BY ANDREW DAVIS AND AMY WOOTEN
The Advocate asked Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton to respond to lesbian rumors. New York Daily News broke the story one week before the magazine's article was to be published, causing the gay publication to post the interview online. According to the article, Clinton said, 'People say a lot of things about me, so I really don't pay any attention to it. ... It's not true, but it is something that I have no control over. People will say what they want to say.'
A federal appeals court upheld a lower court's decision to dismiss a lawsuit filed by a trans woman who was fired by the Utah Transit Authority two years back, and upheld the ruling that transsexuals aren't covered under federal non-discrimination laws, according to www.365gay.com . At the time Krystal Etsitty was fired, she was wearing women's clothing and taking hormones.
The American Civil Liberties Union, according to a press release, is urging the Georgia Court of Appeals to dismiss a judge's contempt order against a lesbian mother.The county judge had ordered that the child that Elizabeth Hadaway wants to adopt be taken away because of her sexual orientation. The child has since been returned to Hadaway, but she wants the judge's order that she spend jail time dropped.
According to the Southern Voice, a Newark, N.J., gay rights group is calling on the city's major to investigate the August triple murder of three college students as a hate crime. The article states that local gay activist James Credle and others say that at least one of the victims was gay, according to what they have learned.
The Maryland Court of Appeals recently upheld the state's 34-year old statute that bans same-sex marriage, 4-3, reporterd The Baltimore Sun. The majority opinion, written by Judge Glenn T. Harrell, Jr., said that any change should be done by the state legislature.
California Gov. Arnold Schwartzenegger recently announced that he will veto any same-sex marriage bill that lands on his desk, including the most recent bill passed by the state legislature, reported the Associated Press. The governor vetoed a similar bill in 2005.
At the recent start of a Brooklyn Supreme Court trial involving one of four men accused of killing a gay man last year during a robbery, the defedant's lawyer claimed that his client, who is accused of committing a hate crime, is gay, according to the New York Times. According to the article, Anthony Fortunato's lawyer claims his client planned to come out to his friends the night of the incident, and that the prosecution's main witness is gay, as well.
In California, the West Hollywood gay dance spot Mickey's recently burned to the ground, according to GaySocialites.com . Reports said that the fire started in a malfunctioning air-conditioning unit in the basement, and that the flames were fueled by liquor meant for thousands of green appletinis.
The Pentagon plans to discontinue software that spied on anti-war and gay-rights groups, according to EDGEBoston.com . The database was put together under a program called TALON ( Threat and Local Observation Notices ) that was started four years ago to monitor terrorist threats to U.S security forces.
In Alabama, 21-year-old Robert Holly Lofton Porter received two consecutive life terms for killing a gay man, Scotty Joe Weaver, according to 365Gay.com . Porter was the second to be sentenced for Weaver's murder; Christopher Gaines, 22, received life without parole after pleading guilty. Weaver was murdered in 2004; after the murder, the killers took the body to a dirt road and set it on fire.
A memorial for Latina lesbian activist Yolanda Retter Vargas will take place at the West Hollywood, Calif., Metropolitan Community Church on Sept. 29. Vargas contributed to a number of significant books on lesbian/gay culture and history, including the Lambda Literary Award-winning Queers in Space: Communities, Public Places, Sites of Resistance ( 1997 ) . Vargas recently died of cancer at age 59, Gay.com reported.
In a one-hour talk with gay journalists, New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine said that he expected same-sex marriages to be approved in his state, but that he would not work on that achievement until after the 2008 presidential election, according to Gay City News. 'I don't think I'd like to see this debated in a presidential election year,' Corzine said. 'It's an incitement to people who will make policies on a whole broad range of issues that will keep the status quo.'
In other news, a gay man was appointed to the Colorado state legislature, according to www.365gay.com . Mark Ferrandino, former head of Colorado Stonewall Democrats, will replace Rep. Mike Cerbo. Cerbo endorsed Ferrandino.
In New York, an Albany court has dismissed a challenge to the state comptroller's decision to treat out-of-state same-sex marriages the same as out-of-state heterosexual ones, 365Gay.com reported. In 2004, the comptroller at the time assured a gay man that his Canadian same-sex wedding would be treated the same as any other regarding retirement benefits. The Arizona-based Alliance Defense Fund filed a challenge, using the July 2006 ruling by the state's Court of Appeals, the state's top court, that upheld New York's ban on same-sex marriage.
