Elton John visited Secretary of State John Kerry to announce the singer's foundation's partnership with PEPFAR, ABC News noted. The Department of State released comments John and Kerry both said before their meeting. In part, John said, "To be able to combine with PEPFAR, from our foundation's point of view, is a dream come true, because together, you double the effect. ... We all work together to ensure that in this day and age, nobody gets left behind no matter what their sexuality, their color, or whatever. It's important. If people get left behind, the disease will get left behind, and we will face an enormous uphill battle."
At the 18th Annual Human Rights Campaign ( HRC ) National Dinner, Sir Elton John and partner David Furnish announced that the Elton John AIDS Foundation has awarded a $300,000 grant to HRC's foundation to increase awareness of HIV prevention, treatment and care among LGBT people—with a specific focus on young gay and bisexual men as well as transgender women, according to HRC.org . At the sold-out event—which featured remarks by President Bill Clinton, Attorney General Eric Holder and Ambassador Andrew Young, and a special performance by Jennifer Hudson—John and Furnish were awarded HRC's National Equality Award for their leadership of the Elton John AIDS Foundation.
A Virginia-based group that opposes gay rights has sent out a postcard to New Jersey voters opposing U.S. Sen. Cory Booker's re-election—but it spells his name wrong, according to NJ.com . The postcard was sent out by Public Advocate of the United States, a non-profit group. On the front, it shows two men kissing and, in big white letters on a pink background, these words: "Is this Cory Brooker's ( sic ) plan for New Jersey?" The group's president, Eugene Delgaudio, claims the misspelling was intentional.
While expressing his love for his home state of Alabama, Apple CEO Tim Cook criticized the state for being slow to grant equality to minorities and the poor, AL.com reported. Cook said he doesn't understand why so many in Alabama and the rest of the nation are slow to grant equal rights to everyone, including the LGBT community. Cook, a graduate of Auburn University, spoke on behalf of inductees into the Alabama Academy of Honor at the State Capitol.
A Michigan LGBT-rights organization in Michigan has received a $3 million gift from the estate of the group's co-founder, according to an LGBTQ Nation item. Equality Michigan announced the donation from Dr. Henry Messer on Oct. 21. Messer died in February at the age of 86; he co-founded Triangle Foundation in 1991, which merged with Michigan Equality to form Equality Michigan in 2010. Messer was a neurosurgeon and gay rights activist who served in the military during World War II.
United States District Judge Juan Perez-Gimenez has dismissed a challenge to Puerto Rico's law limiting marriage to one man and one woman, according to The Washington Post. The decision heightens anticipation of what other judges now considering same-sex marriage cases may do. Appointed by President Jimmy Carter in 1979, Perez-Gimenez also becomes the first Democrat-appointed judge to rule against same-sex marriage since United States v. Windsor.
In California, the West Hollywood City Council unanimously approved the selection of internationally acclaimed artist Daniel Tobin to design a monument to honor HIV/AIDS activists, caregivers and community leaders, and to memorialize the devastation and impact of HIV/AIDS on a local and national level, according to a press release. Among other things, the monument will have an online component that will invite visitors to submit videos, photos and stories relating to the more than 650,000 Americans who have lost their lives to the disease.
In Chicago, a lesbian couple was killed in a Northwest Side fire, according to NBC Chicago. Samantha Welch, 28, and Celiacruz Reyes, 22, of the 100 block of Birch in Carpentersville, were both pronounced dead at the scene. One woman was found in a basement stairwell and the other was found in a back basement room. The unit, located on the 4500 block of West Parker, had no smoke detectors. The police department's Bomb and Arson Unit is investigating.
A federal investigation found that Army officials discriminated against a transgender employee who underwent a sex change while working at an Alabama installation, restricting her from the women's restroom and using her male name despite her preference to be referred to as a woman, the Associated Press reported. Tamara Lusardi, of Huntsville, suffered gender identity discrimination as she transitioned from male to female in 2010, the Office of Special Counsel said in a statement. Lusardi was working as a civilian software quality-assurance specialist at the Army Aviation and Missile Research, Development and Engineering Center at the time. The Office of Special Counsel said the Army has agreed to train workers to prevent future discrimination.
The pro-LGBT group Empire State Pride Agenda, based in New York, is holding a unique contest to help Get Out the Vote for the general election on Tuesday, Nov. 4, a press release stated. Through midnight on Thursday, Oct. 30, LGBT New Yorkers and allies are encouraged to share an image or video that explains why it's important they vote to help secure a pro-LGBT New York State government by Tweeting @prideagenda or posting on the Pride Agenda's Instagram or Facebook pages using the hashtag #OUTtheVote. The winner, to be announced Friday, Oct. 31, will win a ride to the polls in a limo with room for three friends.
