Beyond Disgusting! Cincinnati NAACP appoints anti-gay lawyer to board (Read and weep)

Cincinnati NAACP appoints anti-gay lawyer to board

The president of NAACP’s Cincinnati chapter has appointed an anti-gay lawyer to its board.

New board member Chris Finney wrote Article 12, a 1993 city charter amendment that prohibited city officials from passing laws that protected gays and lesbians, according to Cinncinnati newspaper CityBeat.

It was repealed by voters in 2004 after a national boycott resulted in $45 million in lost convention business.

Christopher Smitherman, the Cincinnati NAACP’s president, said that no one should be judged on one issue alone. Chris Finney “has earned our confidence in him with our legal work. I cannot be concerned with the interests of any other constituency group. I must look out for the interests of our membership,” Smitherman said.

Finney was asked in a 1994 court hearing why sexual orientation should affect who can eat in a restaurant or be employed by a company.

“Because there may be some who don’t want their family dining next to a homosexual couple whose actions they find offensive,” Finney said.

http://www.365gay.com/news/cincinnati-naacp-appoints-anti-gay-lawyer-to-board/ (though there isn't anything else on the story)

and disgusting.

My God, what a jerk.

"I cannot be concerned with the interests of any other constituency group. I must look out for the interests of our membership."

What, there are no black GLBT? That will be news to a number of my friends.

You shouldn't even suggest that! :sarcasm:

We live in imaginary Candyland with unicorns, leprechauns and Lindsay Lohan's sobriety.

It is kind of strange that regardless of the culture of origin, once people get a little money and get a little successful they want to start writing the rules for everyone else.

Once "they" have arrived, they know what's best for everyone else. We saw it happen with the Woodstock hippies who are now hard-haired abstinence only conservatives having their affairs in airport bathrooms or with the bottle: pill bottles and booze bottles.

The saddest cases are the ones who were always nasty know whats best all along since grade school, usually about everyone else's lives and affairs.

I wonder what's hiding in this dude's closet?

:rofl:

when I was a kid. :)

where have I heard this before... :eyes:

:blush:

I mean, civil broom-jumpin is okay, just don't call it marriage.

:sarcasm:

Bigots want war they get war.

Happily the NAACP is not really a power in our lives so that human turd can spew his shit however and wherever he wants. He is irrelevant, and so are his views.

???

:silly:

"Smitherman and Finney in Bed - Not that there’s anything wrong with that...” by Kevin Osborne, Cincinnati CityBeat, 3/25/09 (print edition): http://www.citybeat.com/cincinnati/article-17449-smitherman-and-finney-in-bed.html

"More on the Finney Connection" by Kevin Osborne, Cincinnati CityBeat, 3/25/09 (blog follow-up)
http://www.citybeat.com/cincinnati/blog-562-more-on-the-finney-connection.html

"Everybody Hates Chris - And Not Too Thrilled With Smitherman Either! - Chris Finney and the NAACP Part Duex," Back2Stonewall, 3/25/09: http://www.back2stonewall.com/?p=1154

"Chris Finney — Part Three," QueerCincinnati, 3/26/09: http://cincywestsidequeer.blogspot.com/2009/03/chris-finney-part-three.html

"Cincinnati NAACP appoints anti-gay activist to board," Box Turtle Bulletin, 3/26/09: http://www.boxturtlebulletin.com/2009/03/26/10148

"Cincinnati NAACP appoints anti-gay lawyer to board," 365Gay, 3/26/09: http://tinyurl.com/cqp2ps

"Why Does the Cincinnati NAACP Hate Gays? (P.S. Black LGBTs, You Don’t Exist...As Usual)," Lavender Newswire, 3/26/09: http://tinyurl.com/cbttk9

:hi:

http://www.qrd.org/qrd/usa/legal/ohio/equality.sup.ct.cert.petition

EQUALITY FOUNDATION OF GREATER CINCINNATI, INC., RICHARD BUCHANAN, CHAD BUSH, EDWIN GREENE, RITA MATHIS, ROGER ASTERINO, AND H.O.M.E., INC., Petitioners,
v.
THE CITY OF CINCINNATI, EQUAL RIGHTS NOT SPECIAL RIGHTS, MARK MILLER, THOMAS E. BRINKMAN, JR., AND ALBERT MOORE, Respondents.

