Lesbian Houston Mayor Annise Parker has proposed an ordinance that would ban discrimination regarding workplaces, public businesses, housing, city employment and city contracting, The Beaumont Enterprise reported. The ordinance would ban discrimination based on race, color, religion, national origin, sex, age and disability, as federal and state laws do; however, the proposal would also cover veterans as well as LGBT individuals. Religious institutions and workplaces with fewer than 50 employees would be exempt.
The Foundation for AIDS Research ( amfAR ) released a report titled, "Trans Populations and HIV: Time to End the Neglect," which details the high rate of HIV infection among transgender men and women along with the failings of the HIV-focused medical community, according to HIVPlusMag.com . Among other things, the report estimates that trans women are 49 times more likely to be living with HIV than members of the general population—with rates even higher among trans women of color.
The Boy Scouts of America has shut down a Seattle troop for its refusal to remove an openly gay Scoutmaster, TIME reported. The BSA has revoked the charters of the Rainier Beach United Methodist Church and its two scouting units, Troop 98 and Pack 98, for standing by Geoffrey McGrath after the BSA ousted him as a Scoutmaster in March, according to Scouts for Equality, a group that lobbies against discrimination in the scouting movement. The church's Rev. Dr. Monica Corsaro has refused to remove McGrath from his leadership position.
Charles J. Cooper—the chief legal defender of Proposition 8 for the duration of the Perry case—has an openly gay stepdaughter named Ashley, and Cooper and his wife, Debbie, are helping to plan Ashley's upcoming wedding to her partner of several years, according to LGBT Weekly. The news was disclosed in Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Jo Becker's upcoming book Forcing the Spring: Inside the Fight for Marriage Equality. In a statement, Human Rights Campaign President Chad Griffin said, "I spent the better part of five years sitting across courtroom aisles from Mr. Cooper, disagreeing with just about every word that came out of his mouth, but I have profound respect for his decision to love and celebrate his daughter and her fiancee."
A recent report from The New England Journal of Medicine finds that marriage equality has positive effects on public health by improving access to health care for same-sex couples and their children, and reducing the risks of anxiety, depression and other mental-health problems when a couple's relationship is not legally recognized, according to LGBTQ Nation. According to the report, public health research has suggested not only that discriminatory environments and bans on same-sex marriage are detrimental to health but also that legalizing same-sex marriage ( among other policies expanding protections ) contributes to better health for LGBT people. The report also finds that legalizing same-sex marriage also improves access to health insurance for LGBT people.
After posting that he was diagnosed with HIV, 21-year-old Florida man Dakota Basinger was pulled from a local basketball league game, according to a Newser item. In the second half of a playoff game, a Kissimmee city official called a time out, then took Basinger aside to ask if he had the illness; when he said yes, the city employee said his league basketball-playing days were over. An aspiring rapper, Basinger has a new song about his experience being diagnosed.
Anthony Sullivan, a 72-year-old gay immigrant widower, has asked the Los Angeles Field Office of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services ( USCIS ) to reopen his marriage-based green-card petition that this same office denied four decades ago, according to DOMAProject.org . In a letter dated Nov. 24, 1975, and addressed to Sullivan's spouse, Richard Adams, the former Immigration and Naturalization Service ( INS ) wrote an explosive one-sentence response: "You have failed to establish that a bona fide marital relationship can exist between two faggots." The couple fought back, losing in a final ruling at the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Sullivan, an Australian, is renewing his petition as the widower of an American citizen.
In Texas Southern Methodist University students collected enough signatures to get a revote on whether to add an LGBT Student Senate seat, according to The Dallas Voice. Only 53 percent of students voted April 3 for the amendment to the Student Constitution. ( Two-thirds of the students had to approve. ) To get another vote, supporters needed to collect signatures from 10 percent of the student body, which is 1,053 people.
The American Civil Liberties Union is asking a judge to force the state of Michigan to recognize more than 300 same-sex marriages performed in March, according to the Associated Press. The ACLU filed a lawsuit on behalf of couples who say Gov. Rick Snyder is violating their constitutional rights. He won't recognize the marriages for the purpose of benefits until federal courts decide the status of Michigan's ban on same-sex marriage.
