Manager Peter Lansdorf says Hunters Nightclub reluctantly imposed its new ID requirement because cross-dressing prostitutes were advertising on Craigslist and mentioning his tavern as a place they hung out.

Lansdorf concedes that the new rule could cut into the club’s substantial transvestite clientele, but says prostitution of any form could cost him his liquor license.

Spokesman Ed Yohnka of the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois says the new ID requirement may possibly be a violation of the Illinois Human Rights Act.

An Associated Press review of the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission’s internal affairs logs found that all but 39 of the 234 allegations of excessive force or unprofessional conduct lodged against agents since 2004 have been closed without disciplinary action. Moreover, in nearly every excessive force case reviewed by the AP, the accused agents’ bosses were the ones who conducted the investigations.

The allegations ranged from officers improperly tackling, punching and using pepper spray on people. The agency has long had a reputation for heavy-handedness and garnered national attention in 2006 when state legislators forced it to cancel a program that aggressively sought to curb public drunkenness through stings that arrested people – even some bartenders- in bars.

The commission has recently drawn scrutiny because of a June raid at a Fort Worth gay bar, the Rainbow Lounge, that put a patron in the hospital for a week. Two agents and their supervisor were fired for violating agency policy, and an investigation is ongoing.

Several experts in police practices said it isn’t unusual for internal affairs cases to be closed without disciplinary action because they often involve one person’s word against another’s and can’t be proven.

But allowing officers’ supervisors to investigate allegations of excessive force isn’t typical for large or mid-size organizations, experts say. Conducting a probe like that “seriously calls into question the integrity of the investigation,” said Jon Shane, an assistant professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York.

The TABC’s internal affairs policy is similar to those of other state agencies with law enforcement authority, including the Texas Department of Public Safety, said Alan Steen, who has served as the commission’s administrator since 2003.

Steen acknowledged that there were problems early in his tenure with the thoroughness of some investigations into misconduct allegations, but that the process has improved considerably since new officers were hired to run the internal affairs unit. He said he’s still comfortable with letting supervisors who oversee the accused agents investigate the claims as long as there’s adequate training and oversight.

The commission’s 275 agents enforce the laws regulating the sale, possession and consumption of alcoholic beverages. They also have the authority to make arrests for other offenses.

Thirty-four other states have liquor control boards with agents who are peace officers. How much authority each agency has varies, but Texas has been one of the most aggressive, said Ted Mahony, president of the National Liquor Law Enforcement Association and chief investigator for Massachusetts’ state commission.

The AP found that 46 allegations of excessive force were made against 36 TABC agents since 2004. Nearly half came in 2005, the height of the agency’s crackdown on public drunkenness. All but five of the 46 were dismissed without disciplinary action. In two instances, agents received counseling for lesser offenses. Three allegations are shown as pending.

In compiling its own data, the TABC tracks excessive force by the number of complaints received instead of the number of officers accused. Using that measure, the agency’s data shows 36 complaints since 2004. TABC spokeswoman Carolyn Beck said the number is minuscule compared to the more than 108,000 citations its officers issued during that period.

The AP tabulated its figures by counting each time an allegation was made against an officer.

The AP’s findings indicate that TABC agents have faced allegations of excessive force at about the same rate as the Austin Police Department.

Sam Walker, a criminal justice professor at the University of Nebraska, said he would expect agents working for state liquor boards to be accused of excessive force at a far lower rate than city cops.

“It’s just common sense that there would be fewer (cases) in that kind of enforcement situation than on the street in high-crime neighborhoods,” he said.

However, Mahony said agents face situations in which force is required more often than some might think because officers have to handle people who are drunk and frequently don’t cooperate.

One recent incident examined by the AP underscores the questions surrounding the process within the TABC.

It involved a Victoria-based agent shown on a security video appearing to tackle a bar patron violently from behind as the patron walks to the door of the club. Based on the video, an assistant district attorney in Victoria County declined to prosecute the patron for resisting arrest, but the TABC has decided that the agent didn’t do anything wrong.

Andy Pena, the TABC officer in charge of internal affairs, said the agent, Jeff Rendon, appropriately subdued a man who earlier tried to avoid getting arrested in a part of the club that did not have security cameras.

