Oregon's Measure 43: Parental Notification

Following the news on Friday that Karen Minnis and her husband John tried to cover up an attempted rape of a 17 year-old girl by Minnis' brother-in-law. Karen and her husband (former Oregon Legislator and a police officer) paid $20k to make the girl shut up. Here is the new ad.

Head on over to TheMinnisFile.com to read the legal documents and other facts about the case.

The disturbing facts of a sexual abuse case that Oregon Speaker of the House Karen Minnis paid $20k to try and cover up and ignore. Time after time, the scandals of Karen Minnis are brushed under the rug. This is too much. When will the voters of East County see her for what she is?

Karen Minnis and her husband protected Tuck Minnis after he allegedly attempted to rape a 17-year-old girl--an employee at their pizza restaurant in Hillsboro.

Karen Minnis and her husband -- a police officer -- chose not to believe the girl's allegations. There is no indication that they reported their teenage employee's charge to proper authorities.

Then, Karen Minnis and her husband paid $20,000 to try to make the case go away.

They kept the alleged attacker -- Karen Minnis' brother-in-law--on their payroll for six more months. He was even living at their home when he was convicted later that year for public indecency and harassment.

Well Karen? What's your excuse this time? And you still support parental notification? Karen Minnis is a dirty, dirty hypocrite.

If you take a look at her campaign website, it states the following:

"Karen Works for Oregon Women. Domestic Violence, Health Care and Equal Treatment.

...Karen has continued working on these issues by sponsoring and supporting bills that protect women and children, strengthen the rights and protections of victims of domestic violence, toughen penalties for sexual predators and ensure access to critical health care screenings."

It is clear that even in Karen Minnis' private life, she has no regard for protecting women from sexual predators, and in this case, protecting women from her own brother-in-law.

Information via The Minnis File. Head on over there for all the legal documents and analysis.

J. Stewart

Say NO to Measure 43. It is so dangerous for Oregon's teens.

"Grey's Anatomy" star Isaiah Washington has publicly apologized for his behavior during an on-set scuffle with co-star Patrick Dempsey.

"I sincerely regret my actions and the unfortunate use of words during the recent incident on (the) set," the 43-year-old actor said in a statement to People magazine. "Both are beneath my own personal standards. ... I have nothing but respect for my co-workers ... and have apologized personally to everyone involved."
The magazine, citing a source on the set, reported Wednesday on its Web site that when T.R. Knight was late to film a scene, a debate ensued between Dempsey and Washington, with Dempsey insisting on waiting for Knight. The argument quickly intensified, and an alleged homophobic slur was used, but Knight wasn't present.

"Differences are inevitable," Washington's publicist, Cynthia Snyder, said in a recent statement. "They were aired, resolved and everyone has moved on."

The clash occurred Oct. 9. Knight, 33, revealed Oct. 19 that he is gay.

"I guess there have been a few questions about my sexuality, and I'd like to quiet any unnecessary rumors that may be out there," Knight said in a statement. "I hope the fact that I'm gay isn't the most interesting part of me."

Shonda Rhimes, creator of the ABC drama, is downplaying the incident. It "was 4 1/2 seconds of one day in three years," she told People. "I feel like we've already moved on."

via 365gay.com

With the huge ruling today from the New Jersey Supreme Court in favor of equality, what happens next?

Because the ruling stated that it is unconstitutional to not grant same-sex couples the same rights as heterosexuals in regards to civil marriage, they've refffered it to the New Jersey Legislature to pass some form of legislation that would grant those benefits. So either full marriage equality or civil unions are coming for New Jersey.

It would make no sense, based on the ruling, that the NJ Legislature wouldn't almost have to pass nothing less than full marriage equality. Anything less would be "same, but equal" and like Massechussets ruled-"same-but equal" is unconstitutional.

We shall see. They have six months to take action. Read the details over at Lambda Legal.

TR Knight has been spotted with what some (another) are speculating is his new beau. None other than Brothers and Sisters actor Luke MacFarlane.

Now, as much as I hate the tabloids and the Bennifer syndrome... they sure are cute together. On the other hand there is absolutely no reason why two guys, one gay, one straight can't simply be out shopping together. So until there is official word...

Labels: celebrity

T.R. Knight who plays TV's doctor George O'Malley on ABC's "Grey's Anatomy" came out to People magazine yesterday.

