The Christian Civic League of Maine's Mike Hein calls Pam's House Blend: "a leading source of radical homosexual propaganda, anti-Christian bigotry, and radical transgender advocacy."
He is "praying that Pam Spaulding will "turn away from her wicked and sinful promotion of homosexual behavior."
(CCLM's web site, 10/15/07)
Ex-gay "Christian" activist James Hartline on Pam:
"I have been mocked over and over again by ungodly and unprincipled anti-christian lesbians."
(from "Six Years In Sodom: From The Journal Of James Hartline," 9/4/2006, written from the "homosexual stronghold" of Hillcrest in San Diego).
"Pam is a 'twisted lesbian sister' and an 'embittered lesbian' of the 'self-imposed gutteral experiences of the gay ghetto.'" -- 9/5/2008
Peter LaBarbera of Americans for Truth Against Homosexuality heartily endorses the Blend, calling Pam:
A "vicious anti-Christian lesbian activist." (Concerned Women for America's radio show [9:15], 1/25/07)
"A nutty lesbian blogger." (MassResistance radio show [16:25], 2/3/07)
Pam's House Blend always seems to find these sick f*cks. The area of the country she is in? The home state of her wife? I know, they are everywhere. Pam just does such a great job of bringing them out into the light.
--Impeach Bush
who monitors yours Bevis ?? Just thought I would drop you a line,so the rest of your life is not wasted.
"I am pleased that today we were able to move the conference report for the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2010 a step closer to passage this afternoon. But I'm disappointed that Senate Republicans have decided that defeating hate crimes legislation takes precedent over supporting our troops.
"It is outrageous and unacceptable that Senate Republicans would vote against pay raises for our troops, battlefield equipment upgrades and increased funding for veterans' health care as we continue to fight two wars. And they decided to do this all for the sake of stopping passage of landmark legislation that will bring justice to those who commit violent crimes based on bigotry and prejudice. What message does that send to our country and, more importantly, to our troops?"
~Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid
The bigotry and prejudice Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid mentions is against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people. Some of us are servicemembers; some of us are, like me, veterans; some of us are, like me, are actually LGBT disabled veterans. The Republican votes against this bill, when one condiders that there are LGBT veterans and disabled veterans, really was "outrageous and unacceptable."
As many of us trans folk know, we often get erased from the coverage of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) federal legislation. I watched yesterday as Rachel Maddow wonderfully mentioned "gender identity" in the passage of The Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act:
Well, to keep the reality in focus for trans people, The Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act is the very first piece of federal legislation that includes gender identity. Let me say that again: this is the first piece of federal legislation that specifically includes transgender people.
And, President Obama has promised he will sign the bill, and that will likely happen next week.
I talked to Adam Bass -- Senior Media Strategist with the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) -- on the phone today about the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act. I worked with him closely during the coverage of the Angie Zapata...we were both deeply affected by covering that trial. Today I'm thinking of Angie as I think of this bill, so naturally I thought of Adam. I asked for his comments on the House and Senate passage of the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, and this is what he said:
As we await President Obama's signature on the recently passed hate crimes bill, I can't help but think of Angie Zapata Last April, I sat in a court room with Angie's family and friends and listened about the horrific last few hours of her life - when she was brutally beaten to death, simply because another human being hated that she was transgender. Angie was a young, vibrant, beautiful sister, aunt and daughter. She's someone I would have loved to have known. It is remarkable to think that in a very short time we will see the nation's first gender-identity inclusive bill signed into law by the President of the United States. It is an incredible signal of respect for Angie and all the other transgender and gay people who have been taken from us through hate violence.
I couldn't agree more with Adam.
Below the fold is a collection of what leading transgender civil rights organizations have said about passage of the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act. Please take a read -- what they have to say seems pretty important to hear.
The House of Representatives today passed the Defense Authorization Act of 2010 (H.R. 2467), which includes the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act -- the federal hate crimes legislation.
From what I've been reading, it looks likely the bill will be passed by the Senate next week.
If you're looking for what the President is going to say at the HRC dinner this weekend, my guess that one item that's going to be included in his speech is how he's looking forward to signing federal hate crime protections for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people sometime in the next two weeks.
Below are excepts from the press releases of Representatives Barney Frank and Tammy Baldwin. Select the images of the press releases to read their entire statements in PDF format.
On a personal note, after covering the Angie Zapata Hate Crime Murder Trial last April, I can't help but believe this is further Justice For Angie.
From Rep. Barney Frank:
The US House of Representatives today voted in favor of legislation containing the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, which extends the definition of violent hate crimes to include gender, sexual orientation, gender identity and disability.
The original bill, H.R. 1913, passed the House on April 29th of this year, mostly along partisan lines. The Senate attached its version of the Hate Crimes Bill to the Defense Authorization Act of 2010 (H.R. 2467), and after the bill passed the Senate, the language was maintained by the House/Senate Conference Committee. Today, the Defense Authorization Act conference report passed on a vote that broke largely on partisan lines, 281 to 146.
In response to Republican House members who argued against the Hate Crimes provision, Congressman Frank stated earlier this week:
"It is clear that there is an animus against those of us who are gay or lesbian, against people who are transgender, on the part of many in the House, and they are reflecting a strong political sentiment in the country. They are entitled to it. I do not lament the loss of their friendship and affection; I can live without it. But it should not lead them to deny protection to vulnerable people, and we are talking here about crimes, not just murder, but about assault and destruction of property which are too often ignored."
Under current law, the Hate Crimes protections cover violent crimes perpetrated because of the victim's race, color, religion or national origin. The new legislation would include gender, sexual orientation, gender identity and disability, and would effectively cover transgender individuals.
The Hate Crimes provision in the legislation passed today will allow the federal government to assist local and state law enforcement authorities, which prosecute the overwhelming majority of Hate Crimes cases. It permits the federal government to share resources and enforcement tools. It also authorizes the U.S. Attorney General to make grants to state and local law enforcement authorities which have incurred especially high expenses in connection with the investigation and prosecution of these crimes.
