Florida Agenda

PHOTO Courtesy MSNBC By Cliff Dunn The man who reportedly engaged in intimate contact with a Rutgers University student who subsequently killed himself–after footage of the encounter was made public–gave a sworn account last week in which he testified having noticed a Webcam pointed in their direction during their encounter. The student, Tyler Clementi, committed [...]

WILTON MANORS – The quiet  peacefulness of the Island City, a two-square-mile islet called Wilton Manors, just may be an illusion. True, the town helped push Greater Fort Lauderdale into the Number Four spot on a somewhat  controversial list of the gayest cities in America, published in January by Advocate.com. But there is a flip [...]

By Cliff Dunn FORT LAUDERDALE, FL – On Monday, Feb. 13, the Wilton Manors City Commission approved a motion to allow the Rainbow Business Coalition (RBC) to host the city’s annual Stonewall Street Festival on Sunday June 24. The RBC was launched in 2010 as an association of LGBT businesses and community leaders to serve [...]

SAN FRANCISCO, CA – The family of an Irish passenger who committed suicide this month during the Atlantis Events gay cruise is seeking answers about the man’s death. Kenneth John Gemmell, 30, took his own life Feb. 3 on the “Allure of the Seas” cruise ship off the coast of Cozumel, Mexico. Gemmell, a flight [...]

By Cliff Dunn SAN?FRANCISCO, CA – On Tuesday, a federal appeals panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit in San Francisco ruled that California’s law that bans same-sex marriage is unconstitutional. The decision is likely to be appealed to the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit by opponents of marriage equality, or make [...]

By Cliff Dunn ORLANDO, FL – New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has LGBT activists wondering if he goes “both ways” on gay rights issues. His call last week for a statewide referendum on same-sex marriage followed hot-on-the-heels of his nomination of the first openly gay justice to the state’s Supreme Court. Christie, 49, is on [...]

By Cliff Dunn MIAMI, FL – When ABC kicks off the fourteenth season of Dancing With the Stars, Olympic swimming champion Greg Louganis hopes to go for the gold as a member of the show’s dancing cast. Louganis, an Olympic gold medalist who competed in the 1976, 1984, and 1988 games, says the hit series [...]

“We Don’t Want to Stop the Music – We Just Want to Stop the Hazing.” By Cliff Dunn ORLANDO, FL – The parents of a Florida A&M University student killed last year after a hazing incident aboard a chartered bus say that they will sue the school and the bus company for the death of [...]

By Cliff Dunn Photo: Broward County Sheriff Al Lamberti is shown here with Captain Rick Wierzbicki who leads BSO’s Hate Crimes Task Force. Sheriff Al Lamberti says that the communities he polices are diverse, vibrant, and thriving, but he remains deeply concerned and troubled that Broward County ranks first among Florida counties for reported hate [...]

By Cliff Dunn Photo: Cardinal Francis George (Courtesy: CNS/Nancy Wiechec) Gay rights groups in and around Chicago are condemning the city’s Roman Catholic leader for what they say is comparing the LGBT rights movement to the Ku Klux Klan. The offending remarks from Cardinal Francis George were said during an interview on December 21 with [...]