A Chicago man is accused of not disclosing to his partner that he had HIV, though he knew he was infected, according to Cook County prosecutors. The Chicago Tribune reported Oct. 25 that Anthony Hallam, of the 600 block of West Oakdale Avenue, was charged with criminal transmission of HIV. He allegedly did not use a condom with his partner and repeatedly denied that he was infected. He was arrested Oct. 23 in the 3900 block of North Ravenswood Avenue.
Attorney General Pam Bondi is opposing a bid by a South Florida lesbian to obtain a divorce from her former partner, the Associated Press reported. Bondi's office filed papers in Broward County Circuit Court saying a judge should not grant Heather Brassner's petition for a divorce from Megan Lade. Since the couple was united in a 2002 civil union in Vermont, Bondi claims, among other things, that a civil union is not the same as a marriage and should not be the basis to declare Florida's ban on same-sex marriage unconstitutional.
A U.S. Navy veteran can be buried with the ashes of her late spouse in a southwest Idaho military cemetery after the state legalized same-sex marriage, the Associated Press noted. Madelynn Lee Taylor, 74, was previously denied permission to have her ashes interred with Jean Mixner because of Idaho's ban on same-sex marriage. ( The state owns and operates the cemetery. ) Same-sex marriage became legal in the state Oct. 15.
Even though same sex marriage is law now in North Carolina, some magistrates are refusing to perform gay marriages citing religious beliefs, according to WLOS.com . For example, one of Swain County's magistrates, Gilbert Breedlove, is resigning rather than marry gay couples. Despite a state memo telling magistrates to follow their oaths of office, or face suspension or dismissal, Breedlove says same-sex marriage not only violates his religion, but he says the federal mandate violates the U.S. Constitution.
After a high school ignored a student's complaints of bullying and its football coach told him to "toughen up," the school showed a movie featuring pictures of teenagers who had committed suicide—and the boy killed himself the next day, his father claims in court, according to Courthouse News Service. East St. Louis, Illinois, father Bradley Lewis claims his son, Jordan, was called "gay, homo, queer, and faggot" on a regular basis, and had his head slammed into lockers by members of the Carterville football team. Bradley is suing the Carterville Community Unit School District No. 5, 3Screens.com and Erik Rebstock, whose gun Jordan used to kill himself.
North Carolina's capital city, Raleigh, has become the seventh statewide to protect transgender workers from employment discrimination after City Council members unanimously passed the revised policy, QNotes reported. The policy already protects workers on the basis of sexual orientation. Raleigh follows several other cities protecting workers on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity: Asheville, Boone, Carrboro, Charlotte, Chapel Hill and Buncombe.
Also in North Carolina, a high school has cancelled a school play following complaints by some parents and area churches because the play includes a same-sex couple, LGBTQ Nation reported. Students at Maiden High School claimed they had already begun rehearsing for the play "Almost, Maine" when the principal decided to cancel the performance. Principal Rob Bliss said the play "contained sexually explicit overtones and multiple sexual innuendos that are not aligned with our mission and educational objectives."
Here's another North Carolina situation: A Fayetteville minister called on an openly gay attorney to drop his candidacy for the North Carolina Court of Appeals, a move that the candidate called "outrageous," WNCN.com reported. In a news conference at the North Carolina General Assembly, Pastor Johnny Hunter, of Cliffdale Community Church, said someone "who's a flaming homosexual" should not be on the North Carolina court. He specifically mentioned Charlotte's John Arrowood, who is running for the seat that was held by Chief Justice John Martin on the North Carolina Court of Appeals. Martin retired Aug. 1.
Lambda Legal filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of Passion Star, a transgender woman currently in the custody of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice ( TDCJ ), according to a press release. Lambda contends that TCDJ officials have displayed deliberate indifference to threats of sexual assault and violence against Star in TDCJ's male facilities. In the six male facilities where she has been housed, male inmates have identified Star as feminine. Star reportedly has been raped, forced to submit to undesired sexual acts to escape violence, and threatened with sexual assault.
Civil-rights advocates filed a federal lawsuit against California's San Bernadino County and its sheriff on behalf of 15 transgender, gay and bisexual inmates who allegedly faced abuse in West Valley Detention Center, according to an Advocate.com item. The lawsuit—which the American Civil Liberties Union filed and which is currently seeking class-action status—contends the incarcerated victims were held in a segregated unit known as the "alternative lifestyle tank," where they were afforded less access to rehabilitation services and work programs that could have shortened their jail time and taught them job skills.
