Windy City Media Group Frontpage News

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

home search facebook twitter join
Gay News Sponsor Windy City Times 2023-12-13
DOWNLOAD ISSUE
Donate

Sponsor
Sponsor
Sponsor

  WINDY CITY TIMES

Pedro Zamora's honor; N.J. trans student's troubles
National roundup: Special to the online edition of Windy City Times
by Andrew Davis, Windy City Times
2014-08-20

This article shared 4151 times since Wed Aug 20, 2014
facebook twitter pin it google +1 reddit email


The National AIDS Memorial Grove announced the naming of its youth scholarship program in honor of AIDS educator, activist and reality-television pioneer Pedro Zamora, who passed away 20 years ago from an AIDS-related illness, according to Business Wire. At age 22, the openly gay and HIV-positive Zamora appeared on MTV's The Real World 3: San Francisco ( 1994 ).

Officials with Thorne Middle School in Middletown, New Jersey, have refused to allow a transitioning transgender student to return to school using her new gender identity, according to Raw Story. Rachel Pepe attended the middle school last year under her birth name, "Brian," but when she tried to register for classes with her new gender identity, school district officials told her she would have to return to Thorne dressed as and answering to "Brian." Middletown Schools Superintendent William O. George said he had no knowledge of the controversy, but insisted that "Every child is different, and their education and social and emotional well being is my priority."

A D.C. Superior Court judge ordered a Beltsville, Maryland, man charged with stabbing a 15-year-old transgender girl on a Metro train on July 30 to undergo a 45-day psychiatric evaluation and treatment regimen, according to The Washington Blade. Magistrate Judge Lori Parker issued the order at the request of defense attorney Veronice Holt, who's representing Reginald Anthony Klaiber, 24. Metro Transit Police have charged Klaiber with assault with a dangerous weapon in connection with the stabbing and classified the incident as an anti-transgender hate crime.

Minnesota state Rep. Jenifer Loon, the second-ranking Republican in the Minnesota House, has survived a primary challenge brought on by her vote in favor of marriage equality, according to EDGE Boston. Loon's onetime campaign manager Sheila Kihne ( KEY-knee ) decided to run after Loon voted last year to legalize gay marriage, calling Loon's vote a flip-flop. Loon had her own backing from GOP groups who want the party to focus on fiscal issues rather than social issues.

The Sultan of Brunei—infamous for imposing sharia law, which calls for death by stoning of gays and adulterers—is the first choice to buy New York's landmark Plaza Hotel, according to The New York Post. As part of an estimated $2.2-billion deal, the sultan would also purchase downtown's Dream Hotel and London's Grosvenor House Hotel, all currently on the selling block by owner Subrata Roy, a jailed Indian industrialist. People have already said they would not hold events or stay in the New York landmark because of the sultan's anti-gay policies.

A volleyball coach at St. Mary High School in Dell Rapids, South Dakota, who has publicly announced he's gay has said he's being allowed to keep his job, EDGE Boston noted. Nate Alfson announced he was gay on Outsports.com, but later said he was concerned about his future with the private Catholic school. The Roman Catholic Diocese of Sioux Falls issued a statement saying "all persons, whatever their attraction, are to be treated with respect, compassion and justice." Alfson is believed to be the first openly gay high school coach in South Dakota.

A support team for Luke O'Donovan says the survivor of an alleged anti-gay attack in Atlanta was sentenced to 10 years in prison on charges that he assaulted people who attacked him, according to a press release. On Dec. 31, 2012, O'Donovan was attacked, beaten and stabbed by at least five men shouting anti-gay slurs at a New Year's Eve party. The Luke O'Donovan Support Committee is asking Judge Todd Markle to remove the criminal banishment from O'Donovan's probationary conditions.

