Top Stories Salt Lake City

FEC: John Edwards must pay back $2.3 million that exceeded matching funds.

Transgender woman shot and killed in D.C.: "The victim has been identified as 23-year-old Lashai Mclean of Northeast. The homicide took place on the 6100 block of Dix Street NE, in the same neighborhood as the Wanda Alston House, the home for LGBT youth that is a project of Transgender Health Empowerment (THE)."

Prosecutor seeks to quash 'gay panic' defense in trial of Brandon McInerney: "Attorneys for Brandon McInerney argue that their client, who was 14 when he gunned down Larry King in an Oxnard junior high school computer lab, was so humiliated by King's flirtation that it provoked him to kill his classmate."

Jesse Metcalfe shows off his moobs.

Cleveland to offer city employees domestic partner benefits: "City officials estimate that 15 couples qualify for the new benefits, potentially costing the city more than $101,000."

MTV VMA nominees announced.

NASA's Hubble telescope discovers new moon around Pluto. "The new moon is the smallest discovered around Pluto. It has an estimated diameter of 8 to 21 miles (13 to 34 km). By comparison, Charon, Pluto's largest moon, is 648 miles (1,043 km) across, and the other moons, Nix and Hydra, are in the range of 20 to 70 miles in diameter (32 to 113 km)."

Whitney Houston surfaces, looking good…

Adam Lambert "Behind the Music" to air.

Australian man sentenced to jail for 22 years for killing lover in sex act he claimed was consensual.

Second suspect arrested in Asheville, NC gay bashing case: "The 15-year-old was charged Wednesday with assault and damage to property. The teen and three others are accused of taunting a man as gay, then assaulting him in the parking lot of an Asheville grocery store Feb. 14. He was treated for broken facial bones. 

More than 19,000 sign petition asking Apple to remove store from Christian Values Network: "CVN is used as a fundraising tool by several anti-gay, anti-women organizations like Focus on the Family and the Family Research Council."

Douchebags of Grindr.

Census: Homes with same-sex couples in Maine have grown 60 percent over the last decade. "All told, same-sex households account for about 1 in 100 of Maine's 557,219 homes, similar to data previously released in Vermont and released Thursday in New Hampshire."

NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg buys $20 million beach cottage.

Maryland archbishop speaks out against same-sex marriage: “Maryland is not New York. During the 2011 session, Maryland lawmakers chose not to redefine marriage because they listened to their Maryland constituents and stood by their deeply-held moral convictions.”

Santorum tries to raise funds off his "frothy mix".

DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman-Schultz demands apology from Florida Republican over email. The email said: "Look, Debbie, I understand that after I departed the House floor you directed your floor speech comments directly towards me. Let me make myself perfectly clear, you want a personal fight, I am happy to oblige. You are the most vile, unprofessional and despicable member of the US House of Representatives. If you have something to say to me, stop being a coward and say it to my face, otherwise, shut the heck up." West says apology "not happening".

Post Footer automatically generated by Add Post Footer Plugin for wordpress.

Louis Marinelli, the defector from the National Organization for Marriage (NOM) who planned and served as the bus driver on NOM's hateful "Summer for Marriage Tour", has launched a new group, the National Organization for Marriage Equality (NOME) and according to his site, plans to visit 17 states on a tour this summer.

He writes:

This summer we plan to travel the country from California to Maine to talk about my change of heart on the issue of marriage equality and talk with conservatives and republicans about why they should support the freedom to marry.

This tour, which is modeled in part after the Summer for Marriage Tour I helped organize last summer for the National Organization for Marriage to oppose same-sex marriage, aims to revisit many of the places NOM visited last year to spread its discriminatory and bigoted message against gay and lesbian citizens.

I am personally responsible for that tour. It was my idea and I proposed it to Brian Brown, NOM’s President, who agreed to endorse and sponsor the project. As a result, I feel compelled to revisit the cities of last year’s marriage tour to meet the thousands of people who came out to meet discrimination and bigotry head on in the streets of their hometowns.

Because it was these counter-protesters that led to my change of heart in support of same-sex marriage and my subsequent resignation from the National Organization for Marriage, this tour will serve as a testament to that change and I look forward to seeing many of the same faces and families I saw last year so that this year I can stand with them, not against them.

Post Footer automatically generated by Add Post Footer Plugin for wordpress.

The models of the Milan and Paris S/S 2012 are not just pretty faces. They're also enthusiastic lip dubbers.

