The Parade Was On ... The Parade Was Off ... The Parade Was On

After this morning's post, still leaving a bad taste in my mouth and making my heart ache, i needed some good news. Sure, it started out bad, but it ended up just fine.

Daxx Bouvier had planned to hold a LGBT pride parade in Wausau, Wisconsin, but has decided to cancel the event in the wake of negative response from a Wausau City Council, Dave Nutting—an apt name if there ever was one—and the response from local media. Bouvier, who lives in California but owns a home in Wausau, also said people who had planned to participate in the parade told him they were concerned for their safety, so he decided to call it quits.

“I do feel a great sense of loss for the LGBT community. Canceling the parade has set Wausau back 30 years in the way people think about the gay community.”—Daxx Bouvier

One of those people who came down against the idea of a pride parade was Nutting, who, while calling The Gays “deviant-behaving individuals” told residents of the town to attend the parade, but to turn their backs to it. I’m surprised he didn’t suggest folks cover their eyes and repeat, ad nauseum, Lalalalalalalalalalalalalaalalalalalalalalalalalala…..

Sadly, Bouvier said he will not organize gay pride events in Wausau in the future, though he hopes he has paved the way for others to hold events.

And they did …..

Last Saturday--the day the pride parade was to happen--about 300 people walked in a March for Equality from Marathon Park to downtown Wausau to demonstrate their support of equal treatment for the LGBT community. The peaceful march had a festive atmosphere, with the diverse group laughing and joking, carrying flags, balloons and signs with sayings such as “Love is Love, Stop the Hate” and “All my children deserve equal rights! Gay or Straight!”

Dwaine Packard and his partner of 28 years, Chet Haatvedt, led the procession, carrying colorful gay pride flags. “We just want equality,” Packard said. “We’re tired of standing on the sidelines, and it’s time to make a stand.”

Considering the drama and controversy that stopped the Pride parade, this march was almost anti-climatic. After Daxx Bouvier cancelled the Pride parade—it is thought, also, that Bouvier hadn’t provided the city with proof of insurance—Shannon Thomas decided to organize the March for Equality.

“I felt the parade was going to be canceled. And I wanted something in case people showed up. It got really confusing, with people second-guessing my motives.”—Shannon Thomas

All the confusion and controversy may have worked in the March for Equality’s favor in the end, as this parade showed the support that the Wausau area really has for the LGBTQ community.

There was no evidence of counter-protestors or anyone turning their backs on the marchers though several people, including Keith Beck and Jeremiah Zeiset handed out Christian pamphlets and asked marchers to repent their sins.

“God loves you. ... Are you serving God?” One man told the marchers, as he held a sign that read, “Where Will You Spend Eternity?”

“We’re not here to condemn anybody,” Beck said. “We’re here to seek and save the lost. We love people and want everybody to know the truth about God.”

Not there to condemn anyone, yet holding signs suggesting The Gays would be going to Hell. Sounds so very Christ-like, except Christ never said a word about The Gays.

Shannon Thomas said she intends to organize a parade next year. “I think it’ll be a lot bigger,” she said. “This was after only a week of organization.”

Here’s hoping she does it, and here’s hoping more and more people march.

source

Read More

Timothy Phares Was Gay Bashed By Co-worker's Husband, And Then By His Employer

Timothy Phares worked at an Applebee’s restaurant in Rice Lake, Wisconsin. On March 16^th, one of his co-workers, Shannon Hendricks, and her husband, Rien, had a party at their home, and Phares and his sister attended. However, they left early, feeling that their hosts had treated them rudely.

Around 6AM on March 17^th, Phares and his sister went to a coffee shop for breakfast and as they were getting out of the car, Rien and Shannon Hendricks pulled up behind them in an SUV.

“(Hendricks) was getting out of his vehicle, and he said, ‘Fucking faggot, I’m going to kill you!’”—Timothy Phares.

Rien Hendricks ran at timothy Phares and stuck him in the head with a 2x4; Phares sister, Krista, heard her brother’s head hit the pavement. Tim Phares, luckily, I’m guessing, lost consciousness and doesn’t remember anything else before waking up in a hospital. He suffered head and facial abrasions as well as multiple facial fractures that will ultimately require surgery to implant metal plates.

A criminal complaint was filed by the Barron County District Attorney’s office after a patron seated in the Perkins coffee shop at the time of the attack reported what was seen before and after the incident.

Rien Hendricks was taken into custody and charged with substantial battery intended to inflict bodily harm, and faces a $10,000 fine and a much as three and a half years in prison. Rien Hendricks, free on bail for the assault, has prior convictions for theft, false representation, distributing marijuana, bail jumping and violating unemployment law.

After being released from the hospital, Timothy Phares was told by his bosses at Applebee’s that he could not return to his job because of the publicity surrounding the incident.  Oh, yes, they did. He was bashed in the head by the husband of a co-worker, and then told he couldn’t return to work; that is, until, Greg Flynn, CEO of Apple American Group franchise, his boss’ boss, intervened on his behalf and Phares was allowed to come back.

He won’t be staying long, however, because once he returned to work he found out that Shannon Hendricks, the woman who drove her husband to the parking so he could bash Phares in the head with a piece of lumber, was already back at work. Shannon Hendricks has not been charged for her role in the attack.

And then it gets worse; this will not be prosecuted a s hate crime because, according to Barron County District Attorney Angela Beranek, Wisconsin law requires evidence that a crime was committed wholly or in part due to the perceived sexual orientation of the victim in order to attach a hate-crime enhancement to the charges. And Angela Beranek said no such evidence exists in this case.

