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Saturday, July 26
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Source: Muskegon Chronicle ALLEGAN COUNTY, Mich. -- A right wing group in Michigan has launched a campaign of automated phone calls trying to convince voters that a man running for reelection as a local judge is a gay activist. Gary Glenn, president of the American Family Association, said Allegan County Circuit Judge William Baillargeon has a "long history of involvement with homosexual activist groups that promote so-called homosexual 'marriage' and other radical elements of the homosexual agenda ... ." Baillargeon said he was disappointed by the "nonsense" allegations...
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Thursday, July 24
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Source: Detroit Free Press , WLIX TV LANSING -- Michigan's hate crime law would expand to include intimidation of gays and lesbians and people with disabilities, and would make hanging a noose or burning a cross on someone else’s property specific crimes, under changes urged by civil rights groups today. Those changes will be put on a fast track in the House next month, said Rep. Paul Condino, D-Southfield, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. He said he would introduce a bill today to strengthen the state's ethnic intimidation law, Detroit Free Press reports. Linda Parker, director...
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Thursday, June 19
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Source: Grand Rapids Press , WOOD-TV , Grand Rapids Press WAYLAND, Mich. -- Two high-school girls who beat up another girl, reportedly because she advocated for LGBT rights in the school, will face assault charges in juvenile court, Grand Rapids Press reports. But they won't face enhanced penalties for what police say was a bias-motivated crime because Michigan's hate crimes law doesn't include sexual orientation. As Wayland Union High School students cleaned out their lockers after the last day of school on Tuesday June 10, a fight between three freshmen girls erupted while another...
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Wednesday, May 21
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Source: Detroit Free Press , WZZM-TV , Detroit News DETROIT -- Michigan led the nation in 2007 with a 133 percent increase in reported anti-gay hate crimes over the previous year, according to statistics released Tuesday. The National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs report examined data from 2,430 gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender people across the country who reported being victims of hate crimes. Nationally, there was a 24 percent increase in reported anti-gay hate crimes. The figures for Michigan were compiled from reports to the Triangle Foundation. There were 226 reported incidents...
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Wednesday, May 07
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Source: Detroit Free Press , Associated Press via MLive.com Lansing, Mich. -- Michigan top court ruled Wednesday that a 2004 ban against gay marriage also blocks governments and state universities from offering health insurance to the partners of gay workers. The 5-2 decision from the Supreme Court affirms a state Court of Appeals ruling. The court majority found that language in the amendment prohibiting recognition of other unions "for any purpose" included the extension of benefits to gay and lesbian partners of public employees. Up to 20 public universities, community colleges, school...
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Thursday, April 24
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Source: Grand Rapids Press , WOOD TV , WZZM TV , Between the Lines GRAND RAPIDS, Mich -- Aquinas College said no, but gay-rights activist John Corvino came to Grand Rapids anyway. A group of students arranged for him to speak at a Grand Rapids church Wednesday night after the college canceled his on-campus appearance because it ran against core Catholic values. Qnews background: Catholic college named after philosopher cancels speech by philosopher Corvino says he is grateful students found another location for him to speak. "When I saw how determined these students were to have a voice in...
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Monday, April 21
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Source: Grand Rapids Press , Between the Lines , Triangle press release GRAND RAPIDS -- As the Triangle Foundation prepares for an open house Tuesday, one local politician says there are two ways of looking at the location of a gay-rights organization in West Michigan. "It's unfortunate to me that an organization like Triangle feels it needs to be here," said East Grand Rapids Mayor Cindy Bartman, noting that Triangle Foundation works to stop violence against gays. The other way of seeing things is more hopeful. "West Michigan is at least willing to open the conversation we need...
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Monday, April 14
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Source: PrideSource.com The Michigan based Arcus Foundation is making waves in the funding community. With the recent announcement of its grants for this year, the Foundation has pumped more than $9.6 Million into human rights, civil rights and animal rights organizations across the nation. Roughly 5% of the pie, or $2,145,350, stayed in Michigan, with a whopping $853,370 being poured into community groups in founder Jon Stryker's hometown of Kalamazoo. A relatively new Foundation, Arcus has been undergoing a growth spurt, including an extensive re-evaluation of its priorities. Through hundreds...
