Officials at the University of Mississippi are investigating a situation that involved football players and other freshmen disrupted a performance of The Laramie Project with anti-gay heckling, according to the New York Times. Regarding the Laramie episode, the school's bias-response team recommended that every student who attended the play be ordered to attend an educational session led by faculty and others. The university, despite enormous changes, still struggles with the legacy of its integration in 1962 that resulted in two deaths and dozens of injuries. In 2012, a student protest against the re-election of President Obama turned disorderly, with some students chanting racial epithets.
The U.S. Marshals Service made an arrest in connection with the shooting death of renowned, openly gay Long Island, N.Y., equestrian riding instructor Ross Reisner, according to LGBTQ Nation. Brett Knight, 45, was apprehended at a house in rural Seymour County, Tenn. The nationwide search for Knight was initiated after Reisner, 50, and longtime partner Kevin Murray were sitting on a couch Sept. 24 when an unknown gunman, using a high-caliber weapon, fired multiple rounds through the window of the victim's East Setauket home on Long Island.
Out gay U.S. Congressman Sean Patrick Maloney ( D-N.Y. ) is under fire for being one of nine Democrats who defected regarding Obamacare and voting with Republicans during the government shutdown, according to Gay City News. During the shutdown, Maloney sided with Republicans at least 11 times, breaking with the Democratic strategy to vote against legislation that would have funded government agencies selectively and incrementally. In an Oct. 15 interview, Maloney said he is a loud Obamacare supporter, saying, "I voted not to delay it and not to defund it. Period." However, some of his past supporters ( including unions ) do not share his characterization of his votes.
In New York City, four members of the LGBT-rights group Queer Nation disrupted the Oct. 10 performance of the Mariinsky Orchestra, led by conductor Valery Gergiev, demanding that Gergiev oppose the Russian government's attacks on LGBT Russians and that Russia end its war on LGBT Russians, according to a press release. Queer Nation members chanted, "Gergiev, Your Silence is Killing Russian Gays!" before the Carnegie Hall performance began. The protesters, who were met mostly with applause but also with some boos, were led away by security guards; there were no arrests. On Sept. 23, four protestors from Queer Nation delayed the start of the Metropolitan Opera's opening-night gala at Lincoln Center, where Gergiev conducted Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin.
Saying that it is "good for business" in the state, the Illinois Restaurant Association ( IRA ) announced its support for the freedom to marry and urged members of the Illinois House to act quickly in passing SB10, the Religious Freedom and Marriage Fairness Act, according to a media release. The Illinois General Assembly returns to Springfield in less than two weeks for its fall veto session. "As owners of small and large businesses, our members know the importance of treating all customers equally," said IRA president Sam Toia. "It's the right thing to do—and it's good for business."
The Harvey Milk Foundation announced via its Facebook page that the United States Postal Service will issue a stamp in honor of LGBT political icon Harvey Milk, according to Gay Politics. The announcement makes Milk, who made history as the first openly gay man to win political office in California when he was elected to San Francisco's board of supervisors in 1977, the first openly LGBT official ever featured on U.S. postage. ( He's not the first out gay person, though, as people ranging from writer James Baldwin to artist Andy Warhol have been honored. ) The stamp is slated to be introduced in 2014.
New Jersey has now become the 14th state to recognize marriage equality. At the Newark City Hall, Mayor Cory Booker ( now a newly elected U.S. senator ) married seven couples, two of them heterosexual, according to CNN.com . He had refused to conduct any marriage ceremonies until same-sex marriages were legal in the state. On Oct. 18, the New Jersey Supreme Court denied the state's request to temporarily prevent such marriages.
Nearly 140 faith leaders endorsed legalizing gay marriage in New Mexico in a full-page ad that ran Oct. 9 in four major newspapers: the Albuquerque Journal, The Santa Fe New Mexican, Las Cruces Sun News and The Alibi, according to On Top Magazine. The ad's headline reads: "We are faith leaders. And we support the freedom to marry in New Mexico." The Why Marriage Matters New Mexico campaign paid for the ad. The New Mexico Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments Oct. 23 in a case asking the court to allow same-sex couples to marry in the state.
