In Kansas, voters upheld an ordinance that bans sexual orientation discrimination in municipal hiring and turned back an anti-gay minister's attempt to win a seat on the city council, CNN reported. The Rev. Fred Phelps, Sr., was trying to remove a city ordinance that prohibits discrimination against gays. ( Fifty-three percent ended up opposing the repeal. ) Phelps' granddaughter, Jael Phelps, was among three candidates challenging gay council member Tiffany Muller in a primary election. Results showed Jael Phelps finished fourth and Muller second, which allowed Muller to advance to an April 5 general election.
Although Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney has been touring the country in the past few weeks courting anti-gay right-wingers in South Carolina, Missouri, and Utah, Bay Windows reported that he took several pro-gay stances in his unsuccessful 1994 Senate campaign against Ted Kennedy. According to an Oct. 17 Boston Globe article from that year, Romney wooed the state's Log Cabin Republicans for their endorsement. Romney won their backing, in part due to his support of the federal Employment Non-Discrimination Act ( ENDA ) .
Two men and a boy pleaded innocent to charges stemming from what police described as a brutal gay-bashing incident, according to the Santa Fe New Mexican. At an arraignment, Gabriel Maturin, 20 and Isaia Medina, 19, pled not guilty to charges of aggravated battery, battery, and conspiracy. David Trinidad, 17, also of Santa Fe, pled not guilty to two counts of aggravated battery, two counts of conspiracy, and one count of criminal damage to property. James Maestas, 21, of Santa Fe, remained hospitalized with injuries suffered when he was beaten unconscious during the weekend incident. His family requested that his condition not be made public. A second victim, Joshua Stockham, 24, of Albuquerque, was treated for minor injuries and released.
State legislatures in Alabama and Virginia passed bills last month to amend their constitutions to ban gay marriage, putting them on a list of more than 20 states now in the process of approving similar ballot initiatives, the Washington Blade reported. There are currently 21 states seeking constitutional bans of same-sex marriage as the second wave of anti-gay measures sweeps across the nation.
In New York, John Galanti and John Hotchkiss, with the help of Lambda Legal Education and Defense Fund, have won recognition of their legal Canadian marriage in the form of insurance coverage from a local town government and two providers, Blue Cross Blue Shield and Health Economics Group, according to the Empty Closet.
A Kentucky man who murdered and stuffed the body of a gay man into a suitcase before tossing it into a lake was sentenced to 20 years behind bars, according to 365Gay.com . Joshua Cottrell, 23, had confessed to the killing but claimed it was the result of gay rage after Richie Phillips, 36, came on to him in Cottrell's motel room.
In New Jersey, Richard McCullough of Newark, who was charged with stabbing to death a 15-year-old lesbian in one of the state's first bias murder cases, pled guilty to aggravated manslaughter in a deal that could net him as little as 20 years in prison, the Star-Ledger reported. At one point, he said the victim, Sakia Gunn, died after running into his knife.
USA Next, a conservative group, admitted that it illegally used a wedding photograph of a Portland ( Ore. ) gay couple in an ad attacking the American Association for Retired People. The ad attacks the AARP for opposing the Bush administration's proposed changes to Social Security and attempts to 'discredit' the group by suggesting it supports gay marriage and opposes the Iraq war.
