During a 45-minute group interview with bloggers from five progressive websites, President Obama said Oct. 27 that he does not think the "disillusionment" that some in the LGBT community have for his administration thus far is "justified." He also refused to say whether he believes "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" ( DADT ) is unconstitutional. In addition, he said he has a strategy for getting the military ban on gays repealed in the lame-duck session. Only one of the five interviewers was gay: Joe Sudbay, who blogs at AmericaBlog.com .
Also, President Obama dropped by an Oct. 26 meeting at the White House that focused on moving the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" to the end of this year, according to Advocate.com . A leaked e-mail from Brian Bond, deputy director of the Office of Public Engagement, about the closed-door meeting read, "We are expecting the content of the conversation today to be off the record and to help us figure out how to move forward with the lame duck session. There can be no discussion of current court cases or legal strategy or Counsel's Office will end the meeting." Among those who attended the meeting were Log Cabin Republicans Executive Director R. Clarke Cooper and Servicemembers United Executive Director Alex Nicholson.
The U.S. Department of Education has issued guidelines regarding educators' responsibilities in dealing with bullying by sending a letter to approximately 15,000 school districts across the nation. Russlyn Ali, the department's assistant secretary for civil rights, said, "A lot of bullying experienced by LGBT kids is accompanied by or in the form of sexual harassment or gender-based harassment because students are perceived as not conforming to traditional gender roles. We want to be sure that recipients understand that that kind of discrimination and harassment can very much be a violation of Title IX in federal civil rights laws."
Clint McCance—the controversial Midland School District ( Ark. ) school board member who said on his Facebook page that all gays should commit suicide—said that he will quit his position while on CNN correspondent Anderson Cooper's show AC360, according to Advocate.com . Responding to a request to wear purple on Oct. 20 ( Spirit Day ) to support LGBT youth, McCance posted, "Seriously they want me to wear purple because five queers killed themselves. The only way im wearin it for them is if they all commit suicide." While on the CNN show, McCance told Cooper, "I made some very ignorant comments—did not realize just how ignorant they were. ... I would never support suicide of any kids. I don't support bullying of any kids."
In Vibe magazine, writer Aliya King has written an article entitled "The Mean Girls of Morehouse," which profiles four students who attend the country's only all-male historically Black institution—but who identify themselves as androgynous and dress in women's clothing, according to NPR.com . The article provoked controversy, causing outrage on campus and leading the college's president to write a letter to alumni that criticized the magazine. Regarding the title of the piece, it is a nod to the Plastics clique in the 2004 Lindsay Lohan movie Mean Girls, and some of the Morehouse men who were interviewed referred to themselves as the Plastics.
Some Gold's Gym franchises have been facing backlash from customers and distancing themselves from parent company TRT Holdings since it's been discovered that billionaire Robert Rowling, TRT's CEO, has given more than $2 million to American Crossroads, a tax-exempt organization founded by Karl Rove that works to elect anti-gay politicians, according to HuffingtonPost.com . Among those American Crossroads is backing are Nevada GOP Senate candidate Sharron Angle and Missouri Rep. Roy Blunt, who received a 0 percent rating from the Human Rights Campaign. Change.org is urging people to sign a petition to urge Gold's Gym to stop supporting anti-gay politicians and candidates.
San Francisco Gay Pride Executive Director Amy Andre and Board President Mikayla Connell have resigned due to a financial situation, according to Advocate.com . It turns out that 20 nonprofit organizations hired to operate beverage booths during the 2010 event are still owed $46,000. City and county supervisors Bevan Dufty and David Campos have stepped in to help the organization.
In New Jersey, Marquise Foster—suspected of killing transgender woman Victoria Carmen White—has turned himself in to authorities, according to an Advocate.com item. White was found Sept. 12 in her apartment after she brought Foster, Alrashim Chambers and two others she met in a nightclub back to her place. Chambers remains at large. Police said that the men linked to White's death may also be responsible for the death of a gay man.
Three of the 11 people arrested in recent anti-gay attacks in New York city have been released because of insufficient evidence, according to CNN.com . Brian Cepeda, Steven Carabello and Bryan Almonte, all 17, have been allowed to walk. ( A grand jury has indicted another suspect, Luis Garcia, 26. ) The case involves three victims who were beaten; two of them were sodomized. Pending charges against the others include sodomy, robbery, assault, unlawful imprisonment, abduction and menacing—all as hate crimes.
The White House invited Lambda Legal client Dr. Robert Franke—who was evicted from a Little Rock, Ark., assisted living facility because he is HIV-positive—to participate in a conference on HIV and aging, according to a Lambda Legal press release. The meeting took place at the White House Oct. 27, and is part of an ongoing series of discussions on HIV organized by the White House Office of National AIDS Policy. Lambda Legal represented Franke and his daughter, Sara Bowling, in a lawsuit against the Fox Ridge assisted living facility; the lawsuit was settled last month.
Even though same-sex marriage is legal in New Hampshire, the state's largest newspaper, the New Hampshire Union Leader, will not run gay and lesbian couples' wedding announcements, according to the Metro Weekly. A gay couple, Greg Gould and Aurelio Tine, tried to have their wedding published in the newspaper. However, Union Leader publisher Joe McQuaid said that the paper opposes same-sex marriage, although he claimed that the publication is not anti-gay. Advocate.com reported that Democratic Senate candidate Paul Hodes has asked the paper to change its policy.
