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

Long Beach, California, elected its first openly gay and first Latino mayor when City Councilman Robert Garcia narrowly defeated real-estate investor Damon Dunn in an expensive race that broke city records for election spending, The L.A. Times reported. Garcia, who joined the city council in 2009, will also be the city's youngest-ever mayor. Dunn, who would have been the city's first Black mayor, said that Garcia "will be a fantastic mayor. The city of Long Beach is lucky to have him."

In Philadelphia, an arrest has been made in an April attack on a Canadian tourist who said he was held at gunpoint and raped in his hotel room by a man he met using the gay hook-up app Grindr, LGBTQ Nation reported. Police arrested 26-year-old Douglass Casey and set bail at $1 million. Among the charges are sexual assault, indecent deviant sexual intercourse, kidnapping for ranson, terroristic threats and false imprisonment.

On June 6, U.S. District Judge Barbara Crabb ruled that Wisconsin's ban on same-sex marriage unconstitutional—to the delight of gay couples who immediately began rushing to county offices to wed as word of the ruling spread,. The ruling marked the latest in a string of decisions by federal judges who have struck down marriage-equality bans in a number of states, although the Wisconsin ruling sparked some confusion over whether such marriages could legally proceed. Clerks in two counties issued marriage licenses to same-sex couples on the night of June 6, prompting Wisconsin's attorney general to file an emergency motion asking the judge to stay her ruling.

SKYY Vodka and Freedom to Marry have partnered on #ToastToMarriage, a national campaign to draw together communities to raise awareness and funds for marriage equality in places where same-sex couples are excluded from marriage, according to a press release. The campaign will launch in Atlanta, Georgia, on Monday, June 16, with an attempt at the Guinness World Recor for the largest arms-linked toast. Through August, SKYY Vodka and Freedom to Marry will host a series of events across the country ( in cities such as Chicago, Philadelphia and San Diego ) to raise awareness and funds for Freedom to Marry.

The U.S. Supreme Court refused to block same-sex marriages in Oregon, according to OregonLive.com . In a terse, one-sentence order, the court rejected a request from the National Organization for Marriage to stay the May 19 federal court ruling allowing gays and lesbians to marry in Oregon. The Supreme Court action came after U.S. District Judge Michael McShane of Eugene overturned the 2004 Oregon constitutional amendment that voters approved, limiting marriage to one man and one woman.

A Southern Baptist church in California has decided to keep a pastor who came out in support of gay rights and against the Southern Baptist Convention's ( SBC ) official position on homosexuality, according to On Top Magazine. Pastor Danny Cortez told elders at New Heart Community Church of La Miranda, California, that he no longer believes that being gay is a sin. Cortez explained that he changed his mind on the subject last August and that his son Drew came out to him last fall.

Poetry, performance and prayer celebrated the voice of literary giant and LGBT ally Maya Angelou at a memorial service held June 7 at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, according to CNN. First Lady Michelle Obama said that Angelou "taught us that we are each wonderfully made, intricately woven and put on this earth for a purpose," while Oprah Winfrey called the late poet "my spiritual queen mother and everything that that word implies. She taught me the poetry of courage and respect." Angelou, 86, died at her Winston-Salem home on May 28.

The National LGBT Bar Association—the largest organization of LGBT legal professionals, and an affiliate of the American Bar Association—is calling for courts to reject a "panic defense" apparently being mounted in the case of two transgender women who were attacked, according to a press release. Luther L. Thomas, who has been charged with disorderly conduct, has said he attacked his victims because of an unwelcome remark—althought Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed has called the attack a hate crime. In 2013, the American Bar Association approved a resolution The LGBT Bar introduced that called for an end to "panic defenses."

A Washington, D.C., principal was met with cheers as he came out to his students as gay during a Pride Day event that drew protest threats from Westboro Baptist Church, NBC Chicago reported. "I turned 50. I'm tired of hiding," Principal Pete Cahall said before praising Wilson High School's students for the supportive environment they've created since Westboro Baptist Church made their plans known. Westboro, known for its public crusade against gay people at military funerals, announced plans to protest the school's Pride celebration on June 9; it also called the school's support of gay and lesbian students a "shame."