From Rep. Tammy Baldwin:
Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin today lauded the final passage of the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Act, also known as the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009. The measure was included in the conference report to the Fiscal Year 2010 National Defense Authorization Act (H.R. 2647) that passed the House today. The Senate is expected to vote on the measure early next week, and it will then go to the President for his signature.
"This measure is long overdue and I am pleased that Congress has voted to do what's right," said Congresswoman Baldwin. "Martin Luther King, Jr. often said that 'the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.' We see that beautifully illustrated here today," said Baldwin who is Co-Chair of the Congressional LGBT Equality Caucus and a longtime champion of this legislation.
The Hate Crimes provision included in the conference report adds the categories of gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, and disability to existing protections for bias crimes based on race, color, religion, and national origin. "We passed this bill not to provide a group of people with special protections, but because of a history of heinous, violent crimes intended to terrorize individuals who share these characteristics," Baldwin explained...
Update: fixed my transcription error of writing Iman, when it should have been Imam.
~~Autumn~~
As a disabled, Persian Gulf War Veteran, who served for 20 years in the U.S. Navy, and who is transgender -- as a new media reporter for Pam's House Blend who covered the Angie Zapata Hate Crime Murder Trial -- this is a painful House Floor speech to watch.
Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) states that the Matthew Shepard Act holds soldiers' well being hostage. Then, the congressman later in his speech is so interested in protecting the free speech of faith leaders that he minimizes the bill's focus on the victims of hate crime homicides. It's a value system that seems completely upside down.
Excerpts:
...I see a real distinction in holding our soldiers' very well being hostage to this the sociological attack on what used to be the morals of America.
...Now, there are those who say that this will not effect religious speech, but when we have debated this bill, and people have looked at it carefully, you see that this circumstance can arise. A preacher preaching from the Bible, a rabbi preaching from the Torah, an Imam teaching from the Koran says, in his opinion ,homosexuality is wrong. Some nut hears 'em, goes out commits commits an act of violence, and when arrested says "Well I was induced to do this by the preacher, or the Imam, or the rabbi."
Well under 18 USC 2a, it says that anyone who induces another to commit a crime is just as guilty of the crime as the one who commited it. That's where the preacher, the Imam, the rabbi could be arrested...arresting and detaining has a chilling effect -- there's no two ways about it...
I don't say this phrase often, but I'm saying it now: I'm appalled. I'm literally appalled by this speech given on the Congressional House Floor. What a painful speech this was to watch.
It would be just one more shakeup this week in the race for the Colorado Senate seat — rated among the top seats likely to switch parties by Democratic-leaning polling expert Nate Silver.
Why do I care? Ken Buck is the Weld County Prosecutor who made sure that Angie Zapata's murderer was prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law; a prosecutor who spoke about protecting all communities. He personally is a reminder to me of this adage: Not every Republican is your enemy; not every Democrat is your friend. His is the only prosecutor's office in America where the prosecution of a trans woman's killer resulted in the killer's conviction of both a first degree murder and of a hate crime, and I hold him and his office in pretty high regard for that.
With tears welling in my eyes, I gave Ken Buck a hug at the end of the trial. Sue me for hugging a Republican with whom I don't agree with on immigration issues -- I'd do it again.
H/t to Ernest Luning.
• This really deserves its own post, but I, like Pam, have been running into healthcare walls of late. *Sigh.* Oh well. Here's a piece from Austin American Statesman, entitled TABC fires 3 over Fort Worth gay bar raid:
The Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission on Friday fired two agents and an officer for their roles in the chaotic late-night inspection of a Fort Worth gay bar that left a patron with serious head injuries, sustained while in the agents' custody. The agency also suspended its Fort Worth district supervisor for three days without pay and reprimanded its regional captain.
In addition to the disciplinary actions, the beverage commission announced a series of reform measures, including modifications to the agency's use-of-force procedures and agents' work schedules, and enhanced cultural diversity training.
...The disciplinary measures extended up the chain of command.
Sgt. Terry Parsons, who was not at the bar the night of the raid, will be terminated effective Sept. 2 for failing to properly supervise the two agents. That date allows him to reach 20 years of service with the agency. Peace officers who retire after 20 years are typically entitled to enhanced benefits.
Fort Worth district Lt. Gene Anderson was suspended without pay for three days and placed on probation for six months. Capt. Robert Cloud, who oversaw TABC's Dallas and Fort Worth offices, received a written reprimand...
In light of this, it'll be interesting to see what the Fort Worth Police Department does about their officers who participated the June 28th Rainbow Lounge raid. This will no doubt bring public pressure to bear, whether or not TABC intended that as an related effect of their announcement.
And 71 percent acknowledged "confusion" over same-sex sexual attraction by age 14-15. That's according to the study "Listening to Sexual Minorities on Christian College Campuses", conducted by researchers Mark Yarhouse, Stephen Stratton, Janet Dean, and Heather Brooke, had 104 "sexual minority" students at three schools within the Council of Christian Colleges and Universities complete anonymous surveys about their sexual desires. (Alas, it's unclear what researchers used to define a "sexual minority," but we believe it's safe to assume it means all things LGBT.)
There are statistics of what kinds of behavior were involved at the Queerty link.
A fire in the La Cañada Flintridge area grew overnight, prompting more evacuations and leaving residents along foothill communities on edge.
The Station fire has burned more than 5,500 acres in various directions. One leg of the fire was moving southeast toward Altadena. No evacuations have yet been ordered in that community or the nearby Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Another leg was moving north, and officials said they are trying to prevent it from getting to the communications centers at Mt. Wilson. A western leg was moving toward Big Tujunga Canyon.
[Updated at 8 a.m.: The fire was 5% contained, 751 firefighters were on scene and 1,800 homes were threatened.]
Firefighters said the blaze was slow but stubborn, fueled by hot conditions but moving at a modest pace because there were no winds...
Images from the Los Angeles Times are here. In all of this damage to open space and homes, It's a sad realization that I'm waiting for the first conservative "Christian" minister or spiritual voice (such as James Hartline or Lou Sheldon) to blame this fire on teh homosexuals who live in California.
A bear that wandered into a sunken skateboard park and got stuck was rescued when officials lowered a ladder so it could climb out.
