Bassi Brothers Accused In Vancouver Gay Bashing Incident Enter Not Guilty Pleas, Rutgers University Fraternity Remembers Tyler Clementi, Minnesota Family Council Releases Criminal Statement Regarding Anti-Gay Bullying Programs, Anti-Gay American Principles Project And National Organization For Marriage Join Carly Fiornia Senate Campaign, John Mellencamp Vivisects NOM For Using Song Pink Houses Without Permission

Parminder Singh Peter Bassi and Ravinder Robbie Bassi, brothers; 30 and 27 years old respectively, accused of assaulting David Holtzman and Peter Regier June 12th, in downtown Vancouver outside the couple’s townhouse, pleaded not guilty Monday morning in a city court, the Vancouver Province reports. Their attorneys entered the pleas; neither brother yet to appear in court. A five-day trail is being arranged, at which time the Crown intends to introduce evidence taken from multiple video security cameras. The alleged incident took place the night of a UFC event at Vancouver’s Rogers Arena, the two brothers having attending and having stopped to urinate outside the steps of the home shared by Holtzman and Regier. When they asked the brothers to leave the premises, they were viscously attacked, each suffering multiple bruising, concussions, and severe cuts. Holtzman argues that the brothers used a number of homophobic slurs during the assault, and that the attack should be classified a hate crime. If the brothers are found guilty of the assault, the judge would determine if it were bias-motivated and if the hate crime law is applicable to sentencing.

The Daily Targum, Rutgers University’s student newspaper report on a memorial organized by members of the Phil Delta Theta fraternity in honour of 18 Tyler Clementi this past Friday, the fraternity releasing a statement that read in part “At a University whose foundation is built upon philosophical diversity, and in a world where harmony is promoted and achieved by respecting the views of others, this harrowing occurrence is a time to truly reflect upon the significance of tolerance.” Logan Grey, the fraternity’s lead organizer said “In my opinion, the intention here was to exploit Tyler’s sexuality in a destructible way and (Ravi and Wei’s) actions are deplorable.” Middlesex County College first-year student Paul Zilber, an acquaintance of Clementi, who attended the memorial, said “There is no safe zone at Rutgers. A safe zone is somewhere people can go to be themselves without the fear of being harassed or judged,” adding “I am devastated by this tragedy. I can’t sleep at night thinking about what happened.”

The Minnesota Independent on efforts by the Minnesota Family Council to push back against efforts to improve the environment for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender students in the Anoka-Hennepin School District - a district as I previously posted that has witnessed the deaths of four LGBT students by suicide in the past year. Tom Prichard, of the MFC saying that the real issue is “homosexual indoctrination” and not anti-gay bullying, arguing that the students killed themselves because they adopted “an unhealthy lifestyle,” and that “homosexual activists” are “manipulating” the deaths of LGBT students to insert homosexual indoctrination programs into the school district.

Two anti-gay groups – the American Principles Project and the National Organization for Marriage – have lent their support to the California campaign for United States Senate of Carly Fiornia, that according to a report from TPM Muckraker. The American Principles Project and an annex project – American Principles in Action, previously ran a campaign called “Expel Jennings” that targeted the openly gay Kevin Jennings, President Obama’s Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Department of Education’s Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools. That campaign wrote “Jennings is a mastermind behind the homosexual infiltration of schools ... Bullying for any reason is wrong, and schools should never tolerate it. But time and again, Mr. Jennings has used the cover of ‘bullying prevention’ to enforce his radical positions on sex education.”

Prop8TrailTracker.com reports that John Mellencamp is not particularly pleased that the National Organization for Marriage has used, without his permission, the song Pink Houses at their anti-gay hate hoedowns, Mellencamp (whose work was hijacked by the fine folk behind the Republican presidential campaign of Senator John McCain and former Alaskan senator Sarah Palin) via a publicist sending a note to NOM reading in part “I am getting in touch with you on behalf of my client John Mellencamp who has become aware that his music (Pink Houses) has been used at events sponsored by your organization. Please be aware that Mr. Mellencamp’s views of same sex marriage and equal rights for people of all sexual orientations are at odds with NOM’s stated agenda,” adding “We would encourage you to find music from a source more in harmony with your views than Mr. Mellencamp in the future.”