Box Turtle Bulletin

The Anonymous Tips

The Southern Voice is now hosting copies of the complaints that generated the commitment of over 20 officers to raid the Atlanta Eagle.

One appears to be a speculation about an event scheduled for July 5th (“They have hired nude dancers to dance on the bars; sex will be permitted as at most circuit parties, drugs will be sold freely.”)

The other anonymous tip (“for fear of retaliation”) seems to be a more generalized complaint about “ongoing sex parties on Thursday nights” and purports to be from a neighbor. It seems that it is this tip that motivated the massive response.

Witnesses (including myself) in the neighborhood have seen men in various states of undress performing sexual acts on each other including oral and anal sex. Mayor Franklin, your assistance in this matter is desperately needed as people in this neighborhood are concerned about the neighborhood being turned into a brothel. Bags of what appears to be drug residue are found strewn around a one block radius of the bar and drunk bar patrons scream and create disturbances. The neighbors that I have spoken to are scared to report anything as the bar owner has been known to retaliate against neighbors by pointing a speakers with sounds of men having sex and blasting it to the residential building next to the bar.

It would appear that the police did not make much effort to confirm this anonymous accusation before choosing to believe it. Had they checked with the Midtown Ponce Security Alliance, they may have saved themselves the effort and the embarrassment.

I have a bird\’s eye view of what the community is telling us. I know every square inch of the MPSA service area, in which the Eagle is prominently located. I have never once received any reports or made any observations even remotely suggesting that crime and disorder in the neighborhood would be attributed to the Eagle.
…
The Eagle has always been totally unlike [other bars the MPSA worked to get closed]. From what we can tell, the staff and patrons of that establishment have enjoyed their evenings quite peacefully. We have never observed otherwise, and nobody has ever reported to us otherwise. We feel reassured that of the 62 (?) people that were found to be in that bar during the raid, not a single one had any drugs in their possession – truly amazing!

…The Eagle was that bar of choice – right there where everything possible could go wrong given the long-standing undesirable remnants of Ponce past, where a bar would be most at risk of becoming a community nightmare, and yet not a peep for years on end.

One thing that stands out to me is the assumption on the part of those who seek to oppose gay people and their lives that they can and should do so without any accountability. They hide behind anonymity claiming fear of reprisal from the evil awful gays, when it is they who are causing harm and disruption.

We see this in the raids on bars in Georgia and Texas, where “anonymous tips” are justification for police hostility. And we see it in Washington in petitioners who want to deny rights under the cloak of secrecy.

But what is disheartening and disturbing is that persons of authority, be they police or judges, are quick to shield the identity of accusers – who are often making false claims – and to view gay people as the danger by default. Our lives are disrupted, our freedoms are threatened, our rights are in jeopardy, but it is the anonymous identity of liars that must be protected.

UPDATE: As best I can tell from Google maps, there isn’t a residential building next to the bar. There may be one behind the establishment across a parking lot, but that appears to be the closest.

DOMA Repeal Step One: Introduction

A collection of political leaders, led by Rep. Nadler, who truly wish to see marriage discrimination removed from federal law, have taken the first step towards marriage equality. (NYT blog)

Representatives Jerrold Nadler, Tammy Baldwin and Jared Polis appeared along with same-sex marriage advocates at a Tuesday morning news conference to announce the introduction of the bill, called the Respect for Marriage Act.
…
The bill already has roughly 90 cosponsors, though at least one name is conspicuously absent from that list: Representative Barney Frank, the openly gay Massachusetts Democrat. Speaker Nancy Pelosi also indicated earlier this year that repealing the law would not be a top priority.

The next step will be trying to encourage those who are reluctant to move forward on equality – or for tying their political careers to things that matter to our community – to consider equality as a principled goal.

This bill is not expected to pass this Congress. But it does let us know who is really committed when they tell us that they support equality for gay couples. There are now 90 congresspersons whom I’m now willing to listen to … and a few notable ones for whom I find that I have other causes that “will take up all of what I can do and maybe more” and perhaps they should seek a “better venue” elsewhere.

p.s. the bill does not yet seem to have caught the attention of the President. But I am absolutely certain that he will support this bill every bit as much as he has used his bully pulpit and influence with Congress to support other promises he made to our community during his campaign.