The bear was discovered Tuesday morning in the Colorado resort town of Snowmass. Officials say it apparently was in the park all night, and couldn't get out because of the steep concrete sides.
Workers from the Parks and Recreation Department lowered a long ladder. The bear eventually climbed the ladder and wandered away.
No injuries were reported to people or the bear...
Though it's most famously used on hot dogs, the Saskatchewan Mustard Development Commission has compiled a recipe book to highlight the many uses of the internationally famous Saskatchewan product.
Inspired by Mustard features 66 recipes created by chefs originally from the province. The book is divided not by soups, appetizers, meats and desserts, but instead by the mustard type it features -- either ground powder, prepared or whole seed mustard.
"We produce it, we need to promote it," said Adele Buettner, general manager of the commission. "We're seeing an increase in interest from chefs in the mustard industry (and) from household cooks in the mustard industry, so we wanted to accommodate them by providing them with an up-to-date resource that they could draw from to better learn how to introduce mustard in their day-to-day cooking."
Mustard is a healthy seed, containing a number of essential minerals including calcium, iron, magnesium, phosphorus, zinc and selenium. It is approximately 25% protein and has no cholesterol, making it a good source of omega-3 fatty acids...
Last night for dinner, my 98% fat free, Oscar Mayer wiener, that was on half of a large 100% whole wheat hot dog bun, was garnished only with cheddar cheese made with 2% milk -- and yellow mustard. Good to know that the yellow mustard was a pretty healthy add to my dinner.
So anywho...It's an open thread! What are you thinking about today, or what books or articles have you been reading the past few days? Wanna share?
And again, please feel free to chat, blogwhore, and link-share in the comment thread because...it's an open thread! Woo-hoo!
We appreciate you bringing the profile(s) to our attention. These accounts have already been deleted or are scheduled for deletion based on prior review. The only reason we delete a MySpace profile is for violation of our Terms & Conditions. Just so you know, we cannot delete a profile based on personal conflicts between MySpace users.
For further info on why we delete a MySpace profile, click here.
We thank you for helping us keep MySpace a safe and enjoyable place to socialize with friends.
Maria Zapata, Angie's sister Mom (correction, ~AVS~), left a voicemail the other day with a mutual friend: She wants to extend her sincerest thanks to everyone helping stand up for Angie.
Of course, now those of us who care about this have the joy of monitoring MySpace to see if we end up with a MySpace webpage v3.0.
Update: I contacted the prison this morning (as I stated I would in the piece below), and a lieutenant in their Intelligence Division stated they're searching he and his cell for a cell phone this morning.
I'm waiting to hear back from MySpace. If this page is deleted and a third webpage goes up, I see my job as one of contacting local media about it.
~~Autumn~~
SD_Dave has let us know that even though Allen Ray Andrade lost his previous MySpace webpage, he and/or his family have created a new MySpace webpage. The second comment on the left hand side -- from the webpage owner -- is "I'm back haterz!! Lovin having cells in the cell."
The headpiece form his current webpage:
Where do I begin? My brother has NEVER denied his identity as a straight MALE!! Again, he loves WOMEN -- you know the real ones that GOD makes with VAGINAS, FALLOPIAN TUBES, UTERUSES, PERIODS, OVARIES. In short, the ones that GOD gives the opportunity to co-create with. Like I said before, MINDSET and SURGERY will NEVER change that. NEVER sorry. Now, before you start hating, remember that for every one hater he's got ATLEAST four other people lovin him :) He's made A LOT of friends this last year. He can't even keep up. He's truly blessed! After all, he's STILL here, right? He gets a chance to confess, repent, and move on! Really there is no use crying over spilled milk ~~ it wasn't worth it ! We walked his calvary with him and we'll be there while he bears his cross.. LOVE you ALL MUAHHHHH ~~ HIS sister
Today I'll be calling the Colorado State Penitentiary (the facility where his inmate locator webpage states he is located) The telephone number for that facility is (719) 269-5120. I'll be asking the facility management why 1.) a murderer convicted of a bias motivated crimes is allowed to continue to victimize the minority group victimized by his bias motivated crime by 2.) reportedly using a cell phone from his cell.
I'm retired. I have time. I have time to call the Colorado Department of Corrections; I have time to call local politicians, local media outlets, and the Weld County District Attorney's office. I'm as motivated to make his desire to needle the trans community regarding his crime as difficult as he appears to be motivated to needle the trans community -- the community that was terrorized by his bias motivated crime.
Frankly, I'm at least as motivated as Allen Ray Andrade to play this stupid game as he is, but I'm not going to play by his rules. And frankly too, I won't have any feelings of personal remorse about making sure as many people as possible know how he's attempting to victimize Angie Zapata's Family again, as well as attempting to victimize the trans community again.
In the summer of 1959, Edwin Torres landed a $60-a-week job and wound up on the front page of El Diario. He had just been hired as the first Puerto Rican assistant district attorney in New York - and probably, he thinks, the entire United States.
He still recalls the headline: "Exemplary Son of El Barrio Becomes Prosecutor."
"You would've thought I had been named attorney general," he said. "That's how big it was."
Half a century later, the long and sometimes bittersweet history of Puerto Ricans in New York is expected to add a celebratory chapter today as the Senate confirms Judge Sonia Sotomayor's nomination to the Supreme Court. Her personal journey - from a single-parent home in the Bronx projects to the Ivy League and an impressive legal career - has provoked a fierce pride in many other Puerto Ricans who glimpse reflections of their own struggles...
Really interesting article that I'd highly recommend reading the entirety of.
The Idaho Department of Correction has reached settlements in lawsuits with two transgender inmates who castrated themselves after they were denied feminizing hormone therapy.
The department has also changed its policy for identifying and treating transgender inmates, limiting the time inmates must wait for treatment, specifying how they may be diagnosed and clarifying when they qualify for hormone therapy...
Just because one is in jail doesn't mean that one shouldn't receive adequate treatment related to being trans.
John Hughes, the screenwriter, producer and director whose films captured the teenage zeitgeist of the 1980s, died suddenly of a heart attack today in New York City. He was 59.
