While former U.S. Sen. Carol Moseley-Braun is throwing her hat in the Democratic race for President this week, anti-gay U.S. Rep. Glenn Poshard, D-Ill., has announced he is retiring.
PhillipsConoco announced last week that they'll reinstate protections to gays and lesbians in their nondiscrimination policy, after the Human Rights Campaign responded to a tip that the protections had been lost. The company removed the protections when they merged.
Two scout leaders in upstate New York resigned in protest of the Boy Scouts of America's policy against gays and atheists. One of the leaders who resigned told 365gay.com that the exclusive policy gives kids the wrong message about tolerance.
New York prosecutors will not seek the death penalty in the case of Richard Rogers, Jr., a former nurse accused of killing and dismembering two gay men in the 1990s, according to 365gay.com . The cases were reopened when new testing methods became available for DNA.
The Port of Seattle Commissioner Lawrence Malloy says he'll push for the Commission to pass a resolution that would require businesses contracting with the Port to provide domestic-partner benefits to their employees, according to the Seattle Gay News. Citing San Francisco's Transportation Board, Malloy said the law is morally correct.
Michael Magidson, one of the men charged in the slaying of Gwen Araujo, was released on $1.6 million bail last week, according to the San Jose Mercury News. Before Magidson's bail hearing, character witnesses described the man as kind to animals and friendly toward gays, lesbians and transgender people. Prosecutors said Magidson was the primary aggressor.
A gay middle-school teacher in Beaverton, Ore., is the center of a controversy surrounding free speech. School officials ordered teacher Larry Smith to take down a poster advertising a free support group for gay teens. According to the Oregonian, the teachers union told the administration that the removal of the poster shows that the administration has little tolerance for gay teachers.
Georgia Equality supporters marched on Georgia's state capital last week to protest AIDS funding and the lack of non-discrimination policies, according to the Florida Times-Union. The group says they want Georgia legislators to know that gay people are in all districts.
At least four members of a radical gay group called Gay Shame were arrested last week after they protested a fundraiser for the San Francisco LGBT Center. According to the San Francisco Examiner, the group opposes corporatization of gay culture. The group asked the district attorney to drop the charges, two of which are felony lynching charges.
A lesbian in San Diego will appeal a trial court decision throwing out her California civil-rights lawsuit against doctors who refused to artificially inseminate her because the action conflicted with the doctor's religious beliefs, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune. The trial court ruled that federal law regulating employee benefits does not allow state civil-rights suits to be filed against an employee-provided health plan.
The Religious Coaltion for the Freedom to Marry in Boston is calling for equality in marriage for homosexual couples. About 400 clergy members gathered to call attention to what they considered cruel and abusive anti-gay marriage laws, according to Boston's WCVB-TV. One Episcopalian minister said he will continue to perform heterosexual ceremonies but will not sign those marriage licenses until the Commonwealth of Massachusetts allows gays to marry as well.
While groups like Lambda Legal are holding anti-sodomy law rallies across the country, Focus on the Family, a conservative Christian group, is holding 'Gays Can Be Converted Straight' rallies to four cities.
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