Gay Philanthropist Donates $100K To Equality March

From the Washington Blade:

Gay philanthropist Bruce Bastian of Utah has donated $70,000 to the National Equality March in D.C. and plans to contribute another $30,000 for the event because he strongly believes it will jump-start the LGBT rights movement.

Jump-start the LGBT rights movement? Nothing will jump-start it like two victories in Maine and Washington, and nothing will deflate it like two more defeats in November. Remember the huge letdown after Prop 8? Or are our attention spans really that short?

I appreciate the passion for the March but it is being foolishly misdirected. Not only are its goals ill-concieved and not thought through, but it’s slated for October 11 when Congress will not be in recess and President Obama will be out of town.

Frankly, this whole March idea may be a great ego boost for the organizers, but it’s incredibly selfish considering the needs of LGBT people who face ballot initiatives right now aimed at stripping them and their families of basic rights. That $130,000 can make a huge difference in those fights, not on the grassy lawn of the Mall while everyone else is out of town.

Please donate to No on 1 in Maine and Approve Ref.71 in Washington.

Yet Another “Reason” for the Atlanta Bar Raid

Not having found any drugs (the previous “reason”) during their raid on the Atlanta Eagle, the police now have a new “reason” why nine undercover officers, a dozen uniformed police, ten squad cars, and three jail vans were required to descend on this bar, force its 62 patrons to lie on the floor, subject them to insults and slurs, conduct warrantless searches on each of them, do background checks without any cause for suspicion, and jail the employees for bogus “crimes”, all while keeping their plan secret from the gay liaison. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

According to police records, undercover vice officers had been to the club and witnessed men having sex while other patrons watched. The department received its first complaints in May and sent officers there undercover before the Sept. 10 raid, Pennington said.

Police records show that initial complaints alleged there were drugs being sold on Atlanta Eagle premises and that patrons engaged in open sex acts.

Yep. It was sex, I tell ya, sex. None of which was occurring on the night of September 10th. I wonder if Danni Lynn Harris, the department\’s liaison with the gay and lesbian community, was aware of the existence of these “police records” or whether they were being saved for the purpose of this raid.

And my question is about the motivation of this raid. If their intent was to eliminate offensive sexual behavior within the club, wouldn’t the first step be to discuss the behavior with the club’s management?

The failure of this police department to take any preventive steps but rather to take drastic and disproportionate actions designed to humiliate and harass the patrons of this establishment suggests to me that their motives had little at all to do with any real crimes.

But there is one point of real encouragement in this story. Npt only did politicians step in to help our community, but we stood up for ourselves.

On Monday, at least 10 of the bar\’s patrons and employees went to APD\’s Office of Professional Standards to lodge complaints about the way they were treated by the officers conducting the raid.

We aren’t going to sit back and act like we deserve police brutality or lack of civil treatment. Not anymore. Not even in the South.

Are You Married?

That is a question that will be asked on the 2010 US Census and it you’re heterosexual it’s a pretty easy question to answer. But not if you are a same-sex couple.

Sure, if you live in Massachusetts and are married in the eyes of your state, or if you’re a single guy or gal who is living footloose and fancy free, then you know your answer. But what if you’re somewhere in between?

Suppose you live in South Dakota and you have made vows before your community blessed by your place of worship and honored by your friends and family. Are you married?

Or suppose that you live in New Jersey and entered into a civil union which has “everything but the name”. Are you married?

Or you live in California where the Supreme Court justified the implementation of Proposition 8 by stating that domestic partnerships are acceptable equality provided that there not any provisions offered differently between domestic partnerships and marriage. Is “included on the census” a difference? Are you married?

Or you married in Connecticut but live in Virginia. Traveling cross country would have you married on one day and total strangers on the next. Or if you live in Rhode Island and the state has told you that it will not grant you a divorce for your legal Massachusetts wedding. Are you married?