Hughes, best known for 1980s movies such as "Sixteen Candles," "The Breakfast Club," "Pretty in Pink" and "Ferris Bueller's Day Off," was taking a morning walk in Manhattan where he was visiting family, according to a statement from his representatives.
In the 1990s, he wrote and produced the "Home Alone" series, creating a box-office phenomenon and turning Macaulay Culkin into a star...
Many of his movies were the favorites of mine in young adulthood, for sure. Rest in peace, sir -- I appreciated your work.
With the convicted killer of transgender woman Angie Zapata serving life plus 60 years behind bars, his brother has taken to MySpace so that people can get to know the real Allen Andrade.
Autumn Sandeen, a transgender activist living in San Diego who covered the Zapata murder trial for Pam's House Blend, stumbled upon the page and reported on its contents for the Bilerico Project...
...Where I gave permission to Bil Browning to repost the piece I posted on Pam's House Blend there. Interesting that this story traveled so far, but it shows how much Angie Zapata's life and bias motivated murder has touched the soul of our broader lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community.
Like most restaurants, the Burger King in this St. Louis suburb has a no shoes, no shirt, no service policy.
And baby, do they enforce it.
Too much so, the company admitted, after apologizing for restaurant workers who asked a mother to leave because her 6-month-old wasn't wearing shoes.
Jennifer Frederich, her mother and Frederich's infant daughter, Kaylin, stopped at the Burger King in Sunset Hills on Sunday. The baby was shoeless - Frederich figured tiny baby feet were immune from the rule.
But workers told the family to leave because the shoeless baby was violating a health code...
Uh...yeah. By the way, the Burger King management is apologizing in person, and retraining staff. Good plan.
So anywho...It's an open thread! What are you reading or thinking about today?
I've received a couple of notes regarding the Angie Zapata MySpace page, and I believe it's going to be relieving news to Angie Zapata's family. From the previously active link to that webpage:
"This user has either cancelled their membership, or their account has been deleted."
I guess there really was no space on MySpace for a hate crime murderer Allen Ray Andrade's webpage.
And for Angie, I can't help but think it's a wonderful birthday present. From an August 5th tweet by GLAAD's Adam Bass:
Rest in peace, Angie. We're thinking of you today.
I'm feeling a little disconcerted today, as a page for Allen Ray Andrade on MySpace was brought to my attention. The webpage appears to be created by Mr. Andrade's brother; the webpage is disturbing to me on a couple of levels...
People THINK that they know my brother based on the ONE mistake that he made last year. Well, you don't. See, he's a BROTHER, SON, uncle, nephew, grandson, cousin, and friend. He's never denied his identity as a straight male. NEVER. My brother loves WOMEN...the kind GOD makes with vaginas, fallopian tubes, uteruses, periods. -- In my opinion, God gives WOMEN the opportunity to co-create with him. It's an opportunity that surgery or mindset can not achieve. It never will. -- Now, that's not to say that I believe all women should bear children. Some can't for whatever reason and SOME shouldn't, and I can think of one family in particular that falls in the latter. Anyway, I'm a firm believer in things happening for a reason. I've told Allen Ray many times that he's truly the lucky one, not only is he here, but he gets a second chance at life. He gets to confess, repent, and move on. We get to do that with him. Sometimes when God needs you to listen he puts us somewhere where we can. It is not fair to judge people by what you read. Only I know what happened, and have to live with it everyday of my life. It wasn't what the media portrayed it to be or the state. I am holding myself accountable. So judge not, please... By the grace of God, I hope that none of you reading this, ever have a loved one go through this ordeal. Keep your sons and daughters safe! Teach them morals ~ beginning with the truth.
Well, here's some truth for you. If you don't remember who Allen Ray Andrade is, his "one mistake" resulted in him being convicted by a jury of his peers for First Degree Murder, and a Bias Motivated Crime related to his killing of Angie Zapata. His "one mistake" also included guilty verdicts on vehicle theft and identity theft, so that means there were at least three to four "mistakes." And hey, since the identity theft was ongoing for two weeks between the murder and his arrest, there were multiple "mistakes" related to how many times identity theft was involved in using a stolen ATM card as well.
Because Allen Ray Andrade actually made multiple "mistakes" in his life beyond this grouping of "mistakes," he received life plus an additional 60 years -- and it was 60 years instead of some smaller number of years because he was judged by the court to be a habitual offender.
Another disturbing aspect of the Allen Andrade MySpace Page is how much Bible scripture is on it -- including Acts 2:21 -- and this from Luke 6:37...
Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven.
...As well as how much religious imagery is on the page.
I don't know Allen Ray Andrade, but I do know that a jury of his peers judged him guilty of four crimes, which included First Degree Murder and a Bias Motivated Crime (a hate crime). I was in the courtroom for the entire trial, and I saw a brutal murder scene that I'll never be able to get completely out of my mind, and heard Allen Ray Andrade say in recorded jailhouse telephone calls:
"It's not like I went up to a schoolteacher and shot her in the head or ... killed a law-abiding straight citizen."
And...
"Did you see that thing in make-up?"
And...
"I can't cry over spilled milk."
And, I can't count how many times I heard Allen Ray Andrade refer to Angie Zapata as "it."
I certainly understand that Mr. Andrade's family wants to support their brother; I certainly understand that familial love can be a powerful force for change in a person's life. And, never let it be said that I don't believe in contrition and repentance.
But that said, I also know that the brother who wrote the headpiece for this MySpace webpage is saying disparaging things about transgender human beings like me. This, while at the same time, he shrouds what Allen Ray Andrade did to Angie Zapata in Christian scripture and imagery. I also know that the general attack on transgender women in this MySpace webpage headpiece doesn't speak to love, or indicate contrition or repentance. It instead sounds to me that his family is joining with Allen Ray Andrade in still blaming the victim -- Angie Zapata -- for the hate crime that Mr. Andrade committed. And, beyond just blaming Angie, Mr. Andrade and his family seem to me to be clearly blaming all transgender women as being worthy of hate crime murders for not being "the kind [of women] GOD makes with vaginas, fallopian tubes, uteruses, periods."
