand as well.

Lacy said Karr emerged as a suspect in April after he spent several years exchanging e-mails and later telephone calls with a University of Colorado journalism professor who had produced documentaries on the Ramsey case.

According to court papers, Karr told the professor he accidentally killed JonBenet during sex and that he tasted her blood after he injured her vaginally. But the Denver crime lab conducted DNA tests last Friday on a cheek swab taken from Karr and were unable to connect him to the crime.

"This information is critical because ... if Mr. Karr's account of his sexual involvement with the victim were accurate, it would have been highly likely that his saliva would have been mixed with the blood in the underwear," Lacy said in court papers.

She also said authorities found no evidence Karr was in Boulder at the time of the slaying. She said Karr's family provided "strong circumstantial support" for their belief that he was with them in Georgia, celebrating the Christmas holidays. JonBenet was found beaten and strangled at her Boulder home on Dec. 26, 1996.

Defense attorney Seth Temin expressed outrage that Karr was even arrested.

"We're deeply distressed by the fact that they took this man and dragged him here from Bangkok, Thailand, with no forensic evidence confirming the allegations against him and no independent factors leading to a presumption he did anything wrong," Temin said.

In an interview Monday with MSNBC, Gary Harris, who had been spokesman for the Karr family, said he knew the DNA would not match.

Karr has been "obsessed with this case for a long time. He may have some personality problems, but he's not a killer," Harris said. "He obsesses. He wanted to be a rock star one time. ... He's a dreamer. He's the kind of guy who wants to be famous."

Earlier this month, Ramsey family attorney Lin Wood pronounced Karr's arrest vindication for JonBenet's parents, John and Patsy Ramsey, who had long been suspected in the killing.

On Monday, the attorney said: "From day one, John Ramsey publicly stated that he did not want the public or the media to jump to judgment. He did not want the public or the media to engage in speculation, that he wanted the justice system to take its course."

Wood said he still has great confidence in the district attorney. Patsy Ramsey died of cancer in June.

JonBenet Ramsey's aunt, Pamela Paugh, said she was disappointed there won't be a prosecution of someone in the case, but added: "I think our justice system worked as it was supposed to."

"We asked the DA to do her thing. She did it," said Paugh, who is Patsy Ramsey's sister. "My disappointment came about the end of December 1996 when we didn't have the killer then. We've had 9 1/2 years of disappointment and waiting."

Nate Karr, John Karr's brother, said he was elated by the news. "We're just going to be celebrating with family," he said.

Scott Robinson, a Denver attorney who has followed the case from the beginning, said prosecutors may now be back at square one in the JonBenet case. He said Karr may be charged with lying about his role in the case.

"Seems to me there should be some criminal consequences," he said. "He has cost the taxpayers an enormous amount of money."

Karr was arrested in Petaluma, Calif., in 2001 on charges of possessing child pornography but fled before he could be tried. Colorado authorities said that after the Boulder case against Karr was dropped, California officials asked that he be turned over to them for prosecution.

In court papers, prosecutors said Karr began exchanging e-mails with professor Michael Tracey in 2002, signing them "D" and later "Daxis." The meaning of "Daxis" was not immediately clear.

At first, Karr seemed to be just someone with an intense interest in the case, but he soon claimed responsibility for the crime, and provided more and more detail about that night, according to court papers. He claimed that he accidentally killed JonBenet during sexual activity that included temporarily asphyxiating her, prosecutors said.

He began telling his story in hopes of being included a book Tracey was planning to publish, according to the court papers.

Authorities eventually traced his calls and identified Daxis as Karr, prosecutors said.

The district attorney said there was no way to take a cheek swab from Karr without alerting him that he was under investigation, and that would have created an "unacceptable risk that he would flee."

Also, Karr was about to start a teaching job in Thailand, and in his correspondence began to describe an interest in several girls "in much the same terms that he had described his interest in JonBenet," Lacy said in court papers. Authorities confirmed he was involved with at least one of the girls, Lacy said.

Associated Press writers Chase Squires in Boulder, Sandy Shore in Denver, Harry R. Weber in Atlanta and Scott Lindlaw in San Francisco contributed to this report.

On the Net:

D.A. filing: http://
www.courts.state.co.us/docs/06CR1244MQUASH1.pdf

Related information:
http://www.co.boulder.co.us/newsroom/templates/?a569&z13

Copyright © 2006 The Associated Press.

So. just as Betty Bowers, the World's Greatest Most Fabulous Christian predicted here last week, Mr. Karr, the would-be pedophile just didn't make the grade required to be the killer of young JonBenet ... Sorry, Mark. PAT

Exposed Penises Affronts, Alarms Brave, Courageous Police Officer

This is a followup report to the story from Planet Out of August 9 on officer Rossi of the Palisades Interstate Parkway Police. Nothing new or unusual here, and I am told police officers are sometimes affronted and alarmed several times each day by exposed penises and related activities in the park. I know that was also the case for many, many years in the Lincoln Park Zoo public men's room in Chicago, but eventually pictures of these officers were made public to warn guys about their presence in the park. Maybe the person maintaining the www.peetr.org web site can post pictures also for the protection of visitors passing through the area.

Here are some notes from their web site:

This is the main page of the Web site of People for the Education of Everyone about Thomas Rossi (P.E.E.T.R.), a public interest organization whose purpose is to educate the general public about Detective Thomas Rossi of the Palisades Interstate Parkway Police, a government law enforcement organization that serves the jurisdiction of the Palisades Interstate Park (PIP). The PIP is a public park along the Hudson River which spans the states of New York and New Jersey.
Detective Thomas Rossi is a Frequent Viewer of Exposed Penises
For years, Detective Thomas Rossi has been enforcing the law in the PIP by executing various law enforcement activities, including the viewing of dozens and dozens of exposed penises, and later recounting these penis viewings by filing complaints about them, which are then prosecuted by PIP prosecutor Douglas F. Doyle. Mr. Doyle has been prosecuting cases in the Park court, including cases involving exposed penises and other cases, for nine years.
In each and every one of these dozens and dozens of penis viewings, Thomas Rossi has sworn under oath to have been affronted and alarmed each and every time by what he saw.

Upcoming Lewdness Trial at which Douglas F. Doyle and Thomas Rossi are Expected to Appear:
Thursday, September 7, 2006
Detective Thomas Rossi and PIP Prosecutor Douglas F. Doyle are expected to appear at the PIP Court on Thursday, September 7, 2006 at a trial on a two-year-old Lewdness complaint, case No. W-2004-000206-0288 filed on September 1, 2004.
YOU are invited and encouraged to witness this public trial, under your constitutional rights if you live in a convenient nearby location. (Maps and directions available at their web site.) PAT

Betty Bowers Discusses John Mark Karr, Would-be Pedophile

Betty Bowers, the Fabulous Christian from Landover Baptist Church has issued another of her newsletters, this time regards John Mark Karr, the man with the fantasy ideas about JonBenet Ramsey ...

Betty Bowers Newsletter August 2006

America, the kid at the UN with ADD, has something new to take its mercurial attention away from the craziness in Iraq: the even crazier John Mark Karr. Talk about snakes on a plane! Finally, a bobble-headed pedophile to make Michael Jackson look, if not blandly benign, at least less heavy-handed with the tattooed eyeliner. We are told that Mr. Karr was in Thailand to have his testicles removed for $1,625. Apparently, he decided that the more cost-effective approach was simply to be a notorious child molester in a maximum security prison. That way, his unwanted balls will be removed by a gang of inmates without charge or handling fee.

Yes, it seems that John Mark Karr is all about innovative techniques for saving money. Stuck in Europe with only a standby ticket in coach? Just admit to killing Natalie Holloway and some desperate DA will fly you home in business class! You can recant once you've retrieved your luggage.

Back when Patsy was entering JonBenet in pedophilic livestock shows, she could only dream that her tarty tot would one day eclipse Marilyn Monroe to become America's most talked about dead blond.

