Texas gay bar raided
Advocate. com reports police in Ft. Worth, Texas, raided a gay bar in the early hours of June 29, arresting seven people and resulting in one serious injury.
The raid at the Rainbow Lounge occurred on the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall riots in New York City.
Ft. Worth police claim they conducted a routine alcohol-beverage code inspection on at least one other bar that night and that the arrests at the Rainbow Lounge were for public intoxication. Police say some of the patrons arrested made “sexually explicit movements” toward officers.
Witnesses said that officers used excessive force and reported that one patron was hospitalized with a fractured skull as a result of the raid.
More than 100 protesters gathered at the county courthouse later that day to rally and demand an investigation into the raid.
Pride posters defaced
The New York Times reports U.S. Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis recently issued a warning letter to departmental employees after posters celebrating Gay Pride Month in 35 department elevators had been vandalized.
In an e-mail message sent to the entire department, Solis, who helped found the House of Representative’s LGBT Caucus when she was in Congress, said she was outraged.
“It appears, however, that some members of the Labor Department team have a different view, as it has come to my attention that most of the posters have been continually defaced or removed,” Solis wrote. “I do not believe these actions represent the majority of our employees, so I refuse to let this situation define us.”
The posters were scheduled to stay up throughout the month.
O’Donnell to host radio show
Yahoo News reports Rosie O’Donnell is returning to the airwaves to host a daily show for Sirius XM Radio this fall.
“Rosie Radio” will feature the 47-year-old comedian-actress discussing news and entertainment as well as hosting occasional guests.
O’Donnell said she was approached by the company after she appeared on Howard Stern’s Sirius XM show earlier this year.
O’Donnell said she plans to broadcast her call-in radio talk show from a studio being built inside the guesthouse of her New York property.
— Larry Nichols