Chai Feldblum, a member of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, recently presented an update on the EEOC's handling of charges alleging sexual-orientation and gender-identity discrimination, according to Employment and Labor Insider. From Jan. 1 through June 30 of this year, Feldblum said, the agency had received 459 sexual-orientation charges and 81 gender-identity charges. In calendar year 2013, the agency received 834 sexual-orientation and 199 gender-identity charges. As of Sept. 18, 2014, 614 LGBT charges had been resolved.
A 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling quietly ended a last-ditch court fight against a Hawaii law allowing same-sex marriage, according to a West Hawaii Today item. The court issued an opinion earlier in October declaring moot a lawsuit filed by a Hawaii couple seeking to marry before the state legalized same-sex marriage last year. Natasha Jackson and Janin Kleid filed the suit in 2011, arguing that they wanted to be married and not simply enter into a civil union. The couple sought to dismiss the case after they were legally allowed to get married, but opponents of the law fought to keep the lawsuit alive.
In Chicago, a men's discussion group that had long met at the LGBT community center the Center on Halsted says it was unfairly evicted from the community center because of what the center called "alignment issues" with the facility's other mental-health programming. The group, known as "Middle Men," was geared at gay men who are middle-aged or older, and had been meeting at the center since January 2012, according to its facilitator, Marvin Evans, LCPC, who volunteered his services. Middle Men was a support group addressing "existential issues" facing gay males.
Two federal cases challenging South Carolina's same-sex marriage ban have inched forward, with one request to prevent officials from enforcing the ban and a second asking a judge to move forward without a trial, The State reported. Colleen Condon and Nichols Bleckley, the first to apply for a same-sex marriage license in Charleston County earlier this month, asked U.S. District Judge Richard Gergel to issue a preliminary injunction preventing any state official from enforcing the state's constitutional ban. In a second case in Columbia, Highway Patrol Trooper Katherine Bradacs and U.S. Air Force retiree Tracie Goodwin want South Carolina to recognize their marriage; they were wed in Washington, D.C.
GLSEN ( the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network ) has released its biennial National School Climate Survey report, which shows how ongoing hostile school climates impact the safety and mental health of LGBT students as well as their educational outcomes, a press release stated. Among the major findings are that a hostile school climate affects students' academic success and mental health, and that the school climate for LGBT students has improved somewhat over the years, yet remains quite hostile for many. Read the full report at www.glsen.org/nscs.
In Arizona, students at Willow Canyon High School are banding together behind a lesbian couple who has been denied the chance to be nominated as homecoming queen and queen because of a school practice where homecoming royalty must be made up of a male and female pair, USA Today noted. Supporters of the couple say any ballots nominating the couple for homecoming royalty were discounted in a recent poll of students. The Dysart Unified School District responded with a statement, saying the high school's homecoming traditions have been in place for years and that they work with students on the planning for these events.
The trial of four Florida A&M band members on charges of felony hazing and manslaughter has started—almost three years after drum major Robert Champion died from being beaten during that ritual, CBS Miami reported. Fifteen former band members originally were charged with manslaughter and hazing in the death of Champion, of Decatur, Georgia. All but the four remaining defendants have had their cases settled. Defense attorneys and prosecutors agreed no band members have said in depositions that Champion's sexual orientation played a role in the hazing, so the fact that he was gay won't be brought up during the trial.
A national LGBT organization that last year filed a complaint against oil and gas giant ExxonMobil, alleging hiring bias, had a hearing on the matter Oct. 21. Freedom to Work initially filed a complaint against the company with the Illinois Department of Human Rights ( IDHR ) in May 2013, saying that ExxonMobil favored non-LGBT job applicants over LGBT candidates. ExxonMobil says its non-discrimination policy covers sexual orientation and gender identity, but Freedom to Work and other advocates maintain that the policy fails to adequately enumerate any specific protections.
A Methodist pastor who was disciplined after he officiated at the wedding of his gay son will be allowed to remain an ordained minister, the Associated Press reported. The Judicial Council of the nation's second-largest Protestant denomination ruled that a Pennsylvania church jury was wrong to defrock Frank Schaefer last year after he would not promise never to perform another same-sex wedding. The council ruled on technical grounds and did not express support for same-sex marriage in general. Its decision is final.
Authorities are searching for a suspect in an apparent hate crime in which a 33-year-old man was attacked with a hammer and robbed in Brooklyn, NBC New York reported. The suspect followed the victim, Mitchell Pope, back to his building on Washington Avenue in Crown Heights and started yelling anti-gay slurs. Pope, who ended up needing staples in his head, said he'd let the suspect in because he thought he was a construction worker there. But when Pope went to get his mail, the suspect began hitting him with a hammer and took his cellphone.
