Seymour Pine Who Led Stonewall Inn Raid Dies, Kristi Allen-Gailushas Of Montana Tea Party Declares War On Gays, Matthew Mitcham Continues To Defend Stephanie Rice Saying She Loves Gays, Heterophobe Defined, Trevor Donovan

Seymour Pine has died. The 91 year old was a deputy police inspector who led the New York City Police Department raid on the Stonewall Inn, in the early hours of June 28th, 1969, a moment that defined the modern gay liberation movement. Pine was the commander of the Lower Manhattan vice squad at the time. In 2002, Pine spoke at a talk on the Stonewall uprising at the New York Historical Society, and he said that at time of the raid the police department “certainly were prejudiced” against gays, “but had no idea about what gay people were about.” He added that the department regularly raided gay clubs because the clubs were often owned by organized crime, and arresting gay men and women were an effective way for officers to add to their arrest numbers. “They were easy arrests,” he said. “They never gave you any trouble.” At the same meeting someone in the audience suggested that Pine apologize for the raid, which he did. David Carter, the author of Stonewall: The Riots That Sparked the Gay Revolution says that the idea Pine was a homophobe is a misguided one. “He once told me,” said Carter,” ‘If what I did helped gay people, then I’m glad.’”

Kristi Allen-Gailushas, secretary of the Big Sky Tea Party and the GOP nominee for a Helena, Montana area legislative sear, is, um, angry. She intends to submit her resignation from the Tea Party Montana Association following the removal of the president Tim Ravndal for violent anti-gay comments made on his Facebook wall. “They didn’t even listen to Tim and what he had to say,” Allen-Gailushas said. “They were worried about the (state) Human Rights Network and the ACLU and what they were going to say.” As I posted previously, Ravndal and another commenter referenced the 1998 murder of openly gay University of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard. Allen-Gailushas says the comments were taken out of context and that they were not in fact eluding the brutal killing of Shepard. Allan-Gailushas, however, has Facebook problems of her own, posting on her wall “The Gay community wants a war ... they’ve got one!!”

Matthew Mitcham continues to defend colleague and friend Stephanie Rice, who posted to an anti-gay comment to her Twitter early Sunday following a last-minute win by the Australian Wallabies against South Africa, tweeting “Suck on that faggots. Probs the best game I’ve ever seen!! Well done boys.” She later deleted the post, but because of the outage an endorsement campaign with luxury car company Jaguar was lost. Mitcham, openly gay, took to his Twitter saying “I agree, it was offensive & very thoughtless, but being friends with her for 2yrs, I know she is not homophobic. She meant no malice, & she has apologised for her careless comment posted in the excitement of the moment. That’s enough for me to forgive a friend.” Matthew added that “She’s not a homophobe. She luvs gays but used very ill-chosen language. I don’t in any way support or condone WHAT she said, but her apology and remorse is genuine & we gd friends.”

Evicted Big Brother 12’s Ragan Fox offered as a definition of a, um, heterophobe.

Trevor Donovan spotted at the Food and Wine Presents the Taste of Beverly Hills, and no, he was not on the menu.