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07-07-2011, 05:43 PM
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#1361 | |
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07-08-2011, 09:38 AM
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The man's name is Humberto Leal Garcia, and I don't think anybody is claiming he was innocent of the crime he was convicted of - the rape and murder of a 16 year old girl in 1994 (though he said the girl's death was accidental...). The issue is that Texas police did not inform the man that he was entitled to contact his country's consulate for assistance with his case, which was his right under the Vienna Convention. As I'm sure I've stated before, I am against the death penalty. (Btw, so is Mexico. Capital punishment was officially abolished in Mexico in 2005, having not been used in civil cases since 1937 (according to wikipedia). Mexico also does not extradite to countries seeking the death penalty). However, this execution speaks to more than the penalty or the crime. It's a demonstration of U.S. disregard for international law - which not only abuses Mexico and the rest of the world, but puts U.S. citizens at risk should they be arrested outside the U.S. Here's some info about Mexico's attempts to get the U.S. to conform to international law in these matters: <<disallowed word>>http://www.mexidata.info/id3069.html Mexico's government has released a statement condemning this execution "in the most energetic terms" and Mexico's foreign ministry sent a formal note of protest to the US State department. Before the execution, Christof Heyns, UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial summary or arbitrary executions had warned, "If the scheduled execution of Mr. Leal Garcia goes ahead, the United States government will have implemented a death penalty after a trial that did not comply with due process rights. This will be tantamount to an arbitrary deprivation of life." I've been trying to find a full statement by Perry regarding this execution, but my google-fu is not at full-power. I'm not sure if this is the full statement, but this is the statement being quoted by some news sources: <<disallowed word>>"If you commit the most heinous of crimes in Texas, you can expect to face the ultimate penalty under our laws, as in this case where Leal was convicted of raping and bludgeoning a 16 year old girl to death." So as far as I can tell, Perry is not all that concerned with the violation of international law in this case.
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07-08-2011, 03:31 PM
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Court blocks discharges of gay troops
Court blocks discharges of gay troops
http://news.yahoo.com/court-orders-i...193333254.html The Pentagon says it has stopped enforcing the ban on openly gay troops to comply with a federal court order issued Wednesday. The move comes as military leaders were preparing for the end of the ban under a federal law repealing "don't ask, don't tell." The order from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is related to a pending appeal of a lower court case won by the Log Cabin Republicans, which hailed the development. "The ruling ... removes all uncertainty -- American servicemembers are no longer under threat of discharge as the repeal implementation process goes forward," said R. Clarke Cooper executive director of the Log Cabin Republican |
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07-08-2011, 03:34 PM
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There should have been a stay- Hell No, Perry is not someone that would pay attention to international law. He believes that Texas can break with the US due to the manner in which it joined the Union (a clause in the original documents). He is far worse than "Dubya" ever was. Now, think about that! He really doesn't think that Texas has to abide by US law as is evidenced by his history in many death penalty cases. He loves seeing the death penalty carried out in Texas. The crime this man was accused of is horrible and if he did this, there is no way I would want him out in society. However, the US does have an obligation to honor international law as well as our constitutional obligations for defendants throughout the country. Even when crimes committed turn my stomach, I don't want to live in a country (or state) that does not adhere to our constitutional rights. That is not justice being carried out to me. I do support the death penalty under certain circumstances (with several caveats concerning proof of guilt), yet, this was wrong and a slap in the face to our republic. The idea of Rick Perry as a viable presidential candidate makes me nuts!! |
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07-08-2011, 05:16 PM