Florida-based bank C1 Financial became the first publicly listed financial institution in the United States to have an openly gay CEO when its stock became available to trade, Gay Star News noted. C1 Financial CEO Trevor Burgess had to disclose his husband owns shares in the bank in filing the paperwork necessary for its shares to be made publicly listed. Many corporate leaders have welcomed Burgess' arrival on Wall Street.

After a gay teen died of suicide, his eye donation was turned down, according to a Washington Post article. Alexander "AJ" Betts Jr., 16—who had been outed as gay in 2012, and was reportedly constantly bullied—attempted suicide in July 2013, and died a few days later. A 14-year-old boy received Betts's heart, according to a letter his mother, Sheryl Moore, received, but his eyes were rejected. A Food and Drug Administration's guidance for donor eligibility says men who have had sex with men in the past five years "should" be ruled as "ineligible" for donating certain tissues, labeling their behavior a "risk factor."

The Tampa Tribune has pulled a controversial column that alleged Disney is indoctrinating children with its "pro-gay agenda," according to Media Matters. The piece, titled, "Disney's pro-gay agenda is disturbing," quoted an anonymous "former Disney executive" saying, "the company has taken direct aim at children to indoctrinate them about gay lifestyles and gay marriage through shows it airs on The Disney Channel and Disney XD." The column had drawn criticism from gay-rights activists and Florida journalists.

In Texas, a Travis County grand jury indicted Gov. Rick Perry after an investigation into whether he abused his power when he vetoed state funding for the county's district attorney office, ABC News reported. Perry is charged with two class-A misdemeanors: one count of abuse of official capacity and coercion of a public servant. If convicted, Perry could face jail time; the first count carries a penalty of five to 99 years in prison, while the second count could result in two to 10 years in prison.

The Arizona Court of Appeals has recognized transgender marriage, ruling that Thomas Beatie ( the so-called "pregnant man" ) could get his Hawaiian marriage dissolved in an Arizona court, WTSP.com reported. Beatie, 40, was born female; however, in 1997, he began testing to determine his psychological gender and, in 2002, underwent the first of his gender-reassignment surgeries. Beatie was still able to have children ( his wife couldn't ), and gave birth to three kids by 2011. After moving to Arizona from Hawaii, their marriage fell apart and Beatie wanted a divorce to marry another woman.

A Pennsylvania bakery owner says she refused to serve a lesbian couple after "talking to Jesus," On Top Magazine reported. Jennifer and Bethany Petrich turned to The Cake Pros bakery in Schuylkill Haven when looking for a cake for a ceremony to renew their vows. Jennifer told a news outlet that the bakery called her mother after their visit "and said to her they were a Christian bakery and the owner talked to Jesus for two weeks. And that because it was two females getting married she couldn't bake our cake." The state does not have a law prohibiting businesses from discriminating based on sexual orientation.

Former Vermont U.S. Sen. James Jeffords—who, in 2001, tipped control of the Senate when he quit the Republican Party to become an independent—has died at age 80. Jeffords had announced in 2005 that he would not seek a fourth term, citing his and his wife's health problems, ABC News noted. In a statement, Human Rights Campaign Director of Government Affairs David Stacy said, "Today, the LGBT community depends on support from elected officials from across the political spectrum, and Jim Jeffords was an early and essential trailblazer in that effort. He will be sincerely missed."

Illinois Senate Minority Whip Tim Bivins, R-Dixon, told right-wing website TheBlaze.com he would like the state to audit how Chicago LGBT facility the Center on Halsted spends money it receives from the government. Bivins pointed to events held by outside organizations that had rented space at the Center, such as International Mr. Rubber and the Grabbys Awards, and said that if the Center were holding "heterosexual sex events … every government body and citizen would be outraged and funding would cease immediately."

For the fourth time in a span of three weeks, a South Florida judge has ruled against Florida's gay-marriage ban, this time in the probate case of a Pennsylvania widower whose husband died suddenly in Boynton Beach, The Miami Herald reported. Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Diana Lewis ordered W. Jason Simpson should be the personal representative in the estate of his husband, Frank Bangor, who died March 14. The two men, together 37 years, were married Oct. 23, 2013, in Delaware.