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Friday, April 11
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Source: " href="http://blog.mlive.com/grpress/2008/04/aquinas_cancels_gayrights_spea.html" mce_href="http://blog.mlive.com/grpress/2008/04/aquinas_cancels_gayrights_spea.html">Grand Rapids Press , The Herald of ASU , WZZM TV News GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. -- A Catholic college named after the Catholic Church's most famous philosopher, Thomas Aquinas, has canceled a speech by a philosophy professor because the professor is a gay rights advocate. A group of students from Aquinas College now is looking for an independent venue to host the presentation by John Corvino, a philosophy...
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Thursday, April 10
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Source: Triangle Foundation press release DETROIT -- The Detroit city council on Wednesday voted to bar discrimination because of gender identity or expression. An ordinance passed 8-1 by the council amends the city's Human Rights Ordinance to add “gender identity or expression” to the list of protected classes. "The Detroit City Council believes that it is a necessity for every Detroit citizen to be protected from all forms of discrimination, injustice, and harm, " said Kenneth Cockrel, Jr., Detroit City Council President. "Detroit is a welcoming city," Cockrel added, "and...
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Thursday, April 10
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Source: Grand Rapids Press , WOOD TV MI Manious trial GRAND RAPIDS -- A Tennessee native was found not guilty today of felony murder in the slaying of Victor Manious, a Gaines Township man whose body was found in the trunk of his own vehicle, parked on a downtown street. The jury found Steven Scarborough, 22, guilty of a lesser charge voluntary manslaughter. Scarborough was accused of luring 62-year-old Victor Manious to a friend's apartment to rob him. The prosecution said he then struck Manious in the head with a blunt force object before dragging him down stairs to Manious' car, stuffing...
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Thursday, April 10
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Source: Grand Rapids Press MI Manious trial GRAND RAPIDS -- While a jury considers the fate of Steven Scarborough who admits to killing Victor Manious, members of the dead man's family turned to the local press to dispute pictures painted of Manious by both prosecutors and defenders in the case. While lawyers on the two sides of the case described vastly different scenarios during the trial, both had a common theme -- that Manious, a father of four and lay leader of the local Coptic Church, was arguably gay. Family members insist that can't be true of the man they knew. Assistant Prosecutor...
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Wednesday, April 09
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Source: Grand Rapids Press , WOOD TV MI Manious trial [post updated at 7:26 pm PT with breaking information from WOOD TV ] Grand Rapids, Mich. -- A Kent County jury here has begun deliberations into whether Steven Scarborough is a robber and kidnapper who bludgeoned a 62-year-old man to death, or whether the 22-year-old defendant was being molested and wielded a baseball bat in self defense. Closing arguments were presented in the first part of the day. Then jury began discussing the evidence presented around 2 p.m. Wednesday, and went home for the day around 5:30 p.m. Defense lawyers said again...
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Tuesday, April 08
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Source: Grand Rapids Press , WOOD TV MI Manious trial Steven Scarborough testified in his own defense on Monday and Tuesday WOOD TV screen capture GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. -- It was phrased as a question, but the look on accused murderer Steven Scarborough's face made it appear it was news to him. "If you hadn't stolen from Victor Manious, you would have gotten away with this," Kent County Assistant Prosecutor Helen Brinkman said to Scarborough, who returned to the stand Tuesday in his own defense on the charge of felony murder. Brinkman told Scarborough there were no prints on the...
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Tuesday, April 01
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Source: Grand Rapids Press MI Manious trial Steven Scarborough GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. -- As part of the so-called "gay panic" defense being used to explain the actions of accused killer Steven Scarborough, his lawyer planned to show there was a connection between victim Victor Manious and a friend of the accused -- a person described as being "up to his eyeballs in this crime." Defense attorney Paul Denenfeld said in his opening statement to the jury that 19-year-old Justin Robinson played a major role in the alleged murder of Manious, a 62-year-old found dead in a car trunk in...
