By Paul Goldfinger, Editor @Blogfinger
In an on-line post yesterday, the QSpot LGBT Community Center of Ocean Grove, NJ revealed that they were filing an “additional retaliation claim in its pending discrimination lawsuit against the JSAC in New Jersey Superior Court today.” QSpot is represented by a “national law firm Lowenstein Sandler LLP with support from the Lowenstein Center for the Public Interest.”
You may recall that the QSpot organization rents space (for the last 4 years) at the Jersey Shore Arts Center in Ocean Grove. But Herb Herbst, President of the JSAC, would not renew the lease on the grounds that QSpot did not provide the requisite arts programming. QSpot disagreed and filed a discrimination law suit last November.
QSpot claimed that the JSAC “acted out of bias towards the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community and that they were in violation of New Jersey’s Law Against Discrimination.”
The “retaliation claim” is about the alleged “threats of retaliation by the JSAC if QSpot holds its 2nd Annual QFest NJ LBGT Film Festival on April 7,8,9.”
If our readers want to learn more about the QSpot Film Festival, you can visit this link: QSpot film festival link
They also have a FaceBook page at QSpotLGBTCommunityCenter http://facebook.com/QSpot/LGBTCommunityCenter
At Blogfinger we are always interested in unique cultural events in Ocean Grove as well as news of all sorts pertaining to our town. We will not get involved in presenting the QSpot legal tangle (after all, it takes two to tangle) that continues to emerge, but we will keep our fingers on the pulse of this very interesting story, and I do know how to take a pulse.
Remarkably, for a tiny town, this is not the first time that Ocean Grove has been center stage regarding issues with potential national impact having to do with gay rights and discrimination.
Thank you to the citizen reporter who alerted us to the latest chapter in the QSpot saga. Please keep us informed–we are an information sharing website.
And, by the way, this is not the first time that a film festival was held in the Grove. You may recall the 1st and 2nd Annual Blogfinger Film Festivals which ironically were almost held at the JSAC, but changed its venue to the Youth Temple in the Grove thanks to the generosity of the Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association.
MERLE HAGGARD “It’s All in the Movies.”