A Miami-Dade circuit judge told three conservative groups they could not legally co-defend Florida's gay-marriage ban in court, The Miami Herald reported. Accusing Miami-Dade County Clerk Harvey Ruvin of not "vigorously" defending Florida's ban, the conservatives last month asked Circuit Judge Sarah Zabel to allow them to be co-defendants in the case brought by six same-sex couples seeking marriage licenses. However, Zabel ruled the groups had no more at stake than "millions of other Floridians" and no "personal stake" in the constitutionality of Florida's ban, which passed in 2008 with nearly 62 percent of the vote.

The sex-harassment lawsuit filed against Illinois State Treasurer Dan Rutherford has been thrown out, but the attorney representing the accuser has until June 12 to refile the case, according to NBC 5 Chicago. The attorney representing Rutherford's former employee Ed Michalowski told NBC 5 she will refile and add more counts. Michalowski filed the lawsuit in February, just weeks ahead of the primary election. ( Rutherford was running for governor. ) Rutherford vehemently denied the allegations, and questioned the timing of the lawsuit, which was filed just five weeks before the March primary.

In Georgia, a 31-year-old man surrendered to Atlanta police, a day after photos were published linking him to a violent confrontation on the Atlanta Beltline in which he allegedly beat a man while yelling anti-gay slurs, according to Project Q Atlanta. Michael D. Sanders faces a misdemeanor battery charge and was being held on a $5,000 bond in the Fulton County Jail. Atlanta police sought Sanders for his alleged role in a trail-rage incident on the Beltline's Eastside Trail on May 23 that resulted in the alleged assault of Quinn Alexander Chrzan, who is not gay.

A man who jumped to his death from a busy Atlanta overpass was a gay pageant director arrested last year for allegedly stealing money from a longtime friend, Project Q Atlanta noted. A note the jumper left in his car pointed officers to a house a few miles away—and inside, police found a deceased man. Mark Castleberry and his partner, Greg Woodlief, lived on that street. Castleberry, 55, was arrested in July 2013 on charges of theft by taking and burglary. Police say the Miss Atlanta Pageant director stole nearly $12,000 from a longtime friend and office neighbor. Castleberry's sister posted on Facebook that her brother committed suicide after Woodlief, 66, died of natural causes.

Capt. Gregory McWherter, the former commanding officer of the U.S. Navy's Blue Angels, has been disciplined for condoning behavior among his pilots and officers that included sexual harassment and lewd remarks, Fox News reported. He was removed from his duties in April after a member of the squadron complained about the atmosphere and received a letter of reprimand likely to end his career. Among other things, there are allegations of gender discrimination, sexual innuendo and anti-gay slurs the Angels made.

After months of advocacy by thousands of immigrant and LGBT youth, gay-straight alliance leader Yordy Cancino has been released from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement ( ICE ) detention center where he was being held, according to an organizational press release. Cancino had been granted his fear request weeks earlier, but remained in custody until he could raise $7,500 bond; he was eventually dropped off in San Diego. Cancino is an undocumented youth who worked to transform his high school and his city of Los Angeles as the ( GSA ) club President at Animo Jackie Robinson High School.

A draft of the Texas Republican Party's new platform embraces gay conversion therapy, arguing that it is a viable option for "patients who are seeking escape from the homosexual lifestyle," according to The Huffington Post. Moreover, the current document, adopted in 2012, sharply condemns equality for LGBT individuals. In a statement, pro-LGBT group Truth Wins Out slammed the therapy endorsement, saying, "The Texas GOP is infamous for its medieval mindset that gleefully embraces ignorance and backward thinking."

Celebrated activist and civil-rights lawyer Karen DeCrow, who led the National Organization for Women ( NOW ) in the 1970s, died at her home near Syracuse, New York, at the age of 76, according to NBC News. As president of NOW from 1974 to 1977, DeCrow pressured government agencies and big corporations to hire more women and called on the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to investigate gender discrimination. DeCrow, born Karen Lipschultz, grew up in Chicago, earning a journalism degree at Northwestern University.

Honey Maid Snacks followed the lead of Lucky Charms cereal and posted an image celebrating LGBT Pride and equality on its social media, NewNowNext.com noted. The snackmaker posted an image of two Graham crackers stacked like an equality symbol that alternated with the tagline "This is Wholesome." On Twitter, the company accompanied the image with text reading, "What makes a family, family, will always be the same. Share this to show your support for all families."

