The owner of the Adams Morgan restaurant D.C. Bourbon said a large rainbow flag he hung from a pole attached to his restaurant’s outside wall was set on fire and destroyed sometime during the early morning hours of Sunday, June 12. James Patrick Woods said he displayed the flag in support of D.C.’s LGBT Pride weekend and he’s troubled that someone would go so far as to set it on fire. “It is appalling to us,” he told the Washington Blade. “I don’t think it was targeting my restaurant. But to me it is a hate crime.” The flag burning incident at D.C. Bourbon at 2321 18th St., N.W. took place the same day an unknown suspect spray painted the words “Down with the gay agenda” on the sidewalk outside the Thaiphoon restaurant at 2011 S St., N.W., near Dupont Circle. (Washington Blade)
GOP Cut the Only Line Referencing LGBT People From Its Official Statement on the Orlando Shootings
In its original statement following the Orlando shootings, the Republican National Committee made an attempt to acknowledge that the attack specifically targeted LGBT Americans—a sad attempt, but an attempt nonetheless. But meh, who really cares about that aspect anyway? So they finally just edited gays out altogether. RNC spokesperson Lindsay Walters later explained the change: Walters said the revision was meant to be more inclusive because it invoked a common humanity and referenced all Americans instead of singling out LGBT people. (DailyKos)
The Massacre at a Mexican Gay Bar That No One Talked About
In the early morning May 22, [2016] gunmen entered La Madame, a gay club in Veracruz, and processed to fire into the crowd of approximately 180 people. In total, seven people were killed and at least 12 injured in the attack. The secretary of public security said that the killing was motivated by a territorial fight over drug sales, but LGBT activists protested, saying that they were hiding the homophobic aspect of the violence. Violence against the LGBT community is nothing new to Mexico, nor to Latin Americans, who made up the vast majority of victims in Orlando. Numbers on victims to homophobic hate crimes are tough to collect since the sexuality of victims is often not disclosed, but activists estimate several hundred deaths for each of the continent’s bigger countries. The Organization of American States counted almost 600 in 25 member states over 15 months, recognizing underreporting. (Telesurtv.net)
Gay Couple Arrested Outside the US Embassy in Moscow While Trying To Leave Flowers for Orlando Victims
A Russian gay couple were arrested Monday while trying to leave a tribute outside the US embassy in Moscow to victims of the Orlando shooting rampage, the RBK newspaper reported. Islam Abdullabeckov, a social media editor for the newspaper, and his boyfriend Felix Glyukman were trying to leave flowers and a sign reading "Love wins - Stay with Orlando" outside the embassy when they were detained, they told RBK. "The police arrested us straight away and put us in their car for so-called 'unauthorised action'," Abdullabeckov said. "We only wanted to express our condolences for the murder of these people and we had not at all planned any kind of political act," he added. The two men, who list themselves as being in a relationship on Facebook, posted photos on the website that they took inside the police car. "This is completely surreal," Abdullabeckov wrote in a caption. Glyukman added: "We tried to leave flowers and a sign at the embassy -- we did not succeed."A pile of flowers and candles have been left outside the US embassy in Moscow, a day after Omar Mateen gunned down 49 people in a gay nightclub in the Florida resort city of Orlando. (France24.com)
Stickers and posters featuring a rainbow-colored version of the Gadsden flag and the hashtag #ShootBack were raising eyebrows in West Hollywood on Thursday morning in the wake of the massacre at a gay nightclub in Florida. The signage was affixed to electric boxes, light poles, trash cans and other fixtures near West Hollywood City Hall, the Pacific Design Center and along Santa Monica Boulevard. Several were hung near the Abbey Food & Bar, a well-known gay lounge. The posters featured a coiled, striking rattlesnake, similar to the yellow Gadsden flag that reads “Don’t Tread On Me” and often is used by the Tea Party movement. The West Hollywood signs were rainbow-colored, like the gay pride flag. “We are disturbed by them,” West Hollywood Mayor Lauren Meister said of the posters. “We don’t believe in an eye for an eye, and we advocate against gun violence.” (L.A.Times)
Walmart Fires Employee Who Said Orlando Mass Shooter Was ‘Doing Community Service’
A Cobb County man who allegedly called the Orlando shootings an act of “community service” in a Twitter post is no longer employed by Walmart, the retail giant posted on its own Twitter page. The Marietta man, whose real identity is not known, uses the Twitter handle @IWillTryLater and wears a Walmart vest in a profile picture, but has changed his posts to private since a Sunday post. At least two Twitter users sent the offensive post to Walmart’s corporate page. “Y’all see a Gay club shooting as a horrible tragedy,” the employee’s post read. “I see it as someone doing Community Service.” (AJC.com)
On ‘Fox and Friends,’ Geraldo Rivera Says Orlando Victims Didn’t Fight For Their Lives
On Monday morning, Fox News commentator Geraldo Rivera appeared on Fox and Friends and took the opportunity to criticize the victims of Saturday night’s terrorist attack on the LGBT club Pulse in Orlando, Florida. Media Matters reported that Rivera said, “When you’re in that situation and you have no weapons, you have two choices. If you can’t hide and you can’t run, you have two choices. You stay and die, or you fight. For God’s sakes, fight back. Fight back.” He continued, “There’s 100 people that he murdered with one weapon that he reloaded. When he reloaded they must, people must, America must understand, we are at war with Islamic terror, with these terrorists. We’ve got to stop them in Raqqa, we’ve got to stop them in Mosul, and we’ve got to stop them in the Pulse, Orlando.” Rivera’s charge that the crowd didn’t display proper courage and determination neglects to bear in mind that research has shown that mass shooter scenarios are completely chaotic situations where even experienced tactical personnel have been known to freeze or become disoriented. (Raw Story)