The Middle East tenaciously cooks up new, clearly insane ways to implode. North Korea precariously kooks up nuclear ways to make the rest of us explode. Meanwhile, what are Americans doing? Less enthralled by liquids on planes that cause explosive flyovers than those that cause explosive hangovers, America is fixated on John Mark Karr's in-flight champagne,
Gulled and gloating, American media conglomerates, more keen on investing than investigating, proclaimed that JonBenet Ramsey's killer had been located. Goodness me, I thought that's what that "Patricia Ramsey" tombstone was for! Without so much as an incredulous "C'est WHAT?" the press transcribed the nonsense John Mark Karr prissily proclaimed, put it up on a teleprompter and told America it was true. Does this mean that President Bush will no longer be CNN's go-to guy for a crazy, shifty gaze and a steadfast refusal to succumb to truth?

We are a national obsessed with the emotional masturbation of endlessly commemorating past tragedies rather than the tedium of trying to prevent new ones. (Let Scotland Yard worry about that!) Manipulative and maudlin, preferably with schmaltzy pathos set to a soaring score, and just like the reactive, passive Department of Homeland Security we deserve, we devote all our energy and production values to the sadness of yesterday's deaths rather than the madness of allowing tomorrow's.

Republican Red State Christian values in action: Putting enough Mary Kay on prepubescent girls to make them look like adorable pint-size prostitutes!

Yours,
Mrs. Betty Bowers

Man With Two Penises Wants to Have One of Them Removed

Are you SURE you want to remove that?

Aug 19, 10:10 AM (ET)

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - An Indian businessman born with two penises wants one of them removed surgically as he wants to marry and lead a normal sexual life, a newspaper report said Saturday.

The 24-year-old man from the northern state of Uttar Pradesh admitted himself to a New Delhi hospital this week with an extremely rare medical condition called penile duplication or diphallus, the Times of India said.

"Two fully functional penes is unheard of even in medical literature. In the more common form of diphallus, one organ is rudimentary," the newspaper quoted a surgeon as saying. In this case, however, both penes are fully developed, healthy and are used as the man desires to do so.

The surgery was expected to be challenging as both organs were well-formed and full blood supply to the retained penis had to be ensured to allow it to function normally, he added. Both grow out of a central shaft at a slight angle to each other.

The newspaper did not disclose the identity of the man or the hospital to protect the patient's privacy, nor could we obtain pictures or photo illustrations for readers.

There are about 100 such reported cases of diphallus around the world and it is known to occur among one in 5.5 million men, the newspaper said.

It is caused by the failure of the mesodermal bands in the embryo to fuse properly. The mesodermal bands are one of three primary layers of the embryo from which several body parts are formed.

So Who Killed JonBenet? It Sure Wasn't Mr. Karr!

John Karr on board airplane
back to USA on Sunday.

I had thought we were finished with the JonBenet Ramsey case several years ago, although various web sites have continued to keep it alive, sometimes viciously attacking her mother and/or her father, her brother, etc. Now, after hiatus of several years, this John Karr fellow shows up, but any reasonable person who reads about it cannot fail to see the red flags waving everywhere. I do not think he is guilty in the case; I think he just wanted to get a free ride and a couple good meals on the trip back to the USA. Here is a report from the Chicago Sunday Tribune for August 20 discussing the case. As Mr. Ramsey pointed out recently (once attention toward him had died off and began being directed to Karr) "wait until the trial and all the evidence has been presented before assuming guilt." I couldn't have said it better myself. PAT

Experts see red flags in confession
John Mark Karr's admission in the slaying of JonBenet Ramsey has signs of being untrue, some scholars suggest

By Judith Graham
Tribune staff reporter
August 20, 2006

DENVER -- It seemed a spontaneous admission, without any element of coercion. John Mark Karr faced the cameras and told the world he was with child beauty queen JonBenet Ramsey the night she died.

But was this a voluntary confession of complicity in the 6-year-old's murder as it first appeared? Or was it something else?

The question is puzzling U.S. legal experts who have studied false confessions for years. They see signs that police interrogation may have helped shape the American schoolteacher's public statements. But they're not sure because so many details about Karr's arrest in Bangkok aren't available.

"There's something going on here that's very strange ... and no reason on God's green earth to assume that this is a voluntary confession," said Richard Ofshe, a sociology professor at the University of California, Berkeley.

It's not clear how much questioning Karr was subjected to in the custody of Thai police, who said Saturday that he would be flown to the United States late Sunday. Nor is there any indication that he was forced to speak with reporters.

Sometimes, people offer confessions without prompting because they're overcome by guilt over a crime; often, a religious conversion can motivate someone to admit culpability they had previously concealed. And sometimes, the prospect that someone else has been wrongly convicted serves as an incentive to set the record straight.

The lure of attention or publicity associated with infamous cases has also inspired people to confess to crimes they never committed, among them the Lindbergh kidnapping in the 1930s.

But consider: Most people who volunteer confessions offer their mea culpa to authorities, rather than evading law enforcement for years and fleeing overseas as Karr did after a 2001 arrest on child pornography charges in California.

"What happens is, someone walks into a police station and turns himself in," said Steven Drizin, legal director of Northwestern University School of Law's Center on Wrongful Convictions and a clinical professor at the law school. "In this case, authorities had to go all the way across the world to bring this guy into custody."

Indication of police influence

The language of Karr's televised confession troubles Drizin and Ofshe. Both said a red flag was raised in their minds when the slight, intense-eyed 41-year-old insisted that JonBenet's death in Boulder, Colo., was "an accident" and "unintentional."

"This is a classic example of the kind of language someone would use after a police interrogation," said Ofshe, one of the foremost experts on false confessions in the U.S.

"Clearly, the killing of this girl was not an accident, so why would he say that?" Drizin asked. "Police officers are trained to suggest to a suspect that a crime was an accident ... a less heinous account ... in order to elicit a confession."

And why would anyone proclaim that their involvement in a crime merited a charge of "second-degree murder" as Karr is reported to have told police in Thailand, without being told by police that a lesser charge might be possible?

"Suspects just don't come forward and say `I committed second-degree murder.' It doesn't happen," Drizin said.

Research shows that aggressive interrogation can cause people to admit to crimes they did not commit out of fear, anxiety, a desire to escape punishment, suggestibility and misunderstanding of the consequences, among other reasons.

Of Death Row inmates later found to be innocent because of DNA evidence, as many as 15 percent to 25 percent had confessed without just cause, according to New York's Innocence Project.

Despite these flags, it is possible that Karr's statements were voluntary, both experts said.

Even if Karr didn't have a hand in JonBenet's death, his willingness to take responsibility may be entirely his own. False confessions are surprisingly common. Especially in high-profile cases, people are frequently more than ready to admit to crimes they didn't commit, said Saul Kassin, a professor at Williams College and an expert on false confessions.

In one of the more famous examples, about 200 people claimed they had kidnapped and killed aviator Charles Lindbergh's baby son, Charles Jr., in 1932. Hundreds stepped forward with bogus accounts of murdering O.J. Simpson's ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson in 1994. And a South Carolina janitor was one of many people who took responsibility, wrongly, for abducting Elizabeth Smart in Salt Lake City in 2002.

Why do they do it? Some people are racked by guilt over other matters and want to punish themselves, Kassin said. Others are delusional or mentally ill. Still others have a pathological need for attention and want their 15 minutes in the spotlight. And some people are trying to protect someone else, such as a friend or a family member.

Self-delusion a possibility

With someone like Karr, who spent the last decade obsessing about JonBenet, self-delusion may be involved.

"Under the influence of external or internal suggestions, people can come to believe they did things, saw things and experienced things that never really happened to them," said Elizabeth Loftus, a professor of psychology, criminology and law at the University of California, Irvine.

That may have been what was going on when Karr reportedly told his father that he was jailed in California in 2001 because of suspicions that he was involved in JonBenet's death. And it may have played into the numerous e-mails he sent to a Colorado journalism professor over four years professing his love for JonBenet.

