Facebook has just made it easier to announce same-sex marriages on the social network by providing icons like the ones heterosexual couples have long used, CNET.com reported. One of the first appearances of the new icons was with the wedding announcement of Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes to his longtime boyfriend, Sean Eldridge. More than 2,000 Facebook users "liked" the announcement, including Facebook co-founder/CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
Speaking of which, Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes can now officially change his status to "married." According to a Huffington Post item, Hughes, 28, tied the knot with his longtime boyfriend Sean Eldridge at their home in Garrison, N.Y. Eldridge, 25, is the founder and treasurer of Protect Our Democracy, an advocacy group based in Garrison that seeks campaign finance reform.
In Florida, the North Miami Beach gay male strip club Swinging Richards is suing the city to allow its dancers to perform nude, according to the Miami Herald. Since 1994, North Miami Beach has banned total nudity in clubs where liquor is sold, but the city never enforced the ordinance until after Swinging Richards opened last October. The club's location has featured nude female dancers for more than 20 years. Two other clubs in North Miami Beach—Dean's Gold and G5ive Lounge—also feature total female nudity.
Openly gay Republican presidential candidate Fred Karger has officially ended his campaign—but refuses to endorse Mitt Romney, Advocate.com reported. Karger said, "It is hard to endorse a candidate for president who signed the hateful 'Marriage Pledge' sponsored by known hate group the National Organization for Marriage." He added that he is "going to hold off for a while on the endorsement front."
More than 350 people servicemembers were present as the Pentagon marked Pride Month for the first time ever June 26, according to Business Week. Although conservatives criticized the event, people such as Army Nurse Corps Captain Angela Shrader were happy to be there; she said, "To be able to come dressed in my uniform with my partner and be open, I can't tell you how excited and proud I am." Among other things, attendees watched videotaped messages from President Obama and Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta.
The International AIDS Society (IAS), custodian of the International AIDS Conference, and the Kaiser Family Foundation will provide free, worldwide online access to the XIX International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2012) taking place in Washington, D.C., July 22-27, according to a press conference. AIDS 2012 will feature presentations of important new scientific research and opportunities for dialogue on the major challenges facing the global response to AIDS. Kaiser is the official webcaster for AIDS 2012, providing coverage of daily developments from July 22 to 27 on its website, www.kff.org/aids2012.
A military report revealed that U.S. Navy official Charles Berry was removed from his post aboard the U.S.S. Florida because he failed to take action against gay hazing, Advocate.com reported. Berry allegedly failed to take action against the hazing of a sailor who was harassed after he reported an attempted rape. In a statement, Servicemembers Legal Defense Network Executive Director Aubrey Sarvis said, "This unfortunate and unprofessional conduct underscores that we must continue to be vigilant as implementation continues, by and large, without major challenges."
In New York City, a jury found Davawn Robinson, a gay man, guilty of second-degree manslaughter in the 2009 killing of Edgard Mercado, another gay man, according to Gay City News. Jurors considered the possibilities of second-degree murder, second-degree manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide. Robinson, 25—who could get up to 15 years in prison—claimed Mercado, 39, died while they were engaged in erotic asphyxiation as part of sex.
Out gay attorney Sean Patrick Maloney has won the Democratic nomination for the 18th District U.S. House seat in New York's Lower Hudson Valley, according to Gay City News. Maloney—who, among other posts, was first deputy secretary for Govs. Eliot Spitzer and David Paterson—won just fewer than half the votes in a five-candidate primary June 26. He will now face Republican freshman incumbent Nan Hayworth; if Maloney wins, he would be the first out gay member of Congress from New York state.
Army veteran and Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (SLDN) Executive Director Aubrey Sarvis praised the introduction of HR 6046, the Military Spouses Equal Treatment Act of 2012 (MSET), according to a press relesae. The act would change the definition of "spouse" in four areas of U.S. Code related to recognition, support and benefits for married service members and veterans. "Our nation's senior military leaders and commanders on the ground are increasingly uncomfortable with administering two classes of recognition, support and benefits for our nation's service members—one for straight service members and a different one for their gay and lesbian peers. There cannot be two classes of service members, and this legislation addresses that effectively," said Sarvis.