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Just got this email from amnesty international: URGENT ACTION APPEAL - From Amnesty International USA ---------------------------------- Further information on UA 178/11 Country: USA Issue Date: 08 July 2011 Mexican national Humberto Leal García was executed in Texas on 7 July. His execution violated international law and a binding order from the International Court of Justice (ICJ). The execution went ahead despite opposition from the US and Mexican governments, and UN officials. Humberto Leal García was sentenced to death in 1995 for the murder of 16-year-old Adria Sauceda on 21 May 1994 in San Antonio, Texas. A Mexican national, Humberto Leal had a right to seek consular assistance “without delay,” as required under article 36 of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations (VCCR). However, he was arrested, charged, tried and sentenced without ever being informed of this right. In 2004 the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that the USA had violated article 36 of the VCCR in the cases of 51 Mexican men – including Humberto Leal – who had been sentenced to death in the USA. The ICJ ordered the USA to provide judicial “review and reconsideration” of the convictions and sentences to determine if the defence of these individuals had been harmed by the VCCR violations. After the 2008 execution in Texas of one of these men, José Medellín, the ICJ confirmed that its original ruling, including that Humberto Leal should not be executed pending such review and reconsideration, was “fully intact”. The ICJ stressed that its judgment placed an obligation on the USA which “must be performed unconditionally; non-performance of it constitutes internationally wrongful conduct”. Any aspects of domestic law hindering compliance were no excuse, the ICJ emphasized. On 14 June 2011, Senator Patrick Leahy introduced a bill in US Congress aimed at implementing the ICJ judgment, as well as facilitating compliance with article 36 of the VCCR. Lawyers for Humberto Leal sought a stay of execution long enough to allow to Congress to act on the legislation. The courts refused to grant a stay. The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles voted against a reprieve to allow time for Congress to act, despite three judges on the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals urging an executive reprieve. The three judges noted that “it is precisely when the Judicial Department proves institutionally unequal to the task that the exercise of executive clemency is most appropriate”. The US Supreme Court refused to grant a stay on 7 July, over the dissent of four of the nine Justices. Both the US and Mexican government had filed legal briefs in the Supreme Court supporting the request for a stay of execution (see overleaf). The Court’s majority noted that the US administration and the dissenting Justices “complain of the grave international consequences that will follow from Leal’s execution”, but added that “Congress evidently did not find these consequences sufficiently grave to prompt its enactment of implementing legislation, and we will follow the law as written by Congress. We have no authority to stay an execution in light of an ‘appeal of the President,’ presenting free-ranging assertions of foreign policy consequences, when those assertions come unaccompanied by a persuasive legal claim.” Among those appealing for the execution not to go ahead was the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, who wrote directly to Governor Rick Perry calling for his intervention. The UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions and the UN Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment also called on the authorities to stop the execution. Governor Perry refused to grant a reprieve. In his final statement before being killed by lethal injection, Humberto Leal expressed his remorse: “I have hurt a lot of people. Let this be final and be done. I take the full blame for this. I am sorry and forgive me, I am truly sorry.” He was pronounced dead at 6.21pm local time. Humberto Leal was the 26th person to be executed in the USA this year, and the 1,260nd since judicial killing resumed in 1977. Texas accounts for 471 of these executions, seven of which have been carried out this year. No further action is requested. Many thanks to all who sent appeals. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION Mexico brought its VCCR case against the USA in 2003, resulting in the ICJ’s judgment in Avena and Other Mexican Nationals handed down on 31 March 2004. The USA has yet to comply with the Avena judgment. On 28 February 2005, then-President George W. Bush responded to the ICJ decision by seeking to have the state courts provide the necessary “review and reconsideration” in all of the affected cases. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals later ruled that the President lacked the constitutional authority to order state court compliance and that the Avena decision was not enforceable in the domestic courts. The case went to the US Supreme Court. On 25 March 2008, in Medellín v. Texas, the Supreme Court unanimously found that the Avena decision “constitutes an international law obligation on the part of the United States.” The Court also unanimously agreed that the reasons for complying with the ICJ judgment were “plainly compelling,” since its domestic enforcement would uphold “United States interests in ensuring the reciprocal observance of the Vienna Convention, protecting relations with foreign governments, and demonstrating commitment to the role of international law.” However, a 6-3 majority ruled that the ICJ’s decision “is not automatically binding domestic law” and that the authority for implementing it rested not with the President but with Congress (see http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/in...51/025/2008/en). In the case of Humberto Leal, on 27 June 2011, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals refused to stop the execution. Three of the judges noted in a concurring statement that there was “no dispute” that to allow the execution of Leal “to go forward without first affording him a hearing in satisfaction of the International Court of Justice’s judgment” would violate US treaty obligations, and that those obligations remain “binding on Texas” under the US Constitution. The three judges encouraged the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles to recommend that Governor Perry grant a reprieve to Humberto Leal until “legislation passes that finally implements our indisputable treaty obligations and provides a remedy for the applicant's right under international law.” On 5 July, however, the Board of Pardons and Paroles voted against commutation and against recommending that Governor Rick Perry grant a 180-day reprieve. This left Governor Perry with the option to grant a 30-day reprieve. He declined to use that option. Lawyers for Humberto Leal filed a petition in the US Supreme Court for a stay of execution. The Government of Mexico filed a brief urging a stay to allow Congress to enact legislation to bring the USA into compliance with the ICJ judgment. It stressed that “a second execution [of a Mexican national, following the 2008 execution of José Medellín] in violation of the ICJ’s judgment would seriously jeopardize the ability of the Government of Mexico to continue working collaboratively with the United States on a number of joint ventures, including extraditions, mutual judicial assistance, and our efforts to strengthen our common border”. The US administration also filed a brief supporting a stay, asserting that the execution would put the USA in “irreparable breach of its international-law obligation” to provide Humberto Leal review and reconsideration of his claim that his conviction and sentence were prejudiced by denial of his VCCR rights. It noted that the issue implicated “vital national interests”, including “protecting Americans abroad, fostering cooperation with foreign nations, and demonstrating respect for the international rule of law”. The damage to those interests if the execution went ahead would be “permanent and irreparable”, whereas a stay of execution would cause Texas only “temporary disruption”. The government brief noted the bill introduced in Congress, and that there was not enough time before the scheduled execution for the legislation to be passed, thus requiring a stay of execution. The US Supreme Court refused to stay the execution, ruling that “Our task is to rule on what the law is, not what it might eventually be.” Four of the nine Justices dissented, arguing that “this Court has adequate legal authority to grant the requested stay. Should Senator Leahy’s bill become law by the end of September (when we would consider the petition in the ordinary course), this Court would almost certainly grant the petition…, vacate the judgment below, and remand the case for further proceedings consistent with that law.” Amnesty International opposes the death penalty in all cases, unconditionally. For further information on the US death penalty, see USA: An embarrassment of hitches, July 2011 http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/in...51/058/2011/en Name: Humberto Leal García (m) Concern: Death Penalty ---------------------------------- Amnesty International is a worldwide grassroots movement that promotes and defends human rights. This Urgent Action may be reposted if kept intact, including contact information and stop action date (if applicable). Thank you for your help with this appeal. Urgent Action Network Amnesty International USA 600 Pennsylvania Ave SE 5th fl Washington DC 20003 Email: uan@aiusa.org http://www.amnestyusa.org/uan Phone: 202.509.8193 Fax: 202.675.8566 ---------------------------------- END OF URGENT ACTION APPEAL ----------------------------------
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07-08-2011, 07:14 PM
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It seems to me that Rick Perry could be charged with a crime by his refusal as a Govenor of a state in the US to abide by international laws that protect right of individuals. Sometimes I feel like the edicts that have long been a source of pride for me are getting trampled upon without any consequences.