"It sounds like this guy was in a confessional mode long before any police were involved," said Kassin, the Williams College psychology professor. "My guess is that his confession was a product of his belief system. The real question I have is: Was this a public show or does he really believe it?"

Suspect's words on girls, JonBenet

From e-mails John Mark Karr sent to University of Colorado journalism professor Michael Tracey.

"JonBenet, my love, my life. I love you and shall forever love you."

"My peer group has not changed since I was a little boy, and girls were the people I was with always."

"Sometimes little girls are closer to me than with their parents or any other person in their lives."

--Rocky Mountain News

----------

jegraham@tribune.com
Copyright © 2006, Chicago Tribune

Gay Men Show Animosity to Researcher

Chicago Gay Paper Nixes Ad From Controversial Sex Researcher

By Mark Fitzgerald

Published: August 15, 2006 3:35 PM ET

CHICAGO The Chicago Free Press will no longer publish an ad soliciting gay males for a sex study because of the involvement of a controversial Northwestern University professor, the gay-oriented weekly declared in its current issue.

The action has stirred strong emotions among defenders and opponents of the work of the professor, J. Michael Bailey.

A transsexual activist, Lynn Conway, hailed the Free Press in an e-mail for taking "a courageous action ... (that) is a new and very effective way to defend against rogue scientists such as Bailey."

At the same time, the newspaper has been "inundated" by letters defending Bailey's work -- many of them apparently prompted by an e-mail blast to a listserv from Bailey himself, Free Press Editor Louis Weinberg said Tuesday.

In an editorial in its Aug. 9 edition entitled "Bad Science," the newspaper said would not allow itself to be used "to further the dubious agenda of someone who believes he should not be held accountable to our community."

Bailey is the author of the 2003 book, "The Man Who Would Be Queen," which angered transsexual and transgender persons for some of its assertions, which Bailey said are based on rigorous data. Northwestern investigated allegations that Bailey acted improperly during the research for the book, but never disclosed any specific discipline. Bailey resigned as head of the psychology department, but remains on the faculty.

Bailey has also angered some gay activists with research he says show that bisexuality probably does not exist as a sexual orientation in men; that gay men "on average and in some respects" tend to be more feminine than straight men; and that the traditional explanation that a transsexual woman is a "woman trapped in a man's body" is wrong, and better explained, among "one kind" of transsexual women as "erotic excitement at the idea of becoming a woman."

"The main complaint is that Bailey's been accused of a lot of improprieties over the years, and he's never returned our calls," Editor Weisberg said. "He's using us as science experiments but not being very accountable to us as a community."

In an e-mail to E&P, Bailey said researchers placed the ad looking for two or more gay brothers from the same family for a genetic study of male sexual orientation.

"We have advertised around the country for this study, and we have never had a problem," he said.

Bailey, in his e-mail to colleagues, said the editorial was "very hostile and very inaccurate." And in a letter to the Free Press he also sent to E&P, Bailey said he had responded to “the of the various accusations against me concerning my book” on this web page

“What should be obvious to anyone who takes the time to visit the vast websites that a very few angry transsexual women have erected in my honor is that they hate the ideas I wrote about,” Bailey wrote. “I have been willing to say -- in my book, in my research on male bisexuality, in my research on femininity in gay men, and in my work generally -- things that are true but that make some people irate.”

He said his conclusions simply follow research data, and that “if I believed that my work was truly harming gay people, I would stop doing it.”

In its editorial, the Free Press said “we cannot in good conscience steer our readers to a study that Bailey is part of,” and that before accepting future ads for sexuality research, the ad staff will ask who is involved in the study.

“If Bailey is,” the newspaper said, “we won't accept the ads.”

Mark Fitzgerald (mfitzgerald@editorandpublisher.com) is E&P's editor-at-large

[It seems to me that some GLBT folks can be extremely touchy about some things. It is just like the piece ran here in this blog a week or so ago about not all gay men necessarily approve of (or are willing to vote for [or endorse]) 'gay marriage'. You should see the nasty comments some of the blogs had regards that guy. Some GLBT people, it seems, are convinced that their fellow GLBTs can never be wrong at all, that all straight people are automatically bigotted, but you better not say the same thing about them. PAT]

A Very Sad Day: 60 Baby Puppies Killed in Trailer Fire

My thanks to Chris Perillo who brought this to the attention of the Internet community in his blog.

"I almost cried when I heard this tonight. Seriously. 60 puppies die in Mass. trailer fire:

“The puppies were all beautiful, healthy purebreds that were on their way to quality retailers in the northeast and eventually to loving New England families,” the company said in a statement. The company said it has a near-perfect safety record.

Retailers?! So help me God, if these beautiful creatures were being shipped to mall-based pet stores, I’m going to scream. Dogs die every day on the streets, in homes, at the pound, etc. - but 60 of them, en masse? That’s just so incredibly sad. The senseless loss of human life is to be equally lamented, but… puppies?! How could your heart not drop after hearing of this accident? "

Thanks for this report, as sad as it is, Chris. I've reprinted the entire story from the Associated Press below: PAT

60 puppies die in Mass. trailer fire

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

LOWELL, Mass. -- A trailer carrying dozens of puppies to Northeast pet stores caught fire just off an interstate, killing all of the estimated 60 dogs inside, authorities said.

The driver first noticed smoke coming from his trailer just before 5 p.m. Monday, state police said. He pulled over, and the Lowell Fire Department put out the flames that engulfed the trailer, but they couldn't save the puppies.

The puppies were a variety of breeds between the ages of 8 and 12 weeks, according to a state police news release.

Neither the driver, identified as Joseph Price, 40, of Joplin, Mo., nor his passenger, William Iriarte, 50, of Neosho, Mo., was injured.

A preliminary investigation indicated that a malfunctioning fan in the rear of the trailer may have started the fire, police said. No charges have been filed.

The truck was owned by the Hunte Corp. of Goodman, Mo., a major puppy supplier for pet stores.

"The puppies were all beautiful, healthy purebreds that were on their way to quality retailers in the northeast and eventually to loving New England families," the company said in a statement. The company said it has a near-perfect safety record.

Meade Couple Get Replacement Flag and Unwelcome Visitors from Westboro Baptist Church

Meade boys confess to stealing couple's controversial flag

By Tim Vandenack
The Hutchinson News
tvandenack@hutchnews.com

MEADE, KS - Two Meade boys have confessed to cutting down a rainbow flag outside a hotel here, the proprietors said Monday.

The Lakeway Hotel became a focus of controversy last month after owners J.R. and Robin Knight hung the colorful banner, a gift from their 12-year-old son, in front of the place. Locals uncomfortable with such a symbol - it also stands for gay pride -- decried the flag's presence and then, in the early-morning hours of July 31, someone cut it down.

The disappearance had remained a mystery, but the father of two local boys brought them to the Lakeway on Friday and they owned up to their involvement.

"They apologized and said they'd replace it," J.R. Knight said. He didn't name the boys, and Meade County Sheriff Michael Cox said only that officials are investigating.

Meanwhile, Knight said replacing a 5-foot-by-5-foot plate glass window smashed in at the hotel's restaurant - also apparently due to the flag flap - probably would cost about $500. Two neon beer signs destroyed in the same incident probably will cost another $1,000.

Someone tossed a brick through the window early Friday morning, according to the Knights and local authorities, who are investigating. Scrawled on the brick was the word "fag."

Aside from being the talk of the town in Meade, the controversy has prompted a vigorous Internet debate, largely in the gay community, about the state of gay rights in rural America. Many bloggers have decried the response the Knights have faced from their critics as symptomatic of small-town bigotry.

Anne Mitchell, however, head of the Kansas Equality Coalition's southwest Kansas chapter, said she thinks the Knights' foes are not representative of Meade's overall population. The coalition combats discrimination based on sexual orientation, and members of its southwest chapter met Sunday, without incident, at the Lakeway as a show of support for the Knights.

