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Today’s Top Headlines

Archbishop of York Condemns Ugandan Anti-Gay Bill
Another Georgia City Adds Protections for Gay and Transgender Workers
Mistrial Declared in 1971 Slaying of Gay Man
Transgender Political Activist Pleads Guilty in Window-Smashing

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Activist Maurice Joseph Schwenkler, 24, pleaded guilty Monday to a second-degree misdemeanor for smashing windows at the Colorado Democratic Party headquarters last summer.

He received one year of probation and was ordered to pay $5,000 in restitution for the Aug. 25 incident at the party headquarters at West Eighth Avenue and Santa Fe Drive, according to the Denver district attorney’s office.

Schwenkler and an accomplice, who was never identified, took a hammer to 11 plate-glass windows. Police caught them in the act, and Schwenkler was arrested.

Read the full story from the Denver Post.

East Point has become just the second city in Fulton County — and one of a handful statewide — to adopt protections for its gay and transgender employees. The local law prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, approved by the City Council earlier this week, is almost an afterthought in a city that has offered same-sex domestic partner benefits for employees since 2005. The city charter also includes a Bill of Rights section that says the city will not adopt any laws that intentionally discriminate against gays and lesbians.

Read the full story from the Atlanta Journal Constitution.

A Superior Court jury was unable to reach a unanimous decision yesterday ?in the case of a man accused of fatally stabbing another man 38 years ago in Pacific Beach. Gerald Dean Metcalf, 62, was charged with murder in the 1971 slaying of Gerald Jackson, a 27-year-old Vietnam veteran who worked as a mail carrier for the U.S. Postal Service. Jackson was stabbed more than 61 times. The jury deliberated for about two days before telling the judge they were deadlocked eight to four in favor of a conviction. Judge David Gill declared a mistrial and scheduled a Jan. 5 court date to determine the status of the case. Deputy District Attorney Jill Schall told the jury during the trial that Jackson, who was gay, was killed Dec. 29, 1971, after picking up Metcalf in downtown San Diego and taking him back to his apartment. Jackson’s body was found Jan. 2, 1972, in the bedroom of his apartment on Hornblend Street.

Read the full story from the San Diego Union Tribune.

The Archbishop of York has condemned an anti-homosexuality bill going through parliament in Uganda. Dr John Sentamu, who was born in the African country, said the laws being debated were “victimising”. Under the plans gays and lesbians would be jailed for life if convicted of having sex, and gay people who had sex with a minor would be put to death. Dr Sentamu told the BBC the Anglican communion was committed to recognising that gay people were valued by God.

Read the full story from the Associated Press.

 

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Today’s Top Headlines

Uganda Government Softens Propsed Anti-Gay Law
DC Asks Judge to Dismiss Gay Marriage Lawsuit
Lithuania Revises Gay ‘Promotion’ Law
Man Assaulted Outside Ohio Gay Bar Dies

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Marland Woods, 32, died Sunday night at Mercy St. Vincent Medical Center after being assaulted at Caesar’s Showbar last week, according to The Blade. Reports by the Toledo Police Department show Woods was at the Toledo bar when a fight broke out. Woods and others were told to leave the bar, according to the report. Police say Woods walked across the street to the Greyhound bus station where 20-year-old Norman Corggens from Toledo kicked and stomped on Woods’ head.

Read the full story from WTOL.

Lithuanian lawmakers revised a controversial law on Tuesday that banned the promotion of homosexuality, but gay rights campaigners warned the move did nothing to assuage their concerns. In a 58-4 vote, with 25 abstentions, parliament approved amendments to legislation that sparked criticism from rights groups in Lithuania and abroad when it was passed in July.

Read the full story from the National Post.

he District of Columbia is asking a judge to throw out a lawsuit by opponents of same-sex marriage. The plaintiffs, led by local pastor Bishop Harry Jackson, are seeking to get their proposed ban on gay marriage on the ballot. They are suing after the Board of Elections and Ethics turned them down.

Read the full story from the Associated Press.

Uganda will soften its proposed anti-gay legislation, but the government denied on Wednesday that it was bowing to an outcry in the West over a controversial bill that could have seen homosexuals put to death. Ethics and Integrity Minister Nsaba Buturo told Reuters that the revised law would now probably limit the maximum penalty for offenders to life in prison rather than execution.

Read the full story from Reuters.

 

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Today’s Top Headlines

US Lawmakers Condemn Anti-Gay Uganda Legislation
First Government-Funded Gay Bar Finally Opens in China
Anti-Gay Hate Crimes Surge in Honduras
Michigan Dept. of Corrections Reviewing Affiliation with Ex-Gay Ministry

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Up to 18 gay and transgender men have been killed in Honduras in the six months since its president was deposed in a coup, human rights advocates say. That is as many homophopic hate crimes as were recorded in the Central American country the prior five years, The Miami Herald reported Monday. Activists contend the killings are a result in a breakdown in the rule of law in Honduras since the ouster of former President Manuel Zelaya. The Herald reported that HIV-positive gay activist Walter Trochez was slain last week, just days after escaping a six-hour kidnapping ordeal, in a crime indicative of the dangers facing not only gays but Zelaya’s supporters.

Read the full story from UPI.

China’s first government-backed gay bar has opened after a three-week delay sparked by intense media attention, a charity said Sunday, in a nation where homosexuality is still a sensitive subject. The bar opened Saturday in a low-key fashion in the tourist town of Dali in the southwestern province of Yunnan, Zhang Jianbo, founder of the Dali HIV/AIDS prevention and health association, the organisation behind the initiative, told AFP.

Read the full story from AFP.

Five Republican House members are urging the president of Uganda to oppose a proposed law that would impose the death penalty for some gay Ugandans. The lawmakers say they are all men of faith, and that the bill is antithetical to the Christian belief of “inherent dignity and worth” of all people. The congressmen used a Tuesday letter to urge President Yoweri Museveni to stop the bill from becoming law.

Read the full story from the Associated Press.

A spokesman for the Michigan Department of Corrections announced Monday that the department was reviewing its affiliation with the controversial ex-gay ministry Corduroy Stone of Lansing. “The department’s position is that when you are ministering to a group or even an individual that the content of that not be defamatory or derogatory,” said John Cordell, a department spokesman. “We have shut down ministries in the past for doing just that [being defamatory or derogatory].”

Read the full story from the Michigan Messenger.