Today’s Top Headlines

RI Civil Union Bill to Be Introduced Tuesday
5 Men Charged in Beating of North Carolina Gay Teen
Braves Place McDowell on ‘Administrative Leave’ After Anti-Gay Remarks

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The Atlanta Braves placed pitching coach Roger McDowell on administrative leave Friday while they investigate allegations that he made homophobic comments and crude gestures toward fans before a game in San Francisco last weekend. McDowell also is accused of using a baseball bat to threatening a fan who objected to his actions. The former major league reliever apologized in a statement, but the team barred him from the bench heading into a three-game series against St. Louis. The Braves’ minor league pitching coordinator, Dave Wallace, will take over for McDowell during the investigation. Major League Baseball has said it’s waiting to hear from the team before deciding on possible penalties.

Read the full story from Associated Press.

The York County Sheriff’s Office has made five arrests in a case involving a gay teen who was brutally beaten nearly three weeks ago in Rock Hill. Joshua Esskew was assaulted on Saturday, April 9, at the Spot Convenience Store located at 990 South Cherry Road. According to the sheriff’s office, there was a verbal altercation between Esskew and Bobby Wilson who was standing in front of the convenience store. Wilson allegedly struck Esskew in the back of the head with a bottle. The sheriff’s office says when Esskew attempted to confront the assailant, four other males ran to the scene and also attacked Esskew.

Read the full story from WBTV.

Rhode Island lawmakers are working out the details of legislation that would create civil unions and plan to introduce the proposal next week. A House spokesman said Thursday that lawmakers are reviewing civil union laws in other states to help them craft the proposal, which could be introduced Tuesday. The new bill comes after House Speaker Gordon Fox declared that gay marriage legislation wouldn’t pass the General Assembly this year. Fox, who is gay, now supports civil unions as a more politically feasible alternative.

Read the full story from the Boston Herald.

 

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Today’s Top Headlines

Braves Pitching Coach Apologizes After Using Gay Slurs
US Marines Get Trained on Accepting Gay Recruits
New Mexico School Bans Club Meetings After Gay Club Formed

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A school board in Clovis, New Mexico, voted to ban all extra-curricular clubs from meeting during school hours after a gay-straight alliance applied to become a club. School officials call it coincidental that the alliance applied while school policies were being reviewed, but representatives of the American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico say they are concerned about the timing of the decision. “This sort of tactic has been used in the past by school districts to discourage gay-straight clubs from forming,” Micah McCoy, communications specialist for ACLU of New Mexico, said on Wednesday. “A lot of alarm bells went off when we saw this.”

Read the full story from Reuters.

If a Marine spots two men in his battalion kissing off-duty at a shopping mall, he should react as if he were seeing a man and woman. If he turns on the television news to see a fellow Marine dressed as a civilian and marching in a parade with a banner that reads, “Support Gays and Lesbians in the Military!” he should accept it as a free right of expression. Prescriptions for those possible scenarios are being played out at Marine bases as the military prepares to allow gays to openly serve, ending a 17-year-old policy commonly known as “don’t ask, don’t tell.” Training for the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines began early this year and is expected to finish by summer’s end. The repeal goes into effect 60 days after the president, defense secretary and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff certify that lifting the ban won’t hurt the military’s ability to fight.

Read the full story from the Associated Press.

Atlanta Braves pitching coach Roger McDowell is in hot water after allegedly directing homophobic slurs toward a group of fans at a game in San Francisco last week and threatening another fan with a baseball bat. McDowell issued an apology Wednesday for the alleged incidents Saturday at AT&T Park. The Braves said they were concerned by the allegations and Major League Baseball said it was awaiting the results of the team’s investigation.

Read the full story from the Los Angeles Times.

 

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Today’s Top Headlines

Gay Mass. High Court Pick Faces Confirmation Hearing
8 Horses Dead in Possible Hate Crime
Suspects in Beating of Transgender Woman Could Face Hate Crime Charges
MN GOP Seeking Vote to Define Marriage

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Raising the curtain on a potentially bitter, prolonged political battle, Republican legislators announced Tuesday that they will propose placing a constitutional amendment on the 2012 ballot that would define marriage in Minnesota as only between a man and a woman. Although state law already defines marriage in those terms, backers of the proposal say a constitutional amendment is needed to ward off court rulings that could overturn that law. “Allowing a number of politicians … or, heaven forbid, activist judges to decide the definition of marriage would simply not be acceptable,” said Sen. Warren Limmer, R-Maple Grove, one of the sponsors of a bill to put the amendment on the ballot.

Read the full story from Star Tribune.

Prosecutors are considering possible hate crime charges against the two women accused in the brutal beating of 22-year-old transgender woman Chrissy Lee Polis at a Baltimore-area McDonald’s. Police have arrested a 14-year-old girl and an 18-year-old girl they say attacked Polis. The 18-year-old has been identified as Teonna Monae Brown. Baltimore County police spokesman Lt. Robert McCullough said that police are working with the state’s attorney’s office to determine whether other charges should be brought. “Generally when it comes to cases that involve racial, religious, ethnic or sexual orientation from an investigative standpoint, we approach the case from the perspective of the victim,” he said.

Read the full story from CBS.

Eight horses — including one just a week old and another on the verge of giving birth — died in an Ohio barn fire that authorities may investigate as a hate crime, according to a local newspaper. Ohio resident Brent Whitehouse awoke just before midnight on Easter Sunday to check on Love, his pregnant quaterhorse, only to find a harrowing scene: his barn — which housed seven adult horses and one foal — was glowing orange, the Zanesville Times Recorder reported. Recognizing the peril of his horses, Whitehouse told WHIZ News he ran to the barn and desperately tried to open the doors and free his animals.

Read the full story from NBC.

A confirmation hearing is under way for Gov. Deval Patrick’s latest nominee to the state’s highest court. Appeals Court Judge Barbara Lenk would be the first openly gay justice on the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. SJC Chief Justice Roderick Ireland opened today’s hearing by urging the eight-member Governor’s Council to approve Lenk. Ireland said he has known Lenk for 16 years. He said she is intelligent, conscientious and has balanced judgment. He also called her a consensus-builder, and a “nice human being.”

Read the full story from the Boston Herald.

 

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Today’s Top Headlines

Japan’s First Openly Gay Politician Hails Poll Win
Moscow Allows First Gay Pride Rally
MP Backing Uganda’s Anti-Gay Bill Willing to Drop Death Penalty
UK Catholic Charity Appeal Dismissed

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A Catholic charity which wants exemption from equality laws which would force it to provide its adoption services to gay couples has had its latest appeal rejected. Catholic Care, which is based in the Diocese of Leeds, has spent more than two years arguing it will have to give up its work finding homes for children if it has to comply with recent equality regulations which prohibit discrimination against same-sex couples wanting to adopt. The complex legal debate ended up in the High Court last year before it was referred back to the Charity Commission which again refused to back Catholic Care’s stance.

Read the full story from the Press Association.