THE VOICE OF CHICAGO'S GAY, LESBIAN, BI, TRANS AND QUEER COMMUNITY SINCE 1985

NBC and CNN are backing away from projects about Hillary Rodham Clinton, USA Today reported. CNN is canceling a documentary about Hillary Clinton after its director withdrew because of backlash from the potential 2016 presidential candidate's inner circle and the Republican National Committee. Director Charles Ferguson wrote in a Huffington Post article that he decided not to go forward because "nobody, and I mean nobody, was interested in helping me make this film." NBC is abandoning plans for Hillary, a miniseries planned for next year that would have starred Diane Lane as the former first lady with a story that started in the midst of her husband's Monica Lewinsky sex scandal.

Employers report zero or very low costs and yet substantial benefits, for them and their employees alike, when they provide transition-related health care coverage in their employee health benefit plans, according to a new study by Jody L. Herman, Williams Institute Manager of Transgender Research. The report," Costs and Benefits of Providing Transition-related Health Care Coverage in Employee Health Benefits Plans: Findings from a Survey of Employers," finds that a majority of 34 employers ( providing such health care for 2 million people ) reported that they would encourage other employers to add the coverage, and none would advise against it. The full report is at http://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/wp-content/uploads/Herman-Cost-Benefit-of-Trans-Health-Benefits-Sept-2013.pdf.

President George H.W. Bush and Barbara Bush attended and witnessed the wedding of friends in a same-sex ceremony in Maine, ABC News reported. Bonnie Clement and Helen Thorgalsen—who own HB Provisions, a Kennebunk, Maine, general store—got the former president's official stamp of approval, although Bush has not officially declared his position on same sex-marriage. Same-sex marriage was legalized in Maine in December 2012.

An undergraduate student at Smith College sent out an email soliciting other students to form a sorority that would be an "exclusive group for straight girls," according to a SheWired.com item. The email detailed how the unidentified student felt "marginalized" and "like the minority" as "a straight girl at" the Massachusetts school. In response, she proposed creating a sorority, reportedly a chapter of Delta Gamma, with other like-minded young women. Mary Ellen Hardies, Delta Gamma's national director of communication, told USA Today she had no knowledge of the proposed chapter. She also stated that the exclusionary membership of the proposed chapter ran contrary to the sorority's values.

In Rochester, Minn., lesbian Laurene Lafontaine was installed as a pastor at Laurene Lafontaine, according to SDGLN.com . Lafontaine has been a Presbyterian minister for about 26 years. The ceremony was put on by the Presbytery of the Twin Cities Area and Community Presbyterian Church, and featured several speakers, including religious leaders and LGBT activists.

Approximately 2.8 percent of all Asian and Pacific Islander ( A/PI ) adults in the U.S. identify as LGBT, according to a new study entitled "LGBT Asian and Pacific Islander Individuals and Same-Sex Couples," by Angeliki Kastanis, Public Policy Research Fellow at the Williams Institute, and Gary J. Gates, Williams Distinguished Scholar. The study also says that, nationally, the estimated 325,000 A/PI )LGBT individuals have lower rates of employment and academic achievement than their non-LGBT counterparts. The study is at http://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/wp-content/uploads/Census-2010-API-Final.pdf.

In Pennsylvania, 21 same-sex couples have filed a lawsuit in Commonwealth Court, asking the justices to declare their marriages legal and the state's marriage law unconstitutional, according to CBS Philadelphia. The couples got married after receiving their licenses from Montgomery County register of wills D. Bruce Hanes. However, when Commonwealth Court ordered Hanes to stop issuing the licenses earlier this month, nothing was said about their unions. The suit argues that the law defining marriage as only between one man and one woman violates federal and state constitutional rights to equal protection.

Darron Brewer, a gay Chicago man who had his younger brother kill his wife, in part, to collect on a $205,000 National Guard life insurance policy, was sentenced to 99 years in prison, DNAInfo.com reported. The brother—Dujuan Powe, who got cold feet during his first attempt to kill Kenyatae Collier-Brewer and instead slept with her—was given a life sentence for eventually following through on what the trial judge called a "cold and calculated" murder. Brewer and Powe devised the murder plot in early October 2009, but they failed in their first attempt, prosecutors claimed.

Same-sex partners of state employees will be considered as immediate family under action taken Thursday by the Alaska State Personnel Board, according to the Anchorage Daily News. The board adopted new wording in regulations that allows state employees to take leave due to a serious health condition involving a same-sex partner and include same-sex partners in the definition of immediate family for that purpose. The rules go into effect Oct. 19.

Former South Carolina Sen. John Hawkins now supports marriage equality, the Huffington Post reported. At a meeting of the Alliance for Full Acceptance, Hawkins ( who once spearheaded the campaign to pass the state's constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage ) said, "I was wrong about pursuing the marriage amendment. I wish I hadn't been so strident against it. ... I pursued the marriage amendment out of a sense of duty to the law." South Carolina's ban on same-sex marriage was put into place in 2006, with 78 percent of citizens voting for the initiative.

