Tag Archives: Baltimore

Out & Equal to honor Parker, Welts

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Mayor Annise Parker

Out & Equal Workplace Advocates will honor Houston Mayor Annise Parker and Golden State Warriors President Rick Welts at its Leadership Celebration on March 14 in San Francisco.

In October, Out & Equal held its week-long Workplace Summit at the Hilton Anatole in Dallas. Because of rave reviews, the group plans to return in the next few years. Welts was among the speakers at the Dallas convention.

Now in its fifth year, the Leadership Celebration is a fundraising event that includes a hosted reception and dinner. Parker and Welts will be recognized as role models and inspirations in the movement to achieve equality in the workforce.

To attend the San Francisco event, register online.

The 2012 Workplace Summit will be in Baltimore on from Oct. 29-Nov 1.

—  David Taffet

Woman pleads guilty in case of videotaped beating of trans woman at McDonald’s

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Teona Brown, 19, has pled guilty Thursday, Aug. 4, to first degree assault charges and a hate crime charge in connection with the beating of transgender woman Chrissy Polis last April in Towson,

Chrissy Polis

Md. The attack was captured on video by a McDonald’s employee — who filmed the assault rather than step in and try to stop it — last April. The video went viral online and was used, along with new footage from a surveillance camera, in court hearings this week. CBS Baltimore has this report on the plea.

Conviction on a first degree assault charge carries a maximum sentence of 25 years, and a hate crime conviction could add another 10 years. Because Brown pled guilty to the attack, prosecutors are recommending that the judge sentence her to five years in prison. A sentencing hearing has been set for next month.

Polis was present in court on Thursday, but told reporters she was nervous about being there and had no comment. “I just want to lay low and keep my life as normal as possible,” she said.

A second person charged in the attack was 14 at the time and has been charged with assault as a juvenile. Because she is a minor, her identity has not been released.

Below is a video of a news report aired on the Washington, D.C., Fox news program when the attack happened. It includes video of the attack and, as State’s Attorney Scott Shellenberger said this week, “The severity of the beating is much easier to understand when you see a video. They say a picture’s worth a thousand words. Well, a video’s worth a million.”

—  admin

Candlelight vigil Sunday

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Jorge Steven Lopez Mercado, left, and Jason Mattison Jr.
Jorge Steven Lopez Mercado, left, and Jason Mattison Jr.

Local activists are organizing a candlelight vigil to begin at 6:15 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 22, at the intersection of Cedar Springs Road and Throckmorton Street. The vigil is being held in memory of Jorge Steven Lopez Mercado, a gay teen murdered last week in Puerto Rico, and Jason Mattison Jr., a gay teen murdered last week in Baltimore. The Dallas Chapter of the Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network is participating.

Everyone is asked to bring a candle and gather to not only honor the murdered children, but to speak out against the violence that claimed their lives.

Bob McCranie, one of the organizers, expressed outrage that the murders have not gained more national media attention.

“This should at least be in the top five news stories, and none of the mainstream media are paying any attention,” McCranie said of Mercado’s murder, before learning of Mattison’s death. “A teenager has been burnt and butchered in the streets, and all we can talk about is how many lies are in Sarah Palin’s book, and why Obama bowed to the Japanese prime minister. It is outrageous and unacceptable.”

—  admin

Another gay teen murdered

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Jason Mattison Jr. (from Baltimore Sun)
Jason Mattison Jr. (from Baltimore Sun)

As LGBT advocates here in Dallas and around the country are planning candlelight vigils in memory of Jorge Steven Lopez Mercado — the 19-year-old boy who was raped, stabbed, burned and dismembered last week in Puerto Rico — word comes out of Baltimore about another murdered gay teen.

Jason Mattison Jr. was 15, an openly gay sophomore at the Vivian T. Thomas Medical Arts Academy in Baltimore. He was found dead last week at his aunt’s house. He had been raped, gagged with a pillowcase and stabbed repeatedly in the head and throat. Then his body was shoved into an upstairs closet at the house.

Police have arrested 35-year-old Dante Parrish and charged him with first degree murder. A cousin of Mattison’s has described the suspect, already convicted once of murdering someone else, as a longtime friend of the family, but she would not say whether Parrish lived at the house where Mattison died or if he was just visiting.

Read the full story here.

—  admin