"There are a few people in Meade who have acted out, and their behavior's not reflective of the vast majority of people in the Meade area," she said. She said she hopes the debate on the issue centers on "tolerance and nonviolence and educating each other."

That there will be debate seems evident, but the tone remains unclear.

Knight said he spoke with representatives from MTV, who want to visit Meade for some sort of report on the controversy.

Shirley Phelps Roper of Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, meanwhile, says that virulently anti-gay group tentatively is planning to picket Aug. 27 outside the Lakeway.

Westboro will be hosting a crew from the British Broadcasting Corp., Phelps Roper said, and a picket in Meade "might be just the interesting thing (that the news crew can) get their arms around." Westboro members think the deaths of U.S. servicemen in Iraq are punishment from God for tolerance in the United States of homosexuality, and they are notorious for picketing soldiers' funerals.

Through it all, J.R. Knight remains somewhat perplexed at all the twists and turns of the controversy.

He and his wife put up the flag in early July as a means of having their son nearby, at least symbolically. The boy, who was drawn by the flag's vibrant colors, now lives in California. Then when the flap erupted, they refused to bow to their critics who sought the flag's removal on principle, replacing the torn-down banner on Friday with a new one.

"Everything is just out of whack," J.R. Knight said. "People are all upset about everything."

Maybe our western Kansas/Colorado/other places readers may wish to go out to Meade, KS on Sunday, August 27 to greet the Knight family and the picketers from the Westboro Baptist Church. PAT]

A Gay Man Who Does Not Support Gay Marriage

Gay state rep candidate opposes same-sex marriage
Laura Kiritsy
lkiritsy@baywindows.com

Is he genuine or just trying to stand out in a crowded race?

As stage-managed political events go, the one at the Massachusetts Republican Party nominating convention back on April 29 was a classic. A hundred down-ticket Republican candidates paraded down the side aisles of Lowell’s Tsongas Arena, two streams of waving, fist-pumping foot soldiers striding to the familiar pounding of the Rocky III anthem “Eye of the Tiger” as an audience of GOP faithful cheered them on from their seats. But as they amassed onstage, the contenders became a waving, grinning blur of mostly middle-aged white men in dark suits, one nearly indistinguishable from the next. Just one candidate managed to stand out in the bland throng: The six-foot-four 24-year-old holding aloft the red, white and blue campaign placard that read “Aaron Maloy for State Rep.” It was a clever way to make the most of an otherwise empty, feel-good gesture at an event that was staged largely as a coming out party for gubernatorial candidate Kerry Healey.

There is no doubt that Aaron Maloy knows how to separate himself from the pack. In the crowded race to succeed retiring Republican state Rep. Shirley Gomes in the Fourth Barnstable District, the Orleans Republican is the youngest of the six candidates vying for the seat and the only political newcomer in the bunch. But he is also the only candidate who is unequivocally opposed to same-sex marriage. Oh, and he’s openly gay.

Maloy isn’t the only gay candidate in the race; so, too, are Democrats Sarah Peake, a Provincetown selectwoman, and Ray Gottwald, a member of the Barnstable County Assembly of Delegates (they’re competing in a three-way September primary with Chatham Selectman Ron Bergstrom). But his position on the marriage issue has brought him a good deal of attention, much of it negative. Many observers, it seems, are unable to fathom the idea of an openly gay man who is opposed to letting same-sex couples legally marry; Maloy, for instance, has generated considerable discussion on the blog Cape Politics at CapeCodToday.com. Said one poster with the handle “capecod_mom” of Maloy back in June: “I thought that he was just a conservative who was using gay marriage as his one ‘stand’ to try and differentiate himself. Finding out that he is actually gay is mind boggling.” CapeCodToday.com editor Walter Brooks went so far as to dub Maloy “Phyllis Schlafly in drag.” Brooks contends that running as an openly gay man in the Fourth Barnstable — which encompasses Provincetown, Truro, Wellfleet, Eastham, Orleans, Chatham and Harwich — is a huge asset for Maloy. But what is not to Maloy’s advantage, Brooks quickly adds, is for the candidate “to appear like the hypocrite he is by being against same-sex marriage while he’s a gay person himself.”

Is an openly gay opponent of marriage equality running in the only state where it’s legal dooming his candidacy from the start? Not really, says Spyro Mitrokostas, a former Dukakis political operative and Cape Politics contributor. “If there is criticism, it’s not coming from people who are going to be called on to vote for him,” says Mitrokostas, who is the executive director of the Dennis Chamber of Commerce. “He is running in a Republican primary. The criticism is probably coming from people who will be voting in the Democratic primary.” That said, Mitrokostas adds, “It may come into play in the general election, if he makes it that far.”

Indeed, Maloy’s position on the issue is a selling point for some of his supporters — folks like Justine Kirkwood, the 75-year-old member of the Orleans Republican Town Committee who has been active in local GOP politics for decades. Kirkwood notes that Maloy is alone among his opponents in his belief that marriage should be reserved for a man and a woman, and though some voters think it’s not an important campaign issue, she says, “I do. It was the way I was brought up I suppose.”

Maloy, Kirkwood adds, “has a very strong religion … and a faith in God which is nice to see also.” Maloy attends a Congregational Church on the Cape. She does not believe that Maloy’s sexual orientation will be an issue among voters in the GOP primary, in which he’ll compete against Harwich Selectman Don Howell and former Chatham Selectman and journalist Andrew Buckley. Kirkwood, a retired teacher and school librarian, came to know Maloy when he was one of her students at Nauset Regional Middle School, helped Maloy celebrate his 24th birthday back in June by hosting a fundraiser for him at her Orleans home.

Maloy has steadfastly defended his position against same-sex marriage on the campaign trail, though he acknowledges it has cost him some support. He notes that he recently ran into another former teacher who said she’d not be voting for him since he was not supportive on the issue. When Maloy pointed out that there are other important issues to be considered in the race, “she said, ‘That’s the only issue I care about,’” Maloy recalls. “That’s like the make it or break it [issue],” he says. “I’ve heard that a lot.” The candidate’s opposition to same-sex marriage is based on his belief, which he says has “evolved very recently,” that marriage is a religious institution and “part of the heterosexual culture.”

“A lot of religious people hold it very sacred,” says Maloy. “I think that marriage is something that’s more religious and perhaps should be — perhaps,” he emphasizes — “should be separate from the state.” Maloy is supportive of offering same-sex couples benefits and protections through civil unions or domestic partnerships. But marriage, says Maloy, “is an institution between a man and a woman and I think that it’s part of the heterosexual culture. I don’t buy the whole separate but equal thing,” he adds, a reference to arguments by marriage equality advocates — and the Supreme Judicial Court’s advisory opinion in Goodridge — that creating a separate legal status for same-sex couples is inherently unequal.

Maloy supports letting the question of whether or not to amend the state constitution to ban same-sex marriage in Massachusetts go before voters, a matter the Legislature is poised to take up on Nov. 9. “I think it’s really important for everyone to vote on this,” he explains. “That way the different groups can lobby the people in Massachusetts and whichever way the majority of people decide that’s the way it will be.” (For the record, Buckley also supports letting voters weigh in on the amendment; Howell did not respond to an interview request to discuss his position on the proposal. Peake, Gottwald and Bergstrom are opposed to putting the amendment on the ballot.)

It would be easy to write Maloy off as a self-loathing gay man; indeed, he concedes, critics have accused him of being just that. But don’t go there, says Maloy, who notes that he came out to his Evangelical Christian single mother when he was just 12 years old. His realization that he is gay coincided with his decision to leave home due to his mother’s homophobia and other abusive behavior. On the day after his 12th birthday, Maloy says he went to the fire station near his Yarmouth residence and asked someone to call DSS.

“My mom was crazy,” he recalls. “I couldn’t take her anymore. I said a foster home has got to be better than this.” What ensued was a parade of about 15 foster homes and youth shelters, places where, ironically, he was often mistreated for being gay. “It was really hard being a gay kid in foster care,” says Maloy. “But I learned to fight to defend myself.”

