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Latino Gang Suspected in California Hate Crime

10:50 am By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · crime|Los Angeles|race|society · Comments Off

4 Jun 2009

A family in Pasadena, California thought they were moving into the home of their dreams. African-Americans who had no qualms about moving into an all-Latino neighborhood called Duarte, the Davy family they thought both the home and the area had everything they were looking for. That is, until their house was destroyed from top to bottom in an allegedly racially-motivated attack. The Los Angeles Times reports:

Davy never thought about the fact that they would be the only black family on the mostly Latino block — until someone reminded her in a way that still makes her eyes tear and her stomach twist.

On May 8, Davy opened the door to her home and was greeted by a barrage of spray-painted racial epithets. The hardwood floors, the mirrors, the televisions, the dressers — the vandals had turned the entire place into a canvas for that six-letter word used for decades to scare and scar African Americans.

Shaken, she immediately left and called police. And aside from one trip back to pick up some clothes, Davy has refused to return to a scene authorities believe was created by members of a local Latino gang.

“As far as hate crimes go, it’s probably one of the worst ones I’ve seen in my career,” said Sgt. Tony Haynes of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s Duarte station. “They trashed the furniture and tossed drawers — there was pretty much no room left untouched.”

Chanisse discovered this terrifying scene upon coming home from picking up her daughter from day care. Since then, the Davys have been living in a hotel and are afraid to return to their home.

The LA Times reports that interracial shootings have happened in the past in Duarte, but no one in the community seems to have been prepared for something of this magnitude.

Earlier this week, Latino and Black victims of hate crimes in Pasadena, including Chanisse Davy, came together to demand an end to the violence.

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

Perez Hilton vs. Miss California on Gay Marriage

1:11 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Blogs|Events|GLBT · 21 Comments

20 Apr 2009

This idiot is representing my state in the world’s most irrelevant television event? At least fellow Latino blogger Perez Hilton tries to make this moronic and antiquated pageant somewhat relevant, but look at the response he was awarded for his good intentions. Note as well the applause she got. Not surprising when you consider who might be attending such a shitshow.

Oh, and she didn’t win.

Via / Perez Hilton

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…

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.
Read more…

NYC Represents Against Prop. 8

10:22 am By Maegan La Mala · Activism|GLBT|New York City · 1 Comment

13 Nov 2008

I was on my way to visit my titi in the hospital last night with my hijas, when I stumbled into a beautiful diverse display of righteous anger and strong love.

i was having a party and i opened my door – why didn’t they come in?

8:24 am By la Macha · GLBT|US Presidential Race 2008 · Comments Off

7 Nov 2008

dan%20savage.jpg From the beyond irritating Dan Savage:

I’m not sure what to do with this. I’m thrilled that we’ve just elected our first African-American president. I wept last night. I wept reading the papers this morning. But I can’t help but feeling hurt that the love and support aren’t mutual.

I do know this, though: I’m done pretending that the handful of racist gay white men out there—and they’re out there, and I think they’re scum—are a bigger problem for African Americans, gay and straight, than the huge numbers of homophobic African Americans are for gay Americans, whatever their color.

This will get my name scratched of the invite list of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, which is famous for its anti-racist-training seminars, but whatever.

Finally, I’m searching for some exit poll data from California. I’ll eat my shorts if gay and lesbian voters went for McCain at anything approaching the rate that black voters went for Prop 8.

It’s interesting to me how mainstream organizations (oh, excuse me, I meant a few gay white guys) are only marginally racist (and yet they don’t even have signs printed off in different languages despite the fact that these organizations exist in one of the most diverse freaking states in the nation), but Black folks (and as usual, the marginalized Latino population) are *hugely* homophobic–homophobic enough, in fact, to deny all the mainstream white gay folks their rights.

