Police Look for Suspect in Parliament House Shooting
ORLANDO, FL – Last weekend, a man was shot in the north parking lot of the Parliament House resort in Orlando. Police are still looking for suspects in the shooting.

According to the Orlando Sentinel, the victim stumbled inside the club yelling that he had been shot. The police report that they found no witnesses to the shooting but some of the patrons of the resort said they saw a silver-colored sports utility vehicle leaving the scene and turning south on Orange Blossom Trail.

Another police unit found the vehicle nearby but the suspects had fled on foot. One person, who may have been in the vehicle, was detained and is being questioned by police.

As of press-time, police have not named the victim in the shooting.

Stonewall Library Receives $10,000 in Grants
FT. LAUDERDALE, FL – The Stonewall National Museum and Archives was the recipient of $10,000 in grants as a result of an incentive offered to new donors of Our Fund.

South Florida’s only LGBT community foundation, Our Fund, offers to grant to a donor’s favorite charity 10% of the value of their newly created Fund from a separate Fund  which was established by the growing number of Our Fund’s founders.  The designated charity must be local or statewide and provide services to the LGBT community.

The Paul Fasana & Robert S. Graham Fund and the Jim Stepp & Peter Zimmer Fund, recently created at Our Fund, have taken advantage of this offer and designated their incentive to the Stonewall National Museum and Archives.

“We are delighted with the incentive Our Fund is offering and happy to see that Stonewall’s donors are working with Our Fund to accomplish their philanthropic goals,” said Bryan W. Knicely, President of the Stonewall National Museum & Archives.

“Local philanthropists can leverage their charitable investments by adding an additional value to their charitable giving. A new Fund at Our Fund can provide donors with an immediate tax deduction for their gift plus 10% of the value of their gift will be granted to their favorite charity from a separate Fund created by founders of Our Fund to promote philanthropy,” explained Anthony Timiraos, CEO/President of Our Fund.  “A donor’s personalized Fund at Our Fund permits them to periodically recommend public charities that will receive distributions from their Fund.”

Our Fund’s mission is to promote a culture of philanthropy by uniting donors with organizations supporting the LGBT community.

Focused on expanding philanthropy in South Florida and working to develop stronger non-profit organizations, South Florida’s only LGBT community foundation has been established to help build endowments that support donor’s charitable interest and organizations providing services throughout the LGBT community.

Orlando Passes Domestic Partnership Registry
ORLANDO, FL – The city of Orlando voted unanimously to create Central Florida’s first domestic partnership registry.
The registry, which takes effect January 12th, will extend vital legal protections to LGBT families. Protections offered from the registry are restricted to Orlando City limits but Equality Florida expects that couples from across the region will be lining up to participate.

When the registry goes into effect, any unmarried couple who lives, works or visits Orlando can gain the right to make medical decisions for an incapacitated partner, be notified in a life threatening emergency, visit a partner in a health-care facility and participate in the education of a partner’s children.

“I support the domestic partnership registry because I believe it keeps us competitive with other world-class communities,” said Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer. “A domestic partnership registry helps us recruit employers who share our commitment to diversity while attracting and retaining a creative workforce that knows they’ll have protections for their families.”

Christmas Party to Benefit Kids in Distress
FT. LAUDERDALE, FL – The Sinful Sunday School Third Annual Christmas Party to Benefit Kids in Distress will be held on Sunday, December 18 from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. at Johnny’s Fort Lauderdale, 1116 W. Broward Boulevard in Fort Lauderdale. Please bring a new unwrapped toy or gift card

and Matt buys all your drinks. Free valet parking, free food and lots of entertainment. This is Johnny’s biggest party of the year and everything is donated to Kids in Distress. Tell your friends, tell you neighbors and let’s make this the biggest party ever.