I found this webpage dedicated to Allen Ray Andrade a bit unsettling. To me, it seems that Christian blessing is being given to the killing of Angie Zapata, and giving justification for killing transgender human beings in the future -- because God will forgive, and only God is allowed to judge these murderers.
Well, I reject that reasoning. A jury of Allen Ray Andrade's peers had the responsibility -- and was allowed -- to judge him, and they found him guilty of a bias motivated murder. And, as a transgender woman who was there in the courtroom for the entire trial -- hearing and seeing the evidence presented -- I feel I have a right to judge him as a hate crime murderer.
One thing I definitely feel is that this webpage page of Allen Ray Andrade's should find no welcome -- no space -- on MySpace.
~~~~~
Related:
* Pam's House Blend tag: Angie Zapata
Y'know, the trans panic strategy used in the Angie Zapata Hate Crime Murder Trial is way to fresh in my mind, where the defense implied (as defense attorneys always do when the trans panic defense is used) that the victim was deceptive in their presentation (usually male-bodied trans women presenting as women), and therefore is a mitigating factor in the commission of a violent "crime of passion."
So, below is a commercial from a Los Angeles group of auto dealerships that is literally showing a transgender woman as being incredibly deceptive -- not telling her husband that she was male-bodied, and he discovering the suprise on a desert road to what we're left presuming would have been the honeymoon. (Really!)
The is an uncut version of the commercial here, and there is no question what the driver is seeing in his mirror before he drives off, leaving the bride alone in the desert without any way to get home.
No violence there, eh?
The slogan that ends the commercial is:
Getting what you want isn't always easy. Finding the car you want should be.
So trans people are unwanted people, in LA Car Guy's eyes. Swell! And add that commentary to the lyrics of the song playing in the commercial's background, which begin:
Changing,
Not for better,
Feeling tired,
looking wetter.
Broken
Like a promise...
No commentary saying trans people are horrible, deceptive people there, whose transitions are "not for better," eh?
Nice.
I get tired of constantly having to defend my humanity to people who don't perceive me as fully human. Well guess what? I am fully human, and this commercial angers me.
If you, like me, want to comment to the LA Car Guy dealerships about their commercial, the contact information for these nine dealerships are below the fold.
We're making progress toward equality, but we'll only achieve full equality if we change hearts and minds - and that's what GLAAD is all about. We're working for the day when every one of us is accepted, respected and valued for the contributions we make to this country. It's an ambitious goal, but I know we can do it. I believe in our community, and I believe in our country.
One of my favorite lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) non-profits has announced a new executive director: Jarrettt T. Barrios:
The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) and GLAAD's National Board of Directors today announced that Jarrettt T. Barrios, a former State Senator from Massachusetts who now heads a leading health care foundation, will serve as GLAAD's new President. GLAAD works to achieve full equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) Americans through media advocacy and anti-LGBT defamation work.
...At 40 years of age, Barrios will become the youngest leader of GLAAD and, as a Cuban-American, he will be the first head of a national LGBT organization fluent in English and Spanish. He was the first openly gay person and the first Latino elected to the Massachusetts State Senate, where he represented a largely white, Catholic, working-class district. He is an accomplished fundraiser and manager who broke fundraising records in his election campaigns and managed a multi-million dollar budget at the Blue Cross/Blue Shield Foundation of Massachusetts. He is married to Doug Hattaway, his partner of 16 years, and they are raising two teenage sons.
"Jarrett is an inspiring, new voice for the national movement," said Yvette Burton, Co-Chair of GLAAD's Board of Directors. "As a Latino and a parent, he will build bridges among communities. He is also an accomplished progressive leader and activist with the talent and experience to take GLAAD and our movement to new heights."
Barrios has been an advocate for LGBT equality since co-chairing Harvard's LGBT student organization in the late 1980s and the Boston Gay and Lesbian Anti-Violence Project in the early 1990s. He has also served on the boards of the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders and Greater Boston Lesbian and Gay Political Alliance.
As a State Senator, Barrios successfully helped lead the legislative effort to protect marriage equality in Massachusetts, and is best known for a globally televised speech where he spoke on discrimination faced by his own family. In the legislature, he also successfully championed anti-bullying legislation, the Gay and Lesbian Youth Commission to prevent teen suicide and make schools safe for LGBT youth, buffer zones for women's health facilities and other progressive issues.
Perhaps my favorite lines from the GLAAD media release (emphasis added):
Jarrett's advocacy and proven results are a natural fit with GLAAD's work to shape our culture through the media and raise visibility for LGBT people and issues. GLAAD's work to change hearts and minds is needed today more than ever. It's the only way our community will see real change.
--GLAAD Board Co-Chair Laurie Perper
Jarrett Barrios, by the way, was one of the twenty-some signers original signers for the The Dallas Principles.
As most of y'all know, I worked very closely with GLAAD during the Angie Zapata Hate Crime Murder Trial, and during the recent Rob, Arnie, And Dawn In The Morning show dust up over transgender children. I have nothing but praise for Jarrett Barrios, and for the organization GLAAD itself.
Good luck, sir. You have a wonderful LGBT non-profit in your hands now, and I fully expect that under youre leadership, it will reach new heights.
A conservative activist says the appointment of the founder of the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network to head the U.S. Education Department's Office of Safe Schools is the equivalent of putting O.J. Simpson in charge of women's safety.
In the OneNewsNow piece, Mission America's founder Linda Harvey laments the hire of former GLSEN founder Kevin Jennings as the Department of Education Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools' deputy secretary -- she unfavorably compares his hiring to an African American's alleged killing of a white woman.
Do I really need to draw the parallel between Dr. George Tiller being killed after anti-abortion activists repeatedly referring to him as a "child murderer" (and "Tiller The Baby Killer") and his death to Linda Harvey's using a racially charged murder case to make a point about the Kevin Jennings' hiring at the department of Education?
Linda Harvey's speech seems to be hate speech to me, but it's protected free speech -- and it definitely should remain federally protected free speech. Yet, if Linda Harvey is attempting to use hyperbole to make her points, then her use of the form seems a bit too over the top in application. In other words, that she can freely state her ideas, but it doesn't mean that those of us who object to her particular language can't freely condemn her speech, as well as freely condemn her penchant to make statements that seem to folk like me to encourage violence.
