A Texas gay raid and Stonewall
What a rough police “check” at Fort Worth's Rainbow Lounge on the 40th anniversary of Stonewall says about gay rights
On the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall Raid, Fort Worth officers raided a gay bar called the Rainbow Lounge and seriously injured a patron.
(Corbis/Andrew Brookes)
The Fort Worth police have “some explaining to do,” said Jacquielynn Floyd in The Dallas Morning News. On June 28, officers raided a gay bar called the Rainbow Lounge, sending a patron to intensive care with a head injury. “In what I can only hope is a spectacularly infelicitous coincidence,” it took place on the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall Raid, the gay-rights movement’s catalyst. The cops’ story—drunk gay men groped them—doesn’t add up.
Well, police chief Jeff Halstead is backing his men and their classic “Gay Panic Defense,” said Dan Savage in The Stranger, which goes: He made a pass at me, so I was justified in beating/killing him. That would still be illegal, but it’s also bunk. “I’ve been in a million gay bars” like the Rainbow Lounge, and “gay men don’t grope police officers when they enter gay bars.”
It is, “obviously, very sad” that one of the Rainbow Lounge patrons is in critical condition, said Rod Dreher in BeliefNet, but come on, the report that “cops who entered a gay bar were set upon by drunk, horny patrons who played grab-ass with them” is “hilarious,” and not at all far-fetched. Gay people, especially drunk gay people, can be “as stupid as the rest of us.”
Except that the hospitalized man was reportedly drinking bottled water, said Jeff Epperly in New England’s Bay Windows. But 40 years after Stonewall, this kind of gay harassment goes on all over the U.S., not just in Texas. The raid at Forth Worth's Rainbow Lounge “was the work of a police department that wasn’t smart enough to hide its bigotry.”
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13 Comments
Posted by DW, Thursday, July 2, 2009, 12:47 pm The police may have been at fault or the men in the bar may have inappropriately and had unwelcome advances towards the officers but what really concerns me is the overall attitude is to not believe the police. While there are bad officers, those numbers are fairly small. You would think they wouldn't be judged until all the evidence is in.
Posted by bon, Thursday, July 2, 2009, 1:34 pm Guilty until proven innocent.
Posted by cminca, Thursday, July 2, 2009, 2:17 pm Guilty until proven innocentare you speaking about the cops, or the patrons?A trained police officer doesn't have to put somebody in the hospital if they are coming on to themespecially if that person is drunk. I'm guessing the blood alcohol report comes up clean, and the officers will get off without any reprimand. You can still bash the gay and get away with it.
Posted by DW, Thursday, July 2, 2009, 3:31 pm cminca, we werent there. We have no idea how far it went and would you expect a woman not to protect herself if some man was manhandling her? If it were my daughter or my son, I would hope she would take care of herself. It is also against the law to accost an officer of the law which one could expect possible bodily injury as a result. No one should get bashed, gay or otherwise but if they are foolish enough to disrespect the law if that is what happened here, then expect to pay the consequences.
Posted by HB, Friday, July 3, 2009, 8:58 am if this were a story about an african american being beaten the whole country would be outraged. if the police officer says that he was being attacked, that's one thing. self defense. but indecent behavior being met with deadly force will never stand under up under the blanket of justice. if this were in the north, these crimes would be punished. but it's texas, so it will quietly go away. it just goes to show the lack of human decency in the God forsaken south.
Posted by inmyopinion, Friday, July 3, 2009, 10:24 pm Went San Francisco's PRIDE , the cops there did an outstanding job. My son is Mexican/gay, we live in a white/conservative/redneck area, we feel he has been a target of racialprofiling by police. For example my son was driving home from college, in a older Lexus that my mother passed down to him, and the police pulled him over, they assumed his writing pen was a crack pipe! Among many reasons, cops have lost our respect, until we went to San Francisco and saw how police are supposed to do their jobs! SFPD should be example for ALL cops.
Posted by inmyopinion, Friday, July 3, 2009, 10:34 pm youtube.com/watch?vk7AuWTRS33QThank you SFPD. All cops need to train in SF! Cops in SF, generally, are tolerant and know how to protect/serve, instead of harass!
Posted by inmyopinion, Friday, July 3, 2009, 10:44 pm HB wrote: if this were a story about an African American being beaten the whole country would be outraged......I agree with you 100!!! Although I think ALL victims of alleged police misconduct are equally significant, there seems to be a bias against gays, as if they are not as significant when they are victims of the police. Police brutality/misconduct is a serious crisis/epidemic in our country, it is time that something is done about it. I know my family members are the most lawabiding people, even WE have had bad experiences w/cops!
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