Tag Archives: El Paso

El Paso Times now giving anti-gay priest Michael Rodriguez editorial space in addition to ads

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The other day the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation issued a press release praising The El Paso Times for publishing several pro-LGBT opinion pieces. GLAAD said it had reached out to the publisher of The EPT after the newspaper allowed those four recent anti-gay advertisements written by the Rev. Michael Rodriguez and paid for by an unidentified Plano couple.

The EPT publisher responded by inviting letters to the editor and opinion pieces, according to GLAAD, several of which the newspaper actually printed!!! Which is great and all, but if the EPT has truly had some sort of awakening on LGBT issues, we’re a little confused as to why the newspaper chose to run this story today about Rodriguez, saying he’s challenged three city leaders to a public forum.

Oh yeah? Really? Who gives a fuck? Can someone — perhaps someone at  GLAAD — explain why The EPT is now giving Rodriguez editorial space in addition to advertising?

—  John Wright

Anti-gay El Paso group plans big push to illegally gather signatures in churches this weekend

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As you’ve undoubtedly heard, an anti-gay group in El Paso is gathering signatures in an effort to recall three city officials who voted earlier this year to restore domestic partner benefits for city employees.

The deadline for the group to submit the signatures is next week, and it remains unclear whether they’ll have enough to force elections later this year.

On Thursday night, Mayor John Cook, one of the targets of the recall effort, issued a statement saying he may sue to challenge the signatures because the group has been gathering them illegally in churches, in violation of the Texas Election Code.

Last month, the El Paso County district attorney announced an investigation into allegations that the group was illegally using churches to gather signatures, and a complaint has been filed with the IRS.

If the anti-gay group gathers enough signatures, the recall elections will cost the city hundreds of thousands of dollars. Meanwhile, of the 19 city employees who signed up for DP benefits, only two are gay.

A group called No Recall has formed to counter the recall effort.

—  John Wright

El Paso County votes down DP benefits

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Unlike in Dallas County, commissioners were given a firm projected cost and actually took a vote. The El Paso Times reports:

County Judge Veronica Escobar brought up the issue of domestic partner benefits during a budget meeting on Tuesday.

After a discussion, Commissioners Dan Haggerty, Willie Gandara Jr. and Sergio Lewis voted against the measure, choosing not to look at providing health insurance benefits to unmarried couples of any gender. Escobar and commissioner Anna Perez supported the idea.

Escobar said it is in the best interest of the taxpayers to have as many people as possible covered with health insurance in the county. “The more people in our community who are uninsured, the more that it cost taxpayers to fund them,” she said.

Escobar said people with health insurance are more prone to receive preventive health care services than are uninsured people, who can’t afford to see a doctor and tend to use the emergency room at the University Medical Center. Taxpayers pay for services provided at the UMC emergency room, she said.

Analysts estimate it would cost the county almost $23,000 more a year to provide health insurance benefits to the partners of unmarried county workers.

—  John Wright

What’s Brewing: Full-page ad in El Paso newspaper calls gays ‘putrid,’ ‘depraved’

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Your weekday morning blend from Instant Tea:

1. An anti-gay Catholic priest took out a full-page ad (right) in the El Paso Times over the weekend calling gays “immoral,” “putrid” and “depraved.” The ad, taken out by Friar Michael Rodriguez of El Paso’s San Juan Bautista Catholic Church, has since been removed from the newspaper’s website, according to The Advocate, which contacted the newspaper about its advertising policy but didn’t hear back. It’s hardly surprising that the EPT ran this ad. In fact, it may represent an improvement since the newspaper used to give Rodriguez free space to spout his hatred. Just last year, the EPT published an op-ed piece in which Rodriguez compared homosexuality to rape and said those who don’t actively oppose gay rights are damned to hell.

2. Army Lt. Dan Choi’s federal trial continues today in Washington, D.C. Choi, who’s charged with disobeying police orders, was arrested for handcuffing himself to the White House fence last November during a protest of “don’t ask, don’t tell.” He faces up to six months in jail. People arrested for protesting at the White House normally face local misdemeanor charges. But Choi’s attorneys claim he’s being treated differently because he’s a prominent gay-rights activist.

3. A 21-year-old cannibal in Russia is accused of using the Internet to lure a gay man to his home for sex, then stabbing the victim to death before cutting up his body and eating it, according to Ria Novosti, an English-language Russian news site: Investigators believe the killer became acquainted with his victim via the internet, and lured him in sexually. “According to preliminary information, one of them was seeking a sexual partner. The accused explained later that such people are not open, and they prefer to hide their contacts”, Murmansk Investigation Committee chief Fyodor Bludenov said. “The accused stabbed the man a few times, and after having assured himself that the man was dead, he cut up his body and ate him,” the Investigation committee said in a statement.

