In Hawaii, the Honolulu Police Department opened an internal investigation into allegations that an officer wrongfully arrested a vacationing lesbian couple after seeing them kissing in a grocery store, The Huffington Post reported. Courtney Wilson and Taylor Guerrero, who were visiting Hawaii from Los Angeles in March, claimed in a federal lawsuit filed Oct. 27 that they were harassed and arrested because Officer Bobby Harrison didn't like their public displays of affection in a Foodland store on Oahu's North Shore. Police earlier told The Associated Press that they couldn't comment on pending litigation, then later said they had opened the internal probe.
Transgender models are becoming more and more accepted on the catwalks and glossy magazine pages of the fashion world—and now, they have their own New York agency, The Daily Mail noted. Peche Di, 26, told Refinery29 that, after being unable to sign with an agency ( despite having worked with big names like Teen Vogue and Barney's ) bought the domain name for TransModels.com and, shortly after, made the business official by filing the papers at the county clerk's office downtown. The agency is only the third of its kind in the country.
Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Julian Castro and actress Sally Field are among those asking voters to retain the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance ( HERO ), On Top Magazine reported. HERO prohibits discrimination in housing, employment and public accommodations based on several characteristics including race, religion, sexual orientation and gender identity. Field joined other supporters, including Texas state Sen. Sylvia R. Garcia, at a press conference organized by Houston Unites, the campaign to approve Proposition 1, and the Human Rights Campaign.
A Change.org petition has surfaced that asks for out CNN anchor Don Lemon to be fired, The New York Post reported. The petition surfaced after Lemon took prosecutor/CNN legal analyst Sunny Hostin to task over a video showing a white South Carolina sheriff's deputy tossing and dragging a Black female student across her classroom. The petition has almost reached its goal of 35,000 signatures.
The openly gay mayor of Lexington, Kentucky, has denied ties to the Ku Klux Klan after hacktivist group Anonymous published a list of alleged members, Gay Star News reported. Jim Gray, a 62-year-old Democrat, came out as gay in 2005, and is one four U.S. senators and five mayors on the Anonymous list. Anonymous released four lists with the names, email addresses and phone numbers of purported Klansmen.
In Ohio, a Democratic state lawmaker plans to reintroduce legislation to ban discrimination in housing, employment and elsewhere based on sexual orientation or gender identity, according to The Youngstown Vindicator. The new bill marks the third time Rep. Nickie Antonio, D-Lakewood, has offered the proposed law changes. She's hoping for more legislative support this session after the U.S. Supreme Court decision earlier this year that overturned marriage-equality bans nationally.
To mark Transgender Awareness Month this November, National LGBTQ Task Force Executive Director Rea Carey issued a statement. "As we mark Transgender Awareness Month, there is much to celebrate in terms of awareness for the transgender community but there are urgent issues that must be addressed that directly affect transgender lives," the statement begins. Carey addresses advances in areas in areas ranging from politics to entertainment, but adds, "there has been too little attention paid to the murders of transgender women, and particularly transgender women of color, across the nation and the shocking rates of unemployment, homelessness and poverty that are way above those faced by the rest of the LGBQ community and the general public."
A new brief that the Movement Advancement Project ( MAP ) released reveals that 70 percent of the geographic area of the United States lacks any city, county, or state employment protections for LGBT people, according to a press release. "LGBT Policy Spotlight: Local Employment Nondiscrimination Ordinances" examines city and county nondiscrimination ordinances ( NDOs ) that prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in private employment. The report details where these ordinances are geographically, their growth over time, and the gaps in coverage that remain.
Brent Randall—a Republican candidate for the Goshen, Indiana, City Council—has been outed as gay, On Top Magazine noted. Randall, 53, confirmed that he as a profile on gay-dating site Adam4Adam. He has campaigned against a proposal to add "sexual orientation" and "gender identity" to the city's civil-rights ordinance, arguing that the LGBT community is already protected under existing laws. Randall was married for 22 years before divorcing his wife in 2009.
A federal judge has awarded legal fees to a national gay-rights group that sued North Dakota on behalf of a same-sex couple, although he criticized attorneys who worked on the case, CBS Minnesota reported. U.S. District Judge Ralph Erickson awarded $57,351 to Lambda Legal and Minneapolis-based Faegre Baker Daniels law firm—less than half of the $124,000 they had sought. Erickson said that the hourly rate requested for attorneys who worked on the case was too high and that some work duplicated that of other attorneys.
Former gay-porn star Jarec Wentworth ( aka Teofil Brank ) was sentenced to nearly six years behind bars after being found guilty of extorting tech tycoon/Republican millionaire Donald Burns for more than $1.5 million back in July, LGBTQ Nation reported. According to court documents, 25-year-old Wentworth and 51-year-old Burns first met back in 2013, when a "sex for pay" relationship commenced. Things soured earlier this year, however, when Wentworth began threatening to expose Burns if he didn't hand over $500,000, give him a $180,000 car and buy him a $1-million luxury condo.
Philadelphia boxer Yusaf Mack ( who's a father of 10 ) has come out as bisexual after claiming that he was drugged and did not remember having sex with two men for an X-rated video that is now available on a gay subscription website, Joe.My.God reported. In a public apology, Mack said, in part, "I did participate in the adult film because at the time I needed money but also because I am a bisexual man. Meaning I enjoy safely being intimate with whomever I choose. ... My life was completely destroyed once it had been outed that I participated in a gay film. I selfishly tried to cover the truth and remain in denial, rather than accept the fact that I was leading a double life secretly."
