An apparent attempt by Phoenix man Mark Woodland to find romance using an iPhone app aimed at gay men ended in tragedy, when a man he met brutally beat and stabbed him to death in his home, then robbed him, say police. Phoenix police say that the 54-year-old Woodland used a popular iPhone app that uses a GPS to locate willing “dates” based on that person’s proximity to the user. It is reportedly used by gay men looking for “no-strings hookups.” But police say this time police say Tommy Reed used it to locate an unsuspecting victim who he could brutalize and murder.

Read the full story from CBS.

A relationship counsellor’s bid to challenge his sacking for refusing to give sex therapy to gay couples has been turned down by the High Court. Gary McFarlane, 48, from Bristol, was sacked by Relate Avon in 2008. He claimed the service had refused to accommodate his Christian beliefs. Lord Justice Laws said legislation for the protection of views held purely on religious grounds cannot be justified. He said it was irrational and “also divisive, capricious and arbitrary”.

Read the full story from the BBC.

The federal trial over California’s gay marriage ban moves to closing arguments in June, advocates from both sides of the case said on Wednesday. Judge Vaughn Walker tentatively set the date for June 16, said Andrew Pugno, a lawyer for the coalition defending the ban passed by voters in 2008. Gay rights activists also said the hearing would be in June, with the date subject to agreement between the judge and lawyers. California, with its liberal, trendsetting reputation, shocked gay rights activists around the nation by voting in the ban that spurred the current case. Only a handful of U.S. states allow gay marriage, and most specifically bar it.

Read the full story from Reuters.

 

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Today’s Top Headlines

Hawaii Legislature Passes Civil Unions
California Gay Marriage Trial to Close in June
Christian Sex Therapist Who Refused Gay Couple Loses Appeal
Police Say iPhone App for Gay Men Led to Murderous Connection

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The Hawaii House of Representatives has approved same-sex civil unions, sending the measure to the governor. The House voted 31-20 to give final legislative approval to civil unions Thursday. The bill passed the Senate in January. Republican Gov. Linda Lingle hasn’t said whether she’ll sign it. The measure grants gay and lesbian couples the same rights and benefits the state provides to married couples. The issue was revived on the last day of this year’s legislative session when House Majority Leader Blake Oshiro made a motion to reconsider it.

Read the full story from the Associated Press.

 

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D.C. Mayor Apologizes For Honoring Ex-Gay Leader
Bogus Police Kidnapped and Blackmailed Gay Men Cruising for Sex
Dwarf Gay Activist Fatally Struck by Cab
Vancouver Teacher Claims School Sent Her Home for Being Gay

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British Columbia’s education minister says she is looking into allegations by a Vancouver teacher who claims she was sent home from her job at a Catholic school because of her sexual orientation. Lisa Reimer alleges the principal at Little Flower Academy told her to stay home for the remainder of the school year, when her current contract expires, after parents complained about the fact that her lesbian partner recently had a baby. Education Minister Margaret MacDiarmid said she had only heard about the allegations through the media but has instructed her staff to investigate what exactly happened.

Read the full story from CTV.

A colorful dwarf activist for gay rights and issues affecting the disabled as well as a transportation advocate was hit and killed by a taxi late last night as he left a community board meeting on the Lower East Side, authorities said.

Harry Wieder, 57, walked with crutches and was leaving a meeting of Community Board 3 around 9:45 p.m. at P.S. 20 when he crossed Essex Street in the middle of the block and was hit by a yellow cab, said a fellow board member. “We had all just left the meeting and his car was parked across the street. It was as laborious for him to walk. For him to walk to the corner and cross the street would have been extremely difficult. He was crossing the street in the middle of the block,” said district manager Susan Stetzer. “The cab driver was very distraught.”

Read the full story from the New York Post.

Two gay men who went to a well-known cottaging [cruising] area in the Cotswolds to meet other homosexuals were ‘arrested’ and blackmailed by a gang of bogus police officers, a court heard. One of the victims, 36-year-old businessman ‘Mr A’ was handcuffed and told by his abductors that they had a gun, Gloucester crown court was told. He was made to hand over the £160 he had on him at the time. The second victim, Mr B, was a 78-year-old man who was forced to withdraw £150 from a nearby garage cash machine to pay off the fake cops, said prosecutor Derek Ryder.

Read the full story from the Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard.

D.C. Mayor Adrian M. Fenty apologized Thursday over his decision to issue a certificate of appreciation honoring the leader of the ex-gay movement, which believes homosexuals can be rehabilitated. Fenty’s statement comes one day after local and national gay-rights leaders demanded to know why Fenty honored Regina Griggs, executive director of the Parents and Friends of ExGays and Gays. Mafara Hobson, a Fenty spokeswoman, called Griggs’ award a “staff-level error.”

Read the full story from the Washington Post.

 

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Today’s Top Headlines

Court Skeptical on Keeping Signers’ Names Private
UK Tory Candidate Suspended Over Gay Comments
Louisiana Legislature Rejects Gay Adoption Expansion
Man Charged in Transgender Prostitute Murder

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A convict with a record of violent crimes against women was charged Tuesday with the 2007 slaying of a transgender prostitute, the first in what authorities described as a yearlong series of attacks targeting San Francisco’s transgender sex workers. Prosecutors said Donzell Francis, 41, of San Francisco, has pleaded not guilty to charges of murder, forcible oral copulation, sodomy by use of force and other charges in the death of 27-year-old Ruby Ordenana. She was raped, strangled and left naked near a freeway three years ago, police and prosecutors said. It was not immediately known whether he retained a lawyer.

Read the full story from the San Jose Mercury News.

Lengthy and passionate testimony in the Senate Judiciary A Committee today ended with a 3-1 party line rejection of a measure that would have expanded gay adoption in Louisiana. Senate Bill 129, which ended up as a combination of two measures by Sens. Ed Murray and J.P. Morrell, would have allowed unmarried couples to jointly adopt and allow an existing parent to petition a court to add a second adult as a legal parent. The bill would have applied regardless of the adoptive parents’ sexual orientation, but the debate centered on the rights of gay parents and their children. Louisiana law restricts adoption to married couples or single individuals, meaning gay couples or unmarried heterosexual couples can adopt but must choose which adult has parental rights.

Read the full story from NOLA.

A Conservative general election candidate has been suspended after he argued that homosexuality is “not normal” and a law banning councils from promoting gay equality was correct. Philip Lardner, the Tory election candidate for North Ayrshire and Arran, said that most Britons consider homosexuality to be “somewhere between unfortunate and simply wrong” and it should not be supported by the state. In a section on his website, he supported parents and teachers who do not want children to be taught about homosexuality and churches who do not want to employ gay people.

Read the full story from the Telegraph.

The Supreme Court seems skeptical of arguments that the names on a petition asking for the repeal of Washington state’s domestic partnership rights should be kept secret. Several justices questioned Wednesday whether people who voluntarily participate in a public referendum should then expect privacy. Justice Antonin Scalia said “running a democracy takes a certain amount of civic courage.” Gay rights opponents are asking the court to protect the anonymity of the petition signers. The court will rule later this year.

Read the full story from the Washington Post.