According to Examiner.com

According to Examiner.com
According to the Examiner.com---since 01/09/11

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Anti-gay post on teacher’s Facebook page stirs firestorm

UNION TOWNSHIP, N.J.(RNS) It began last week with a single online comment, one critical of a high school display marking Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender History Month.
It soon ballooned into a harangue against homosexuality, a “perverted spirit” and a “sin” that “breeds like cancer.”
 
“Why parade your unnatural immoral behaviors before the rest of us?” a woman who identified herself as Viki Knox wrote on Facebook. “I DO NOT HAVE TO TOLERATE ANYTHING OTHERS WISH TO DO. I DO HAVE TO LOVE AND SPEAK AND DO WHAT’S RIGHT!”

Had the comments appeared without a name on some anonymous message board, they almost certainly would have been lost in the flotsam of the Internet.

But Knox is a teacher at Union High School, and the inflammatory thread on her public Facebook page has created a firestorm in Union Township and beyond, with calls for her dismissal, an investigation by the school district and criticism from state gay rights advocates.

“Ms. Knox has the freedom to say whatever she wants. But her employer has every right to hold her accountable,” said Steven Goldstein, chairman of the gay rights group Garden State Equality. “Teachers are supposed to be role models for our children, not hatemongers.”

The controversy raises a broader question about the free speech rights of teachers in the age of social media as more educators come under fire for posting their views online. It also prompted Goldstein to question whether a teacher intolerant of homosexuality or alternative lifestyles could enforce New Jersey’s new anti-bullying law.

Knox did not return several phone messages. Her husband, encountered outside the couple’s home, declined to comment.

Union Chief School Administrator Patrick Martin said the district is investigating the comments. He declined to provide any information about Knox, including the grade level or subject she teaches or whether any action has been taken.

State records show Knox has taught for at least 20 years, including 10 in the district, and earns $70,688 a year. On her Facebook page, she describes herself as a special education teacher.

Knox is also faculty adviser for the school’s Bible study group, the Seekers Fellowship, according to district records. On Facebook, she refers to herself under her religious views as a “Jesus freak.”

It was last Wednesday (Oct. 5) when comments about the LGBT History Month display at the Union County school appeared on Facebook. The display, meant to promote tolerance, included photos of famous gay and transgender people.

“And it’s still there!” the posting on Knox’s page said. “I’m pitching a fit.”
A handful of commentators agreed with that view, but others soon began objecting, leading to a passionate back-and-forth.

Later in the thread, a Union Township resident, Judy Amorosa, challenged the anti-gay stance. The thread shows Knox responding in religious terms.

“God cannot abide, tolerate, accept, go along with SIN. That’s why Jesus came and gave his life as an offering for our souls; so we could once again be right-standing,” Knox’s page said. “Everything God has created, Satan has perverted, EVERYTHING! Sin is sin. Wrong is wrong.”

A parent copied the remarks and forwarded them to attorney John Paragano, a former Union resident. Paragano, a former township councilman and municipal court judge, wrote on Saturday to the school district’s chief administrator, urging Knox be dismissed.

“Hateful public comments from a teacher cannot be tolerated,” Paragano wrote. “She has a right to say it. But she does not have a right to keep her job after saying it.”

It’s unclear if Knox was at school, at home or both when the comments were posted. She posted some shortly after noon last Wednesday.

Ed Barocas, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey, said Knox’s Facebook comments are protected by the Constitution.

“Although we do not agree with the sentiments expressed on Ms. Knox’s personal Facebook page, her comments are protected by the First Amendment,” Barocas said. “The ACLU believes that the response to offensive speech is not the restriction of speech, but more speech.”

(Jeanette Rundquist and Steve Strunsky write for The Star-Ledger in Newark, N.J. Ryan Hutchins and Mark Mueller of The Star-Ledger contributed to this report.)

