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Gay Latino Teen is Prom Queen in L.A.

1 Jun 2009

It sounds like a script for the feel good movie of the year, but it’s a true story. An openly gay L.A. teen decided it might be fun to be a part of his high school’s prom court, but he didn’t want to be prom king — he thought prom queen would be more up his alley. And instead of being the target of bullying or ridicule, Sergio Garcia’s classmates at Fairfax High rallied around him and made his wish come true:

A few days before the dance and election, the contenders gave short speeches on why they deserved the crown.

“At one time, prom may have been a big popularity contest where the best-looking guy or girl were crowned king and queen. Things have changed and it’s no longer just about who has the most friends or who wears the coolest clothes,” Garcia told the crowd of seniors. “Sure, I’m not your typical prom queen candidate. There’s more to me than meets the eye.”

The audience erupted in applause after his speech, and a group of his female friends spent the rest of the week wearing pink crowns and campaigning for him.

On Saturday night at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, wearing a charcoal-gray tuxedo and a black bow tie, he was named prom queen.

“I felt invincible,” Garcia said.

He’s among the first male students in Southern California to take the title usually owned by female high school beauties.

“It just shows how open-minded our class is,” said Vanessa Lo, 18, the school’s senior class president.

Congrats to Sergio and his classmates. We can only wish that the rest of high schools in America — or in California for that matter — were so cool. Viva Fairfax High!

Meanwhile, anti-gay marriage protests rage in Sergio’s home state.

Via / LA Times

California, Get Some Courage

4:19 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · California|Controversia|GLBT|society · 2 Comments

26 May 2009

Guess who’s not proud to be a Californian again?

Even in the worst of times, it is important to remember: the fight is not over.

Please sign the pledge to keep the campaign for marriage equality in California going. This can’t end this way.

Via / Courage Campaign

Dirty Lender Charged Latinos More for Loans

11 May 2009

000004273718xfeature With all of the corruption and dirtiness and in finance-related industries of late, it should perhaps come as no surprise that beyond just “legally” taking advantage of unsavvy consumers by lending them money they could never pay back, at least one of these institutions made it a policy to charge Latinos more for borrowed money. A federal investigation has been opened on California lender Golden Empire Mortgage, Inc., of Bakersfield, which allegedly cannot explain the drastic differences in prices between white customers and Latinos. ConsumerAffairs.com reports:

According to the FTC’s complaint, Golden Empire violated the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA) in pricing mortgage loans. They allegedly gave loan officers and branch managers wide discretion to charge, in addition to the risk-based price, “overages” through higher interest rates and higher up-front charges. The defendants allegedly paid loan officers a percentage of the overages as a commission and failed to monitor whether Hispanic consumers were paying higher overages than non-Hispanic white borrowers.

The complaint alleged that the company’s policy and practice of allowing loan officers to charge discretionary overages resulted in Hispanics being charged higher prices because of their national origin – price disparities that are “substantial, statistically significant, and cannot be explained by factors related to underwriting risk or credit characteristics of the applicants.”

I don’t know why I am surprised by this. It seems that when it comes to the finance sector, the news just gets more and appalling as the days go by. Is it any wonder why we are in the situation we are in now, with so many dirty banks in control of our money and our homes?

Via / ConsumerAffairs

Miss California May Have to Give Up Crown Amid Photo Scandal

2:37 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · California|Celebrities|Chismes|Controversia|GLBT · Comments Off

7 May 2009

carrie-copy-1 Yesterday La Macha told us about the apparent hypocrisy of Miss California Carrie Prejean – defender of American moral values — upon the revelation that she had posed nude. Now the firestorm against the beauty queen and 1st runner up for Miss America is getting stronger, as The HuffPost reports that yet another nude photo has leaked to press and that Carrie may have to give up her crown as a result of the scandal:

A second topless photo of Miss California Carrie Prejean has been released by TheDirty.com, days after Prejean promised the state pageant that there was only one such photo in existence. [...]

Back to the crown drama. On Wednesday Prejean’s runner-up Miss Malibu told “Access Hollywood’s” Billy Bush she is ready to step in should Prejean lose her crown because of a morality clause in the pageant contract contestants sign that promises they have no nude or semi-nude photos in their past.

In an even more surprising twist, TMZ (consider the source, take it with a grain of salt) says Prejean’s bias against gay marriage might stem from the fact that her father is gay.

Via / HuffPost

Image via TheDirty.com

Miss California Joins Fight Against Storm of Gay Marriage

1:09 pm By Maegan la Mamita Mala · California|Controversia|GLBT|Women · 1 Comment

30 Apr 2009

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Who does marriage need protecting from? Yes, haters you can say mujeres like me, pero I’m really talking about the scary gays who now have to fight off California beauty queens.

You have to love how Prejean says it’s all about respect. Hmm. Now mira I do not think it’s cool in any way to call Prejean a bitch or to make jokes about killing her. That’s not acceptable y punto. Pero, that said, where Prejean does need to be attack is in her defense of “marriage” while excluding others. Where is the respect there?

Perez Hilton on Miss California: “She lost because of that answer”

2:30 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Blogs|California|Celebrities|Controversia|GLBT · 5 Comments

21 Apr 2009

Latino blogger Perez Hilton joined Larry King last night to break down the reason why he asked Miss USA contestant, Miss California, the “fatal question”. In this clip, Perez says he didn’t mean for the question to be a “bomb” and that he could tell by the look on Miss Cali’s face that she knew she was going to lose her shot at the title because of her answer.

