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Today’s Top Headlines

Suspect Arrested in Florida Gay Couple’s Murder
Luxury Hotel for Gay Men to Open in Mexico
Apple Rejects Anti-Gay App Again

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Apple has again rejected a revised app version of the “Manhattan Declaration,” a document written and signed by various leaders in the conservative-christian community, according to a report from the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD). Apple originally approved, then rejected the app earlier this month in response to petitions and criticism from gay and progressive groups. The new version was rejected for the same reasons as previously given, the company’s belief that the app would “expose a group to harm” and that the intent of the app is to be “objectionable and potentially harmful to others.”

Read the full story from MacNN.

A luxury hotel catering exclusively to the male gay tourist trade will open next month near the Tulum archaeological zone on Mexico’s Riviera Maya, the facility’s general director told Efe on Tuesday. “The hotel is uniquely for men. That is to say, only homosexual couples are accepted, it’s not for women, although among our personnel we have heterosexual men and women and all have received specialized training to avoid having our guests feel uncomfortable or discriminated against,” Patrick Lurenz said.

Read the full story from Fox News.

A suspect in the slayings of two Wilton Manors men has been arrested, police said Wednesday. Peter Serge Avsenew, 26, of Hollywood, was taken into custody Tuesday night in Polk County, with charges pending against him in the killings of Kevin Mark Powell, 47, and Stephen Duane Adams, 52, said Alesia Furdon, spokeswoman for Wilton Manors police. Powell and Adams, partners for 29 years, were found murdered inside their Wilton Manors home early Sunday. The victims’ black 2003 Saturn Vue also had disappeared, officials said.

Read the full story from the Sun-Sentinel.

 

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Today’s Top Headlines

Social Conservatives Desert CPAC Over Gay GOP Group
Gay Man Leads N.C. Church Association
Suspect ID’d in Murder of Florida Gay Couple
Thailand Bans Film on Transgender Father as Porn

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Thailand’s National Film Board has rejected a movie about a transgender father struggling to raise two children, a ban that the director says highlights the conservative side of Thai society despite its freewheeling reputation. The board ruled last week that the film, “Insects in the Backyard,” cannot be shown in Thailand because it is immoral and pornographic. Director Tanwarin Sukkhapisit said the scenes deemed offensive by the board were crucial to the story line and cannot be cut. She says she plans to appeal the decision.

Read the full story from the Associated Press.

Six months ago, Kevin Mark Powell got a double-organ transplant aimed to save his life. Sunday, he was found murdered in his Wilton Manors home — along with Stephen Duane Adams, his partner of 29 years. “It’s torture not knowing what happened in detail,” said Powell’s brother, Shannon Kicklighter, 39, of Savannah, Ga., on Tuesday afternoon. Wilton Manors police said Tuesday they had identified a person of interest in the case, but provided no details, citing the ongoing investigation. Police also were still searching for a vehicle belonging to the couple, a black 2003 Saturn Vue with Florida tag 989 VRL.

Read the full story from the Miami Herald.

As the newly elected president of the N.C. Council of Churches, Stan Kimer is typical of those who served before him: a retired business executive, longtime churchgoer and member of several nonprofit organization boards. He’s also openly gay. And that sets him apart. Only one other of the country’s 33 similar church councils has elected an openly gay leader. In California, a lesbian was elected president in the late 1990s. That makes Kimer’s presidency of the N.C. Council – a coalition of 17 Christian denominations and eight individual churches that work on social issues – historic in the South. It also signals an acceptance among member denominations – Episcopalians, Lutherans, Methodists, Presbyterians and Roman Catholics – that even if they have theological differences about homosexuality, they are OK with a gay man at the helm. Or at least, they don’t see it as an issue worth fighting.

Read the full story from the Charlotte Observer.