Fred Karger becomes first openly gay candidate on NH Presidental Primary

Karger
Although he realizes people will probably ask "Fred who?" when they see his name, Fred Karger today became the first openly gay presidential candidate to appear on the New Hampshire primary ballot.
Watch, AFTER THE JUMP...
Karger was the first candidate to file in person (a representative for Ron Paul filed paperwork earlier in the day), WMUR reports:
Karger showed up with a campaign sign, an oversized mock check and a real check to pay the $1,000 filing fee. He signed the filing paperwork and was the first candidate to scrawl a message on a poster that later will get reprinted in the state's "red book," a compilation of election results and political history.
"The fact that I'm here today in the secretary of state's office with Secretary Gardner, signing up and paying the filing fee to be in the New Hampshire primary is hugely significant for me personally, and for millions of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered Americans who are looking for hope and looking for the opportunity to live their lives honestly," he said.


Read more: http://www.towleroad.com/#ixzz1bA4bgOzx

Zachary Quinto inspires ABC "world News Now" anchor Dan Kloeffler to come out

Kloeffler
ABC 'World News Now' anchor Dan Kloeffler came out on the air last night. He writes:
Kind of a big moment for me while filling in on World News Now, which is by far the most fun you can legally have at 3:00 in the morning! Yunji de Nies and I were talking about celebrity headlines, when I read the story about Zachary Quinto, who played Spock in “Star Trek,” coming out as gay in a magazine interview. Because WNN is a show where you can offer some personality, I had a little fun with the story saying that I would drop my rule against dating actors.
I’ve never shared that I’m gay on-air, even though I’ve been out to my family, friends and co-workers for years. In fact, an old boyfriend – now best friend – has always given me a hard time about not doing so. But for the same reason that Zach decided to come out, I too, no longer wanted to hide this part of my life.
Watch, AFTER THE JUMP...


Read more: http://www.towleroad.com/#ixzz1bA47qFVv

Vandal Spray paints graffitti on NC University LGBT Center

Ncstate
The GLBT Center in Harrelson Hall at North Carolina State University in Raleigh was vandalized Monday night with graffiti painted over its doors and showcase reading "fags burn" and "die", the Technician Online reports:
Sergeant Jeff Sutton of Campus Police said the vandalism occurred in a span of about 25 minutes, some time between 8:30 and 9 p.m. "We do not have any suspects at this time. We're going to try to look at some camera footage going into Harrelson Hall during that time frame," Sutton said.
Adam Ward, a graduate student in comparative biomedical sciences, is a graduate adviser for the GLBT Center. "No one was able to see who sprayed-painted this, but believe me, there will be a University response. We will continue working with University Police, and I thank all of our community members and allies for standing up for equality and what's right," Ward said in a Facebook post.
The graffiti is being investigated as a "hate incident".


Read more: http://www.towleroad.com/#ixzz1bA3fp1VS

PA Professor calls lesbian student disgusting and abnormal

 Christina Santiago, a student at Indiana University of Pennsylvania who was humliated by her professor during a class discussion on homosexuality.
SantiagoSantiago's business professor, who has not been identified, called it "disgusting, unnatural, and abnormal" and when Santiago identified herself as a lesbian he told her that the words applied to her. The teacher continued, telling her that "God created Adam and Eve, not Adam and Adam.
Last night another student came forward.Michael Heller, a graduate of IUP, says the same thing happened to him, KDKA reports:
Heller, who is gay, described a list of anti-gay comments he claims the professor told the class: “God created Adam and Eve not Adam and Steve, and that being gay was an abomination. That anybody that was gay was going to burn in Hell and that’s what they deserved.”
Heller says he had to leave the room because he was in tears. “It destroyed me because at that point in my life, I wasn’t really sure who I was,” said Heller. “I had just come out of the closet a few years earlier.”
Heller said his complaints to the school at the time have apparently been ignored.
The professor has yet to be identified and the school says it is still in the "fact-finding" stage.
Watch KDKA's interview with Heller, AFTER THE JUMP...