Petition for a Writ of Certiorari to the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit

###

Issue 3 was proposed as an open and obvious effort to reduce the political power and influence of gay people within the City of Cincinnati. Phil Burress, one of the primary instigators of Issue 3, testified that the Human Rights Ordinance “was only 10 percent of the issue. Ninety percent of the problem was the fact that the homosexuals...were going to start pushing their agenda through their elected officials.” He and Chris Finney, who drafted the actual text of Issue 3, both freely admitted that the amendment was designed as a direct response to the perception of growing gay political power in Cincinnati.

The goal of neutralizing the political power of lesbians, gay men and bisexuals was accomplished, as the District Court found, by means of ERNSR (Equal Rights Not Special Rights) campaign materials and advertisements that were “grossly inaccurate” and “riddled with unreliable data, irrational misconceptions and insupportable misrepresentations about homosexuals.” The “main educational tool” of ERNSR was the video “Gay Rights/Special Rights,” which provides a vivid, fear-inducing, and inaccurate portrayal of gay people. ERNSR also circulated pamphlets that perversely and provocatively distorted facts and data about gay people.

In particular, ERNSR prominently highlighted false stereotypes of gay men as pedophiles, App. 28a, including depictions of a fabricated “Real Homosexual Agenda,” which included the statement that “they want the children.”

Gay people also were described in the most “inflammatory” terms and were portrayed, for example, as habitually engaging in bizarre sexual practices, including some “which allegedly involved the use of rodents.” Expert witnesses in political history and on civil rights issues pointed out that the inaccurate sexual stereotyping of lesbians, gay men and bisexuals during the Issue 3 campaign has direct historical parallels in arguments that have been used to malign African-Americans, Jews, and Mexican-Americans.

ERNSR also distributed “patently misleading” materials which mischaracterized Issue 3 and the Human Rights Ordinance to sway potential voters. In particular, the Human Rights Ordinance, whose wording is precisely neutral on the issue of sexual orientation, was consistently referred to as providing “special rights for homosexuals.” Issue 3 also was consistently billed as a mere repealer of the Human Rights Ordinance, rather than as a superlegislative measure that disables the political participation rights of lesbians, gay men and bisexuals now and in the future.

At trial, civil rights experts reviewed the above materials and concluded that Issue 3 was sold to voters through naked appeals to prejudice and their “base” instincts. Thus, as a ballot proposal, Issue 3 was turned into an “up/down” vote on gay people.

It ought to be easier to know who your friends are.

Asked if that sentiment influenced Finney’s selection, he says, “I continue to be very concerned that the gay community continues to approach the African-American community only when they want something from us.”

Funny, that's kind of how I felt, rightly or wrongly, on the day after election day. I didn't vote for Obama as part of some "I'll vote black if you'll vote gay" deal, I voted for him because he was the better choice, but in the back of my mind I really did expect the support of Democrats , all Democrats, on Prop 8 and Amendment 2 so I was pretty disappointed when the votes and demographics came out.

they were made 15 years ago. People have been know to evolve and change their position over time and I would like to know where he stands on the issue now.

http://www.fssp-law.com/finney.php

Mr. Finney is a shareholder in the law firm of Finney, Stagnaro, Saba & Patterson Co., L.P.A., where he concentrates in real estate and commercial law.

Christopher P. Finney, Esq.
2623 Erie Avenue
Cincinnati, Ohio 45208
PH: (513) 533-2980
FX: (513) 533-2990
e-mail: cfinney@fssp-law.com

be my guest.

Since you raised the issue, I assumed you were serious about getting an answer, so I tried to do you a favor by providing his contact info. But if you're unable/unwilling, no worries. Perhaps others will jump in.

wasn't a matter of "unable/unwilling" because I already knew the answer, as would anyone who bothered to look further into the story, I would have received a no comment response.

The original post appears to have cherry picked by 365Gay.com from this article.

"CityBeat e-mailed Finney to ask him several questions, including whether he believes issues of civil rights should be decided by individual state legislatures or by the federal government and — noting conservatives’ typical dislike of “identity politics” — how he felt about working for a group geared toward representing a minority population.

Smitherman prevented Finney from responding, later stating, “You’re not going to see Chris Finney making statements about the work he does for the NAACP. I am the NAACP’s public representative.” "

http://www.citybeat.com/cincinnati/article-17449-smitherman-and-finney-in-bed.html

Right after it was in all the papers that he was being released from Grey's Anatomy for calling TR Knight a "faggot."

But make an analogy of African-American Civil-Rights to the GLBT movement and you will be given a bunch of SHIT.

Though to see individual Black's for being homophobic is as reductive as when heterosexual's get apoplectic at Gay's voting Republican: WE ARE NOT ALL THE SAME: We have idiots among us TO.


Family members of mine have been members of the NAACP since 1946.