I just don't have much con law knowledge- but I can't get my head wrapped around why Perry is not at least being sanctioned by Texas courts.The AG there must be one of his pals. We have some important relationships with Mexico as well as this guy may very well run for the GOP nomination. He is a Tea Party favorite- you know, that "Party" that continually brings up the US Constitution! |
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07-09-2011, 04:55 AM
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07-09-2011, 07:28 AM
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07-09-2011, 08:56 AM
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07-11-2011, 09:24 AM
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http://www.iranhumanrights.org/2011/...majd-arrested/
You might not be following the World Cup, but here's an interesting story: "Maryam Majd, a sports photojournalist, was scheduled to arrive in Dusseldorf, Germany on 17 June to photograph the FIFA Women’s World Cup. Petra Landers, a former player on the German National Team who was scheduled to collaborate with Majd on a FIFA book project on female soccer players worldwide, has written a letter to the German Foreign Ministry urging them to ask Iranian authorities to provide information about Majd’s whereabouts. Majd’s German hosts in Dusseldorf waited for her for hours on Friday, according to reports, but she never showed up. Several hours after Majd’s scheduled flight had landed, her hosts contacted Mahan Air to ask about her whereabouts, but were told that Majd’s name was not on the passenger list of the flight. Maryam Majd is one of the few Iranian photographers who specializes in women’s sports She is a member of a campaign to seek women’s attendance inside sports complexes, and previously worked with the monthly magazine Zanan. The Campaign learned that Majd’s family is being heavily pressured to not speak to the media and Iranian authorities have so far remained silent about her situation."
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07-15-2011, 07:42 AM
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From the Prop 8 Trial Tracker blog
Success: Gov. Brown signs FAIR Education bill
By Adam Bink Thanks to those of you who called yesterday! Today the Gov. announced he will signed the FAIR Education act, ensuring that historical contributions of LGBT and disabled people are fairly and accurately portrayed in instructional materials. Statement from Sen. Leno, the sponsor: Sen. Leno Hails Governor’s Approval of Landmark LGBT Inclusive Education Bill The FAIR Education Act ensures that the historical contributions of LGBT people and the disability community are accurately and fairly portrayed in instructional materials SACRAMENTO – Governor Jerry Brown today signed the FAIR (Fair, Accurate, Inclusive and Respectful) Education Act, authored by Senator Mark Leno. The bill ensures that the historical contributions of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people and disabled individuals are accurately and fairly portrayed in instructional materials by adding these groups to the existing list of under-represented cultural and ethnic groups already included in the state’s inclusionary education requirements. “Today we are making history in California by ensuring that our textbooks and instructional materials no longer exclude the contributions of LGBT Americans,” said Senator Leno (D-San Francisco). “Denying LGBT people their rightful place in history gives our young people an inaccurate and incomplete view of the world around them. I am pleased Governor Brown signed the FAIR Education Act and I thank him for recognizing that the LGBT community, its accomplishments and its ongoing efforts for first-class citizenship are important components of California’s history.” Research indicates that students who learn about LGBT people find their school environments more accepting of LGBT youth. Students are also more likely to report that their LGBT peers are treated fairly at school – and that other types of peer-to-peer disrespect also declines – when LGBT people and issues are included in instructional materials. In addition to including the role and contributions of LGBT Americans in educational materials, Senate Bill 48 ensures that the contributions of disabled people are included. The bill also adds sexual orientation to the state’s existing anti-discrimination protections that prohibit bias in school activities, instruction and instructional materials. The bill is co-sponsored by Equality California and the Gay-Straight Alliance Network |
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07-19-2011, 01:14 PM
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San Francisco Chronicle
Guard cracks down on hand-holding at Stein exhibitC.W. Nevius