Lambda Legal and Morrison and Foerster LLP have filed suit against the Secretary of Veterans Affairs on behalf of the American Military Partner Association ( "AMPA" ), arguing that the denial of benefits to same-sex spouses of veterans living in states that refuse to recognize their marriages violates the U.S. Supreme Court's decision striking down part of the Defense of Marriage Act, according to a press release. The filed petition further states, "Having weathered the federal government's past, longstanding discrimination against them, lesbian and gay veterans and their families find themselves once again deprived of equal rights and earned benefits by the government they served and the nation for which they sacrificed."

Campus Pride has announced the annual Campus Pride 2014 Top 50 LGBT-Friendly Colleges & Universities, according to a press release. Unlike the Princeton Review LGBT rankings, the Campus Pride Index is based in research on policy, program and practice and is conducted "for and by" LGBT experts in the field of higher education." Schools on Campus Pride's list include Indiana University, Harvard University, Portland State University, the University of Chicago, Warren Wilson College and Washington University in St. Louis.

The leader of an anti-LGBT group who has joined with Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott to ban same-sex marriage had his own marriage end after his wife began a romantic relationship with another woman, Raw Story reported. Court documents state that Corrine Morris Rodriguez Saenz was dating another woman when she filed for divorce from Jonathan Saenz in 2011. Less than six months later, Jonathan Saenz took over as the president of the state's top anti-gay group, Texas Values.

Dozens of the nation's LGBT-advocacy organizations joined an open letter of solidarity in response to the tragic death of Michael Brown, an unarmed Black teenager who was shot and killed by Officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Missouri, according to a press release. Part of the letter reads, "The lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender ( LGBT ) community cannot be silent at this moment, because LGBT people come from all races, creeds, faiths and backgrounds, and because all movements of equality are deeply connected. We are all part of the fabric of this nation and the promise of liberty and justice for all is yet to be fulfilled." Among the groups signing were Campus Pride, AIDS United, Human Rights Campaign, the True Colors Fund and PFLAG National.

In a related development, openly gay CNN anchor Don Lemon became part of the story in Ferguson, Missouri, when police shoved him and protesters on live television, according to The Wrap. Despite the fact that cameras were rolling and people were watching, a police officer pushed Lemon more than once. "We're on national television," Lemon said. "Imagine what they're doing to people you don't see on national television."

A new Gallup poll says that LGBT individuals in the United States are much less likely than their straight neighbors to be "highly religious" and much more likely to say they are "not religious" at all, Seattle Gay News noted. The results are based on more than 104,000 Gallup Daily Tracking interviews conducted between January 2 and July 31, 2014, including 3,242 adults who identified themselves as LGBT. Forty-one percent of heterosexual adults said they were very religious; for LGBT people, the number was 24 percent.

Gavin McInnes, co-founder of advert company Rooster, has been asked to take an indefinite leave of absence from his job as chief creative officer following a transphobic article published on Thought Catalogue, Gay Star News reported. McInnes, who also co-founded online magazine Vice, wrote a piece entitled "Transphobia is Perfectly Natural," is which he says, "They are mentally ill gays who need help, and that help doesn't include being maimed by physicians." McInnes claims to have recieved death threats from trans activists.

A 45-year-old New Jersey man was arrested for allegedly carving a swastika into a gay couple's lawn, Gothamist.com reported. Lakewood resident Scott Cooney allegedly used what appeared to be a lead pipe to carve the Nazi symbol on a lawn belonging to Fred Blumberg and Pete Costello, a gay couple who live in Cooney's neighborhood. Blumberg, who is Jewish, told reporters Cooney often quoted Hitler and told him his mother should have been "burned in the ovens." As many as 15,000 homosexuals were incarcerated in concentration camps by the Nazis during World War II.

