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News :: Miscellaneous |
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Gay and black rights in Cincinnati, and Cincy's battle for Olympics 2012 |
Current rating: 0 |
by Cincinnati sheep
(No verified email address) |
31 May 2001
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Reuters today, May 31 2001, reports on Cincinnati's chances of getting the Olympics in 2012: "Cincinnati's bid to host the 2012 Summer Olympic Games faces an uphill battle following last month's race riots, the city's main lobbyist said on Thursday."
In many people's opinions Cincinnati's chances were already minimal due to Cincinnati's UNIQUE official position concerning gays. |
Reuters on Cincinnati\'s uphill battle for the Olympics in 2012. Also, Cincinnati\'s UNIQUE law outlawing legal protection for gays. Bigoted corporate media control of the Cincy sheep.
The May 31 2001 Reuters article farther down.
There are many cities in the USA that haven\'t yet extended anti-discrimination laws to gays. But Cincinnati is, I believe, UNIQUE. Cincinnati voters actually voted to OUTLAW all legal protection (present and future) for gays. Gays can LEGALLY be fired or evicted in Cincinnati just for being gay. Now maybe you understand the depth of the depravity of the bigotry of the Cincinnati corporate, political, and media power structure.
Then as now, WLW 700 AM talk radio, the local 50,000 watt hate radio station, was typical of the overall, mainstream, corporate media attitude towards bigotry. WLW oscillated between outright bigotry and code-word bigotry. Most politicians, for the most part, went along with the corporate media positions of these right-wing to far-right-wing media (WLW 700 AM radio and the Cincinnati Enquirer). The Enquirer is known among sensible people in Cincinnati as the Inquisitor.
The Enquirer\'s far-right editorial writer, Peter Bronson, has been fanning the flames of bigotry, misinformation, and stereotyping again during the Cincinnati Unrest and aftermath.
Here is a quick Cincinnati \"Issue 3\" history. Some quotes from the alternative weekly, CityBeat, in its article \"A Queer Little Law\" from May 24, 2001. http://www.citybeat.com/2001-05-24/news.shtml
\"Are Cincinnatians more tolerant of gays and lesbians than in 1993, when 62 percent of voters approved Issue 3? ... Cincinnati City Council passed the Human Rights Ordinance in late 1992, banning discrimination in employment, housing or public accommodation based on, among other things, race, gender and sexual orientation. Conservatives sprung into action and founded a committee, Equal Rights Not Special Rights, to back Issue 3, a charter amendment banning the city from using sexual orientation as a standard for legal protection or forming city policy. The coalition, which included conservative black ministers, ... After voters approved Issue 3, the foundation again sued, saying the measure was unconstitutional. They won some federal court battles and lost others but were most hopeful in 1996, when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a similar Colorado state law. Meanwhile, in March 1995 city council voted 5-4 to remove sexual orientation from the Human Rights Ordinance. The court battle ended in 1998, when the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal of a U.S. Appeals Court\'s ruling that upheld Issue 3.\"
What goes around, comes around. Garbage in, garbage out. The media monopoly in Cincinnati. Leading the sheep over the cliff. Why there is a need for alternative weeklies, Independent Media Centers, and other voices of truth in Cincinnati.
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CityBeat (alternative weekly). volume 7, issue 28; May 31-June 6, 2001. http://www.citybeat.com/current/letters.shtml
Letter to editor.
Undoing Hate.
Doug Trapp wrote a great article on our town\'s unique Issue 3/City Charter Article 12 (\"A Queer Little Law,\" issue of May 24-30). [ http://www.citybeat.com/2001-05-24/news.shtml ] But as a longtime gay journalist, I believe that no other city at any level in the United States has passed such a law that has been upheld.
The Queen City is the nation\'s leader in officiating hate against a minority. How can we ever make racial progress against true ethnic and cultural prejudice if African Americans, Hispanics and others who have surely felt the pain and sorrow within their own families don\'t come to the table?
Local corporations and individuals have donated millions of dollars to bring the 2012 Olympic Games here to support Nick Vehr\'s campaign. The ex-city councilman\'s vote was crucial to stripping our city\'s Human Rights Ordinance of GLB [gay, lesbian, bisexual] inclusion. He has finally inferred that what\'s clear is the message HIV-positive basketball great Magic Johnson told CityBeat\'s Michael Blankenship and me two years ago -- any chance Cincinnati has of hosting the Olympics is impossible without ejecting the anti-gay/lesbian, anti-bisexual charter amendment first and affording full and equal treatment to all participants.
Stonewall Cincinnati, under Director Doreen Cudnik, has showed great leadership on this issue. The group will for the first time hold its magnificent annual dinner in Kentucky, at Covington\'s convention center ballroom on June 16, with Sandra Bernhard speaking. And it has helped facilitated two others meetings recently, one in Norwood and the national \"Out and Proud\" conference at the Greater Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport in October.
Members of the recently announced chapter of Kentucky Fairness Alliance in the Commonwealth\'s upper area will have great car-pooling opportunities at both the upcoming Stonewall-facillitated events. Ride on!