From People:

Grey's Anatomy's T.R. Knight is gay, he has confirmed exclusively to PEOPLE.

"I guess there have been a few questions about my sexuality, and I'd like to quiet any unnecessary rumors that may be out there," Knight tells PEOPLE in a statement. "While I prefer to keep my personal life private, I hope the fact that I'm gay isn't the most interesting part of me."

Knight, 33, plays the unassuming Dr. George O'Malley on the hit ABC drama. A Minneapolis native, he began his career in that city's famed Guthrie Theater.

Oh George.

Measure 43 is more than just a ill-conceived ballot measure on Oregon's upcoming election. Measure 43 is not about progressive/conservative politics or viewpoints. It is about the well being and health of teenagers. Measure 43 is dangerous-plain and simple. Oregon religious extremists have put the very lives of Oregon teens on the ballots. These so-called "pro-family" Christian groups claim that they are doing this to protect the girls, though in reality, what they are truly doing is putting these teen girls at even more risk.

Did you know that only OVER 90% of teen girls that actually do go through with terminating their pregnancy DO talk to their parents beforehand?

Here are the facts:
Oregon's current law states that a minor between the ages of 15 and 18 is able to seek medical attention without the consent of a parent or guardian. ANY medical attention. If you are 14 and under, a parent does need to consent. Now, looking back on my years as a teen I can say that I am glad to have had this confidentiality, although in all honesty, my parents and I didn't have things to hide from each other.

Imagine this though. Imagine that I was 16 years old and raped by my uncle. My family life was already unstable and my father, to say the least, had a temper. Pretend that I became pregnant by my uncle who raped me. Due to the violence in my family already, this is not something I can discuss with my parents without fear of my father physically and emotionally abusing me further. What is a 16 year old girl supposed to do?

I make the only decision I can. I decide to terminate my pregnancy.

If Measure 43 were to pass, I would not exactly have this option. My parents would be immediately notified at least 48 hours before the procedure.

What the extremists who brought Measure 43 to the ballot do not tell you are the following things:

• No exception for rape or incest
  
• Permits doctors to be sued-or even lose their licenses-if the letter isn't received for any reason
  
• Puts teens that have been abused by a parent at very serious risk of further violence
  

If Measure 43 passes and becomes law, it means that many teens will not seek the medical attention the need, instead they will take more extreme measures. I don't need to go into details about how a teenage girl may terminate her own pregnancy without professional medical assistance, but you imagine.

So when voting yes or no on Measure 43, think about this: What if the parent is their abuser or raper? What will happen to the teen girl when her father gets this notification?

It's not simple and it is definitely not at all safe. Vote NO on Measure 43.

Visit No on 43 for more information.



-Jenn S.

New statistics show that hate crimes against gays and lesbians accounted for the third largest number of bias crimes in the country last year sparking a new push from LGBT rights groups for federal hate laws.

Overall the number of reported hate crimes was down by six percent. Crimes against people based on their race accounted for more than half of the incidents. Crimes based on religious bias were reported in 17 percent of the cases and attacks on members of the LGBT community came in third at 14.2 percent according to the FBI statistics.

The numbers are considered by many LGBT rights groups as low because not all gay victims report attacks on them for fearing of being outed publicly and because not all areas of the country track LGBT bias crimes.

Legislation that would have included crimes against gays and lesbians in federal hate crime laws passed the House but was dropped in the Senate in May.

The Human Rights Campaign called the new numbers ample proof of the need for passage of the bill and warned many local police departments do not take crimes against gays seriously.

"It is critical that all jurisdictions treat these crimes seriously and report hate crimes statistics to the FBI and the public," said HRC President Joe Solmonese in a statement.

"We need to ensure the safety and protection of every single American regardless of race, religion, ethnicity, gender, disability, sexual orientation or gender identity."

Extending hate crimes law to include members of the LGBT community is endorsed by more than 175 law enforcement, civil rights, civic and religious organizations, including: the National Sheriffs' Association, International Association of Chiefs of Police, U.S. Conference of Mayors, and the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association.

via 365gay.com

Basic Rights Oregon announced their 2006 ballot measure endorsements (and of course their candidate endorsements) last week. It's pretty simple. "Vote YES on 44 and NO more." Their 2006 election endorsements, appropriately titled "Vote Equality" is a pretty sweet website. Check it out here.