Wear your Purple tomorrow

GLAAD sends a reminder:
Millions of Americans wear purple on Spirit Day as a sign of support for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) youth and to speak out against bullying. Spirit Day was started in 2010 by teenager Brittany McMillan as a response to the young people who had taken their own lives. Observed annually on October 20, individuals, schools, organizations, corporations, media professionals and celebrities wear purple, which symbolizes spirit on the rainbow flag. Getting involved is easy -- participants are asked to simply "go purple" on October 20 as we work to create a world in which LGBT teens are celebrated and accepted for who they are.

What do I say

It has been really hard the last few days to get the inspiration to even sit down and write something here, let alone take the time and effort that goes into finding the images that are used here.  This whole neurological problem unfortunately has gotten the best of me and besides doing what i thought would be rather popular topics readership is in a downward spiral that i out of control.  I am not sure what happened to make it happen or even what made it possible at one point to have 50,000 readers in one month.  If I could figure that out, that is what I would be doing again.

It felt so good knowing I had such a platform of people viewing and looking at and reading what was posted here, but as I have said I wonder if this latest illness has taken my "mojo"

I also wonder if I should use this space for more inspirational itemns, more positive thiinking, more into what it is I am really thinking half the time and what exactly inspires me.  Maybe its too late to ask that question with only around 300 people reading a day?  Besides are they reading the new stuff or the old stuff?  Does anybody have any ideas on what I could do to try to regain some of that previous glory, or am I chasing  a dog that is LONG GONE?

I am walking some better but the pain now is higher than ever, the loss of sensation is just as bad or at the end of my school day even worse and I have said numerous times it has me VERY depressed.  When or can it ever better?  What if the paralysis is permanent?  What if this is the new status quo?  Well I can tell you one thing I know for sure....  I am NOT now or ever quitting school!

It is right now the only thing keeping me going, keeps me inspired and gives me what I need in my life, more than anything else.  I have said here numerous times but I have never wanted anything so badly in my life.

Saturday, October 8, 2011

Book Review: "Perfect Peace" by Daniel Black

 
 
The heartbreaking portrait of a large, rural southern family’s attempt to grapple with their mother’s desperate decision to make her newborn son into the daughter she will never have.
 When the seventh child of the Peace family, named Perfect, turns eight, her mother Emma Jean tells her bewildered daughter, “You was born a boy. I made you a girl. But that ain’t what you was .....The heartbreaking portrait of a large, rural southern family’s attempt to grapple with their mother’s desperate decision to make her newborn son into the daughter she will never have.
 When the seventh child of the Peace family, named Perfect, turns eight, her mother Emma Jean tells her bewildered daughter, “You was born a boy. I made you a girl. But that ain’t what you was supposed to be. So, from now on, you gon’ be a boy. It’ll be a little strange at first, but you’ll get used to it, and this’ll be over after while.” From this point forward, his life becomes a bizarre kaleidoscope of events. Meanwhile, the Peace family is forced to question everything they thought they knew about gender, sexuality, unconditional love, and fulfillment.
 
Perfect Peace certainly can embrace the saying “What doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger.” Perfect was born male and his mother Emma Jean out of her desperation and need for a female child convinced her son he was a she. He was dressed in ribbons and dresses and often told how beautiful she was. He was not allowed to play with his/her brothers. When she would ask she was told “girls don’t play with boys, her younger brothers wanted to play with her but they were told shes supposed to do girl stuff.

At the age of eight Emma Jean takes Perfect into the woods and abruptly change Perfect from female to male(Perfect to Paul). She hacks her beautiful hair into a short cut, forces her to believe he’s a boy and must learn to act like one. She also tells Paul that he will be ok. Paul’s dad Gus is having trouble with this new information and in dealing with Paul. His mind is plagued with memories of Perfect his little girl, how does he transition his mind? How can he love a son who was once his little girl? Gus decides to let his son Authorly teach Perfect how to be a man. All six of her brothers try to help each one using their own talent and experience coupled with love of family. But its one brother that teaches Paul a lesson Jesus would be proud of.

