CHICAGO – The Illinois State Bar Association’s (ISBA) 203-member policy-making assembly has adopted a proposal rule governing recusal of judges in cases in which a party has made a campaign contribution to the judge. The ISBA will recommend the proposed rule to the Illinois Supreme Court as an amendment to the Illinois Code of Judicial…
WASHINGTON – John Hall, 27, an inmate at the Federal Correctional Institution in Seagoville, Texas, has pleaded guilty in federal court to violating the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act stemming from his assault of a fellow inmate he believed to be gay, the Department of Justice announced. Hall assaulted his…
LOS ANGELES – The election has not only brought marriage rights to same-sex couples in Maine, Maryland and Washington but it will also boost the economies of the three states according to a new report by the Williams Institute. The report estimates that extending marriage to same-sex couples will generate more than $166 million in…
SAN FRANCISCO – Community Marketing & Insights (CMI), the San Francisco-based LGBT research and communications firm, has released its 17th annual LGBT Travel Survey, a USA snapshot on LGBT travel motivations, perspectives and purchases. Respondents to the study are derived from CMI’s proprietary research panel and through partnership with national and community magazines, newspapers, Web…
LONDON, Ky. (CNN) – Two cousins have been convicted of kidnapping a gay man in Kentucky, but the Justice Department failed in the same case to win a guilty verdict in the first test of an expanded hate crimes provision covering sexual orientation. The jury verdict against David Jason Jenkins, 37, and Anthony Ray Jenkins,…
PORT TOWNSEND, Wash. (CNN) – Jefferson County residents in Washington state will cast their ballots this year for the leaders of the “Untied” States. According to the Peninsula Daily News, a typo on ballots that were sent to 22,596 voters caused federal candidates for office to be listed under the heading “President/Vice President of the…
A Web site launched to track the use of homophobic words on Twitter has revealed some startling statistics. NoHomophobes.com launched by The Institute for Sexual Minority Studies and Services (iSMSS) at the University of Alberta in July has tracked over 2.5 million uses of the word “faggot,” nearly 1 million uses of “so gay” or…
SOUTH BEND, Ind. – Hundreds of University of Notre Dame employees are urging the Roman Catholic school to add sexual orientation to its nondiscrimination clause. The campus newspaper, the Observer, ran a full-page ad last week that was signed by 366 school employees urging Notre Dame “to make the protection, recognition, and equal treatment” of…
WASHINGTON – Today the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) announced details of an event featuring Bishop Gene Robinson as part of its Equality Talks speaker series. Bishop Robinson, who oversees the Diocese of New Hampshire in the Episcopal Church in the United States, will be speak at the HRC headquarters in Washington about his new book, God Believes…
WORCESTER, Mass. (CNN) – A gay married couple is suing a Massachusetts Catholic diocese alleging that the religious group declined to sell the couple a property because of their sexual orientation. The two men were negotiating to buy the Oakhurst Mansion in Worcester County. While trying to purchase the 44-bedroom mansion the “owner of the…
