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The United States Senate voted  16-12 Thursday for a compromise to end “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”, the policy banning gays from serving openly in the military.

With fear that Republican gains in congress will threaten the passing of the law, activists are pushing for a quicker movement of the compromise through the Pentagon and the White House, where the ban must be reviewed in order to be formally lifted.

The compromise may have the approval of the majority of Pentagon and White House representatives, but Navy, Army, Air Force and Marine Corps leaders, including Gen. George W. Casey Jr., Army chief of staff, all continue to oppose the repeal legislation until it is reviewed by the President.

“I believe that repealing the law before the completion of the review will be seen by the men and women of the Army as a reversal of our commitment to hear their views before moving forward,” Gen. Casey wrote in response to the repeal.

For the full story visit LAtimes.com.

Olivia Stephens

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After attacks by the press of his comments on gay adoption earlier this month, Mike Huckabee took a more reserved position of gay adoption in his debate with Rosie O’Donnell on her Sirius radio show Saturday.

When O’Donnell, lesbian mother of four kids, asked Huckabee of his position on the Arkansas gay adoption amendment he once again acknowledged his opposition.

“What I’m saying is that I think the ideal environment for children is in a relationship that has both a mother and a father.” he said.

“I’m mentioning that there are half a million kids in foster care in America,” O’Donnell responded. “To have public officials deem homosexuals unworthy of parenting is disastrous for the nation, for equality and for humanity and, Mike, for Christianity.”

Huckabee continued to respond with kinder words and towards the end of the interview said that he respects her decisions.

“Your children are very fortunate,” he added.

For more on this story and to see more of the interview click here.

Olivia Stephens

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The Kansas based Westboro Baptist Church, infamous for picketing “God hates fags”at the funerals of dead soldiers, is planning to take a break from funerals and picket at Constance McMillen’s Mississippi high school graduation on May 22nd.

McMillen’s story reached headlines when her Itawamba Agricultural High School denied her from attending prom with her girlfriend and ultimately cancelled the entire event.

The Westboro Baptist Church website released a statement saying “The parents of Fulton, MS feign outrage that a filthy dyke wants to parade her ‘girlfriend’ around at their night of fornication called a prom. They had a duty to teach their children what the Lord requires of them. They shirked this duty.”

For more on this story visit 365gay.com.

Olivia Stephens

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The murder of a 31 year old transgendered woman in Puerto Rico is now raising suspicion of a possible hate crime, making this the second suspected hate crime case in five months.

Ashley Santiago Ocasio was shot in the head while at her home in the small town of Corozol. The beauty salon owner’s car was missing but no signs of a break-in have been reported.

“The grisly scene at Santiago’s home raised suspicion that she may have been targeted because of her gender identity,” reports the AP. “A common characteristic of hate crime killings is excessive violence done to the victim, and there was so much blood spattered on the walls and floors that police initially believed Santiago had been stabbed repeatedly.”

For more on this story visit advocate.com.

Olivia Stephens

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While India’s Bollywood film industry once avoided even heterosexual kissing, it is now releasing its first gay film in hopes of breaking taboos and spreading awareness of homosexuality throughout the country.

”It talks of the complexities [of being gay] in India.” said Ashok Row Kavi, the editor of India’s first gay magazine, Bombay Dost. “Taboos are still very strong and hopefully it will change things.”

A film in 2008 attempted to focus on gay issues by depicting two heterosexual men pretending to be gay. However, Dunno Y … Na Jaane Kyun, is the first film to be released to the mainstream Indian population depicting gay characters that are romantically involved and activists and critics feel India is ready for it.

“The sexual revolution has been under way in Bollywood for half a decade,” said Anupama Chopra, a film critic and author. ”Kissing is now fairly acceptable for most of the younger stars. The younger directors are responding to an evolving audience.”

The film will attract many supporters of gay rights issues but will also create extreme opposition of those who were in favor of the laws that were recently repealed that made homosexuality a crime against nature punishable for up to 10 years in jail.

For more on this story visit smh.com.

Olivia Stephens

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A student at Duke University claims that his sexuality may been a factor in his impeachment last week from  position as chairman for the College Republicans.

