You have to surf over and read the rest. Below the fold, another incident is caught on tape, this time at a Yes on 8 rally in Bakersfield.Something to keep in mind: when I hit the record button, I hadn't said a single word to anyone, or interfered with the rally any way. I stood a fair distance away from the sign-wavers (remaining at least four feet away from all of them...until they approached me). But as soon as they noticed me filming them, I was greeted with curses and threats of violence. "Get that shit out of here. I'll knock it out of your hand." None of these folks knew me, yet they instantly knew they hated me.
Eventually, as you can see, some of the protesters surrounded me and began poking at me with their signs. Others, some of the most visibly angry and hysterical among them (apparently minors), hid their faces behind their banners while continuing to scream at passing traffic.
I asked the most aggressive woman (who was not underage) "are you afraid to be online?" She answered, "oh, no, they already videotaped me, but these kids don't want to be online, cause they're [unintelligible] loaded on a sexual perv profile and [unclear] look at my little cousins." Fair enough. I'm all for protecting the innocent. (Not that there's anything particularly innocent about screaming hate speech in public.)
"Go away, Nasty Nasty. Nasty, nasty, nasty, nasty."
The woman continued to poke at my face with her sign and call me "nasty." Genuinely disturbed by the complete lack of rational behavior I'd seen up to this point, wanting to look into her face and possibly connect on some level with her as a fellow human being, I pulled a corner of the sign down away from my eyes and asked "why are you calling me nasty?"
That's when she attacked, clawing, grabbing and then shoving. I didn't fight back; she was much bigger than me. After calling me a "nasty fucker" and threatening to kick my ass, she pried my phone out of my hand and tried to break it in half while her friends egged her on.
Please note that I never touched or threatened her in any way (unless you want to consider my pulling the edge of her sign out of eye-poking territory a threatening gesture).
Violence erupts, and the assailant is Ken Mettler, a Kern High School District trustee and Kern's "Yes on Proposition 8" campaign leader. He kicked and punched a protestor yesterday (Friday). From the Bakersfield Californian:
And in a pitiful development, pro-Prop 8 forces have released an ad that misspells Palin's name (Pallin). See Jeremy's post.Kern High School District Trustee Ken Mettler, in red, is shown kicking at an opponent of Proposition 8. Mettler is head of the local Yes on Proposition 8 campaign. The video was taken by an opponent of Proposition 8.
The altercation was captured on video at a rally in southwest Bakersfield where two groups for and against Proposition 8 had congregated at opposite sides of the intersection of California Avenue and Stockdale Highway, according to police. Mettler, 55, said Friday night that he went to the corner where the Prop. 8 protesters were gathered to retrieve signs he thought his side had left behind. In the video, which was recorded by a Proposition 8 protester, people are shown trying to confront Mettler who is holding a defaced "Yes on 8" sign.
"I was physically accosted and defended myself," Mettler said. "I was not trying to set up a confrontation."
But Rob Badewitz, 20, says he was trying to grab a stack of signs Mettler had gathered when Mettler kicked him and punched him in the jaw. Mettler then walked across the street and said he was attacked first, according to the person who shot the video and provided a copy to The Californian.
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8 Days - 8 Bloggers Against Proposition 8 (October 20-27, 2008)
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We've had a lot of debate on this blog about the possible impact of the racism that John McCain and Sarah Palin has allowed to be introduced into their campaign. We've chronicled countless racist comments and images. We've viewed videos of racists making themselves seen and heard at McCain/Palin rallies.
However, until yesterday it hadn't yet touched me personally. That changed when my boyfriend admitted that he was injured breaking up a fight that took place in his home a few days ago.
He's been having a lot of work done on his house and he hired several gay contractors to do the work. He thought that it would be a good idea to keep the money he's putting out in the LGBT community. So, he hired a gay plumber, a gay electrician, and a gay stone mason to do several large projects. They've all been at the house for weeks.
One of the things that I really didn't approve of was that my boyfriend began to socialize with these men and their workers. He's been buying them beer and unwinding with them after coming home from work. On several occassions, I've gone over to his house to find the guys still there at 7:00 PM or later, drinking and shooting the breeze.
Apparently on Wednesday, the conversation turned to politics. I had been over to the house earlier to walk the dog and I was wearing my new Obama t-shirt. Mike the electrician is African-American. Tony the plumber is white. According to my boyfriend, Mike mentioned that I had been over earlier and he liked the shirt I was wearing. Then Tony began repeating some of the racist propaganda we've all been fuming over for the past few months.
(Fritz continues after the jump.)When Mike objected to what Tony was saying, things got heated and then turned physical. The two men began fighting right on the terrace! Mike hit Tony in the mouth and the men began pounding each other.
