May they burn in hell for their crimes...

Lesbian's brutal gang rape investigated in Calif.
By LISA LEFF, Associated Press Writer Lisa Leff, Associated Press Writer
SAN FRANCISCO – A woman in the San Francisco Bay area was jumped by four men, taunted for being a lesbian, repeatedly raped and left naked outside an abandoned apartment building, authorities said Monday.
Detectives say the 28-year-old victim was attacked Dec. 13 after she got out of her car, which bore a rainbow gay pride sticker. The men, who ranged from their late teens to their 30s, made comments indicating they knew her sexual orientation, said Richmond police Lt. Mark Gagan.
"It just pushes it beyond fathomable," he said. "The level of trauma — physical and emotional — this victim has suffered is extreme."
Authorities are characterizing the attack as a hate crime but declined to reveal why they think the woman was singled out because of her sexual orientation. Gagan would say only that the victim lived openly with a female partner and had a rainbow flag sticker on her car.
The 45-minute attack began when one of the men approached the woman as she crossed the street, struck her with a blunt object, ordered her to disrobe and sexually assaulted her on the spot with the help of the other men.
When the group saw another person approaching, they forced the victim back into her car and took her to a burned-out apartment building, where she was raped again inside and outside the vehicle. The assailants took her wallet and drove off in her car. Officers found the car abandoned two days later.
The woman sought help from a nearby resident, and she was examined at a hospital. Although the victim said she did not know her attackers, detectives hope someone in the community knows them. One of the men went by the nickname "Blue" and another was called "Pato," according to authorities.
Richmond police are offering a $10,000 award for information leading to the arrest of the attackers.
Gay rights advocates note that hate crimes based on sexual orientation have increased nationwide as of late. There were 1,415 such crimes in 2006 and 1,460 in 2007, both times making up about 16 percent of the total, according to the FBI.
Avy Skolnik, a coordinator with the New York-based National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs, noted that gay, lesbian and transgender crime victims may be more reluctant than heterosexual victims to contact police.
"Assailants target LGBT people of all gender identities with sexual assault," he said. "Such targeting is one of the most cruel, dehumanizing and violent forms of hate violence that our communities experience."
Skolnik said the group plans to analyze hate crime data to see whether fluctuations may be related to the gay marriage bans that appeared on ballots this year in California, Arizona and Florida.
"Anytime there is an anti-LGBT initiative, we tend to see spikes both in the numbers and the severity of attacks," he said. "People feel this extra entitlement to act out their prejudice."


The most important thing we can take from this, since we have a luxury of not being the victim, is that when anti-LGBT laws are passed-- "People feel this extra entitlement to act out their prejudice."

UNACCEPTABLE!!!

Majel Barrett Roddenberry 1932-2008

She was literally a piece of American pop culture history.
So fabulous.

What have you done today to make you feel proud?

It's from a song. Love it.

In September I volunteered to help out at the marriage booth for the Boulder Pride Block Party!
It was a lovely day and we had so much fun. The event was in the middle of Pearl St. and the marriage booth was conveniently located in front of the courthouse. I volunteered as a Rent-a-Bride and helped The Funky Reverend perform illegal weddings. We informed people of rights they still would not have as a same-sex or illegally married couple. We had about the same turnout of both couples. No one wanted to rent me though. Boohoo. My theory is that they knew I wasn't gay. I mean, who wants to marry a straight girl? Not me! I looked super though so whatever.
It's a good day when you can spend it with great people doing something that you really care about.

Quinn rented himself out to marry Nuclia Waste on stage. It was a beautiful event.

There's me on the left.

These guys were something... I don't know if the honeymoon is still on. They'd only been together for a couple days.

And these guys were so cute. They have been together for 6 years.

I've been slacking--Here's an overview.

There's all sorts of stuff I haven't been blogging about. None of it all that life changing but, you know....
Way back in July, after I moved back to Longmont, we went to Tausha's wedding in Wyoming.

That was a fun family event.

For the July 4th weekend we had yet another family gathering. Almost everybody came and took over mom's house and we had lots of food, wet children, and baseball. The boy got to go to their first major league baseball game. I'm not sure they really knew what to do with everything. They've never been anywhere that big before and with so many people. Jordan found the secret to homeruns apparently.

I got to go to a couple more games over the summer with Ed. Awesome as always.

Katie came to visit in August. We hung out in Boulder, and took a trip up to Estes. I've been gone too long and she's a Kansas native so we didn't make it all the way up to Trail Ridge. I couldn't breathe by the time we got to the Stanley. (Which by the way, charges $5 to just get up and look at the bloody hotel! I DO NOT recommend it anymore!) Most of it's spook and charm has vanished. It's too bad.

We had a fantastic time as always. Katie drove her all by herself in mum's brand new car. It was very exciting. She brought some fabulous gluten free bread that we all hogged down. There was an incident with pepper...but that's really to be expected.

I started my new job in September. The day before I had the worst tooth ache in the history of teeth. It made my first day sooo much fun. But things are good now. I'm liking the job for the most part. It's a perfect job for now, I have a super fun team, and I can wear jeans. What more could I really ask for other than a few more dollars? My first week was quite the week. We had the big all employee event with food and festivities and whatnot. I won't go into all the cool stuff but we have a PSA-ish video that might be coming out soon. Danny Glover was in it. Pretty awesome. And another cool thing that my company is doing is building a clinic in Nepal. They brought Jugat to visit us from the village near the clinic. He was very cute and kept calling us his "honorable friends." They have a lot of fun guest speakers with very cool stories.
One guy came in to talk about the Last Ocean, which is somewhere north...like all the way north. It's the last bit of ocean on the planet that isn't destroyed beyond repair. He has some amazingly cool pictures that I hope to be able to show you some day. My favorite speaker so far was a guy named JR Martinez. He was in Iraq when his humvee ran over a landmine. He was in a heavily armed vehicle so the area was evacuated before anyone even knew he was still in the burning car. He has burns over 40% of his body and has had dozens of surgeries. Now he uses his experience to help others and the guy practically glows. The way he talks to a big group of people makes you feel like you've known him for years. We got to chat with him a bit before he left. He's the nicest guy and so adorable. I think about him almost every day. Exciting news for him! He's going to be on All My Children! He told us that the day before he came he had an audition and I saw a video online on Veterans Day that he got the part! I definitely recommend checking him out on this video-- http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=6193326&page=1 More to come.....