Authorities say a transgender woman was held as a slave in rural, northwestern Louisiana for two years in what local authorities describe as the most "severe and disturbing" case of human trafficking ever investigated in the area, according to LGBTQ Nation. The woman escaped captivity in Ajax, La., and was picked up last week by a assistant town marshal at an Interstate 49 exit in Natchitoches; she had a logging chain wrapped around her body. David Rodriguez Jr., 37, one of three arrested in the case, tattooed the woman and registered her as a slave on a website that bills itself as only registering people for consensual submissive or slave relationships.

The beating of a gay man was caught on tape at Detroit's Motor City Pride, according to LGBTQ Nation. Christin Howard, 20, told WXYZ-TV that he was taking a picture with a friend at the pride festival when five to eight men started to harass him and hurled anti-gay slurs. At one point, all the young men joined in on the attack as Howard was on the ground—and a bystander filmed the incident.

Police have charged a Cleveland man with murder in connection with the fatal December shooting of a 22-year-old transgender woman, according to LGBTQ Nation. Delshawn Carroll, 19, was charged with one count of aggravated murder. Detectives accused Carroll of shooting and killing Brittany Stergis on Dec. 6, 2013, as she sat in her car outside public housing. Stergis was the second transgender woman killed in as many days, after Betty Skinner, a 52-year-old disabled, transgender woman, was discovered Dec. 5 by her caregiver at an assisted living facility.

A lesbian attorney is poised to become the first openly gay person on Puerto Rico's Supreme Court after the U.S. territory's governor nominated her, according to LGBTQ Nation. Maite Oronoz Rodriguez, who currently serves as legal director for city San Juan, received a nomination to fill a vacancy on the court from Gov. Alejandro Garcia Padilla. The Puerto Rico Senate is expected to approve the historic nomination.

The American Medical Association ( AMA ) said transgender people shouldn't have to have surgery to change their birth certificate, according to Forbes The move by the AMA at the group's policy-making House of Delegates meeting adds an important medical voice to the recently contentious debate on the issue in state capitals across the country. Transgender people say they need IDs to accurately reflect their gender when they apply for jobs, travel and seek certain government services, among other things.

The 545-mile AIDS LifeCycle that began in San Francisco and ended in Los Angeles June 7 resulted in a record $15 million being raised to support the HIV/AIDS services of the Los Angeles LGBT Center and the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, according to Gay Star News. Some riders are HIV-positive and some rode in memory of loved ones who died of AIDS. Others rode to contribute to the cause and to tackle the physical challenge of the grueling seven-day endeavor.

The American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Alabama filed a federal lawsuit challenging Alabama's ban on marriage for same-sex couples, according to a press release. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of April and Ginger Aaron-Brush of Birmingham. The couple wed in Massachusetts; however, their marriage is not recognized in their home state. The lawsuit was filed in Birmingham at the United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama.

The board of directors of GetEQUAL and the United We Dream Network ( UWD ) jointly announced that Felipe Sousa-Rodriguez is resigning his position as co-director at GetEQUAL to become deputy managing director at UWD, according to a press release. He will assume his new position at UWD on July 8. GetEQUAL is a national pro-LGBT grassroots organization; United We Dream is the largest immigrant youth-led organization in the nation, a powerful nonpartisan network made up of 52 affiliate organizations in 25 states.

A new report says that LGBT community centers reported increased revenue for 2013 while providing vital services to more than 1.9 million people, according to a press release. The report, "2014 LGBT Community Center Survey Report: Assessing the Capacity and Programs of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community Centers," surveyed 111 LGBT community centers from 32 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. The increased revenue allows them to develop innovative new programs to serve youth, homeless populations and transgender populations. Both large and small centers reported increased revenue—a total of $138.1 million—but the biggest concerns emerging from the survey data are the challenges facing small LGBT community centers.

At a hearing of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution and Civil Justice, Liberty University Dean and Professor of Law Mathew Staver submitted prepared testimony that included a profoundly inaccurate anti-LGBT rant, a Human Rights Campaign ( HRC ) press release stated. Staver said that attempts to change reparative-therapy laws amounted to "nothing more than an attempt to censor any viewpoint concerning Scriptural teaching on human sexuality, and they represent one of the greatest assaults on children and families that has arisen in recent times." HRC Legal Director Sarah Warbelow called Staver's statement "vitriolic and factually inaccurate."

Onetime Internet sensation Antoine Dodson has said if his newborn son turns out to be gay he'd still love him ... but he'd do his best to change him and make him straight, TMZ reported. Dodson said last year he was disavowing his homosexuality and becoming a straight family man. Dodson said he believes being gay is wrong and anti-religious, but he would love his son regardless.