May 12, 2008
Reno police Monday were looking for a gunman who robbed the Tronix bar on Kietzke Lane.
Authorities said the man walked into the bar around 1:30 a.m., fired a bullet into the wall, and ordered customers to lay on the floor.
He fled when the bartender gave him an undetermined amount of cash.
Investigators said eight people were in the tavern, and no one was hurt.
The suspect was described as a white, 20 to 30 years old, 5-foot-7 to 5-8, and of medium build. He was wearing a blue hooded coat, a black bandanna across his face, sunglasses and black pants.
http://rgj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080512/NEWS18/80512007&OAS_s...
I feel the need to add a little something to this topic: First as for the armed robbery at Tronix. It is tragic sign of the times and some people are getting desperate so do think about this? No one has even mentioned the thought of the possibility that the person who did this crime might of been themselves gay? As much as I hate to point this out the person had to know that this bar would be an easy target and knew just how to hit it.
Most robbers DO case there the place they are going to hit. I make this point so you will NOT think that only straight people commit crimes against us but history has shown that gays CAN commit crimes too! The comment earlier about ewww gay money or AIDS tainted money would not cross a gay robbers mind! Sadly in these increasingly hard economic times I would not put it past some poor queen who lost their job or need money for more booze or drugs would be just as desperate as a straight person!
There is a moral to this point too! ALL the gay bars and clubs need to be on alert usually the person who gets away with this type of crime WILL strike again as the will free empowered by there getting away with it the first time! So WE must be our brothers keepers!
As for the RGJ fourm and the conversation above: "can't we all just get along" was a quote made years ago by a black man after he was beaten by LAPD during riots and while it may seem to you right now that it is impossible for that to be a reality it could happen! It depends on US! We do have an incredible black man running for president! I believe in change and here's why:
If I may take you back to a time, Picture it Colorado Springs 1978 I'm a young (16) rather flamboyant (NOT NELLY) VERY OUT on my own street smart queen walking in a downtown public park with my boy friend Ernie (really that was his name)and (an older hispanic retired drag queen).
We are confronted by a group of punk boys who started calling us names like fags and cocksucker well Ernie knows one guy who he had been with. Ernie yells back "takes one to know one" well they come at us and start punching and kicking us!! Ernie and I get separated by the group! I start fighting back since I couldn't run in my 3" thick souled disco pump shoes!! They didn't know that I was also a brown belt from 2 years in a military school either!! I was able to kick some ass bust some nuts until they backed off!
Sadly, I found Ernie outside the park on the curb crying and bleeding with a broken nose! As I sat trying to console him he picked up a bottle broke it and was ready to go back!! Now here's the kicker a COP walked up told Ernie to drop the bottle and that he had seen the whole thing! Well what do think happened? We were told we got what we deserved and that we were lucky he didn't arrest US for starting the fight!! To add insult we were informed that being fags was against the LAW and we should stay at home or get help for our MENTAL problem!!
My how times have changed! HUH!
My point? Nowadays MOST of the time the worst others who don't care for our lifestyle can do is talk trash about us?! On a web forum?! PLEASE! We must put ourselves above this! Let them say what they want we know we are better human beings! Do not allow yourself to be brought down to their level!
Lastly, before you go to sleep. Let me tell you a story about a gay / A.I.D.S. activist who once upon a time wanted to be a famous SOMEBODY! Will call him Tiger So Tiger moved to Los Angeles to become a STAR model! Why not he was blond, blue eyed, with a smooth swimmers build 28"waist and hung like a mule!
Instead he became a porn actor in 3 really BAD 16mm silent movies like you'd pay quarters too see! While everybody Rich and famous wanted Tiger and gave him ALL the things any 18 year old in West Hollywood circa 1980 would ever want drugs, sex, fab clothes, more drugs more sex, cars, more drugs, more sex! What the life right! WRONG! Tiger had a dream! He wanted to meet Mr Right! (not Mr. right now) settle down on an Estate in a BIG house! He went to school to learn about a new media form just out to the world called video! Well after 2 years of being the party favor in town and some so called gay friends trying to get Tiger to do things he DID NOT want to do like prostitution and drug dealing and other bad stuff! He even had a boyfriend stick a gun in his mouth threatening to kill him unless he did what he was told! NOT this gay boy!Either pull the trigger or F**K OFF!! He knew there had to be something better for him in life!
Tiger got his degree in video production and left his bad boyfriend in the middle of the night. Tiger lived the life of a gay hippy in his 1962 VW bus with his cat along the southern California pacific coast for almost 8 months. Till one day some friends asked Tiger to drive them to San Francisco this was Dec. 1983! Well what the heck so away we went partying all the way till as we crossed the Oakland Bay Bridge one of the guys knocked the stick out of gear then tried to push the thing back in gear without the clutch the van ran until we reach downtown then it quit GRinnDed striped transmission!
Then the friends were GONE!