School turned out to be equally as isolating; Maloy recalls being called a “fag” and doused with salad dressing by a fellow student. School administrators, he says, turned a blind eye to the anti-gay bullying he experienced. Nonetheless, Maloy adopted what could be described as a flamboyant style, dying his hair bright red, donning “funky leather jewelry, painting his fingernails. He hints that his experiences spurred him into gay activism during his teen years, but declines to elaborate for fear of alienating his conservative supporters.

Maloy attended five different high schools on Cape Cod before graduating from Westport High School and heading off to UMass Amherst, where he majored in political science, graduating in 2004. He was homeless throughout the summer between high school and college. At one point he lived in a tent in a friend’s backyard, another friend let him crash for a time at his New Bedford home. Finally, says Maloy, his grandmother allowed him to stay in Eastham with her until the school semester began. Maloy now works for Outer Cape Health Services, where he helps low- and middle-income people access health care.

Not surprisingly, Maloy has made foster care reform a major plank in his campaign platform, along with affordable healthcare, rolling back the income tax and making the Cape a more affordable place to live. Having experienced the sting of anti-gay bias while growing up, it’s hard not to wonder how Maloy can sanction anti-gay discrimination in the state’s marriage law. When the question is put to him, he replies with a surprisingly personal answer. “It’s probably going to hurt me,” he acknowledges at the outset. “It was really hard for me growing up,” says Maloy, who had no contact with his father. “I think that a lot of kids want to have a male and a female role [model] in their life regardless of the arrangement and we create our laws around ideals. … There are studies that have shown that it’s really the best situation for kids growing up to have a mom and a dad with a biological connection.

“I used to be a vocal, outright aggressive supporter of gay marriage and I’m just trying to take as much of an informed, reasonable and honest look at this,” he adds. “And we create our laws around ideals and I just think that you know it’s important to keep the bar high.” Maloy says that while he knows many same-sex couples who are raising smart, well-adjusted kids, “I think every child wants to have on a full-time basis a male and female role [model] in their life.”

Though Maloy’s position on marriage may be alienating to a swath of Fourth Barnstable voters, the candidate cannot certainly be counted out of the race. And while his youth and political inexperience have also raised red flags, Mitrokostas says that Maloy’s running for the right reasons. “He’s stated pretty emphatically he wants to work on behalf of people who live in the district and in those areas that are particularly interesting to him, whether it’s human services [or] social services. I think he spends a lot of time dealing with healthcare for particular parts of the community, so there’s no better place to try to affect policy but the legislature when it comes to that.” Mitrokostas also notes that the Cape is known to elect either “first timers or old timers,” meaning candidates who are just starting their careers or those heading toward the end of their careers. While Maloy falls into the former camp, the remaining candidates, Mitrokostas observes, are somewhere mid-career. Maloy, he concludes, “can distinguish himself by being the youngest and most enthusiastic guy.”

Some would say that’s a more worthwhile distinction than being an openly gay candidate who opposes marriage equality. But for all of Maloy’s pronouncements in opposition to same-sex marriage, during those times when he strays from his message of opposing it on religious grounds, it’s hard not wonder if Maloy is genuinely sincere in his opposition or merely using the issue to separate himself from the herd. “I’m not a conformist,” Maloy says at one point during one of several interviews with Bay Windows. “I just don’t conform. And now that gay marriage is normal and everything and everybody’s … thinking the same way — they’ve had it ingrained in them by these big media campaigns — I go against the flow. I’m a nonconformist. That’s just how I am, I go against the flow and I don’t like to be controlled.”

Kansas is Not Over the Rainbow; Flag Owners Catch Hell From Community

Kansas: not over the rainbow
After rainbow flag is cut down, B&B owner vows to get another and keep flying it.

(See original report here on Friday, July 28)
by Ethan Jaccobs ejacobs@baywindows.com
J.R. and Robin Knight may not be gay, but the Meade, Kansas couple got a small taste of the homophobia directed at LGBT people living in the rural Midwest when they hung up a rainbow banner last month in front of their bed and breakfast. J.R. Knight said the flag was a present from their 12-year-old son, who Knight said is staying with family out in California and sent the flag to his parents as a gift, unaware of its traditional use as a symbol of LGBT pride (fittingly, his son purchased it after visiting the Wizard of Oz-themed museum Dorothy’s House in Kansas as a reminder of the song "Somewhere Over the Rainbow"). Knight said he and his wife knew the flag was a gay pride symbol, but they hung it up because it was colorful and reminded them of their son, not to celebrate gay pride. In the month since the flag went up, the Lakeway Hotel has become a target, with local residents launching an informal boycott of the hotel’s restaurant, one Meade resident comparing the flag to the Nazi flag on the local evening news, and an anonymous vandal tearing the flag to shreds. Knight said he plans to replace the flag, and the local opposition has only made him and his wife more resolute in keeping the flag flying.

"My son’s flag is cut. For all intents and purposes it’s gone," said Knight. "The next flag and the next flag and the next flag are going to be for equal rights for everyone."

At the local level, Knight said few people in Meade, which, with only 1600 residents is about as small as small town gets, have spoken out publicly to defend the Knights’ decision to fly the rainbow flag. He said he and his wife had already made enemies in town in their successful fight to get out of paying debts held by the previous owners of the hotel, which they purchased when they moved to town from Southern California two years ago. The rainbow flag controversy, which has placed Meade in the national spotlight both through attention from national media and from the LGBT blogosphere, has only made things worse, and Knight said business in their once-popular restaurant has been down.

"In this community, everybody is afraid of everything. If somebody is seen coming in here they will boycott their businesses too," said Knight.

Yet the media attention has also brought the Knights support from LGBT people across the country. The couple has received thousands of e-mails supporting their decision to keep up their flag, and Knight said a few people have sent them money equivalent to the cost of renting one of their hotel rooms for a weekend, requesting that they use the money to offer free lodging to gay tourists looking for a room. (Bay Windows publishers Sue O’Connell and Jeff Coakley sent the Knights flowers as a show of support.) The Knights used one of those donations to offer the Southwest chapter of the Kansas Equality Network, the state’s lead LGBT group, a weekend stay in the hotel’s Queen Suite to raffle off as a fundraiser for the organization. Anne Mitchell, chair of the chapter, said the group accepted the offer and will hold the raffle when it holds its upcoming Aug. 13 chapter meeting at the Lakeway Hotel. Mitchell said she had called Robin Knight to show support after learning about the controversy, and Robin extended the invitation to host their meeting at the hotel.

"She expressed more interest in us gaining membership, raising money for our organization, rather than for her benefit," Mitchell said.

Mitchell said that she fears the media attention portraying the people of Meade as anti-gay bigots is presenting a one-sided view of Kansas, although she admitted she has seen no one in the town publicly stand up and defend the Knights.

"These stories are terrible, but there are also great stories," said Mitchell, saying one of the new members of the Kansas City chapter recently took his boyfriend to his high school prom and was welcomed without incident. "Those people who have been quoted in the paper, I would not want them to be speaking for the town of Meade. I want others to speak up."

Knight places much of the blame for the controversy on the local paper, the Meade County News, and its editor, Denice Kuhns. He said when he and his wife first put up the flag it attracted little attention, but a few days later he said the paper published a photo of the flag and directed people to a Web site explaining the history of the flag as a symbol of LGBT pride. That photo prompted local residents to demand that Knight take down the flag, including a retired Nazarene minister who Knight said threatened to stage a boycott of the hotel and restaurant.

"[Kuhns] was trying to put me out of business with this thing," said Knight.

Bay Windows contacted Kuhns to comment for this story, but when reached by phone she said "No comment" and hung up on this reporter.

Since the photo was first published in the Meade County News public sentiment in the town has turned sharply against the Knights. Knight said local business in the restaurant is noticeably down since the story broke. One local resident, Keith Klassen, told Wichita’s KWCH-12 news that the flag was an affront to the town’s conservative values.

