In Michigan, Attorney General Bill Schuette has filed a brief supporting Julea Ward, an Eastern Michigan University student who was dismissed from the school's counseling program for refusing to counsel a gay client, according to Advocate.com . The university has said that Ward failed to meet curriculum criteria and professional guidelines with her stance; however, Schuette claims that Ward's religious beliefs were violated.
British rugby superstar Ben Cohen is embarking on an anti-homophobia personal appearance tour that will include several stops in the United States, according to Advocate.com . Cohen has teamed with English rugby clubs to hold "Beer with Ben" evenings in the United Kingdom and in Atlanta, Seattle, New York and Washington, D.C. The tour will aid the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network.
Former U.S. Sen./Indiana Gov. will be Fox News' newest contributor, according to Advocate.com . Bayh, a moderate Democrat, decided to run for another term as senator because he was appalled by what he saw as the extreme partisanship in Congress. Bayh, who voted in favor of most gay-rights measures, came under fire in 2010 for an AIDS joke he said at an the Indiana Jefferson Jackson Day Dinner.
The Archives Center at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History has received a complete set of reports related to "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" ( DADT ) , according to the Smithsonian Institution. The reports detail the Department of Defense Comprehensive Review Working Group's analysis of the results of the department's recent survey on DADT. The reports have become part of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Collection in the Archives Center.
New York's department of health has reported that an organ recipient recently contracted HIV from a live kidney donor in a city hospital, according to the Wall Street Journal. It's the country's first documented case of HIV transmission through a transplant from a living donor since 1985. The donor apparently had unsafe sex after being screened but before donating the organ.
In Tennessee, an insurance company has not yet paid a lesbian couple after their house was burned down in an apparent hate crime last year, according to a press release. Following months of death threats from a neighbor, Laura and Carol Ann Stutte's home was engulfed in flames on Labor Day weekend 2010. However, after filing paperwork, American National Property and Casualty refuses to pay out their homeowners policy and has not paid the couple's living expenses in full. The couple has hired an attorney and is working with the gay-rights group GetEQUAL to get a response from the company.
On the heels of the White House conference on bullying, the education/advocacy organization GroundSpark has announced its national partners for the distribution campaign for the film Straightlaced—How Gender's Got Us All Tied Up, according to a press release. Straightlaced, directed by Debra Chasnoff, is about the pressures teens face today because of gender-role expectations. Among the 16 partners are the Gay-Straight Alliance, the Safe Schools Coalition and the National Youth Advocacy Coalition.
In Florida, a shop teacher who made fun of gay student Luke Herbert will publicly apologize as part of a settlement between the state's ACLU branch and the Flagler County School District, according to Advocate.com . Herbert, 15, was told he couldn't keep his soda in the same refrigerator with other students' drinks or his classmates would turn gay. Herbert said that he and his mother had complained, but that no one took the complaints seriously.
The National Center for Lesbian Rights will honor five individuals with four awards at its 34th-anniversary celebration May 21 at the Metreon Cityview in San Francisco, according to a press release. Out country-music singer Chely Wright and her father, Stan, will receive the Voice and Visibility Award; transgender George Washington University basketball player Kye Allums will receive the Spirit Award; former Belmont University soccer coach Lisa Howe will be honored with the Justice Award; and the Honorable Donna Hitchens ( the first openly gay person in the nation to be elected judge ) will receive the Founder's Award. See www.NCLRights.org/2011Anniversary for more information.
In Indiana, business leaders are concerned that a ban on same-sex marriage could hurt efforts to lure gay and lesbian employees, according to Advocate.com . Representatives from the Cummins, Inc., and Eli Lilly and Co. told the state senate's judiciary committee that the proposed ban could also be applied to domestic partnership-like benefits for gay and lesbian workers.
Also in Indiana, a 16-year-old high school student was arrested for allegedly attacking a gay classmate, Advocate.com reported. The student reportedly lured Silver Creek High School sophomore Rito Osorio to the bathroom by saying they needed to talk. Osorio said the classmate then attacked him, leaving him with facial fractures and a broken nose.
Nate Phelps, the son of anti-gay preacher the Rev. Fred Phelps, appeared on the HLN show Issues with Jane Velez-Mitchell, and detailed the abuse his father allegedly doled out to the children, according to Advocate.com . Nate said that his family had done both good and bad for the LGBT community, saying that his father is "one of the best reasons that America has been forced to get off the fence and address the issue [ of gay rights ] ." Nate, the seventh of 13 children, said that his father beat the kids with a digging tool until they bled; he added that Rev. Phelps also beat the kids' mother.
In Massachusetts, the Worcester branch of the NAACP has elected Ravi Perry, a 28-year-old out gay man, as its new president, according to the Boston Herald. Perry, a political science professor at Clark University, said he hopes the civil-rights group can address LGBT issues in minority communities. He added that most of the people on the branch's board are younger, signaling a generational shift.
In New York City, Barie Shortell was attacked so savagely in what has been called an anti-gay attack that he needed 10 hours of surgery to repair his jaw and have three metal plates inserted in his head, according to Advocate.com . Six teens pinned Shortell to a wall Feb. 22 in the Williamsburg area of Brooklyn and fractured the victim's eye sockets, nose and jaw. Shortell told the Brooklyn Paper, "I feel pretty confident they perceived me as a gay man and attacked me, but I can't understand why they did what they did." He faces $100,000 in medical debts, and has no health insurance.