But what really gets me is how freaking clueless us Black and Latinos really are. As one commenter noticed:

it’s bizarre that you’re talking about this. i just walked into work (in beverly hills) and sat down. the only two co-workers of mine that are in at the moment are black. we’ve spent weeks talking about politics, we all watched the debates together, etc. I just mentioned my shock and disgust at prop 8 getting passed. they didn’t say anything and quietly went back to work.

what.

the.

FUCK.

It’s a good thing that we have gay white folks running around covertly quizzing Black folks on their voting records. What better way could there be to let Black folks know that they were supposed to vote for Proposition 8 because they owed white folks something?

And never you fear, the quizz master will be sure to quizz Latinos about their votes once he’s figured out how to covertly ask questions in Spanish…

My, oh my, how far we’ve come since the days when racism existed…

::Queue La Macha pointing ironically at the ironic title of this ironic post::

via/racialicious
source/SLOG
title via/

Prop 8 is Winning, Gay Couples Losing in California

5 Nov 2008

It’s 11 a.m. in Barcelona, and 2 a.m. in San Francisco, my home city. And after waking up to the news of the Obama win, celebrating it with people here, feeling overjoyed at the fact that 8 years of Republican reign is finally over and the impact that will have on the world, and that a person of color is in the White House…I got a sinking feeling. I climbed down off my cloud and back to reality to have a look at the voting returns on California’s Proposition 8.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with Prop 8, it is a state ballot measure which would amend the California constitution to limit marriage to unions between a man and a woman, effectively making gay marriage illegal. You might remember that a few months back the California Supreme Court ruled that denying same-sex couples the right to marry was unconstitutional. Marriages followed, among them that of TV star Ellen DeGeneres and her partner actress Portia De Rossi.

With 80% of precincts reporting, it looks like my fellow Californians have spoken, and their words are not what I expected. Prop 8 is winning by 4 percent, and the trend is likely to remain the same once all the votes are counted.

Schwarzenegger Won’t Blame Immigrants for Economic Woes

1:43 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · California|Immigration|Money · Comments Off

3 Apr 2008

We may watch to much tv, but California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger won’t point the finger at immigration for his state’s budget woes.Gov.

Arnold Schwarzenegger called it a “big mistake” Wednesday to blame illegal immigrants for the state’s looming $8 billion budget gap, just as Republican lawmakers have proposed a rollback of benefits for illegal immigrants to save money…”There is, you know, always a time like this where you start pointing the finger at various different elements of what creates the budget mess, and, you know, some may point the finger at illegal immigrants,” Schwarzenegger said. “I can guarantee you, I have been now four years in office in Sacramento, I don’t think that illegal immigration has created the mess that we are in.”..

I guess we gotta give credit where credit is due.

Via / Immigration Talk with a Mexican

Super Tuesday: California Voters Faced with Problems

6:36 pm By Maegan La Mala · California|Politics|US Presidential Race 2008 · 2 Comments

5 Feb 2008

Here in California, it appears that not is all going smoothly at the polls. The Los Angeles Times is reporting that in L.A many voters were met with problems ranging from having to cast provisional ballots to being asked to show identification:

Silver Lake voter Pedro Mas Mayor was upset when he was asked to show identification at his polling place. Mayor, 69, a naturalized citizen who has lived in the United States since 1966, said this was the first time he’d ever been asked to show identification when voting.

“I told them it’s the law that you aren’t supposed to ask,” Mayor said. “I said, ‘Are you sure?’ She said, ‘Yes, you have to.’ She insisted. So I showed my ID and said, ‘I need a ballot.’ ”

Mayor said poll workers at the Sunset Boulevard Free Clinic were also asking white voters for their IDs. “They were asking everybody. I was a little upset, but I was able to vote,” he said.

Interesting that the L.A. Times notes that the voter was a naturalized citizen. Why is that relevant?

The Times also reports that many had to wait for polling places that did not open on time, and didn’t begin taking voters in until 5 hours after the scheduled time.

Are you having trouble voting? Let us know in the comments below!

Via / L.A. Times

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