Lambda Legal has filed an amended complaint in a federal lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York on behalf of Thomas Hamm against the City of New York and New York City Department of Correction ( DOC ) officers and supervisors, according to a press release. The suit comes after what Lambda calls "a brutal attack on Mr. Hamm while he visited his partner, P.F., at a men's facility on Rikers Island." Among other things, Hamm and P.F. were allegedly called slurs after they kissed and embraced, and officers reportedly physically attacked Hamm as he tried to leave, resulting in him staying in a hospital overnight ( while being shackled to the bed ).
Iowa's Gortz Haus was made infamous by previous owners Dick and Betty Odgaard, a couple who became notorious after refusing to host same-sex wedding ceremonies at their chapel due to their staunch religious beliefs. Now, according to LGBTQ Nation, the building will reopen its doors as Harvest Bible Church, which is "evangelical" and "nondemoninational." The couple—who gained even more notoriety this summer by launching a much-maligned billboard campaign through their God's Original Design Ministry—have been attending the church for the last nine months or so.
The Human Rights Campaign ( HRC ) Foundation and Partnership for Drug-Free Kids released "Preventing Substance Abuse Among LGBTQ Teens," an issue brief focusing on helping parents, educators and other youth-serving professionals understand the unique challenges LGBTQ youth face that contribute to their heightened rates of substance abuse, according to a press release. Additionally, the Partnership and HRC Foundation will work together to expand the visibility and participation of LGBTQ youth in teen-targeted programming, including "Above the Influence," the Partnership's teen substance-abuse prevention campaign. The brief is at http://hrc.org/teensubstanceabuse.
Also, the HRC Foundation, in collaboration with the National Black Justice Coalition ( NBJC ), convened a delegation of students, faculty and administrators from Historically Black Colleges and Universities ( HBCUs ) for a leadership summit designed to help make campuses LGBTQ-welcoming, according to a press release. For more than a decade, HRC Foundation has held an annual summit for LGBTQ student leaders from the nation's historically Black institutions; however, this year's three-day event included, for the first time, HBCU faculty and administrators.
Out & Equal Workplace Advocates recently opened its first East Coast office in Washington, D.C., according to a press release. Out & Equal collaborates with Fortune 1000 companies around the world to help them create safe and supportive work environments for their LGBT employees. Out & Equal will remain headquartered in San Francisco, while founder/CEO Selisse Berry will oversee the East Coast expansion.
Gary Lacinski, former publisher of the gay entertainment guide HX, has died of an apparent heart attack at the age of 53, Press Pass Q noted. Lacinski came to HX Magazine in the early 1990s and was largely responsible for the weekly's growth. He stayed with the publication until rival gay nightlife guide Next Magazine absorbed it in 2009. His longtime partner, Chris Pagoota, survives Lacinski; they married in 2014.
Equality Florida will present marriage-lawsuit plaintiff Jim Obergefell with its "Voice for Equality" Award at the 13th Annual Equality Florida Broward Gala on Nov. 15, a press release stated. Presented by PNC Bank, the event takes place at the Hyatt Regency Pier Sixty-Six Panorama Ballroom in Fort Lauderdale. Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Sarah Zabel—who, in January, ruled that Florida's ban on same-sex marriage was unconstitutional ( Pareto v. Ruvin )—will present the award to Obergefell.
Olympic freeskier Gus Kenworthy, who came out just last month, has apologized for a photograph he posted on Instagram featuring him dressed as a Native American chief for Halloween, according to LGBTQ Nation. Initially, he wrote that "for everyone giving me grief, I don't really understand why this is racist or cultural appropriation.. it's Halloween! Just having fun! : )" After getting blowback, he posted, "Didn't realize I was being offensive & didn't mean to marginalize or appropriate Native American culture. Sorry! Pic deleted."
University of Pennsylvania volleyball player Kendall Covington recently opened up about her sexual orientation for a video series called "I Am Penn" in which athletes discuss their part of the Penn community, Outsports noted. Covington, who is bisexual, said she wanted to share her story to help other people who might be struggling with their sexual orientation. Covington works with two athlete groups—PATH and GO! Athletes —to build networks of LGBT athletes to provide support and empowerment for others.
Lambda Legal joined the National Women's Law Center and other allied organizations in filing a friend-of-the-court brief in Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin, a case pending at the U.S. Supreme Court for the second time challenging the use of race in undergraduate admissions decisions, according to a press releases. The brief, which focuses on the case's implications for women and LGBT people of color, argues that the University of Texas at Austin's use of race in undergraduate admissions decisions is lawful under the Equal Protection Clause.
The Daily Illini, the student-run newspaper publication at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, issued an apology letter for publishing a political cartoon that sparked controversy among several students on campus, USA Today noted. The Halloween-themed cartoon titled "Halloween Immigrant" portrayed a man climbing over a fence saying, "I'm going as an illegal immigrant!" followed by two trick-or-treaters traveling onward into the house.
The National Women's Hall of Fame hosted its 2015 induction ceremony, MAKERS.com noted. Ten women who have been pioneers in their various industries—including education, politics, business arts, media, science and more—were honored. Among the honorees were dance pioneer Martha Graham, Feminist Majority founder Eleanor Smeal, Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation founder Nancy Brinker, Little Rock member Carlotta Walls LaNier, Olympic skater Tenley Albright, National Women's Law Center founder Marcia Greenberger, University of Rochester Medical Center scientist Barbara Iglewski, immune-system researcher Philippa Marrack, media expert Jean Kilbourne and Junior League founder Mary Harriman Rumsey.
