Happn, the leading global dating app that enables users to discover the people they’ve crossed paths with in real life, has teamed up with the national lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) media advocacy organization, GLAAD, to encourage Happn users to take a stand against LGBTQ bullying.
In support of GLAAD and Spirit DayThursday, Oct. 20, Happn will launch a powerful U.S. campaign grounded in the frightening statistic that nearly three-quarters (74%) of students reported experiencing some type of peer victimization in the past school year. According to research by GLSEN, bullying and harassment remain a significant concern of students, families and schools all across the country. Furthermore, despite legal and cultural changes, LGBTQ students continue to face hostile school climates.
On Spirit Day, a full screen image will pop up when users first fire up Happn. “Words Can Hurt” will appear in the foreground of the first image. The secondary image is a call-to-action that cites the harrowing youth statistic, encourages Happn users to take part in Spirit Day, and directs them to glaad.org/spiritday, where they can:
Go purple. Use GLAAD’s mobile app to turn your Happn profile picture purple.
Join the conversation. Take part in the movement on social media – Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat – by using #SpiritDay.
Make a donation. Provide a contribution that will help GLAAD carry out its work – including Spirit Day – as the organization seeks to accelerate acceptance for LGBTQ people around the world.
“We choose words carefully in portraying ourselves in order to charm others when filling out our dating profiles. If only we could be equally as mindful of the derogatory words used towards the LGBTQ community,” said Didier Rappaport, CEO and co-founder, Happn. “To show our support for the GLAAD youth-driven cause, Happn is leveraging its platform to raise awareness, and challenging its users to rewrite the script for LGBTQ acceptance in America and across the globe.”
When it comes to letting transgender people simply using the restroom, religious conservatives are quick to warn that any accommodations pose a massive threat to women’s “safety and privacy.” But after newly discovered tapes of the Republican nominee for president bragging about sexually assaulting women were published last week, many of those same conservatives are still standing by their endorsements.
Almost all of the campaigns against transgender equality have been focused on painting transgender women as “male” predators looking to access women’s spaces in order to violate them. The messaging was first used in 2012 to oppose LGBT protections in Anchorage, then again last year to oppose the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance, and it has been the defense of North Carolina’s odious HB2. Women who were survivors of sexual assault were even the face of the failed campaign to overturn transgender protections in Washington state, even though there is zero evidence that respecting trans identities makes bathrooms or locker rooms any less safe.
Donald Trump, on the other hand, is actually a man who has openly bragged about sexually assaulting women and been accused of such assaults on multiple occasions. He also admitted to walking around backstage at one of the beauty pageants he owns while the female contestants were naked and changing. Here’s a look at people who think someone who likes to “grab them by the pussy” is still a vote-worthy candidate for president, paired with statements the same people have made about whether transgender people should be allowed to pee in peace.
Gov. Mike Pence
On transgender protections: “Policies regarding the security and privacy of students in our schools should be in the hands of Hoosier parents and local schools, not bureaucrats in Washington, DC. The federal government has no business getting involved in issues of this nature. I am confident that parents, teachers and administrators will continue to resolve these matters without federal mandates and in a manner that reflects the common sense and compassion of our state.”
On Trump’s 2005 remarks: “It’s absolutely false to suggest that at any point in time we considered dropping off this ticket… He said last night very clearly that that was talk, not actions. And I believe him and I think the contrast between that and what the Clintons were involved in 20 years ago — the four women that were present last night — was pretty dramatic.”
Ben Carson
On transgender protections: “How about we have a transgender bathroom? It is not fair for them to make everybody else uncomfortable. It’s one of the things that I don’t particularly like about the movement. I think everybody has equal rights, but I’m not sure that anybody should have extra rights — extra rights when it comes to redefining everything for everybody else and imposing your view on everybody else.”
On Trump’s 2005 remarks: “Those of us who do not want to see America fundamentally devolve into something worse must be wise enough to recognize the scheme that is being played out here. We must demand not only that the issues be discussed but also that we make our decisions based on issues and not on personalities or decade old statements and behavior by Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump.”