The patron, Eric Arriaga, has filed a federal lawsuit against Rendon and another agent claiming that his civil rights were violated and that he received numerous injuries, including a broken ankle.

It’s the third excessive-force allegation against Rendon, 37, since he joined the agency in 2004, the most of any agent in that time period. One was ruled unfounded after Rendon’s supervisor investigated. The other was closed as justified even though TABC officials never contacted the person who allegedly was roughed up.

Beck said Rendon is on administrative leave for a matter unrelated to the use of force. He did not respond to phone messages from the AP.

1. Looks like Atlanta has a thing against gay bars (Memphis also!) We’ll stay on top of these stories for you–thanks to Trace for pushing us to do something about Atlanta. What do our readers in those two cities have to say?

2. The Democrats are hyperventilating about Joe Wilson’s inability to act like an adult when the president is speaking. He’s apologized, President Obama has accepted his apology. Calls for censure are a bit much.

3. If you call Obama a socialist, communist, fascist, Kenyan, Hitler, and/or Stalin you need to keep the tin foil hat on and sit in the corner.

4. Any Graham Swift fans out there? His new book is worth looking at.

5. A gay black gospel singer?!?! Clutch those pearls! On the serious side, it will be interesting to see how gospel music fans react to his admission.

6. Loved, as in completely, Serena Williams’ meltdown in the US Open! I’m a cheerleader for that type of foolishness.

7. Last Joe Wilson comment: did you hear him go on about his “relationship” with Michelle Obama’s family? Looks like the Wilson clan and the Robinson brood live in neighboring South Carolina towns. How that counts for a relationship is beyond me.

8. Anyone shocked that Barney Frank is not part of the push to repeal DOMA?

9. Kayne West should put the vodka down.

10. A whiff  of Cafe Bustelo brewing makes me think all is right in the world.

Chief Jeff Halstead told the City Council that problems happened at the Rainbow Lounge in the early morning hours of June 28 because the department’s bar inspection policy lacked specific guidelines, which he said was why no policies were violated.

He said a revised policy should be in place by Sept. 1 with rules for a three tiered-system: bar checks, inspections and investigations.

The department is also trying to mend its relationship with the gay community – which held several protest marches after the raid – by having meetings, appointing an officer as a liaison and providing more diversity training to officers, Halstead said.

“Once the policy is complete, we’re never going to come here again,” he said after giving his preliminary report on the investigation into the raid. “We are recovering from this, and I’m very proud of that.”

A final report should be finished in late September or October, Halstead said. It will include the department’s findings on whether allegations against some officers – including excessive force and unprofessional conduct – are justified and any recommended disciplinary actions.

Gay rights groups initially demanded independent investigations, saying the bar was targeted because it catered to a gay clientele. Police have denied the accusation.

Halstead told the council that Fort Worth police decided to inspect the Rainbow Lounge and two other bars – in an area known for having many public intoxication arrests – a day after Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission agent and a Fort Worth officer arrested a man who was passed out in his car a block from the lounge.

Fort Worth police then led the inspection – not the state agency, as officials first reported – with five officers and one sergeant, and the TABC had two agents, Halstead said.

He said most of the six people who were arrested that night were taken into custody without any problems after officers saw indications they were drunk.

But in one case, officers saw the TABC agents struggling with a man later identified as Chad Gibson, Halstead said. A Fort Worth officer tried to help by applying a pressure-point technique on his face, but when that didn’t work the agents took Gibson to the ground, Halstead said.

After Gibson was handcuffed, he was stumbling while walking on his own with an officer, Halstead said. Another witness confirmed the TABC agent’s statements that Gibson fell and hit his head on the ground while he was standing by a police van, Halstead said.

Gibson was hospitalized for a week but has said he has a blood clot behind his right eye.

Halstead said he called Gibson’s father shortly after the incident, apologized that he was injured and promised to do a thorough investigation.

Halstead acknowledged Tuesday that while authorities set out to inspect the bar, what happened that night may have resembled a raid in some ways.

