Sunday, March 13, 2011
It's about gender not sexuality -- at least for men's spaces
Attorneys for women’s groups file friend-of-the court briefs in support
Published Thursday, 09-Oct-2008 in issue 1085
PITTSBURGH (AP) – A gay western Pennsylvania man claims co-workers who nicknamed him “Princess” and otherwise harassed him about his effeminate behavior discriminated against his gender, not his sexual orientation, and wants a federal appeals court to reinstate his related lawsuit.
But a lawyer for the defendant company said Brian Prowel’s suit was rightfully dismissed by a judge last year because it is really about sexual orientation bias, which isn’t covered by federal Title VII.
“Despite the socially controversial subject matter, this is a statutory interpretation case,” defense attorney Kurt Miller argued before a three-judge panel of the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Oct. 1.
Prowel’s lawyers contend the rampant harassment – which the company acknowledges – was at least partially fueled by Prowel’s nonconformity with traditional male stereotypes. Since 1989, the U.S. Supreme Court has held that gender stereotyping constitutes illegal gender discrimination.
Prowel, 39, of Penn Hills, was fired in 2004 from his job at Wise Business Forms Inc. of Butler, where he had worked since 1991. He said the harassment occurred after he was “outed” by other employees sometime before 1997.
Prowel contends he was fired after complaining that co-workers nicknamed him “Rosebud” and “Princess” and ridiculed the way he walked, spoke and even sat, with his leg crossed and foot swinging. Among other things, the suit says, workers left a feathered tiara at his work station and wrote graffiti about Prowel and AIDS on bathroom walls.
The company says Prowel was laid off with other workers due to a business slowdown, and that he had complained about his pay and developed attitude problems. The company says other workers complained about Prowel trying to “recruit” them to testify for the bias lawsuit he eventually filed in 2006.
Some of the harassment was spurred by his outwardly effeminate mannerisms, which constitutes gender discrimination, Prowel’s attorneys said. They want a jury to decide whether Prowel’s tormentors were targeting his sexual orientation or his failure to live up to the typical male stereotype.
“If there is a mixed motive, we get the benefit of the doubt,” Prowel attorney Katie Eyer said after arguments.
Attorneys representing 21 women’s groups have filed a friend-of-the-court brief saying Prowel’s experience is the same as a woman being discriminated against for being too masculine or assertive – regardless of her sexual orientation.
But defense lawyer Miller agreed with U.S. District Judge Terry McVerry, whose 15-page opinion rejecting Prowel’s initial lawsuit said Congress did not outlaw bias against sexual orientation in Title VII.
“Permitting a plaintiff to simply relabel a sexual orientation claim as one for failure to conform to gender stereotypes would evade the statutory intent of Congress,” McVerry wrote.
To accept Prowel’s argument is to believe Congress intended Title VII to protect gay men from discrimination only if they act effeminately, Miller said.
Saturday, October 02, 2010
Indian held for filming roommate
New York, September 30, 2010First Published: 23:22 IST(30/9/2010)
An Indian-origin student at a US university has been charged with illegally filming his roommate having sex and posting the images on internet, a report said on Thursday. Dharun Ravi of Rutgers University has been charged by the Middlesex county prosecutor’s office with invasion of privacy for allegedly placing a camera inside the victim’s dorm room, New York Post said.
The victim allegedly committed suicide after learning that images of him with a man had been streamed on the Internet. Ravi and another student used the camera to transmit a live image, said the prosecutor.
Friday, February 06, 2009
Male student 'used Facebook to blackmail boys for sex'
A STUDENT posed as a girl on Facebook to trick male classmates into sending naked photos of themselves before blackmailing some for sex acts.
Anthony Stancl even filmed some of the revolting encounters on his mobile phone, prosecutors say.The "really sinister" case has emerged as Facebook celebrates its fifth birthday - and as rival networking site MySpace reveals it has kicked off thousands of sex offenders.
"The kind of manipulation that occurred here is really sinister in my estimation," Waukesha County District Attorney Brad Schimel said in the United States.
The students go to New Berlin Eisenhower High School in New Berlin, which is in Waukesha County about 15 miles west of Milwaukee.
Stancl, of New Berlin, was charged yesterday with five counts of child enticement, two counts of second-degree sexual assault of a child, two counts of third-degree sexual assault, possession of child pornography, repeated sexual assault of the same child, and making a bomb threat.
The incidents happened from spring 2007 through to November, when officers questioned Stancl about a bomb threat he allegedly sent to teachers and wrote about on a school's bathroom wall. It resulted in the closing of New Berlin Eisenhower Middle and High School.
According to the criminal complaint, Stancl first contacted the students through the social networking site Facebook, pretending to be a girl named Kayla or Emily.
