National
NYPD officers accused of assault, false arrests
Police say gay man urinated in public, resisted arrest
New York police officers, seen here in a screen shot of a video shot by one of the men arrested, allegedly beat a gay man on June 2.
Representatives of LGBT advocacy groups held a news conference outside New York City police (NYPD) headquarters on Tuesday to denounce what they called the unjustified arrest of three gay men and an assault against two of them by officers who reportedly shouted anti-gay names at the men.
Josh Williams, 26, and his roommates, Tony Maenza and Ben Collins, both 24, have accused the officers of falsely charging Williams with urinating on the grounds of the 79th Precinct police station in the Bedford Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn as they were walking home about 4 a.m. on Sunday, June 2.
The LGBT representatives and three members of the New York City Council who joined them at the news conference said they were especially troubled that the alleged police attack on the gay men came on the heels of a string of anti-gay hate crimes in New York over the past several months, including the murder of a gay man in Greenwich Village in May.
The three men “reported that they were walking past the 79th Precinct when an NYPD officer accused one of the men of public urination and attacked him, throwing him against a police car,” said a statement released by the New York Anti-Violence Project (AVP), an LGBT group that organized the news conference.
“The officer was joined by other officers who also attacked the man, throwing him to the ground and pepper spraying him while he was in handcuffs,” the statement says. “The survivor was handcuffed tightly, causing lacerations. The survivor’s injuries were treated at a hospital, where he was again restrained with wrist and ankle cuffs.”
The Village Voice reported it learned through an unnamed source that the NYPD Internal Affairs Bureau opened an investigation into the incident “after someone apparently associated with the precinct filed a complaint.”
The AVP released a video of part of the incident that Maenza says he took with his cell phone, in which silhouettes of the police officers and the three gay men can been seen in the darkness shouting at one another.
Although the video is too dark to show anyone’s face, a cluster of officers can be seen holding down a person on the ground.
“He didn’t do anything,” one of the men shouted in the video. One of the officers shouted back, “Get the fuck out of here.”
The three or four-minute long video, which has been posted on YouTube, ends with Maenza demanding that the officers identify themselves with their badge numbers and telling them he filmed “the whole thing.” When the officers don’t respond to Maenza’s call for their identities the gay men and the officers can be heard exchanging insults, with both sides cursing at one another.
“He didn’t piss, he didn’t fucking piss on anything,” one of the gay men shouted. “You’re a fucking asshole,” one of the officers shouted back. “What a fucking bunch of pigs,” one of the gay men yelled.
In a statement emailed to the Washington Blade, Deputy New York Police Commissioner Paul J. Browne said the incident began when an officer “observed a male urinating on a dumpster in the precinct parking lot” near the precinct’s gasoline pumps.
“The same police officer approached the individual, who was uncooperative and refused to ID himself,” prompting the officer to attempt to arrest the individual, who was later identified as Josh Williams, Browne said in his statement.
“The individual, who appeared highly intoxicated, was combative and uncooperative,” Browne’s statement says. “He resisted arrest and force was employed to arrest him, during which he incurred a laceration to the cheek and bruising.”
Browne’s statement says police charged Williams with resisting arrest, disorderly conduct and urinating in public. He said officers arrested Collins and Maenza on a charge of obstructing governmental administration.
According to Browne’s statement, officers filed that charge because Collins and Maenza allegedly interfered with Williams’ arrest by “getting in between the suspect and the officers, trying to pull the suspect away, and refusing to leave police department property when directed.”
Cynthia Conti-Cook, an attorney representing the three gay men, said in a statement released by the New York Anti-Violence Project that the arrests were unjustified and the officers rather than her clients should be charged with committing a crime.
“We call for all charges to be dropped,” she said. “We call for charges to be brought against the police who assaulted, verbally abused and arrested my clients. We will hold these officers accountable today, we all will feel safer in our communities tomorrow,” Conti-Cook said.
In an interview with the Village Voice, Williams said one of the officers started to assault him when Williams asked whether he and his roommates were being detained.
“He rolled his eyes and sort of snapped, twisting an arm behind my back and slamming me against a car,” the Voice quoted Williams as saying. “I was able to ask him what was going on, and he slammed me against the car and pepper-sprayed me. I was blinded and disoriented.”
Sharon Stapel, the Anti-Violence Project’s executive director, told the Blade that the three men were held overnight in a police holding cell and released following a court arraignment.
She said Collins and Maenza agreed to an offer by prosecutors known as an “adjournment in contemplation of a dismissal,” or ACD, plea in which the case against them will be dismissed in six months if they are not arrested again.
Stapel said the three men came to AVP for assistance following their arrests. She said the group waited a little over a week to publicly announce the arrests and what she called the improper action by the police officers to give the men a chance to think about whether to go public with what happened to them.
Federal Government
US Census Bureau testing survey on LGBTQ households
Agency proposing questions about sexual orientation and gender identity
The U.S. Census Bureau is seeking public comment on a proposed test of sexual orientation and gender identity questions on the American Community Survey. The test would begin this summer and continue into next year.
The Census Bureau published the request as a Federal Register notice. In its press release the agency noted that the ACS is an ongoing survey that collects detailed housing and socioeconomic data. It allows the Census Bureau to provide timely and relevant housing and socioeconomic statistics, even for low levels of geography.