As the family tries to heal after learning what Emma Jean has done the deception proves to be pretty strong for this family and no one can understand Emma Jeans reasoning. It’s not until the face of tragedy hits that moves this family towards healing and survival. Perfect Peace forces the reader to re-think what you feel you know about personal desires, identity, gender, and sexual orientation. Mr. Black did an excellent job of appropriating the language of our people during this time. Also if imagined how a child would handle an identity crisis that borders homosexuality amongst people who were not educated enough to have grace or mercy.

It is the opinion of this reviewer that Perfect Peace is a work of literary genius. No matter who you are we are all “perfect” in His eyes and should be allowed to live in “peace”. Next up “The Sacred Place” by the same author my library would be incomplete without The Sacred Place and “They tell me of a Home”.

Let's Go green


Russian Fashion




Zoo Magazine photoshoot: Part 2














Zoo Magazine photoshoot: Part 1

Photographer Matthias Vriens-McGrath contributes the story ‘Unbeschreiblich Weiblich’ to the latest issue of Zoo magazine. Styled by Nicolas Klam with casting by Andrey T., the editorial features models Chris Petersen, Cory Bond, Jeremy Santucci, Michael Hudson, Scott Clelland, Erik Soderbergh, Jason Morgan, Eric Bivoino and Colby Jamar.











Artist Spotlight: Wes Hemphill: Last Part

WES HEMPEL ADAM #1 X560 | ADVOCATE.COM
Adam #1

WES HEMPEL JOE MOSTLY RECOVERED FROM THE ACCIDENT 2011 X560 | ADVOCATE.COM
Joe Mostly Recovered From the Accident, 2011 (study)
 
 Tell us more on this one.
The model, Joe M., was a student at the University of Arizona in Tucson, where Jack and I spend winters. He’d recently been in an accident, the nature of which I should leave to him to disclose. I thought this image conveyed something of his climbing out of that circumstance and of his natural beauty, which, as the viewer can see, remains intact

Wes Hempel & Jack Balas, 2010; HARDLY BOYS: STILL WATERS (#511) X560 | ADVOCATE.COM
Hardly Boys: Still Waters (#511), 2010, a collaboration between Wes Hempel and Jack Balas
 
WES HEMPEL HOW ABOUT NOW? (STUDY) X560 | ADVOCATE.COM
How About Now? (study)
Camping on Vermeer. Tell us more on this.
I was initially drawn to the Vermeer interior because of the extraordinary quality of light. But I’m also playing around with the contemporary painter George Deem’s campy idea of How to Paint a Vermeer (title of a book of his paintings). So the piece may be humorous on various levels. And yet I think there’s a poignancy lurking underneath that has to do with the portrait on the wall (the same person as a boy?) and the way the young man presents himself now.

WES HEMPEL DECISION 2011 X560 | ADVOCATE.COM
Decision, 2011
So what is the decision here, and can you talk about the pre-Raphealite influences?
The female figures are taken from Maxfield Parrish’s 1912 illustration for the Sleeping Beauty fairy tale. In the original story, the prince kisses Sleeping Beauty and awakens her from her trance. But this particular “prince” (our model Sye), having arrived late on the scene, seems to have trouble making up his mind what to do next. A decision seems to be in order, but it’s left to the viewer to imagine what is going through the young man’s mind as he squints into the distance, clenching his hands.
 

Artist Spotlight: Wes Hemphill: Part 3

WES HEMPEL 2007; Study for RETURN X560 | ADVOCATE.COM
Return (2007)
WES HEMPEL SLEEPY TIME 2011 X560 | ADVOCATE.COM
Sleepy Time, 2011
Wes Hempel & Jack Balas, 2005; SONG OF BIRDS X560 | ADVOCATE.COM
Song of Birds, 2005, a collaboration between Wes Hempel and Jack Balas
 

WES HEMPEL SPELL, 2003 X560 | ADVOCATE.COM
Spell, 2003
 Hempel: Another take on a Maxfield Parrish fairy tale, this time the 1912 Hearst Magazine cover illustration of the Snow White story. I’ve replaced the sleeping maiden with our model Toby.

