Bay Windows
P’town manager asks DA to investigate arrest
Provincetown Town Manager Sharon Lynn has requested that the Barnstable County District Attorney’s office investigate the behavior of Provincetown police officers when arresting DJ Barry Scott on July 14.
Prime Timers mark 20 years
Twenty years ago retired professor Woody Baldwin, then 67 years old and living in Reading, placed an ad in Gay Community News looking for other mature gay men interested in forming a social club and support group. The standing-room-only crowd that gathered at that first meeting exceeding all of his expectations.
Boston Art Exhibit Examines The Word ’Gay’
Atlantic Works Gallery opens an intriguing exhibit this weekend with the deceptively simple title GAY. What does this word mean to different people? Artist Eric Hess challenged fellow gallery members to make art inspired by the word and its associations. Hess says the results are "an eye opener."
Dorchester development to be geared toward gays
For the past few years gay and lesbian people have been flocking to Dorchester in droves, transforming often-decrepit homes into urban oases with well-manicured lawns. But Vincent Droser is banking on a demand in the gay and lesbian community for a very different kind of Dorchester experience.
Tussle over tax deduction continues
A psychiatrist testifying as an expert witness for the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) questioned the judgment of his colleagues who recommended sex-reassignment surgery for Rhiannon O’Donnabhain, who is suing the IRS for the right to deduct the cost of the surgery from her taxes. But one of O’Donnabhain’s lawyers, Bennett Klein of Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders (GLAD), questioned the psychiatrist’s qualifications to determine O’Donnabhain’s treatment needs, as U.S. Tax Court Judge Joseph H. Gale heard a third day of testimony in the case on July 26.
Mikhaela Reid on "Attack of the 50 ft. Mikhaela"
Mikhaela Reid is a fumorist cartoonist: by day a mild mannered graphic designer, by night a tower of power who channels her political outrage into slashingly funny cartoons that attack Right Wing politics and American complacency. She talks about being funny, staying angry, and why she owes it all to George W. Bush.
Activist turns anti-trans bile into benefit
Trevor Wright, coordinator of last May’s Boston Alliance of Gay and Lesbian Youth (BAGLY) Prom and currently a researcher for a survey study on LGBT youth, found himself in the crosshairs of the anti-gay group MassResistance on several occasions over the past year, with the group posting several photos of him at LGBT events and disparagingly referring to him as a "transgender activist."
MFI turns its attention to bestiality
What has the Massachusetts Family Institute (MFI), the lead partner in the coalition to take away civil marriage rights from same-sex couples, been doing since the defeat of their marriage amendment last month? Judging by an e-mailed "citizen alert" to their supporters earlier this month, the organization is focusing at least some of its attention on dealing with the pressing threat of man-on-farm-animal sex.
Experts at tax trial explain gender identity disorder
Attorneys for the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) spent the second day of a trial in which a transwoman is suing the federal agency for the right to deduct her medical expenses related to treatment for Gender Identity Disorder (GID) trying to make the case that sex-reassignment surgery is a cosmetic procedure rather than a medical necessity.
MassEquality plots its future
With the marriage debate done for now, the MassEquality Board of Directors voted on July 18 to retain a consultant to help the organization determine its future. Meanwhile, the organization has turned its daily attention toward other projects, most notably supporting pro-equality legislators and developing a resource to help LGBT organizations in other states replicate MassEquality’s successful campaign model.
Provincetown board will not investigate Barry Scott arrest
The controversy surrounding the arrest of popular DJ Barry Scott in earlier this month received a thorough airing at the Provincetown Board of Selectmen meeting July 23, with roughly equal numbers of people alternately criticizing officers for allegedly acting with unnecessary force in arresting Scott or defending the work of the Provincetown Police Department. The five-member board said it will not investigate whether police acted inappropriately during the incident, in deference to the ongoing legal proceedings.
Larry Coen on City Stage, the Gold Dust Orphans, and "A Midsummer Night’s Dream"
You may have seen Larry Coen’s name on a Broadway marquee, or in any number of playbills around Boston. He’s been spotted this year alone with The Gold Dust Orphans, Beau Jest Moving Theater and The Lyric Stage, and is currently appearing with Commonwealth Shakespeare in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. By day, Coen is an arts educator with City Stage Company, bringing theater to children in the South End. It’s an understatement to say that Coen has a passion for theater, as we learned in a recent phone interview.
Cape LGBT youth complain about lack of social spaces
On July 16 the Massachusetts Commission on GLBT Youth came to Hyannis to hold its summer meeting, the first meeting held by the new commission outside of Boston. During an ice cream social held after the meeting the commissioners chatted in small groups with the young CIGSYA members, and the youth said that across the Cape, even in the gay Mecca of Provincetown, LGBT youth have few places to kick back and connect with each other.
Feds fund Fenway meth program
Last month Fenway Community Health’s New Champions, a federally funded program working to combat crystal meth addiction, launched its second major phase, debuting its Resist Meth ad campaign and holding its second training for men to learn how to do outreach in the community and talk about meth use and addiction.
Phill Wilson leads Dorchester march against AIDS
Calling HIV/AIDS in America "a black disease," Phill Wilson, the founder and executive director of the L.A.-based Black AIDS Institute, called on participants in a small march and rally in Dorchester on July 14 to help end the epidemic in the black community within five years.
Popular DJ arrested in P’town
Barry Scott, a popular radio DJ, is fighting charges of resisting arrest, disorderly conduct and disturbing the peace after being arrested at a Provincetown party on July 14. But Scott and attendees at the private party contend that it was the police who violently overreacted in quashing the festivities, injuring Scott and his partner, Bryan Richardson, in the process.
Judge rejects Cirignano’s bid to drop civil rights charges
Worcester District Court Judge David Ricciardone issued a decision July 13 rejecting Larry Cirignano’s motion to dismiss the civil rights charges against him in connection to his alleged assault against a same-sex marriage supporter.
Case dismissed :: MA legal community scoffs at bar exam lawsuit
Given that he flunked the Massachusetts bar exam, Stephen Dunne technically isn’t even a lawyer. But the old adage that a lawyer who represents himself has a fool for a client certainly seems to apply when one considers that Dunne is representing himself in a federal lawsuit alleging that he failed the test for refusing to answer a question related to same-sex marriage, in violation of a number of his constitutional rights. What do his would-be peers think of it?
Complaint filed against LGBT youth commission
Joseph Rizoli, a Framingham activist known in his hometown for his crusade against illegal immigrants (and who sent a letter to Bay Windows June 28 claiming that now that marriage rights have been secured, LGBT activists would next seek the legal right to have sex with children), filed a complaint with Attorney General Martha Coakley’s office against the Massachusetts Commission for GLBT Youth, claiming the commission violated his rights by forbidding him from videotaping its May 21 meeting.
Couple accuse Somerville police of abuse
A Nashua, N.H., lesbian couple claims they were assaulted and sexually harassed by Somerville police last April after their car broke down. Both of the women, Catherine Courtemanche and Rebecca Knobel, were arrested and charged with disorderly conduct, and Knobel was also charged with resisting arrest.