By a vote of 45-33, faculty members at Assumption College ( located in Worcester, Mass. ) charged its president, Francesco Cesareo, with violating school policy when he cancelled a gay student group's plans to bring gay veteran Eric Alva as their speaker for a Veteran's Day event. However, the faculty voted not to pursue the issue, according to Queerty.com .
A 22-year-old transgender student, Kourt Osborn, is fighting Southern Utah University for not letting him live in a male dorm. Equality Utah is calling the university's actions discriminatory. SUU says it has housed a trans student in the past, and denied Osborn housing because he did not meet the school's requirements that he complete hormone therapy and undergo sexual reassignment surgery. According to Utah's Desert Morning News, Osborn says he was told he could not apply to live in a female dorm, either.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia recently demanded that a Virginia High School that threatened a 17-year-old student with suspension for wearing a lesbian pride T-shirt prohibit themselves from censoring her in the future, according to the organization. The student wore a T-shirt that had two overlapping female gender symbols. The ACLU of Virginia is calling the school's actions 'unconstitutional censorship.'
The city of Moscow, Idaho, recently passed a domestic partner benefits resolution, 4-2, that provides insurance benefits to city workers' same-sex partners, according to 365gay.com . The city's insurance company recently offered a new plan that covered both same- and opposite-sex partners. The resolution does not create domestic partnerships.
Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore., Introduced a bill to extend domestic partner benefits to federal employees. He co-introduced the Domestic Partner Benefits and Obligations Act of 2007 with Sens. Joe Lieberman, Tammy Baldwin and 17 others. HRC applauded the introduction of the bill, saying that it would help the federal government compete with companies for the nation's top talent.
Gaywired.com reported that a recent census shows that nearly one-third of New York City's 4,000 homeless youth identify as gay, lesbian or bisexual. The survey was conducted during the summer. The census count found that three-fourths of the homeless youth come from minority groups, and nearly half are African-American.
While campaigning in New Hampshire, Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards said he supports civil unions, and promised to get rid of the Defense of Marriage Act. 'I think DOMA was a mistake from the beginning, and discriminatory, and so I will do everything in my power as President to do that,' he said. DOMA prevents the federal government from recognizing same-sex marriages. According to Queerty.com, Edwards also promised to get rid of the anti-gay Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy. Edwards still does not support same-sex marriage.
According to the Student Press Law Center, a New York high school principal recently apologized for sending a student home for wearing a pro-gay T-shirt that read, 'Gay? Fine by Me.' The principal had sent the 16-year-old student home for disruption. The school board had been receiving pressure from the New York Civil Liberties Union to issue an apology.
A gay man, real estate agent Joel Burns, was recently elected to Texas' Fort Worth City Council after runoff election, according to 365gay.com . Burns will be the first openly gay member of the city council. During the race, Republicans had tried to use Burns' sexual orientation as a wedge issue.
Vermont's state appointed Commission on Family Recognition and Protection, charged with determining whether or not the state's civil union law should be amended to provide same-sex marriage, has only three more public meetings left before it must prepare its report for the state legislature. At the most recent meeting in the state's capital, there were no voices of dissent, 365gay.com reported.
An HIV-positive ex-Navy chaplain was given two years in prison after he pled guilty to forcible sodomy. The chaplain admitted to forcing a Naval Academy midshipman to have sex with him, UPI reported. He also admitted to having sex with an Air Force officer without disclosing his HIV status and coercing a Marine into taking nude pictures of him. He has been dismissed from the Navy and had to forfeit future pay and benefits in the plea agreement.
Gay City News reports that openly gay former U.S. ambassador to Romania, Michael Guest, attacked Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice for failing to give same-sex partners of diplomats the same rights spouses currently receive during his going away party. '...I've felt compelled to choose between obligations to my partner—who is my family—and service to my country,' he said during his speech. Guest is now dean of the Foreign Service Institute's Leadership and Management School.