LGBT News

Release, Change of Bond Denied for Furr

Off-duty MPD officer accused of shooting at transgender women denied bail as he awaits October trial

Published on May 24, 2012, 2:27pm

Kenneth Furr, the off-duty Metropolitan Police Department officer who allegedly shot at a car containing five people, including at least two transgender women, remains held in jail without bail as he awaits an Oct. 15 trial. Furr faces six counts of assault with a dangerous weapon, one count of assault with intent to kill while armed and two counts of sexual solicitation. Appearing in court before Judge Ann O'Regan Keary today, Furr's lawyers, David Knight and Kia Sears, submitted a ...[more]

Virginia's Vexing Politics

State politicos see possible course correction on anti-gay extremes come November

Published on May 24, 2012, 2:49am

As the saying goes, ''Virginia is for lovers.'' While few would argue the tourism slogan applies to gay people, one might wonder when the state will reach its anti-LGBT bottom. An approved 2006 constitutional amendment banned gay marriage or any legal status or unions that ''intend(s) to approximate the design, qualities, significance or effects of marriage.'' Same-sex couples are not allowed to legally adopt, though LGBT individuals still may. There are no laws protecting LGBT people from employment discrimination. The ...[more]

Close to Home

Town-hall event set to discuss local LGBT youth homelessness

Published on May 24, 2012, 2:48am

It may not be a topic that fills the community with pride, but it's certainly relevant: LGBT youth homelessness. That's the topic the community will tackle Thursday, May 31, when The DC Center and Capital Pride continue the annual Pride season tradition of town-hall events. With LGBT young people making up a disproportionately high number of homeless youth – 20 to 40 percent, looking at data from the National Alliance to End Homelessness and the National Gay and Lesbian Task ...[more]

Global LGBT Briefs: Up in Africa, down in Caucasus

Malawi's Banda makes historic pledge, while Amnesty takes on anti-gay animus in three countries

Published on May 24, 2012, 2:47am

Malawi President Stands Up for Gay Rights President Joyce Banda of Malawi, who rose from vice president to her country's top spot in April following the death of President Bingu wa Mutharika, has pledged to eliminate the nation's anti-gay laws, The Guardian reports. Banda was making her first state of the nation address, May 18, when she said, ''Indecency and unnatural acts laws shall be repealed.'' The president needs Parliamentary support to make such a move, though her party is ...[more]

National LGBT Briefs: A Tee, a Test and Testy Meeting

Student's rights protected in Ohio, while panel recommends HIV test and American Family Association takes on Home Depot

Published on May 24, 2012, 2:44am

Ohio Teen Wins Fight for Anti-Homophobia Tee The question of whether Jesus may have been a homophobe might be a question for the ages. Judge Michael R. Barrett of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio, Western Division, has decided, however, that high school student Maverick Couch may wear his ''Jesus is not a homophobe'' T-shirt to school. Lamdba Legal announced its client's win May 21, which included $20,000 for damages and attorneys' fees. In 2011, when ...[more]

Marking IDAHO at HRC

Human Rights First releases its new report on LGBTI refugees at event marking International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia

Published on May 18, 2012, 6:54pm

Activists around the globe marked the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia (IDAHO) Thursday, May 17, a date chosen to mark the World Health Organization's 1990 decision to no longer list homosexuality as a disease. In D.C., the anniversary was marked with an event tied more to information than to activism. But it is information that will likely help save LGBT – and intersex, meaning those who identify as neither specifically female nor male – lives. At the Equality Center ...[more]

LGBT Locals Cheer Obama's Marriage-Equality Stance

D.C., Maryland, Virginia groups praise Obama's support for same-sex marriage

Published on May 17, 2012, 5:09am

To say that the reaction of the D.C. area's LGBT community to President Barack Obama's endorsement of marriage equality was favorable would be the understatement of the year. Just hours after Obama announced his support for marriage equality, during a May 9 ABC News interview, becoming the first sitting president to do so, several local groups and community figures began issuing a flood supportive statements. The Marylanders for Marriage Equality coalition used the juncture to call for renewed support of ...[more]

National LGBT Briefs: Little State, Big Move

Chafee orders recognition for out-of-state marriages, gay Indianapolis teen attacked, and Family Equality Council marks 30 years

Published on May 17, 2012, 5:05am

Rhode Island Moves to Recognize Out-Of-State Marriages Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee (I) on Monday, May 14, signed an executive order to recognize same-sex couples legally married elsewhere, the Associated Press reported. Rhode Island does not offer marriage equality, though Chafee is pushing for it, saying his state is ''way overdue.'' Chafee characterized the order as ''following through'' on a nonbinding opinion issued in 2007 by then-Attorney General Patrick Lynch that favored recognizing same-sex marriages performed elsewhere. The AP reported ...[more]

Global LGBT Briefs: Executions and Incitement

More gays said to be executed in Iran, while gay Israelis take issue with Torah-quoting councilmember

