The federal judge who struck down Alabama's constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage put her ruling on hold Jan. 25, giving state officials two weeks to appeal her decision to a higher court, according to SheWired. When U.S. District Judge Callie V. S. Granade issued her ruling Jan. 23, it was not accompanied by a stay; however, two days later, Granade granted an emergency request from Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange. Granade put a stay on her ruling until Feb. 9—a hold which could be extended if the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals decides such a stay is warranted.
President Barack Obama's budget for fiscal year 2016 includes a major change for legally married same-sex couples, making them eligible to receive Social Security spousal benefits regardless of where they live, The Huffington Post reported. Currently, these couples are unable to get such benefits if they live in a state that does not recognize their marriage. The Republican-controlled Congress needs to approve the budget.
Alabama's first openly gay legislator has backed off threats to expose the extramarital affairs of some of her Republican colleagues because she fears being sued for defamation, The Washington Times reported. State Rep. Patricia Todd, a Democrat, admitted she could have handled things differently after she posted a message on Facebook threatening to expose the supposed scandalous lives of her fellow legislators due to their opposition to same-sex marriage. Todd said she has received death threats since her Facebook post went viral.
The Daily Dish's Andrew Sullivan announced that he will "stop blogging in the near future," according to CNN Money. In a blog post, Sullivan cited health reasons, although he said the decision is not related to HIV. ( Sullivan was diagnosed with the virus more than 20 years ago. ) Sullivan also expressed a desire to write "in a different form," suggesting that he could do more "long essays" and books in the future. An early adopter of the blogging model, Sullivan founded The Daily Dish web site in 2000.
Ty Underwood, a 24-year-old transgender woman of color, was fatally shot early Jan. 26 in North Tyler, Texas, according to Advocate.com . Police found Underwood when responding to a 911 call from a woman who said her children had heard gunshots and that a car had run into a telephone pole nearby. Detective Andy Erbaugh told reporters he believes that Underwood was near or inside the car when shots were fired at it; Underwood was likely struck while she was trying to drive away. The Tyler Police Department has offered a $1,000 reward for any information that leads to an arrest for Underwood's murder; call 903-531-1000 with any relevant information.
Idaho lawmakers have essentially killed a bill that would create protections for LGBT people, once again blocking attempts by gay rights supporters to amend the state's anti-discrimination law, the Associated Press noted. The House State Affairs Committee, which includes some of the legislature's most conservative lawmakers, voted 13-4 to hold the bill in committee and prevent it from moving onto the House floor for a vote; only Democrats voted in favor of the measure. The proposal would have included the words "sexual orientation" and "gender identity" in Idaho's Human Rights Act.
In a related matter, an Idaho newspaper publisher justified the company's decision to run an anti-gay ad on its front page as an effort to "offer the same advertising opportunities regardless of the opinion shared within the advertisement," Talking Points Memo noted. The Idaho Statesman, along with three other local papers, ran an ad condemning a proposed LGBT-rights measure. The Statesman's publisher, Mike Jung, posted a note online explaining that it was "unfortunate" that the advertising had "created hurt and anger among some readers." He also noted that the paper "strongly" supported the bill's passage.
A Virginia legislative panel has killed a so-called "conscience clause" bill that would have allowed widespread discrimination against the LGBT community under the guise of religious freedom, GayRVA.com noted. The measure, brought by career anti-gay lawmaker Del. Bob Marshall ( R-Manassas )—who co-authored the state's 2006 constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage—would have allowed private businesses to discriminate against "homosexual behavior." The bill died in a House General Laws subcommittee after the five delegates sitting on the panel, all Republicans, unanimously voted to table the proposal.
At the University of Central Florida's Reflecting Pond, a moment of silence took place to honor Leelah Alcorn, a transgender teen who committed suicide after suffering discrimination from her parents, CentralFloridaFuture.com noted. Organized by sophomore Fausto Mateo, more than 70 attendees held on to candles and listened as members of the LGBTQ+ community told their stories. ( Other schools such as Temple University have also held moments of silence for Alcorn. ) Also, Gay Star News noted that more than 100,000 people have signed a petition calling for Leelah's Law, the proposed legislation that could end LGBTI "cure" therapy. The White House petition has gained the necessary amount of signatures required needed for a response from President Obama.