A Sprint customer claimed a service representative sent him an email addressing him as "gay" and "sissyboy," according to The Huffington Post. Kelvin Mathews, of Chicago, called Sprint on April 13 due to active messaging on an account he thought he had closed. When a customer-service rep told him to check the online status of the account, Mathews said he didn't remember the login information. So the representative sent him an email with instructions, and that email, Mathews said, was addressed to "Sissyboy Kelvin Gay Matthews." The company looked into the incident and apologized to Mathews, who is straight.
Lambda Legal, on April 15, filed a lawsuit on behalf a Mattoon, Ill., transgender woman who says she was denied medical care by her physician after she requested hormone replacement therapy from her physician. Naya Taylor said that when she requested Dr. Aja Lystila, her primary-care physician, start her on hormone replacement therapy in order to help treat her gender dysphoria, Lystila refused, claiming she was not experienced in providing hormones to transgender people. Clinic officials allegedly later told Taylor that they did not have to treat "people like you."
Point Foundation founders and board members Bruce C. Lindstrom and Carl T. Strickland have resigned, according to a press release. No replacements have been named. The organization's website states that it "empowers promising LGBTQ students to achieve their full academic and leadership potential—despite the obstacles often put before them—to make a significant impact on society."
Several Illinois GOP officials who wanted to remove former state Republican Party Chairman Pat Brady after he publicly supported same-sex marriage last year lost their party positions, according to The Huffington Post. Illinois Republicans across the state held elections for all 18 state central committee member posts, replacing six of the seven officials who signed on to a letter last year to hold a vote on removing Brady as chairman, the AP noted. The seventh person to sign the letter, Mark Shaw of the 10th Congressional District, was re-elected to a four-year term.
Following a week of controversy surrounding language and its use against and in the transgender and drag communities, transgender icon Jayne County claims to have found herself banned from Facebook for using words that some activists have stated are transphobic, The Huffington Post reported. Jayne County, hailed as one of rock n' roll's first gender variant icons and a fixture in the Andy Warhol factory scene, posted a Facebook status on Tuesday that contained the words "she-male" and "tranny." In response, Facebook reportedly banned the icon for 24 hours.
The Louisiana House voted 66-27 to keep the state's unconstitutional sodomy ban under Louisiana's "crimes against nature" law, according to The Huffington Post. The Supreme Court's 2003 Lawrence v. Texas decision invalidated all state bans on gay sex, declaring them unconstitutional. However, Louisiana, along with several other states, has refused to strike the provision from state law. The House rejected a bill, sponsored by state Rep. Patricia Haynes Smith ( D ), that would have done just that.
An estimated 2,000 people rallied at the University of Massachusetts in support of the LGBTQ community and UMass basketball player Derrick Gordon, the first openly gay male athlete in NCAA Division I sports, according to LGBTQ Nation. The rally was organized to counter a protest by members of the Westboro Baptist Church, who traveled to UMass to in response to Gordon's coming-out. Five members of the church picketed about a quarter of a mile away from the rally, displaying signs containing messages such as "UMass Fag Enablers" and "Death Penalty 4 Fags."
An Oregon woman has been sentenced to life in prison after being found guilty of the murder of her 4-year-old son, according to LGBTQ Nation. Prosecutors said Jessica Dutro believed her son was gay, and that was the motive behind the beatings that led to his death. Dutro, 25, was convicted April 7 on one count of murder, five counts of murder by abuse and one count of second-degree assault in the death of 4-year-old Zachary Dutro.
Gay couples in Missouri who were married in other states may still file their taxes jointly, according to KCUR.org . A judge denied a conservative group in its attempt to immediately bar same-sex couples from filing their state tax returns together, a right Gov. Jay Nixon's executive order granted last year. Despite Nixon's order, Missouri does not recognize marriages from other states, and has a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage. However, conservative groups' legal challenge will be heard May 2.
One of the largest family-owned jewelry chains in the country, Rogers & Hollands, is expanding its demographic reach and marketing to include the LGBT community by adding a new wedding jewelry collection created to celebrate marriage and equality. The jewelry chain—which operates several stores throughout the Chicagoland area and throughout the Midwest—has announced the addition of Rony Tennenbaum's Jewelry collection to its bridal cases in both its Woodfield Mall location in Schaumburg, Ill., and in downtown Chicago's Water Tower Place stores.