Mike Huckabee
On transgender protections: “Now I wish somebody had told me when I was in high school, that I could have felt like a woman when it came time to take showers in P.E. I’m pretty sure I would’ve found my feminine side and said, ‘Coach, I think I’d rather shower with the girls today.’”
On Trump’s 2005 remarks: “I certainly don’t condone what he said in what he thought was a private moment 11 years ago, but here’s a good reminder that in these times of ubiquitous microphones and cameras, there are no private moments. I can truly hope he’s genuinely contrite and has outgrown it and that he himself is as repulsed by it as are those who view it.”
Gov. Chris Christie
On transgender protections: “Men go to men’s rooms, women go to women’s rooms and there really shouldn’t be a whole lot of confusion about that — public accommodations. And I don’t think we should be making life more confusing for our children… The fact though is that we want our kids not to have to decide which bathroom they get to go in. And not to be subject to peer pressure about which one to go in. And not to be subject to the embarrassment that could come with going in a bathroom where somebody maybe doesn’t agree that they should be in there or not.”
Sen. Ted Cruz
On transgender protections: “You don’t have a right to intrude upon the rights of others because whether or not a man believes he’s a woman, there are a lot of women who would like to be able to use a public restroom in peace without having a man there — and when there are children involved, you don’t have a right to impose your lifestyle on others.”
On Trump’s 2005 remarks: “I am supporting the Republican nominee because I think Hillary Clinton is an absolute disaster. Now my differences with Donald, I have articulated at great length during the campaign. And I tried all my might. I got to tell you, it was an amazing journey.”
Tony Perkins, Family Research Council
On Trump’s 2005 remarks: “As I have made clear, my support for Donald Trump in the general election was never based upon shared values rather it was built upon shared concerns… At this point in the political process, because of our lack of engagement and involvement as Christians, not just in this election but in the government and culture as a whole, we are left with a choice of voting for the one who will do the least damage to our freedoms.”
Ralph Reed, Faith and Freedom Coalition
On transgender protections:
On Trump’s 2005 remarks: “I just don’t think an audiotape of an 11-year-old private conversation with an entertainment talk show host on a tour bus, for which the candidate has apologized profusely, is likely to rank high on the hierarchy of concerns of those faith-based voters.”
James Dobson
On transgender protections: “If you are a married man with any gumption, surely you will defend your wife’s privacy and security in restroom facilities. Would you remain passive after knowing that a strange-looking man, dressed like a woman, has been peering over toilet cubicles to watch your wife in a private moment? What should be done to the pervert who was using mirrors to watch women and girls in their stalls?”
On Trump’s 2005 remarks: “The comments Mr. Trump made 11 years ago were deplorable and I condemn them entirely. I also find Hillary Clinton’s support of partial birth abortion criminal and her opinion of evangelicals to be bigoted. There really is only one difference between the two. Mr. Trump promises to support religious liberty and the dignity of the unborn. Mrs. Clinton promises she will not.”
Gary Bauer, American Values
On transgender protections: “This is yet another example of the Obama administration’s bizarre obsession to force women to be unwilling participants in a radical social experiment… Now Obama’s HUD bureaucrats are putting those women at risk for abuse and worse by men claiming to be women.”
On Trump’s 2005 remarks: “ The comments are obviously disgusting and unfortunate. But Donald Trump did not run as a evangelical or as somebody who ran the kind of campaign that a Pat Robertson would run. We’ll still support him, still work hard for him. His policies are 100% better than Hillary clinton’s for the country. I don’t see how any values voter that is sensible would take a tape from 11 years ago with totally inappropriate language and says somehow that leads me as a voter to stay home or vote for Hillary Clinton or throw your vote away on a third party candidate.”
Robert Jeffress, First Baptist Church in Dallas
On transgender protections: “Gender is an absolute, just like age is an absolute, and just because some hairy-legged man feels confused about his gender, doesn’t mean he gets to come in and shower with my daughter in a shower room.”
