Did you fill out the Sexual Freedom Survey?

If not, YOU BETTER, or SiP will hunt you down and take away your sexy license.

Take the survey now!!!!

Let’s start the New Year off in a proactive way, by adding your voice to the Sexual Freedom Report!

This questionnaire will be the foundation for the first report on the State of Sexual Freedom in America today.  If you already responded to the questionnaire, and many of you have, thank you!  If not, we would really value your opinions!

As I shared with you in the first email, the Woodhull Freedom Foundation plans to publish regular reports on the sexual freedom movement, designed to help identify the social changes taking place, or that must take place for progress to be made, on the diverse issues on which we work. We are particularly interested in recognizing opportunities for already-established sexual freedom issue groups to work together.

We would like to know what you think are the most pressing sexual freedom issues this country is facing and so we are asking for a bit of your time and a lot of your knowledge and expertise.

We will treat your responses as confidential, unless you specifically give us permission to share your comments.  To protect the confidentiality of our participants, we will download the responses each day and they will be taken completely offline.  With that assurance, we are also asking that you provide your contact information on the survey.

I do hope that you’ll take some time right now to respond to the questionnaire.  What you think really does matter to us and to this project.

Please click here or at the link below to begin the survey.

Thanks for your time and your participation!

Ricci Levy, Executive Director

PS:  Please make sure to give us an email address in the questionnaire so that we can email you a copy of the completed report immediately prior to its public release.

Police Report from the Rainbow Lounge Raid

So the shitheads from the TABC are in loads of trouble!   Representative Lon Bernam (D) said, “There were so many violations that one could readily assert that they had no business walking through the door.”

Some of the things they’re in trouble for:
Not having approval for the operation from Ft Worth Police
Disrupting business
Not wearing uniforms
Failure to follow procedures
Not reporting an injury

I find it really interesting that they’re in trouble for not reporting the injury, when the police report from that night clearly states that they did.  Methinks someone lied on the report?  I also count four separate statements of bar patrons rubbing themselves on officers or making “sexually suggestive” motions towards them.  That sounds really strange to me – like a bad stereotype, or something.  The report also says he hit his head in the parking lot while he was puking while handcuffed.  More lies? What do you think?

TABC Finally Apologizes

Prove it

Alan Steen, the director of the TABC, finally admitted that the raid on the Rainbow Lounge was unfair and that policies were not followed, and he apologized.  The sergeant in charge of the raid has stepped down from his position, and the other two officers are on desk duty during the remainder of the investigation.

These are all great steps in resolving this assault on our community, but there’s still more work to be done.  (Notably, Steen makes no reference to the demands that the city take care of Chad Gibson’s medical bills.) And, although the Forth Worth police department’s decision to create a gay-liason position is a nice gesture, it remains to be seen how effective this move will be.

But, for now, kudos to the activists who have propelled this issue into the limelight.  Make no mistake, without organizations such as Queer Liberaction and other advocacy groups, and without the support of each and every community member (regardless of gender or orientation), this issue would certainly have been swept under the rug.  It’s good to see progress.

Press Release from the Dallas Eagle

DALLAS EAGLE PRESS RELEASE

July 13, 2009

Update on Dallas Eagle raid

Okay, so I might have gotten a little swept up with Stonewall Fever.  I’m still pretty skeptical of the timing of the police/TABC “inspection” of the new bar (see earlier post for details), but the witnesses I’ve heard from say that the police and TABC agents were well-mannered and respectful, and were only doing their job.

Now, I don’t know what’s what with all this, and I’m not gonna act like I do.  My friend Mark Frazier has an interesting perspective on the whole thing, and since he owned the Eagle for many years, I’m inclined to trust him.  Here’s what he had to say:

Dallas Eagle Raided

Okay, so we all know about the Stonewall raid on the Rainbow Lounge in Fort Worth a couple of weeks ago.  Weirdness and unfairness all around, and there’s lots of rallies and protests going on all over the country in response to it (tomorrow is the Tarrant County Courthouse protest.)

Important info and dates regarding the Rainbow Lounge police brutality

Read this post for information about ways to get involved

Police raid gay bar in Dallas on anniversary of Stonewall. WTF?

Really? Are you kidding me?  Police raided the Rainbow Lounge in Forth Worth on Sunday. They were so aggressive, they caused brain damage in one of the people they arrested.  This is BULLSHIT!!

Stonewall Anniversary

Today marks the 40th anniversary of one of the most important events in the history of LGBT civil rights.  Quick recap for those of you that don’t know – on this day in 1969, police aggressively raided the Stonewall Inn (a gay/lez/trans bar in New York City) and were met with fierce resistance and rioting that brought national attention to issues surrounding gay rights.  This event also spawned the traditional gay pride parades that still occur annually all over the country!

Rather than trying to rehash all the details that everyone else is writing about, I decided to post some great links and articles about it.  There’s lots of good info out there, but here are some of my favorites.

• Kids are getting involved! Check out the New York Times’ article, “Let My Two Moms Marry!”
• An interview with Raymond Castro, who was one of the people arrested that day
• See the actual police reports from the Stonewall Riots
• More to come!