—  John Wright

DEATH: Paul David Tomko

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Paul David Tomko, 41, of Dallas died on Aug. 19.

He was born in El Paso and graduated from Irvin High School and University of Texas in El Paso.

Tomko had lived in Dallas for the past 10 years. He worked as a senior IBM consultant, and previously had worked as a project manager at CPM, and before that worked at White Sands Missile Range.

Tomko was preceded in death by his mother, Dorothy Tomko.

He is survived by his father, Donald Tomko; brothers, Jackie Tomko, Donald Tomko Jr., DwayneTomko and Jammye Tomko; nieces, Megan Tomko and Samantha Tomko; and many aunts, uncles and friends.

A memorial service will be held Saturday, Aug. 27 at 11 a.m. at North Dallas Funeral Home, 2710 Valley View Lane.

Tomko was a frequent donor to AIDS Inerfaith Network, Resource Center Dallas and Genesis Women’s Shelter and donations in his memory can be made to any of these organizations.

—  John Wright

El Paso DP benefits update: Hundreds attend ‘No Recall’ rally; DA investigates anti-gay petitioners

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About 500 people attended a rally Sunday in support of three El Paso officials who may face recall elections because they voted earlier this year to reinstate domestic partner benefits for city employees.

Meanwhile, the El Paso County district attorney is investigating the anti-gay group that’s behind the recall petitions for allegedly using churches to gather signatures.

And opponents of the recall got some support last week from basketball legend Tim Hardaway. Hardaway, who played at UTEP, once famously said he hated gay people but now says those behind the recall need to “grow up.”

—  John Wright

What’s Brewing: Wedding bash continues in NY; Houston LGBT memorial; El Paso benefits fight

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Your weekday morning blend from Instant Tea:

1. Hundreds of gay couples tied the knot on Sunday in New York on the first day same-sex marriage was legal in the nation’s third-largest state. The festivities continue today with, among other things, the first group wedding involving about 50 same-sex couples at Niagara Falls — which was also the site of some of the first weddings early Sunday. The first couple to marry in Manhattan, according to the Associated Press, was 77-year-old Phyllis Siegel and 85-year-old Connie Kopelov, shown above, who’ve been together 23 years. From The AP: Witnesses cheered and wiped away tears after the two women vowed to honor and cherish each other as spouses and then kissed. “I am breathless. I almost couldn’t breathe,” Siegel said after the ceremony. “It’s mind-boggling. The fact that it’s happening to us — that we are finally legal and can do this like everyone else.” Outside afterward, Siegel raised her arms exultantly as Kopelov, in the wheelchair, held out a marriage certificate. Watch video from the first day of same-sex marriages in New York below.

2. A memorial to honor victims of anti-LGBT violence will open this week in the heart of Houston’s Montrose gayborhood, Culture Map Houston reports. The garden’s roots stretch as far back as the 1991 hate crime murder of gay banker Paul Broussard, whose killer was recently granted parole. “This garden is about recognizing our community and how fragile each one of us is,” says Sally Huffer of the Montrose Counseling Center. “When one person disappears, it leaves a void.”

3. A straight El Paso woman is fighting an anti-gay group’s efforts to recall Mayor John Cook and two council members for voting in favor of restoring domestic partner benefits for city employees. As we reported last week, the group led by anti-gay Pastor Tom Brown filed its notice of intent to recall the mayor and two council members on July 18. On Thursday, Jodi Casey began her campaign against Brown’s group by asking people to switch their Facebook profile pictures to the image at right. Casey is also considering forming a political action committee to organize a rally in support of the elected officials. “There’s so much negativity by these supposed Christians,” Casey told The El Paso Times. “They’re giving Christians everywhere a bad name.”

Continue reading “What’s Brewing: Wedding bash continues in NY; Houston LGBT memorial; El Paso benefits fight” »

—  John Wright

What’s Brewing: Gov. Perry may not speak at day of prayer; trans widow Nikki Araguz files appeal

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Nikki Araguz

Your weekday morning blend from Instant Tea:

1. CNN reports that Texas Gov. Rick Perry may not even speak at his own day of prayer on Aug. 6 in Houston. Eric Bearse, a spokesman for the American Family Association, the anti-gay hate group that is funding Perry’s day of prayer, told CNN: “There will be a handful of speakers, in addition to a number of folks leading prayer, plus some time for praise and worship music. … Whether the governor will speak has not yet been decided at this point.” Seems like this could be another example of Perry trying to tone down the religious rhetoric and distance himself from the whackos who’ve endorsed the event.