They Walked away leaving Tiger alone in a Strange City! After getting his car towed by a garage he went to the only place he knew he could afford to stay THE BATH HOUSE!! While living there one night Tiger saw the absolutely cutest young guy EVER!! and a hair stylist!! And using his best pick up line "wanna get stoned" he met who was to become his Mr. Right! His name MAX! Are you still awake?
Would you like me to continue?
Well, OK! A year later they were MARRIED at the MCC on Polk Street they did invitations,a preacher Max's mom from Texas even gave him away to TIGER! Now this was March 04, 1984 and even their friends in San Francisco said YUCK and ewwww married why? Remember so many men so little time! They were thought of as weird! And then along came A.I.D.S. or GRID as it was called back then. It scared them so bad they left S.F. in a hurry!
They were together for 16 years! They moved to Texas,then New York City where they became involved with The Gay Cable Network a television station covering All the things happening to Gays around the world! They were early members of ACT-UP went to political conventions marched in parades, protests, candle light vigils, we ALL screamed chanted and raised holy hell against the right who were wrong! They lived in Indiana where they formed the first PUBLIC pride committee and FREE PRIDE event 2 years in a row! Tiger had his life threatened at the end of a shot gun for wanting to put a fence around his house to keep the rednecks Bratty kids from riding their bikes across his yard but the police stopped the redneck and at first the gay community resented him for wanting to bring their pride out in the Public they feared the idea but 2,000 then 5,000 showed up! They helped the disowned and those dying of AIDS in the Aids nursing home till they both just about lost their minds! After 5 years they were emotionally and mentally exhausted and had to stop! So what do think they did the craziest thing two gay guys could think of!! Without even caring what anyone else thought!
They moved to VERY rural redneck Pipe Creek Junction,in Bandera County, TEXAS Google it! LOL!
They bought 15 acres and built that estate with the BIG house. Tiger fished and shot his guns, hiked naked and enjoyed nature. Max sold cosmetics freelance for Christian Dior and they enjoyed life just being themselves!! No gay community no bars nothing gay within 50 miles! The neighbors were old timer ranchers and of course the local hunting redneck local preacher who was very cool even after 3 years he figured out they were GAY!!EeK!!And the neat thing the preachers mother in law knew them as her neighbors helped her when her husband died suddenly and loved them made pies for them and defended them fiercely! In the most Christian way possible! Go figure! The preacher accepted them even more later and became their friends too cause they broke his mental stereotype of what he thought gays were WOW! They lived Happily in peace for almost 10 years till Max died of KS of the lungs caused by AIDS! Tiger was overwhelmed by the love and support shown by these people!
Now while this ended this Chapter in Tigers life there is a VERY VERY IMPORTANT lesson to be learned by this mans story! Can you guess what it is?
As you learn WHO YOU REALLY ARE and accept that your being GAY is NOT as important as being YOU FIRST and THEN gay and everything else in it's proper perspective you WILL BE ACCEPTED not only by your self but by ALL of SOCIETY! They don't have a moral leg to stand on! They will see YOU for YOU not for the kind of sex you have or whom you have it with! I have seen it happen and still do even here in RENO!
My partner of 6 years and I have felt NO homophobia here! We introduce ourselves to anyone as each others "partner" or "spouse" and nobody in the straight community even blinks! It's just a matter of fact. There are those who might object privately but NOT to our face and guess what those people who do object are now the MINORITY! ALL this has happen in only 30 years of my life! The right wingers haven't stopped it, the courts haven't outlawed us, not even AIDS has stopped us from becoming just a regular part of Society! Wait till the day when being gay won't even get a reaction except for a so what. IT WILL HAPPEN!! In due time!! I promise!
This is where we the gay community have GAINED the most political advancement and social gains by BEING ______________insert your name here THEN being a gay, lesbian, trans, or Bi person! Your sex is NOT all there is to you! Same with color, your religion, or anything else it's all just a part of the whole person! Think genetic strand VERY long and complex!!
This may sound strange but after many years of being in love and loved even MARRIED to another man I would rather drop the sexual from HOMOSEXUAL! Why? because there was and is barely any sexual to it! Don't get me wrong SEX it great but only 1% sexual of the 99% HOMOHUMAN that's ME!
Being your self will give us the rights we seem to think we don't have and no constitution is needed!
Just resolution! Now even if we don't see all of these legal rights right now! REMEMBER what you do to HELP be a part of this solution (like FREE PRIDE EVENTS, volunteering some free time get married and or divorced BEFORE playing around and getting caught ) NOW this will benefit the next GENERATIONS journey down this LONG but progressive road to FREEDOM! THE END!
P.S. After reading all this If your GAY and still call yourself BI sexual PLEASE stop your only embarrassing yourself and not kidding anyone else! K!
Sweet Dreams, say your prayers, I love you heart and soul now and forever! my gay Children!
