CAGED: Five Year Prison Sentence Handed Down for Brutal Attack on Trans Woman at McDonald's!

Teonna Monae Brown, 19, who pleaded guilty last month to first-degree assault and a hate crime in the beating of Chrissy Lee Polis, 22, was sentenced to 10 years in prison on Tuesday, with five years suspended, plus three years of supervised probation. The maximum sentence for Brown's crimes is 35 years.

Advocates were upset by the ruling, the Baltimore Sun reports: "The whole incident is unfortunate and demonstrates the lack of knowledge and understanding, and discrimination against transgender people," said Patrick Wojahn, board president of the Equality Maryland Foundation. "If anything, five years may have been too short of an amount of time for the attack and the amount of hatred that was shown in the incident."

RESPECT: Obama Lays Wreath at Pentagon!

After visits to New York's Ground Zero and a memorial in rural Pennsylvania where Flight 93 went down, President and Michelle Obama continued their solemn remembrance of 9/11 today at the Pentagon, the AP reports. The president lay a wreath at a bench and small pool that memorialize the Pentagon's 184 victims. As a military band played "Amazing Grace," the Obamas mingled with visitors and family members of 9/11 victims. Some wore T-shirts and ribbons with the photos and names of lost loved ones.

BLAME BACHMANN: Crane Falls, Smashes Into National Cathedral!

The National Cathedral got a message from on high today: “Run!” A construction crane toppled over there Wednesday, smashing into the Church House and the Herb Cottage, along with five parked cars, the Washington Post reports. 

The area was experiencing high wind at the time, with gusts hitting 40 to 50 miles per hour, but it’s, ahem, unclear if that caused the accident. One person was taken to the hospital as a result of the accident, but his injuries were not believed to be serious. Father Simon Bautista, a glass-half-full kind of guy, sees that as a miracle. “You can see that this was a divine hand that kept something else from happening,” he says. Bautista was at the cathedral when the crane fell. “My office started shaking,” he says, describing a sound that was like “thunder.”

(2011 EAST COAST TOUR) MK's visit to DC was Short, But Sweet!

by MK Scott

Late on Monday, August 29th as I made my way on the MegaBus to Washington, DC I Tweeted a Gorgeous photo of a Sunset as I entered the state of Maryland.  By the time I arrived in the Nation's Capital it was dark, but quite Humid.

I checked into the Dupont Circle Carlyle Suites  in a gorgeous room with a view of the Washington Monument and on the table was a bottle of wine, 2 glasses, and chocolates. Too Bad I was alone! I tried to enjoy it regardless.

DEFAMED: Misleading Quote Makes King Look Like 'Twit'!

Add Maya Angelou to the chorus of voices who are none too pleased with how the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial turned out. There's already been some hullabaloo over the fact that one of the quotes on the wall by the Tidal Basin wasn't actually uttered by King, but the one Angelou has a gripe with is a little more prominent: It's on the north face of the memorial itself. It reads, "I was a drum major for justice, peace, and righteousness." The line "makes Dr. Martin Luther King look like an arrogant twit," she said yesterday. Thing is, that line isn't exactly what he said. It had to be paraphrased following a change in the statue's design, a decision that was made without checking with Angelou, who consulted on the project, reports the Washington Post. 

DO TELL: Pentagon OKs Gay Military Magazine at Bases!

The Pentagon will formally repeal Don't Ask, Don't Tell on Sept. 20, and gay service members will be able to quickly read all about it. Defense officials have agreed to allow OutServe magazine, a new publication whose target audience is gay members of the military, to go on sale at bases that very day, reports the Washington Post. The Sept. 20 issue will devote itself to the repeal and tell the stories of gay troops, notes LGBTQ Nation.

WARNING: Hurricane Irene's Projected Path Puts NYC, East Coast on High Alert!

At a press conference Thursday morning, NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg updated New Yorkers on city preparations for Hurricane Irene.

Said Bloomberg: “If the worst scenario is going to happen this weekend, we will activate other elements of our Coastal Storm Plan, including the possibility of evacuating of New Yorkers who live in low-lying areas that could be affected by such storm surges. That includes places such as Coney Island and Manhattan Beach in Brooklyn, Far Rockaway and Broad Channel in Queens, South Beach, Midland Beach, and other low-lying areas on Staten Island, and Battery Park City in Manhattan....We don’t yet have enough information yet to make that call. There are still too many unknowns, but we will make a decision on whether to call for evacuating certain areas based on the track, the speed, and the strength of the storm as it moves from the Bahamas up the east coast."

APPOINTED: Patty Murray Will Co-Chair Debt 'Super Committee'!

Three down, nine to go. Harry Reid made his three picks for the bipartisan "super committee" that will try to come up with $1.2 trillion of cuts in about 3 months. Reid picked Patty Murray, who will serve as co-chair with a yet-to-be-named Republican, along with John Kerry and Max Baucus. Politico sees the choices as a sign that the Senate majority leader is serious about getting a deal struck. 

Mitch McConnell, John Boehner, and Nancy Pelosi will each add three picks of their own. At least seven of the 12 will need to agree on a proposal by Thanksgiving if they hope to have it signed by the president by Dec. 23, notes the National Journal. Failure triggers across-the-board cuts.

