The Sedona, Arizona, City Council voted unanimously to amend the city code to include a new chapter prohibiting discrimination in public accommodations, employment and housing on the basis of race, color, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, national origin, marital status, familial status, age, disability or veteran status, a Lambda Legal press release stated. Jennifer C. Pizer, Lambda Legal senior counsel and Law and Policy Project director, said in a statement, "This ordinance strikes the right note, creating straightforward non-discrimination protections including gender identity and sexual orientation, and offering a model for other Arizona cities that want to express clearly their openness to everyone."
Voters in Fayetteville, Arkansas, have approved an ordinance that prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in the areas of employment, housing and public accommodations, On Top Magazine reported. Almost 53 percent of voters cast ballots in favor of the city's Uniform Civil Rights Protection ordinance. The vote was a reversal from a similar special election held in December, when 52 percent voted to repeal a similar ordinance approved by lawmakers last August. Josh Duggar and his mother, Michelle Duggar, led the successful campaign to repeal that ordinance.
Matthew Jarrell, 34, was brutally assaulted and knocked unconscious outside Bounce Nightclub in Cleveland, NewNowNext.com reported. "This guy that was staring out my group of friends all night, looked at me and called me a 'faggot' and punched me in the face," Jarrell told WJW. Jarrell, who reportedly has 80-percent hearing loss in his right ear because of the attack, woke up hours later at MetroHealth Medical Center badly injured and confused to the point where he thought he was in Chicago.
Time magazine has named Chef Jennifer Johnson, the founder LGBTQ business Hip Chick Farms, to its most innovative women list, according to a press release. Johnson, her life partner and co-founder Serafina and daughter Rubyrose live on their family farm, the Ramblin' Rose in Sebastopol, California. Hip Chick is a groundbreaking organic, ethically raised, frozen poultry product that's in more than 1,000 nationwide stores, including Whole Foods and Sprouts.
Dozens of #TransLivesMatter activists took over the stage at the U.S. Conference on AIDS in Washington, D.C., to draw attention to HIV-positive trans women and men as well as gender-nonconforming people, HIVPlusMag.com reported. Spokeswoman Bamby Salcedo—a Latina trans woman, activist, and subject of the documentary TransVisible—grabbed the microphone during the unexpected protest at the lunchtime plenary. Salcedo was allowed to speak for nearly 20 minutes as she outlined a list of actions the group called for, including a demand that the federal government set aside research money to study trans women and HIV.
The U.S. Navy has decided not to force out a Pentecostal chaplain who landed in trouble for allegedly scolding sailors for homosexuality and premarital sex, according to a Huffington Post item that cites MilitaryTimes. Lt. Cmdr. Wesley Modder was given a "detachment for cause" letter in February and ousted from his job after his commander concluded that he was "intolerant" and "unable to function in the diverse and pluralistic environment" of his current assignment at the Navy Nuclear Power Training Command in South Carolina.
The Michigan House voted to expel Rep. Cindy Gamrat while Rep. Todd Courser resigned from his position in the Michigan House, ClickOnDetroit.com reported. A disciplinary committee voted to recommend expulsion for the two lawmakers who admitted to misconduct by trying to cover up their extramarital affair. Courser called his decision to send a "false flag" email alleging he hire gay prostitutes to cover up his affair with Gamrat was a difficult "moment" in his life.
Ten months after he finished parole for violently assaulting a gay man in Austin, the University of Texas ( UT ) hired graduate student Darren Gay as a teaching assistant, putting him in charge of supervising undergraduates and helping to grade them, MyStatesman.com reported. Gay's younger brother, Glen Gay, who took part in the attack in 2004, also worked with students for several years at UT, where he was apparently a volunteer research assistant. While declining to comment about Darren Gay's employment, UT spokesman Gary Susswein said that since 2011, the university has conducted criminal background checks on all employees, including student employees.
In Florida, investigators say new security camera footage of a fire at the Sarasota gay nightclub Throb shows the fire was caused by an arsonist, MySunCoast.com reported. The Sarasota sheriff's department and state rire marshal released this security footage of the arsonist starting the fire. Although Throb had suffered $10,000 in fire and water damage, owner Brian Zickafoose wasted no time making repairs, opening the club just hours after the flames had been extinguished.
In Alabama, Summerford Nursing Home Inc. has agreed to pay an undisclosed financial settlement and implement a workplace nondiscrimination policy prohibiting sexual orientation and gender discrimination after firing a woman for being transgender, the Southern Poverty Law Center announced. Jessi Dye, 28, of Vinemont, Alabama, was hired last fall by Summerford, a privately held nursing home company with 200 employees based in Falkville, Ala. She was fired from her position the first day on the job in November 2014 after company officials discovered she was transgender.
A grand jury indicted the gay owner of a high-profile Atlanta art gallery, more than two years after police raided his business amid allegations that artists aren't being paid for work sold there, Project Q noted. Bill Lowe was expected to surrender to police after being indicted. Lowe allegedly withheld more than $300,000 in proceeds from the sale of artwork at his gallery. In 2013, Atlanta police raided his then 13,000-square-foot facility in Buckhead as artists from around the country complained of Lowe failing to pay them. At the time, Lowe called the allegations "inaccurate."
Also in Atlanta, a 25-year-old gay Atlanta man and adult entertainer was found dead inside a Midtown hotel room on Sept. 4—days after sharing with friends that he lost his job and was suffering from seizures, according to Project Q. Mehran Chestnut was discovered nude and on the floor of a room in the Hyatt Atlanta Midtown by the man he met online the previousnight. Family and friends said that Chestnut, who identifies as Kb Love on Facebook, suffered from seizures.