Here is the short list of their candidate endorsements as well as their ballot measure endorsements:

To make it even easier...

BRO's Featured Endorsements

Legislative Endorsements

Statewide Office Endorsements

Ballot Measure Endorsements

-GS

With his hair that is. It's Friday. It's fun. And Gavin is looking quite hot while sporting his new product-less hair style. Well, to give him more credit, I doubt he would ever leave the house without product in his hair. Damn he looks hot.

After Representative Mark Foley's resignation from Congress following ABC's release of inappropriate instant message conversations with a page, all hell has broken loose. This story has taken on a life of its own and there are new developments every day. Like this one: Republican House Speaker Dennis Hastert has known about this for THREE YEARS and took NO action. That speaks for itself.

It was revealed on Tuesday morning that Foley admits to being gay and was molested as a child by a clergy member - one could presume a Catholic one since that's what's listed in a congressional directory. Conveniently, at the moment, Foley is in a treatment center for alcoholism and mental issues. Mental issues could refer to a wide variety of things, but one simple guess is pure stress from the scandal. Foley is expected to stay at least 30 days at the treatment center.

Mark Beck-Heyman is a former Republican page from 1995.

From The Washington Post

He said a departing page told him to be "very careful" of Foley. Within weeks, Beck-Heyman said, Foley had learned his name and asked at least once to take him to get ice cream. He declined. After one all-night work session, Beck-Heyman's girlfriend -- another page -- offered to bring him breakfast. Foley asked if she was his girlfriend. "It was an odd conversation," Beck-Heyman said.

After he completed the page program, Beck-Heyman wrote thank-you notes to 10 House members. He received a reply from Foley almost immediately, suggesting that the two meet up during the Republican convention in San Diego.

More to come in Part 3 of this story and beyond, including the possible filing of formal charges against Foley and the effect of the scandal on the upcoming elections.

No surprise right? We all saw the ad that Republican candidate for Oregon Governor, Ron Saxton ran ads "slamming" Kulongoski on illegal immigration. His facts were skewed and straight out false. Bill Bradbury, Oregon's Secretary of State, showed proof of this. The Kulongoski campaign fired out today.

Today the Kulongoski for Governor Campaign called on Republican candidate Ron Saxton to stop deceiving the public with its latest attack ad on immigration. The Saxton campaign has refused to provide any factual basis for the false claim that illegal immigrants are voting in Oregon. Either Saxton should provide evidence of the claim or pull the false ads from the airwaves immediately.

"Ron Saxton's latest round of attacks crosses the line from negative and misleading to flat-out lies," campaign manager for Kulongoski Jim Ross said. "This cynical ploy by Saxton is intended to undermine the integrity of our democracy, which is a disservice to Oregonians and to our elections process. Saxton should come clean - prove his ads are true or pull them. Oregonians deserve better."

I don't think there was a doubt that Saxton's ads were false the moment they started on the air. These false, negative attacks are going to end up hurting Saxton, but more just showing the type of person he is. One who aligns himself with the Bush administration, corrupt GOP leadership and the current state of America.

Bill Bradbury, Oregon Secretary of State, "has found no pattern of illegal immigrants voting in Oregon."

When the Saxton campaign was confronted about the ad, the pulled the same old Republican brush-off.

Angela Wilhelms [Saxton campaign]: We don't know what these people are doing with driver's licenses that they obtained illegally.

KATU Reporter: But why draw the conclusion that they are, in fact, voting?

Wilhelms: I'm not going to get into the nuances of the ad.

Exactly. The Kulongoski campaign should sue to have these false ads taken off the air--that is if the Saxton campaign doesn't do the right thing. It's like swift boat vets all over again.

All I can say is Ted for Gov.

So yes. We are really late on getting into the whole "Foley-shit" going on in this country. We'll continue to follow up with "Foley-Shit" parts 2 and 3. Joe Solmonese, President of the Human Rights Campaign - the nation's largest gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender rights organization with over 650,000 members nationwide wrote this OP-ED today. We promise the next two parts of this 'series' will be original. We just thought this was a great piece from Joe at HRC.

It occurs to me, in watching the Republican leadership and their allies scramble for an alibi that flies in the scandal surrounding Congressman Mark Foley, that no one is stating one, obvious fact: that for all Americans, gay or straight, it is simply unacceptable to engage in solicitous behavior with minors.