At some point, state law almost becomes moot in answering this census question. Because recognition based on one’s current residence may dictate whether one’s marriage is recognized, but say very little about whether one is married. At some point the real answer becomes, “Yes, in the eyes of my family, my friends, my employer, my neighbors, my community, my city government, my church and, most importantly, me and my spouse, I am married. And if my state can’t ‘recognize’ that simple fact, then it needs to clean its glasses.”

And that is just how same-sex couples are expected to answer questions about their marriage status in next year’s census count. (WaPo)

When the U.S. Census Bureau counts same-sex married couples next year, demographers expect hundreds of thousands to report they are spouses — even though legal same-sex weddings in the United States number in the tens of thousands.

The Post goes on to suggest that the primary motivation for this will be to provide a basis for advocating for gay rights. And indeed, the data will be used to show that gay people are everywhere in this nation and that even the most conservative representative in the reddest state has married gay constituents he needs to serve.

But I think the motivation will be much more primal and personal. I think couples will tick the “married” box because, well, they are. And what else could you expect them to answer?

Jamaican Police Deny Murder was Gay Hate Crime

When Honorary British Consul in Jamaica John Terry was murdered in Montego Bay, his naked body was accompanied by a note that said, “This is what will happen to ALL gays.” But this was not reported in the Jamaican media.

Now Jamaican police, responding to the word getting out from British and other media sources, have “ruled out” homophobia as a cause for Terry’s murder.

local police say nothing in their investigation is consistent with that theory and have asked the media to desist from reporting this misleading information.

Somehow it seems to me as though the police are far more concerned with the reputation of their country than they are about the crimes committed against gay residents.

Meanwhile Jamaican media are still downplaying the possibility of anti-gay animus as the cause of the crime. I’ve not found any reference to the note, and the Jamaica Gleaner is serving up additional bias by misstating British coverage:

Questions have swirled in British media that Terry, 65, was a homosexual who was probably killed by a lover.

Perhaps time will reveal that this is not an anti-gay murder. But it appears at this time as though Jamaican police and media are seeking to cover up facts rather than solve this crime.

PLEASE TAKE NOTICE: If you are gay or if someone may mistakenly guess that you are gay, you are not safe to visit Jamaica. You may be subjected to violence – or even murdered – and the Jamaican police probably will not come to your aid.

If you know of anyone who is planning on visiting this cauldron of hatred and violence, please give them warning. Jamaica is not safe for tourism.

Sunday Driver: Simple Gifts

Today, especially in contemporary America’s Fox News-driven style of political environment where anything smacking of shared obligations and sense of community is loudly and angrily denounced as “socialism” or worse, it’s hard to remember that communitarian Utopian ideals were an important religious and societal impulse which built great swaths of the country in the early 1800’s. These communal experiments of the Harmony Society, Zoar, the Shakers, the Oneida community, the Amana Colonies — these have all left an indelible mark on American society and its landscape.

Shaker Village at Pleasant Hill, Ky. The Shaker's famous attention to detail extends to the building's exteriors as well. Notice the windows on the brick building on the left: ground floor windows are five panes high, second floor are four panes high, and top floor are three. (Jim Burroway/BTB)

One such group, and perhaps the most ardent in its communal strictures, were the Shakers. Founded by Ann Lee, an illiterate mill worker who was strongly influence by the Quakers, the Shakers adopted similar theological  beliefs but added the some key elements which set them apart. The Shakers’ manner of worship involved ecstatic, animated movements which lent them their name and established a precedent for later pentecostal movements which would come about in the early twentieth century. They were ahead of themselves in other ways as well: because they held that God embodied both masculine and feminine elements, they believed in absolute equality between men and women. They rejected slavery and were open to all comers regardless of race. They also founded communal villages in which family relationships were abolished and celibacy became the most notable feature of Shaker life to the outside world.