In Arkansas, students at Harding University can no longer access HUQueerPress.com, a website for gay and lesbian students, according to ChicagoPride. Harding is a private, Christian college, and administrators can censor websites if they wish. Dr. David Burks, the school's president, released a statement that read in part, "The student handbook states that the university holds to the biblical principle that sexual relationships are unacceptable to God outside the context of marriage and that sexual immorality in any form will result in suspension from the university."
The U.S. House has voted on a measure that defunds National Public Radio ( NPR ) , according to Politic365.com . H.R. 1076—sponsored by Rep. Doug Lamborn—bans any federal money from going to NPR, including funding through competitive federal grants and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. U.S. Rep. Tammy Baldwin issued a statement criticizing the bill, saying, "this bill dissolves a vital public radio system depended upon by millions of Americans across the country." The Obama administration has also issued a statement, saying that some stations would have to close.
A new Washington Post-ABC News poll shows that a slim majority of the country supports same-sex marriage, according to the Post. Fifty-three percent said they're in favor of marriage equality; five years ago, the number was 36 percent. Marriage-equality opponents took issue with the poll, which asked respondents, "Do you think it should be legal or illegal for gay and lesbian couples to get married?"
COLAGE—a national organization children, youth and adults with one or more LGBTQ parents—has debuted an interactive family-history timeline and a new website ( at www.colage.org ) . The new site features Family Time, a short film and interactive timeline chronicling 20 years of LGBTQ family history. Partner organizations and families are encouraged to submit bits of history to the timeline.
Individuals upset with the media coverage Charlie Sheen has received have posted a Facebook item spotlighting U.S. soldiers—including one gay fighter—dying in Afghanistan, according to CNN. Openly gay Cpl. Andrew Wilfahrt ( pronounced WILL-fort ) was killed Feb. 27 while on foot patrol outside Kandahar. Wilfahrt stunned his family when he announced two years ago that he was joining the Army, with father Jeff adding, "In a way, he went over so that somebody with a young family wouldn't die. He was a gay soldier."
In Texas, gay couple Mark Reed-Walkup and Dante Walkup have filed a non-discrimination claim against the Dallas Morning News for the newspaper's refusal to run their wedding announcement, according to a press release. The couple, married Dec. 10, 2010, in Washington, D.C., placed and paid for a wedding announcement in the newspaper. However, Jim Moroney, chief executive and publisher of the Dallas Morning News, refused to run the couple's announcement, citing Texas' law banning same-sex marriage.
In California, U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White dismissed a lawsuit brought by Karen Golinski, a lesbian federal employee who was seeking to obtain health-insurance benefits for her spouse, according to Reuters. However, White—who also denied her request for an injunction—left the door open for her to directly challenge the constitutionality of the benefits denial. The Obama administration has opposed the lawsuit, even after the Justice Department recently announced that the Defense of Marriage Act was unconstitutional.
Scientists are proposing another way to combat HIV: having items called therapeutic interfering particles, or TIPs, compete with the virus, according to Wired.com . The TIPs ( which are bits of HIV's genetic code stripped down to one-third its original size ) would ride HIV as it spreads from person to person, vying against the virus for cellular resources; the more successful the TIPs are, the slower the virus' progression becomes, possibly lowering infection rates.
Catholics are more supportive of gay and lesbian rights than the general public and other Christians, according to a press release. The new report, which is the most comprehensive portrait of Catholic attitudes on gay and lesbian issues assembled to date, also finds that seven in 10 Catholics say that messages from America's places of worship contribute to higher rates of suicide among gay and lesbian youth. In addition, a majority of Catholics ( 56 percent ) believes that sexual relations between two adults of the same gender is not a sin.
More than 100,000 people have signed an Internet petition asking Apple to remove an iTunes app created by anti-gay organization Exodus International, CNN.com reported. Exodus, according to its website, is providing "support for individuals who want to recover from homosexuality." The petition, started by the organization Truth Wins Out, states, "Exodus' message is hateful and bigoted. They claim to offer 'freedom from homosexuality through the power of Jesus Christ' and use scare tactics, misinformation, stereotypes and distortions of LGBT life to recruit clients."
In Texas, Fort Worth is expected to pay $400,000 to Chad Gibson, who was seriously injured in a 2009 raid on the gay nightspot the Rainbow Lounge, The Republic reported. The settlement, voted on by the city council, is not considered an admission of the city's liability, but would avoid litigation. After the raid, three police officers were suspended and two agents and a supervisor with the state's liquor board were fired; both agencies said that no excessive force was used.
Servicemembers Legal Defense Network ( SLDN ) Executive Director Aubrey Sarvis has called on the U.S. military to accelerate the timeline for training the nation's armed forces for the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," particularly highlighting the Army's expected completion in August, according to a press release. An August certification would mean that full repeal could not take effect until October. "This training is not rocket science. The Services can get this done by April 30th," said Sarvis. "Ninety days later, the relatively straightforward task has not been completed and we're being told it won't be completed for several more months."
In Pennsylvania, 28-year-old John Joe Thomas has been charged with murder after stoning 70-year-old Murray Seidman to death after the victim allegedly made sexual advances to Thomas, according to the New York Daily News. Thomas told authorities that he beat Seidman with a sock stuffed with rocks because he read in the Bible that gay people should be stoned to death. Seidman, who had been dead for at least five days before police found him, had been hit in the head about 10 times.