In Pennsylvania, Harrisburg teacher Sharon Wright has sued Covenant Christian Academy, accusing officials of suspending her son for being gay and firing her for not forcing him to renounce the "sin," according to a Huffington Post item. Wright claims that after the high school senior announced his sexual orientation on a blog, headmaster Joseph Sanelli told the family their son should remain at home until a meeting could be arranged. Despite assurances from Sanelli that the teacher's support of her son would not affect her employment, Wright says she was constantly harassed for the rest of the school year.
In Texas, police have released a description of the suspect who shot a teen lesbian couple in the city of Portland, killing one, the Dallas Voice reported. Mollie Judith Olgin, 19, and Mary Kristene Chapa, 18, were both shot in the head at Violet Andrews Park on June 22; Olgin died at the scene while Chapa is recovering. The suspect has been described "as a white male in his 20s with dark hair standing 5 feet 8 inches tall and weighing about 140 pounds." Authorities say there's no evidence the attack was a hate crime.
Republican activist Meghan McCain has criticized President Obama's position on marriage equality, the Huffington Post reported. Promoting America, You Sexy Bitch—a book she's co-written with Michael Ian Black—while on Sirius XM, McCain said the president is "not doing enough for the gay community and it's not enough to sway me." She also slammed the gay conservative group GOProud, which recently endorsed Mitt Romney, calling it a "rogue group" that tends to "exacerbate the stereotype" about gays.
Lambda Legal sent letters to the leaders of 20 Maryland counties asking for confirmation that it is county policy to recognize out-of-state marriages of same-sex couples, including for purposes of county employee spousal benefits, according to a press release. "Now that the high court of Maryland has confirmed that out-of-state marriages of same-sex couples are entitled to legal recognition, all counties remaining in the state without policies recognizing these marriages should confirm they follow state law on this issue," said Susan Sommer, director of constitutional litigation at Lambda Legal.
The pro-LGBT organization National Stonewall Democrats announced its first round of endorsed candidates for the 2012 federal election cycle, according to a press release. U.S. Senate endorsements included Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin; Sherrod Brown of Ohio; Shelley Berkley of Nevada; Dianne Feinstein of California; Kirsten Gillibrand of New York; and Vermont's Bernie Sanders. Among the many U.S. House candidates the organization is backing are Jan Schakowsky in Illinois; Dina Titus in Nevada; Nancy Pelosi in California; Trevor Thomas in Michigan; and Jared Polis in Colorado.
Married gay couple Brian Edwards and Tom Privitere are angry after the anti-gay hate group Public Advocate of the United States stole one of their wedding photos and used it in a political-attack ad, according to Advocate.com . On his blog The Gay Wedding Experience Edwards wrote, "I'm in shock and I'm angry and I'm hurt and I'm flabbergasted and I'm livid." Public Advocate used the image in an ad meant to attack pro-gay Colorado state Sen. Jean White.
In Washington, D.C., a 16-year-old fought off three attackers while being stabbed—and police are calling the incident a hate crime, Advocate.com reported. The teen was stabbed three times (in the leg, biceps and back) while being held by two assailants; somehow, the victim produced a can of pepper spray and fought them off. The attackers allegedly used anti-gay slurs during the attack.
San Francisco police are still searching for killer of gay man who was killed in June, according to Advocate.com . Steven "Eriq" Escalon, 28, was found dead in his home June 12. Homicide inspector Scott Warnke told the Bay Area Reporter that authorities are trying to obtain info on a person seen leaving the area carrying "a flat screen TV, at least one computer, or a game console, in the early to late afternoon of June 12." There is speculation that the victim may have met someone for a sexual encounter through a hookup site.
The parents of Tyler Clementi—the Rutgers University student who committed suicide after finding out a same-sex tryst involving him was caught on camera—say their son's death has made them rethink homosexuality, which they no longer believe is a sin, Reuters reported. Joseph Clementi, Tyler's father, told NBC, "Sin needs to be taken out of homosexuality. Our children need to understand and adults need to understand that they're not broken." Incidentally, son James Clementi is also gay.
A 21-year-old woman was allegedly raped in the bathroom of a New York City gay bar after the city's Pride parade, according to a Huffington Post item. The woman said a man attacked her at the piano bar Duplex; the parade has ended just hours earlier blocks from the nightspot's location at 7th Avenue and Christopher Street. Police are investigating security tapes, but no arrests have yet been made.
In Florida, Miami Beach police are asking the public's help in solving the three-month-old slaying of a local transgender woman, according to Advocate.com . Rene "Rosita" Hidalgo was found bludgeoned to death in her home March 15 after friends reported her missing to authorities. Detectives are asking area residents for any info that might lead to finding the attacker(s), confirming Hidalgo was found with multiple stab wounds but not releasing any other details.