The boys reported they were tricked into sending nude photos or videos of themselves, the complaint said.
Thirty-one victims were identified and interviewed and more than half said the girl with whom they were communicating tried to get them to meet with a male friend to let him perform sex acts on them.
They were told that if they didn't, she would send the nude photos or movies to their friends and post them on the Internet, according to the complaint. Stancl used the excuse to get the victims to perform repeated acts, the complaint said.
Seven boys were identified in the complaint by their initials as either having to allegedly perform sex acts on Stancl or Stancl on them in the high school bathroom, parking lots, neighborhoods under construction, the public library restroom, parks and at some of the victims' homes.
The complaint said Stancl took photos with his cell phone of the encounters.
Officers found about 300 nude images of juvenile males on his computer, according to the complaint. The victims ranged in age from 15 to 17 or 18 years of age at the time of the assaults, the complaint said.
"We know from experience how damaging sexual abuse on children can be," Schimel said.
"We are particularly concerned in this case because of the sheer number of kids that are all in one school."
Schimel said one victim came forward before the bomb threat, but authorities would have likely found Stancl anyway due to the threat.
Stancl's attorney, Craig Kuhary, said Stancl plans to initially plead not guilty to the charges.
"It's too early in the case for me to make a statement, other than the fact at some point we are going to go into events that had taken place earlier that might have had some impact on what he did here," he said. He wouldn't go into specifics.
Kuhary said he hoped that at some point they could reach a plea agreement with the district attorney. Schimel said he was open to talking to Kuhary.
Kuhary said Stancl has been expelled from school.
A preliminary hearing for Stancl has been scheduled February 26.
The maximum penalty if convicted on all charges is nearly 300 years in prison.
Tuesday, February 03, 2009
Three women abduct, rape man in Karachi
KARACHI: Karachi police have registered a case against three unidentified women who allegedly abducted a man and raped him over four consecutive
days, and later throwing him near Qayyumabad River in an unconscious state.
The victim identified as Khalil, 23, works as a waiter at a restaurant. Khalil revealed that, on the night of January 27, an identified man ordered him to deliver food to the women sitting in a car outside the restaurant.
“After giving me the order, the man went towards the car. I took the order to the car where the women told me that they had recently shifted to the area,” the Daily Times quoted him as saying. The women then asked him to deliver food to their house every day. “They asked me to go along with them in the car to see me where their house was,” he added. Once they got to the house, “they gave me milk that had some drug in it ... I fell unconscious after drinking it”.
As he regained consciousness, Khalil found that the women “were forcing themselves onto me”. According to assistant superintendent of police Asad Raza, the women sexually assaulted Khalil for four days, and then threw him near Qayyumabad river. “His condition is really bad ... his genitals are bleeding and he cannot walk properly,” said Raza.
Raza said the women belonged to rich families of Karachi’s Clifton area. “It’s a complicated case ... but we are hoping that we will solve it soon,” he added.
Meanwhile, in another bizarre case in Karachi, the Crime Investigation Department (CID) police on Monday arrested four robbers, including a police constable, on charges of looting passengers and seized weapons, motorcycle and car from their possession.
SSP CID Police Chaudhry Aslam said incidents of robbing passengers returning home from foreign countries were on the rise. The CID, after receiving a tip-off, asked a car and two bikes’ riders to stop. However, they opened fire at the cops, who retaliated.
All four people riding the car, were arrested. One of the four accused, Khalid Amir, is a police constable, serving at Shara-e-Faisal Police Station.
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Thursday, January 29, 2009
When Males kiss...
In the film, inspired by true events, Carrey stars as jailed con artist Steven Jay Russell who falls in love with his cellmate, Phillip Morris, played by Ewan MCGregor.
The two actors locked lips for the comedy drama, prompting the funnyman to wonder what effect it would have on him and his relationship with Jenny MCCarthy if he found himself enjoying it.
Carrey jokes, "I did find myself wondering what will people think? And what if I like it? And how will that affect me? And Jenny?"
But his co-star MCGregor didn't hesitate to go all the way, adding: "It wasn't awkward. You're not playing a gay or a straight character. You're playing someone who's in love... As an actor you're always looking for interesting stories. I've played gay characters so I've kissed men before.
"It's about getting on with it. And it all felt strangely usual."
Saturday, January 10, 2009
Gay-straight divide 'an absurdity,' Queer as Folk star says
Scott McKeen, Freelance
HAL SPARKS
Where: Comic Strip in West Edmonton Mall
When: Today, Thursday and Sunday at 8 p.m., Friday and Saturday at 8 and 10:30 p.m.