Tuesday, July 19, 2011Jane Levikow went to the Contemporary Jewish Museum Sunday afternoon to look at art. She ended up with a refresher course in San Francisco civil rights. Levikow was in the gallery with her partner when she noticed a young lesbian couple in heated conversation with a security guard. "They were holding hands," Levikow said, "and he told them they couldn't hold hands in the museum." The couple did not agree. A small crowd began to form and the guard attempted to shoo the couple out the door to quiet things down. "And they said, 'No we are not leaving and we want to talk to somebody in authority right now,' " Levikow said. "The idea that in 2011, in San Francisco, at the Jewish Museum, this guard could be that out of touch was shocking." Daryl Carr, museum spokesman, says museum officials are active in supporting the LBGT community and that they have asked that the guard, who works for a private security company, be reprimanded. Levikow says she did get a smile out of everyone when it was pointed out that the feature exhibit is devoted to examining the "evolving public personae, lifestyle, and relationships," of Gertrude Stein, the famous lesbian artist. "Does anyone see any irony here?" Levikow asked. Bet the museum does now. C.W. Nevius' column appears Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. E-mail him at cwnevius@sfchronicle.com. http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cg...BA7N1KBVVI.DTL This article appeared on page C - 2 of the San Francisco Chronicle
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07-19-2011, 01:58 PM
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07-19-2011, 07:32 PM
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07-19-2011, 07:58 PM
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07-19-2011, 11:36 PM
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70 Percent of Anti-LGBT Murder Victims Are People of Color
by MIchael Lavers Monday, July 18 2011 LOOKING BEYOND CRIMINAL JUSTICE FOR HATE CRIME SOLUTIONS It’s an all too common, if shocking story: A transgender Latina woman with HIV is attacked on a street close to her home in a low-income neighborhood in the Bay Area. Making a bad situation worse, police officers literally drag her from her bed at 6 a.m. because they think she committed the crime herself. “They kept telling her she wasn’t who she was, and that she was a man,” explained María Carolina Morales of the San Francisco-based Communities United Against Violence as she recounted the incident to Colorlines. “She was arrested. She was taken to the station. She wasn’t listened to. She spent the weekend in jail.” The woman went to court a month after her arrest, but disappeared shortly after her court date. “She was somebody who was unemployed, who didn’t have a safety net,” noted Morales. “We don’t know if she ran away, if she ended up in jail or [was] transferred to another place, another city. Her phone was disconnected the day after court. We just don’t know—don’t know what happened.” The National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs released its annual report on hate violence motivated by sexual orientation, gender identity and expression and HIV status last week. The report documents 27 anti-LGBT murders in 2010, which is the second highest annual total recorded since 1996. A whopping 70 percent of these 27 victims were people of color; 44 percent of them were transgender women. The study also found that transgender people and people of color are each twice as likely to experience violence or discrimination as non-transgender white people. Transgender people of color are also almost 2.5 times as likely to experience discrimination as their white peers. “It wasn’t a shock,” said Morales, whose organization is among the 17 anti-violence programs from across the country that contributed data to the NCAVP report. “For the last four years we’ve seen that trend—of transgender women and people of color in our communities experiencing higher levels of violence. Sadly that continues.” Recent headlines certainly bear witness to this disturbing trend. A Milwaukee judge sentenced Andrew Olaciregui to an 11-year prison sentence in December after he pleaded guilty to shooting Chanel Larkin three times in the head on a street corner in May 2010. Prosecutors maintain Olaciregui shot Larkin after he offered to pay her $20 to perform a sex act and found out she was transgender. Larkin was 26 at the time of her death. In another high-profile case, Hakim Scott and Keith Phoenix both received decades-long prison sentences last summer for their role in the death of Ecuadorian immigrant José Sucuzhańay on a Brooklyn street in December 2008. Prosecutors contend Scott and Phoenix shouted anti-gay and anti-Latino slurs at Sucuzhańay as they attacked him with a baseball bat and bottles. Juan José Matos Martínez received a 99-year prison sentence in May 2010 after he pleaded guilty to stabbing gay Puerto Rican teenager Jorge Steven López Mercado to death before decapitating, dismembering and partially burning his body and dumping it along a remote roadside in November 2009. So what causes disproportionate rates of violence against transgender people and queer people of color? “What the 2010 report allows us to do is document something we’ve seen and experienced for a long time,” said Ejeris Dixon of the New York City Anti-Violence Project, which wrote the bulk of the NCAVP report. “It’s really about an intersection of oppression.” Dixon, who was a long-time staffer at Brooklyn-based Audre Lorde Project until she joined AVP earlier this year, said a lack of employment, housing and health care for transgender people all contribute to disproportionate rates of violence. Morales said that ongoing police harassment against these communities is an additional factor, making those most at-risk for hate violence also least likely to seek help. “All of those things sanction violence,” said