Monday, June 29, 2009

Police Raid Ft. Worth Gay Bar - Flashback 40 Years!

Yesterday I spoke at a rally that both commemorated Stonewall and highlighted the lack of progress as far as assuring LGBT rights in this country. Nothing could have been more illustrative of that lack of progress than the raid on the Rainbow Lounge in Ft. Worth, Texas the previous night.

Police and TABC officials raided the bar, arresting 7 patrons and sending one to the hospital with a brain injury. Say what?

Yup, here we are 40 years after the Stonewall Rebellion and we still have police harassing LGBT people. The arrests were for public intoxication, a common charge when police just don't like someone's looks. They were in a bar for crying out loud, and they found people drinking? Shocking!

This raid is obviously some kind of homophobic statement by Ft. Worth Police, who are trying to make a statement. One of the bubbas must have read something about Stonewall and decided to go take revenge for that precieved slight to police authority 40 years ago. (This is conjecture, but we'll see how true it is.)

In the meantime, Chad Gibson is in intnsive care, bleeding in his brain thanks to the Ft. Worth Police.

A protest was held on the steps of the courthouse last night and Ft. Worth's only openly gay councilman spoke and assured the crowd that ther would be in investigation. At least we have one voice in city politics there. Dallas has none at the moment, a situation that needs to be changed ASAP.

Perhaps another Stonewall Rebellion is due, this time in Cowtown.

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