Attempts at "speech codes" by universities are a related idea, but have produced a mountain of litigation, mostly over slurs or insults. These laws have been struck down as unconstitutional by courts throughout the country. Hate crimes laws and in schools, "anti-harassment" and anti-bullying policies based on sexual orientation, are just a back-door attempt to get the same goal accomplished: to use the force of law to elevate certain groups and individuals over others, to squash ideas and debate some find "offensive," and to thereby legitimize questionable social behavior.
I don't want to squash Harvey's speech or idea's, but expose her ideas -- especially this recent one regarding the hire of Kevin Jennings at the Department of Education -- to the light of day. It seems poignant on the day after Dr. George Tillman's murder to point out the imagery of Lind Harvey's comments; I believe comments like Linda Harvey's equating a government hire to a murder tell us where a good number of conservative "Christians" are coming from.
And, that place that these comments are coming from isn't a place of love, but instead it's pretty obvious these are coming from a place of hate.
There is terrorism in our midst. Even as we battle it in faraway lands, let's conduct counter-terrorism operations here on American soil as well. At stake is the integrity of nothing less than the human race itself.
And to me, it reads like she's using her free speech to advocate for anti-gay and anti-transgender violence.
One of the reasons I've had a hard time believing conservative "Christians" regarding their stand on a federal hate crime legislation. Many have been making the "thought crime" argument against the bill commonly known the Matthew Shepard Act because it includes protections based on the thoughts of the criminals.
The rebuttal argument against this "thought crime" meme is provided below the fold, in excerpts from the Supreme Court Of The United States' (SCOTUS') Wisconsin v. Mitchell. Essentially, in the SCOTUS decision defending hate crime punishment enhancements, Associate Justice Scalia wrote for the majority:
In determining what sentence to impose, sentencing judges have traditionally considered a wide variety of factors in addition to evidence bearing on guilt, including a defendant's motive for committing the offense.
...Moreover, the Wisconsin statute singles out for enhancement bias-inspired conduct because this conduct is thought to inflict greater individual and societal harm...The State's desire to redress these perceived harms provides an adequate explanation for its penalty-enhancement provision over and above mere disagreement with offenders' beliefs or biases.
...The First Amendment, moreover, does not prohibit the evidentiary use of speech to establish the elements of a crime or to prove motive or intent. Evidence of a defendant's previous declarations or statements is commonly admitted in criminal trials subject to evidentiary rules dealing with relevancy, reliability, and the like.
Those who speak out against homosexuality, including pastors, could face prosecution for "inciting" violence against gay individuals.
Unless the "[t]hose who speak out against homosexuality, including pastors" have committed bias motivated crimes, then any hate speech is protected speech; their freedom to make hateful statements could only be considered "evidentiary use of speech to establish the elements of a crime or to prove motive or intent" only if a bias motivated crime -- likely a violent crime. Statements, such as convicted hate crime murderer Allen Ray Andrade's statements,...
Gay things must die.
And...
It's not like I went up to a schoolteacher and shot her in the head or ... killed a law-abiding straight citizen.
...became significant for conviction of a bias motivated crime in the Angie Zapata Hate Crime Murder Trial, and for sentencing -- specifically because these statements went to a bias motivation for Angie's brutal murder.
There are federal hate crime protections already on the books. Some of the protected classes include race and religious creed, so it's always been rather disingenuous for religious right organizations and figures to call the Matthew Shepard Act a "thought crime" bill while not calling on repeal of hate crime laws that list religious creed within their protected classes.
Well, the first religious right figure to call for a repeal of all hate crime laws is Matt Barber of the Liberty Council. in his piece in the American Daily -- entitled Repeal All 'Hate Crimes" Laws (where oddly, Matt Barber quotes himself in third person), he states:
The U.S. Senate is preparing to vote any day on S. 909, a bill that would grant specially preferred government status to a select few citizens based on the behaviorally driven, fluid and undefined concepts of "sexual orientation" and "gender identity;" this, to the express exclusion of other citizens.
While the House version of the bill was being considered, some lawmakers attempted to make it more inclusive and curtail its inherent discriminatory nature by offering an amendment that would include other identifiable groups such as veterans, the elderly and the homeless. The bill's sponsors inexplicably rejected that request without explanation.
"This underscores the fact that all 'hate crimes' laws, both state and federal, inarguably advance 'unequal' protection of the laws," said Matt Barber, Director of Cultural Affairs with both Liberty Counsel and Liberty Alliance Action. "This flies in the face of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
"For this reason I am calling for lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, in Washington and around the country, to not only reject S. 909, but to begin working toward repeal of all state and federal 'hate crimes' laws." ...
I'd strongly disagree with his reasoning that gets him to the point where he calls for the repeal of all hate crime laws, but in calling for removal of all hate crime laws -- even ones that cover the protected class to which he personally belongs -- is being consistent. That he's the first says something about the inconsistency of other religious right figures, and highlights the hypocrisy of Focus On The Family and its figurehead James Dobson, the Concerned Women For America and its figures Wendy Wright and Beverly LaHaye, and other religious right organizations and figures that haven't made the same kind of statements that Matt Barber has now made in calling for the repeal of all hate crime statutes.
If any of these religious right organizations or leaders make such a call, it would be interesting to see how it would impact their recent alliances with African-American pastors on Homosexual Agenda™ related issues.
Well, my first article for an alternative LGBT publication was published this week as well. The Gayzette published How Valuable Is Your Life?
This second article is similar in scope to the piece in Frontiers IN L.A. Magazine, but it's a more coarse piece for a different, edgier audience. Basically, I use "four letter language" in that piece that I usually don't use in writing at all, and don't use in my day-to-day conversations as much as I did when I was a sailor.
I'm not going to post the text in this piece, instead, if your'e interested in reading that piece, please go to the Gayzette link and read the text of my piece -- found on Page 10 of the May 2009 issue.
I'm planning on writing another piece for next month's issue, and probably writing as a regular columnist there after that. As publisher Rich DeMarah I were discussing recently, there just isn't exactly a plethora of established trans writers to choose from if one is looking for a columnist to write from the trans perspective. Frankly, having a political, trans columnist on his team will set his publication apart -- even from other alternative LGBT publications. And, of course, I see that as a good thing.
