Box Turtle Bulletin
News and commentary about the anti-gay lobby“Now you must raise your children up in a world where that union of man and box turtle is on the same legal footing as man and wife…”
News and commentary about the anti-gay lobbyJuly 8th, 2009
What is it about law enforcement in Texas?
Last Sunday night, Carlos Diaz de Leon and some friends stopped to have a bit to eat at Chico’s Tacos. Two of the guys kissed each other, which seemed to annoy the rent-a-cops.
“We went, sat down to eat our food and security guards came and said that if they kept doing that, they were going to throw us all out of the restaurant.”
Carlos said he then asked them why? Their response, according to Carlos: “They said ‘we didn’t allow that gay stuff to go on here.’ “
Carlos mistakenly thought that he and his friends have the right in Texas to be treated the same as straight people. So he called the police. But he didn’t get the response he expected. Rather than come to the support of Carlos and his friends, they were threatened with citation.
“Told us it was against the law for two males and two females to kiss in public, that they could cite us for homosexual activity.”
While there is a homosexual conduct ordinance in the state’s penal code, “We don’t enforce that law, there’s been court decisions about Texas’ law on that. We don’t enforce it and what happened there wouldn’t have even have met the elements of the offense, even if it had been enforceable,” said El Paso Police Department spokesman Chris Mears.
The police department admits the situation was not handled properly by a rookie police officer, but deny it was discrimination.
“Did he make a comment that he shouldn’t have made? Yeah, he did…but that comment I don’t think was discriminatory in nature, I think it was poor understanding of the law,” Mears said.
No, Mr. Mears, it isn’t just “poor understanding of the law.” If was official police harassment of a citizen of El Paso based on that citizen’s sexual orientation. It was discrimination. It was intimidation. It was bigotry.
In 2003 the Supreme Court of the United States told a state that its sodomy laws contrary to the US Constitution. And what state was that? It was Texas. It is simply not credible that there is a police force in the State of Texas that was not fully aware of Lawrence v. Texas and what it means.
Prior to the Court’s decision, it wasn’t as though the state was much in the habit of enforcing the law. They didn’t put folks in jail. That wasn’t its purpose.
The intent of the sodomy laws in Texas were to create a culture of intimidation, to leave gay persons under threat of being criminalized, to allow harassment without recourse, and to make it very clear that the State of Texas “didn’t allow that gay stuff to go on here.”
It seems to me like things haven’t changed much.
In light of the recent police brutality in a gay bar in Ft. Worth, it’s time to ask some questions.
I believe the answers to these questions are all the same.
Latest Posts
Featured Reports
In this original BTB Investigation, we unveil the tragic story of Kirk Murphy, a four-year-old boy who was treated for “cross-gender disturbance” in 1970 by a young grad student by the name of George Rekers. This story is a stark reminder that there are severe and damaging consequences when therapists try to ensure that boys will be boys.
When we first reported on three American anti-gay activists traveling to Kampala for a three-day conference, we had no idea that it would be the first report of a long string of events leading to a proposal to institute the death penalty for LGBT people. But that is exactly what happened. In this report, we review our collection of more than 500 posts to tell the story of one nation’s embrace of hatred toward gay people. This report will be updated continuously as events continue to unfold. Check here for the latest updates.
In 2005, the Southern Poverty Law Center wrote that “[Paul] Cameron’s ‘science’ echoes Nazi Germany.” What the SPLC didn”t know was Cameron doesn’t just “echo” Nazi Germany. He quoted extensively from one of the Final Solution’s architects. This puts his fascination with quarantines, mandatory tattoos, and extermination being a “plausible idea” in a whole new and deeply disturbing light.
On February 10, I attended an all-day “Love Won Out” ex-gay conference in Phoenix, put on by Focus on the Family and Exodus International. In this series of reports, I talk about what I learned there: the people who go to these conferences, the things that they hear, and what this all means for them, their families and for the rest of us.
Prologue: Why I Went To “Love Won Out”
Part 1: What’s Love Got To Do With It?