Family Equality Council—the national organization that represents the 3 million parents in America who are LGBT and their 6 million children—announced an agreement to deed all historical materials related to the organization and its role in the LGBT family-equality movement to Yale University, according to a press release. The agreement ensures the preservation of more than 30 years of materials related to the founding, growth and expansion of Family Equality Council, and documents the organization's ongoing efforts to advance equality for families with LGBT parents.
On National Coming Out Day ( Oct. 11 ), the Many Voices Visibility Campaign—which aims to foster a Black church movement for gay and transgender justice—released the first of six videos featuring the personal stories of African-American LGBTQ people who came of age in Black churches, according to a press release. The web campaign features lay people as well as high-profile clergy like lesbian Bishop Tonyia Rawls of the Unity Fellowship Church Movement and out transgender faith advocate Rev. Brendan Boone of Metropolitan Community Church. ( All interviewees are based in North Carolina. ) See www.manyvoices.org/video-campaign-launch.
In Illinois, organizers of the March on Springfield for Marriage Equality on Oct. 22 announced the roster of speakers at the rally. LGBT organizations, families and faith leaders will be joined at the podium by national and regional coalition partners for the 90-minute rally. Among the many slated to speak are Rudy Lozano, Uniting America director of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights; Bonnie Grabenhofer, national action vice president of the National Organization for Women; openly gay ESPN senior writer LZ Granderson; lesbian Chicago activist Vernita Gray; and Tracy Baim, March on Springfield co-chair as well as founder and publisher of Windy City Media Group.
The U.S. Olympic Committee board of directors voted to add sexual orientation to its non-discrimination policy, the Washington Blade reported. U.S. Olympic Committee CEO Scott Blackmun made the announcement during a speech he delivered in Colorado Springs, Colo., as he discussed a Russian law that bans gay propaganda to minors. Blackmun also referenced the reassurances the International Olympic Committee has said it has received from the Kremlin that the statute will not impact athletes and others who plan to attend the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.
Steven Sanchez made history when fellow students crowned him homecoming queen of the University of Northern Iowa, becoming the school's first transgender homecoming queen or king, according to USA Today. Sanchez—who, as a child, endured relentless bullying and regularly cut his wrists and once overdosed on pills in a suicide attempt—said the moment left him speechless. A standing-room-only crowd had packed into a campus auditorium and erupted in applause when his name was read. Incidentally, the event took place on National Coming Out Day, Oct. 11.
A bill signed into law by California Gov. Jerry Brown ensures that insurance coverage for fertility treatments granted to heterosexual couples will now be extended to unmarried and same-sex couples, The National Review reported. The law was authored by Tom Ammiano ( D-San Francisco ) who felt that denying fertility coverage to unmarried and gay couples violates California's non-discrimination laws. Insurance coverage for fertility treatment usually kicked in only after couples attempted natural conception for a year.
Attorneys for the state of Utah are defending a state constitutional amendment that defines marriage as a union of a man and woman, saying it promotes the state's interest in "responsible procreation" and the "optimal mode of child-rearing," according to LGBTQ Nation. The state, in motions, asked U.S. District Judge Robert J. Shelby of Salt Lake City to find in its favor in a lawsuit over voter-approved Amendment 3 filed by three same-sex couples who claim it's unconstitutional. A hearing on the summary judgment motions is set for Dec. 4 before Shelby.
A former Home Depot employee claims the home-improvement store chain targeted gay male workers for termination to cut costs in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, according to Courthouse News Service. Hardy Housh aka Lex Housh sued Home Depot in Orange County ( Calif. ) Superior Court, seeking $100,000 for discrimination, sexual harassment and other counts. Housh, who identifies as gay, says in his complaint that Home Depot devised a scheme to trim its payroll at the expense of older higher paid managers and male gay employees as a response to the economic calamity of the late 2000s.
Lambda Legal filed a brief with the Alaska Supreme Court asking the Court to hold that it is unconstitutional to deny survivor benefits to Deborah Harris, whose same-sex partner, Kerry Fadely, was shot and killed in 2011 by a disgruntled former employee, according to a Lambda Legal press release. Under Alaska's workers' compensation law, the spouse of a person who dies from a work-related injury is eligible to receive survivor benefits, but same-sex couples are excluded from that legal protection. The appeal comes on the two-year anniversary of Fadely's death.