My boyfriend tried to intervene and that's when he was knocked down and kicked in the leg. He has a cut on his hand and a huge bruise on his upper thigh.
These guys are 20 years younger than my boyfriend and in pretty good shape. I can't even begin to describe how upset I was to find out that they had injured him.
What is even worse is that my boyfriend allowed them to return to work! I would have fired them both and called the police.
My boyfriend is a clinical psychologist and at times I think he tends to be too intellectual. He thinks that every problem can be solved by his therapeutic methods. This drives me up the wall at times.
He told me that he's now trying to work with these men to resolve their problems. Personally, I want both of them to just go away. Tony is an idiot for having such racist views. But, both men turned to violence and hurt my boyfriend.
I think this sad event raises a broader issue, though. It has been a very long time since I've heard about two grown men fighting over a racial issue. And, no one I know has ever been physically injured like this.
We've all asked ourselves what was going to happen if racial tensions continue to grow. I think what happened to my boyfriend answers that question. When "Joe the Gay Plumber" and "Joe the Gay Electrician" get into a fist fight over something that has been said about Obama, that seems like a pretty strong indication that something is very wrong in America.
Hat tip, my HS classmate CEB, who is big on the nostagia tip. :)
From the Houston Chronk:
For the next four years, Waller County officials must justify all rejected voter registrations to the U.S. Justice Department and report every voter application received during registration drives at Prairie View A&M University, a three-judge panel has ruled.
The order also means that the county must submit twice-yearly reports about its voter registration process.
Waller County has been criticized for thwarting registration efforts by students at PVAMU, a historically black college, and has faced numerous lawsuits over the last 30 years related to student voting rights.
Other than Prairie View A&M, Waller County actually has only two reasons for continuing to exist: speed traps in and around the county seat of Hempstead, and a giant car dealership in Hempstead whose chief spokes-oid is former Houston Oiler (and Texas A&M - not to be confused with PV A&M) football star Greg Childress. (Full disclosure: I went to Texas A&M as an undergrad - before the US 290 bypass was built around Hempstead - and I never got victimized by the speed traps there, but I knew many people who did whilst going back-and-forth between College Station and Houston.)
The largely white non-Prairie View populace of Waller County has never been too thrilled with th prospect of the non-whites at the college being able to have a say in things. For a while, if I recall correctly, it was the only one of Texas' 254 counties that would not afford college students the option of voting as residents of the county based on their resident attendance at a college in the county.
True, not all 254 counties have a college - but you get the idea.
The suit against the county and Waller County Registrar Ellen C. Shelburne was settled with a consent decree.
In the court-approved agreement, Waller County officials acknowledged rejecting voter registration applications — mostly from PVAMU students — through new practices instituted in 2007 without permission from federal authorities.
Prairie View is a relatively small school, but in a non-heavily-populated county the difference between having the students vote and not having the students vote is...
well, you get the idea.
Hopefully, those who are enforcing voting rights who appear to have gotten the idea actually intend to make sure that procedures don't revert.
The Philadelphia Gay News has a story up on how there is a case where the plaintiff is claiming that he experienced sex discrimination, but that the court is saying he experienced sexual-orientation discrimination.
Brian Prowel says he was discriminated against as a factory worker because of gender stereotyping, and he wants his day in court. But his sexual orientation may prevent him from achieving that goal.
Prowel, 39, of Penn Hills in Allegheny County, worked at Wise Business Forms Inc. in Butler from 1992-2004, where he helped produce a variety of business forms.
In court papers, he stated that pervasive gender stereotyping plagued his days at the factory and that, when he complained about it, he was ultimately dismissed from his job.
Alleged acts of workplace harassment included being nicknamed "Rosebud" and "Princess" and being ridiculed for the way he walked, spoke and sat - with his legs crossed and foot swinging.
In addition, coworkers allegedly placed a feathered tiara at Prowel's workstation and wrote graffiti about Prowel and AIDS on bathroom walls.
In 2006, Prowel filed a federal lawsuit under Title 7 of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which bans discrimination on the basis of sex...
Prowel is gay. Did he experience sex discrimination because of his gender expression related to how he behaved as a gay man, or did he experience discrimination exclusively because of his sexual orientation without regard to his gender expression?
When the courts try to differentiate between the two types of harassment I believe they're trying to spilt hairs.
Functionally, I don't see much of a difference between if discrimination or harassment occurring because of gender identity or expression or because of sexual orientation. And, that's because those who harass for those reasons don't really see much of a difference between crossdressers, transsexuals, drag queens and effeminate gay men. Discrimination cases like Prowel's are why I believe we need as fully inclusive an ENDA as possible.
Frankly, I believe we need to plug as many legal holes as possible to minimize discrimination and sexual harassment.
H/t Kathy Padilla
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Related:
* HRC's Scorecard On 110th Congress Released
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