Lots of LGBTQ love from the City Paper.

I know the man called Potter loves a letter to the editor and he has one today from Steel City Stonewall President, Dana Elmendorf.  She believes the paper unfairly described Onorato's LGBTQ support.  Potter disagrees. Go read for yourself.

Speaking of Bloomfield, the City Paper provided coverage of a LGBTQ rally against gay bashing. They have an excellent quote on the realities many queer people face from one of our favorite dykes, Eli Kuti.

Some people just don't blend in or can't blend in," says Eli Kuti, organizer of the city's Dyke March. "You should be able to walk down the street and feel safe."

But some don't, she says, in part because they feel they can't turn to police for incidents of anti-LGBT or domestic violence because "they aren't taken seriously." Those concerns lead to victims not filing police reports, she says.

Kuti acknowledges "many cops don't have prejudices and just don't know what to do."

But still, the victim's fear of reporting crimes, she observes, sometimes outweighs the risk of it happening to someone else. 

I hope someone moves us from talking about talking with the police to making it happen.  People don't want there to be gay bashing.  Most cops agree.  It shouldn't be 2010 and we are still looking for a mechanism to make these conversations happen. 

Somewhere in between the anger and the power, there lies the ability to generate change.

It is going to take one hell of a leader.

sdf