Gay Male Penguins Become Adoptive Parents
WUHAN, CHINA – Two gay penguins at the Harbin Polar Land have become adoptive parents. When a female penguin hatched twin chicks on November 28, the park staff decided to give one of the little guys to a gay penguin couple who are notorious for trying to steal eggs from the straight penguins.

In past years during hatching season, the happy couple would go into their paternal mode and would prepare their nest for an egg. Male penguins are the stay-at-home dads of the animal kingdom. Park staff decided to give the eggs to the male couple and the two turned out to be perfect parents and immediately settled down.

Caretakers are hoping the gay penguins will do equally well with the live chick as they did with incubating eggs.

AFA Condemns Macy’s Transgender Policy
SAN ANTONIO, TX – Macy’s has come under attack by the American Family Association for firing an employee who refused to uphold the company’s policy regarding LGBT rights.

Natalie Johnson was fired from a Macy’s store in San Antonio after she told a supervisor that she was unwilling to honor Macy’s LGBT policies because she felt by doing so would violate her religious beliefs.

Johnson told the American Family Association that she observed a young man wearing women’s clothes and make-up exiting a women’s dressing room and politely told him he could not re-enter because it was for the exclusive use of women. She said he angrily responded that he was a “female.”

After being advised by a Macy’s supervisor that company policy allows transgender individuals to utilize any dressing room they may prefer, Johnson pointed out that the same policy also protects against religious discrimination and, in this case, it protects her right to her beliefs that were being violated.

The supervisor reportedly asked if Johnson intended to comply with Macy’s established policies, and when she refused, was later terminated.

Clementi Ex-Roommate Rejects Plea Deal
NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ – The ex-Rutgers University student accused of spying on his gay roommate with a webcam rejected a plea deal from prosecutors last week. Dharun Ravi, is suspected of spying on gay roommate, Tyler Clementi at Rutgers last year leading to Clementi’s suicide over the incident.

As reported by the New York Daily News, Dharun Ravi turned down an offer that would have kept him out of jail and attempted to prevent his deportation back to India. The 19-year-old’s lawyer told a judge his client will go to trial to fight charges he was biased against gay people when he allegedly set up a camera to watch his roommate, Tyler Clementi, kissing and hugging another man in September 2010.

Ravi faces a total of 15 criminal counts, including invasion of privacy and witness and evidence tampering but has not been charged in connection with Clementi’s death by suicide.

The Middlesex County prosecutor’s office offered Ravi no prison time but included community service, probation and counseling as terms of the plea-bargain agreement. The state also agreed to help Ravi fight any deportation orders since he is in the U.S. legally but is an Indian citizen.

Ravi now has less than a month to reconsider before jurors and a judge are assigned to the case.

Anchorage Residents May Vote on Gay Rights Measure
ANCHORAGE, AK – Sponsors of an initiative to extend legal protections against discrimination to gay and transgender people in Anchorage turned in a several-inch-high stack of petitions to the city clerk’s office to put the measure on the April city election ballot.

Volunteers collected 13,515 signatures of Anchorage registered voters in support of the initiative. To get on the ballot, the group needs just 5,871 valid signatures. The city clerk said it will take until sometime next week for her office to review the signatures.

A conservative Christian group, Alaska Family Council, is already planning to campaign against the measure.

White House Meets with Lady Gaga
WASHINGTON, D.C. – On December 6, Valerie Jarrett, Senior Advisor to President Obama, met with pop star, Lady Gaga on inclusion and equality for all young people.

“Lady Gaga is a source of strength for many young people who feel isolated and scared at their schools,” said Jarrett in a written statement. “Today I had the opportunity to welcome her to the White House where we discussed ways we could work together to make sure that no child comes under attack regardless of his or her race, sexual orientation, gender identity, or any other factor.”

One of Lady Gaga’s newest projects is joining together with the MacArthur Foundation and Harvard University to launch the Born this Way Foundation, which will explore ways to help change the culture, the policies, and the curriculum surrounding the safety of our children in school. Lady Gaga has described this cause as a personal one – she has said that as a child, she was often picked on for being different.