"To me, it’s just like running up a Nazi flag in a Jewish neighborhood," Klassen told KWCH-12. "I can’t walk into that establishment with that flag flying because to me that’s saying that I support what the flag stands for and I don’t."

The local Christian radio station, KJIL, dropped the Lakeway Hotel as one of its official business supporters. Prior to the rainbow flag flap the hotel had offered up its restaurant to the station as a space to hold its staff meetings, and in return the station plugged the hotel on the air. Knight said after word spread through the media about the flag the station’s general manager, Don Hughes, called him up and demanded he take the flag down.

"He said, ‘That flag out there is gay and it stands for gay rights’ … He said, ‘You either take it down or we’re going to have to pull your spots,’" said Knight, who said when he declined to take down the flag the Lakeview Inn was dropped from the spots.

Gabriel Hughes, the station’s mid-day personality and assistant production director, as well as Don Hughes’s son, said his father was unavailable for comment, but he said the station never threatened the hotel with pulling its spots. Hughes said the agreement between the station and Lakeview Inn had expired, and the station chose not to renew it.

"When the flag went up our agreement with them had actually come to an end when that whole controversy started. When that happened, my dad … had just kind of said, ‘Why don’t we just go ahead and terminate the arrangement, and all the controversy has started, why don’t we end it here?’" said Hughes. He declined to say whether the station objected to the rainbow flag and its pro-gay message.

Knight said he and his wife never expected to become gay activists, but Knight said he’s seen several people in his life struggle with being gay and coming out. Four friends of his from back in his high school days, including the best man at his wedding to his first wife, were gay and died of AIDS while still in their 20s, although Knight said only one felt comfortable enough to talk with him about being openly gay. He also said while in high school he served as a peer counselor, and he said many of the students he counseled at the time were teens struggling with being gay. More recently Knight said friends of the couple have recently discovered that their son is gay, and the Knights have urged the couple to accept their son.

Knight said while he did not originally intend the flag as a gay pride statement, he is glad that it has made LGBT people see the inn as a welcoming place. The same day the flag went up, before it become a national story, a lesbian couple traveling cross-country took the flag as the sign that the Inn would be a welcoming place in a state where voters passed a marriage amendment by a wide margin last year.

"We gave them dinner, we gave them breakfast, and we gave them a little refuge … That was cool. At least they found a place that looked somewhat more inviting than the rest," said Knight.

He said he and his wife have been thankful for the support they have received, but given the anger stirred up by their decision just to fly the rainbow flag, he believes their courage pales compared to the courage of gay and lesbian people who come out at the risk of losing support from their family and community.

"I can’t imagine what that’s like, to have your whole family shun you because you’re attracted to a guy. And for them to call me brave for flying a flag is just incredible," said Knight.

My best wishes to the Knight family as they stumble into the fight for gay rights; a fight they did not ask for but seem to have gotten dragged into. PAT

Conviction Overturned in New Jersey Public Lewdness Conviction

Conviction overturned in N.J. cruising case Also see follow up report August 24, Officer Affronted, Alarmed by Exposed Penises.

SUMMARY: A gay man's lewdness conviction in a cruisey public park is overturned, and activists follow up with calls for an investigation of police procedure.

A Manhattan gay man's conviction on lewd behavior was overturned by a New Jersey appeals court Monday, prompting a gay rights advocate to call for an investigation of police procedure.

After exposing himself to a plainclothes officer, Joseph Mamone was arrested June 9, 2004, at New Jersey's Palisades Interstate Park. Mamone claimed he went to the park -- which is known as a heavy cruising area -- simply to have lunch but that park officer Thomas Rossi made his interest in Mamone clear and suggested they walk to a shaded area.

Mamone testified that Rossi asked him, "What are you into?" and told him "to take it out" before Rossi exposed himself and was subsequently arrested.

The gay rights organization Garden State Equality has complained that the park unfairly targets "men they perceive to be gay" in their sting operations.

"The issue is not lewd behavior, which we positively do not condone," Garden State Equality's Steven Goldstein told the Star-Ledger newspaper of Newark.

"The issue here is disparate treatment. The problem is that the Palisades Park police have gone out of their way to bait gay people in a way they have not baited straight people. Without doubt, my organization is going to call for a public inquiry and possible charges with regard to the police officer," Goldstein said.

Rossi was not allowed to speak to the media, but Det. Nelson Pagan, a spokesman for the Palisades Interstate Park Police, told the Star-Ledger, "We do not pick on gays. We go up there and enforce the law on deviant acts."

Mamone's conviction was upheld by two courts before the appeals court ruled in his favor.

Very typical police behavior; encourage someone otherwise not so inclined to violate the law, then arrest them the minute they do so ... its an old, old police practice going back many years. Sometimes police even violate the law themselves in an effort to get you to do the same ... but what else is new? Police should never be trusted; absolutely never, IMO. PAT




Copyright © 2006 Planet Out.

"Reparative Therapy" Represses Even More

By Cindy Rodríguez
Denver Post Staff Columnist

Even an exorcism couldn't scare the gay out of Peterson Toscano.

But that is the lengths he went to because his evangelical Christian church brainwashed him into thinking he was abnormal.

Toscano, 41, said he spent $30,000 over 17 years, traveling to three continents, chasing one treatment program after the next.

In the end, he came to a healthy conclusion: Gay people can't change any more than a heterosexual person can. Nor should they need to. They are God's children, perfect the way they are.

Toscano is one of dozens of gay Christian men who wrote or called me during the past two weeks, following a column I wrote about the so-called ex-gay movement, which encourages "reparative therapy."

Every one of the men who contacted me said that no amount of repression - which is what this therapy boils down to - could change them.

Yet Christian groups, acting in an un-Christian way, continue to offer Franken- therapy.

During one treatment, a group of praying women encircled Toscano and encouraged him to cough until he vomited.

"Once the first splatter of vomit hit the bucket, people shouted 'Praise Jesus!"' Toscano recalled. It was a surreal experience, he said. All he lost was his lunch.

Later, in his mid-20s, Toscano married a woman, thinking he could force himself to be heterosexual. It didn't work; he wound up cheating with a man.

Years later, he enrolled in Love in Action, a residential program in Memphis where he met Mike Haley, who now works as a "gender analyst" for Focus on the Family.

During the 18-part program, Toscano learned how to speak in a more affirmative manner, with the last syllable intoning down instead of up. He learned how to walk and shake hands in a "manly" way. And there was lots of praying.

He graduated from the program but after six months, the real him came out. It took years for him to realize he needed to stop hurting himself by trying to change: "It's extremely dangerous when we try to become something other than ourselves," he said.

It's a lesson that applies to all people who are marginalized in our society, but with all the pressures to conform it's understandable why some would rather remake themselves.

That is how I view the story of John Paulk, a former drag queen and paid escort who used to go by the name Candi.

Then he became a born-again Christian, got into therapy and turned into the straight man he says God wants him to be. He married an ex-lesbian and got a gig working for Focus on the Family.

He became the poster boy for the ex-gay movement, appearing on Oprah, the Jerry Springer Show, and landing on the cover of Newsweek.

His face was so familiar, though, someone recognized him at a gay bar in Washington, D.C., in 2000. Paulk lied about it (said he got lost; said he had to use the bathroom), then came clean (said he wanted to see if gay bars had changed) and later resigned from FOTF.

I found him in Portland, where he runs a personal chef service. He told me he's still a heterosexual and he and his wife, Anne, enjoy raising their three boys - away from the media spotlight.

He declined an interview, though he kept talking for nearly a half-hour (I had to end the conversation). He spoke gleefully of his friend Mike Haley, who replaced Paulk at Focus on the Family.

People like Paulk and Haley have every right to try to remake themselves into something else, but when they proselytize that being gay is a sin, stir fear in parents and suggest they can remake their gay sons by using reparative therapy they cross a line that could forever scar the person they love most.

Brent Coleman, a licensed psychotherapist in Denver who has helped gay people who have been scarred by reparative therapy, calls it "religious abuse."