Two large social conservative groups have added their names to a growing boycott of next year’s Conservative Political Action Conference over the organizers’ decision to include gay Republican group GOProud as a “participating organization” for the second year in a row. WorldNetDaily reports that the Family Research Council and the Concerned Women for America are the latest associations to add their names to the list of boycotters. “We’ve been very involved in CPAC for over a decade and have managed a couple of popular sessions. However, we will no longer be involved with CPAC because of the organization’s financial mismanagement and movement away from conservative principles,” FRC Action senior vice president Tom McClusky told WND. Concerned Women for America president Penny Nance similarly told WND that the group had “decided not to participate in part because of GOProud.”

Read the full story from the Huffington Post.

 

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Today’s Top Headlines

Elton John, Partner are Parents of Baby Boy
Gay Miner Accuses Massey Subsidiary of Harassment
Austin Gay Men Attacked After Hugging
Richard Chamberlain Urges Male Actors to Stay in the Closet

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Do as I say, not as I do. That sums up the advice that openly gay screen legend Richard Chamberlain has for Hollywood’s closeted actors. “Personally, I wouldn’t advise a gay leading man–type actor to come out,” the 76-year-old star, who revealed his homosexuality in his 2003 memoir, tells the Advocate. “There’s still a tremendous amount of homophobia in our culture. It’s regrettable, it’s stupid, it’s heartless, and it’s immoral, but there it is.” Chamberlain, who currently stars as Uncle Saul’s love interest on the ABC drama “Brothers & Sisters,” says that most actors are lucky to even land a job, “so it’s just silly for a working actor to say, ‘Oh, I don’t care if anybody knows I’m gay’ — especially if you’re a leading man.”

Read the full story from CNN.

Two men say they were attacked after leaving a gay night club in downtown Austin and their attackers were yelling anti-gay slurs. Bobby Beltran and Christopher Ortega say they were attacked on the morning of Dec. 26 after they left Rain night club. As they were embracing, they heard a string of anti-gay slurs from a car full of men stopped at 4th Street and Lavaca. “I just turned and I said, ‘That stuff’s not welcome here in Austin. We don’t accept that.’ and that really set them off,” Beltran said. “One guy came out of the car, started attacking him, then they put the car in park, jumped out and surrounded us.” According to the pair, the slurs continued during the attack.

Read the full story from KVUE.

Troubled coal producer Massey Energy Co. is facing more legal problems, this time in the form of a sexual harassment lawsuit filed by a gay miner. Sam Hall’s lawsuit claims he endured years of verbal abuse and threats from co-workers and managers at several Massey mines in West Virginia. The lawsuit names Massey subsidiary Spartan Mining Co. and a Spartan foreman as defendants. The lawsuit adds to a turbulent year for Massey. The Richmond, Va.-based company has suffered steep losses, had its longtime chief executive retire and found itself the subject of takeover rumors since an explosion killed 29 miner at its Upper Big Branch mine. The April 5 blast also prompted several shareholder lawsuits and an industrywide safety crackdown blamed for hiking costs and cutting profits across the country.

Read the full story from the Associated Press.

Elton John and David Furnish are parents of a new baby boy, born on Christmas in California to a surrogate. In a joint statement, the new parents told USMagazine.com that “Zachary is healthy and doing well” and said they are “overwhelmed with happiness and joy at this very special moment.” Zachary Jackson Levon Furnish-John weighed in at 7 pounds, 15 ounces. John, 62, and Furnish, 48, a couple for 17 years, have been in a civil partnership since 2005. The identity of the surrogate and details of the surrogacy are being kept private, the couple said. John’s song “Levon” was released in 1971, on his fourth album, “Madman Across the Water,” which also included the classic “Tiny Dancer.” Video of the pop star performing “Levon” for his 60th birthday is above; the original recording is embedded below.

Read the full story from the LA Times.

 

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Today’s Top Headlines

Obama Signs Bill Beginning the End of ‘DADT’
UN Votes to Restore Sexual Orientation to Human Rights Resolution
Tenth Utah Community Bans Gay Discrimination
Viriginia Lawmaker Introduces Bill to Ban Gay Troops from National Guard

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