-- John Zeh, Editor
Rainbow News, www.GayCincinnati.com
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--- end of letter to editor ---
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Reuters. Thursday May 31 1:08 PM ET. http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010531/sp/olympics_bid_dc_1.html
Cincinnati Riots May Hurt Bid for 2012 Games
By Bob Weston
CINCINNATI (Reuters) - Cincinnati\'s bid to host the 2012 Summer Olympic Games (news - web sites) faces an uphill battle following last month\'s race riots, the city\'s main lobbyist said on Thursday.
``We cannot act as if nothing happened. If we ignore it, it makes our bid that much harder,\'\' Nick Vehr told Reuters in an interview.
``This city -- in fact this whole area -- has to respond with the social changes that will make the healing permanent.\'\'
Vehr, a former city councilman and now president of the lobbying group, ``Cincinnati 2012,\'\' said the city\'s final bid for the games was due this week.
Cincinnati is competing with seven other U.S. cities for the 2012 Summer Games. Also in contention are Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, New York City, San Francisco, Tampa and Washington, D.C.
Vehr said he did not want to over-emphasize the challenge Cincinnati faces from the riots that ravaged the city during the second week of April. The four days of rioting resulted in more than 100 injuries, 800 arrests, and damage from vandalism, looting and arson of dozens of stores.
The riots erupted after a white policeman killed an unarmed 19-year-old black youth, touching off long-simmering resentment in the black community that police were targeting blacks.
The U.S. Justice Department (news - web sites) has begun a sweeping review of Cincinnati police policies and practices, seeking to address the rift in police-community relations.
SIGNIFICANT MOMENT IN CITY\'S HISTORY
``We have to treat this as an historic and significant moment in Cincinnati\'s history toward producing the kinds of social changes that will make this a very attractive city for the 2012 Games,\'\' Vehr said. ``If we do that, every last person living in this area will benefit.\'\'
Officials from the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) were scheduled to visit the Cincinnati area for four days beginning July 23 to inspect the city\'s plan for the games. USOC was expected to make a decision on which U.S. city will host the games next year.
``Our venues include college and municipal athletic facilities in Dayton, Ohio; Columbus, Ohio; Lexington, Kentucky; and Louisville, Kentucky, as well as the Greater Cincinnati area,\'\' Vehr said. ``We even expect to use Lake Erie off Cleveland ... for the Olympic sailing competition.\'\'
``We figure we already have existing facilities for 78 per cent of the venues we will need for the Olympics -- which should put us in very good shape versus the cities competing with us,\'\' he added.
Vehr said he realized that it has become more difficult to obtain substantial financial help from the city, which now faces staggering expenses as an outgrowth of the riots.
``But we already have received tremendous logistic support from city departments and expect much more in preparing our bid,\'\' he said.
So far, businesses and private donors have pledged more than $5 million to promote the Olympic bid, Vehr said, with another $2 million yet to be raised.
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Video, audio, text, photos, breaking news and more about the Cincinnati Ohio protests, April 7 2001 Timothy Thomas killing by police, rebellion, riots, killings of 4 blacks (one by asphyxiation - Roger Owensby) by Cincinnati police since November, investigations, politics, racial profiling, police brutality, police rampages, beanbag (METAL PELLETS - BUCKSHOT IN A BAG) and rubber/plastic bullet injuries and hospitalizations, etc.. 15 blacks killed by Cincinnati police since 1995 (16 when William Wilder is included). No whites. In Cincinnati there is NO local, independent, police review board with SUBPOENA power. The Cincinnati police are OUT-OF-CONTROL of civilian authority. A civilian President controls the military, but the Cincinnati police make their own laws?! A LOCAL POLICE STATE, where the white police union leader, Keith Fangman, regularly spouts off his rightwing, and sometimes racist (whether the dumbass knows it or not), opinions on a 50,000 watt, clear-channel, AM hate-radio, race-baiting, talk radio, call-in station (WLW 700 AM) that sometimes can be heard across 38 states.
Corporate and progressive news URLs:
http://1230thebuzz.com/ --1230 AM. Cincinnati black talk radio. 1000 watts. http://www.cincinow.com --TV 9. Video, audio, text, photos. http://www.channelcincinnati.com --TV 5. Video, audio, text, photos. http://www.cincynation.com --Various news sources compiled.
http://enquirer.com --Cincinnati Enquirer.
http://www.cincypost.com --Cincinnati Post. http://www.cincinow.com/specials/city_in_distress/news/ --CinciNow unrest archives. http://www.cincinow.com/specials/city_in_distress/news/video.shtml --Video archives. http://www.real.com/player --RealPlayer 8 Basic is a free, streaming video, player. http://www.citybeat.com/current/unrest.shtml --CityBeat unrest archives. http://dailynews.yahoo.com/fc/Local/Cincinnati_Riots/ --Yahoo Full Coverage.
At the bottom of the AP and Reuters newswire pages is a dropdown menu to select news from previous days. Check for Cincinnati news:
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ts/nm/?u
Reuters. http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ts/ap/?u
Associated Press (AP). http://abcnews.go.com/wire/US/index.html
Off The Wire.
Raw news
http://ovimc.org
Ohio Valley Independent Media Center has many Cincinnati Unrest articles on the homepage and/or in the archives. To see more, click the \"display all articles\" link at the bottom right, and then keep clicking \"display next articles.\" Post your articles! Links (full URLS starting with http) found in posted articles are made clickable.
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See also:
http://ohiovalleyimc.org
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