Another psychotherapist, John Birkhead of Colorado Springs, agrees: "It's based on a faulty premise that (gayness) needs to be changed."

Toscano learned the hard way that he couldn't change the way he is wired. He now uses his experience to educate and entertain others through his one-man traveling show, "Doin' Time in the Homo No Mo Halfway House: How I survived the Ex-Gay Movement." Homonomo.com

He survived, but he will never get back the years he spent searching for a cure to something that, in actuality, is only a problem for narrow-minded people.

Contact Cindy at 303-820-1211 or crodriguez@denverpost.com.

Clash of Convictions Between Slavic Immigrants and Gays

Clash of convictions
Slavic immigrants' crusade against homosexuality collides with gays' battle for acceptance, equal rights
By Dorothy Korber and Deepa Ranganathan -- Bee Staff Writers
Published 12:01 am PDT Sunday, August 6, 2006
Story appeared on Page A1 of The Bee

The Rev. Paul Khakimov's image is projected onto a big screen as he preaches at the Russian Baptist Church in West Sacramento. Khakimov later explained through a translator what their faith means to Slavic Christians: "Religion is our life, it's not just words. ... Our people suffered for their Bible teaching."
Sacramento Bee/Anne Chadwick Williams

Thousands of religious refugees mass in the streets of Sacramento to shout "Shame!" Their targets, with their own history of persecution still fresh and raw, retort: "Go back to Russia!"

How did it come to this?

In the last few months, the growing conflict between Sacramento's Slavic Christians and its politically savvy gay community has erupted on campuses, at school board hearings, and on the grounds of the Capitol.

Russian-speaking hecklers lined the march of this year's gay pride parade downtown. At least 15 Slavic students were suspended in April for wearing shirts proclaiming, "Homosexuality is sin." This spring, Slavic Christians packed board meetings in three local school districts to make their position clear: Being gay is not OK.

Gays are starting to respond in kind. A dozen staged a counterprotest in July, demonstrating outside the region's largest evangelical Slavic church during Sunday morning services.

Gays say the Slavic protesters have hit them with signs, spit on them and displayed a menacing lack of civility. Gay leaders have met with local police and press to say they're worried about violence, and now they're forming a "Q Crew" -- a new political activism group -- to tell the public their fears.

"They're more and more brazen with their signs and their numbers," said Tina Reynolds, a lesbian activist and owner of a gallery in downtown Sacramento. "It's much more in our face, and I'm beginning to feel like something's going to happen."

Beyond the surface animosity, this is a collision of two powerful forces: a deeply held religious conviction and the determined march of homosexuals toward equal rights.

The region's large Russian-speaking Christian community, usually shy of publicity, is stepping into the public eye, saying they have to save California from a dangerous moral decline. Gay leaders worry that these protests will erode their community's political progress and spoil the security they have come to feel in Sacramento.

Free speech or hate speech?
The evangelical Slavs, refugees who fled religious persecution in the former Soviet Union, are finally hitting their stride in the land of the free. They came for the freedom to worship. Now they say they're exercising the freedom of speech to spread a fundamental belief: Homosexuality is a sin and a choice.

"We have tasted the power of democracy -- now we go and protest," said George Neverov, a Baptist who emigrated from Uzbekistan in 1991 and lives in Carmichael. The father of three young daughters, he is a vocal opponent of any endorsement of homosexuality in the public schools.

"Am I against tolerance?" said Neverov, 33. "God forbid, no. But my whole belief system is based on the Bible. I say homosexuality is a sin. Why are you offended by that?"

Gay activists contend that this sentiment, when aggressively expressed in public protests, is nothing less than hate speech. The demonstrations seem suffused with a frightening rage, they say.

"At their protests, it's all about God, burning in hell and sodomy," said Darrick Lawson, president of Sacramento's Stonewall Democratic Club, a gay political organization. "They want to use their rights and freedoms to suppress another community. It goes against the reasons they moved here. The Bible never taught this kind of hatred."

Lawson, himself the son of an evangelical pastor, spent nearly three years in therapy trying to overcome his own homosexuality before accepting it.

"We have no problem with them saying this in their churches," Lawson said. "Do I want to ban them from Gay Pride? No. I don't. In no way do I want to infringe upon the right they came here for. But they need to consider our safety and play by the rules."

These refugees say they understand rules. They fled from an officially atheistic society where the rules discriminated against the religious. People of faith sometimes were imprisoned, their children wrenched from them, their careers stalled.

Some harbor memories of a grandfather executed, a grandmother who died in jail.

Community leaders estimate 100,000 Russian-speaking residents live in the Sacramento region, about a third of them evangelical Christians. Mostly Ukrainian Baptists or Pentecostals, many came here in recent decades believing the United States was a Christian nation -- a place where their literal interpretation of the Bible would be the rule.

Instead, they landed in freewheeling California and encountered a culture of widespread divorce, premarital sex, and -- almost unheard of in their home countries -- open homosexuality.

Political clout downplayed

Even more offensive to them is the increasingly strong push by gay leaders to bring acceptance of homosexuality into public life and public schools.

State Sen. Sheila Kuehl, the Legislature's first openly lesbian member, has spent her political career fighting for the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. She has little patience for the anti-gay feelings of these immigrants.

"This kind of aggressive homophobia is nothing new," said the senator, a Democrat from Santa Monica. "This is just one in a long line of communities who have become convinced that they have a moral obligation to discriminate."

One of Kuehl's bills, Senate Bill 1437, has aroused special consternation among the Slavic Christians. As drafted, the bill would require the public school curriculum to note the contributions of gays and lesbians to society.

Conservative Christian groups across the state -- as well as several mainstream newspapers and the governor -- have criticized the bill. But Sacramento's Slavs are its most visible opponents.

On June 12, whole families showed up at the Capitol to demonstrate against SB 1437 and other pro-gay bills. One little girl held up a sign that said "Homosexuals Do Not Touch My Kids." A young boy waved a hand-painted message: "I'm NOT learning about gay people."

Kuehl downplays the Slavs' political clout, saying they are puppets of the right who are not taken seriously by the Legislature. But one of her staunchest opponents, conservative lobbyist Randy Thomasson, gives them a lot more credit.

"When it comes to parental rights and family values, Russia may just save California," said Thomasson, president of the Sacramento-based Campaign for Children and Families.

Thomasson notes that the Slavs are fast becoming citizens, registering to vote and learning how to make themselves heard. He credits them for playing a major role in gaining Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's pledge to veto SB 1437.

Bible believed absolutely

The power and size of Sacramento's Slavic evangelical community is evident any Sunday morning at 75 churches across the region.

At the Russian Baptist Church of West Sacramento, a Sabbath service fills the huge nave with 2,000 worshippers. The two-hour service rings with music -- trumpet, grand piano, organ and hundreds of sweet voices. Headsets translate the sermons and prayers into English.

On one recent Sunday, a young couple, married here one year before, kneel before the congregation to present their baby, Victoria. Tears stream down the young mother's face. In the pews, children sit quietly beside their parents, barely fidgeting.

The décor is simple, but bold stained-glass windows bathe the room in blocks of primary colors. At the end of the service, Pastor Paul Khakimov reads individual prayer requests: peace in Israel, safe flights, help in finding a job, that a daughter be protected from bad influences.

In an interview, Khakimov explained what their faith means to this community.

"Religion is our life, it's not just words," he said through a translator. He said he believes the Bible is absolutely, literally true.

"Our people suffered for their Bible teaching -- they were put in jail just for following the Bible," the pastor said.

As for gays, he cites from memory several Bible verses he says declare homosexuality to be a sin, but adds: "First of all, we don't hate them. We pray for them. They are also people. They are sinners and they need help. This is like any other sin."

His community has rallied against gay issues, he said, because gay advocates are making political inroads. If Christians don't defend their beliefs, he said, God will rain down wrath as he did on Sodom.

A familiar refrain for gays

This is a tenet of faith that Darrick Lawson has heard all his life.

"My father is an evangelical minister," said Lawson, who is 39 and came out as a homosexual a decade ago. "I have personally fought this battle a long time."