Plaintiffs in the U.S. Supreme Court case that legalized same-sex marriage nationwide filed paperwork to seek more than $1.1 million from the state of Ohio as compensation for costs they accrued overturning the state's marriage-equality ban, Cleveland.com reported. Attorneys for the gay and lesbian Ohioans who contested the ban in the Obergefell v. Hodges case submitted a legal brief asking U.S. District Court Judge Timothy S. Black to order that they be reimbursed $1,096,142.50 in attorney's fees and $51,360.12 in expenses. The legal team also asked Black to boost their reimbursement an extra 50 percent beyond their fees and expenses because the case "resulted in a landmark Supreme Court decision."
In Louisiana, WVLA-TV reporter Derek Myers was reportedly fired for bringing up anti-gay gubernatorial candidate ( and U.S. Sen. ) David Vitter's past with prostitutes, according to LGBTQ Nation. Vitter declined to answer his question on record, instead getting on the phone with WVLA-TV and allegedly threatened to pull $250,000 worth of advertising if Myers wasn't immediately fired. Jim Baronet, the station's general manager, said the rumors that Myers was fired at Vitter's request simply aren't true.
Tennessee hardware-store owner Jeff Amyx has started selling anti-gay merchandise, according to LGBTQ Nation. "I just don't agree with their lifestyle," he recently told WATE 6-TV. "I don't want any part of it. I don't want it around me and I'll never agree with it." The merchandise includes baseball hats with his store name on the front and "No Gays Allowed" on the back, which he sells for five dollars, and bumper stickers that say "Choose: God or Gays," which go for 50 cents each. Amyx said he regularly receives hate mail, but it hasn't impacted sales.
San Francisco Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi announced that he is implementing a policy that will allow transgender women to receive programming in the women's jail, according to a joint press release from the Transgender Law Center and National Center for Lesbian Rights. Although the women will participate in classes, job training, physical recreation and other programs in the women's jail during the day, they will remain in the men's jail during the evenings and overnight. Transgender Law Center's Detention Project Director Flor Bermudez said, "Unfortunately, while this policy addresses the need of transgender inmates to have equal access to programming, it does not offer an adequate solution to the dramatically increased risk of sexual assault transgender women in prison face. To truly address sexual and physical assault of transgender detainees, San Francisco must institute policies that bring the city into compliance with the National Prison Rape Elimination Act ( PREA ) Standards."
The University of Tennessee at Knoxville—under orders by the head of the University of Tennessee system—has removed from its website a guide to pronouns that many transgender people prefer, InsideHigherEd.com reported. The guide—which led to numerous false reports that the university had banned the use of such traditional pronouns as "he" and "she"—created a political uproar in the state, with many legislators vowing to punish the university for having published the guide. Joe DiPietro, president of the university system, announced the guide's removal in a letter to his board.
Lambda Legal filed a motion for summary judgment in its federal lawsuit seeking an accurate birth certificate for the son of Chelsea and Jessamy Torres, a married lesbian couple, and other similarly situated same-sex couples in Wisconsin, a press release stated. After their son's birth, hospital staff instructed Jessamy to fill out the "father" part of the birth certificate application. A couple of weeks later, Chelsea received a form from the Wisconsin Department of Health Services asking for confirmation of the information that was provided to generate a birth certificate. The form did not contain any reference to Jessamy.
Rick Perry has quit his 2016 White House bid, ABC News noted. He told the Eagle Forum, "We have a tremendous field—the best in a generation—so I step aside knowing our party is in good hands, and as long as we listen to the grassroots, the cause of conservatism will be, too." Perry has been polling in the low single digits throughout his campaign. He also ran in 2012, briefly polling at the top of the pack before falling to eventual nominee Mitt Romney.
The senior bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal ( AME ) Church in Charleston, South Carolina, criticized attempts to "sanitize" the Black Lives Matter movement, and said that racism and gun violence still linger in the weeks since nine worshippers at a historic AME church in Charleston were killed by a white racist, NBC News noted. Bishop John Richard Bryant reflected on the shooting and its aftermath before taking questions on issues such as same-sex marriage and the 2016 presidential contest. Asked directly about the AME church's stance on same-sex marriage, Bryant sidestepped the question and steered the conversation back toward race. According to the Human Rights Campaign's website, AME leaders have publicly opposed marriage equality and the ordination of openly gay clergy.
Janssen Therapeutics, a division of Janssen Products, announced the launch of "Your Story, Your HIV Wisdom," a campaign that encourages people living with or affected by HIV to share insights, perspectives and inspiration at ShareHIVWisdom.com, according to Plus Magazine. Janssen Therapeutics is the maker of the HIV antiretroviral medication Prezcobix ( a combination of darunavir and cobicistat ).
In continuation of the Created Equal Film Series in Honor of Grady W. Powell, the Virginia Historical Society, with support from Diversity Richmond, screened Brother Outsider: the Life of Bayard Rustin on Sept. 10, the Thursday before Virginia Pridefest 2015, GayRVA.com noted. The film documents the life of the openly gay civil-rights leader and social activist best known for his prominent role in organizing the 1963 March on Washington in which Martin Luther King Jr. uttered his "I Have A Dream" speech.
Florida's Lake County School District is demanding repayment of $7,000 in legal costs to defend its decision to block the formation of a middle-school gay-straight alliance, according to the Orlando Sentinel. A federal judge, in August, threw out the lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida on behalf of a student at Carver Middle School in Leesburg. U.S. District Judge William Terrell Hodges found that the complaint was moot and that the district hadn't infringed on students' constitutional rights.
The advertising campaign around GLSEN's Day of Silence has been named a finalist in the Online Marketing Media and Advertising ( OMMA ) Awards, a press release stated. GLSEN is a national education organization focused on ensuring safe and affirming schools for all students. Since 2004, the OMMA Awards have honored agencies and advertisers that push the potential of digital advertising.
