Former Viking Chris Kluwe to sue Vikings over homophobia allegations

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Former Vikings punter Chris Kluwe announced on Tuesday he will be suing the team after the team failed to disclose the results of an internal investigation prompted by Kluwe’s allegations of rampant homophobia in the team’s management.At a press conference at the IDS Tower in downtown Minneapolis on Tuesday, Kluwe chastised the Vikings for failing to release the report on an investigation into homophobia.“It’s transparently obvious to me that the Vikings are covering up the truth,” said Kluwe’s attorney Clayton Halunen. “We have no choice but to litigate at this point. Kluwe willingly cooperated with the Vikings’ investigation – all he ever wanted was for the truth to come out.”On Jan. 2, former Viking punter Chris Kluwe made some startling claims in a post on Deadspin:We were laughing over one of the recent articles I had written supporting same-sex marriage rights, and one of my teammates made a joking remark about me leading the Pride parade. As we sat down in our chairs, Mike Priefer, in one of the meanest voices I can ever recall hearing, said: ‘We should round up all the gays, send them to an island, and then nuke it until it glows.’ The room grew intensely quiet, and none of the players said a word for the rest of the meeting. Continue Reading

Whose country is this?

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There were many disadvantages to being brought up in a restrictive part of the country in the 40’s and 50’s, even if you were white and middle class. In my mother’s New England, in the broken land and stunning autumn months and soft spring times of my childhood, I was told, in words and gestures from both teachers and parents that I had only a limited role to fill in this world. In my privileged home, oldest of five children, it was assumed that marriage would define me and that it was indeed unseemly of me to want more. I was not denied the chance to explore the world around me, to go on those long hikes I have written about or swim in dangerous water. At the same time I was expected to settle down, and to content myself raising a large family. My mother did not work. I would not work. Continue Reading

Turning defeat into victory: Carri Jones learned from her first election loss and now leads Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe

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Women chair four of the 11 federally recognized Indian tribes in Minnesota. Carri Jones, chairwoman of the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe, is one of them.In July 2012, Jones, then 32, became both the youngest person and the first woman in her tribe to be elected to this position. “It’s a real honor stepping in as a woman,” Jones said, noting that “the majority of the council was and is dominated by men.”She continued: “It shows women, especially younger women, that they can be successful if they put their mind into it and work hard.”Jones has been working hard for the tribe ever since she graduated from Bemidji State University in 2003 with degrees in accounting and business administration. She started as a file clerk in the band’s finance department and worked her way up to the controller position. Then, in 2010, Jones made a foray into tribal politics by entering the race for secretary/treasurer.After coming in third, Jones said she was disappointed at first. Continue Reading

Conservative Christians protest Anoka-Hennepin’s planned LGBT inclusion

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Two years after the Anoka-Hennepin School District entered into a consent decree with the U.S. Department of Justice after multiple suicides of LGBT students, and a lawsuit by six students alleging rampant bullying and discrimination, conservative Christian parents continue to fight the inclusion of LGBT students in the district.At the June 30 school board meeting, the board heard the recommendations of the Anti-Bullying/Anti-Harassment Task Force, a group established by the consent decree. The task force is composed of 29 parents, teachers, principals, district administrators, and additional community members who are charged with making developing ways to make Anoka Hennepin Schools safer for students.The task force presented 5 recommendations which included: Increase messages of kindness in the Anoka-Hennepin community, provide comprehensive communication about safety and inclusiveness for all people in our schools, increase adult presence in unstructured common places in middle schools through the use of volunteer school ambassadors, and increase awareness and acknowledgement of the variety of family structures & characteristics.But it was Recommendation 3 that has caused outrage amongst Anoka-Hennepin’s conservative Christians. That recommendation reads:Recommendation 3: Honor and celebrate the contributions of diverse people and families in our community, country, and world, including the LGBT community. In an effort to affirm and celebrate the diversity represented by district students, families, and employees, the Task Force recommends Anoka-Hennepin Schools recognize, affirm, and assess specific LGBT activities including, but not limited to, continuing to support student-led Gay Straight Alliance clubs; hosting school-related family nights for our diverse populations, including LGBT families and LGBT students and their parents; and creating public displays honoring LGBT history month each October beginning in 2014.During the June 30 meeting, the school board heard from task force member Bryan Linquist who used thinly veiled language to urge the board to reject Recommendation 3 [find video of the meeting at the Anoka-Hennepin School District Streaming Media Archive].Linquist notes that he opposed the recommendations even though he wasn’t there to vote on them. “I was not present for the voting or part of the 19 that voted to move all 5 recommendations forward.”“I ask you to aware of what is being recommended and whom the recommendations benefits. Continue Reading

Five votes. Five Catholics. Five men. What is wrong with the Hobby Lobby decision?

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Five votes. Five Catholics. Five men. One decision. Potentially millions of American women denied contraceptive coverage. This what the recent Hobby Lobby decision is about, but it also reveals three deeper problems–the sexism pervading the current Supreme Court along with its religious parochialism, a serious problem with the role that religion has come to occupy in American society, and the elevation of corporate rights and power that is strangling American society. Continue Reading

Report: Anti-LGBT Archbishop Nienstedt being investigated for gay relationships

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Embattled Archbishop John Nienstedt is facing a church investigation into whether he had inappropriate same-sex relationships with fellow clergy while he was engaged in anti-LGBT advocacy, according to Commonweal, the oldest Catholic journal in the United States.Commonweal reported on Tuesday that Nienstedt is the target of an investigation by an outside law firm hired by the church to investigate child sexual abuse in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, which oversees the state’s Catholic churches, organizations, clergy, and staff. The investigation seeks to learn whether Nienstedt had romantic relationships with fellow male staff and clergy, and whether he retaliated against staff and clergy who dismissed his advances.Commonweal’s source about the investigation is Jennifer Haselberger, a former church employee and whistleblower who uncovered attempts to cover-up child sexual abuse.“Based on my interview with Greene Espel—as well as conversations with other interviewees—I believe that the investigators have received about ten sworn statements alleging sexual impropriety on the part of the archbishop dating from his time as a priest in the Archdiocese of Detroit, as Bishop of New Ulm, and while coadjutor and archbishop of St. Paul and Minneapolis,” Haselberger told Commonweal. “He also stands accused of retaliating against those who refused his advances or otherwise questioned his conduct.”Nienstedt denied the allegations, but did not deny that the investigation is occurring. Continue Reading