Dwan Prince is in a coma after being savagely beaten and kicked by three men screaming anti-gay slurs, the New York Daily News reported. Witnesses rushed to help Prince as he lay bleeding outside his building on E. 94th St. and Kings Highway in Brownsville. Prince, a Brooklyn man who is HIV-positive, has been in intensive care at Brookdale Hospital since the attack.
A new federal lawsuit seeks to strike down Michigan's constitutional amendment that defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman, saying it violates the U.S. Constitution. The Detroit Free Press reported that Bangor attorney Jessie Olson is named as a co-plaintiff with her lesbian partner, Tabitha A. Flatau, in the suit she filed in U.S. District Court in Kalamazoo.
A House subcommittee voted to sharply reduce the federal government's financial support for public broadcasting, including eliminating taxpayer funds that help underwrite such popular children's educational programs as Sesame Street and Postcards From Buster, the Washington Post reported. In addition, the subcommittee acted to eliminate within two years all federal money for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting ( CPB ) , which passes federal funds to public broadcasters, starting with a 25 percent reduction in the CPB's budget for next year.
A nasty battle being fought out in two states between an estranged lesbian couple has reached the Vermont Supreme Court, 365Gay.com reported. The case revolves around a three-year-old girl born through artificial insemination to Lisa Miller-Jenkins. At the time she was in a relationship with Janet Miller-Jenkins which had been formalized by a civil union in Vermont where they lived. When the women split up, a judge in Vermont gave Janet Miller-Jenkins temporary visitation rights with the child. Lisa Miller-Jenkins moved with her daughter to Virginia. She then went to court in that state seeking sole custody of the child.
In a single-sentence ruling issued on June 6, the U.S. Supreme Court denied a petition filed by Cheryl Ann Clark that sought the court's review of a decision issued on July 1, 2004, by the Colorado Court of Appeals in the case of Clark v. McLeod, according to a release from the Colorado Legal Initiatives Project. That case held that Clark's former lesbian partner, Elsey McLeod, was a 'psychological parent' to a child that the couple had jointly raised before separating, and therefore McLeod was entitled to equal parenting rights. The action by the U.S. Supreme Court means that the case is over and that Clark has no more legal avenues left to overturn lower court rulings favorable to McLeod.
A Florida judge approved a shared-custody settlement reached in mediation by a transsexual man and his ex-wife over their two children, ending a bitter dispute that wound up on national television, the Gainesville Sun reported. Michael Kantaras, born Margo Kantaras, underwent a sex change operation in 1987. He married Linda Forsythe in 1989, and they settled in the St. Petersburg area.
A constitutional amendment banning gay marriage faltered in the Maine House, falling well short of the two-thirds majority needed to send the matter to referendum and all but killing the controversial bill for this legislative session, according to the Bangor Daily News. The vote was 88-56 against.
After a close vote on a bill that would have legalized same-sex marriage in California, advocates on both sides of the issue are examining the role of Latino lawmakers and religion in dooming the measure, according to the Washington Blade. The Religious Freedom & Civil Marriage Protection Act would have, among other things, allowed marriage licenses to be granted to same-sex couples. Five of the nine Democrats who abstained or voted no were members of the Latino Caucus.
The departure of conservative Janice Rogers Brown from the California Supreme Court leaves a hole that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will have to fill before the issue of same-sex marriage arrives on the high court's doorstep, according to 365Gay.com . Conservative Brown was confirmed by the Senate to the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.
The Human Rights Campaign ( HRC ) , in a statement, expressed deep disappointment at the decision by a House subcommittee to flat fund the Ryan White Comprehensive AIDS Resources Emergency ( CARE ) Act and other critical federal HIV/AIDS programs. 'Short-changing the fight against HIV/AIDS threatens the lives of millions of American men, women and children,' said HRC.
Nebraska attorney general Jon Bruning filed an appeal seeking to restore Nebraska's ban on same-sex marriage, according to WOWT. On May 13, a federal judge struck down the ban, saying the measure interferes not only with the rights of gay couples but also with foster parents, adopted children and people in a host of other living arrangements. Seventy percent of Nebraskans approved the amendment in 2000.
An organization formed to promote an amendment to the Texas Constitution to ban same-sex marriage is being run by two indicted associates of U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, 365Gay.com reported. The Texas Marriage Alliance is the creation of a Virginia consulting firm operated by John Colyandro and Jim Ellis. They are charged in Texas with violating campaign-finance laws during the 2002 election and are facing charges of money laundering.
A crowd of 1,000 people participated in the first annual New Paltz ( N.Y. ) Pride March & Festival, according to NewPaltzPride.org . After the march through New Paltz, Mayor Jason West—who has been charged for marrying same-sex couples last year—spoke at the festival in Hasbrouck Park.
In California, a San Diego Superior Court jury found that two former Poway High School students were harassed by their classmates because they are gay and that the school district failed to address the situation immediately and appropriately, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported. Joseph Ramelli and Megan Donovan—now both 19 and attending Palomar College—were awarded $175,000 and $125,000 in damages, respectively.
