TS/TV/CD/LGBT News and opinion from around the world for Friday June 18th 2010

"I condone what she has done 100 percent," Moyer tells Playboy of Paquin. "It's her business to talk about it, not mine. It doesn't change anything. I'm proud of who she is."

After three years out in the wilderness, former prostitute and drag queen Georgina Beyer is making a comeback. Since quitting parliament the outspoken and flamboyant transsexual has been keeping a low profile in Greytown, south of Masterton.

Perkins heads an organization that supports the “kill the gays legislation” in Uganda. Sure, FRC issued a press release denying it. Even said the group loves gays (when we are straight), but never fully explained why it paid lobbyists $25,000 to work the House and Senate halls when pols were writing resolutions against Uganda’s proposed legislation.

Dallas's LGBT community is taking umbrage at the word "except." Discrimination in hiring and firing based on sexual orientation and gender identity is currently permitted on the federal level and within Texas. Ken Upton with Lambda Legal told the Dallas Voice newspaper that he believes the change was made intentionally by DART's board of directors to gut protections for gays and transgender people.

Starting Wednesday, the University of Memphis began offering family memberships to its student recreation center to students who can prove they're living in a family unit, regardless of the sexual orientation of the family's adults.

"There is a lot of anger and frustration in the trans community because of the injustice and discrimination they still face," says protest organizer Alexandre Baril of PolitiQ's trans committee. "Women, gay people - they have achieved equality under the law. But trans people are still treated like second-class citizens!"

The stress of being gay and a teen has been brought to light recently with a well-publicized alleged bullying incident involving a lesbian teen in McKee and the suicide this spring of a gay Lexington high school student.

According to charging documents, Woodward approached the victim, who was dressed as a woman and identifies as one, punched and kicked him, called him a derogatory term for homosexual and said, "You ought to die and go to hell!"

Both sides in the Perry vs. Schwarzenegger case to overturn Proposition 8's ban on equal marriage rights for Californians have made their final arguments and now the state waits on U.S. District Court Judge Justice Vaughn Walker to rule.

This week, the Summit County Council voted unanimously, with two members absent but supportive, to pass two ordinances that forbid housing and employment discrimination based on a person's sexual orientation or gender identity.

"Crisis of abnormal sex threatens the world," wrote Utusan Malaysia columnist Awang Selamat, likening same-sex unions to symptoms of a rapidly-spreading disease. But it is not the LGBT community that threatens the world. It is when powerful institutions like the media judge and objectify vulnerable groups that our society is truly at risk.

The best-case scenario for sex workers? The District should fund "the creation of drop-in centers, transitional housing, job training, counseling, addiction recovery programs and other services for at-risk populations." But first, it’s going to have to get over its hang-ups in talking openly about sex:

DART board member Claude R. Willams Jr. said he didn’t learn until earlier in the day that neither gay nor transgender workers would be protected under the new policy.

The accusations make just one paragraph of the lengthy suicide letter, but make specific references which have now forced the Metropolitan Police Directorate of Professional Standards to launch an internal investigation.

The evidence against Walker suggests he spent eight hours on school IT equipment for purposes which were not permitted for business use. After the head teacher asked IT staff to investigate the internet usage, Walker resigned.

In Freeman v. Realty Resources Hospitality, LLC, d/b/a Denny's of Auburn, No. CV 09-199, the Maine Superior Court held, in a fairly simple decision, that, if it were true that the manager prohibited the plaintiff from using the women's bathroom based on her gender identity, then that would be a violation of the Maine Human Rights Act.

The study by Patrick Egan of New York University looked at polling on gay marriage and domestic partner elections in 33 states since 1998 and found that no minds were changed despite millions in spending, hard-hitting advertising such as the much-quoted "like it or not" TV spot with San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, and emotional pleas from both sides.

This trial has been a truly historic moment for our community. It was the first time a federal court heard, first hand, from real live witnesses, about the harm that the denial of marriage equality causes same-sex couples and their families every day. It is also the first time a federal court has heard the arguments in favor of marriage equality presented live in court by an array of internationally renowned scholars who are truly experts in their respective fields.