Gay bar raids draw community outrage

Two recent police raids of gay bars in Atlanta, Georgia and Fort Worth, Texas have sparked mass protests in the two cities and led activists to question whether equality for persons of all sexual orientations in the U.S. has come as far as some would like to believe. At around 11: 30 pm on Sep. 10, more than two dozen Atlanta Police officers - some in uniform and some undercover in plain clothes - raided the Atlanta Eagle, a gay leather bar. The police contingent included several officers from the 'Red Dog', an aggressive unit which typically deals with drug crimes. All 62 patrons were told to get on the ground. At least one patron, who is deaf and did not understand what was happening, was physically pushed on the ground. Some were handcuffed. When some patrons asked if they could move because there was broken glass on the ground, they say they were told to "shut the f*ck up". "I'm absolutely appalled, disgusted," Eagle co-owner Robby Kelley told IPS. "To have not only all the employees arrested and taken to jail for 19 hours without bail being set, to have 62 people laid face down into spilled drinks and broken glass, searched... their drivers licenses [checked], kicked, stepped on, cussed at, called fag, things in that area, it's something that should have never happened."