Malawi Reviewing Sodomy Laws
LILONGWE, MALAWI – Malawi’s government announced last week that it was reviewing a number of laws, including its anti-gay and anti-lesbian laws.

In July, there were protests against the government of President Bingu wa Mutharika. The protests were driven by a deteriorating economy but also a ban on publications deemed “contrary to the public interest” and the government’s ban on demonstrations.

The government was blaming the economic situation on a withdrawal of aid from the UK and other countries. The UK’s action followed a change in Malawi after internal UK Foreign Office documents on the deteriorating human rights situation in that country were made public.

The UK said the aid withdrawal was because of the government’s bad governance and moves against civil society and the media.

Rosie O’Donnell to Get Hitched Again
CHICAGO, IL – Comedienne, actress, talk show host, Rosie O’Donnell has announced that she is getting married again, this time to Michelle Rounds. The couple plans to get married by Christmas. After breaking up with her previous girlfriend, Tracy Kachtick-Anders back in February, Rosie met and fell in love with Rounds. O’Donnell made the announcement of her engagement on her Oprah Winfrey Network television show, “The Rosie Show”.

Australians Elect World’s First Intersex Mayor
HOBSONS BAY, AUSTRALIA – Counselor Tony Briffa is believed to be the world’s first intersex mayor having won the election at the end of November for the city of Hobsons Bay, Austalia, a suburb of Melbourne.

Briffa, an independent, focused his campaign on community diversity and environmental issues.

An intersex person may have biological characteristics of both the male and the female sexes. Some people (whether physically intersex or not) do not identify themselves as either exclusively female or exclusively male.

Briffa was raised as a girl and was not told the truth about his condition until years later. Briffa has publicly spoken on TV about his genetic intersex condition, but is referred to as ‘he.’

Rick Perry’s Anti-Gay Ad Divides Staff
WASHINGTON, D.C. – According to the Huffington Post, Texas Governor Rick Perry’s newest television ad criticizing the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell was created over the objections of at least one top staff member.

The spot, which began airing in Iowa on last week, features the governor questioning why soldiers can serve openly in the military while children “can’t openly celebrate Christmas or pray in school.” Coming a day after Perry criticized the Obama administration for using foreign aid to defend gay rights abroad, the ad used overt talking points that were aimed at Iowa’s influential evangelical voting block.

But not everyone was pleased with the script. When the ad was being put together several weeks ago, Perry’s top pollster, Tony Fabrizio, called it “nuts” according to an email sent from Fabrizio to the ad’s main creator, longtime GOP operative Nelson Warfield.

Perry’s campaign staff has worked to advance LGBT causes inside the GOP and a consultant to the Perry serves on the advisory board of the group GOProud an LGBT Republican organization. Furthermore, Fabrizio has done polling for the Log Cabin Republicans and urging lawmakers to reconsider their approach to the culture wars and embrace basic fairness for gay Americans on the issue of marriage. Fabrizio has been considered an ally by pro-gay rights conservatives.

Gay Marriage Proponent Dies Before Marrying His Partner
PALM SPRINGS, CA – Ed Watson, 78, passed away last week from Alzheimer’s Disease without having the opportunity of marrying his partner of 40 years, Derence Kernek.

Watson and Kernek met at Cal Polytechnic University and have been together ever since. They were especially eager to get married when Watson was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and his abilities were deteriorating. In May of this year, they posted a video while Watson’s Alzheimer’s was progressing to the point where he could sometimes not remember what day of the week it was and proclaimed that they wish they could legally marry before Watson lost his memory altogether.

Watson died the night before the 9th Circuit Court struck down California’s Proposition 8 which outlawed same-sex marriage in California.