Interior of Centre Family Dwelling, Shaker Village at Pleasant Hill, Ky. Built in the early 1830's, Pleasant Hill boasts innovative architecture and interior spaces that would be at home in any modern building. (Jim Burroway/BTB)

Twin spiral staircase, Trustee's Offices. (Jim Burroway/BTB)

Actually, celibacy was only one notable feature of Shaker life. Perhaps the other most notable feature was the Shakers’ remarkable craftsmanship in everything they made. Their view of work was best summed up by two well-known Shaker sayings: “Do your work as though you had a thousand years to live and as if you were to die tomorrow,” and, “Put your hands to work, and your heart to God.” They believed that making something well was itself an act of prayer. Simplicity, beauty, and plain functionality were guiding principles in everything they did.

There is one point of irony in the Shakers’ much-appreciated craftsmanship. Their ingenuity and fine attention to detail has made those “simple gifts” produced by a simple people in prayer have become inordinately expensive. Original Shaker pieces now command exorbitant prices among some of the world’s wealthiest collectors.

The Shakers went on to found 19 villages from Maine to Kentucky, and at their peak counted some 16,000 members. They also drew a tremendous backlash in the outside world, often with arguments similar to those used by anti-gay activists. One such anti-Shaker argument held that the Shakers represented a dire threat to civilization: if everyone became Shaker, then the human race would die out due to their insistence on celibacy.

Women's dormatory in the Centre Family Dwelling (Jim Burroway/BTB)

But in the end, it was the Shakers who eventually died out. The industrial revolution and the rise of cities marked a popular shift away from farming in general, and the Shaker’s agrarian communal lifestyle quickly became obsolete. And there was, of course, that celibacy thing which went far beyond merely a ban on sex. It extended to a ban on marriage and the denial of intimate relationships of all sorts. This smacked headlong against the growing Victorian fascination of romantic love as being the foundation of lifelong attachments. And of course, communal living experiments across the country ran hard against the lure of rugged individualism which drove Americans’ both further westward and toward greater economic freedom. Against those nineteenth century developments, “United Society of Believers in Christ\’s Second Appearing” didn’t stand a chance.

One by one, the Shaker settlements were abandoned. There is only one settlement left at Sabbathday Lake near Lewiston, Maine, with four remaining residents. The Shaker village in Kentucky, Pleasant Hill, was founded in 1806 and lasted as an active community until 1910. The last Kentucky Shaker, Sister Mary Settles, died in 1923. Pleasant Hill, about 25 miles south of Lexington, is now a remarkably preserved museum where the Trustee Office building is now an Inn and restaurant.

Interior of the Meeting House at Pleasant Hill (Jim Burroway/BTB)

There is another legacy that the Shakers left for us, and it’s one that everyone the world over is familiar with. Music and dance were an exceptionally important part of Shaker worship, and one song in particular not only encapsulates perfectly  the Shaker philosophy, but has become an anthem for personal excellence.

Update: After I posted this, it occurred to me that the Shaker experiment had more in common with monasticism than most other communal Utopian communities of the nineteenth century. But they didn’t position themselves as a monastic alternative to ordinary life, but as an entirely separate kind of community and religion. There are still monasteries today, even though they generally are in decline. Perhaps if the Shakers had thought of themselves as providing a different way of living out a more common Protestant faith rather than the particularly unique beliefs they espoused (rejection of the Trinity, direct communication with the dead, etc.), they might have survived as well in some form. Who knows?

Buju Banton Performs Tonight In Philly; Columbus, Cincinnati, Minneapolis Concerts Cancelled

Thanks to BTB reader Stefano A. for this one:

The Lifestyle Communities Pavilion [in Columbus, Ohio] has canceled the 3 October show. Marketing Director Amy Cooper confirmed the cancellation but would make no other comment other than to state that: PromoWest did not directly schedule the Banton concert, but only rented the venue to an outside agency that handles the show booking, lighting, production and other aspects (except security). Cooper would not provide contact information for the outside booking agent.

An Oct 2 concert for Cincinnati is also listed as canceled by Ticketmaster, as is the one scheduled for Oct 4 Minneapolis.

Buju Banton performs tonight at the Trocadero Theater in Philadelphia, and tomorrow at the Reggae Fest at the Crossroads Nightclub in Bladensburg, MD.

