YouthPride, Brandon White and more…

Atlanta men videotape anti-gay beating; victim called ‘faggot’ repeatedly

WorldStarHipHop.com posted a video to its website today of an apparent Atlanta street gang beating a man the gang called a “faggot.” The video was posted on the site with the headline, “Dead Wrong: Man Wearing Skinny Jeans Gets Sucker Attacked & G’z Throw a Tire On Him for Being Gay.”

“Jack City, no faggots,” a man says at the start of the video. “Jack City” is an apparent reference to a street gang.

The operator of the camera was also heard shouting “No faggots in Jack City, man” at least four times during the beating. The apparent hate crime occurred outside a neighborhood grocery store on McDaniel Street, according to The Smoking Gun website.

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Atlanta police, LGBT activists react to anti-gay beating posted online; victim urged to come forward

Atlanta police are urging the victim of an anti-gay beating posted on the Internet to come forward and are seeking citizen help to identify both the victim and the attackers in the brutal crime, which was posted online at WorldStarHipHop.com today. Federal authorities are now investigating the crime to see if it is indeed considered a hate crime under federal statutes.

“The Atlanta Police Department is working to determine more about the attack depicted on this video, including attempting to identify the victim and the perpetrators. We are also working to determine if the victim filed a police report, or if police were called to the scene,” Atlanta Police Department spokesperson Carlos Campos said this afternoon, in response to media questions about the incident.

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Why we must respond to the HIV crisis among African Americans in the South

Charles StephensBoth tragedy and triumph have shaped and contoured the South as determinedly as the red clay dirt and the thick humidity.  While African-Americans have certainly made progress, one only has to look at the HIV/AIDS rates among African-Americans in the South, particularly the Deep South, to see that there is still a considerable distance to travel.

The needle has moved yes, but so has the need. If HIV/AIDS is to be addressed among African-Americans, the South has to be prioritized.

Statistics show that African-Americans are disproportionately impacted by HIV in the United States. Despite being only 14 percent of our country’s population in 2009, African Americans accounted for 44 percent of all new HIV infections in that year.

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YouthPride faces immediate eviction; legal existence of agency questioned

YouthPride Executive Director Terrence McPhaul

YouthPride faces immediate eviction for not paying more than $34,000 in rent, according to recent letters delivered to the nonprofit agency by attorneys representing the property owners.

The nonprofit serving lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer youth ages 13-24 has been told that Fulton County law enforcement can show up any day and ask the occupants to take their personal belongings and leave the premises.

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