Mayor Resigns Over Gay Sex Scandal
MEDFORD, NJ – Chris Myers, the Republican mayor of the township of Medford, New Jersey has resigned about a month after declaring he would not quit in the midst of an alleged pay-for-gay sex scandal. According to state law, Medford’s Republican committee has 15 days to nominate three candidates to replace Meyers on the township council. Members of council then have 15 days to appoint one of them as mayor. Myers’ term would expire in 2013.

An anonymous person, claiming to be a male escort, launched a website in early October with photos allegedly depicting Myers in his underwear in a California hotel room. The website also showed alleged pictures of Myers’ open wallet and mayoral ID card. The alleged escort claims Myers, the married father of two, paid $500 for sex, but did not provide him a car and other promised gifts.

Romney Says He’s Okay with Gays in the Military
DES MOINES, IO – GOP Presidential hopeful, Mitt Romney told the Des Moines Register that he was okay with gays openly serving in the military. He added that as president, he wouldn’t work to reinstate the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy.

When asked, “How do you feel about gays serving openly in the military,” Romney answered: “That’s already occurred and I’m not planning on reversing that at this stage.”

Among the GOP presidential candidates, Romney is in the minority on the issue. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann, former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum and Texas Governor Rick Perry have all previously said they would bring back the military ban.

Gay Couple Sues State to Get Marriage Rights
HONOLULU, HA – A Honolulu couple is suing the state in order to get marriage rights.  They say a civil union is not enough and they plan to fight the constitutional amendment banning same sex marriage. In 1998 State voters passed a constitutional amendment keeping marriage between a man and a woman.  But the couple says they aren’t worried citing the U.S. constitution is on their side.

According to Hawaii News Now, former radio DJ Natasha Jackson and Janin Kleid have been a couple four years. They wear wedding rings and want to make their commitment legal.  But when they went to get a marriage license at the state Department of Health, they were denied.

Their attorney argued the state law reserving marriage to only heterosexual couples is discriminatory and violates the 14th amendment.

GOP Candidate’s Sister Supports Obama for 2012
NEW YORK, NY – The lesbian half-sister of GOP Republican hopeful, Newt Gingrich, said she will be supporting President Barack Obama’s bid for reelection in 2012.

On MSNBC, Candace Gingrich-Jones, a gay rights advocate, said that she and her older half-brother, the former speaker of the House of Representatives, were mutually respectful but disagree on gay rights and that she would work really hard to make sure that Obama is re-elected no matter who the Republican presidential candidate it.

Gingrich, who is socially conservative and opposes gay marriage, did not attend his younger half-sister’s wedding though invited.

Charlie Daniels Goes After Phelps’ Church
DALLAS, TX – Country singing great, Charlie Daniels’ new song, “Let ‘Em Win or Bring ‘Em Home” includes a statement on how he feels the US government should be handling the war efforts in the Middle East and includes a commentary on Rev. Fred Phelps’ Westboro Baptist Church.

“First of all, the Westboro Baptist Church isn’t Baptist. Second of all, it isn’t a church,” Daniels tells the Dallas Observer. “A church is the body of Christ, and the God I serve is a god of love, not of hate. The God I serve isn’t the God they think they’re serving.”

“I don’t hate the people of Westboro, but I hate what they stand for,” he continues. “I hate the way that they’ve perverted Christianity and that they’ve made people think that all Christians are just like them. They’re despicable people. They’re out telling people that the Lord hates them. They’re telling people that a homosexual can’t be saved. Don’t tell me that. Don’t tell me that anyone can’t be saved.

Christ is about forgiveness. They meant to tell us that God hates us? The Bible says that God gave us his Son for whomsoever, not just for Westboro Baptist. I’m constantly ranting and railing against them.”

Daniels doesn’t express his personal opinions onstage, but doesn’t hold back during interviews. In “Let ‘Em Win or Bring ‘Em Home,” he says he’s just arguing that the generals on the ground need to run the war, rather than politicians in Washington D.C.
“The people on the ground know what’s happening. When you take the power away from those that are there and base all of the strategy on politics and world perception and public relations, you’re not going to win. So, if we’re not going to win, why do we keep leaving the troops in harm’s way? Just bring them home,” he said.