 

Artist Spotlight: Wes Hemphill: Part 2

Wes Hempel, 2011; MAGNOLIAS X560 | ADVOCATE.COM
Magnolias, 2011
Hempel: A take on a painting by the same name by Venezuelan painter Pedro Centeno Vallenilla (born: Barcelona 1904, died: Caracas 1988). As part of my ongoing project of reenvisioning art history from a gay perspective, I’ve replaced the nude female in the original (lying on the branch to the left) with a nude male.

WES HEMPEL A NEW BEGINNING X560 | ADVOCATE.COM
 

WES HEMPEL FAREWELL #5 X560 | ADVOCATE.COM
Farewell #5
Wes Hempel & Jack Balas, 2005; BIRTHDAY X560 | ADVOCATE.COM
Birthday, 2005, a collaboration between Wes Hempel and Jack Balas
 
 Can you tell us a little about working in collaboration with your partner, Jack Balas?
I usually work out my ideas fairly comprehensively before committing paint to canvas, but occasionally I run into problems. Living with another artist means I have someone to consult with, and Jack is often more inventive visually than I am and more adventurous when it comes to imagery. He can think spontaneously in spatial terms, which means he has a fuller visual vocabulary than I do. Sometimes his ideas are so good, it makes more sense for him to just take over the painting. The canvas then goes from my studio to his (we never work on a piece together in the same space), and I relinquish control to him, which I admit is scary. Almost always, though, I’m delighted with the end result.

Artist Spotlight: Wes Hemphill: Part 1

Playing around with paint and brushes given to him by his partner, artist Jack Balas, launched his career. This writer-turned-artist's first gallery show sold out. Understandably so.

WES HEMPEL FARM BOY IDYL X560 | ADVOCATE.COM
Farmboy Idyll
For decades, Wes Hempel has been committed to reenvisioning the depiction of masculinity in contemporary art. By setting psychologically acute portraits of modern-day men against backdrops appropriated from such disparate sources as neoclassical history painting and Dutch golden age landscapes, the artist’s works forge provocative dialogues between the exigencies of the present and its endowments from the past.

Joining the mythic allusions and technical fluency of classical art together with the ideas of personal narrative and social content of postmodern art, Hempel’s paintings explore the divide between the ancient and modern, reason and passion, august ideals and the profoundly individual. The artist recasts modern male figures in historical and culturally iconographic settings, provoking both a rethinking of assumed narratives and mythic themes and inviting a similar reconsideration of contemporary life, masculinity, and sexual norms. Hempel’s societal investigations are rendered in sensuously modeled flesh tones, gleaming marble surfaces, and the immersive depth of Arcadian landscapes — proving as visually seductive as they are conceptually rigorous.

Hempel’s art has been the subject of more than 80 solo and group exhibitions and is included in a growing number of esteemed private and corporate collections, including the Denver Art Museum, the Columbus Museum, the Arnot Art Museum, Microsoft Corp., the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, and the New Britain Museum of American Art.


The Advocate: Why are you an artist?

Wes Hempel: I always wanted to be a writer, but in graduate school, I began playing around with some old brushes and paints that my partner, Jack Balas, had given me. I was mesmerized. I completed my degree in creative writing and began teaching at the University of Colorado in Boulder, but I had fallen in love with art. Jack showed some of my early pieces to his gallery in Denver, Robischon. They gave me a show, which sold out. I’ve been painting ever since.

What catches your eye?

There is something specific I’m always looking for, though it’s hard to put into words — the visual equivalent of a deftly turned phrase or the unexpected image in poetry. In painting an emotional quality can arise from the interplay of composition, color, and value, regardless of subject matter.