In North Carolina, some Charlotte businesses are proposing protections for employees who are LGBT, according to a News & Record item. The plan includes publicizing businesses that voluntarily provide protections, as well as trying to convince state lawmakers to require protection for employees. The proposal also calls for offering training for businesses on how to avoid workplace discrimination. Those taking part in the plan include the Charlotte Chamber, the Charlotte Regional Visitors Authority, Equality North Carolina and the Human Rights Campaign.
The National LGBT Bar Association announced that the Army Board for the Correction of Military Records ( BCMR ) and Navy Board for Correction of Naval Records ( BCNR ) will issue new military discharge paperwork ( known as Form DD-214 ) to three transgender veterans, reflecting their correct names and identities, a press release stated. The veterans are Retired Army First Sergeant ( Promotable ) Dayna Walker; Retired Army Major Evan Young; and former Lieutenant Paula M. Neira, a Naval Academy Graduate. Neira's win marks the first time the Navy has issued new paperwork for a transgender veteran.
GLSEN Executive Director Dr. Eliza Byard praised the reintroduction of the Safe Schools Improvement Act ( SSIA ) in the U.S. Senate, a press release stated. Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., filed the bill that would require all public K-12 schools to enact fully inclusive anti-bullying policies that have specific protections against bullying and harassment of all students, with Sen. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., co-sponsoring the measure. "This legislation is crucial for the thousands of students, a disproportionate number of whom are lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender ( LGBT ), who face bullying and harassment each year in America's schools," said Byard.
The National LGBTQ Task Force issued a statement joining LGBTQ community leaders and activists across the nation in expressing outrage against the ongoing string of homicides targeting transgender women. During January, three young Black transgender women were murdered in Louisville, Kentucky; Norfolk, Virginia; and Tyler, Texas. The National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs reports that in 2013, 67 percent of all victims of deadly anti-LGBT violence were transgender women of color.
The Human Rights Campaign ( HRC ) recognized the three apostles and a senior female leader of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for their televised statement in support of housing, workplace and public accommodation protections for LGBT people, according to a press release. "Symbolically, seeing the church leaders advocating so openly for these protections will no doubt be deeply meaningful to Mormon families with LGBT members, and provide encouragement to LGBT youth in the church," said HRC Legal Director Sarah Warbelow. "But, as a matter of public policy, it appears deeply flawed."
In response to Plano, Texas, approving an ordinance that prohibits discrimination against LGBT people, a Dallas lawmaker has filed a bill that would ban cities from enforcing such laws, according to Courthouse News Service. State Sen. Don Huffines, R-Dallas, filed Senate Bill 343, which would amend the Texas Local Government Code to prohibit cities from enforcing ordinances that are not "in conformity" with state laws on the same subject. The sweeping implications of the broadly worded bill would affect a wide range of non-LGBT-related city ordinances.
After years of lobbying from LGBT organizations and activists across the country, ExxonMobil's board of directors announced that the company's equal-employment and workplace-protection policies will ban discrimination against LGBT employees, Advocate.com reported. Many advocates in this field say ExxonMobil has made the change because President Obama issued an executive order last year prohibiting anti-LGBT discrimination among federal contractors, which includes Exxon. Nonetheless, the company's shareholders had voted 15 times to reject an adjustment to the policy adding non-discrimination protections for its LGBT workers.
A federal judge has rejected a series of arguments from Illinois' Waubonsee Community College about why it should be permitted to bar an anti-gay group from passing out fliers on campus, according to Inside Higher Ed. The group's advocacy for positions that run counter to the Illinois college's anti-bias policies are not a legal justification, Judge Robert W. Gettelman ruled, and barring the group from leafleting would violate First Amendment principles. The request to distribute fliers came from a group called Heterosexuals Organized for a Moral Environment, or HOME.
Lowell "John" Evans—one of the earliest members of the ex-gay movement in the United States to leave it and campaign against it—has died at age 80, Gay Star News noted. Evans co-founded what has been called the earliest ex-gay ministry, Love In Action, in 1973 with a heterosexual Christian preacher named Kent Philpott, and another gay man, Frank Worthen, in San Raphael, California. Evans finally left the group after friend Jack McIntyre committed suicide because he had not been able to change his sexuality. Love In Action ended in 2011; then-leader John Smid is now married to another man.