Watch, AFTER THE JUMP…

Credits and models here.

Post Footer automatically generated by Add Post Footer Plugin for wordpress.

More on the lawsuit being filed today by civil rights groups over Minesota's Anoka-Hennepin School District's refusal to stand up against anti-gay bullying. The charges are detailed in a CNN report I posted earlier today revealing that the school is the target of a federal investigation. Seven suicides have taken place in the school over the past two years.

I've re-posted that report, AFTER THE JUMP…

A press release from the groups:

NCLR, SPLC, and Faegre & Benson filed the suit on behalf of five students who have faced severe anti-LGBT bullying and harassment while attending school in the district. It charges that the district's gag policy perpetuated the harassment suffered by these students and others. The suit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota after the school district failed to address the persistent abuse or repeal its discriminatory policy.

Several instances of abuse are also detailed:

 One student faced daily verbal and physical harassment at school after classmates discovered that she is a lesbian. She reported the harassment to school officials numerous times, but the only response was an occasional verbal reprimand to the harassers. The student eventually dropped out of school and attempted suicide.

· Another student reported chronic anti-LGBT harassment to school authorities for more than two years, only to have school officials suggest that he leave the school because they could not protect him.

· A fourth student was picked on relentlessly because he likes to wear colorful clothes and sing songs by female artists. His school's response was not to address the harassment, but to treat him as the problem. The school prevented him from wearing "girly" clothing and made him miss class time to walk through the hallways separate from the other students, escorted by a staff member. 

Said NCLR Executive Director Kate Kendell: "There is something seriously wrong in the Anoka-Hennepin School District, and district officials know it. In school after school, kids who are perceived as gay are harassed mercilessly until they drop out, melt down, or lash back. This epidemic of harassment — unlike anything we've seen in neighboring districts — is plainly fueled by the district's shameful and illegal policy singling out LGBT people and LGBT people alone for total exclusion from acknowledgement within the classroom."

Added Sam Wolfe, lead attorney on the case for the SPLC: "We are disappointed that the district fails to see the serious harm this policy is causing its students. School and district officials who are entrusted with the safety and education of all students continue to ignore, minimize, dismiss, and even blame victims for the abusive behavior of other students."

More about the lawsuit HERE.

Watch CNN's report, AFTER THE JUMP…

Post Footer automatically generated by Add Post Footer Plugin for wordpress.

In case you missed it yesterday, C-SPAN has posted a full video of yesterday's hearing on the Respect for Marriage Act, which would repeal the discriminatory Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). I've posted several clips of the hearings already, but for those of you with the time, it's worth taking a look at the entire thing.

Also, Think Progress has posted a compilation of vile Republican testimony from the 1996 DOMA featuring these gems:

– REP. TOM COBURN (R-OK): “And there are studies to say that over 43% of all people who profess homosexuality have greater than 500 partners”.

– REP. BOB BARR (R-GA): “It is part of a deliberate, coldly calculated power move to confront the basic social institutions on which our country not only was founded, but has prospered, and will continue to prosper.”

– SEN. TRENT LOTT (R-MS): “To force upon our communities the legal recognition of same sex marriage would be social engineering beyond anything in the American experience.”

Watch both the full hearing clip and the compilation, AFTER THE JUMP…

Post Footer automatically generated by Add Post Footer Plugin for wordpress.

Nick Espinosa, the activist responsible for glittering Newt Gingrich, and several others today launched a colorful action at Marcus Bachmann's clinic where Bachmann is said to practice gay "reparative therapy".

Writes Espinosa in a press release:

Today a horde of gay barbarians descended upon Michele and Marcus Bachmann’s “pray away the gay” clinic and demanded that Marcus come out and discipline them for their “deviant” behavior.

Marcus Bachmann, who conducts “reparative therapy” at the clinic intended to convert homosexuals, has said that gays are “barbarians who need to be disciplined.” The horde requested to speak directly with Bachmann and experience some “discipline” for themselves.

When Marcus was no where to be found, the barbarians glittered the empty waiting room and reception area while chanting, “You can’t pray away the gay — baby, I was born this way!”

The action was organized by the same young man who threw glitter on Newt Gingrich, starting a national trend in political protest of anti-LGBT sentiments from political candidates and campaigns.

“Michele and Marcus Bachmann think gay people are barbarians?” asked LGBT activist Nick Espinosa. “I think its clear to everyone who the real barbarians are, based on the Bachmanns’ archaic views on LGBT equality.”