Pam reminded me Thursday that I need to update my Pam's House BlendAbout Autumn page to add my media appearance on TruTV In Session, and my two LGBT media articles. Updating that webpage sounds like a project for me to tackle this weekend, for sure.
A state appeals court upheld the murder convictions of two East Bay men today for their roles in battering and strangling a transgender teenager after learning she was biologically male.
The killing of 17-year-old Gwen Araujo of Newark in 2002 drew national attention to incidents of violence against transgender people, which often include defense claims that the victim provoked the attack by having sex under false pretenses.
In this case, lawyers for both defendants argued that the slaying was manslaughter at most, because their clients had acted in the heat of passion when they learned the person with whom they had had oral and anal sex was born male. But the First District Court of Appeal in San Francisco ruled 3-0 that the Alameda County trial judge had defined the crimes properly to the jury, and that the panel had substantial evidence for second-degree murder convictions.
Mark Greenberg, a lawyer for defendant Michael Magidson, said he would appeal to the state Supreme Court.
"Mr. Magidson committed a serious crime, but the question is, which crime did he commit?" Greenberg said. "I think the issue of voluntary manslaughter was not properly presented to the jury." ...
What a long way we've come from the Gwen Araujo Hate Crime Murder Trial to the Angie Zapata Hate Crime Murder Trial. In the California's Bay Area, two killers of Gwen Araujo successfully used a "gay panic"/"trans panic" strategy for their defense to argue that not only did the two not commit a hate crime, but the two's conviction was for the lesser included charge of Second Degree Murder instead of the top count of First Degree Murder. In Greeley, Colorado, the killer of Angie Zapata also used a "gay panic"/"trans panic" strategy for his defense, but he was still convicted of the top count of First Degree Murder, and was convicted of a hate crime (officially referred to as a "Bias Motivated Crime").
True, the facts of the two cases of brutally killed, transgender victims were different, but most agree that the "gay panic"/"trans panic" strategy was used as a defense in both cases because it doesn't get killers acquitted of their crimes -- but it often has worked in these kind of cases to put partial blame on the victims for their own deaths, and does get the killers reduced sentences.
I'm often reminded of the case of Joel Robles' killer as a particularly egregious case of a killer threatening to use a "gay panic"/"trans panic" strategy for a defense, and getting only a four year sentence for what many trans people consider to be a hate crime.
Times change. I can hope that if the California Supreme Court takes up this case, that second appeal will be as equally unsuccessful as this appeal to the First District Court of Appeals was. In my opinion, Gwen and her family deserve more justice than a reversal or lessening of the Second Degree Murder convictions.
For those who are interested, I've had the first piece I've ever written for a hard copy publication published this week. It's my first hard copy byline.
As it's written for Frontier IN L.A., I won't quote the piece here - you can read it all in entirety there. It's a piece about what it was like to be a transgender new media reporter/blogger covering the Angie Zapata Hate Crime Murder Trial, and what I took away from the experience.
Having a first piece published in hard copy media is certainly a milestone, for sure, but like so much involved with the Angie Zapata murder, my feelings are bittersweet. I feel proud that my work is now of a quality that it's good enough for the mainstream of the LGBT community, but this is not the kind of article I wanted published first.
Instead of feeling pleasure in having a hard copy published piece, I feel a wrenching anguish. This is not exactly the experience I expected to have if this first was ever to occur for me.
It's, of course, that my feelings are about missing Angie, the young trans woman I never met. I would much, much rather still be waiting to have that first, hard copy published piece than have it be this one; I would much, much rather she be alive and unknown to me than have my covering of the trial of her convicted, bias crime murderer be the subject of my first mainstream lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender media piece.
~~~~~
H/t: Karen Ocamb, News Editor for Frontier IN L.A.
But, in an Op-Ed of his I read just this morning in The Argus Leader by Mr. Greenburg entitled The annals of thoughtcrime, follows their lead in stating:
It's back: the criminalization of thought.
This time the same old bad idea has been all decked out in the latest newspeak. It's now the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act, aka HR 1913.
...But under the bill's title, like a snake under a rock, is the dubious concept that George Orwell named concisely enough in "1984": thoughtcrime...
I also learned the way a Pulitzer Prize winning editorialist makes points these days is either feigning ignorance, actually being proud of his ignorance, or just not doing his homework (emphasis added):
Another section of the bill applies to crimes committed "because of the actual or perceived religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or disability of any person." There must be a reason for differentiating between gender and gender identity in the law, but I'd rather not guess.
I don't have to guess. Angie Zapata's hate crime murder is a reason for the differentiation that's very fresh in my mind.
Have a read at the rest of Mr. Greenburg's column -- it reads to me as a lazy piece. Such as, the argument in his piece where he states...
The accused doesn't become eligible for additional punishment unless he's motivated by one of the designated politically incorrect hates named in the bill. All others are, in effect, discounted.
...so do we protect no one because the law doesn't spell out all bigotries Mr. Greenburg can imagine? Is Mr. Greenburg arguing the law should be more expansive? No, he's not. He's arguing that because the law isn't incredibly expansive, it can't be made narrowly now, with a idea that we can add to this bill later. It appears to me he's putting forward an affirming the consequent argument. It appears to me that he's saying it's better that statements that tell us that the bigotry of a perpetrator in the selection of a victim isn't considered a worthy factor -- well, not a worthy factor if every kind of bigotry Mr. Greenburg can imagine isn't included.
Really. Well, my guess is he just doesn't want to include lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people to any hate crime law. He doesn't want to repeal federal hate crime laws on the books, he just doesn't want to add teh homosexuals.
And "thought crimes?" Shouldn't a Pulitzer Prize winning editorialist be familiar with R.A.V. v. City Of St. Paul, where speech essentially stops being free speech when it's tied conduct? Shouldn't he be giving us serious discussions of exactly how this federal hate crimes act winding it's way through congress is substantially overbroad and impermissibly content based? How exactly the act as written in an unconstitutional manner that prohibits free speech that isn't just limited in its reach to speech connected to violent conduct?