Why do I feel the need to state the obvious? Because while Foley leaves town, his colleagues are rushing to get back on message with less than five weeks left to the midterm elections. And when all else fails this group, they fall back to a time-tested formula: blame the gays.

This narrative begins with the Family Research Council, the hatemongering right-wing group which is claiming that Foley wasn't stopped because of a culture that "rejects sexual restraints in the name of diversity." They would be hard-pressed, however, to find any credible organization or person who finds that sexual harassment and solicitation of a teenager fall under the rubric of diversity.

But this didn't stop Newt Gingrich from going on Fox News to say that the GOP leadership didn't act because there were afraid of being accused of gay bashing. Oh really? The same GOP leaders who are trying to write gay people out of the Constitution chose not to investigate pedophile behavior because they were worried that they might be branded as homophobic?

This has nothing to do with homophobia. This is about the sexual solicitation of minors. In fact, The Journal of the American Medical Association found that 90 percent of pedophiles are men, and that 98 percent of those men are heterosexual.

So who is to blame for the Republicans' mishandling of Foley's crimes? Somehow, we are told it is the larger culture. Somehow it is gay people. And, somehow it is the Democrats even though they knew nothing about Foley's actions, and, in fact, were kept in the dark by the Republicans overseeing the page program.

The public and responsible members of the press cannot and should not accept these preposterous assertions. Speaker Hastert, Congressmen Shimkus and Boehner, and others in the GOP leadership knew for months that Foley was a threat and they did absolutely nothing. The responsibility to protect those pages lies solely with them. They can't even get their story straight about who knew what and when. Even the White House has fallen into this hypocrisy when spokesman Tony Snow chimed in by calling these simply "naughty e-mails."

No one in America knows a responsible adult who would ever send those e-mails to a teenager. We didn't need to wait for the instant messaging. And no one knows a responsible adult who would cry at the graduation ceremony for pages and then squire one off to a celebratory dinner in his BMW.

As gay Americans, we are sitting on the sidelines of this scandal like everyone else. But unlike other Americans, we find ourselves targeted once again by a cynical Republican leadership for behavior of one of their own that is not only reprehensible, but possibly criminal.

We will not stand for this smear campaign and we don't believe that the American public, or voters in Republican Congressional Committee Chair Tom Reynolds' district, will either. Reynolds is one of many in the leadership who clearly knew about Foley's behavior but instead of taking action accepted a $100,000 check from the Florida congressman.

If Republicans are smart they'll do several things immediately: admit their complicity, establish safeguards to better protect these young pages and realize that blaming gay America for their misdeeds and mishandling won't fly this time.

Of the eight states voting on a amendment banning gay marriage this November, Wisconsin is now considered the only place where activists might be able to defeat the amendment. If the amendment was defeated, it would be a first after 20 successful anti-gay marriage amendments.

If there's a chance to break the streak on Nov. 7, it might be in Wisconsin, where activists believe that support from unions, college students and church leaders - coupled with hoped-for conservative apathy - could enable them to finally overcome the string of losses.

Supporters of banning gay marriage remain confident of victory, but optimism also is high in the ranks of Fair Wisconsin, a coalition fighting the proposed amendment since it surfaced in the Legislature in 2004. Large labor unions, many religious leaders, and top Democratic officials - including Gov. Jim Doyle - have spoken out against the measure.

"This could be the state where we beat this thing," said Fair Wisconsin campaign chief Mike Tate. "I'm not saying it's easy, but we've got the right ingredients on the table."

The head of the rival campaign, Julaine Appling of Vote Yes For Marriage, said her side may wind up being outspent and out-advertised, but she believes Fair Wisconsin's confidence is misplaced.

"It's a gross misunderstanding of the people of Wisconsin," she said. "They are good solid stock. They understand that marriage is a good public institution - it's appropriate to protect it as the union of a man and a woman exclusively."

There have been no major opinion polls since mid-August, when a survey showed Appling's "Yes" side with 48 percent support, compared to 40 percent against the amendment. Tate says the gap is narrowing as undecided voters tilt against the measure; Appling believes the final result will be in line with Michigan and Ohio, where similar measures prevailed with roughly 60 percent support in 2004.

via 365gay.com

Posted by Ace