Hilton also alleges that television had a hand at editing out the “loud boos” that Miss California received upon stating her opposition to gay marriage.

What do you think about Perez’s stance? Is his analysis fair? Does he defend his point well?

Via / YouTube

San Francisco Saves 185 Youths from Deportation, Critics Rage

3 Apr 2009

480676564_918c063f8c The effects, both good and bad, of San Francisco‘s policy of being a “sanctuary city” for undocumented immigrants are emerging, one year to date after it was instated. The San Francisco Chronicle reports:

As many as 185 undocumented youths held on felony criminal charges in San Francisco were shielded from deportation between 2005 and last summer, when the controversial policy came to light, according to juvenile probation statistics obtained by The Chronicle.

City officials had previously said they had no way of telling how many youths had benefited from the policy. But a new preliminary report prepared by the Juvenile Probation Department at the request of Supervisor David Campos shows the number is much higher than previously suspected.

The report shows that between Jan. 1, 2005, and Feb. 28 of this year, 252 undocumented youths had cases in the juvenile probation system.

As you might expect, this data is not making some of the mayor’s enemies happy, and his opponents maintain that in its attempt to protect undocumented immigrants, San Francisco is instead harbouring drug dealers and other criminals. The Chronicle reports that 88% of the 180 were from Honduras and 83% were arrested on drug-related offenses, leading some to suspect a link to Honduran drug-related organizations.
Read more…

Quote of the Day: Obama on Immigration Reform

5:29 am By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · California|Immigration · 20 Comments

19 Mar 2009

President Obama was in Costa Mesa, California, yesterday to hold a “town hall” meeting and he finally brought up the hot-button topic of immigration, and more specifically, immigration reform. The speech was vague and lacking content, as was to be expected, but here’s the most salient part:

“You’ve got to say to the undocumented workers… ‘Look, you’ve broken the law. You didn’t come here the way you were supposed to. So this is not going to be a free ride … What’s going to happen is you’re going to pay a significant fine.’

“‘You are going to learn english. You are going to… go to the back of the line so you don’t get ahead of somebody who was in Mexico City applying legally.’”

“‘But after you’ve done these things over a certain period of time, you can earn your citizenship. So that it’s not — it’s not something that is guaranteed or automatic. You’ve got to earn it.’ But over time, you get people an opportunity.”

How do you interpret this? How will this rhetoric translate into real policy?

Via / SGGP

Prop 8 Vigils Across California

5 Mar 2009

ba-samesex05_0499868478 “When all else fails, pray!” is what comes to mind upon reading about the multiple candlelight vigils that were held throughout my state on the eve of the hearing that will make or break California’s most discriminatory law against LGBT citizens. Last night San Franciscans, like Californians in other cities big and small, held vigils and marched. What else can you do at this point? The San Francisco Chronicle reports:

The crowd, bundled against the chill, carried signs reading, “We All Deserve the Freedom To Marry,” and “Down with Prop. 8!” as they marched along Market Street. The peaceful protest stretched for two city blocks past stopped Muni street cars while police held back traffic at the intersections.

The group made their way to City Hall, where a pianist and singer entertained the crowd with love songs. Some of the participants planned to camp out in the Civic Center Plaza to be there for the hearing.

It will be shown on a JumboTron for those who don’t have access to viewing rooms set up in the San Francisco Public Library.

Will the great State of California overturn what has been called “the will of the people”? Or will it let thousands of gay families remain together? I am pessimistic, but we’ll just have to wait and see. In the meantime, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom is reportedly all booked up…the media is just clamoring to get his take. Check out an interview with Mayor Newsom and hear his thoughts after the jump.
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Another Anti-Latino Hate Crime Hits the News Two Months After It Happened

7:01 am By Maegan La Mala · California|Immigration|Justice · 1 Comment

16 Jan 2009

On November 19th of last year, a 19 year old Latino male was was knocked unconscious and then repeatedly stomped and kicked in the head by individuals who allegedly have ties to a white supremacist gang. The unidentified young man has permanent brain damage and is now in a long term care facility. In other words, his life will never be the same. The attack, which was clearly attempted murder, happened in Hemet, California, an area that has had a growing white white supremacist activity.

Crystal Lee McCann, 22, Derek Shane O’Brien, 22 and Darrin Peter Thibault, 24, were arrested between Dec. 19 and Thursday in connection with the Nov. 14 beating of a 19-year-old Latino whose name has not been released.

Thibault, arrested Dec. 19, has been arraigned on charges of attempted murder, membership in a criminal gang and assault with a deadly weapon other than a firearm, with gang, serious felony and great bodily injury allegations, according to court records.

McCann, arrested Dec. 26, has pleaded not guilty to attempting to dissuade a witness and gang allegations. She is to be arraigned Tuesday.

O’Brien was arrested Thursday on suspicion of attempted murder, violation of probation and membership in a criminal street gang. He is also to be arraigned Tuesday.

The first person arrested, Justin Tyme Hayes, 21, has been charged with attempted murder and participating in a criminal street gang, with serious felony, great bodily injury and gang activity allegations. He has pleaded not guilty.

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