The Exxon Mobil Corporation, which has drawn much criticism for policies related to its gay and lesbian workers, said that it would extend health insurance and other employee benefits to married same-sex couples effective Oct. 1, the New York Times reported. The move is a 180-degree turn for the company, which had defied pressure from human-rights groups, pension funds and some of its own shareholders that had asked the company to protect gay and lesbian employees from discrimination in the United States. However, the company said it was following the policies of the federal government—meaning the development was the result of soul-searching.

Seattle now has the highest concentration of gay-couple households among the United States' large cities, SeattleTimes.com noted. Recently released estimates from the Census Bureau show that in 2012, 2.6 percent of Seattle households were gay couple—the highest percentage among the 50 most populous cities in the United States. San Francisco ranked second with 2.5 percent. At the opposite end of the spectrum from Seattle is El Paso, Texas, which edged out Fort Worth as having the lowest concentration of same-sex couples.

A New Jersey state court judge ruled that the state must permit same-sex couples to get married, according to NBC News. The Sept. 27 ruling resulted form a lawsuit six same-sex couples brought. They contended it was unfair to allow them to only enter into civil unions, now that the U.S. Supreme Court has decided the federal government must recognize same-sex marriages in the states where they are legal. The decision, by Judge Mary Jacobson of Mercer County Superior Court, picks up where the New Jersey Supreme Court left off in 2006, when it ruled that same-sex couples were entitled to all the rights and benefits that opposite-sex couples get.

The Center for American Progress released a report Sept. 25 on LGBT youth homelessness, exploring who these homeless youths are, how they become homeless, how their needs are being addressed, and what the federal government can do to eliminate homelessness among LGBT youth, according to a press release. The report, "Seeking Shelter: The Experience and Unmet Needs of LGBT Homeless Youth," recommends reauthorizing the Runaway and Homeless Youth Act with LGBT-specific provisions and disassembling what it calls the "school-to-prison pipeline," among other things.

A Caribou Coffee store in Northbrook, Ill., ordered a window decoration supporting a gay-straight alliance ( GSA ) removed, NewNowNext.com noted. Student groups at Glenbrook North High School have long teamed with local businesses to promote their causes. The Caribou Coffee on Shermer Road painted one of its windows with a sign supporting the school's GSA, but Caribou's corporate headquarters soon demanded it be removed. A school district spokesperson said the school was disappointed by the company's action.

Conservative federal judge Bill Pryor allegedly had nude photos of himself published in 1997 on the website BadPuppy.com, according to NewNowNext.com . The site Legal Schnauzer claims the images, of a completely nude and erect model, are actually of Pryor, a Republican appointee who sit on the U.S. Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals for Georgia, Florida and Alabama. Pryor, now 51, once filed a brief in Lawrence v. Texas arguing that sodomy "is a chosen behavior unworthy of constitutional protection" and comparing homosexuality to pedophilia, incest and corpse-raping.

On National Gay Men's HIV/AIDS Awareness Day ( Sept. 27 ), GMHC announces that the Health Resources and Services Administration of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services granted the agency $1.5 million over five years to expand testing, prevention and care services for Puerto Rican gay adult males and other men who have sex with men, according to a press release. GMHC's new program is titled LINK II ( Leaders in Networking and Knowledge ) and will utilize three strategies to effectively identify and serve Puerto Rican MSM who are at high risk of HIV infection or are infected with HIV but unaware of their HIV status.

Ted Olson and David Boies—the bipartisan legal team who successfully argued Hollingsworth v. Perry, the Prop 8 case, at the Supreme Court—have signed on to a pending federal case that aims to strike down Virginia's constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, Advocate.com reported. The Virginia case, Bostic v. Rainey, was filed in the U.S. District Court for Virginia's Eastern District on behalf of two couples who contend that the Virginia Marriage Amendment violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

In Ohio, state Rep. Nickie Antonio—a Democrat representing Lakewood—plans to introduce legislation that would make it a hate crime to target or assault someone based on his or her sexual orientation, gender identity or disability, according to Advocate.com . "I think it's especially important that we raise our consciousness this year, because in 2014, as many people are aware, the Gay Games are coming to northeast Ohio, and we want to be an open, welcoming and safe place for people who are going to be coming from all over the world," Antonio said. When an openly gay man ( Jared Fox ) was brutally beaten outside a Cleveland gay bar last month, police believed the assault qualified as a hate crime—but the assailants couldn't be charged because Ohio doesn't have an applicable law.

