The Servicemembers Legal Defense Network has discovered that the Defense Department discharged 726 service members in 2005 for being gay ( in accordiance with 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell ) , up about 10 percent from 2004, according to a New York Times item. The Army, the largest branch of the military, discharged the most gay personnel last year ( 386 ) . The total of such discharges in 2004 was 653, which compares with 770 in 2003, 885 in 2002 and 1,227 in 2001.
A record number of openly GLBT individuals are running for political seats this November in Maryland—including three gay men, four lesbians and one transgender woman, the Washington Blade reported. Among the candidates are Rich Madaleno, a delegate who is giving up his seat to run for the District 18 ( Montgomery County ) Senate seat, and Dana Beyer, a transgender retired doctor who is running for Madaleno's open House seat.
Georgia Tech University has agreed to remove parts of a speech code prohibiting students in on-campus housing from making anti-gay comments towards classmates, Advocate.com noted. A U.S. district court judge ordered the school to abide by the decision, which it made after being sued by two conservative students who claimed their right to free speech was being undermined. If Georgia Tech wants to change it in the next five years, it has to go back to court.
In a preliminary hearing in Riverside, Calif., Judge Elisabeth Sichel ruled that there was sufficient evidence to try Alex Mendoza for first-degree murder in the death of Mikey Vallejo-Seiber, his former girlfriend's child, according to a release from GenderPAC. Mendoza, who was openly critical of the child's upbringing, attempted to 'toughen up' the toddler by calling him a 'sissy' and slapping him; the three-year-old died after suffering massive internal injuries from being kicked, punched and dropped on the head while in Mendoza's care.
The Michigan Womyn's Music Festival, which took place Aug. 8-13, admitted openly trans women for the first time, according to a statement from Camp Trans, a group that has repeatedly tried entering the event each year. In the past, the festival box office produced a printed copy of the policy and refused.
The Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law has released 'Asians and Pacific Islanders in Same-sex Couples in the United States: Data from Census 2000,' a study on Asian and Pacific Islander ( API ) same-sex families in the United States. Among the results are that more than 38,000 API people in the United States identified themselves as living with a same-sex partner during the 2000 census and that API same-sex couples are similar to their heterosexual counterparts in terms of citizenship status, income, education and rates of employment.
Arlene Raven—an art historian, critic and champion of women's and lesbian art—passed away in Brooklyn, N.Y., on Aug. 1 at the age of 62, according to a statement on GLAAD.org . Raven co-founded the Los Angeles Woman's Building in 1973 with artist Judy Chicago and graphic designer Sheila Levrant de Bretteville. She is survived by her life partner since 1983, Nancy Grossman, who is a well-known artist herself.