Charges dismissed in anti-gay attack
The Lexington Herald-Leader reports a judge has dismissed charges against two eastern Kentucky teens accused of attacking a gay classmate.
Prosecutor George T. Hays said Aug. 19 that there wasn’t enough evidence to convict Corinne Schwab and Ashley Sams, both 18. They were charged with fourth-degree assault and menacing in the alleged attack on 18-year-old Cheyenne Williams. District Judge Henria Bailey-Lewis acquitted a juvenile also charged in the case.
Williams had accused the others of taking her to a rural area of the county on April 16, and threatening to push her over a cliff because she is gay.
MSNBC rejects anti-Target ad
The Minneapolis Star-Tribune reports MSNBC has rejected a TV ad calling for a boycott of Target Corp.
MSNBC spokesperson Alana Russo said Aug. 19 that the commercial submitted by liberal advocacy group MoveOn.org violates its advertising policy by attacking an individual business directly. The ad accuses the chain of trying to buy elections.
MoveOn executive director Justin Ruben accused MSNBC of trying to protect Target from consumer anger.
Target triggered a national backlash by giving $150,000 last month to a business-oriented political fund supporting antigay conservative Minnesota GOP gubernatorial candidate Tom Emmer.
Gay bar battles efforts to close it
The New York Post reports gay activists and civil-rights lawyers are trying to stop the NYPD from closing Chi Chiz, a bar that caters to gay and transgender black men.
The police claim that four times in six months, undercover officers witnessed the sale of controlled substances in the bar.
But bar supporters say the crackdown is motivated by racism and homophobia.
Chi Chiz’s lawyer, Tom Shanahan, said the city asked the bar to guarantee that no drugs would be sold or used on its premises.
“We can’t guarantee that,” Shanahan explained. “I said to the judge, when the city figures out how to keep drugs off Rikers Island, they can hold us to the same standard. The terms they are insisting on would put us out of business.”
— Larry Nichols