Would you like to get fired or beaten?
Are these people not watching the O.C.? Didn't they hear Ellen got 11 Emmy nominations or that Melissa stole the show at the Grammy's? Or how about the end of the Law & Order season? Or the Vice Presidential and Presidential Debates where Mary Cheney was discussed? According to this Advocate.com story:
A 22-year-old intern at a San Diego County office of education outdoor camp program was fired after she discussed lesbianism with sixth grade students at the camp, according to school officials. Jim Esterbrooks, a spokesman for the San Diego County office of education, said the intern at Camp Cuyamaca intervened when some of the students were calling one another lesbians. She explained that their behavior was inappropriate and then told them about her own first lesbian encounter. "This type of discussion is clearly inappropriate to be happening in a classroom or in a school setting. It is something that should be happening in the home with parents," Esterbrooks said Wednesday.
If the parents had been doing their job to make sure their kids knew not to use sexual orientation slurs against each other, the intern wouldn't have had to intervene.
But I suppose getting fired is better than beaten unconscious or having your bones broken, which happens when the Religious Right and the Bush White House make it open season on gays and lesbians because this significant minority doesn't fit into their narrow, rigid view of the world. According to this Advocate.com story:
Police in Chapel Hill, N.C., say an attack on a gay student who was beaten by a gang of six or seven men was a hate crime, but no witnesses have come forward to help investigators. The victim suffered broken bones but wasn't hospitalized, police said. His attackers, described as six or seven white males around the age of 20, have not been identified.
And according to another Advocate.com story via the AP a number of, what appear to be, gay bashers are pleading not guilty in Santa Fe. At least New Mexico's got a hate crimes law unlike anything similar on the federal level.
Three people have pleaded not guilty to charges in what police have described as an attack on a gay man at a motel in Santa Fe, N.M. James Maestas, 21, remained hospitalized Wednesday with injuries from being beaten unconscious Sunday. His family has requested that no information about his condition be made public. A second victim, Joshua Stockham, 24, of Albuquerque, was treated and released. Santa Fe County magistrate George Anaya Jr. entered the pleas Tuesday on behalf of Gabriel Maturin, 20 and Isaia Medina, 19, at their arraignment on charges of aggravated battery, battery, and conspiracy. Bond was set at $100,000 each.
...New Mexico's 2003 hate-crimes law allows an extra year to be added to a sentence when a jury decides a hate crime has occurred. "As a society, we feel stronger toward a crime that is based on the characteristics of a person," Dist. Atty. Henry Valdez said. "If the crime was committed based on the class of the victim"--defined by, for instance, gender, race, or sexual orientation--"then you can seek the enhancement." (AP)