Shouldn't he also be giving us serious discussions of this proposed federal act by taking into account Wisconsin v. Mitchell, which states:
GREELEY - Allen Andrade has been sentenced to life plus 60 years for all counts related to murder of Angie Zapata.
Judge Marcelo Kopcow on Friday sentenced Andrade, 32, to the maximum 60 consecutive years for the additional charges in the Zapata murder case.
On April 23, a Weld County jury found Andrade guilty of first-degree murder and a hate crime in the killing of Angie Zapata, an 18-year-old transgender woman from Greeley. At that time, he was sentenced to life without parole.
Because Andrade was a habitual offender with prior felony convictions, the law requires him to be given four times the maximum sentence for the three other convictions related to the Zapata case: a bias-motivated crime, identity theft and aggravated motor vehicle theft.
Andrade on Friday received 12 years for the hate crime conviction, 24 years for the motor vehicle theft and 24 years for the identity theft.
"I've observed this trial in its entirety and the tragedy inflicted on the Zapata family has been horrendous," said Mindy Barton, legal director for the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Community Center of Colorado. "The court, by giving the maximum sentence served consecutively, shows the heinous nature of the crime."
Justice for Angie and her family is Allen Ray Andrade spending the rest of his natural life in prison. Justice for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community -- especially the transgender community -- was seeing him convicted of committing a hate crime under Colorado's Bias Motivated Crime statute, and is having Allen Ray Andrade getting sentenced to the maximum sentence for his bias motivated crime.
All these things have now happened in relationship to Andrade's crime; we now have Justice For Angie, Justice For Angie's Family, Justice For The LGBT Community, and Justice For The Transgender Community.
"There is no evidence of an epidemic of sexual-orientation 'hate crimes' in this country," said Ashley Horne, federal policy analyst at Focus on the Family Action. "So, what's the real reason for this bill? Gay activists want to silence those who speak out against homosexuality."
When I read that, I remember the words I heard spoken in recorded telephone call by Allen Ray Andrade, the convicted hate crime committing murderer of Angie Zapata:
"It's not like I went up to a schoolteacher and shot her in the head or ... killed a law-abiding straight citizen."
Well, Ashley Horne, federal hate crime legislation isn't about wanting to "...silence those who speak out against homosexuality," unless it's speech connected to violent crimes against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people, with the victims ove these violent crimes selected specifically because the victim is lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender.
You know, victims like Angie Zapata. Her killer, Allen Ray Andrade, was convicted of both a murder and a hate crime after stating in a recorded, jailhouse phone call that no one would care much about Angie's death because she wasn't a schoolteacher or law-abiding straight citizen.
So let me personally impugn the motives of Ashley Horne, federal policy analyst at Focus on the Family Action with a quote of my own:
"There is evidence of hate crimes in this America, where victims are selected because of their perceived sexual orientation, gender identity and/or gender expression.
"So, what's the real reason that Ashley Horne of Focus On The Family and her conservative 'Christian' cohorts want to protect the 'free speech' of convicted killers like Allen Ray Andrade in their effort to defeat hate all crime legislation? It's because they want people like Andrade to have the 'free speech' connected to their bias motivated, violent crimes protected when they terrorize lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transsexual people to be protected 'free speech' -- 'free speech' statements such as Andrade's 'Gay things must die' and 'It's not like I went up to a schoolteacher and shot her in the head or ... killed a law-abiding straight citizen.'"
That's right, I said it, and I believe it. Ashley Horne of Focus On The Family, and all of her cohorts Focus On The Family are arguing to protect the horrid 'free speech' of killers like Allen Ray Andrade, who brutally beat Angie Zapata to death last July 16th with a fire extinguisher specifically because she was transgender.
Ashley Horne must own the "free speech" of Allen Ray Andrade in her opposition to hate crimes legislation, since "free speech" is what she's claiming lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people like me want to suppress.
I know I haven't said it before, but I've been thinking about it a lot -- many of you here at The Blend thanked me for my coverage of the Angie Zapata Hate Crime Murder Trial.
For my part, I know mainstream media coverage of the trial was impacted by my presence there covering the trial. I think my own coverage was secondary to that, but I feel a need to humbly say to y'all who thanked me for the coverage here at Pam's House Blend: "You're very welcome." I very much appreciate your thanks.
To those who read the coverage, thank you so much. Angie's life had meaning when she was alive, and has gained additional meaning on her death. That three congresspeople mentioned her on the floor of the House of Reprentatives during the federal hate crimes legislation debate gave her tragic death a measure of power and dignity. I thank the three congresspeople for caring about Angie, and expressing personal conscientiousness about the broader lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community that she belonged to.
To those who said I did a good job covering the trial by microblogging on twitter.com/JusticeForAngie, and a good job reporting and commenting on the trial at Pam's House Blend, thank you so very much for that as well.
My "job" on PHB for the trial, as I saw it, was to keep Angie human, as well as describe how hate crimes impact people who are in the same community as the crime victim. If you, the blender, garnered that from the coverage, thank you too.
Your positive comments here on The Blend definitely have impacted me. It feels strange to have received so much positive feedback, because in the real world I like to think of myself as a pretty humble person, living in a small San Diego apartment with my two kats Bon-Bon and Maggie.
I like to believe causes and issues are more important than me. I also like to believe that I have an egalitarian perspective regarding people I meet in the "real" world, and the virtual world of the internets, so I see myself as no more important to community than *you* -- those who read Pam's House Blend. So, receiving thanks and compliments are often a little difficult for me, and this is one of those times it's been difficult to receive so many kudos. I just felt like I was doing my "job."
I'm still working at accepting the compliments completely, but still...For those of you who commented positively about the Angie Zapata Hate Crime Murder Trial coverage, I've appreciated your positive comments more than you know. Again, the comments impacted me significantly.
So again, you're very welcome, and thank you so much. Please accept my warmest thoughts for you.
I worked with him closely during the coverage of the 
• Weiner story of the day: San Francisco Chronicle's 
Well, the first religious right figure to call for a repeal of all hate crime laws is Matt Barber of the 
From the San Francisco Chronicle's 