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Wednesday, March 26
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Source: Grand Rapids Press , WOOD TV MI Manious trial GRAND RAPIDS -- Two vastly different accounts of what happened before, during and after the death of a local businessman and church leader were presented to jurors today in opening statements for the murder trial of Steven Scarborough. The prosecution said Scarborough is a killer, while the defense put forth that Scarborough got dragged into the murder by a friend with whom he was staying. Kent County Assistant Prosecutor Helen Brinkman said Scarborough lured 62-year-old Victor Manious from a local gay bar to a friend's apartment in July...
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Tuesday, March 25
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Source: Grand Rapids Press , Muskegon Chronicle MI Manious trial GRAND RAPIDS, Mich -- A jury was to be selected today to hear the case against 21-year-old Steven Scarborough, accused of luring 62-year-old Victor Manious to a Southeast Side apartment where the older man was beaten and robbed, then stuffed into the trunk of a Toyota only in his underwear and left to die. Scarborough faces mandatory life in prison if he is convicted of murder, but defense attorney Paul Denefeld is expected to argue the younger man overreacted to homosexual advances from the late businessman and lay leader of the...
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Saturday, February 23
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Source: Kalamazoo Gazette KALAMAZOO -- About 50 people from Kalamazoo and across the state showed up Friday night in support of those attending a gay-themed play at Kalamazoo Central High School. Protesters from Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kan., who said last week they planned to picket the student production of "The Laramie Project," failed to appear. A handful of "nonvocal" local residents protesting the play were said to have been at the high school campus. "They didn't challenge us," said Santiago Lopez, of the Kalamazoo Alliance for Equality, who stood...
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Wednesday, February 20
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Source: Kalamazoo Gazette KALAMAZOO -- Emotions may run high inside and outside of Kalamazoo Central High School's presentation of Moises Kaufman's "The Laramie Project," which starts Friday. The play is based on more than 200 interviews Kaufman and others from the Tectonic Theater Project in New York did in Laramie, Wyo., after the October 1998 beating death of 21-year-old Matthew Shepard, a University of Wyoming student. The killing is widely considered a hate crime based on homophobia. Westboro Baptist Church, a Topeka, Kan.-based congregation that has picketed gay-pride events...
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Saturday, February 16
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Source: Louisville Courier-Journal and Tri-Valley Herald The top court in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has issued an unexpectedly early and decisive ruling upholding the denomination’s ban on ordaining non-celibate gays and lesbians. The court said this week the ban remains firmly in place despite a 2006 policy change that had appeared to allow churches and presbyteries, or regional governing bodies, some flexibility in enforcing the ban. The Presbyterian constitution allows “no departures” from its requirement that candidates for minister, elder or deacon live either in “fidelity” in a heterosexual...
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Thursday, February 14
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Source: Kalamazoo Gazette KALAMAZOO -- A group has formed to support next week's staging of a gay-themed play at Kalamazoo Central High School after a Kansas church vowed to picket the show on opening night. The Stop the Hate in Kalamazoo Coalition began a week ago in response to the possible protest from Topeka, Kan.-based Westboro Baptist Church, which is known for picketing gay-pride events and military funerals. Late Wednesday afternoon, the coalition of a dozen member organizations issued a press release urging people to buy tickets to "The Laramie Project," which opens Feb....
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Wednesday, February 06
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Source: Western Herald Westboro Baptist Church, best known for its protests held at military funerals and homosexual intolerance, is set to protest Kalamazoo Central High School's production of "The Laramie Project" later this month. "The Laramie Project" is based on the life and death of Matthew Shepard, a University of Wyoming student, who was robbed, beaten and left for dead in Laramie, Wyo. in October of 1998. There is speculation that this crime was committed based on Shepard's homosexual orientation. "The Laramie Project" is meant to evoke emotions, reflections...