The Congregational United Church of Christ in Plain Township, Ohio, celebrated its 100th year in a major way—by installing its first gay pastor, according to NewNowNext.com . The Rev. Dennis Coy, 35, was formally inducted as the church's pastor in August after being elected in June. Coy joined the church last fall and became interim pastor in January. He came out in 2012, saying the decision was extremely difficult and included him ending a 10-year relationship with his wife.

Researchers from the Kinsey Institute concluded that heterosexual women are the least likely to experience orgasms, The New York Daily News reported. Lesbians, however, showed the highest capacity for orgasm, with 25 percent saying they climaxed with every sexual experience and 46 percent reporting orgasm 75 to 99 percent of the time. They collected data from a total of 6,151 single men and women between the ages of 21 and 65 by means of an Internet questionnaire and finally eliminated the sample size to a total of 2,850.


This article shared 4151 times since Wed Aug 20, 2014
facebook twitter pin it google +1 reddit email

Out and Aging
Presented By

  ARTICLES YOU MIGHT LIKE

Gay News

Chicago's LGBTQ+ Advisory Council sets a new course 2024-03-18
- Chicago's LGBTQ+ Advisory Council held its first meeting of the calendar year on Feb. 28 at City Hall in the Loop under the leadership of the recently appointed chair Jin-Soo Huh. The LGBTQ+ Advisory Council is ...


Gay News

NATIONAL Missouri measure, HIV/AIDS Awareness Day, judge, Texas schools 2024-03-15
- In Missouri, a newly proposed law could charge teachers and counselors with a felony and require them to register as sex offenders if they're found guilty of supporting transgender students who are socially transitioning, CNN noted. ...


Gay News

PASSAGES: Former Chicago Commission on Human Relations chair Clarence Wood 2024-03-13
- LGBTQ ally and former Chicago Commission on Human Relations (CCHR) Chair and Commissioner Clarence N. Wood died March 5. He was 83. Wood was born April 14, 1940, in Alabama. While primarily raised in Alabama, Wood ...


Gay News

Longtime LGBTQ+-rights activist David Mixner dies at 77 2024-03-12
- On March 11, longtime LGBTQ+ and HIV/AIDS activist David Mixner—known for working on Bill Clinton's presidential campaign but then splitting from him over "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" (DADT)—died at age 77, The Advocate reported. ...


Gay News

LGBTQ+ Victory Fund remembers co-founder David Mixner 2024-03-12
--From a press release - Today, LGBTQ+ Victory Fund President & CEO Mayor Annise Parker released the following statement on the passing of LGBTQ+ civil rights activist and LGBTQ+ Victory Fund co-founder David Mixner: "Today, we lost David Mixner, a founding ...


Gay News

Florida settles 'Don't Say Gay' lawsuit 2024-03-11
- On March 11, the state of Florida settled a multi-year lawsuit against the so-called "Don't Say Gay" law, which limits how LGBTQ+ topics can be discussed and presented in schools, The Hill reported. The settlement agreement ...


Gay News

ELECTIONS 2024 Precious Brady-Davis says climate change is top issue as she runs to finish appointed MWRD term 2024-03-08
- Precious Brady-Davis, commissioner for the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District (MWRD), is one of several candidates running to fill three seats on the board in the March 19 election. Brady-Davis was appointed to the role last summer ...


Gay News

ELECTIONS 2024 MWRD's Marcelino Garcia discusses flooding, land use and LGBTQ+ inclusion 2024-03-08
- Marcelina Garcia, commissioner for the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District (MWRD), is one of several candidates in the running to fill three seats on the board in the March 19 election. Garcia, who chair's the MWRD's Finance ...


Gay News

NATIONAL Altercation, mpox research, Univ. of Fla., George Santos, tech battle 2024-03-08
- Video footage uploaded to Facebook showed an altercation between a state trooper and two prominent Philadelphia LGBTQ+ leaders, the Washington Blade reported, republishing an article from Philadelphia Gay News. Celena ...