Junior Justin Robinette was accused of conducting behavior “unbecoming of a person in a position of leadership”, according to an article released by the student newspaper of University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

While Robinette isn’t denying accusations regarding his actions such as failing to attend club events, he says the charges occured long before his unanimous reelection in March, one month before his impeachment.

Robinette said that the impeachment proceedings Wednesday were suspicious, allowing no time for debate or personal comments.

“Sneaky amendments were passed, my comments were cut short and motions were made to move the impeachment forward.” Robinette told the UNC at Chapel Hill newspaper.

Cliff Satell, a former vice-chairman of the College Republicans and president of the Duke Conservative Union, said the impeachment process should have been handled differently and that the abrupt impeachment could in fact be linked to the club’s executive members having recently found out about Robinette being gay.

For more on this story visit advocate.com.

Olivia Stephens

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As with the majority of countries throughout the world, Red Cross blood donation policy says that gay male donors are not eligible to donate blood, despite frequency of sexual activity.

However, the Australian branch of Red Cross plans to review this policy, saying that it shouldn’t be sexuality that determines if someone can donate blood, but instead those who do have sex.

“The people who are deferred under this policy are males who’ve had sex with males in the last 12 months,” said Australian Red Cross spokesman, Nicholas McGowan. “There are numerous questions which are highly personal in nature.”

The World Today reported that although the Red Cross hasn’t set a date for the review the issue, it says it will “consult widely with federal and state health authorities and it will include the latest international medical research” in its decision.

For more on this story visit 365gay.com.

Olivia Stephens

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A new romance comedy film starring Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor as a gay couple who meet by chance in prison, set to come out in theaters April 30th, has been pushed back to release in July.

I Love You, Phillip Morris, based on the novel by Steve McVickers, involves the true life story of Steven Russel (Carrey) who goes from married father and businessman to gay law breaker who escapes from jail after falling in love with his cellmate Phillip Morris (McGregor).

Due to the content of the film, its release date has been delayed for fear that America is not ready for such a movie in theaters, an issue that McGregor commented on in an interview with the Los Angeles Times.

“I like it because it’s a gay film, which is to say it’s a film about two men in love, and I think that’s an important element of it,” McGregor said. “But it’s not a film about them being gay. They just happen to be gay.”

For more on the movie and on for the full article visit ontopmag.com.

Olivia Stephens

Certainly not hesitant to share his views on the issue of gay rights, Huckabee has frequently commented that it would be wrong for America to “accommodate” such individuals that do not fit the “ideal type” of lifestyle.

“That would be like saying, well there’s there are a lot of people who like to use drugs so let’s go ahead and accommodate those who want to use drugs. There are some people who believe in incest, so we should accommodate them. There are people who believe in polygamy, should we accommodate them?” Huckabee said.

A potential 2012 presidential candidate, Huckabee is adamant that the country prevent the “legitimization of immorality”, ensure that gays continue to be prevented from the military, and feels AIDS victims need to simply be “confined”.

“I feel homosexuality is an aberrant, unnatural, and sinful lifestyle,” he wrote, in response to a question about gays in the military.

For more on this story visit news.yahoo.com.

Olivia Stephens

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Constance McMellen was once again not included in her Itawamba County school’s prom plans as her class attended an alternate parent-organized event at a private location.

While McMellen did attend her Itawamba Agricultural High School prom at the Fulton Country Club, she was one of the only seven students that were there. The teen told reporters that when she asked other students as to the location of the prom, they continued to tell her it would be held at the country club.

Despite a court hearing that ruled the school’s actions of denying McMellen and her same-sex date attendance to the prom unconstitutional, the school continued to cancel the prom, leading to the parents’ organization of a separate prom, not including McMellen, her date, or six other students.

Kristy Bennett, legal director for the ACLU of Mississippi, said the organization will still be focusing on the case.

“Whatever we find will be brought to the court’s attention, whether it is in the damages trial, or whatever,” she said. “There will still be a trial on the merits. The case didn’t end in the preliminary hearing.”

For more on this story visit nems360.com.

Olivia Stephens