Dixon. The NCAVP report found that half of those who experienced hate violence did not contact the police after their attack. The report further found that 25.4 percent of transgender women did not file a report. So what can be done to reduce these rates of violence against LGBT people and communities of color? The Audre Lorde Project is among the groups that organize LGBT people in communities of color that are increasingly looking beyond law enforcement and the criminal justice system for a solution. The Safe OUTside the System Collective works with bodegas, businesses and organizations within Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood and surrounding areas to create safe spaces for LGBT people of color to curb violence. “What’s true and important is our communities have been and continue to organize around issues of harassment—whether it’s neighborhood or community harassment or [harassment] by the police,” said Kris Hayashi, executive director of the Audre Lorde Project. Morales stressed that empowering transgender people and people of color to participate in decision making processes around employment, health care, improved access to food and affordable housing is another key component to addressing the problem. “For that, our organizations and institutions need to prioritize opening spaces for people to develop their leadership, to be able to engage, to learn and make decisions and so that they can see themselves not only reflected, but see themselves in the process.” Another potential solution is for anti-violence programs to tackle some of the underlying disparities that contribute to increased violence against LGBT people and people of color. “That can mean a lot of things: We can talk about low-cost programs, intersections with immigration rights groups,” said Dixon. “It’s about crafting programming that focuses on these populations and also developing leadership of LGBT people of color and trans people.” While Morales conceded these most recent statistics are grim, she said she remains hopeful that they will allow her organization and others around the country to develop more effective strategies to tackle hate violence. She stressed, however, this hasn’t happened as much as she would like to see. “It hasn’t been significantly stepped up enough,” said Morales, referring to strategies to further engage community members in the solution. “However, I have seen a lot more conversations and dialogue opening up around the community—the prison population continues to significantly increase every year, and violence continues to increase. I don’t believe its working. COAV doesn’t believe its working. I am hopeful [the report] will open up more opportunities to question the strategy to violence response.” Michael K. Lavers is a Brooklyn-based writer whose work has appeared in the Village Voice, WNYC, BBC, the Advocate and other LGBT and mainstream publications. http://colorlines.com/archives/2011/07/70_percent_of_anti-lgbt_murder_victims_are_people_of_color.html
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07-20-2011, 11:45 AM
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Museum Wanted to Fire Guard Who Objected To Local Lesbian Hand-Holding
By Andy Wright The CJM.org News broke Tuesday that a lesbian couple who attended the exhibit Seeing Gertrude Stein Sunday at the Contemporary Jewish Museum had been approached by a guard who reprimanded them for holding hands and told them they should leave. The incident, first reported by the San Francisco Chronicle, was confirmed by Daryl Carr, Director of Marketing and Communications of the museum. “We think that the news media is grabbing onto this story because of the irony,” Carr said, acknowledging the absurdity of telling a lesbian couple they shouldn’t hold hands at an exhibit celebrating the life of a famously out lesbian. “But we are appalled and are taking the incident very seriously.” The couple were out-of-town friends of the artist, Terry Berlier who has a piece in the Stein show. After the guard reprimanded them, an indignant crowd gathered to defend them. “It caused quite an uproar,” Carr said, who was out of town at the time of the incident. The museum does not employ its own guards, instead outsourcing work to a company called Guardsmark. Carr said the guard who reprimanded the couple was filling in due to a shortage and was not regularly assigned to the museum. Shortly after the incident, the guard was asked to leave the museum, according to Carr. The museum wrote a letter to Guardsmark, expressing their unhappiness over the incident. “We asked for him to be fired, actually,” Carr said, but said that the company had instead reprimanded the guard and promised to provide sensitivity training to guards currently assigned to the museum and any guards assigned in the future. The guard who objected to the hand-holding will never work at the museum again. Below is a response regarding the incident penned by the museum's director, Connie Wolf, to those affected and the museum's board and staff. As Director and CEO of The Contemporary Jewish Museum (CJM), I am writing you about an event that occurred at the Museum on Sunday, July 17, 2011.The purpose in sharing this information with those visitors affected, as well as members of our Board’s executive committee and the Museum’s senior staff, is to inform you of the CJM’s position on this