Suspicious Elements of Atlanta Eagle Raid

Here’s the thing I find very suspicious about Thursday’s raid on the Atlanta Eagle, which involved ten police cars and fifteen officers.  After having the patrons lie on the floor during the raid and endure insults from the Police Department, the police arrested eight employees for providing adult entertainment. Apparently, they had patrons dancing in their underwear — it was underwear night — and that constitutes “adult entertainment.” Never mind that this apparel is generally not dissimilar to that found at Atlanta public swimming pools. But that was such a horrific crime for Atlanta that eight employees were detained in Atlanta’s city jails overnight. Six of the eight remained detained until well into the following afternoon when two Atlanta City Council candidates intervened and contacted a judge who finally set bail.

And there’s this description of the raid itself:

“I had been there less that five minutes, around 11 p.m.,” the patron told Southern Voice. “It was a pretty slow night, and I was just talking with someone by the dance floor when all of a sudden, a police office officer, I\’m not sure if he was in plain clothes or not, came through, knocked something over and said, ‘everyone get down.\'”

The man initially thought it might have been a fight between patrons, but after seeing several officers enter the dance floor area, he knew it was serious.

“I was on my knees after they told us to get down, but then an officer grabbed me by the back of the neck and pushed me down,” said the patron. “It wasn\’t necessarily abuse, but I definitely think they used a heavy hand.”

Anyone who tried arguing with authorities was told to “Shut up,” and “don\’t speak until spoken to,” the man said.

“It was a full on police raid. For customers who were just having a drink, hanging out, it was definitely shocking,” he said.

According to the patron, while everyone was still face down, police searched the crowd individually without asking permission, and later took everyone\’s ID. Once a patron\’s ID was cleared, he was asked to leave the building.

The source said he was face down on the ground through the process, which for him was about half an hour. Others, he said, waited longer.

“I heard some laughter and casual conversation during the event,” he continued. “It made me mad because I was forced on the floor, searched and held down, not able to talk while they were around joking and taking their job lightly.

“We were treated as criminals from the get-go,” he said. “I definitely felt harassed.”

All because, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, of this:

The raid, conducted by the vice squad, was a result of a tip sent to Mayor Shirley Franklin’s office alleging “illicit sex” at The Eagle, Harris said. Ironically, Franklin’s election and re-election campaigns were headquartered in space adjoining the leather bar.

This contradicts an earlier claim of “several complaints,” which itself seems suspicious given that no one was arrested for “illicit sex” or selling drugs, which were two of the reasons offered for the raid. No drugs were found in the entire search (which I think is rather remarkable for any large well-attended bar, gay or straight.)

Does the Mayor’s office and Atlanta Police Department pursue anonymous tips against straight bars? That’s what Dan Savage wants to know:

I think we should find out if the mayor of Atlanta will order a police raid on any bar—gay or straight—based on a single (and apparently phony) tip about drug use. So, hey, here’s a list of bars in Atlanta and here’s the mayor’s contact info…

Mayor Shirley Franklin
Tel: 404.330.6100
Fax: 404.658.6893
mayorfranklin@atlantaga.gov

If you know or even just suspect that drugs are being used or sold—or adult entertainment provided without a city permit—on the premises of any bar or club in Atlanta, send a tip off the mayor’s office now. If every bar in Atlanta winds up gets raided—if 10 police cars, 15 officers, and 10 undercover officers get sent to every bar in town—then we’ll know that the raid on the Atlanta Eagle wasn’t motivated by anti-gay bias. Mayor Franklin is standing by waiting for your tips!

Meanwhile, the police’s LGBT Liaison Officer Dani Lynn Harris has been kept completely out of the loop. She didn’t know about the raid until she was contacted by the media, and as of Friday afternoon she still didn’t have an incident number on the case, so she couldn’t access basic information like how many officers were on the scene or who was arrested on what charges.

A protest is planned for Sunday at 5 p.m at the Eagle parking lot. A Facebook page has been created for the rally.