On Trump’s 2005 remarks: “It was lewd, obscene, indefensible — but not enough to make me want to vote for Hillary Clinton. I might not choose this man to be a Sunday school teacher at my church, but that’s not what this election is about.”
Michele Bachmann
On transgender protections: “What we have seen happen since this discussion started, are men of varying ages going into women’s bathrooms and trying to videotape women unawares. Now that’s a real problem. And I think we need to be very clear that women, girls, older women are vulnerable and are deserving of protection.”
On Trump’s 2005 remarks: “This is bad boy talk, and of course that’s what [Hillary Clinton] wants everybody to talk about… If anybody understands bad boy talk, Hillary Clinton understands bad boy talk. She engages in a certain amount of it herself I think.”
Pat Robertson
On transgender protections: “We don’t want men going into women’s bathrooms, we don’t want predators going out where little girls are, we don’t want voyeurs having free access to the women’s locker rooms during games when they’re changing clothes.”
On Trump’s 2005 remarks: “ “A guy does something 11 years ago, it was a conversation in Hollywood where he’s trying to look like he’s macho. And 11 years after that they surface it from The Washington Post or whatever, bring it out within 30 days or so of the election and this is supposed to be the death blow and everybody writes him off… They think he’s dead, he’s come back. And he came back strong. So, he won that debate.”
Pat McCrory (R), North Carolina governor
On transgender protections: “Does the desire to be politically correct outweigh our children’s privacy and safety? Not on my watch.”
On Trump’s 2005 remarks: “I condemn in the strongest possible terms the comments made by Donald Trump regarding women. I find them disgusting.” [But McCrory did not withdraw his endorsement of Trump.]
Dan Patrick, Texas lieutenant governor
On transgender protections: “It is clear that the Obama administration is trying to force an ill-advised, eleventh-hour bathroom edict on Texas and all American schools that ignores both common sense and common decency. Obama’s bathroom policy, which applies to grades K-12, creates a problem where none existed. It will disrupt schools across Texas, creating potentially embarrassing and unsafe situations for girls who would be forced, under his order, to share bathrooms, locker rooms and showers with boys.”
On Trump’s 2005 remarks:
hil Robertson, Duck Dynasty
On transgender protections: “Men should use the men’s bathroom and women should use the women’s bathroom. Just because a man may ‘feel’ like a woman doesn’t mean he should be able to share a bathroom with my daughter, or yours. That used to be called common sense. Now it’s called bigoted.”
On Trump’s 2005 remarks: “I would say [evangelical leaders] need to lighten up, start going out and preaching the gospel to different people, including Donald Trump, and give him some time to think about spiritual matters, and work with him, and not condemn anybody.”
Alveda King
On transgender protections: “In other words, by turning a blind eye to the dearth of perversion within our communities — the sex traffickers, child molesters, adulterers and fornicators, racists, and so many other sin sick souls — and suggesting that allowing everyone to use the same public bathrooms will solve America’s problems, the current government administration, no matter how well intended or ill advised they are, is headed for disaster.”
On Trump’s 2005 remarks: “ While writing, saying and doing much, Mr. Trump is apologizing for his past sins. He’s walking away from supporting abortion, hurling insults and more. Now, America needs to follow suit and apologize for the scourge of legal abortion that has left millions of empty cradles, wombs barren, women’s health damaged, and families broken. As Americans, we all need to follow Mr. Trump’s lead and ask God for forgiveness for the sins of our nation, and yes, for ourselves.”
Today, on National Coming Out Day, we celebrate one of the most powerful forces in the fight for LGBT equality. When someone decides to come out as member of the LGBT community, it gives their friends, family, loved ones and neighbors a personal reason to support LGBT rights, and it inspires more members and allies of the LGBT community to stand up for what is right, even in the face of discrimination, bigotry and violence.
Despite the great strides we’ve made in recent years – marriage equality, the end of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell and more – the sad fact remains that coming out is still a risky, even dangerous thing to do for too many Americans, young and old. But that’s why it’s so important. Together, we can end the discrimination and build a brighter, safer future for all.