Anti-Gay State Senator Wants Gay Congressional Seat
BOULDER, CO – Colorado State Senator Ken Lundberg is contemplating a run for the U.S. House of Representatives. The seat is currently being held by openly gay Representative Jared Polis. Lundberg is considered the most anti-gay senator in the Colorado State Senate.

According to Outfront Colorado, Lundberg was the most vocal advocate against the 2011 Colorado Civil Union Act and led the unsuccessful fight to stop the bill in the Senate. It passed in that chamber with bipartisan support. But that didn’t stop Lundberg from continuing his crusade against the legislation. The day the bill was heard before the House Judiciary Committee where it eventually died, Lundberg led a protest and prayer group on the east side of the Capitol while supporters rallied on the west steps.

TV News Mostly Ignores Obama’s LGBT Announcement
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Much of the mainstream television news outlets failed to mention President Obama’s announcement concerning international LGBT rights. Obama announced a full government strategy for advancing equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people in its foreign policy and called on nations around the world to recognize that “gay rights are human rights and human rights are gay rights.” The president issued a new directive ordering “all agencies engaged abroad to ensure that U.S. diplomacy and foreign assistance promote and protect the human rights of LGBT persons” and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton delivered a 30 minute speech in Geneva in which she announced a new $3 million Global Fund to support the work of civil society organizations working for equality around the world.

According to Think Progress, MSNBC devoted four separate segments to the administration’s announcement and it was covered on the “NBC Nightly News” with Brian Williams and Fox News’ “Special Report” with Bret Baier.  However, the story was not covered by CNN, “ABC World News,” or “CBS Evening News.”

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Secretary of Education Arne Duncan warned school districts against attempting to shut down lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender clubs and gay-straight alliances.

In the open letter, Duncan stressed that LGBT students are often the target of bullying and verbal harassment and that after-school clubs can help students cope with the bullying.

“By encouraging dialogue and providing supportive resources, these groups can help make schools safe and affirming environments for everyone,” Duncan wrote. Duncan claims that some school districts around the country have attempted to block gay-straight alliances from forming, and that barring their formation or shutting down LGBT clubs is illegal according to the 1984 Equal Access Act which protects student-initiated groups of all types.­­

Courtyard Café Steps Up to Be Home for Holiday Presents
Nick Berry and Shawn Bombard, owners of Shawn and Nick’s Courtyard Café in Wilton Manors, invite you to donate a Holiday Gift and receive a discount on your bill, now through Christmas. The restaurant, at 2211 Wilton Drive, is accepting toys on behalf of Broward County’s Kids in Distress, and guests who donate an unwrapped toy get 10% off their check through December 25.

Says Krishan Manners, president of Wilton Manors Main Street Association: “Courtyard Cafe has generously supported many local charitable efforts with donations of time, food, and fun for years while building a restaurant with a strong local following.” In April, Manners presented Bombard and Berry of with the Business of the Quarter award for their many efforts that benefit local charities and service organizations, a brief list of which includes Hospice of Gold Coast, the Wilton Manors Historical Society, Poverello, Broward House, the Pride Center at Equality Park, Women in Network, the Ryan White Foundation, and Kids in Distress.

In addition to the ongoing toy drive, Berry and his life partner, Joe Bush, are hosting a Christmas Benefit by invitation only at their home on December 17, with donations of unwrapped toys for kids through teens, as well as financial contributions, being accepted. This is their third year hosting such a fundraiser.

Berry says the community has already begun stepping up to the plate with support. “We have 29 bicycles at my house that have been donated by friends and members of the community. We’re expecting 40 by the night of the Benefit, but,” he adds, “checks will also be accepted with many thanks.”