Raid on Gay Bar in Atlanta

The facts are tentative, but appear to be as follows (as provided by a first hand account from a reporter for the Atlanta Progressive News and by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution):

Last night, about 15 police officers raided the Atlanta Eagle, purportedly looking for drugs. It was the Eagle’s “underwear night”, and the bar staff, along with some patrons, were in their underwear.

Patrons were forced to lie face down on the floor – many handcuffed – and were frisked by officers looking for drugs. No drugs were found. It appears that several persons in the club prior to the arrest were undercover police.

The bar tenders and bar dancers were arrested and jailed for “providing adult entertainment without a city permit”. They remained in jail until this afternoon when two city councilpersons interceded.

Police appeared to be callous to the humiliation of the gay patrons and made pejorative comments. While the purpose was supposedly for drug enforcement, it appeared to all that this would be more accurately described as police harassment of the gay community. And there were statements made that suggest that the police involved felt no hesitation about a fraudulent raid.

One police officer stated, as he and others left the parking lot, “This is gonna keep happening if we keep getting complaints from the community.” The officer did not specify what complaints he was referring to.

Fortunately, the police liaison to the gay community is not taking the situation lightly.

Atlanta Police’s liaison to the gay community said the volume of complaints she’s received from patrons at a Midtown leather bar that was raided Thursday night suggests an investigation is warranted.

“There’s too many people saying the same thing for there not to be some validity to it,” said Danni Lynn Harris, Atlanta Police’s LGBT liaison.

It is difficult to view this situation in terms other than abuse of power. Let’s hope that a expeditious investigation is initiated and that steps are taken to avoid future targeting of gay businesses for police harassment in Atlanta.

D.C. Marriage Equality an All But Sure Thing

District of Columbia councilman David Catania will introduce a marriage equality bill for the District in the coming weeks. He appears to have adequate support for passage. (WaPo)

After months of buildup and behind-the-scenes lobbying, a bill by David A. Catania, one of two openly gay members of the council, has been drafted and is ready to be introduced in the coming weeks. Catania (I-At Large) expects a final vote before the end of the year. On Thursday, Catania said he had 10 co-sponsors, all but assuring that the measure will be approved by the council. The bill would have to survive congressional review before it could become law.

Wisely, Catania is following the precedent of New England states in assuring religious institutions that they need not change their theology.

Catania’s bill, titled the “Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Equality Amendment Act of 2009,” stresses that no religious organizations or their officials would have to perform a same-sex marriage or provide wedding-related services to same-sex couples.

“I think it is very important for people to realize we are talking about a civil marriage, not a religious marriage,” Catania said.

Starting in 2011, the bill would eliminate domestic partnerships, although any couple already registered would have the option of keeping their partnership or converting it for free to a city-sanctioned marriage.

Naturally, anti-gay activists will do whatever they can to deny to gay people the rights that they hold so dear for themselves. But with Democratic majorities in both houses, this bill may not be subjected to a congressional veto.

A Modest Proposal

Something to think about from the folks behind the 2010 California Marriage Protection Act:

Hell is eternal — just like your marriage was supposed to be.

Americans Say Gays Face Most Discrimination

The Pew Research Center released a report (PDF: 381KB/24 pages) which discusses Americans’ attitudes toward Muslims, but reveals that Muslims aren’t the ones that Americans see as most discriminated against. According to the report:

Americans see Muslims as facing more discrimination inside the U.S. than other major religious groups. Nearly six-in-ten adults (58%) say that Muslims are subject to a lot of discrimination, far more than say the same about Jews, evangelical Christians, atheists or Mormons. In fact, of all the groups asked about, only gays and lesbians are seen as facing more discrimination than Muslims with nearly two-thirds (64%) of the public saying there is a lot of discrimination against homosexuals.

The report focuses almost entirely on Americans’ attitudes toward Islam and Muslims. But the interesting thing is how Americans view discrimination against gays and lesbians.

The poll was conducted in several groups in August 2009. The first five responses of religious groups (Muslims, Jews, Evangelical Christians, Atheists and Mormons) were from a sample size of 2,010 with a margin of error of 2.5 percentage points. The last four responses were from sample sizes of from 999 to 1,011, giving a margin of error of 3.5 percentage points. Yes and No responses do not add to 100% due to participants either saying they didn’t know or refused to answer.