Published on May 17, 2012, 5:03am

Reports Surface of More Gay Executions in Iran While unconfirmed, reports are coming out of Iran that four men have been sentenced to death for sodomy. According to Pink News, ''Europe's largest gay news service,'' which cited the Human Rights Activist News Agency and Joopea News blogs, the four men will be hanged according to Shari'a law. Pink News's May 12 story quoted London-based human rights lawyer Mehri Jafari in it's coverage of the story. ''After this announcement it is ...[more]

The Gay Gourmand

Jonathan Bardzik feeds his passion at Eastern Market

Published on May 17, 2012, 3:24am

Jonathan Bardzik photographed at Eastern Market by Todd Franson, on March 31 Maybe you've heard that tired complaint about the word ''gay'' being ''corrupted.'' If anything, Jonathan Bardzik has reclaimed it. There's that winning smile, gregarious nature, the unmistakable joie de vivre. Bardzik is definitely gay. Of course, he also digs dudes – particularly his husband. That gaiety may have fueled a new chapter in Bardzik's life. ''A year ago, life was great,'' says Bardzik, 38. ''I was married, celebrating ...[more]

Judge Finds Probable Cause in Barracks Row Stabbing

Marine accused of killing fellow Marine in possible hate crime ordered held without bond to ensure ''safety of the community''

Published on May 16, 2012, 7:55pm

The trial of a Marine accused of killing a fellow Marine following an incident where he allegedly called the victim a ''faggot'' will move forward after a D.C. Superior Court judge this morning found probable cause that the defendant stabbed the victim. Specifically, Judge Ronna L. Beck found there was probable cause that Michael Poth, 20, of Southeast Washington, stabbed 23-year-old Philip Bushong, of Camp Lejeune, N.C., in the early morning hours of April 21 following a confrontation between the ...[more]

From Evolution to Romney

News Analysis: The past week has been a study in contrasts between Obama and Romney

Published on May 16, 2012, 11:40am

In the week since President Obama announced that he had ''evolved'' on the issue of same-sex couples wishing to marry, the contrast between Obama and the presumptive Republican nominee, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, on LGBT issues has been stark — not the least of all because of a long-in-the-preparation Washington Post report about Romney's prep-school days. Obama — who spoke of meeting lesbian and gay servicemembers who felt ''constrained'' because they remain unable to marry — told ABC's Robin ...[more]

Opinion

Launching Pride

The kick-off to the pride season, DC Black Pride weekend is a community celebration we all should join

Published on May 24, 2012, 3:35am

Back in the younger years of DC's Black Pride celebration, I was coordinating HIV-prevention outreach efforts with one of my black co-workers at Whitman-Walker Clinic. ''Okay, so you're handling Black Pride and I'll focus on regular Pride,'' I said. A long beat. ''Um, that didn't sound right, did it?'' Obviously, I was a big fan of ''Capital Pride'' when it debuted as the official name of the traditional June pride event. Over the years, DC Black Pride for me has ...[more]

NAACP Gets to Yes

An ally's announcement is ample reason for celebration

Published on May 24, 2012, 3:32am

A group calling itself the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People hardly sounds cutting edge. Yet 62 of 64 board members for the nation's oldest civil rights organization voted on May 19 to support civil marriage equality. NAACP's historic announcement emphasized the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment. By coincidence, several black high school students in D.C. last week cited the same constitutional provision in support of marriage equality during their senior thesis presentations, on which I ...[more]

The Rot on the Right

Virginia's morally repugnant repudiation of a gay judicial nominee is the latest evidence that no Republican deserves gay support

Published on May 16, 2012, 1:54pm

When Tracy Thorne, a Navy fighter pilot, came out of the closet on live television to Nightline's Ted Koppel in 1992, it was a defining moment in the fight for open military service and one of the transformative moments in my then-young activism. In the still-heady days after Bill Clinton's defeat of George Bush, it was a moment that felt like a tipping point, proof that the change we saw coming was around the corner. How could it not be, ...[more]

Scenes from North Carolina

Despite the outburst of bigotry, it's difficult to reflexively hate the Southern state that just took a big step backward

Published on May 10, 2012, 5:54am

''Watch out for copperheads.'' That seems to be my earliest memory of North Carolina, a casual warning that I don't recall the context for but that filled my 8-year-old mind with the fear of rampant poisonous snakes ready to slither up my little legs. It was a family trip to visit my great aunt and uncle, Jean and Joe. My memories, some three decades later, are admittedly a little hazy, but some things still stick out. In particular, Uncle Joe ...[more]

Servants of Misrule

Taking issue with Richard Grenell's mea culpa and grand old gaiety

Published on May 10, 2012, 5:54am

People in scorned social positions can sometimes transcend their subservient roles by their wit. This is no substitute for a liberation movement, but it can offer a ray of hope during dark times. ''Golden Age'' film actors Franklin Pangborn and Edward Everett Horton played comic supporting roles drenched in gay stereotypes, six decades before Sean Hayes on Will & Grace. Their confident performances, however, served as tacit rebukes not only to the equally foolish leading characters, but to film censors. ...[more]

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