I expect we'll see a video of some sort soon.

(images via facebook)

Post Footer automatically generated by Add Post Footer Plugin for wordpress.

Ghana's Western Regional Minister Paul Evans Aidoo MP has ordered all gays to be rounded-up and arrested, the Sydney Star Observer reports:

Aidooo has tasked Ghana’s Bureau of National Investigations and security forces to round up the country’s gay population and has called on landlords and tenants to inform on people they suspect of being homosexuals.

“All efforts are being made to get rid of these people in the society,” he said.

The move by the Minister follows months of campaigning by the Christian Council of Ghana which last week called on Ghanaians not to vote for any politician who believes in the rights of homosexuals.

Muslims and Christians in the Western Region have been staging protests ever since a local media report claimed there were around 8000 homosexuals and lesbians in the district.

More on this disturbing development at Box Turtle Bulletin…

Post Footer automatically generated by Add Post Footer Plugin for wordpress.

You have ONE HOUR LEFT to enter the lottery to be married in New York City on Sunday.

Outcome Buffalo reports that two lesbian couples at opposite ends of the state are vying to be the state's first same-sex marriage: "Buffalo residents Kitty Lambert and Cheryl Rudd have timed their wedding so that they can claim to be among the first same-sex marriages to be issued and solemnized in the state of New York….Meanwhile down on Long Island, The Viana Hotel and Spa in Westbury, New York will be the site of the wedding of Dee Smith and Kate Wrede on July 24."

The Mayor of Albany will marry up to 10 same-sex couples just after midnight: "Mayor Jerry Jennings said Tuesday he will begin performing marriages at 12:01 a.m. Sunday in the Common Council's chambers. He says a state Supreme Court judge will be available to waive the state-mandated 24-hour waiting period between the time a marriage license is issued and when a couple can be legally wed. The first 10 same-sex couples to return marriage licenses to City Hall on Friday will be eligible for the special ceremony in Albany."

NOM and Westboro Baptist Church are going to be in New York protesting the new marriage equality law this weekend. Here's Westboro's schedule. Here's NOM's schedule.

The NYT interviewed young people about marriage equality. Here's a bit of it:

“If you want to live together, live together, but getting married, that’s pushing it too far,” said Wilson Valencia, 19, who was raised Catholic in the Bronx.

Still, personal freedom and happiness trumped religious mores.

Although he said he wasn’t comfortable with same-sex marriage, mostly because of his Islamic faith, Mohammed Hosen, 19, of Kensington, Brooklyn, said same-sex couples should have the right to choose to marry if they want.

“As long as they’re happy, why should it matter to me?” he asked.

31 same-sex couples are ready to marry in Niagara Falls: "Lynch and Korn are among 31 same-sex couples who have signed on to participate in what representatives from the Niagara Tourism and Convention Corp. believe will be the first group ceremony of its kind since last month’s passage of the Marriage Equality Act. Representatives from the tourism agency have now officially set the date. The ceremony will take place at 10 a.m. Monday on Goat Island near the brink of the American and Bridal Veil Falls."

Marketers of kitschy souvenir trinkets are thrilled that same-sex marriage has arrived:

Couples will be able to toast their historic nuptials, and then cork leftover booze with wine stoppers adorned with $16 same-sex figurines.

They can wash down the next day's breakfast in coffee mugs that say " 'We do' Men" — which sells for $12.50. The female equivalent goes for $15.

Other fun-loving mementos include male-female rubber ducks and separate bride-and-groom figurines, now being marketed in same-sex pairings.

And right-wing and religious groups say they're prepared for a long battle against NY marriage equality:

National and statewide groups including the National Black Church Initiative promise a relentless legal and political effort to protect what they see as religious and individual freedom of the nearly half of New Yorkers that polls show oppose gay marriage. "I think it's highly likely there will be challenges based on the religious exemptions," said Dennis Poust of the state Catholic Conference. 

A report on the NYC lottery, AFTER THE JUMP…

Post Footer automatically generated by Add Post Footer Plugin for wordpress.

From Jimmy Kimmel, AFTER THE JUMP…

Post Footer automatically generated by Add Post Footer Plugin for wordpress.

Ryan Gosling tells Jimmy Fallon that a recent trip to the Turkish Baths was a flop for him, a belly flop.

Watch, AFTER THE JUMP…

Post Footer automatically generated by Add Post Footer Plugin for wordpress.