“I am apologizing for the actions and the reflection that this gave our community because they perceived it as a bar raid … and that was not our intent,” Halstead said.

A report released by TABC said two agents were wearing improper attire – “state police” shirts – and those agents are accused of violating the agency’s policies including not telling the owner they were conduction an inspection.

Some Fort Worth officers also ran inside the Rainbow Lounge just before 2 a.m. after an officer sent two distress calls 18 seconds apart on his police radio asking for help with a customer resisting arrest, Halstead said.

“Hey – I need help in here. … I’m by the restroom,” one officer said, sounding breathless, according to audiotape of the calls obtained by The Associated Press under the Texas Open Records Act.

Halstead said when the department got the second distress call, the situation became more urgent.

“I’ll be honest. The officers probably had adrenaline running in their veins, and they were probably excited. … All of us that wear this uniform have been there when you enter in after two distress calls are put out. You really don’t know what’s going on,” he said.

Mayor Mike Moncrief (MAHN’-creef) made an impromptu apology during Tuesday night’s meeting where officials and residents commented on last month’s raid on the Rainbow Lounge, which left one man hospitalized with a serious head injury.

Moncrief had told the crowd: “If you want an apology from your mayor: I am sorry about what happened in Fort Worth.”

City spokesman Bill Begley (BAY’-glee) said Wednesday the mayor and council always are sorry if someone is hurt in the city.

The Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission and Fort Worth Police Department are investigating the raid, which was conducted jointly by their agencies.

The first happened about 20 years ago, when I was a volunteer for the AIDS Center for Queens County. My “buddy” and I were enjoying drinks at Uncle Charlie’s, a (now-defunct) Greenwich Village watering hole. I was 20, fresh out of Catholic school, and still pretty conservative. Uncle Charlie’s was known as the “S&M” (”Stand & Model”) bar for preppy youths like me.

“I need to take you to a REAL New York gay bar,” my buddy announced.

So he took me to the Spike, a notorious leather bar. At the time I was wearing pressed khakis and a pastel multi-striped Ralph Lauren Oxford shirt, and I couldn’t have stuck out more if I had walked in dressed as a nun. (Actually, there may have been someone there dressed as a nun, but the details of the night are blurry.)

The second happened a decade later. By then I was a recently hired professor at Wayne State University in Detroit. I was enjoying drinks at Pronto, a suburban gay bar not unlike Uncle Charlie’s, when an African-American friend turned to me and said, “I need to take you to a REAL Detroit gay bar.”

“Here we go again,” I thought.

So we left the bar and drove over to the east side of the city. I was the only white person in sight, and as we stood in line I focused intently on my friend so as not to look overly curious. We reached the door, and the bouncer, who towered over me like a sequoia tree, leaned down to give me a hug.

“This is weird,” I thought, but not wanting to appear conspicuous I went ahead and wrapped my arms around him. My friend started laughing hysterically.

Suddenly I realized that the bouncer was not trying to hug me. He was patting me down for weapons. So much for not looking conspicuous.

There are several lessons here-aside from, watch what the other people in line are doing.

First, there’s the common human tendency to have strong feelings about what’s REAL, whether we’re talking about a REAL bar, or the REAL Detroit, or REAL sex-whatever.

Yet Uncle Charlie’s and Pronto felt (and were) perfectly real to me. There’s a danger in confusing what’s personally comfortable with what’s authentic. And while there’s nothing wrong with sharing one’s likes and dislikes, we shouldn’t dismiss others’ preferences simply because they’re different.

Take, for example, the tendency of some gays to consider anal sex “real” sex, and other forms as mere foreplay. This mirrors the heterosexual tendency to do the same with penile-vaginal sex. As a result, some deep, meaningful, exciting, positive sexual experiences get dismissed as less than real, and some people routinely engage in forms of sex that they don’t really enjoy. How foolish.

Second, because there’s value in expanding one’s horizons, and because new territory can be fraught with risk-even if only risk of embarrassment-ambassadors are crucial. I never would have explored those other places had those friends not taken me. And even though I decided that the places weren’t my scene, my friends helped expand my notion of what’s possible.