2. Texas transgender widow Nikki Araguz has appealed a district judge’s ruling denying her death benefits to the 13th Circuit Court of Appeals in Corpus Christi. Araguz also announced that if she wins the case, she’ll deposit the death benefits into a trust fund for her deceased husband’s two children. “I am pursuing this appeal to defend my marriage, not to obtain any financial benefit,” said Araguz. Read the full press release here.

3. A group led by anti-gay El Paso pastor Tom Brown this week filed notice of its intent to recall the mayor and two council members after they voted to reinstate domestic partner benefits for city employees. The group now has 60 days to collect enough signatures — 6,100 for the mayor and 650 each for the two council members — to trigger a recall election. If they are succesful, the recall election would cost the city $150,000, in addition to the cost of holding another election to replace the three if they are recalled.

—  John Wright

Anti-gay El Paso pastor faces IRS complaint for using tax-exempt church to fight DP benefits

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Pastor Tom Brown of Word of Life Church was the driving force behind a ballot measure to repeal DP benefits in El Paso.

An anti-gay El Paso pastor is accused of illegally using his tax-emempt church to advocate political causes. The Rev. Tom Brown of Word of Life Church, who spearheaded last year’s ballot initiative rescinding domestic partner benefits for city employees, has now launched a petition to  recall council members who voted to restore DP benefits this June. The El Paso Times reports that Brown announced the recall petitions to his congregation last month and has written in support of them on his Tom Brown Ministries website, prompting a complaint to the IRS from Americans United for Separateion of Chruch and State:

The Rev. Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United, said his group files such complaints against about “eight or 10″ tax-exempt groups nationwide each election cycle.

His group has received several complaints about Brown’s activities from El Paso residents.

“This seems so over-the-top, so brazen an attempt to involve himself in a partisan political campaign,” Lynn said, explaining his group’s reason for filing the complaint.

When Brown’s wife ran unsuccessfully for a City Council seat in May on an anti-DP benefits platform, she announced her campaign from the pulpit of the church and asked people to meet her in the vestibule if they wanted to volunteer. But it’s unclear if anyone filed a complaint about that incident. Brown denies all of the allegations and says the IRS complaint amounts to “harassment and persecution of anti-religious people against people of faith.”

In related news, the El Paso City Council voted Tuesday to hold a charter election in November 2012. One council member has proposed an anti-discrimination charter amendment that would prohibit the city from denying DP benefits to gay and lesbian employees.

The council, which initially approved DP benefits in 2009, voted to reinstate them last month after a federal judge upheld the ballot initiative rescinding them.

—  John Wright

What’s Brewing: El Paso DP benefits fight not over; petition calls for Southern Baptist apology

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Your weekday morning blend from Instant Tea:

1. The El Paso City Council’s 5-4 vote Tuesday to reinstate domestic partner benefits likely won’t be the last word on the matter, the El Paso Times reports. Two of the council members who voted to reinstate benefits are leaving office this month, and at least one of their replacements says he would have voted against reinstating DP benefits. Meanwhile, another of the council members who voted to reinstate benefits says she wants to put the issue back on the ballot as a charter amendment in November. And the anti-gay pastor behind last year’s ballot initiative to rescind DP benefits, Tom Brown, says he’ll launch recall petitions against Mayor John Cook and two councilmembers who voted in favor of DP benefits and are not leaving office.

2. A coalition of LGBT groups will deliver a petition containing nearly 10,000 signatures today to the Southern Baptist Convention during its annual meeting in Phoenix, calling on the SBC to apologize for the harm its teachings have caused LGBT people. “We call on the Southern Baptist Convention to stop misusing the Bible to promote religion-based bigotry and start recognizing the enormous pain and suffering caused by its mistreatment of LGBT people, particularly vulnerable youth,” said Dr. Jack McKinney, a former Southern Baptist minister and spokesperson for Faith in America. “History has not been kind to the Southern Baptist Convention’s record on minorities, and it is making the same awful mistake today by perpetuating abuse against gay people.”

3. The Houston GLBT Political Caucus is asking people to contact local media outlets and demand accurate and respectful reporting about transgender victims, after several outlets identified a murdered transgender woman as a “male prostitute,” a “cross-dresser” and a “transvestite” this week. The Caucus says only one of six outlets made an effort to get it right and correct their coverage. Here’s the contact info for the others: Houston Chronicle – 713-362-7171; KPRC – 713-778-4910; KHOU – 713-526-1111; Fox 26 – 713-479-2600; Houston Press – 713-280-2400.

 

—  John Wright