Tell us about your process or techniques.

It’s a very traditional technique. These days I do a full-color underpainting in oils — sometimes with the help of an assistant — on gessoed canvas, then apply one or more top coats, making adjustments to form and to heighten the richness of hue and quality of light. I also use glazes to add surface depth and to complicate the coloration. I have a few tricks I’ve developed along the way — I suppose most painters have these — that I hold close to my chest.

How do you choose your subjects?
One of my ongoing projects is a reenvisioning of what art history might have looked like had homosexuality not been vilified in the culture. The paintings one sees in museums are revered in part because they enshrine our collective experience. But it’s a selective past that gets validated. By presenting contemporary males as objects of desire in borrowed art historical settings, I’m able to imagine — and allow viewers to imagine — a history that includes rather than excludes gay experience — and thereby ride the coattails, as it were, of art history’s imprimatur.

What artists do you take inspiration from and why?

This changes all the time for me. When Jack and I first moved to Boulder, I took a year off from working and went systematically through the art library at CU, taking down each book and carefully going through it. It took me the entire year to work my way through the shelves. I used to joke that my faulty knowledge of art history is the result of the books that were checked out.
 

Chaz Bono--Transtion: The Story of How I Became a Man --REVIEW

Chaz Bono's groundbreaking and candid account of a forty-year struggle to match his gender identity with his physical body and his transformation from female to male
 
At first, America knew the only child of Sonny and Cher as Chastity, the cherubic little girl who appeared on her parents' TV show. In later years, she became famous for coming out on a national stage, working with two major organizations toward LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) rights and publishing two books. And just within the past eighteen months, Chaz Bono has entered the public consciousness as the most high-profile transgender person ever.
 
All through the hoopla surrounding his change, Chaz has insisted on maintaining his privacy. Now, in Transition, Chaz finally tells his story. Part One traces his decision to transition, beginning in his childhood-when he played on the boys' teams and wore boys' clothing whenever possible-and going through his painful, but ultimately joyful, coming out in his twenties, up to 2008, when, after the death of his father, drug addiction, and five years of sobriety, Chaz was finally ready to begin the process of changing his gender. In Part Two, he offers an unprecedented record in words and photographs of the actual transition, a real-time diary as he navigates uncharted waters. These chapters capture the day-to-day momentum of his life as his body changes.
 
Throughout the book, Chaz touches on themes of identity, gender, and sexuality; parents and children; and how harboring secrets shatters the soul. It is an amazing contribution to our understanding of a much- misunderstood community.

Undercover Newark Cop Touched Himself And Fondled Masseuse During Sting Operation

Police in Newark, N.J., will implement a new protocol for sting operations after an undercover vice cop pleasured himself and fondled a masseuse during a prostitution bust at a massage parlor.
After being offered a "full massage" by a 22-year-old woman in a Bloomfield Avenue parlor on Sept. 28, the detective -- who was wearing a wire -- stripped down to his underwear, paid the woman $80 and touched himself while putting his hand on the masseuse's breast, according to police documents obtained by The Star-Ledger.

Law enforcement officials reportedly burst into the massage parlor and arrested two women for promoting prostitution and narcotics charges.

The incident might raise eyebrows, but Newark Police Director Samuel DeMaio told the paper that the officer wasn't acting with "bad intentions."

"There is no department protocol in place for what to do in an undercover vice operation. And that's what we're going to change," said DeMaio. "Looking at it, certainly, there's no bad intentions here on (the officer's) part. I just don’t think he was prepped properly."

DeMaio placed the six detectives involved in the sting on administrative duty, according to Newsday.
News of the botched raid comes as the Newark Police Department faces heightened scrutiny.

Earlier this year, the Justice Department launched a federal investigation into the police force over years of allegations of misconduct. The investigation comes after the city laid off 162 officers citing budget constraints.

