Tag Archives: gay youth

Activist Pedro Julio Serrano and the parents of murdered gay teen Jorge Mercado spoke to the local news after their son’s killer plead guilty. You don’t have to speak one word of Spanish to be moved by this.

Juan José Martínez Matos has pleaded guilty to the murder of gay Puerto Rican teenager Jorge Mercado (left), whose decapitated and burned body was found by a roadside last November. Mercado’s murder caused an international outcry and forced activists to pressure the federal government to ensure that the case was prosecuted as a hate crime by Puerto Rican authorities. Michael …

I’ve had a couple more phone conversations with Jo-Vanni today. He reports that his interview with CNN this morning “went pretty well,” but that they gave him no indication when it will air. (I’ve emailed my contact at CNN to ask.) And they apparently will show him on camera. In the meantime, I’ve got Father Tony working in Fort Lauderdale …

Anti-bullying bills passed yesterday in both Massachusetts and Georgia! Both bills passed unanimously.Massachusetts: Invoking the suicides of Phoebe Prince and Carl Joseph Walker-Hoover, lawmakers unanimously approved a sweeping measure to crack down on school bullying, saying its strict requirements for reporting student harassment make it one of the nation’s toughest. Yesterday’s legislation emerged with broad prohibitions against any actions that …

Saying there is not enough evidence to support felony charges, a judge in Kentucky has reduced the attempted murder charges against two teenage girls who have been accused of trying to throw a lesbian classmate off a cliff. After a hearing Thursday, District Judge Henria Bailey-Lewis reduced the charges against Ashley Sams and Corinne Schwab to fourth-degree assault and menacing, …

Lawyers for the three Kentucky girls charged with attempting to murder a lesbian classmate are claiming that the entire incident was a staged prank with the full participation of the victim. Cheyenne Williams, 18, and supporters have said that on April 16, three girls with whom she’d been friends for years took her against her will to picturesque Flat Lick …

Some excellent news to close out a mostly crummy week. Congratulations to GLSEN and their fellow advocates for LGBT youth! UPDATE: GLSEN executive director Eliza Byard writes: “Thank you so much for the shout out for GLSEN! However, the real champions on that legislation are Shannon Sullivan and the Illinois Safe Schools Alliance, our amazing friends and partners in this …

Westboro Baptist Church has announced on their website (NFSW) that they will be picketing the graduation ceremony of Constance McMillen’s high school in Mississippi. WBC will picket the graduation of Itawamba Agricultural High School to remind the parents, teachers and students of this nation that God said “Thou shall not lie with mankind, as with womankind, it is abomination.” Leviticus …

Three high school girls in Kentucky have been charged with kidnapping and attempting to murder an openly lesbian classmate by pushing her off of a cliff. The attack took place on the Day Of Silence, which some students at the school observed as the anti-gay Day Of Truth, as instructed by Christian hate groups. Cheyenne Williams, 18, of McKee, signed …

The ACLU has amended their lawsuit against lesbian teen Constance McMillan’s Mississippi school district to include charges of conspiring with parents to lure Constance to a “decoy prom” while most students attended a much larger event in another town. Via press release: On March 23, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi issued a preliminary ruling in …

On last night’s episode of Celebrity Apprentice, Cyndi Lauper’s team won their makeover challenge, netting $20K for Lauper’s True Colors homeless shelter for LGBT youth. The subject of Lauper’s makeover, rising country star Emily West, then announced that she was donating 100% of the iTunes sales for her new single (below) to True Colors. Get it here.

The douchenozzle Quislings over at Gay Patriot are attacking “the gay left’s newest tool,” Constance McMillen. Okay. So have you heard of this story where the high school girl who wanted to attend the prom with her “lesbian girlfriend” (I use the quotes because, really. Call me an old stick-in-the-mud*, but are high-schoolers self-aware enough to realize they’re lesbians already? …

Today is GLSEN’s national annual Day Of Silence in which students draw attention to anti-gay bullying by pledging to remain silent at school (except during class when required.) GLSEN is asking to students to Tweet The Silence to remind others. Anti-gay groups have called for Christian students to walk out of class today in an effort to punish participating schools …

Teen actor Mark Indelicato channels RuPaul in lamenting the end of Ugly Betty. If you saw last night’s final episode, hit the comments.

Finally, I can spill what I’ve known for ten days. Mississippi high school senior Constance McMillen has been named a grand marshal of NYC’s gay pride parade. Constance McMillen, a Mississippi high school honors student who fought back when her school told her she couldn’t take her girlfriend to the prom, has been announced as one of the Grand Marshals …

Tom Lang of Know Thy Neighbor alerts us that nationally syndicated radio host Dawson McCallister is directing teens that question their sexually to contact “ex-gay” organizations like Exodus International. McCallister’s teen advice program is heard on Top 40 stations in 165 markets. Lang called the show and posed as a 16 year old boy to one of McCallister’s counselors: Pretending …

“Ex-gay” group PFOX wants their anti-gay flier given out at any school that participates in GLSEN’s Day Of Silence this Friday. Their flier (PDF) reads in part: Every year thousands of people with unwanted same-sex attractions make the personal decision to leave a gay identity through non-judgmental environments. Their decision is one only they can make. However, there are those …

“OK whoever is targeting my classmates really need to stop. It’s cruel and actually there are a lot of people including my girlfriend that have been receiving messages and having hateful things said about them just because they live in Itawamba county. There are alot of supporters that are getting harassed it shames me and actually it is just making …

JMG reader Sean Chapin submits his tribute to Mississippi gay teen Constance McMillen. On May 1st, Constance and her girlfriend will be guests of honor at the 33rd annual National Center for Lesbian Rights Celebration, also known as “the lesbian prom.”