“The Democratic Party is proud to stand with the LGBT community, and proud to support candidates for elected office who are fighting for the promise of full equality. If we hope to continue building on the progress of the last eight years, we must elect Hillary Clinton and Democrats up and down the ballot across the country.”
HRC Friday released its Congressional Scorecard measuring support for LGBTQ equality in the 114th Congress. The scorecard shows continued strong support for LGBTQ equality from Democrats and growing bipartisan support for LGBTQ nondiscrimination protections. The 114th Congress saw a record number of Republicans vote at different times to affirm President Obama’s executive order prohibiting discrimination by federal contractors on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.
“LGBTQ nondiscrimination protections gained important bipartisan support in the 114th Congress. Unfortunately, despite those gains, the 114th Congress failed to advance any pro-equality legislation and remains an impediment to progress for the LGBTQ community,” said HRC President Chad Griffin. “Today, a majority of Americans — Republicans, Democrats and independents — all believe that LGBTQ people should be able to live their lives free from fear of discrimination and be protected from discrimination. It’s long past time that Congress reflects the opinion of the majority of fair-minded Americans.”
With 190 Democrats in the House and Senate receiving perfect 100 scores, pro-equality legislation received exceptionally high levels of support from Democratic lawmakers. In comparison, one House Republican and one Senate Republican earned perfect scores.
“Building on our incredible support from Democratic elected officials, gaining ground with fair-minded Republicans is important next step to win the support we need to pass important legislation like the Equality Act,” added David Stacy, HRC’s Government Affairs Director. “Winning 62 Republican votes in the House is a historic achievement that can help lay the groundwork for future success.”
Members of Congress were scored based on their votes and co-sponsorships of pieces of legislation that are key indicators of support for LGBTQ equality. Despite the 114th Congress failing to enact any legislation to protect the LGBTQ community, majorities emerged in both chambers on key LGBTQ issues.
In the House, a historic 62 Republicans voted at different times to affirm President Obama’s executive order prohibiting discrimination by federal contractors on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity — nearly double the total from Republicans on previous LGBTQ non-discrimination votes. And in the Senate, bipartisan majorities voted for amendments supporting spousal benefits for same-sex couples, non-discrimination protections in runaway and homeless youth programs, and non-discrimination protections in education.
For more information on the HRC Congressional Scorecard go here.
Today Log Cabin Republicans announced its Board of Directors has issued the first wave of endorsements for its federal political action committee (PAC) in the 2016 election cycle, including two candidates — Paul Babeu and Clay Cope — who are poised to make history as the first openly gay non-incumbent Republicans to be elected to the United States House of Representatives.
“These candidates for elected office represent the future of the GOP — strong, pro-equality Republicans with a winning message and a viable path to victory in November,” Log Cabin Republicans President Gregory T. Angelo stated. “LCR PAC will be working from now until Election Day to ensure these common-sense conservatives take their rightful place in the GOP congressional caucus as part of an inclusive Republican majority.”
“I’m honored to earn the support of Log Cabin Republicans, since they stand for personal liberty, less government, and support free market principles that will create jobs.” —Sheriff Paul Babeu.
“I’m very proud to receive the endorsement of the Log Cabin Republicans, the largest group of gay and lesbian conservatives in the country. My campaign for Congress is now endorsed by the Republican Party of Connecticut, the Independent Party of Connecticut, the Connecticut Citizens Defense League, and the Log Cabin Republicans.” —Clay Cope.
Back in August, Cope declared that he supports Trump and Pence because “they don’t believe in discrimination.”
Last month Babeu was endorsed by Dr. Ben Carson. Babeu earned his first mention here on JMG years ago when he was outed via his Adam4Adam profile. Last month he was endorsed by gay former GOP US House Rep. Jim Kolbe, who was outed in 1996 after his vote for DOMA, although in 2013 Kolbe was a signatory to an amicus brief in support of the repeal of Prop 8. Babeu has stated that marriage should be left for the states to decide. Earlier this year the Phoenix New Timesreported that Babeu is currently living with a 22 year-old whom he met in 2012. In March 2012 the Mexican national ex-boyfriend of Babeu sued him for $1M, alleging that Babeu had threatened to have him deported if the boyfriend were to out him. Babeu’s run for the US House fizzled shortly thereafter, but not before it was revealed that he had spoken at an event staged by a group that wants to end illegal and most legal immigration and wants to end automatic citizenship for children born in the United States.
