Standard Podcast: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Today’s Top Five Headlines

Methodist Minister Reveals That He Is Transgender
Iowa Same-Sex Marriage Draws Out-of-State Couples
No Rush for Same-Sex Weddings in Vermont
Transgender Vermont Teen Wants Genderless Bathrooms

Get even MORE breaking news from any of our live, constantly updated news feeds, now available in 12 languages:

English | Español | Français | Deutsch | Nederlands | Italiano | Português | русский | 中國話

The Rev. David Weekley told the congregation of Epworth United Methodist Church a secret Sunday that he’d kept for 27 years: Almost a decade before his ordination journey began in 1982, he’d undergone counseling and several surgeries and became a transgender man. The atmosphere inside the small Southeast Portland sanctuary, with its eight rows of wooden pews, was silent as Weekley, 58, married and the father of five adult children, described his earliest memories.

Read the full story from the Oregonian.

A transgender teenager is lending his voice to a movement in Vermont to require the state’s middle and high schools to offer genderless bathrooms. Kyle Giard-Chase, 16, asked the Vermont Human Rights Commission on Thursday to endorse the effort. He said that before he came out last year as transgendered, he was a three-sport athlete and the co-captain of the field hockey team, a girls’ sport, at South Burlington High School. At an away game, he said he was verbally harassed and threatened by the members of the host school’s football team for using the girls’ restroom. “The harassment only stopped when I was reduced to tears and told them I was in fact a female,” said Kyle, now a senior.

Read the full story from the Associated Press.

Data show that same-sex couples are coming from other states to get married in Iowa. An Iowa Supreme Court ruling in April legalized same-sex marriage in the state. In a Sunday story, the Des Moines Register reports that since the April ruling, state data show about 45 percent of Iowa’s same-sex marriages were between out-of-state couples. Between April 27 and July 27 there were 5,214 marriage certificates issued statewide. Of those, 676 were for same-sex couples. Gender was concealed on 339 marriage certificates.

Read the full story from the Kansas City Star.

Bed-and-breakfast owner Jeff Connor was hoping for a boom in business once Vermont opened the door for same-sex couples to marry. The law takes effect Tuesday, but he’s still waiting. So far, he has only one wedding celebration planned at the 11-unit Grunberg Haus, in Duxbury. It’s for Sept. 8. “I guess the word’s still getting around out there,” said Connor, who runs the inn with wife Linda. Unlike the rush that followed Vermont’s adoption of civil unions in 2000, the state’s adoption of full marriage rights for same-sex couples hasn’t turned it into a gay marriage mecca. And it may not.

Read the full story from the Associated Press.

 

 Standard Podcast: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Today’s Headlines

Texas Liquor Board Fires Three Over Raid on Gay Bar
Utah Governor Says No Protected Class for Gay People
Uruguay Lawmakers OK Gay Adoption
Group Sues to Block Anti-Gay Rights Referendum

Get even MORE breaking news from any of our live, constantly updated news feeds, now available in 12 languages:

English | Español | Français | Deutsch | Nederlands | Italiano | Português | русский | 中國話

Lawmakers in Uruguay have approved a bill allowing gay and lesbian couples to adopt. Despite opposition from Uruguay’s Roman Catholic Church and some of the political opposition, the 99-seat Chamber or Representatives on Thursday passed the bill 40-13, with the remaining members absent. It goes next to the Senate, which approved an earlier version of the bill in July but must now vote again on modifications. If it becomes law, Uruguay would be the first country in Latin American to allow adoption by gay and lesbian couples.

Read the full story from the Associated Press.

Utah Gov. Gary Herbert said Thursday that discriminating against gay people shouldn’t be illegal, although he would prefer it if everyone were treated with respect. In his most definitive comments yet on gay rights, Herbert told reporters he doesn’t believe sexual orientation should be a protected class in the way that race, gender and religion are. “We don’t have to have a rule for everybody to do the right thing. We ought to just do the right thing because it’s the right thing to do and we don’t have to have a law that punishes us if we don’t,” Herbert said in his first monthly KUED news conference.

