European Adventure - Barcelona and Back to the USA

Of the cities that we saw on our journey, the one that we most fell in love with was Barcelona. The city is beautiful, clean and definitely full of great looking men. Add to that the fact that Spain recognizes full same sex marriage and it made for a great experience. Unfortunately because of our flight schedule we were not able to fully experience Barcelona's vibrant gay night life. All in out group would love to make a return visit and focus our visit on the city and its resort areas to the north and south. The boyfriend and I had a great lunch in the Gothic District after visiting the Picasso Museum and walking around the district and viewing its many shops and amazing architecture, including the city's cathedral the construction of which was commenced in 1291. We also visited Gaudi's masterpiece, Sangrada Famillia (pictured above), which was commenced in the 1880's and is still under construction. As an added note, Barcelona's beaches are beautiful.

On the trip back today, we were struck by how poorly the USA's passport check points and Customs operations compared to what we experienced in Europe. Coming through Newark was a nightmare and while we could re-check our bags without too much difficulty, we ourselves had to go through the security check points - which were chaos - again even though we'd already been through security before. As for United/Continental Airlines, I will have more to say in a future post and none of it good.

As for being back in backward Virginia, let's just say that I am less than thrilled.

Newark Triple Murders -- Another Laramie in 2007?

Several blogs and new sites, including the Washington Blade (http://washingtonblade.com/thelatest/thelatest.cfm?blog_id=14417), are now reporting that the triple execution style murder of Newark teens earlier in the summer may have been motivated by the sexual orientation of the victims. For some reason, the City of Newark does not seem to even want to even look into that angle of the crime. Here is a report from Blue Jersey (http://www.bluejersey.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=5729):

Terrance Aeriel, Dashon Harvey and Iofemi Hightower are gone, a loss which rips at the soul of the city of Newark and staggers us all with the brutality of it. Natasha Aeriel was tortured. What hell she's lived through we can only imagine. What's left for all of us now is to come to terms about how and why all this came to be. To face it. And then to rise to the challenge to protect all vulnerable youth, and make sure this doesn't happen ever again.

Some leaders in Newark's LGBT community are calling on mayor Cory Booker, the City Council and police to answer the question: "Why is the recent execution style slaying of three young people in Newark not being investigated as a hate crime?"

We are told that friends of the victims have come forward to ask why the identities of the murdered teenagers, and the lone survivor, have been suppressed, claiming that "at least one or more of the victims were gay". Media reports indicate that two of the victims were sexually molested before being killed. Though authorities suggest robbery was the motive, some in the community say they were targeted because they were gay.

Whether this particular case is a hate crime remains to be determined by the courts, but there is a well-known and largely unspoken epidemic in Newark of gays being targeted for their sexual orientation. The homophobia in parts of the black community makes this a politically unpopular issue for leaders to address. But it's a real problem and pretending it's not there only perpetuates the cycle of hate. There are well-meaning and deeply caring people who don't want any of this public.