Today, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) announced the latest push in the organization’s largest get-out-the-vote effort in its more than 35-year history. It’s a multi-state targeting campaign that for the first time reaches well beyond the nation’s nearly 10 million LGBTQ voters to mobilize the growing ranks of allies and others with a history of supporting equality.
“Our new model allows us to reach out directly to hundreds of thousands of voters not yet affiliated with HRC, but who have demonstrated an openness to creating a more equal and fair society,” said HRC President Chad Griffin (@ChadHGriffin). “LGBTQ equality is no longer a wedge issue, but one embraced by a clear majority of Americans, and particularly younger Americans. In fact, being anti-LGBTQ is now a liability.”
HRC’s dynamic new model, developed with the elections data firm Catalist, makes possible some of the most sophisticated targeting ever of potential pro-equality voters. It allows direct outreach to hundreds of thousands of potential pro-equality voters in crucial swing states through both new and traditional means.
In North Carolina alone, HRC expects to reach more than 400,000 voters through phone calls and an online persuasive advertising campaign unprecedented for the organization. Potential pro-equality voters have been identified using years of HRC polling, public voter files and other available data. HRC is initially targeting five states — North Carolina, Florida, New Hampshire, Nevada, and Pennsylvania, with more to come.
This historic targeting effort is part of an unprecedented #turnOUT campaign that HRC launched earlier this year, which includes massive voter mobilization efforts across all 50 states and deployment of more than 100 staff members to battleground states and races. The targeting campaign announced today represents a new dimension of HRC’s work, and is expected to be replicated in years to come as the organization mobilizes the nation’s growing ranks of equality voters to help fuel ongoing efforts to ensure full equality for LGBTQ people.
A married conservative politician from Louisiana has been outed for allegedly having a teenage boyfriend, local New Orleans news station WWL-TV reports.
According to his Twitter profile, Republican Mike Yenni is “the President of Jefferson Parish and happily married with one daughter.” But according to the several unnamed sources, he’s a closet case who has been sending some rather racy texts to a teen boy he met at a Catholic high school function while on the campaign trail last year.
40-year-old Yenni and the teen, who was 17 at the time and whose name has not been released, were allegedly connected with each other by a mutual friend. The teen says he and Yenni, the former mayor of Kenner at the time, the city neighboring New Orleans, would talk on the phone and text one another regularly.
As Yenni and the teen’s relationship deepened, he says the politician would occasionally visit him at his job at a mall food court. Once, he says, they met in the mall bathroom where the teen says Yenni gave him a pair of designer underwear. Afterwards, they shared a kiss.
The texting continued, becoming more and more explicit as time progressed. In one of the texts, Yenni allegedly told the teen that he “wants him naked.” In another, he asked if he’s worn the underwear he gave him, then says he would like him to model it for him. And in a third, he said he wanted to perform a sex act on the teen that night.
While Yenni doesn’t appear to have much of a record when it comes to being for or against LGBTQ rights, he is a member of the political party that, in its most recently adopted platform, officially defines marriage as “between one man and one woman,” calls pornography harmful “especially on children,” and wants to police which restrooms trans people use in an effort to protect women and children from sexual predators. So it’s ironic, to say that least, that he would send dirty texts to a teenage boy then make out with said teenage boy in a mall bathroom. But we digress.
The texts were provided by the teen to WWL-TV on the condition that they not be directly quoted. The station verified that they did, indeed, come from Yenni’s personal cell phone, which is not billed to taxpayers.
The teen, now 19 and in college, tells WWL-TV that over time the texts started to make him uneasy, particularly one that suggested they have a threesome with the mutual friend who initially connected them.