In Mississippi, the Itawamba County School District has been ordered to pay student Constance McMillen $81,000 in legal fees, according to Advocate.com . The school district cancelled McMillen's high school prom because she wanted to bring her girlfriend and wear a tuxedo to the event. However, the prom was reinstated—but most of the students' parents organized a separate gathering, with McMillen and her date going to the fake prom.
Noted members of the revolutionary Violet Quill Club—Edmund White, Felice Picano and Andrew Holleran—were slated to reunite for a literary event at the Manhattan bookstore/space 192 Books Nov. 2, according to a press release. The Violet Quill began in New York City with seven gay male writers who regularly met in the early 1980s to discuss and encourage each other's works. Writers from around the world are expected at the event.
In New York, Joseph Jefferson, a 26-year-old gay activist and HIV peer educator, committed suicide, according to Advocate.com . On Oct. 23, Jefferson posted on his Facebook page that "I could not bear the burden of living as a gay man of color in a world grown cold and hateful towards those of us who live and love differently than the so-called 'social mainstream.'" Jefferson had worked with such organizations as Gay Men of African Descent and the now-defunct People of Color in Crisis.
The National Youth Advocacy Coalition ( NYAC ) has issued a statement announcing the 2nd Annual LGBTQ Youth Awareness Week and spotlighting Fierce Queers, five people who devote their lives to empowering their communities. The press release also mentioned the rash of gay teen suicides that have been publicized recently but added that the organization is concerned "that this message combined with the focus on LGBTQ youth as suicide risks continue to oversimplify and portray only negative realities." NYAC is urging the media to portray LGBTQ youth not only as victims, but as people who change lives and the world.
Positively Aware, a publication that focuses on HIV treatment, has announced the release of "A Day with HIV in America," a photo essay in the November/December issue of the magazine. Among those in the 26-photo pictorial are Chuck Panozzo, who co-founded the band Styx, and Martin Mace, a British man who was finally able to viist the United States after the ban on HIV-positive individuals was lifted. Positively Aware editor Jeff Berry said, "By depicting HIV-positive Americans of all walks of life in everyday moments, this pictorial chips away at the stigma attached to HIV. We are not victims suffering in silence—we are a very diverse group of people living full, complete lives."
Facebook is dealing with problems after researchers discovered that the social-networking site may be unintentionally outing gay users to advertisers, according to Wired.com . Saikat Guha from Microsoft and Bin Cheng and Paul Francis from the Max Planck Institute for Software Systems studied the challenged in online advertising systems—and found out that advertisers can discern gay users from heterosexual ones, even when the sexuality is hidden. Facebook's official policy is that any data that advertisers collect must be anonymous.
Laura Bush said that adults need to take a stand against bullying, according to an On Top Magazine item. When asked by ABC News reporter Deborah Roberts about bullying at the Women's Conference 2010, Bush said, "Bullying of every kind, certainly gay teens, but any children is really terrible." The former first lady and ex-grade school teacher added, "We've read cases of children on the Internet where kids are committing suicide. It's really terrible. As adults, we have to be the ones who do something about it."
In Georgia, approximately 100 members of the Ku Klux Klan were expected at Augusta State University to support counseling student Jennifer Keeton, who claimed that the school violated her First Amendment rights in ordering her not to practice because of her view that homosexuality is a disorder. However, according to an SDGLN.com item., a dozen men in fatigues showed up, shouted for about 90 minutes and then left—leaving 200 counterdemonstrators to wonder about the hype surrounding the protest. Proud Ally member and counter-protester Maleeha Ahmed said, "I wish it had been a bit more constructive, but then I suppose rallies like these never really are."
Equality Forum is seeking nominations for GLBT History Month 2011 Icons. The nominee needs to be a GLBT person, living or deceased, who has distinguished him or herself in his or her field of endeavor; is a national hero; or has made a significant contribution to GLBT civil rights. Nominations are due to nominations@equalityforum.com by Friday, Dec. 17.
Jim Swilley—the pastor of Church in the Now, the Georgia institution he found a quarter-century ago—has officially come out of the closet, according to ABC News. In a video, Swilley, 52, said, "I know a lot of straight people think orientation is a choice. I want to tell you that it is not." He said that he made the decision to announce his sexual orientation to save lives. Swilley told ABC News' Atlanta affiliate WSB-TV, "To think about saving a teenager, yeah, I'll risk my reputation for that. As a father, thinking about your 16-, 17-year-old killing themselves."
Meanwhile, another Georgia megachurch pastor, the Rev. Eddie Long, is fighting charges that he sexually abused several young men. According to the Georgia Voice, Long has filed papers denying accusations he sexually forced the young men, who were members of the pastor's gigantic New Birth Missionary Baptist Church. Long admitted that he took the men on trips but denied that any sexual contact occurred, adding that he sees himself as a mentor.
In Vermont, the state supreme court has unanimously granted custody to Vermont resident Janet Jenkins in her fight with Lisa Miller, Advocate.com reported. The ruling affirms a 2009 court order that gave her sole custody of Isabella Miller-Jenkins, although the child is still missing, along with Miller.