The man accused of killing three people at Jewish community sites in Overland Park, Kan., last weekend may be linked to a 1987 attack on a gay adult bookstore on the outskirts of Shelby, N.C., that left three men dead, according to an Advocate.com item. Frazier Glenn Miller—arrested in connection with the shooting deaths in the Kansas City suburb—has a long history of advocacy for white supremacist and anti-Semitic beliefs. In a "Declaration of War" he mailed to media outlets and racist groups in 1987, he said he also planned to wage war on "queers."
A conference of LGBT heavyweights pulled out of a conference at California's Beverly Hills Hotel because the property is owned by the anti-gay sultan of Brunei, who wants gays stoned to death, according to OUT Traveler. The OutGiving conference—a $1,750-a-seat conference that the LGBT fundraising group Gill Action Fund organized—is asking for its deposit back from the Beverly Hills Hotel, where it planned to have an event. Organizers plan to find a new venue for the May 1-4 event.
About 100 people showed up at a Town Council meeting in Latta, S.C., to protest the firing of the lesbian police chief by the mayor, who has a record of anti-gay remarks, Advocate.com reported. Mayor Earl Bullard fired Crystal Moore after presenting her with seven written reprimands; Moore, who had been chief for two years and a member of the police force for more than 20, had not received any reprimands previously. Bullard has been recorded saying items such as, "I would much rather have, and I will say this to anybody's face, somebody who drank and drank too much taking care of my child than I had somebody whose lifestyle is questionable around children."
Students at a South Carolina public university are snapping up tickets to the musical Fun Home after state lawmakers approved a proposed cut in school funding over the critically acclaimed lesbian memoir on which the musical is based, according to Reuters. Angered over the proposed budget cut for the College of Charleston, the cast of the Pulitzer Prize-nominated show volunteered to put on two performances of selected songs from the musical at the college without pay. Little more than a day after the box office for both performances opened, 900 of the 1,500 available tickets had been sold for $10 or $15 apiece.
Nineties New York nightlife icon and Club Kids co-founder Michael Alig is slated to be released from prison on May 5 after serving 17 years for the murder of friend and fellow club kid Andre "Angel" Melendez in 1996, according to The Huffington Post. Alig, whose story was documented in the film Party Monster, will reportedly not immediately re-enter the club scene as a way of life. A support group will help Alig—who reportedly has never used a computer or cellphone—ease back into everyday life.
PinGay is a free social pinboard that is like a gay, adult content version of Pinterest, according to The Huffington Post. Like its straight counterpart PinSex, PinGay is a social media platform that allows users to upload, save, share and browse adult content. PinGay also allows users to follow each other based on their taste preferences.
The Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund has announced it's endorsing 18 out LGBT candidates for public office, according to a press release. Chuck Wolfe, the fund's chief operating officer, said, "For the 2014 cycle Victory has endorsed 110 out LGBT candidates and we expect to endorse more than 200 out LGBT candidates this year." Among the latest batch of endorsed candidates are Illinois state Rep. Sam Yingling, South Dakota state Sen. Angie Buhl O'Donnell ( both incumbents ) and New Mexico judicial candidate Lisa Schultz.
Rev. Franklin Graham has said he stood by earlier comments agreeing with so-called gay "propaganda" bans in Russia because President Vladimir Putin was doing "what's right" for the country, Raw Story reported. Graham—the son of the Rev. Billy Graham—had initially asserted that LGBT people were trying to "recruit" children by adopting them, and suggested that it was "exploitation." On ABC's This Week, the younger Graham also said, "I'm no better than a gay person, I'm a sinner. But I've been forgiven, and I've turned from my sins."
The grand opening of "Equality House Presents The Legacy Project" recently drew hundreds of people to the groundbreaking rainbow-colored home located directly across from anti-gay Westboro Baptist Church compound in Topeka, Kan., according to a press release. The Legacy Project at Equality House exhibition features 18 plaques, framed in bronze and under glass, representing people from throughout history giving visitors an overview of LGBT contributions throughout the centuries. The Legacy Project is the 501( c )( 3 ) nonprofit that manages Chicago's "Legacy Walk," a memorial streetscape in the Boystown neighborhood that highlights some of the contributions LGBT people have made to world history and culture.
