Clothes Call? Woman Kicked Out For Lesbian T-Shirt

CitizenSugar — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 00:00:10 -0700

Normally a woman entering a federal building to pick up a social security card for her son wouldn't end up in controversy. Unfortunately for Lapriss Gilbert, she was in the wrong place at the wrong time, wearing the wrong t-shirt. When she arrived at the government complex sporting a t-shirt with the words “lesbian.com” on the front, a private security officer hired by the Homeland Security Department stopped her and demanded she leave the premises.

The guard, an employee of Paragon Security, cited The Rules and Regulations Governing Conduct on Federal Property to support his claim that he is able to decide which articles of clothing are acceptable and which are not. Unfortunately, the document does not offer such guidance.

According to a witness, the hired guard’s “loud, unreasonable, aggressive and angry approach to the situation almost caused chaos.” Gilbert says of the incident, "As an African-American and a lesbian, I haven't been through one day without facing some sort of discrimination . . . but this is just shocking." The ACLU is looking into the case they call the most blatant discrimination they've seen in a federal office building.

Iran Considers Death Penalty for Bloggers, Russia Jails One

CitizenSugar — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 09:00:42 -0700

The beauty of the Internet is getting to say exactly what you want in a public forum, right?(Well that and stalking ex-boyfriends and shopping at work, but I digress.) The ability to speak one's mind in bytes and blips has landed one blogger with a jail sentence for extremism. A Russian man who called the local police “scum” and calling for the clean-up of the force he blogged that the police should be burned in the town square twice a day. For this posting, was convicted of “inciting hatred or enmity” and given a one-year suspended sentence.

Free speech activists said the ruling is creating a dangerous precedent: “This was an absolutely unjustified verdict ... This verdict means it will be impossible to make rude comments about anybody.” News of the sentence permeated Russian blogs yesterday leading some to say, "I don't know now if I should be writing here or not." For his part, new Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has said he prizes free speech and that Russia should use a light touch when policing the Internet. That's not the case in Iran. To see what's happening there,

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Clothes Call? Woman Kicked Out For Lesbian T-Shirt

Iran Considers Death Penalty for Bloggers, Russia Jails One