Sitting in the cozy surroundings of his midtown chiropractic office, Lawson spoke of the heartache he experienced as the gay son in an evangelical Christian family.

"Growing up in a Christian household, I know that people have their opinions. They think we're all pedophiles. They think we're promiscuous. … I didn't come out till I was 28, I was so scared. For every person from my Christian world, it took a while to accept me. It took my dad an incredibly long time."

Lawson said he is living proof that being gay is not an option but an orientation he was born with. "The 'choice' thing cracks me up," he said. "I wanted to be straight. I went to 2 1/2 years of therapy. It did not work."

Now comfortable with his identity, he has his own message for the Christian fundamentalists: "Frankly, I refuse to go back in my closet or tolerate misbehavior because they have a cultural issue. Honestly, they need to get over it."

That message doesn't play well with people who have clung to their beliefs in the face of imprisonment or death. One young protester, Nadiya Chorney, will tell you her grandmother was tortured and died in jail.

"People were coming and searching our house during the night," said Chorney, the daughter of a Baptist pastor. "A couple times, they tried to kill my father." The family fled Ukraine two years ago and Chorney, now 18, enrolled at Sacramento's Mira Loma High School.

She was a vocal leader in the protests that followed the annual Day of Silence in April, a nationwide event during which students support their gay and lesbian peers. A number of Slavic teens were suspended from area schools for wearing T-shirts declaring that "Homosexuality is sin" and "Jesus can set you free."

"We were sharing the Gospel," Chorney said. "Not because we hate them, but we want to warn them that homosexuality can be cured."

About 100 people, Russian-speaking adults and children, picketed Mira Loma for days afterward to protest the suspensions. The words "persecution" and "First Amendment" flew through the crowd.

Local educators said any shirt that sends a negative message about a particular group isn't allowed in school.

"If you had the words 'football player' or the word 'Slavic' or 'cheerleader' or any other name, and then you put that inside a red circle with a line through it, you are (against) a person or a group," said Oakmont High School Principal Kathleen Sirovy, who suspended 13 Slavic students.

Because it took place in schools, the very concept of the Day of Silence touched a nerve in the Slavic Christian community.

Jade Baranski, a 20-year-old lesbian who lives in midtown Sacramento, was present when the Sacramento City Unified School District board voted in April to support the Day of Silence. Hundreds attended the meeting to speak on both sides of the issue; many Slavic parents urged the board to vote no.

As Baranski and some friends celebrated outside the board room, "these two older (Slavic) women, probably in their 50s or 60s, turned to us and, puh" -- Baranski mimed spitting -- "right at our feet. It was atrocious."

She said she experienced a similar shock at the June protest spurred by the Kuehl legislation. She and a friend, she said, were encircled by Slavic men and women who stood inches away screaming at them for committing "sodomy."

"I was shaking. I was walking away thinking, 'If anyone is going to hurt me, it's going to be someone from this community,' " she said.

Disturbing epithets

Darrell Steinberg witnessed the culture clash firsthand in June, when he rode as a dignitary in the city's annual gay pride parade. A longtime political figure in Sacramento and Democratic nominee for state Senate, Steinberg is known as a town mediator. He says he was concerned by the attitude of the Slavic protesters who picketed the parade.

"There were some epithets used -- well, I was shocked, and I was disturbed," Steinberg said. "I believe strongly that this issue should be a real concern to the community. We have a history in this community of hate crimes. Given our history, it is essential that we use our past experience to educate people -- especially new immigrants -- that we are one."

As a gay leader, Darrick Lawson said he is looking for points of connection with the Slavic community. Already, he said, quiet inroads have been made.

"Our alliances need to meet with their alliances," he said. "It's a matter of time. They will get it eventually -- that we can respect each other while disagreeing. It will trickle down as we get to know their leaders, and as their own children grow up and some come out as gay."

For his part, George Neverov is willing to tone down the debate by asking young Slavic Christians to be less confrontational.

"People screaming 'Shame' -- I will teach them not to do that and not to react to gays." He paused, then spoke of how he loves his new country. "There's a lot to learn from Americans as a people. There is acceptance."

There is, however, a line he will not cross.

"Live your lifestyle, do whatever you want to do in your bedroom," Neverov said. "But if you think we will ever agree with the homosexual lifestyle -- that will not happen."

About the writer:

The Bee's Dorothy Korber can be reached at (916) 321-1061 or dkorber@sacbee.com.

This Week's Winning Entry From Morons.Org

Republican candidate for the office of Attorney General in Georgia isn't just strongly biased against gay kids, he's also ignorant of Georgia law...

Posted by spatula on Aug. 03, 2006.

Georgia Republican candidate for the office of Attorney General Perry McGuire figures the recent ruling that White County schools cannot forbid a gay/straight alliance from meeting is incorrect and in some way immoral.
He further claims gay/straight alliances are illegal. His reasoning? GSA's, of course, are sex clubs, and sex among minors, he claims, is also illegal. His exact words were, "in Georgia, sex between minors is illegal; statutory rape laws apply."

There are a few problems here. First and foremost, this is a misrepresentation of the purpose of gay/straight alliances, such as the one in White County. GSA's exist to promote tolerance and understanding of gay students and to provide a safe space for gay students to talk about the challenges of being gay or being perceived as gay in their schools and communities. They do not exist to advocate having sex. They are not sex clubs either. Despite what mister McGuire may think, there's more to being a gay teenager than just having gay sex. Being gay in modern society puts one in a different social context with its own challenges. Often these challenges come in the form of bigots who arbitrarily hate you for those you love, such as McGuire. Gay people are not gay only while they're having sexual relations any more than straight people are straight only while in the missionary position with the lights off and a sheet between them.

McGuire's misrepresentation could only be malicious and intentional; how could anyone forget that even couples -- be them homosexual or heterosexual -- engage in activities other than merely sex? They date, they spend time together, they talk, they hold hands. These things are trivial enough for heterosexuals but can be terrifying and even life-threatening for homosexual kids (mainly due to anti-gay aggressors like Perry McGuire), especially if they have no safe space.

Furthermore, for a candidate for Attorney General, McGuire is surprisingly ignorant of Georgia law. Georgia code 16-6-3 defines statutory rape this way:

16-6-3.
(a) A person commits the offense of statutory rape when he or she engages in sexual intercourse with any person under the age of 16 years and not his or her spouse, provided that no conviction shall be had for this offense on the unsupported testimony of the victim.
Presumably there are students in Georgia high schools who are 16 years old or older. It would not qualify as statutory rape for these students to have sex with each other if they wanted.
McGuire went on to impart more of his great wisdom, equating GSAs with other "illegal" activities saying that allowing them to meet is "much like allowing a pedophile club or a gambling club to meet at school." Yes, right-wingers just can't resist comparing homosexual people with pedophiles, even though the myth that gay people are more likely to be pedophiles is long dead and buried. Based on news reports in the past few years, it might be more accurate to compare allowing Christian groups to meet in schools with pedophilia and gambling. Based on the incorrectness of his premise, however, one needn't bother opening this can of worms.

Hopefully Georgia voters will reject this anti-gay bigot in his run for Attorney General, if not for his clear and disturbing bias then for his wanton ignorance of Georgia law, a topic in which a legitimate Attorney General should be well-versed.

---Nick

I hope they will reject this idiot also, assuming you quoted him correctly. He does sound like a real winner. Anyone who wants to check out the web site can go here

The Heat All Over the United States Last Month

July, 2006 saw the highest temperatures on record throughout much of the United States. Temperatures here in southeast Kansas reached 115 degrees one day, and as a common occurrance have been in excess of 100 degrees on several days last month. Exactly what is the cause of all this? Is President Bush and some of his administration still in denial about global warming? Its not just Kansas ... the Dakotas saw the hottest summer since the Dust Bowl days back in the 1930s. California has been hotter than usual also. I really feel things have gotten much worse, weather-wise in the past few years. What do you think?

PAT