On Veterans Day, the Veterans Administration honored LGBT icon Frank Kameny, who served in WWII, with a memorial headstone, according to NewNowNext.com . The marker, along with a footstone reading "Gay is Good" ( Kameny's motto ), is in D.C.'s Congressional Cemetery near the grave of Air Force Sgt. Leonard Matlovich. In 1975, Matlovich became the first active-duty service member to challenge the military's ban on gay people.
A new study from the American Psychological Association ( APA ) says that far more military men are being raped by other men and experience other sexual traumas than is reported by the Pentagon because of the stigma attached to such assaults, The Washington Times reported. "Rates of military sexual trauma among men who served in the military may be as much as 15 times higher than has been previously reported, largely because of barriers associated with stigma, beliefs in myths about male rape, and feelings of helplessness," the APA said. The Rand Corp., which conducted the most recent Pentagon sexual-assault survey in 2014, found that about 12,000 men reported being assaulted.
Two men, Sean Gonzalez and Michael Redman, are the latest victims in a steadily rising number of violent attacks on gays in Dallas' popular Oak Lawn neighborhood, despite an increase in local police presence, Advocate.com reported. These two incidents bring the total number of attacks and robberies targeting gay men to 11—in just three months. So far, only one has been officially classified a hate crime.
In California, police in Palm Springs say two prominent residents were attacked by two men because they are gay, Advocate.com reported. Detectives are investigating the attack on George and Chris Zander as a felony hate crime—the second anti-gay hate crime in the city this year. George, who currently works as a field manager with Equality California and is an active volunteer of the Desert Stonewall Democrats, suffered a double hip fracture and will undergo surgery, LGBTQ Nation noted; Chris was treated for a concussion and received staples in the back of his head and stitches in his lip.
In an interview with Philadelphia Fox 29's Quincy Harris, boxer Yusaf Mack came out of the closet as gay, according to Gawker. "I'm gay, I'm tired of holding it in; it is what it is, I live my life, I'm gay," said the 35-year-old Mack, who said he has known this for "about eight years." Previously, Mack said he was bisexual after video surfaced of him surfaced of Mack having sex with two other men—with Mack initially claiming he was drugged. Mack also said his oldest daughter ( of 10 ), a 23-year-old, told him to kill himself because he embarrassed the family.
Black Lives Matter activist Deray Mckesson took the stage at a San Francisco gala, and opened up about the complexities of being Black and gay, according to Fusion.net . "I stand here as a proud gay man," said Mckesson, who has become one of the leading faces in the Black Lives Matter movement by keeping his 245,000 followers on Twitter informed about cases involving police using excessive force. Mckesson went on to speak about the dangers of living with an "either/or" mentality that doesn't acknowledge being both Black and gay.
Jackie Biskupski is on the edge of making history, with the out lesbian leading incumbent Ralph Becker in a race to become the new mayor of Salt Lake City, Utah, according to KSL.com . At last mention ( Nov. 3 ), Biskupski was leading 52.2 percent to 47.8 percent. According to Advocate.com, no further results will be released until after a Nov. 17 canvass. Biskupski was the first openly LGBT person in the state legislature and now stands to make history in Salt Lake City as its first LGBT mayor and only the second woman to hold the post.
Kentucky Gov.-elect Matt Bevin announced that, when he takes office next month, he'll sign an order to have the names of clerks removed from marriage certificates, Gay Star News reported. Bevin, a Republican, won the election Nov. 3. Present Gov. Steve Beshear, a Democrat, has argued only the state legislature has the power to alter certificates.
Ohio will pay $1.3 million in attorneys' fees and expenses to the law firm that handled the challenges of the state's gay-marriage ban, Cincinnati.com reported. An order by Cincinnati federal judge Timothy Black approved a legal costs agreement between the Ohio Department of Health and Cincinnati law firm Gerhardstein and Branch Co. In 2013, the firm sued the state on behalf of two gay Ohio men whose spouses recently died and wanted to be recognized on their death certificates as married. The following year, the firm sued on behalf of same-sex couples seeking recognition of their marriages performed in other states.
The Indiana Chamber of Commerce is calling on lawmakers and Republican Gov. Mike Pence to expand state civil-rights laws to include sexual orientation and gender identity during the coming legislative session, The Chicago Tribune reported. Indiana Chamber President Kevin Brinegar said the expanded protections are needed to improve the state's future business competitiveness after the national backlash to the state's religious-objections law that Pence signed in March.
A defense attorney for Charles Sargent—the accused murderer of trans woman Diamond Williams—is claiming prosecutors are unfairly withholding evidence in the case, The Philadelphia Gay News reported. Sargent, 46, is charged with murder, possessing an instrument of crime, abuse of a corpse and related offenses. A one-week jury trial will begin March 14 in Room 807 of the Criminal Justice Center; Assistant District Attorney Kristen J. Kemp will serve as prosecutor.
