Police in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, recovered the body of Todd McKee after issuing a missing-persons report, DelawareOnline.com reported. McKee ( the partner of travel writer/ Wawa Welcome America CEO Jeff Guaracino ) was last seen on July 8, when he was captured on surveillance footage leaving his apartment building in the 300 block of South Boardwalk. In a Facebook post, Guaracino said, in part, ""We are devastated by the news that the body of our beloved partner, son, brother, and friend Todd was found on a beach [on July 14]. As we mourn the loss of this beautiful and kind man, we want to thank the Rehoboth Beach police, city and state officials, and the community he so loved and adopted as his home, for helping to bring Todd back to us."
Organizers of North Carolina's gay-pride parade/festival said they would find a solution following complaints from the Jewish community about the event being scheduled for Yom Kippur, Haaretz reported. Event organizer John Short said the Durham Pride parade's volunteer organizing committee had Jewish members but it still had not realized the scheduling conflict. Organizers had apologized for scheduling the parade for Sept. 30 but did not change the date. They said the parade has been held on the last Saturday of September for the past 17 years.
The Hamilton County Republican Party unanimously endorsed an openly gay candidate for Cincinnati City Counciland it is believed to be the first time the local GOP in conservative southwest Ohio has done that, USA Today reported. A council member's sexual orientation is irrelevant to doing the job, first-time candidate Seth Maney said, and he is taking clear aim in his campaign at a City Hall incumbent who he believes makes a big deal out of being gay: Democrat Chris Seelbach. "Identity politics is a joke," Maney said. "As a gay man, I don't believe that I owe him my vote because he happens to be gay. Does anyone?" Seelbach, 37, became the city's first openly gay elected official in 2011, and he has pushed an LGBT-friendly agenda during his two terms.
An LGBT magazine published out of Columbus, Ohio appears to have ceased publication following the arrest of its editor-in-chief, according to NewNowNext.com . Outlook Ohio Magazine has been running since 1996; however, The Columbus Dispatch reported that no new issues of the magazine have been published since May, and no one is currently working at the publication's office. On July 3, publisher and editor-in-chief Christopher Hayes was arrested; he was arraigned "on two counts of possession of a controlled substance with intent to deliver, meth and oxycodone hydrochloride, and bond was set at $100,000," according to The Parkersburg News and Sentinel.
Rep. Steve King ( R-Iowa ), on the U.S. House floor, compared proposals to have the Pentagon pay for gender transition to the Ottoman practice of castrating slaves serving in the empire's infantry units, The Hill reported. Several pro-LGBT groups condemned the speech, including One Iowa Executive Director Daniel Hoffman-Zinnel, who said in a press release, "To group all transgender people together and claim they all intend to somehow game the system is not only false, but contributes to harmful and untrue stereotypes transgender people face that contribute to harassment and violence." The U.S. House of Representatives, on July 13, rejected a budget amendment, put forward by U.S. Rep. Vicky Hartzler ( R-Missouri ), that would have prohibited the Department of Defense from paying for transgender employees' medical procedures related to their transition.
The New York City Commission on Human Rights has filed complaints against four substance-abuse facilities, charging them with discriminating against transgender clients, NewNowNext.com noted. Among the facilities named in the complaint is the Salvation Army Adult Rehabilitation Center in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn. The Salvation Army has had a history of homophobic and transphobic policies, stemming from its Christian roots.
In Pennsylvania, a former administrator at a long-term care facility for veterans has filed a federal lawsuit against the state's department of military and veterans affairs, claiming he was fired because he is gay, Kentucky.com noted. The Citizens' Voice reported that Michael Semian, 48, was fired from his position as a commandant of the Gino J. Merli Veterans Center in Scranton in 2015. Semian alleges in his lawsuit that the state-operated facility unlawfully discriminated against him based on his sexual orientation and violated the Pennsylvania Whistleblower Law.
Alabama's Samford University will refuse an anticipated $3 million annual budget allocation from the Alabama Baptist State Convention next year, TimesUnion.com reported. Al.com reported Samford President Andrew Westmoreland said recent tension between university and state convention leaders over a proposed student organization to discuss LGBT rights and issues was a factor. Samford faculty voted April 27 to recommend approval of Samford Together, a student organization that would "provide a forum for SU students who want to discuss topics relating to sexual orientation and gender identity."
Police in Washington, D.C. say a man who intentionally drove a car into a transgender woman has been arrested, LGBTQ Nation reported. Local news outlets report that 18-year-old Startwaune Anderson was arrested in connection with a July 5 hit-and-run that left 26-year-old Davon Washington critically injured. Metropolitan police Acting Capt. Anthony Haythe says the assault could still be ruled a hate crime.
A San Diego woman was sentenced to a year and nine months in prison for lying to the FBI about her whereabouts on the day her husband's secret gay lover was brutally murdered and left in a ravine in Baja California, Queerty reported. Taylor Maria Langston, 22, was "within a hair's breadth" of getting charged as a co-conspirator in Jake Merendino's murder, prosecutors saidbut the evidence simply wasn't there. Langston pleaded guilty to an obstruction of justice charge, while husband David Enrique Meza, 26a former gay-for-pay porn star for sites like Sean Cody and Mormon Boyzwas ultimately convicted of murder last month.