GONE: House Ends Page (Booty Call) Program!

Gone are the days of House pages dashing furiously scribbled notes across the Capitol to their rep's legislative friends or foes: John Boehner and Nancy Pelosi today announced the end of the House's storied Page Program. Though Boehner and Pelosi hailed pages' "unique role" in the "history and traditions of the House," they said the program had been rendered antiquated by wireless communications—and they could no longer justify the whopping $5 million each year spent on pages. 

Of course, Politico notes, gone too are the inevitable sex scandals that crop up when naive youth are put in close proximity with powerful and at-times dirty old legislators—perhaps best remembered by, though by no means limited to, Rep. Mark Foley's epic downfall over suggestive texts he sent a male page. Other legislators and House staff have been busted over the years for sins ranging from having sex with pages to snorting cocaine with them. The Page Program dates to the First Continental Congress in 1774, notes Politico.

TARGETED: D.C. Police Refuse to Take Report on Anti-Gay Attack on 5 Lesbians!

Five women were attacked in late July outside the Columbia Heights Metro station at 3 a.m. after telling their attackers they were gay. An officer at the station took a report three days later, the Washington Blade reports: The report says the two suspects began to “flirt” with two of the women. It says one of the women responded by telling the men she wasn’t interested and she was with her girlfriend.

“Suspect 1 became enraged and stated, “You fucking dyke bitches, I will kick that bitch’s ass,” the report says. “I will take that dyke bitch into the alley and kick her ass,” the report quotes suspect 1 as saying.

WELCOMED: Rep. Gabrielle Giffords Returns to Congress for Vote on Debt Deal!

Rep. Gabrielle Giffords returned to the House for the first time since being shot in early January to vote on a compromise to raise the debt ceiling, in an emotional surprise moment that capped weeks of frustrating, contentious dealmaking:Ms. Giffords waved and quickly was surrounded by her Democratic colleagues. Some Republicans crossed the aisle to see her, too, as she rose to wave again.

Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, the minority leader, hailed the return of Ms. Giffords, saying: “There isn’t a name that stirs more love, more admiration, more respect, more wishing for our daughters to be like her than the name of Congresswoman Gabby Giffords. Thank you, Gabby.”

Giffords tweeted: "The #Capitol looks beautiful and I am honored to be at work tonight."

The House approved the deal 269-161.

KARMA: Executive Director of GOProud Attacked in Anti-Gay Assault!

Jimmy LaSalvia, the executive director of gay conservative group GOProud, was attacked while on his bicycle by a male teen standing with a group of others. The teen reportedly used an anti-gay slur and punched him as he approached, the Washington Blade reports: “Just as I began to realize what was happening, I heard it. The words are still ringing in my ears as I write this today – ‘F____ faggot!’ LaSalvia said in his email. “It was clear to me in that moment that my sexual orientation had motivated this attack.”

LaSalvia said that after barely catching himself from falling to the ground, he reached into his backpack for his cell phone, with the thought of calling the police. That action prompted one of the teenagers accompanying the attacker to say, “Does he have a gun?” LaSalvia told the Blade.

The attacker and a few of the others with him “puffed up their chests and were clearly ready to continue the attack,” he said. But seconds later, the group fled the scene after he kept his hand inside his backpack, “allowing them to wonder if I was reaching for a gun.”

LaSalvia told the Blade that he planned to file a police report and had visited the headquarters office of the police Gay & Lesbian Liaison Unit but was unable to do so there and was directed to call another office.

Maybe this will Halt any attempt in endorsing Anti-Gay crusaders like Bachmann and Coulter!

ATTACK: Human Rights Campaign DC Shop Vandalized by Radical LGBT Group!

 

A group calling itself 'The Right Honorable Wicked Stepmothers’ Traveling, Drinking and Debating Society and Men’s Auxiliary' vandalized the HRC Store in Washington D.C.'s Dupont Circle on Tuesday night with pink paint, coating the windows and writing the word "Stonewall" across the front sidewalk, the Washington Blade reports.

The group left a lengthy message on the website Pastebin.com outlining its reasons for doing so:

This week marks the 42nd anniversary of the Stonewall Riots...

...The modern LGBT movement owes its success to three days of smashing, burning, punching, and kicking--all of it happily indiscriminate--and the confrontational tactics of groups like ACT-UP that followed in the decades since. Yet, somehow we've forgotten our riotous roots.

The group also explained why it was targeting its own community:

Why, you're asking, did we specifically target the HRC, a massive national gay rights non-profit as opposed to vomiting urine on Rick Santorum or something equally fun?

Put simply, they suck. What do they suck? Cash. Lots of it.

The HRC rakes in something approaching 50 million dollars a year in revenue--their executive director, Joe Salmonellamayonaisemanese pulls in a salary of several hundred grand. What have we gotten out of this bloated carcass? Not a thing worth mentioning and every now and then, they eagerly sell trans people up the river. Seriously, this is an organization that hordes money and does nothing useful. It's a sad, sick dinosaur.