‘Fucking faggot, I’m going to kill you!’—Rien Hendricks, before bashing Timothy Phares’ head in.

Although Timothy Phares ultimately went back to work, he doesn’t intend to stay there long, with Shannon Hendricks working by his side. In addition, Phares is angry that the restaurant allowed a post to remain on its Facebook page calling him a “faggot,” despite his complaints.

Applebee’s corporate marketing manager, Katy Sincko, says, of that anti-gay post, “We aren’t in the practice of hiding things on there (Facebook).” And yet, as soon as the local LGBT newspaper brought the post to Sincko’s attention, it was instantly taken down.

And, as in many of these cases, there is quite a bit of blaming the victim. Though Phares says the reason behind the assault is a mystery to him, there are those who believe there is more to it than Phares is revealing, saying his ‘behavior’ played a role in prompting his problems at Applebee’s as well as the attack.

Hmmm, his behavior makes it all right to be attacked with a 2x4 by a co-worker’s husband? Seriously? If our behavior makes it okay for us to be brutally beaten to the point of needing metal plates implanted in our heads, then I would imagine a lot of us would already have them. Behavior doesn’t make at okay to brutalize anyone. And Timothy Phares, after being brutalized by Shannon Hendricks’ husband, Rien, and Shannon herself, continues to be brutalized by Applebee’s restaurants. They let a co-conspirator, at the most, and an accessory, at the very least, to his attack, keep her job, though they initially fired him because of the bad press. They let anti-gay epithets remain on their Face book page.

It’s not a 2x4, but still, it reeks of hate. And Applebee’s, Shannon Hendricks, Katy Sincko, and Barron County District Attorney Angela Beranek ought to be ashamed of themselves.

source

Read More

Julaine Appling And Wisconsin Family Action Get A Drag Queen Smackdown With The Help Of Dan Savage and John M. Becker

Julaine Appling

Out there is Wisconsin, there’s a woman named Julaine Appling, president of one of those friendly sounding hate groups, this one called the Wisconsin Family Action. The WFA is, of course, “anti-LGBT, anti-choice, pro-‘intelligent design’ GOP’ group and they got their granny panties all in a twist recently because the University of Wisconsin-Fox Valley was going to have a drag show.

A drag show? What? Men dressed as women? Sound.The.Alarms!

And they took to their website—I won’t post a link, but if you follow the smell you’ll get there—warning their readers about the drag show ::::gasp:::: that featured, and I quote, the “self-proclaimed male homosexual transvestite ‘Shangela’ from a lewd reality television show RuPaul’s Drag Race‘ in which homosexual male drag performers compete for prizes.” And then they called the show “propaganda” and a “display of immorality.”

I’d call it fun! Can I get a Halle-loo?

Then Julaine Appling added:

Our University of Wisconsin System is placing the stamp of approval on homosexual propaganda and explicitly immoral content with an upcoming “drag show” event that sends the wrong message to our next generation of leaders, parents, and families. Taxpayers should beware, and quickly take action to defend our shared values.  The Badger State’s standards for it’s families are much higher than this shameful display of sexual immorality on our campuses and in our local communities.

She gave her readers, er, maybe reader, the contact information for the UW-Fox Valley Dean’s Office, so they, or he or she, can call and complain about a drag show. Appling mentioned that just last month, another Wisconsin University held a drag show and apparently the entire school burned to the ground and everyone there disappeared off the face of the earth. Or some such. I paraphrased because I hate to let too much of the crazy seep into my head.

And, with nothing else to report on—no sequester, no new Pope, no global warming, no wars—a local Fox affiliate [naturally] sent a reporter out to interview Appling and one, yes, one, UW-Fox Valley student who said drag shows are “contrary to her religion” and that she “would feel uncomfortable seeing it.”

Um, honey, it wasn’t a requirement. You don’t have to see it. I’d suggest more time studying since you have a rather loose knowledge of what the school is about.

[Sidenote: We know Julaine Appling hates The Gays. In fact, she crafted Wisconsin’s voter-approved 2006 constitutional marriage discrimination amendment, and the WFA sued, albeit unsuccessfully, to block implementation of Wisconsin’s domestic partnership registry, which provides a very limited set of basic protections to same-sex couples in that state. But, and this is where it gets kinda interesting:  Appling is in her 60s and has never married and apparently owns her home with a woman named Diane Westphall, another never-married WFA bigot. Appling claims she’s straight, but, well, just sayin’]

Meanwhile, back at the drag show controversy …. It seemed that only a few tickets had been sold for the drag show and looked like it might be cancelled, and Appling and Westphall might be doing their happy We Hate Gays dance in the privacy of their own home, until …. Dan Savage.

John M. Becker [l] and Dan Savage [r]

See, Dan Savage read a Tweet from John M. Becker, the author of the story [see Part One HERE and Part Two HERE] and Dan reTweeted the story to his 140,000+ followers, and then added that he wanted to help UW-Fox Valley sell out the show.

So he did. Dan Savage bought all of the remaining tickets to the show and then donated them back to the school to give out free to any student who wanted to go. And they did, and I’m guessing Appling and Westphall postponed their We Hate Gays dance and, instead, ate Lean Cuisine in front of the TV, possibly while watching The L Word.

Again, just sayin.

Thanks, though, to John M. Becker for blogging the story, and to Dan Savage for picking it up and running with it. And, as Shangela often says, Can I get a Halle-loo?

Read More