Of course, this is true not just for bars-which are (for me) a relatively minor part of gay life-but also for political and charitable groups, art openings, public lectures, dinner parties, sports events, whatever.

It isn’t just true for gay life, either. For example, my identity as a Detroiter has become important to me, and it’s been formed largely thanks to the people who have introduced me to the city in all its aspects-the good, the bad, and the ugly.

And so, those who mentor have a delicate job-inviting but not pushing (at least, not beyond a gentle nudging); advocating but not forcing; witnessing but not indoctrinating. I’m grateful for the many who have done it for me. I hope I can pay their effort forward.

********************

John Corvino, Ph.D. is an author, speaker, and philosophy professor at Wayne State University in Detroit.

For over seventeen years he has traveled the country speaking on homosexuality and ethics. His writing has been featured in regional and national periodicals, at the online Independent Gay Forum, and in numerous scholarly anthologies. His column “The Gay Moralist” appears Fridays on 365gay.com.

For more about John Corvino, or to see clips from his “What’s Morally Wrong with Homosexuality?” DVD, visit www.johncorvino.com.

“I’ve asked for as thorough a report as possible … to reassure folks that the police are not singling out any group,” Councilman Joel Burns said Monday.

He said he was particularly disappointed that the raid occurred on the 40th anniversary of New York City police raid on the Stonewall Inn. That 1969 raid touched off a riot and subsequent demonstrations that fueled the gay rights movement in the U.S.

Burns said Fort Worth police were unaware of the anniversary.

Mayor Pro Tem Kathleen Hicks, also calling for an investigation, said she was “very concerned” after hearing from patrons and others in the community about the early Sunday morning raid at the Rainbow Lounge.

More than 100 people gathered outside the Tarrant County Courthouse on Sunday evening to protest what they said was police harassment and abuse.

One of those arrested during the raid, Chad Gibson, 26, remains hospitalized with bleeding on the brain, his sister Kristy Morgan said.

Gibson is not violent, and “for anyone to come back and say he did something to provoke this is ludicrous,” she told Dallas-Fort Worth television station KDFW.

Fort Worth police went to the Rainbow Lounge with Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission agents early Sunday as part of routine alcoholic beverage code inspections, said police Sgt. Chad Mahaffey. They first went to two other bars, where 10 people were arrested, he said.

Officers then went to the Rainbow Lounge, which had opened about a week ago. They encountered two drunk people who made “sexually explicit movements” toward officers and another who grabbed a TABC agent’s groin, according to the police report.

No one was arrested for assault but about half a dozen people were arrested on charges of public intoxication, according to police records.

Police Chief Jeff Halstead said Gibson was the patron who grabbed at the agent’s groin. Gibson was so drunk he was vomiting and struck his head when he fell, the chief said. Gibson was arrested, but was taken to the hospital instead of jail.

Halstead said he did not have additional details about how Gibson was injured.

The department has started an internal investigation into the raid, he said.

The TABC is waiting on a report from the Fort Worth office, but “given the concerns that have been raised, it would not be unusual” for an internal investigation to be done, said agency spokeswoman Carolyn Beck.

George Armstrong, 41, said he had been at the Rainbow Lounge about 30 minutes when officers stormed inside. He smiled and flashed a peace sign at one officer, but was then grabbed and tackled to the floor with his arm twisted behind his back, he said.

“He was yelling at me to stop resisting arrest, but I wasn’t doing anything. It was horrible. I really thought he had broken my shoulder,” Armstrong said Monday. “I’ve never been so embarrassed and humiliated. I didn’t do anything to him.”

Armstrong, who was arrested, said he noticed that other people who were arrested were injured or said they had been tackled by police.

Armstrong said he was released from jail the next day and went to a hospital, where his arm was put in a sling after X-rays determined his shoulder and back were severely bruised and strained.

Armstrong said he didn’t see anyone inside the Rainbow Lounge make lewd gestures or grab the officers.

“To me, it seemed like they were trying to make a point,” he said of the police.

Sandra Arena, a 48-year-old hairdresser, was acquitted of second-degree murder but convicted of manslaughter during a nonjury trial in March.

“I don’t think there was evil intent here. It was a reckless act,” Judge Frank Geraci said.

