Peter's Place

Lawsuit Accuses Town Manager Schwapp of Sexual Harassment and "Fraternity" Favoritism By Peter C. Frank The Bloomfield Dispatch BLOOMFIELD, CT — A lawsuit filed in Hartford Superior Court alleges that Town Manager Alvin D. Schwapp, Jr. sexually harassed a senior police administrative assistant and then orchestrated a campaign of retaliation when she reported it. The complaint, discovered by The Bloomfield Dispatch during a routine review of active litigation against the Town, alleges that municipal decision‑making in Taylor’s case was driven by personal connections over professional ethics, and that internal investigations were used against vulnerable employees. Note: The defendants have not yet filed a formal response in court, and the allegations in Taylor’s complaint have not been proven. The Allegations The Plaintiff, Wendy Taylor, a senior administrative assistant who had served the Bloomfield Police Department fo...

At 9am today, 68 year-old West Hartford resident Sujitno Sajuti must check in with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) at JFK Airport in New York City to be deported back to his home country of Indonesia—a land he hasn't seen in nearly 40 years. A practicing Muslim, Sajuti has no ties to any family there, no assets, no anything. Mr. Sujitno Sajuti I have been living here for almost four decades—nearly forty years, more than half my life. If I am sent back to my native country, I wouldn't even recognize it. I have nothing there, I know no one. All my assets are here, in this country. I would have no money, no house, no retirement, no income, no jobs, no pension, no family, no friends, no medical, nothing. I would be an outcast, due to my failure [in completing my PhD program]... I would not be able to help anyone, as I do here. My wife and I enjoy, so much, helping people in our community. I could not work, due to forced retirement age. I would be useless, ju...

There's a story that's been going around lately, and it's pretty true, that a bunch of Muslim women were recently arrested at the Playland Amusement Park in Rye, New York (which is owned by the Westchester County Government --the only amusement park in the nation so owned by a governmental entity ), for causing a disturbance and protesting the park's refusal to allow them entrance on the park's many rides while wearing their headgear. Being a life-long resident of Westchester County and friends with folks who've worked at Playland over the years, I have an issue with this entire story. It's being made out that the Muslim women were singled out, and that's just not the case. Here's the fact of the matter: Anyone wearing any sort of headgear, including scarves, is not permitted on any ride at Playland, for safety reasons: If the women were allowed onto the rides and one of them were choked to death because their scarf (their headgear) ...

For the past month, I have been performing various functions as a consultant for Marriage Equality New York (MENY) with respect to their 13th Annual Gala . It feels good to be doing activist and advocacy work again, and also to be working on a project. What I didn't expect to find was an amazing individual, whom MENY will be honoring at its signature event of the year: Edith "Edie" Windsor . What does this have to do with the fiscal argument for marriage equality, you might be asking yourself? Quite a bit, actually. Part of what I'm doing for MENY and its gala is something I do best: information gathering. In seeking out information about one of its honorees at the event (Edie), I came across the complaint she filed in federal court ( Southern District of New York ), challenging the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act ( DOMA ). You see, Edie has had to pay over $360,000 in estate taxes to continue living in the very same home that she and her l...

I posted the following as a comment to Ms. Marcus's editorial that appeared in yesterday's Washington Post : Ms. Marcus, I feel your editorial to be misrepresentative of the facts at hand. There are two major issues the LGBT community had with King & Spalding's retention by House Speaker Boehner to defend DOMA: First, King & Spalding has, traditionally, been an ally of the LGBT community, and touted its diversity rating and support of LGBT-issues to prospective clients and law students seeking to work for the firm. Defending a law that denies LGBT people access to over 1,138 federal rights and benefits was an enormous slap in the face to the community and in direct contravention with King & Spalding's long-standing support of the community. Second, the contract into which Mr. Clement entered King & Spalding with the House of Representatives placed illegal (in at least two states) and unenforceable conditions on the workers of a firm the size King...

When I first started coming out, I learned the value of why one should lead an open life. While I value, and respect, privacy, I've found that leading one's life out in the open has numerous benefits over keeping one's life out of public purview, benefits that are immeasurable. For this reason, I've lived my life openly, often putting things into the public eye that most others would shy away from doing. I've discussed my mental illness openly  and, in doing so, have reaped the rewards of helping others deal with their struggles. I've discussed so many aspects about my personal life, receiving accolades and support all along the way. I've befriended countless individuals and had such positive forces and energy come into my life as a result of living a life where I hide very little, if anything. It doesn't come as a surprise to me that individuals would try to use my openness against me; what does surprise me is that a judge fell for such obviously t...