Massachusetts State Rep. Carl Sciortino, 35, married his partner of more than five years, Pem Brown, 29, at the Old South Meeting House in Boston, according to Towleroad. The wedding happened in the final days of Sciortino's primary bid for Massachusetts's 5th Congressional seat. Old South Meeting House was significant for Sciortino and Brown, as it was the place where the LGBT community came to celebrate the 2003 state supreme court ruling that cleared the way for marriage equality in Massachusetts.
Hillary Clinton hasn't officially thrown her hat in the 2016 presidential ring, but she is raising money in Hollywood, according to Deadline.com . The former secretary of state and presumed presidential candidate is the marquee name for a $15,000-a-ticket fundraiser Oct. 30 at media proprietor Haim Saban and his wife Cheryl's Beverly Hills home—although the event is said to actually be for ex-DNC chair and longtime Clinton pal Terry McAuliffe's Virginia gubernatorial bid.
Jack Andraka—the gay teen who became known as the "Boy Wonder" of science after his work in developing a new method to detect pancreatic cancer earned him the grand prize at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair—was profiled in the Oct. 13 episode of 60 Minutes, according to Advocate.com . However, while the segment dealt with everything from Andraka's family life to his theories, the fact that he is gay was omitted from the profile. However, the teen talked about being a gay person in science in a VocativVideo profile from August.
In California, the City of Sacramento's Law and Legislative Committee voted 4-0 to strengthen its protections against discrimination on the basis of a person's gender identity, incorporating and augmenting existing protections under state law, according to a National Center for Lesbian Rights ( NCLR ) press release. NCLR attorneys worked with Councilmember Steve Hansen to draft the law, utilizing the Human Rights Campaign's Municipal Equality Index as a guide. The legislation will now move to the full City Council for consideration.
In North Carolina, Buncombe County Register of Deeds Drew Reisinger will be the first government official in the South to seek approval to grant same-sex marriage licenses since the U.S. Supreme Court decision striking down the Defense of Marriage Act, according to the Mountain Xpress. Reisinger will accept and hold same-sex marriage applications and push the question of equal marriage rights to the state's chief legal adviser, Attorney General Roy Cooper.
An estimated 1,018,700 ( 3.7 percent ) of African-American adults consider themselves LGBT and 34 percent of African-American same-sex couples are raising children, according to a new report released by UCLA Williams Institute Scholars Angeliki Kastanis and Gary J. Gates. The study, "LGBT African-American Individuals and African-American Same-Sex Couples," includes socioeconomic and demographic characteristics of African-American LGBT individuals and African-American same-sex couples in the United States. The report also finds overall higher unemployment rates ( 15 percent vs. 12 percent ) and lower proportions with a college degree ( 23 percent vs. 26 percent ) among LGBT African-Americans when compared to their non-LGBT counterparts.
Producers released a new preview video for the upcoming TransMilitary reality series that will address transphobia in the United States with real-life stories of transgender service members on active duty and compare them to their British counterparts, who have been openly active for more than 13 years, according to a press release. The repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" had no effect on transgender service members, as it only affected LGB personnel. More information is at http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/transmilitary.
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention ( CDC ) will be taking over "Testing Together," the first-ever couples HIV-prevention strategy and program for gay men, according to a press release. The CDC will be rolling out the program to 21 major cities, including Chicago, at more than 70 HIV testing sites nationwide. The program enables male couples in the United States to learn their HIV status together and develop a customized HIV prevention and care strategy. Current HIV-testing programs focus on individuals in the U.S.; however, it's estimated that one-to two-thirds of new HIV infections came from main partners among gay couples.
In Chicago, the second year of Halsted Street's Legacy Project—the only outdoor LGBT museum walk in the world—kicked off Oct. 11 with a dedication to five more individuals who have made a lasting contribution to LGBT history. Plaques this year were added commemorating poet Walt Whitman; playwright and activist Lorraine Hansberry; physician and athlete—and Gay Games founder—Dr. Tom Waddell; businesswoman and activist Ruth Ellis; and civil-rights pioneer Frank Kameny.