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Sunday, January 13
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Source: PrideSource.com (Between the Lines newspaper) As president of the Log Cabin Republican club of Michigan, Noel Siksai has some harsh words for the Republican presidential nominees. He said 25 percent of the gay community votes Republican, translating to 2-3 percent of the overall Republican primary votes in Michigan. And he said the gay vote is being ignored by top candidates. "Well what's happening is the candidates are all trying to not alienate the most far right part of the base, which will hurt them in the general (election) by being unpalatable to the electorate as a whole...
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Tuesday, January 08
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Source: BloggingStocks.com , ChristianityToday.com Brotherhood Mutual Insurance Co., a major insurer of churches all over the country, has denied coverage to Michigan's West Adrian United Church of Christ, citing the national governing body of the church's support of gay marriage and ordination for gay ministers. "Based on national media reports, controversial stances such as those indicated in your application responses have resulted in property damage and the potential for increased litigation among churches that have chosen to publicly endorse these positions," the insurer...
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Wednesday, December 12
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Source: WLNS TV News Same sex couples could soon be denied health insurance in Ingham County. Right now county employees are eligible to receive those benefits for their gay partners. Some commissioners say it's a direct violation of the law. County officials say they need to end the practice soon. County employee Joe Darby has been crunching the numbers. He's trying to figure out how he and his partner will be able to afford their medical bills if his employer takes away their same sex benefits. "My partner is very ill and relies on health care coverage," Darby said. Darby has...
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Thursday, November 22
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Source: The Advocate Michigan governor Jennifer Granholm has signed an executive order banning discrimination in state employment based on gender identity or expression, according to Michigan LGBT rights group Triangle Foundation. The legislation applies to the approximately 50,000 state employees in Michigan's executive branch, which makes up 95% of all state employees. The order will protect not only transgender workers but also any state employee who faces discrimination because he or she does not conform to traditional gender norms in behavior or appearance. Triangle Foundation director...
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Saturday, November 17
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Source: Associated Press via Oakland Press FERNDALE, Mich. (AP) Craig Covey thinks Ferndale is setting a positive example by being so accepting of the sizable gay population in the city and its growing role in government. "We are showing the region a new way," Covey said. "This city embraces diversity, smart growth, efficiency, bipartisan compromise and eco-friendly policies." This was evident Nov. 6, when residents voted Covey, a longtime City Council member, to be Ferndale's first openly gay mayor. Covey, 50, said that sexual orientation is no longer a primary factor in...
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Thursday, November 15
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Source: PageOneQ The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force will celebrate 20 years of the Creating Change Conference, the nation's largest annual LGBT skills-building and strategy conference, in February of 2008. 30,000 movement leaders have been fostered by the Conference since its launch in 1988. The conference, to be held in Detroit from February 6 to February 10, 2008, will feature speakers such as NAACP chairman and equality advocate Julian Bond, and V. Eugene Robinson, the first openly gay ordained Episcopalian bishop. "We look forward to a truly wonderful Creating Change Conference...
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Saturday, November 10
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Source: Flint Journal CLAYTON TWP, Mich. - A gay rights group said it's investigating dozens of entrapment complaints involving police stings at freeway rest stops, including one on I-69 in the township. The Triangle Foundation said at least one person from the Clayton Township area has asked for help, although it wouldn't release details. "This is profiling," said Sean Kosofsky, policy director for the organization. "Heterosexuals are never targeted in public sex stings." The gay rights organization said the number of police sex stings seems to have increased in the...
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Thursday, November 08
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Source: MLive.com CLAYTON TWP, Mich. -- A gay rights group said it is investigating dozens of entrapment complaints involving police stings at freeway rest stops, including one on I-69 in the township. The Triangle Foundation said it's trying to help at least one person arrested at the Clayton Township rest area, although it wouldn't release details. "This is profiling," said Sean Kosofsky, policy director for the organization. "Heterosexuals are never targeted in public sex stings." The gay rights organization said the number of police sex stings seems to have increased...
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