No refuge from hate

In the wake of the shocking beating death of Matthew Shepard, the gay college freshman at the University of Wyoming, your superior correspondents were astonished to hear Channel 10's Karin Reed ask, "Could it happen here?" as a teaser to an interview with Rhode Island Lesbian and Gay Alliance president Kate Monteiro and longtime human-rights activist John Blakeslee.

Is the thinking that if Channel 10 cameras didn't happen to be present then it didn't happen? If so, we would like to direct the mainstream media to a letter published in the October issue of Options, Vo Dilun's exceptional lesbigay community newsmagazine.

The letter, from "Mary," describes an unprovoked attack on some gay men in downtown Providence on the evening of August 24. According to the letter, Raven, a Woonsocket drag diva, was thrown into a plate-glass window and another gay man was savagely attacked by a group of young white punks outside the Union Street Station, a watering hole with a gay clientele.

Mary says that the police were called and rescue workers dispatched to the scene, but "the police never came to the hospital for a report, so this will not be listed as a hate crime and a hate crime it was. The victims are unable to pursue the matter for personal reasons."

Mary also claims that "that same evening, another gay man was smashed in the head . . . Four weeks ago, another hate crime outside another gay bar, and that person was hospitalized for two weeks."

While we can't verify all of Mary's allegations, they have the ring of truth to them and sound frighteningly real to us. That someone wasn't killed in the melee outside Union Street Station is a stroke of luck: indeed, Wyoming was no isolated incident.

The work of groups like Youth Pride and school-based lesbigay youth alliances is critical to battling prejudice, hatred and violence. And what impact do you think the right-wing moral hypocrites, wagging their fingers in condemnation and shame, have on this? They may not be guilty of encouraging hate crimes, but their deep-denial responses only make things worse.

Bad management or bad faith?

Word on the street has it that there's been some misunderstanding about the lawsuit filed by Dan Kaplan's Anchor Communications against the Other Paper for breach of contract related to the BeloJo's purchase of Rhode Island Monthly and its three sister publications, Newport Magazine, Rhode Island Bride and The Guest Guide to Greater Providence/Warwick.

Our understanding is that the suit came about because Kaplan believes he was ripped off by the BeloJo, claiming they diverted profits that he was to receive based on the profitability of the magazine after the purchase. After edging Kaplan out of any management involvement, the BeloJo folks suddenly reported a 60-percent decline in earnings, Kaplan claims.

If true, rumors started by Phillipe & Jorge that the Urinal planned to change the name of the magazine to Fatwa Express and to have it edited by Phil Terzian appear to be inaccurate. Although it would be easier to justify a 60-percent loss when putting out a "right-wing journal of intolerance and retribution" that would make Human Events look like Utne Reader, it appears these plans never solidified.

Think, Linc!

Pay attention, Ethics 101 class, and let's see how this scenario works in Vo Dilun good ol' boy political fashion: the chairman of the Depositors Economic Protection Corporation (DEPCO), which has filed suit against a number of local businesses, is the beneficiary of major campaign donations from these same companies and many of their principals. What's more, some of the money has come directly from fund-raisers hosted by the players on the pointed end of the legal action. Conflict of interest?

Well, while this might seem as easy a question as you'd get in an ethics primer, at least two people -- Governor Bigfoot, who just happens to be that DEPCO chairman, and John "Monsieur Pompadour" Holmes, a GOP party honcho and fund-raiser for the guv -- miserably failed that little quiz last week when asked about donations from the white-shoe law firms of Adler, Pollock & Sheehan and Edwards & Angell and the likes of Terry Murray, CEO of the Fleet Financial Group, all of whom have DEPCO suits pending against them.

"I don't see where one thing has anything to do with the other," said Monsieur Pompadour, which makes P&J wonder whether it's time for the white cane and full-time shades for Johnny Boy, whose ethical vision obviously isn't as keen as those who took the impact of the RISDIC collapse right in the chops.

Obviously a champion of corporate criminals everywhere, Holmes proclaimed, "Just because a person owes DEPCO money doesn't mean they are bad people or they are evil, corrupt human beings." Right, John. They are just plain old soulless lawyers and bottom-line-obsessed bankers who face charges of professional negligence and conspiracy to mislead state regulators.

Coming to the Missing Link's aid was also his campaign manager, Ed "Black Pope" Morabito, who declared wide-eyed innocence of any possible conflict, saying, "Some may view them as the face of DEPCO but, indeed, they are well-established firms in the community and so that thought did not occur to us."

Didn't occur to you, Ed? Well, what about the thought that one of the reasons why they are so well-established is that their firms (and their firms' top dogs) have made similarly well-targeted contributions to politicians' causes. And may we remind Morabito while he admires our business leaders (sic) that the accounting firm of Ernst & Young, another civic-minded bunch, already has seen the light and settled their DEPCO problems with a multi-million-dollar payoff?

Bigfoot should have better advice on when to accept payoff money. It's not when you are the head of the public agency seeking to extract penalties from Addit, Porkem & Seeya, Eddie & Angie, and Wideboy Terry for past malfeasance. This is the main difference between Big Linc and Myrth York taking cash from the DEPCO bad boys -- Myrth has no official role in seeking court judgments against these people.

Still, we'd like to think that Myrth might want to hold off on cashing their checks until after the election and that if she does get in and become the head of DEPCO herself, she will have the integrity to hand the money back for the same reason as Almond.

Mistaken identities

Monday's "Political Scene" column in the BeloJo featured an amusing anecdote about country music legend Charlie Pride being serenaded by Massachusetts Representative Joe Moakley in the House visitor's gallery in Washington. Unfortunately, the usually flawless Scenesters (in this case, we assume it's the Other Paper's DC ramrod, John Mulligan) identified Pride as the singer of "Behind Closed Doors."

Sorry, gang. That was the silver-maned ex-rockabilly piano pounder Charlie Rich. (Pride, the first black country superstar, had his most famous crossover hit with 1971's "I Kiss an Angel Good Mornin'. ") We're surprised that Scotty "F. Alger" MacKay, a man who knows his way around local honkytonks, didn't catch this minor discrepancy.

And speaking of mistaken identities and "behind closed doors," did former Democratic state chairman Richard James suddenly think he was Rick "Super Freak" James? The details of James's arrest in Pawtucket early Sunday morning for simple domestic assault and domestic vandalism at the home of his girlfriend were horrific. In The Times on Monday and then in the BeloJo on Tuesday, the descriptions were mighty disturbing.

Domestic violence is no laughing matter, and the recent charges against both Senate Majority Leader Paul Kelly and James illustrate that this far too common crime cuts across class and ethnic boundaries.

Ironically, James is separated from his wife, Judge Christine McBurney, who is the sister of one of Kelly's most vocal critics in the Senate -- Senator John McBurney. Let's hope that these sad stories will at least open our eyes to the reality of the domestic violence in our midst and help us to rededicate efforts to eradicate it.

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