NEWS & LETTERS, August - September 2008
Queer Notes
by Elise
On July 27, Jim Adkisson opened fire at the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church (UUC), killing two and wounding seven. "He hated the liberal movement," said Police Chief Sterling Owen, based on a letter found by police in Adkisson's SUV. Historically, the UUC welcomes the LGBT community and works for social change including for gay rights.
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Aug. 15 marked one month of weekly protests against Crews Inn gay bar in Dallas and a call for an official apology to the LGBT community for the bar's ban of drag queens on Tuesday nights. Calling drag queens "divas" who "think they can do no wrong," bar co-owner David Moore based the ban on the bar's policy that customers' appearance must match that on their IDs.
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Because of the May proclamation by Dubai Police Chief Lt. General Dahi Khalfan Tamim to arrest transvestites seen in public, 40 foreign men were arrested by Dubai police on allegations of being gay and dressing like women in public. Lt. General Dahi stated that a possible reason for the "problem" of men and women behaving like the opposite gender is, "studying in a mixed environment" (co-ed education).
--Information from pinknews
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The federal Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit ruled the rights of members of the anti-gay group Repent America were not violated when the city of Philadelphia arrested them for disrupting OutFest, an annual pride event. Repent America went beyond their constitutional right when they used a bullhorn to shout Biblical passages to drown out speakers at OutFest, and when they began to move into the Fest itself, still shouting into the bullhorn. Repent America brought suit against Philadelphia.
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