Arena tearfully apologized to the family of Chad Coleman, 22, who died after being pinned under her car in a parking lot outside Nasty D’s Bar and Grill shortly before 2 a.m. on Aug. 13. Witnesses said Arena spun her wheels trying in vain to back up while Coleman was caught under the car.

“I can’t imagine how afraid my son was at that time,” Coleman’s mother, Latricia Swift-Winbush, said in appealing to the judge to “use her as an example that this type of behavior will not be tolerated in this city.”

Arena said she was trying to break up a melee after she was punched by a man who then turned on her girlfriend. She said she expected the crowd to scatter and didn’t intend to harm anyone. Prosecutors maintained she displayed depraved indifference to human life.

A 19-year-old woman testified that she confronted Arena in the bar over her relationship with the teen’s former girlfriend. That led to a fight next to Arena’s car during which a man punched her in the face and then attacked one of her friends, Toni Dalesandro, 21.

Arena said she drove at speed toward a group of about 10 people to try to help Dalesandro, who was among the four women injured.

One of the victims had his head split open when he was hit by a 4-pound rock. Police said both victims were inside the bar when the door to Roberts Lafitte bar suddenly opened and door stops and stones were thrown at patrons.

“I thought I had just been slapped, and the second rock hit me here,” Marc Bosaw, 57, told  The Galveston County Daily News, pointing to his head were he now has 12 surgical staples.

“Everything went white in my mind, and I thought that was it. I even said ‘goodbye,”‘ Bosaw said. James Nickelson, 39, another bar patron, was hit in the jaw but did not require treatment.

As Bosaw’s partner of 13 years, Victor Clements, 47, pressed on Bosaw’s wound to stop the bleeding until an ambulance arrived, bar patrons chased the suspects until police took up the chase.

The accused were apprehended a short while later and returned to the bar where they were identified by patrons.

Lawrence Henry Lewis III, 20, Lawrneil Henry Lewis, 18, and Alejandro Sam Gray, 17, are each charged with two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon with the enhancement of a hate crime. Bond has been set at $120,000 each.

Police are expected to produce the rock that hit Bosaw in court. The rock still has part of Bosaw’s scalp and hair still attached.

The FBI and Homeland Security are participating in the investigation into who made the anonymous threats at 11 gay bars, but are referring all questions to Seattle Police.  The police department will say little except that it takes the threats seriously.

Police patrols have increased in the Capitol Hill area where the bars are located.

The threats were made in typewritten letters received by the bars on Tuesday. The weekly newspaper The Stranger received a 12th letter saying it should be “prepared to announce the deaths of approximately 55 individuals.”

Despite the threats, business at the bars has shown little sign of slowing down, although many patrons say they are more vigilant. Tonight, an ad hoc group will hold a Capitol Hill Pub Crawl. The group on its Web site is urging gays and their supporters to attend.

The site also reminds people going to bars to look out for each other and “never leave your drink unattended or accept a drink from a stranger.”

Ricin is a poison found naturally in castor beans. It can be in the form of a powder, a mist, or a pellet, or it can be dissolved in water or weak acid.

If made into a partially purified material or refined into a terrorist or warfare agent, ricin could be used to expose people through the air, food or a liquid.

While law enforcement is tight lipped about the investigation, some people within the city’s LGBT community say they suspect the threats came from someone who is gay.

They cite a line in the threatening letters loosely taken from the poem “A Display of Mackerel” by openly gay writer Mark Doty. The poem was published in Doty’s book, Fire to Fire: New and Selected Poems, which won the 2008 National Book Award for Poetry.

“The targets won’t care much that they’ll be dead and nearly frozen, just as, presumably, they didn’t care that they were living,” the letters said.

Doty told The Seattle Times that he wrote the poem in 1994 as a meditation on the nature of the self and mortality after his partner died of AIDS.

Some, including Dan Savage, the editorial director of The Stranger, say the reference to the poem suggests the letters came from someone who is gay.

“It’s a gay self-hater,” Savage told The Times.

“Somebody who was seriously interested in killing a bunch of people at a gay bar wouldn’t announce the method of the attack in advance.”