SHEEPSHEAD BAY'S ONLY INDEPENDENT NEWS BLOG

A still from the video segment. What diner is this, anyway?

In an upcoming segment of ABC News’ “What Would You Do?”, patrons of a Sheepshead Bay diner witness gay couples harassed by a waiter. The staged intolerance is part of an experiment to see how locals react to the prejudice. The result? Well, apparently Sheepshead Bay doesn’t care for lesbians.

Here’s the scene:

While enjoying a bite to eat at a local diner, you overhear a waiter giving two women at the next table a hard time.

“Are you sisters?” he asks them. “Are your husbands joining you?”

At first, he just seems to be a nuisance but then he gets personal.

“Oh, you’re lesbians?” he exclaims. “What about your kids? Don’t they need daddies?”

The two women and their children are shocked and embarrassed. As they try to place an order, the waiter gets even more incensed and finally asks them to leave. As the family of four gets up to go, they catch your eye.

What Would You Do?

Keep reading to see how Sheepshead Bay residents reacted

Hate crime victim Michael Sandy (courtesy of Michael Sandy Foundation)

More than three years after the fatal beating of a gay man at Plumb Beach, the victim’s family members, friends, and advocates are one-step closer to securing a memorial in his honor.

Community Board 15 voted unanimously Tuesday night to allow the erection of a memorial stone for Michael Sandy near the Plumb Beach parking lot.

Sandy was killed after a botched robbery-turned-hate crime in October 2006. His murder led friends of Sandy to form the Michael Sandy Foundation, which along with the his parents began seeking a tribute to victims of hate crimes everywhere.

“I would like to thank everyone involved who has had the opportunity to say ‘yes’ to putting this memorial up,” said Tony Bruce, the executive director of the Michael Sandy Foundation, during an interview with Sheepshead Bites. “In some part, by saying ‘yes’ to this they’ll be doing something small that may change someone’s mind about hate violence.”

Read more about the monument and see video of CB15 discussing the tribute

One of the four thugs that played a role in the 2006 murder of a gay man at Plumb Beach is seeking to overturn his conviction.

According to Gay City News:

Arguing that his lawyer was ineffective and the judge in the case gave the jury insufficient instructions on an intoxication defense, John Fox is seeking to overturn his convictions for manslaughter and attempted robbery as hate crimes in the 2006 killing of Michael Sandy.

Fox, 22, was tried with Anthony Fortunato, 23, though they had separate juries. When testimony was offered that concerned only one defendant and could prejudice the case against the other, the second defendant’s jury was excluded from the courtroom.

The issue in the appeal is whether Fox’s lawyer, John D. Patten, erred when he did not object to Fox’s jury being excluded when Fortunato testified in his own defense.

Continue Reading »

(courtesy of NBC New York)

Over the weekend, gay rights activists marched in front of State Senator Carl Kruger’s Mill Basin home, enraged at the senator’s recent vote against marriage equality in New York State. According to NBC New York, activists called Kruger a “bigot”, and are planning more protests in the coming weeks.

Kruger has defended his vote as a reflection of his constituents’ wishes, not of his own beliefs. He said he considers the Orthodox Jewish community a “bedrock” part of his district. He added, “When it becomes an emotional, gut-wrenching issue, when it cuts through the fabric of traditions and values, then I have my community as the cornerstone of my decision.” (Others say Kruger’s vote was the result of a “chit cashed” by fellow “Amigo” Ruben Diaz.)

What do you think? Should a senator put his constituents’ wishes before his own moral beliefs? Always/Never? And is the Orthodox Jewish community reflective of the the entire district, which includes Bergen Beach, Flatlands, Mill Basin, Sheepshead Bay, and Midwood.

Meanwhile, in other Kruger news, the good senator continues to get slammed for his budget shenangigans and role in the MTA deficit (here and here).

A distinction to be proud of? We think not.

Sheepshead Bay’s two state senators – Carl Kruger (D) and Marty Golden (R) – remain the only Brooklyn-area representatives standing against gay marriage in New York.

Of the nine members of the Brooklyn delegation to the State Senate, seven have publicly stated support for same-sex marriage rights, according to a survey by NY1. The majority of state senators from all five boroughs and Westchester support the bill, as do the majority of residents statewide, according to one poll. Continue Reading »

Just a few days ago, we wrote about the planned addition of markers to honor non-Jewish victims of the Holocaust at New York’s first public, outdoor Holocaust memorial, park, and musuem.

Now, the NY Post is reporting that Assemblyman Dov Hikind with others of like mind staged a protest of the planned memorial to honor “homosexuals, Jehovah’s Witnesses, the disabled, political prisoners and Roma and Sinti Gypsies, who were also persecuted and killed by the Nazis.”

Apparently, Dov Hikind speaks for quite a few Jewish people when he says that only Jews are allowed at the symbolic cemetery. One Sheepshead Bay resident we spoke with, a survivor of the Holocaust whose entire family was killed, said,

I don’t want to talk about sex, but gypsies are okay to be in the memorial. But, homosexuals I don’t know…this memorial should not reflect anything about the homosexuals. If they want to honor them, that should be in another memorial. Those days in the forties, people didn’t talk about that. It was hidden, so the gypsies were there in the camps, but the homosexuals — well, we didn’t have any idea about that.”

Another Sheepshead Bay resident, whose grandmother managed to escape the suffering by emigrating to the United States, had always felt that any Holocaust memorial should honor those lost in the massacre by celebrating life, not in a display of headstones. He said that when she visited the site as it turned from a green patch to a semi-cemetery, she remarked that it might have been better identified with a plaque and set up as a place for children to play and laugh, instead.

Readers, we would like to hear from you about what you think should happen with the city-owned Holocaust memorial park. We want to know what to expect when Mayor Bloomberg heads over to Shore Parkway & Emmons Avenue this coming Sunday afternoon for the 25th Annual Gathering and Exhibit put together by The Holocaust Memorial Committee.

Will we have Jewish protesters speaking out while the homosexual and Gypsy representatives lay the new headstones? Or will everyone keep their opinions on the blogs and in the newspapers, thus allowing the memorial to remain solemn?

UPDATE from Tuesday, June 9, 2009:
The New York Jewish Week reports that:

Assemblyman Steve Cymbrowitz, who represents Sheepshead Bay, released a statement in support of the new markers, saying “the park’s purpose is most definitely to educate as well as commemorate. Excluding Holocaust victims who were not Jewish would be sending a message that is 180 degrees opposite of what we need to communicate.