Cowboy Congrats: The Diamond State Rodeo Association has announced the e
lection of Will Dunn, Vice President, (pictured) rounding out the recent elections that are highlighted on their website. "I'm glad to be involved and hope to kick things up a notch with additional programming and events." said Dunn. He began this effort this weekend via the new Sippin Sunday & Karaoke night now scheduled for the 2nd and 4th Sunday monthly. During my weekend bar crawl, I concluded with this event which featured some really talented local singers. Certainly I hope that they will perhaps consider demonstrating their talents in other venues. A big shout out to Mr. Rodney who crooned his way to the top prize with several Top 40 yesteryear hits. In case you don't know, there's much going on around the camp fire at DSRA and you'll have to stay locked in to this forum for the latest! We've got a special announcement coming shortly and you simply must not miss it...
And Justice for All: Local service organization CAR( Center for Artistic Revolution) routinely receives complaints from LGBTQ Arkansans about various legal inequalities. This group has been at the forefront in addressing basic rights being violated by law enforcement, youth issues and community building. Similar to other CBO's, funding streams are often strained and at times they have no resources to assist. Yet this resourceful organization sometimes partners with others to help remedy the situation. This can be evidenced from a recent case in which the group was contacted by a lesbian couple, Theresa and Nicole, who were terrorized by a sheriff’s deputy in Lawrence County. According to the Facebook post, one of the women was physically attacked from behind as she was leaving the sheriff’s office by the deputy and then handcuffed, arrested and falsely imprisoned and charged with disorderly conduct. In addition to her physical injuries she has also been diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome. Her partner had her 911 call for help broken in on by the sheriff’s department and canceled. She was then threatened with arrest if she went on the department’s property to try and bond her partner out of jail. This case has now been filed in Federal court as a 1983 action for civil rights violation. This is nothing short of miraculous; that this couple was able to secure an attorney who took the case on a contingency basis. It is highly unusual in Arkansas to have any attorney take these kinds of cases on a contingency basis. However, the attorney cannot front all of the associated fees such as paying for the person to serve the papers and taking depositions. These women are working class, taking care of an elderly father and trying to have a decent quality of life. After their living expenses they don’t have much left for the attorney. They have raised some of the money, and some folks from CAR have also sent in donations, but we still need $1,180.00 for the next part of their case, taking the depositions and serving the papers. They have until October to get this money together. And that’s where you come in! So come out and have a delicious dinner and help move equality work for LGBTQ Arkansans forward! Teresa and Nicole and their lawyer Andy Ballard of Ballard and Ballard will be present and share the story of this case. You can donate through Paypal account on CAR’s website or you can mail a check to CAR, P.O. Box 2300, NLR, AR 72114 NOTE: Make checks out to CAR and note the AR LGBTQ Justice Fund on the memo line.
No comments:
Post a Comment