Tickets: $34.95. Call 483-5999 or go to www.thecomicstrip.ca
- - -
EDMONTON - Hal Sparks is not queer. Nor is he just folk.
For a comic, his observations about life can be downright serious. Until, that is, he pulls some wicked line out of thin air, just to let you know why he packs comedy clubs.
Sparks, who played the first gay married man on series television, Michael on the hit Queer as Folk, started as a stand-up comic at age 15 in Chicago. From there, he went on to the Second City troupe and eventually graduated to acting, like many of his contemporaries in stand-up comedy.
"I think they are two totally different art forms with overlapping skill sets," says Sparks. "That being said, a lot of us screw it up and are terrible actors."
He's done spots on a range of TV shows, from CSI to Celebrity Paranormal Project. He was Zoltan in the movie Dude Where's My Car? and does regular voice work on the cartoon Tak and the Power of Juju.
One of his first acting gigs was in the, uh, overlooked movie Chopper Chix in Zombietown. Not that he's embarrassed by his feature film debut. After all, the movie also starred a young Billy Bob Thornton.
"We shot that movie on the edge of Death Valley," he says. "If that doesn't speak to your career path at that point, I don't know what does."
Still, he survived to be eventually cast in the trailblazing Queer as Folk. Did he worry about playing a gay man?
"I'm really not one of those guys who makes gay jokes," says Sparks. "Because I don't think those jokes are about homosexuality.
"I think they're about the feminine. Men have difficulty dealing with the feminine. Dealing with anything that is receptive or passive scares them. And the idea that a dude would be receptive or passive scares the crap out of them."
Sparks says playing the part gave him new insight into the ridiculous segregation between straight and gay men.
"It left me feeling like I was standing on a bridge looking at two warring parties and going: 'You know you're both insane, right?'
"Gay people are born the way they are. They no more make that choice than you and I make a choice to be straight. It's no big deal. It's not even important enough to argue over. It's an absurdity."
One popular theory about homophobia is that it's rooted in male insecurity caused by our culture's absence of a ritual rite of passage into manhood. Sparks doesn't buy it.
"I think those rites of passage often create a cartoon-like view of manhood," he says. "They usually involve drinking alcohol and killing a rabbit or a boar. Genuine manhood, I think, is a process you arrive at over the course of your life."
At this point in his life, he's on the road and making a stop this week at Edmonton's Comic Strip. What can we expect?
"Ultimately I feel as a comic it's my responsibility to have a good set," he says. "To some comics, it's a bad crowd, therefore its a bad show, end of story.
"To me, that's like a plumber who comes in to fix your leaky pipes and says: 'These are too leaky for me.'
"I'm a plumber, I should shut up and fix the pipes. Comedy is the same thing. I don't care how tough the audience is, it's my responsibility to make them laugh."
After all, he's had tougher audiences. Like on set, when he was shooting nude sex scenes on Queer as Folk in front of directors, producers and the crew.
"Those are like simulating sex with a cousin on the Thanksgiving dinner table in front of your whole family," said Sparks. "You're not going to be comfortable. Well, unless you're from Arkansas and that's your thing."
© The Edmonton Journal 2008
Published: Wednesday, August 06 2008Saturday, August 30, 2008
Now that the 'Let's catch a drink after work' culture is picking up pace, nightclubs are trying to outdo each other with special nights and packages. These include expat nights and ladies nights, which have become the talk of town. What has not changed, however, is the reluctance of many clubs to let unaccompanied men in.
Going solo
HT City photo coordinator Zabeeh Afaque found he wasn't allowed in at most watering holes for a drink. Afaque was part of the HT City team that went to investigate a problem men in this city are familiar with - most clubs and pubs in the city have a 'no entry' for single men.
We checked out 18 nightspots in the NCR and found at least five that discriminated by letting in single expat men but denied entry to Indian stags.
The city is throbbing with 'nights' that are hosted at places like Urban Pind, Ivy and Kuki.
Urban Pind and Kuki both have popular expat nights on Thursdays with the following special offers Urban Pind: Thirst-day nights have an unlimited IMFL drinks offer at Rs 550 (plus taxes) and Kuki has free drinks through the evening for all expat women and the fIrst 50 Indian women who enter.
Strict policy
Kashif Farooq, co-owner, Urban Pind, the Urban Bar, while talking about the strict couple-only policy says, "These days stags take entry one by one and then form a big
group inside. We think that's unsafe for the women who are new to the country. Honestly, foreigners understand each other better and know how to talk to or approach women. Rules are for everyone. We've often been told to soften our stand on entry but we'd rather lose business than risk an unpleasant event."
Rummy Sharma of Kuki however feels that these nights pull in the crowds on a dull day and the special tag ups the excitement level. But
he's quite clear about who's most important