As part of the process for adding new questions to the ACS, the Census Bureau tests potential questions to evaluate the quality of the data collected.
The Census Bureau proposes testing questions about sexual orientation and gender identity to meet the needs of other federal agencies that have expressed interest in or have identified legal uses for the information, such as enforcing civil rights and equal employment measures.
The test would follow the protocols of the actual ACS — with one person asked to respond to the survey on behalf of the entire household. These particular questions are asked about people 15 years of age or older. Households are invited to respond to the survey online, by paper questionnaire or by phone.
The current Federal Register notice gives the public a final opportunity to provide feedback before the Census Bureau submits its recommendations to the Office of Management and Budget for approval. The public may provide feedback through May 30 online.
The White House
Judy Shepard to receive Presidential Medal of Freedom
Nancy Pelosi is also among this year’s honorees
Beloved LGBTQ advocate Judy Shepard is among the 19 honorees who will receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award in the U.S., the White House announced on Friday.
The mother of Matthew Shepard, who was killed in 1998 in the country’s most notorious anti-gay hate crime, she co-founded the Matthew Shepard Foundation with her husband Dennis to raise awareness about anti-LGBTQ violence.
The organization runs education, outreach, and advocacy programs, many focused on schools.
In a statement shared via the Human Rights Campaign, Shepard said, “This unexpected honor has been very humbling for me, Dennis, and our family. What makes us proud is knowing our President and our nation share our lifelong commitment to making this world a safer, more loving, more respectful, and more peaceful place for everyone.
“I am grateful to everyone whose love and support for our work through the years has sustained me.
“If I had the power to change one thing, I can only dream of the example that Matt’s life and purpose would have shown, had he lived. This honor reminds the world that his life, and every life, is precious.”
Shepard was instrumental in working with then-President Barack Obama for passage of the landmark Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act in 2009, which was led in the House by then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who will also be honored with a Presidential Medal of Freedom during the ceremony on Friday.
Also in 2009, Shepard published a memoir, “The Meaning of Matthew: My Son’s Murder in Laramie, and a World Transformed,” and was honored with the Black Tie Dinner Elizabeth Birch Equality Award.
“Judy Shepard has been a champion for equality and President Biden’s choice to honor her with the Presidential Medal of Freedom is a testament to what she’s done to be a force of good in the world,” HRC President Kelley Robinson said in a statement.
“A mother who turned unspeakable grief over the loss of her son into a decades-long fight against anti-LGBTQ+ hatred and violence, Judy continues to make a lasting impact in the lives of the LGBTQ+ community,” she said.
“It is because of her advocacy that the first federal hate crimes legislation became law and that countless life-saving trainings, resources and conversations about equality and acceptance are provided each year by the Matthew Shepard Foundation,” Robinson said. “We are honored that Judy is a member of the HRC family and know that her work to create a more inclusive and just world will only continue.”
Other awardees who will be honored by the White House this year are: Actor Michelle Yeoh, entrepreneur and former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Jesuit Catholic priest Gregory Boyle, Assistant House Democratic Leader Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.), former Labor and Education Secretary and former U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole (R-N.C.), journalist and former daytime talkshow host Phil Donahue, World War II veteran and civil rights activist Medgar Evers (posthumous), former Vice President Al Gore, civil rights activist and lawyer Clarence B. Jones, former Secretary of State and U.S. Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), former U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) (posthumous), Olympic swimmer Katie Ledecky, educator and activist Opal Lee, astronaut and former director of NASA’s Johnson Space Center Ellen Ochoa, astronomer Jane Rigby, United Farm Workers President Teresa Romero, and Olympic athlete Jim Thorpe (posthumous).
National
United Methodist Church removes 40-year ban on gay clergy
Delegates also voted for other LGBTQ-inclusive measures
The United Methodist Church on Wednesday removed a ban on gay clergy that was in place for more than 40 years, voting to also allow LGBTQ weddings and end prohibitions on the use of United Methodist funds to “promote acceptance of homosexuality.”
Overturning the policy forbidding the church from ordaining “self-avowed practicing homosexuals” effectively formalized a practice that had caused an estimated quarter of U.S. congregations to leave the church.
The New York Times notes additional votes “affirming L.G.B.T.Q. inclusion in the church are expected before the meeting adjourns on Friday.” Wednesday’s measures were passed overwhelmingly and without debate. Delegates met in Charlotte, N.C.
According to the church’s General Council on Finance and Administration, there were 5,424,175 members in the U.S. in 2022 with an estimated global membership approaching 10 million.
The Times notes that other matters of business last week included a “regionalization” plan, which gave autonomy to different regions such that they can establish their own rules on matters including issues of sexuality — about which international factions are likelier to have more conservative views.
Rev. Kipp Nelson of St. Johns’s on the Lake Methodist Church in Miami shared a statement praising the new developments:
“It is a glorious day in the United Methodist Church. As a worldwide denomination, we have now publicly proclaimed the boundless love of God and finally slung open the doors of our church so that all people, no matter their identities or orientations, may pursue the calling of their hearts.
“Truly, all are loved and belong here among us. I am honored to serve as a pastor in the United Methodist Church for such a time as this, for our future is bright and filled with hope. Praise be, praise be.”
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