E
The golden rule of acceptance is an impossibility in a democracy. Because along with the "being accepted and respected for who I am" side of that outlook, comes the "but you realistically can't, because no one is nobody's keeper" opposite and necessary flip-side. People are granted the right to either admire or despise anything they would like to, because this society promises that. The freedom of choice is the unspoken amendment in the Constitution, because the entire artice is based to perpetuate that. It is ignorant on behalf of any denomination to cast blame on another group and demand they be treated any differently than they already are. This just shows that they have no respect for the choices and ideals of others, so why should they be granted that right as well?
This might sound cold, but it is the truth and a very important part of being able to have a freedom of choice. it is not just one-sided.
Compare it to you going to a restaurant, and upon ordering the salmon, the server tells you "No, you must have the steak." You respond with, "I don't like the steak. In fact, I hate steak altogether." How would you feel if you had no choice in the situation and the server flatly stated, "In this restaurant, everyone is supposed to have the steak, and love it. I don't care if you hate it, you're getting the steak."?
It doesn't seem fair, does it?
My point exactly.
Think before criticizing your own rights... Much like everything in life, there are two sides to an arguement. You can't have one without the other, and forfeiting someone else's freedoms is forfeiting your own.
My guess? Probably some very nice, well thought out present. Just like your parents, and my parents, do.
But let's be honest...Raise your hand if your first thought was "My bike" as the racist "joke" goes?
See, it's not about the suggestion that Latinos steal, its not about the actual words, in the same vein that this is no longer about the actual robbery...
This conversation (which is what it is, and what is necessary to a free press) is about the hate that some people still irrationally feel about gays. And Mexicans. And Blacks. And Jews. And every other "Please Check Your Self-Identified Ethnicity" on the Census Form.
These comments aren't a 'gay' issue, they're an American issue. Have we really not progressed past "I hate you because you are _________(Pick one or more, as the case may warrant: Indian, female, Black, Hispanic, Chinese, Retarded, Catholic, Irish, Jewish, Gay, an Immigrant, Different)" in the 400+/- years since the first American settlement? Does it not say in the Declaration of Independence that "...all men are created equal..."?
Along those same lines, I must support the RGJ for allowing such hate filled, ignorant words on their website, as the free press and public discourse is the necessary foundation for a democracy. And those comments provided that basis of this comment feed.
Let the comments on the RGJ story provide you warning: You are hated by some people. Big Surprise. So be safe.
But let us all remember that this country, regardless of the wonderful founding words, has a long way to go fulfilling the dream of citizen rule and complete equality guaranteed us all by Amendment 14. And as a citizen of this great nation, whoever is reading this, IT IS YOUR RESPONSIBILITY TO STAND UP FOR WHAT IS RIGHT and expose what is wrong. The Anti-Defamation League does it, Southern Poverty Law Center does it, and yes, even the gays have Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation
**In the interest of full disclosure, I have to admit that I did cancel my membership to HRC in 2007 because I DO NOT support the Equal Rights Amendment...We have one already. Its the Fourteenth Amendment. Read it**
Sam Spencer
I consider folks look at the May 12th RGJ public on-line forums. This event has brought out some incredibly sick and hate-filled comments from the Reno/Sparks general population.
These people exist. I suggest we not look at this story only in a silly tone. Anti-gay violence has not stopped on Kietzke or any other street in this valley.
People are accosted for many more reasons other being gay... I don't know why the gay community takes so much more offense to these happenings than other groups. Gays are incredibly hypocritical when people are entitled to their own opinons and belief structures, yet when someone expresses their own moral compass, gays are the first to call them "wrong", ot "unfair".
There is a giant chip on the shoulders of most in the gay community, and they would rather criticize as opposed to actually fight for their rights. Sorry, the longer the bickering goes on, the more we lose our real battles.
If we are expected to be respected for our "lifestyles" whatever they might be, then we have to credit those we see in dissent as well. Tit for tat, ladies and gentlemen.
I think you are missing the point.
There is a difference between expressing your own moral compass and saying "Obviously this robber is pretty stupid. Robbing a gay bar..with gay money....ewwwww. Lord knows what diseases are on those bills." Or, "I hope I don't get any gay money back for change. I don't want aids from those bills."
I have no problem expressing their opinions about homosexuality, but these comments are out of line, in my opinion.
But it's obvious that again, you fall in line with the gay hypocracy...
"I have no problem expressing their opinions about homosexuality, but these comments are out of line, in my opinion."
If you have "no problem" with it, then who are you to judge if they're out of line?
If you can state your opinion, then why can't they? Why can't their worth be determined by what they say, even if their view is poorly constructed- and be credited with the fact that that is what they believe?
The biggest downfall in gay society was the galvanization of the staus quo and the hordes of followers who are running blind, and without serious substance. Both ends are clinging to their beliefs and attack the other for having theirs, when the truly just side would bite their tongues.
We all know what a cesspool Reno is, gay and straight community alike. Both sides want to play the role of the victim, and none realize that shutting their mouths in certain situations wins the good fight.
Of all the places to rob, they had to go and rob Tronix...? Isn't that like stealing from the Salavation Army? Just proves that criminals in this town don't have any taste.