Read the full story from the Associated Press.

A group opposed to an effort to overturn Washington’s new “everything but marriage” same-sex domestic partner law has sued in King County Superior Court to keep the state from certifying the measure for the fall ballot. Washington Families Standing Together says in the lawsuit that the secretary of state has not complied with the law in processing Referendum 71. Signature gatherers are supposed to sign declarations saying that signatures they’ve collected are valid to the best of their knowledge and that they personally circulated the petition, the lawsuit says.

Read the full story from the Seattle Post Intelligencer.

Texas’ liquor board has fired two agents and a supervisor over a raid at a gay bar in Fort Worth that left a customer with a serious head injury. The Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission says agent Christopher Aller and agent trainee Jason Chapman were fired Friday. Both participated in the June 28 raid at the Rainbow Lounge. Their supervisor, Sgt. Terry Parsons, wasn’t at the bar that night but also was fired, effective Sept. 2. Two other commission officials also were disciplined.

Read the full story from the Associated Press.

 

 Standard Podcast: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Today’s Top Headlines

Transgender Man Killed in DC Stabbing
Transgender Anarchist Suspected in Democrat Office Vandalism
Texas Man Convicted in Brutal Gay Bashing
Italian Football Coach Says No to Openly Gay Couples

Get even MORE breaking news from any of our live, constantly updated news feeds, now available in 12 languages:

English | Español | Français | Deutsch | Nederlands | Italiano | Português | русский | 中國話

A robber who uttered epithets as he beat a gay man in Oak Lawn laughed about the brutal assault in jail phone calls while awaiting trial and said he would pretend to be gay so authorities couldn’t say he attacked his victim because of his sexual orientation. Dallas County jurors convicted Bobby Singleton of aggravated robbery Wednesday and later heard the recordings of the phone call from jail during the punishment phase of his trial. “[I'll] say I’m a faggot, too,” Singleton said in the call to an unidentified woman. “Let ‘em prove I ain’t gay.”

Read the full story from the Dallas Morning News.

Italy coach Marcello Lippi on Wednesday said he would not select two players for his squad if they were openly involved in a homosexual relationship. But the veteran coach, who led Italy to World Cup glory in 2006, insisted that choice was not due to homophobia but due to the requirements of team morale. “In the current climate, two national team players could never be involved in an open relationship,” he told a web-TV station. “This is not a question of culture but is more related to the fact that such a relation would create conflicts contrary to the interests of the dynamics of the group. “Imagine how a homosexual couple in football would be perceived.

Read the full story from AFP.

Two transgender people who were stabbed Wednesday, one fatally, in Northwest Washington might have been victims of a hate crime, D.C. police said, although investigators have not yet determined what led to the violence. The victims, one of whom suffered lacerations that were not considered life-threatening, were found bleeding in the 200 block of Q Street shortly after 2:30 p.m. The incident is being investigated as a potential hate crime based on “a shred of information” that detectives obtained from the survivor, according to acting Lt. Brett Parsons, the department’s top liaison to the city’s gay community.

Read the full story from the Washington Post.

The suspect arrested Tuesday morning on charges of smashing 11 windows at the state Democratic Party headquarters is a transgendered “Denver-based anarchist” who goes by the name “Ariel Attack,” according to postings on numerous anarchist and radical gay-rights websites. A fundraising plea circulated by the self-described “radical queer group” Denver Bash Back! seeks donations to raise the $5,000 bail set for 24-year-old Maurice Schwenkler, who is “listed in the jail records and media under her birth name.” The postings asked “people to NOT call the jail and potentially out Ariel, which would create a very dangerous situation,” noting that “Jail is a dangerous place for everyone, but especially trans people.” A hearing was set for Wednesday morning for Attack, who faces charges of felony criminal mischief, according to the Denver Anarchist Black Cross.

Read the full story from the Colorado Examiner.