Part 2: Parents Struggle With “No Exceptions”
Part 3: A Whole New Dialect
Part 4: It Depends On How The Meaning of the Word "Change" Changes
Part 5: A Candid Explanation For "Change"
At last, the truth can now be told.
Using the same research methods employed by most anti-gay political pressure groups, we examine the statistics and the case studies that dispel many of the myths about heterosexuality. Download your copy today!
And don‘t miss our companion report, How To Write An Anti-Gay Tract In Fifteen Easy Steps.
Anti-gay activists often charge that gay men and women pose a threat to children. In this report, we explore the supposed connection between homosexuality and child sexual abuse, the conclusions reached by the most knowledgeable professionals in the field, and how anti-gay activists continue to ignore their findings. This has tremendous consequences, not just for gay men and women, but more importantly for the safety of all our children.
Anti-gay activists often cite the “Dutch Study” to claim that gay unions last only about 1½ years and that the these men have an average of eight additional partners per year outside of their steady relationship. In this report, we will take you step by step into the study to see whether the claims are true.
Tony Perkins’ Family Research Council submitted an Amicus Brief to the Maryland Court of Appeals as that court prepared to consider the issue of gay marriage. We examine just one small section of that brief to reveal the junk science and fraudulent claims of the Family “Research” Council.
The FBI’s annual Hate Crime Statistics aren’t as complete as they ought to be, and their report for 2004 was no exception. In fact, their most recent report has quite a few glaring holes. Holes big enough for Daniel Fetty to fall through.
“Google” is a trademark of Google Inc.
© Box Turtle Bulletin. All Rights Reserved.
Posts 
Posts via daily email:
Lindoro Almaviva
July 8th, 2009
tell you what, I think we should get a group together and go there and stage a kiss off. Let’s see those bastards try to enforce the law
Regan DuCasse
July 8th, 2009
It’s incidents like these that remind me of how vividly Jim Crow still exists for gay folks.
Any black person that denies that gay folks don’t struggle with very similar issues, or even more of them depending on context, only has to know about situations like this.
Gina9223
July 8th, 2009
…wait a second… why does a taco shack needs TWO security guards?
Did the Hambergerlar start going for taco’s now?
Lorenzo
July 8th, 2009
Yep, I think you have the mentality described perfectly. It is about intimidating the vulnerable and feeling virtuous about it.
Diego
July 8th, 2009
Privilege is calling the police for help and assuming the police will be on your side.
Joe
July 8th, 2009
I think a follow up on the officer that took the call to see whether or not he was made to view the non-discrimination video as most large corporations make their employees view every year. The Police Department’s risk management should see it as a must! It becomes a legal liability that that city should not have to bare because its police department is inept. People get fired for such things! The City of El Paso’s Mayor’s office should be fully informed of this also!
KipEsquire
July 8th, 2009
Party like it’s 2004!
Gay Couple Told Kissing “Illegal” in Texas (12/2004)
Christopher Waldrop
July 9th, 2009
As I learned several years ago any business can deny service to any person(s) for any reason(s), or for no stated reason at all. If a business owner decides he or she just doesn’t like a patron they can call the cops and have the patron charged with trespassing. The cops will almost always side with the business owner.
This doesn’t make the bigotry of the Texas police right, of course, and I’m all for a demonstration. Although instead of a “kiss-off” I think it should be called a “kiss-in”.
Tom in Lazybrook
July 9th, 2009
Actually, I hate to burst everyones bubble, but in Texas it is LEGAL to deny someone service in a restaurant, hotel, apartment, etc. on the basis of sexual orientation.
It is ILLEGAL in Texas for a Gay person to deny those same services to someone because they are a Baptist that doesn’t like Gays.
CLS
July 12th, 2009
I hate to sound like a broken record but we should do all that is humanely possible to ever interact with police officers. That doesn’t just go for gay people but for everyone. It is far too dangerous to be around cops to intentionally call them. Better to boycott the restaurant and publicize their bigotry than to call in cops.
Richard W. Fitch
July 12th, 2009
@Tom: If you check thru some of the news releases, I think you will find that both D-FW and El Paso have ordinances in addition to TX law that prohibit such denials.
Leave A Comment