Camp Heartland in Willow River, Wisconsindesignated for kids living with or affected by HIV/AIDSis marking its 25th year, Plus Magazine noted. Founded by Mequon, Wisconsin, native Neil Willenson as a one-week, one-time camp, Camp Heartland has expanded to include weeks for kids experiencing homelessness and diabetes, and for kids identifying as LGBT. Willenson, who was in college at the time, started the camp after befriending a 5-year-old boy named Nile who was living with HIV.
U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions spoke in a closed session to members of the largest anti-LGBTQ legal advocacy group, Alliance Defending Freedom ( ADF ), at the group's summit in Orange County, California, the Washington Blade noted. Alliance Defending Freedomdesignated as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Centeris the legal group defending Masterpiece Cakeshop, which in 2012 refused to make a wedding cake for same-sex couple David Mullins and Charlie Craig based on religious objections.
In Missouri, Springfield resident Bree Holloman, 20, said she was attacked during a large fight at Silver Springs Park in part because she's transgender, News-Leader.com reported. A police spokeswoman said the incident is being investigated as a possible assault, but it's too early to determine if the woman's gender identity was a factor. Video footage posted to Facebook appears to show Holloman, who had been a spectator at the outskirts of the scene, being punched in the face by a man.
Muslims for Progressive Values ( MPV ), a pro-LGBTQ and pro-gender equality Muslim organization, partnered with the Human Rights Campaign ( HRC ) to host a table at the annual Islamic Society of North America ( ISNA ) convention in Chicagoand MPV claimsthey were forced to leave because of their advocacy of LGBTQ equality, LGBTQ Nation reported. ISNA has taken pro-LGBTQ stances in the past, including taking part in an interfaith coalition in support of anti-discrimination legislation in 2013 and declaring itself "outraged" by the Pulse shooting. HRC has also participated in the conference before without being kicked out. So far, ISNA has not responded to requests for comment.
In California, an Amador County volunteer firefighter is taking heat for a Facebook post about a storefront in Placerville hanging a rainbow flag, CBS Sacramento reported. "We are talking about discrimination, racism, we are talking about so many horrible atrocities of man in this country," said Jessica Martin, who owns The Crystal Ship. "He said, 'Take down that gay a— flag and it should be replaced with an American flag or a Confederate flag,'" she said regarding the Facebook post.
The National Center for Lesbian Rights ( NCLR ) and Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer LLP filed a complaint on behalf of Katherine McCobb, against California-licensed marriage and family therapist Lloyd Willey, according to an NCLR press release. It's a consumer-fraud lawsuit filed against the Berkeley therapist for allegedly charging more than $70,000 for discredited conversion therapy. "Therapists who exploit vulnerable people by taking their money based on false claims that being lesbian or gay is unnatural and that counseling can change a person's sexual orientation are engaging in fraud," said NCLR Legal Director Shannon Price Minter.
A Christian author has retracted comments he made in support of same-sex marriage, after facing a boycott, PinkNews reported. Eugene Petersona well-known evangelical author who has written more than 30 books, including modernist Biblical translation The Messagehad said that gay people can have "a good spiritual life" and that "that kind of debate about lesbians and gays might be over." However, after Christian book seller LifeWay dropped Peterson's books, he said, "To clarify, I affirm a biblical view of marriage: one man to one woman. I affirm a biblical view of everything."
Target has entered the gender-neutral field with a new back-to-school line from Toca Boca, according to NewNowNext.com . The retail giant will debut a new line of inclusive fashion accessories and apparel from the Sweden-based company, which was founded in 2011 as a mobile gaming app for kids. This marks the first time Toca Boca's products will be taken into the physical world.
Former President Jimmy Carter received medical attention for dehydration while in the Canadian city of Winnipeg, where he was helping build a Habitat for Humanity home, CBC.ca reported. A Habitat volunteer told CBC News he saw Carter, 92, collapse after he'd been working in the sun for about an hour, using a handsaw to cut wood for a staircase.
In 1960, Smith College English professor Newton Arvin was arrested for having gay pornographic materials in his Northampton, Massachusetts, apartmentand, now, an opera about the scandal is happening on the very college campus where the original events took place, WBUR.org reported. The Five College Opera production The Scarlet Professor is based on Northampton writer Barry Werth's book of the same name. Werth spent years researching the arrest of Arvin, who was an expert on Nathaniel Hawthorne's classic The Scarlet Letter.
The Ladies Professional Golf Association ( LPGA ) has been accused of "slut-shaming" female players after introducing a new dress code that forbids plunging necklines, leggings or revealing skirts on the course, The Independent reported. Reactions to the move by golf's governing body have been overwhelmingly against it, with Teen Vogue, the influential youth magazine, saying the dress code had set women "way back." In an email sent around by LPGA player president Vicki Goetze-Ackerman on July 2, players were warned that they would face a fine of $1,000 if they breached the new dress code which comes into action on July 17.