“He asked me to go with him to his house in Oxford (Mississippi),” the youth said. “Also, the way he would describe the sexual things he wanted to do to me. And he asked me to be a secretary or assistant in his office; that way I could be with him and not be questioned.”
In June, he says he finally broke the affair off with Yenni.
According to WWL-TV, under Louisiana law, the age of consent is 17, so any sexual activity between Yenni and teen would not be illegal; however, the sexts may violate a federal law that bars the use of any telecommunications device to engage in “obscene” conversation with anyone under the age of 18.
“President James Buchanan will join 30 other living and deceased lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Icons as part of this year’s LGBT History Month starting October 1st,” said Malcolm Lazin, Equality Forum’s Executive Director, the nation’s leading organization on LGBT history. “The LGBT community is the only community worldwide that is not taught its history at home, in public schools or in religious institutions. LGBT History Month provides role models, builds community and makes the civil rights statement about our extraordinary national and international contributions.”
From Indian Gay Pioneer Ashok Row Kavi to Supreme Court marriage plaintiff Jim Obergefell, each of the 2016 LGBT History Month Icons will be featured in a free, online (www.LGBTHistoryMonth.com) video, biography, bibliography, downloadable images and other resource materials for use in classrooms, educational institutions, community groups and other venues worldwide.
2016 LGBT History Month Icons include:
Malcolm Forbes – American entrepreneur and publisher of Forbes magazine
Janet Mock – New York Times bestselling author and transgender rights activist
Diana Nyad – Long distance swimmer and the first person to swim from Cuba to Florida
Ellen Page – Academy Award nominated actress
Tammy Smith – First openly lesbian United States military General
Jose Antonio Vargas – journalist and immigration rights activist
In July of this year, the California State Board of Education voted unanimously on a new History-Social Science curriculum that includes “a study of the role of contributions” of minority groups, including “lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans”, making California the first state in the country to teach LGBT history in public school classrooms.
Also this year, President Obama designated the Stonewall National Monument, the first-ever national monument dedicated to the LGBT civil rights movement in the United States. The monument marks the historic site of the Stonewall Uprising in New York City where in June 1969 LGBT people rioted against policy brutality and harassment.
Each year 31 LGBT Icons, living or dead, national and international are selected for achievements in their field of endeavor; for their status as a national hero; or for their significant contribution to LGBT civil rights. Equality Forum solicits nominations from the public. Nationally prominent professors Lillian Faderman and Paul Farber, 2016 LGBT History Month Co-chairs review all nominations and recommend the annual Icons.
Equality Forum is currently accepting nominations for LGBT History Month 2017. The deadline to nominate an Icon for next year’s LGBT History Month is Friday, December 9th, 2016. You can submit your nomination online, here.
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About the Equality Forum
Equality Forum coordinates LGBT History Month, produces documentary films, undertakes high-impact initiatives and presents the largest annual national and international LGBT civil rights summit.
Equality Forum is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization whose mission is to advance national and international lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) civil rights with an educational focus. For more information on the Equality Forum, please visit: www.equalityforum.com
A San Patricio County jury has returned a guilty verdict against David Strickland for the 2012 shootings that killed Mollie Olgin and critically wounded Kristene Chapa. Prosecutors were not pursuing the death penalty, therefore the defendant was given an automatic life sentence.
Following the verdict, Kristene Chapa spoke to KRIS 6 News. “I was very shocked at first. I didn’t know what to expect exactly, I was hoping that they (the jury) would see all the evidence that we had and they would go our way. (It was) very emotional.. I wanted to just burst out in tears,” said Chapa.
She told reporter Caroline Flores that she’ll always carry the mental and physical scars of the attack and suffer from the loss of her girlfriend, Mollie. Megan Olgin, Mollie’s sister, said, “She was only 19. She didn’t get to live her life. He took that away from her.” Olgin went on to say, “I’m just happy that it’s finally over. The jury saw the evidence and now finally there’s justice. It doesn’t bring her back. But at least he can pay for what he did.”