An Ohio man, Jim Flechtner, wrote a letter to a publication demanding the buckeye should no longer be the state tree because it has male, female and bisexual flowers on the same tree, according to the Huffington Post. In a missive to The Courier, Flechtner wrote, "[I]t is shameful and unacceptable that a bisexual tree should represent us! We are flaunting the Holy Bible!" He also urged people to contact state lawmakers to change the tree's status and to condemn Ohio's nickname, The Buckeye State.
In San Francisco, gay-rights activist Larry Brinkin, 66, was arrested after police said they linked him to an email account that had received and sent images of toddlers engaging in sex acts with men, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. Brinkin worked for the San Francisco Human Rights Commission before his retirement in 2010, and is credited with bringing the nation's first domestic-partner lawsuit in 1982.
Mainers United for Marriage—a group working for passage of a ballot question that would legalize same-sex marriage in Maine—announced that its fundraising has passed the $1 million mark, according to On Top Magazine. The campaign also said that 64 percent of its donations have come from inside the state and that its volunteers have spoken to 10,000 voters on the issue.
Dr. Richard Isay—a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who argued that being gay was normal and not an illness—has died at the age of 77 of cancer, On Top Magazine reported. Isay himself was the father of two sons who came out gay at the age of 40. He married his partner of 33 years, artist Gordon Harrell, last year in Manhattan. Isay—who also wrote works such as Becoming Gay (1997)—is survived by Harrell, his former wife, two sons and four grandchildren.
The U.S. State Department has launched a text-donation campaign that allows residents to donate to the mGive International Response Equality Fund, according to a media release. Donations will help to further programs and initiatives aimed at advancing the human rights of LGBT persons around the world. U.S Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton launched the fund on Human Rights Day in December 2011 in Geneva, Switzerland, where she reaffirmed, "Human rights are gay rights and gay rights are human rights." To help, anyone can donate $10 by texting the word "PRIDE" to 80000.
Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders has announced that Transgender Family Law: A Guide to Effective Advocacy is now available electronically through Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble for Kindle and Nook e-readers. (The cost is $3.39-$3.99.) Transgender Family Law: is the first book to comprehensively address the legal issues facing transgender people in the family-law context; it offers practitioners the tools to effectively represent transgender clients, who routinely face bias and discrimination in the courts.
A petition the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) has started in favor of Minnesota-based Fortune 500 company General Mills has gotten nearly five times more signatures than an anti-equality petition launched by the National Organization for Marriage, according to a press release. HRC launched the petition after General Mills CEO Ken Powell announced the company opposed the state's proposed constitutional amendment that seeks to ban marriage equality for committed gay and lesbian couples.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the OraQuick In-Home HIV Test—the first over-the-counter, self-administered HIV test kit to detect the presence of antibodies to HIV virus types 1 (HIV-1) and 2 (HIV-2), according to a release. The test allows individuals to collect an oral fluid sample by swabbing the upper and lower gums inside of their mouths; then, they place that sample into a developer vial and obtain test results within 20 to 40 minutes. The CDC estimates that 1.2 million people in the United States are living with HIV.
Bishop Richard J. Malone of the Diocese of Portland has criticized the New York Times for reporting that the Roman Catholic Church in Maine will be less active in opposing a ballot question that would legalize same-sex marriage in the state, according to On Top Magazine. Malone's letter reads, in part, "I have not backed down in the church's defense of marriage. ... [T]he Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland is playing a crucial role in November's vote, launching a communication and educational effort based on my pastoral letter."
Contributions to the Obama campaign skyrocketed in the three days following the president's announcement that he supported marriage equality, according to an Advocate.com item. Donors helped the campaign raise almost $9 million. NPR reported, "He took in nearly $9 million over three days, compared with $3.4 million in the three previous days. ... The numbers include contributions from people who gave at least $200."
Former U.S. Rep. Patrick Murphy, who sponsored legislation to repeal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," (DADT) announced his endorsement of Trevor Thomas, a gay congressional hopeful from Michigan, according to Advocate.com . Thomas—who has worked with the Human Rights Campaign and Servicemembers Legal Defense Network—also worked to end DADT. Thomas, 28, is competing in the Democratic primary for the chance to represent a district held by Republicans since 1976.