In California, Santa Ana police are investigating the death of 40-year-old transgender woman Katya De La Riva, who attended a silicone-injection party in December, CBS Los Angeles reported. The woman is believed to be the latest victim in a nationwide trend involving those who get injections with industrial-type silicone through cattle syringes. LGBT Center in Santa Ana's Antonio Viramontes said of the injection, "It's usually a deep perforation, it's extremely painful, and at the end the wound is just sealed with super glue."
In Ohio, sensitivity training is a condition of Lakewood Detective Thomas McLaughlin's verbal warning for playing "Dude Look Like a Lady" and the Kinks' "Lola" as trans woman Robin Adelmann was interviewed on shoplifting charges, The New York Daily News reported. McLaughlin blasted the transgender-themed songs from his work computer "trying to be funny to his co-workers," a police report stated.
Gov. Mary Fallin won't say if she thinks Oklahoma businesses should be allowed to discriminate against LGBT people, according to LGBTQ Nation. During a presentation to reporters and editors at The Associated Press' annual legislative forum, Fallin said she has many gay friends. However, she declined to answer a question about whether she thought it was inappropriate for businesses to discriminate against them based on their sexual orientation.
Google is deleting from its Google Translate program terms that define the word "gay" with homophobic slurs, according to NewNowNext.com . The company was informed of the situation by a petition, which read "Imagine learning English and being taught to say hateful insults instead of neutral language for 'gay.'" When translating "gay" from English into Spanish, French or Portuguese, Google Translate came back with terms like "faggot," "poof," "fairy" and "dyke" as synonyms. When the Russian word for "gay" is translated into English, some of the results thrown up include "pansy boy" and "sodomite."
Illinois Department of Human Rights ( IDHR ) Director Rocco Claps has been reappointed by Gov. Bruce Rauner to continue in the position that he has held for the past 12 years, Capitol Fax reported. Claps, the first openly gay cabinet member in Illinois history, was first appointed to the post by Gov. Rod Blagojevich in 2003 and is the longest-serving director of that agency. Prior to his tenure at IDHR, Claps was deputy assessor at the Office of the Cook County Assessor and worked in a number of posts for Democratic officials.
Pittsburgh's Citizen Police Review Board agreed with other city investigators who determined that the police officer who arrested a woman during a violent altercation at a gay-pride event did not use excessive force, The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review noted. A short video clip of the arrest that went viral showed Officer Souroth Chatterji punching Ariel Lawther in the stomach after a confrontation with anti-gay protesters at the June 15 Pridefest celebration. Chatterji wrote in the criminal complaint that Lawther attacked an anti-gay activist, adding that Lawther hit the officer as he was arresting her.
Bryan Fischer—who has made headlines for his right-wing stance on the LGBT community and minority faiths—has reportedly been ousted from his position as the director of issues analysis at the American Family Association ( AFA ), according to The Huffington Post. When pundit Rachel Maddow pressed AFA President Don Wildmon over the specific issue that prompted Fischer's firing, he reportedly pointed to the "Focal Point" radio show host's controversial remarks linking homosexuality to Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany. News of Fischer's firing came ahead of a planned Republican National Convention trip to Israel.
The Midwest Bisexual Lesbian Gay Transgender Ally College Conference ( MBLGTACC ) 2015 will take place Feb. 13-15 at Illinois State University. Transgender actress/activist Laverne Cox is slated to be the featured speaker; among others scheduled to appear are bisexual activist Robyn Ochs, slam poet Kit Yan and RuPaul's Drag Race alum Bianca del Rio. A different Midwest college or university hosts the event each year. The 13 Midwest states include Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota and Wisconsin.
Gay couple CJ Phillips and Charlie Rainwater have bought the domain JebBushForPresident.com, and have said they will not give it up, as they intend to use it to launch a site to inform the public about issues faced by LGBT people, Pink News noted. ( The couple bought the domain in 2008. ) Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush recently called for "respect" to people "on all sides" of the marriage debate despite branding same-sex marriage "a distraction" during the 2012 presidential campaign. Many see the Republican—who is the son of former President George Bush, and the younger brother of former President George W. Bush—as the next potential Republican presidential candidate.
A priest who preaches that gay people can be "cured" has been exposed as a former gay-porn star, Gay Star News noted. Pastor Jose Santiago, from Puerto Rico, claims he called by God seven years ago and is now living life spreading the word of God. The UK Mirror cited Santiago as saying, "In those days I was gay and participated in homosexual activities, but God touched me, God transformed me, God gave me a woman who loves me and she loves my past."