matter, and the steps taken to ensure that something of this nature will not reoccur. While viewing the exhibition “Seeing Gertrude Stein: Five Stories” in the Koshland Gallery, two women who were holding hands were informed by a contract security guard, acting in his individual capacity, that such behavior was not allowed at the Museum and asked the couple to leave. The couple requested to speak to the head of security, who upon arrival immediately removed the guard from duty and issued a verbal apology to the couple for the guard’s behavior. We note that the security guard in question is employed by a security services company with whom the CJM has contracted and is not assigned to the CJM on a regular basis. In fact, that guard was called in to fill a temporary slot due to staffing shortage. The guard’s behavior resulted in an event that cannot be allowed to happen again. Please let me be crystal clear that the CJM has a zero tolerance policy concerning any type of prejudiced or racist word or action— whether directed at CJM visitors or staff. Since the Museum opened its new facility in June 2008, it has engaged audiences of all ages and backgrounds through dynamic exhibitions and programs that explore contemporary perspectives on Jewish culture, history, art, and ideas. The Museum has distinguished itself as a welcoming place where visitors, regardless of their backgrounds, can connect with one another through dialogue and shared experiences with the arts. Consistent with the CJM’s zero tolerance policy, we promptly filed a formal complaint with the security services company which employs the guard in question. We informed the company that the type of behavior exhibited by the guard is contrary to the CJM’s policy and is unacceptable. We demanded that the guard never be assigned to the CJM in any capacity at any time. Moreover, the CJM demanded that the company instruct all security guards it assigns to the CJM on appropriate behavior toward Museum visitors and provide the CJM with a corrective plan of action. The company has assured the CJM that the guard in question has been reprimanded, and that going forwarded all of the company employees assigned to duties at the CJM will be required to attend a sensitivity training course that addresses how Museum visitors are to be treated. On behalf of the Museum, its staff, and Board of Trustees, we are truly sorry that this incident occurred in our facility. We are proud to be presenting the exhibition Seeing Gertrude Stein and welcome all visitors to experience the work on view. If you have any further questions about this matter, please do not hesitate to contact me directly. Thank you. Sincerely, Connie Wolf, Director & CEO
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07-21-2011, 02:07 PM
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Sacramento Bee
Here is yet another example of the referendum, inititive process working against equality and social justice.
__________________________________________________ ______________ The latest on California politics and government July 21, 2011 Effort launched to kill new law touting gay, lesbian contributions A Sacramento-based advocacy group has filed referendum papers seeking to let voters decide the fate of a new California law requiring public schools to teach about societal contributions made by gay and lesbian people. Capitol Resource Institute, which describes itself as a "watchdog for family values," filed its documents this month with the state Attorney General's Office, which is a prelude to launching a signature-gathering campaign. The group hopes to kill Senate Bill 48, legislation that Gov. Jerry Brown said "represents an important step forward for our state" when he signed it into law last Thursday. It is set to take effect Jan. 1. The bill, proposed by Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, requires instruction in the social sciences to include the role and contributions of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans, as well as people with disabilities and member of other cultural groups. The new law, opposed by legislative Republicans, prohibits teaching from textbooks or other instructional materials that reflect adversely on people because of their sexual orientation. Opponents of SB 48 contend that people should be judged by their work, not their sexual preference -- and that recognizing the latter is divisive and objectionable to families that disapprove of homosexual lifestyles for religious, moral or other reasons. Referendum supporters would need to gather about 505,000 voter signatures within 90 days to place the issue before voters next year. Categories: 2012 ballot initiatives, Bills (2011-2012 session) Posted by Jim Sanders Read more: http://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalert...#ixzz1SltNwzZ8
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07-21-2011, 02:13 PM
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07-21-2011, 03:56 PM
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"Many proposals have been made to us to adopt your laws, your religion, your manners and your customs. We would be better pleased with beholding the good effects of these doctrines in your own practices, than with hearing you talk about them".
~Old Tassel, Chief of the Tsalagi (Cherokee) |
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