AJC: AE Defendants ‘Not Guilty’
March 12, 2010 by Gay Agenda News Team · 1 Comment
An Atlanta judge found three defendants in the Atlanta Eagle gay bar case not guilty Thursday, and the prosecutor agreed to dismiss the charges against the other five defendants.
Municipal Judge Crystal Gaines said city police failed to produce evidence proving that men danced naked without permits or that the bar operators were running an unlicensed adult establishment.
The decision comes as defendants and others involved with the Ponce de Leon Avenue bar are countering with a lawsuit in federal court against the city and Atlanta police officers.
More on this by Ty Tagami and Larry Hartstein at: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution!
China City Government Opens Gay Bar
November 30, 2009 by Gay Agenda News Team · 1 Comment
A Chinese city with one of the nation’s highest rates of AIDS has opened a government-funded gay bar in an outreach effort that has stirred debate over the use of taxpayers’ money.
The health department in Dali, a picturesque city on a lake in southwestern Yunnan province, funded the bar to reach out to China’s increasingly open gay community. Dali is one of the 10 cities in China most affected by AIDS.
Same-sex transmission accounts for about one-third of new HIV infections in China, the minister of health said this month.
“Some readers think that it’s a waste of taxpayer money, or an indirect endorsement of homosexual behaviour,” the Beijing News said in an opinion piece on Monday, citing letters to the editor after it ran an article on the bar over the weekend.
“They think if there were another way to reach out to the gay community, it wouldn’t be necessary to open a bar.”
Founder Zhang Jianbo hopes that the bar will be a public gathering place for gay men, especially from rural villages, who used to gather in a patch of woods near the historic town.
The bar offers sex education and free condoms, in addition to companionship, Zhang said in an interview with the newspaper.
Hugh Jackman Talks About Picking Up at Gay Clubs
November 27, 2009 by Gay Agenda News Team · Leave a Comment
Hugh Jackman who has had to deal with rumors that hes gay for much of his career admits he used to frequent gay clubs but not for the obvious reasons. The recently crowned People magazines Sexiest Man Alive actor says he and his best friend used to frequent the nightspots as teenagers so they could prey on unsuspecting girls.
He said: I probably shouldn’t be saying this, but I remember when I was about 19, me and my friend used to go to these dance parties which were 80 per cent gay guys, 18 per cent girls who were sick of heterosexual guys hitting on them, and then vultures like me and my mate. We would go there until two in the morning, when the girls were really drunk and wishing they weren’t with 80 percent gay guys. Im the worst kind of straight guy. The leech! The vulture!
More at: Celebrity Gossip Show!
Atlanta Police Department Sued Over Gay Bar Raid
November 25, 2009 by Gay Agenda News Team · Leave a Comment
Mark Danak was relaxing at the bar after his weekly choir practice and had just asked the bartender to flip the TV to the Georgia Tech football game when he heard an officer shout “Hit the ground.” He said he spent the next hour with his face on the floor.
“I’m sorry, that was not right,” said Danak, a 38-year-old IT operator. “When rights get violated like this, people need to stand up.”
The lawsuit seeks police documents detailing how often these types of raids are conducted and asks a federal judge to block them. Gerry Weber of the Southern Center for Human Rights said doing so would be a first step in delivering justice to the bar’s patrons.
“It’s not about gay or straight, black or white,” said Weber. “It’s about innocents being treated as criminals.”
Atlanta Bar Falls Victim to Anti-Gay Raid
September 11, 2009 by Gay Agenda News Team · Leave a Comment
A patron of the Atlanta Eagle says officers with the Atlanta Police Department acted inappropriately during a raid late Thursday, yelling profanity at people inside the bar, forcing them to lay face down on the floor while handcuffed for more than an hour, joking during arrests and repeatedly asking patrons if they were married or in the military.
The allegations come in the wake of a raid Thursday at the popular gay bar on Ponce de Leon Avenue. The action by Atlanta police included eight arrests and was first reported Friday by Atlanta Progressive News.
Read the entire post at: Project Q Atlanta!