WA Anti-Gays to Remain Anonymous

“There, I guess King George can read that!” declared John Hancock signing in a large firm script and thereby attaching his name, reputation, and fortune to the risky venture of independence.

It’s likely that Hancock made no such declaration. But the myth has become part of our national identity, less of an anecdote and more of a mindset. We Americans like those who stand behind their convictions, those who think that if you believe in something that you have to be willing to put your name on the line, to be willing to risk something for your principles.

We don’t have much respect for those who want the privilege of their position, but are unwilling to risk anything. We don’t like back-room dealers, vigilantes who hide their identity under a sheet, or politicians who say one thing and do another. Our laws demand that an accused be allowed to confront his accuser in court face to face. Our political process requires that votes by legislators – and even debate – be public so that we can see who stands where. If you want to make the decisions, you need to be accountable for them.

In short, we don’t like sneaks.

But in Washington, the anti-gays are sneaks. They managed to scrape together enough signatures (with the help of the Secretary of State) to qualify the anti-gay Referendum 71 for the ballot. But they don’t want to be accountable for those signatures. They want to deny gay people basic rights… but they want to do it on the sly.

The supporters of Referendum 71 have sued to force the State of Washington to hide the names of the signatories, to keep their identities secret. And a federal judge has agreed. (Seattle Times)

A federal judge has continued to keep private the names and addresses of those who signed Referendum 71, saying they likely are protected under the First Amendment and that the state failed to prove a compelling public interest in their release.

U.S. District Judge Benjamin Settle in Tacoma granted a preliminary injunction today, blocking the state from making the petitions public.

Now the First Amendment of the Constitution of which I am aware says:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

And “the people” in Washington have petitioned, which is their right. But this judge thinks that they are entitled to do so anonymously. And I think that this is a most dangerous interpretation.

This sets a precedent for other petitions and other appeals to government. It opens the door for special interests of all sorts to change laws and propose initiatives under a cloak of secrecy, denying the citizenry even the basic knowledge of who is behind such efforts.

And it does not stop with petitions. If the First Amendment protects identity for petitions, what else does it protect? If, indeed, petitions can be without scrutiny, if the subjects of such petitions can be denied knowledge of the petitioners, what else in the First Amendment is also protected by the shield of anonymity?

Is the press allowed a veil of anonymity? Will the courts deny the victim of a libelous attack knowledge about who owns, operates, or writes for the paper that defamed him?

Is peaceful assembly now a masked mob?

Perhaps this judge is familiar with a First Amendment of which I am unaware. But if so, I’m sure it is one that is attached to a constitution that would be foreign to our founders who, like John Hancock, were willing to risk life, freedom, and property to loudly and largely put their names on their revolution.

British Consul Killed In Jamaica In Anti-Gay Attack

Violence against gays in Jamaica is continuing unabated. Honorary British Consul in Jamaica John Terry was found dead at his home in Montego Bay. Police say he died of asphyxiation after being repeatedly beaten, possibly with a lamp. Police say neighbors found his naked body laying in the yard with a cloth and cord tied around his neck. A trail of blood was found throughout the property.

Police are investigating the possibility that the attack might have been an anti-gay attack, citing a handwritten note on Terry’s body describing him as a “batty man”, a pejorative term for a gay man. The note warned, “This is what will happen to ALL gays.” It was signed, “Gay-Man.”

While London newspapers are reporting the gay angle — even the conservative Times of London mentioned the note as an indication of the murderer’s motive — but the Jamaican news media has been silent on the issue. The Gleaner’s report on the murder completely ignored the evidence of an anti-gay bashing

Jamaica has become notorious for its ongoing anti-gay violence. The U.S. State Department singled out Jamaica for “human rights abuses, including arbitrary detention, mob attacks, stabbings, harassment of homosexual patients by hospital and prison staff, and targeted shootings of homosexuals. Police often did not investigate such incidents.”

Terry,  65, had lived in Jamaica since 1967 where he represented the British High Commission for the popular resort area of Montego Bay.