San Francisco's LGBT community pressured the city to cancel a historic Oct. 23 celebration commemorating the Russian navy, which helped fight a massive fire in San Francisco's financial district 150 years ago, according to SFWeekly.com . The protest was a response to the anti-gay propaganda law in Russia. Leonid Nakhodkin—chairman of the non-profit group The United Humanitarian Mission, which helped organize the event—said he's toned down the event and shoehorned it into another celebration to commemorate the National Day of United Russia Nov. 1.
A small-town mayor in South Carolina has come under fire for a Facebook rant in which she criticized gay rights and marriage equality, and repeatedly derogatorily referred to gays as "queers," according to LGBTQ Nation. Linda Oliver, mayor of West Union, S.C., made the remarks on Facebook after the county clerk in nearby Buncombe County, N.C., accepted marriage-license applications from 11 same-sex couples. After Oliver's statements, a Facebook page was created that calls for her ouster; Oliver said her feelings were hurt, and that she didn't mean any harm.
A Christian leader in Detroit resigned from her church after she announced that she is married to a woman, according to On Top Magazine. Bishop Allyson D. Nelson Abrams, 43, resigned from her post as Zion Progress Baptist Church's first female pastor. In a Sunday sermon nearly two weeks prior, Abrams stated that she married Diana Williams in Iowa in March; Williams is a bishop emeritus with the Imani Temple African-American Catholic Congregation in the District of Columbia.
The Texas Ethics Advisory Board ( TEAB )—a right-leaning political action committee that has no affiliation with the state ethics commission—claims that the pro-LGBT group Stonewall Democrats of San Antonio has committed three violations, according to KENS5.com . Elena Guajardo, a former San Antonio City Councilwoman and now co-chair of the group, said she is confident the allegations will be found to be baseless. TEAB said that Stonewall's involvement in the LGBT agenda and the passing of San Antonio's non-discrimination ordinance were the reasons it looked into the group.
In Chicago, Gordon Tech College Prep teacher Anthony Millspaugh ( who is gay and HIV-positive ) has claimed that when the school fired him, officials told him they wouldn't let him turn an alleged policy violation to turn into "another Penn State and Jerry Sandusky," though the allegation reportedly had nothing to do with raping boys, according to Courthouse News Service. Millspaugh—who taught at Gordon Tech, a Roman Catholic high school, for 26 years—was fired in 2012 for an "alleged violation of school policy" that is not further described in the lawsuit. Millspaugh also claims that that other teachers accused of similar wrongdoing were not fired or suspended without pay.
In response to news reports that Jennifer Blair, an uninsured transgender woman in Colorado who found a lump in her breast, was denied federally subsidized mammography based on federal guidance that she is "not genetically female," the Human Rights Campaign ( HRC ) and the National Center for Transgender Equality ( NCTE ) called on the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ( CDC ) to investigate and change any discriminatory guidelines, according to an HRC press release. After being rejected, Blair scraped together enough money to pay for a mammogram; it turned out she did not have cancer. Hoping to spare other transgender woman what happened to her, Blair filed a complaint under the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act.
Two major political donors—Democrat Jonathan Lewis of Miami and Republican Paul Singer of New York—have pledged $500,000 to pass the bipartisan Employment Nondiscrimination Act through the Senate this year, according to a Human Rights Campaign press release. The bill, which is expected to reach the floor for a vote in the coming weeks, prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity in employment. Within the GOP, Singer ( a hedge-fund executive whose son is gay ) and former Republican National Committee chairman Ken Mehlman are leading the effort to back gay rights, according to the Washington Post.
Four legally married same-sex couples who live in Tennessee filed a lawsuit in federal district court in Nashville, challenging laws that prevent the state from recognizing their marriages, according to a National Center for Lesbian Rights ( NCLR ) press release. The couples, who include a full-time Army reservist and his husband and two professors of veterinary medicine, all formerly lived and married in other states and later moved to Tennessee to pursue careers and make new homes for their families. The couples are Dr. Valeria Tanco and Dr. Sophy Jesty of Knoxville; Army Reserve Sergeant First Class Ijpe DeKoe and Thom Kostura of Memphis; Kellie Miller and Vanessa DeVillez of Greenbrier; and Matthew Mansell and Johno Espejo of Franklin.