A gay Texas man required plastic surgery after being brutally beaten by a stranger he reportedly connected with on the social networking app MeetMe, the Huffington Post reported. Arron Keahey, 24, told a local TV station he first contacted 18-year-old suspect Brice Johnson under the impression that he was gay or bisexual. When Keahey arrived at Johnson's home, however, the teen allegedly ambushed him immediately. Johnson has since been arrested and charged with aggravated assault causing serious bodily injury.

Students at the University of South Alabama have reported that their vehicles have been targeted for having Human Rights Campaign equality stickers on their cars, according to AL.com . The reports allege that a car tag was ripped off, a windshield wiper removed, a tire was deflated and a sticker was removed and found beside a vehicle. It was not until 2011 that the sexual harassment policy was edited to include sexual orientation at the university.

New Jersey transgender woman Eyricka Morgan died after allegedly being attacked by a man living in her boarding house, according to the Huffington Post. The 26-year-old Morgan, a former Rutgers University student, reportedly died Sept. 24 at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick. Devonte Scott, 21, was arrested following Morgan's death and charged with murder, unlawful possession of a weapon, and possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose.

In New Orleans, the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has restored a jury's finding from March 2011 that Boh Bros. Construction Co. illegally subjected an ironworker to severe or pervasive harassment based on gender stereotypes, according to EEOC.gov . The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ( EEOC ) filed the suit against Boh Bros. in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana, charging that a superintendent, Chuck Wolfe, harassed Kerry Woods with verbal abuse, taunting gestures of a sexual nature, and exposing himself. The EEOC presented evidence at trial that Woods' supervisor harassed him because he thought he was feminine and did not conform to the supervisor's gender stereotypes of a typical "rough ironworker."

A new poll, conducted by conservative polling agency TargetPoint, shows that Americans are so convinced that it's wrong to fire or refuse to hire someone based on their sexual orientation or gender identity that a vast majority of them believe it's already illegal to do so, according to Advocate.com . Eighty percent of respondents said they believed that such a federal law was already in place. When asked if they support a federal law that protects LGBT Americans from workplace discrimination ( like ENDA ), 68 percent of respondents said "yes"—including 56 percent of Republican respondents.

A United Methodist pastor faces possible dismissal over officiating at his son's 2007 wedding to another man in Massachusetts, which legalized same-sex marriage in 2004, On Top Magazine reported. The Rev. Frank Schaefer—pastor at Zion United Methodist Church of Iona in Lebanon, Pa.—faces suspension or the possibility of being defrocked. A complaint was filed against Schaefer by one of his congregants just 26 days before the church's statute of limitations would have expired.

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has officiated at the wedding of a second gay couple, On Top Magazine reported. Ginsburg presided at the marriage of food columnist and cookbook author David Hagedorn and National Weather Service communications director Michael Widomski. On Sept. 1, she officiated the marriage of Kennedy Center President Michael Kaiser and economist John Roberts. Both weddings were held in Washington, D.C.

With the help of Lambda Legal, three West Virginia families filed suit in a federal district court, wanting marriage equality and claiming violation of their Fourteenth Amendment rights of liberty and equal protection, according to the New Civil Rights Movement. Same-sex marriage is illegal by law in West Virginia, but in 2009 and 2010 the state legislature refused to add an amendment to the state's constitution banning marriage of same-sex couples. The plaintiffs are Casie McGee and Sarah Adkins, Justin Murdock and Will Glavaris, and Nancy Michael and Jane Fenton and their 6-year-old son, Drew.

In Pennsylvania, openly gay state Rep. Brian Sims ( D-182nd Dist. ) formally announced that he will seek re-election, according to the Philadelphia Gay News. Sims defeated longtime incumbent Rep. Babette Josephs in last year's primary and ran unopposed in the general election, becoming Pennsylvania's first openly gay elected lawmaker. In his first term, Sims co-sponsored legislation to ban LGBT discrimination and to better protect LGBT students, as well as advocated for reforms in education and mass transit, among other issues.

Despite pressure from gay-rights groups to lift the ban on gay and bisexual men donating blood, the Food and Drug Administration ( FDA ) has stood firm, citing the agency's charge to safeguard U.S. health, according to Worldmag.com . The FDA said it will consider lifting the ban "only if supported by scientific data showing that a change in the policy would not present a significant and preventable risk to blood recipients." In the 1980s, the FDA began its lifetime ban on gay and bisexual blood donations: Any male who has had sex with another male since 1977 is excluded.

Facing a wave of open defiance to church law, the top court of the United Methodist Church is set to consider rulings challenging church teaching on homosexuality, accoriding to CharismaNews.com . The United Methodist Judicial Council will decide if church ministries can advocate for the acceptance of homosexuality, whether ministers can officiate at same-sex ceremonies and if a regional conference can urge members to ignore portions of Methodist law. The rulings made by regional conferences are among 17 items the court will consider at its Oct. 23-26 meeting in Baltimore.