Mollie and Kristene were approached by a masked man in the middle of the night in June 2012. He ordered Kristene to place duct tape over her girlfriend’s eyes, then did the same to her, before sexually assaulting both, and shooting them in the head. It was hours later when a couple out for a birdwatching trip found the couple. Mollie Olgin could not be saved, but Kristene underwent years of intense therapy to get back to where she is now.
In closing arguments, Strickland’s attorneys tried to convince the jury that the first suspect in the case was the gunman, claiming there was more evidence indicating he was involved, not Strickland. There was also more commentary about the police interrogation video in which the defendant admitted to the crimes, then told a Texas Ranger he was making it all up. Attorneys also cast doubts on the handling of evidence in the case, highlighting that officers in Portland were fired or demoted as a result of the investigation.
The Prosecution countered with an admission that the first suspect was a strongly considered, until a letter was dropped off two years after the shootings. The letter contained details never released to the public. The fact that portions of the letter were found on Strickland’s personal computer left little doubt as to the origins. A ballistics expert also told the court that bullet fragments found at the crime scene match samples taken from Strickland’s .45 caliber Glock.
Kirstene Chapa was the last to testify, stating she was convinced Strickland is the person who attacked her and Mollie Olgin in June 2012 at Violet Andrew Park in Portland, Texas. However, there was testimony that she did not identify Strickland in a photo lineup provided by officers.
Prosecutors acknowledge that may appear to be a weak link in their case, but point out the attacker was reportedly wearing a mask, plus Chapa suffered a traumatic brain injury from being shot in the head. An attorney stated Chapa was doing everything she could to help investigators find the person who killed her lover and left her for dead.
Although talking about some of the details about that night was difficult for her, Chapa says it didn’t bother her to face Strickland in court. When asked why, Chapa responded, “Because he’s a coward.” she went on to say, “David Strickland put his head down and wouldn’t look at me, so what does that mean to you? Did you see him in the courtroom? He didn’t do anything.”
Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore should be removed from office for defying the U.S. Supreme Court on gay marriage, a lawyer for a disciplinary commission argued on Wednesday.
R. Ashby Pate, a lawyer for the Judicial Inquiry Commission, said marriage equality was settled law in all 50 states when Moore told Alabama’s 68 probate judges in January that they remained bound by his court’s order to refuse the licenses to same-sex couples.
A federal judge had already clarified this for Alabama’s judges, citing the Obergefell vs. Hodges ruling in an injunction telling them to drop the state’s ban, Pate said.
“His order sowed confusion. It did not clear it up. He urged defiance, not compliance,” Pate told the Alabama Court of the Judiciary. “He ordered each and every subordinate probate judge to defy a federal injunction.”
The outspoken Republican jurist could be removed from office for the second time in 13 years if found to have violated the state’s canons of judicial ethics. He was ousted in 2003 for refusing to remove a Ten Commandments statue from the state’s judicial building, but was later re-elected in a popular vote.
Testifying under oath before the court on Wednesday, Moore called the latest charges “ridiculous.”
He said his January memo simply provided a status update to judges who had questions because the Alabama Supreme Court had not acted to reverse the state ban, even after the federal rulings.
“I don’t encourage anyone to defy a federal court or state court order,” Moore said. “I gave them a status in the case, a status of the facts that these orders exist. That is all I did.”
Moore did acknowledge in a testy cross-examination, however, that he told probate judges to follow the very same state court order that a federal judge specifically said they could no longer enforce.
The nine-member court has 10 days to rule on whether Moore violated judicial ethics, and what punishment he should face if so. A decision to remove him from the bench must be unanimous.
Moore stands accused during a season of political upheaval Alabama. The house speaker was removed from office this summer for ethics violations, and a legislative committee will decide if evidence supports impeaching Gov. Robert Bentley after he was accused of having an affair with a top staffer.
Before the hearing began, rainbow flags and Christian music competed for attention outside.
“The truth is homosexuality is wrong,” said Donna Holman, who traveled 12 hours from Iowa and carried a sign saying “It’s not OK to be gay.
“Equal marriage is the law. Love will always win,” countered Madison Clark of Montgomery.