Gay News

LPAC celebrates historic wins for LGBTQ+ candidates in Super Tuesday primaries 2024-03-06
- From a press release: Washington, DC—Today, LPAC,the nation's leading organization dedicated to electing LGBTQ+ women and nonbinary candidates to public office, proudly announces the outstanding victories of 67% of endorsed candidates ...


Gay News

Illinois's first openly gay elected official voices support for Cunningham 2024-03-05
- Judge Thomas Chiola, who served in the Illinois Circuit Court of Cook County from 1994-2009, has officially endorsed Justice Joy Cunningham for reelection to the Illinois Supreme Court. Chiola is the first gay man to be ...


Gay News

Sinema retiring from the U.S. Senate 2024-03-05
- Kyrsten Sinema—the bisexual U.S. senator from Arizona who recently switched from being a Democrat to an independent—announced that she will not run for re-election this year, ...


Gay News

WORLD Canadian politics, Australian murders, Finnish study, 'Anatomy' 2024-03-01
- Canadian conservatives are divided over an anti-trans policy that Alberta Premier Danielle Smith handed down in her province, The Guardian reported. The policy includes a ban on hormonal treatment, puberty ...


Gay News

Ghana parliament passes harsh anti-LGBTQ+ bill 2024-02-29
- On Feb. 28, Ghana's parliament unanimously passed a controversial anti-LGBTQ+ bill that has been condemned globally. The so-called Human Sexual Rights and Family Values Act, which was introduced in the parliament in 2021, not only criminalizes ...


Gay News

Anti-LGBTQ+ Republican McConnell to step down from leading U.S. Senate 2024-02-29
- U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) will step down from Senate leadership in November, having served in that capacity longer than any senator in history, The Advocate noted. McConnell has been a senator since 1985 and has ...


 


Copyright © 2024 Windy City Media Group. All rights reserved.
Reprint by permission only. PDFs for back issues are downloadable from
our online archives.

Return postage must accompany all manuscripts, drawings, and
photographs submitted if they are to be returned, and no
responsibility may be assumed for unsolicited materials.

All rights to letters, art and photos sent to Nightspots
(Chicago GLBT Nightlife News) and Windy City Times (a Chicago
Gay and Lesbian News and Feature Publication) will be treated
as unconditionally assigned for publication purposes and as such,
subject to editing and comment. The opinions expressed by the
columnists, cartoonists, letter writers, and commentators are
their own and do not necessarily reflect the position of Nightspots
(Chicago GLBT Nightlife News) and Windy City Times (a Chicago Gay,
Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender News and Feature Publication).

The appearance of a name, image or photo of a person or group in
Nightspots (Chicago GLBT Nightlife News) and Windy City Times
(a Chicago Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender News and Feature
Publication) does not indicate the sexual orientation of such
individuals or groups. While we encourage readers to support the
advertisers who make this newspaper possible, Nightspots (Chicago
GLBT Nightlife News) and Windy City Times (a Chicago Gay, Lesbian
News and Feature Publication) cannot accept responsibility for
any advertising claims or promotions.

 
 

TRENDINGBREAKINGPHOTOS







Sponsor


 



Donate


About WCMG      Contact Us      Online Front  Page      Windy City  Times      Nightspots
Identity      BLACKlines      En La Vida      Archives      Advanced Search     
Windy City Queercast      Queercast Archives     
Press  Releases      Join WCMG  Email List      Email Blast      Blogs     
Upcoming Events      Todays Events      Ongoing Events      Bar Guide      Community Groups      In Memoriam     
Privacy Policy     

Windy City Media Group publishes Windy City Times,
The Bi-Weekly Voice of the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Trans Community.
5315 N. Clark St. #192, Chicago, IL 60640-2113 • PH (773) 871-7610 • FAX (773) 871-7609.