NEW YORK – The murder of Club Chili owner and Pride organizer Clinton ‘Billy’ Lewis in New York was not a hate crime, police have said. The New York gay bar owner was shot dead at his home. Louis Duffy, 20, was arrested shortly afterwards. The Elmira Star-Gazette reported that Capt. Joseph Kain of the…
RHODE ISLAND – The Speaker of the House in Rhode Island, Gordon Fox, who is openly gay, has said his bill to extend marriage to gay couples had “no realistic chance” this year and he would push for a civil unions bill. “This is the best we can do right now,” Fox said. “Full marriage…
CALIFORNIA – The last exclusively LGBT bookstore in San Francisco is set to close. A Different Light Bookstores, which used to operate four stores, established the San Francisco branch at 489 Castro Street in the heart of the city’s gay district in 1986. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, the shop was a vibrant cultural centre,…
ILLINOIS – A school bus driver has been charged with leading a homophobic attack on a 10-year old student passenger. The Kankakee Sheriff’s Police Department said that the boy was taunted by the driver, who then encouraged other students to chase and beat the child. It was alleged that he repeatedly called the boy “gay.”…
NEW YORK – The lesbian cadet who resigned from West Point military academy last year because she refused to lie about her sexuality has been rejected for readmission due to the still existing ban on gays in the military. Katherine Miller, 21, said in a statement, “Although I am deeply saddened that I will not…
VIRGINIA –The Virginia State Board of Social Services has voted to strip legal protections against discrimination based on sexual orientation, religion, age, gender, disability, political beliefs and family status from final rules governing licensed adoption and foster care agencies. The proposed rules amended by the Board have been pending since fall 2009, before the recent…
WASHINGTON, D.C. – King & Spalding, the leading law firm that had been contracted by House Republican leaders to defend DOMA at the rate of $520 an hour, have decided to withdraw from the litigation. The firm cited problems with the vetting process applied to the engagement. Earlier King & Spalding had been criticized by…
CALIFORNIA – A bill that would require schools to fairly and accurately portray the historic contributions of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in social science instruction has passed the state Senate in a 23-14 vote. The Fair, Accurate, Inclusive, and Respectful (FAIR) Education Act (SB 48), authored by Senator Mark Leno (D-San Francisco), would…
TENNESSEE – A state Senate committee has approved a bill that will prohibit teachers from discussing homosexuality in kindergarten through eighth-grade classrooms. The legislation (SB49) known as the ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill, was introduced by Republican Senator Stacey Campfield, who has been pushing for the law for six years. As introduced, the bill would have…
Recent pressure to remove a controversial art work from the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery exhibition “Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture” has sparked a debate concerning the over-arching issues of free expression and artistic censorship in the nation’s capitol. After a video component of the exhibit depicting ants crawling on a crucifix drew complaints…
