Today’s Top Headlines

Pentagon Poll Says Most US Troops OK With Gays in Military
Arkansas School Board Member to Resign Over Anti-Gay Post
Gay-Straight Clubs Targeted in Utah School Board Race

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Clubs supportive of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender high school students could be in jeopardy next year. Gay-Straight Alliances were formed in March at four local high schools, after the Washington County School District Board of Education, under pressure from the American Civil Liberties Union, changed its policies. The board has since taken steps to combat the clubs, unwanted by many in Southern Utah’s socially conservative majority, by requiring parents’ signatures to join noncurricular student clubs starting next year.

Read the full story from The Spectrum.

A school board district member in Arkansas who came under fire for an anti-gay post on a social networking site regrets the comments and will resign his seat, he told CNN’s Anderson Cooper on Thursday. “I’m sorry I’ve hurt people with my comments,” Clint McCance, vice-president of the Midland School District in Pleasant Plains, Arkansas said. “I’m sorry I made those ignorant comments and hurt people on a broad spectrum.” McCance wrote on his personal Facebook page that he wanted gay people to commit suicide, according to The Advocate, a newspaper focusing on gay news.

Read the full story from CNN.

An internal Pentagon study finds that most U.S. troops and their families don’t care whether gays are allowed to serve openly and think the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy could be dropped, the Associated Press reports, quoting officials familiar with its findings. A 103-question survey on the issue was sent to about 400,000 active-duty and Reserve forces and another 150,000 to family members as part of a year-long study ordered in February by Defense Secretary Robert Gates. The study asked, among other things, whether the troops had ever shared a room or the showers with gay peers, and how they might act if a gay servicemember lived with a same-sex partner on base, The Washington Post reports.

Read the full story from the USA Today.

 

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Today’s Top Headlines

Wisconsin Candidate Apologizes For Gay Marriage Comments
Robocall Attacks Missouri Dem For Ties To Hardcore Gay Pornography
Laura Bush Decries Bullying of Gay Teens
NBC Station Asks If Acceptance of Gays Will Bring ‘Downfall of America’

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An east Texas NBC affiliate devoted a segment on its morning show Wednesday to ask viewers and listeners if acceptance of gays will bring the downfall of the country. “The acceptance of homosexuality, pushed hard by the gay rights activists, will it be the fall of this country?” asked Garth Maier, host of KETK’s morning radio program. The segment was broadcast on KETK’s TV channel as well. The channel’s TV hosts introduced the segment with a reference to an Associated Press report Tuesday that President Obama has appointed a record number of openly gay individuals to posts in the administration — more than 150 so far.

Read the full story from Raw Story.

Former first lady Laura Bush is backing the fight against the bullying of gay teenagers. She said in an interview at the Women’s Conference 2010 in California on Tuesday that all bullying – “certainly gay teens, but any children” is terrible. The former first lady referred to a series of recent suicides by gay teens, according to an ABC News report that Bush spokesman David Scherzer confirmed on Wednesday. She said adults have to be the ones who do something about it.

Read the full story from the Washington Post.

While the closing weeks of the 2008 presidential campaign were defined in part by a series of nasty robocall attacks on Barack Obama, there has been a noticeable absence of the campaign technique in the 2010 elections. Among congressional candidates, only a few have used robocalls — a relatively cheap form of blitzing voters with an automated message — to push headline-grabbing messages. The real memorable ones, indeed, have taken place at the local level, often with groups trying to micro-target social conservative voters. On Wednesday, a group called the House Republican Campaign Committee (presumably an arm of the Missouri Republican Party) released a robocall attacking Courtney Cole, a state representative in Missouri, for having ties to the “hardcore pornography industry, including gay pornography.”

Read the full story from the Huffington Post.

Republican lieutenant governor candidate Rebecca Kleefisch apologized Thursday for saying on a Christian radio station earlier this year that extending domestic partner benefits to gay state employees was a slippery slope that could lead to approving marriage to tables and dogs. In the interview with WVCY Christian radio on Jan. 25, Kleefisch said the state can’t afford to “just be handing out money to anyone. This is a slippery slope. In addition to that, at what point are we going to OK marrying inanimate objects? Can I marry this table, or this, you know, clock? Can we marry dogs? This is ridiculous.” The comment resurfaced in the waning days of the campaign after it circulated among bloggers and gay rights organizations for months and spurred a protest at the University of Wisconsin-Waukesha this week. Kleefisch issued a Thursday statement apologizing.

Read the full story from WCCO.

 

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Today’s Top Headlines

South Korea Says Anti-Gay Army Rules Violate Human Rights
Wisconsin Candidate Likens Gay Marriage to Marrying A Clock
Arkansas School Board Member Says All ‘Queers’ Should Kill Themselves
Gay Detective Sues NYPD Alleging Harassment

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A gay detective is reportedly suing the New York City Police Department, saying he was constantly harassed on the job. According to the Daily News, the 33-year old filed the suit as “John Doe.” He claims police officers at the 103rd Precinct in Queens and the Internal Affairs Bureau in Manhattan tormented him with anti-gay remarks. When he complained, he was reportedly slapped with departmental charges for duplicating his patrolman’s shield for his dad, who wanted it as a souvenir. He is facing an Internal Affairs probe. The News says the detective is a four-year veteran of the force. The NYPD has declined to comment.

Read the full story from NY1.

Nearly 15,000 people have joined an online campaign calling for the firing of an Arkansas school board member who is purported to have made anti-gay remarks on his Facebook page. The effort seeking the dismissal of Midland School District board member Clint McCance centers on posts visible on a screenshot of a page that appears to be McCance’s online profile. The image is posted on a Facebook group calling for McCance’s firing that had 14,300 supporters as of 11:30 a.m. “Seriously they want me to wear purple because five queers committed suicide,” the posting reads in the screenshot. “The only way im wearin it for the is if they all commit suicide. I cant believe the people of this world have gotten this stupid. We are honoring the fact that they sinned and killed thereselves because of their sin.”

Read the full story from Arkansas Online.

Republican candidate for Wisconsin Lt. Governor Rebecca Kleefisch compared same-sex marriage to marrying a clock during a radio interview. “This is a slippery slope,” Kleefisch said. “In addition to that at what point are we going to be okay marrying inanimate objects? Can I marry this table or this, you know, clock? Can we marry dogs? “This is ridiculous,” continued Kleefisch. “And biblically, again, I’m going to go right back to my fundamental Christian beliefs marriage is between one man and one woman.”

Read the full story from Raw Story.

South Korea’s military criminal code punishing homosexuality in the ranks is a violation of soldiers’ rights, the country’s human rights commission said. Under the current code, homosexuality among servicemen is punishable by up to one year in jail. The constitutional court is reviewing the issue following a request from a military court. The rights commission met this week to agree a position to deliver to the court next month. It said its majority opinion is that the law infringes gay soldiers’ rights to equality, privacy and to choose a sexual preference. “Homosexuality does not directly weaken combat capability, morale or unity,” the rights panel said in a report.

Read the full story from AFP.

 

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Today’s Top Headlines

Obama Administration Takes on Anti-Gay Bullying in School
Young Gay HIV/AIDS Activist Commits Suicide
President Obama Has Appointed Record Number of Gays to Administration
White House Sets ‘DADT’ Strategy Session

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