A Kansas teacher was asked to resign after showing his students an anti-bullying film following an anti-gay incident that took place in the classroom, The Huffington Post reported. Tom Lehy—a social-studies teacher who has been at Conway Springs Middle School in Conway Springs, Kansas, since 1997—showed Love Is All You Need in three eighth-grade history classes. Parents were upset with the film's graphic content, and superintendent Clay Murphy has said Lehy did not get permission to show it to students. Lehy, who planned to retire next year, is currently on leave and said he does not expect to return to teaching.
Four same-sex couples are challenging Mississippi's ban on same-sex adoption Friday in federal court, NBC News reported. The lawsuit—filed with help from the Campaign for Southern Equality and the Family Equality Council—claims that the ban, passed in 2000, "is an outdated relic of a time when courts and legislatures believed that it was somehow OK to discriminate against gay people simply because they are gay."
Republican Texas state Rep. Louie Gohmert took his opposition to same-sex marriage to an entirely new level during a speech at Virginia's Liberty University, The Huffington Post reported. Gohmert—who previously compared the treatment of marriage-equality opponents to how Nazis persecuted Jews during World War II—argued that even U.S. residents who don't believe in God should be able to see that same-sex relationships aren't natural. He went on to suggest conducting a "totally secular" congressional study that would prove it, too.
A Pennsylvania couple's bid to enter into a same-sex marriage has hit an unusual snag—because the pair are technically parent and child, The New York Daily News reported. Nino Esposito, 78, adopted partner Drew Bosee, 68, three years ago—before same-sex nuptials were legal—in order to gain inheritance rights and other benefits afforded to opposite-sex couples. But the legal maneuver has backfired now that the long-time partners, together since 1970, want to get married.
In a keynote address to South Carolina group SC Equality, Hillary Clinton spoke about her support for the LGBT community and her plan to continue to fight for equality for LGBT families and young people, according to a press release. In part, she said, "You have elected lawmakers and helped to pass laws, and helped to stop laws, which was a great accomplishment. And you've helped to change hearts and minds across not only the state, but the nation, by saying very clearly that LGBT folks deserve the same rights and opportunities as any other American."
A long-acting and injectable form of two HIV drugs could change the face of health care for patients with the disease, according to Newsweek. ViiV Healthcare announced that its phase 2b trial—Long-Acting AntireTroviral Treatment Enabling trial, or LATTE 2—has delivered the preliminary results necessary for further testing. The treatment is composed of two antiretroviral drugs—cabotegravir ( produced by ViiV Healthcare ) plus rilpivirine ( produced by Janssen )—administered to patients once every four or eight weeks.
In Virginia, several members of the St. Francis Home board of directors have resigned since the Catholic Diocese of Richmond fired the home's director because of his sexual orientation, Richmond.com reported. At least three members have resigned from the board, which has about 20 members, since the diocese's firing of John Murphy in April. Murphy—who has been legally married seven years to his male partner of 30 years—was on the job for eight days before a delegation sent by Bishop Francis Xavier DiLorenzo fired him, citing "same-sex marriage is antithetical to Roman Catholic Church doctrine and this makes you unfit and ineligible to be the executive director of St. Francis Home," Murphy said in a statement.
A high school teacher has been arrested after his ninth-grade students allegedly caught him looking at gay porn on his phone, The Daily Mail reported. Vadi Velez-Gonzalez, an intensive reading teacher at Mulberry High School, Florida, was arrested after four youngsters said they spotted the images from an X-rated adult male website on his iPhone. The 47-year-old has been charged with four counts of showing obscene materials to minors and four counts of using his cell phone to commit a felony. The Polk County School District put the teacher on administrative leave.
A proud dad has stuck up for his 9-year-old son after he received hate for dressing as Disney villain Cruella De Vil, PinkNews noted. Nine-year-old Liam, who has a passion for costuming and dressing up, chose to dress up as the 101 Dalmatians villain this year. Liam's dad Will shared his son's costume on Facebook—only to get negative messages from "concerned" friends. Will replied: "We deal with this type of small minded person on a daily basis. Everyone is entitled to their opinion. I will always support and encourage my kids creativity happily and without apology."
A New Jersey woman has pled guilty to administering a fatal injection of silicone to a 22-year-old man's penis, The New York Daily News noted. Kasia Rivera, 38, now reportedly faces five years in state prison for the botched 2011 injection, which left Justin Street of East Orange suffering a silicone embolism one day later. The fake cosmetologist, who has had no medical training, struck a plea deal with prosecutors to reckless manslaughter charges.