Friday, October 7, 2011

Tenn. Highschool Principal Allegedly Threatens Student Over Pro-Gay T-shirt

A seventeen-year-old senior at Sequoyah High School in Madisonville, Tennessee, was reportedly shoved, bumped in the chest and verbally harassed by the school’s principal for wearing a tee-shirt supporting students’ efforts to launch a gay-straight alliance. In response, the ACLU of Tennessee is calling on the school district to protect the students’ rights to free speech in the classroom.
According to a press release from the ACLU of Tennessee:
[Chris] Sigler wore a homemade T-shirt to school last Tuesday that said “GSA: We’ve Got Your Back.” A teacher ordered Sigler to cover up the shirt in the future. Sigler, knowing he had a right to wear the shirt, wore it again Friday, and resisted an order to remove the shirt. Sigler says that [Principal Maurice] Moser then ordered all students out of the classroom, except for Sigler’s sister Jessica, who refused to leave. According to both students, Moser then grabbed Sigler’s arm, shoved him, and chest-bumped him repeatedly while asking “Who’s the big man now?” Sigler’s mother reported that when she arrived at the school, she saw her son seated in a desk with Moser leaning over him and shouting in Sigler’s face. The Siglers filed a report about the incident that afternoon with the Monroe County Sheriff’s Department.
Students at  Sequoyah have been trying to start a GSA during the school year, but have been blocked and threatened with suspension by the school’s principal.
The ACLU says that if the school doesn’t receive an satisfactory answer by October 11, they will explore legal options, including filing a complaint in federal court. Assistant Director of Schools Tim Blankenship responded:
“The Monroe County School System is aware of the alleged accusations. We have received written statements from all eyewitnesses. Our documentation clearly indicated that there are always two sides to every story. We’ll gladly provide more information as it becomes available.”

Gay Couple Attacked at------CHURCH


Jerry Pittman, Jr., and his boyfriend, Dustin Lee, were attacked when they tried to go to church at Grace Fellowship in Fruitland, Tennessee:
I went over to take the keys out of the ignition and all the sudden I hear someone say ‘sick’em,’” said Gibson County resident, Jerry Pittman Jr.
Pittman said the attacked was prompted by the pastor of the church, Jerry Pittman, his father.
“My uncle and two other deacons came over to the car per my dad’s request. My uncle smash me in the door as the other deacon knocked my boyfriend back so he couldn’t help me, punching him in his face and his chest. The other deacon came and hit me through my car window in my back,” said Pittman. He said bystanders did not offer assistance. He said the deacon yelled derogatory homosexual slurs, even after officers arrived. He said the officers never intervened to stop the deacons from yelling the slurs.
The younger Pittman says that there were about twenty people standing around the front of the church when the assault took place, but no one intervened to stop the assault or call the police. He also says that the sheriff’s deputy refused to take a statement from the victims or allow them to press charges. Gibson County Sheriff Chuck Arnold said, “If I was on the scene I would not have allowed that. The deputy should not have allowed it if he did,… I haven’t talk to him but that would be out of character for my deputy to say unless they were causing a problem themselves.”
The couple later filed assault charges against Deacons Billy Sims and Eugene McCoy. The younger Pittman is also pressing charges against his father and Deacon Patrick Flatt. They are due in court today. The pastor and his wife are also going through a divorce.

Sneak peek at tomorrow's post

Photographer Matthias Vriens-McGrath contributes the story ‘Unbeschreiblich Weiblich’ to the latest issue of Zoo magazine. Styled by Nicolas Klam with casting by Andrey T., the editorial features models Chris Petersen, Cory Bond, Jeremy Santucci, Michael Hudson, Scott Clelland, Erik Soderbergh, Jason Morgan, Eric Bivoino and Colby Jamar.

L'Officiel Hommes Italia Fall/Winter 2011







Photographer Carlotta Manaigo captured the beautiful Clément Chabernaud for the Fall/Winter 2011.12 issue of L'Officiel Hommes Italia, styled by Emil Rebek and groomed by Marco Braca.