Gay Blogs

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Earlier this school year, Florida’s Sebastian River High School senior Kaitlyn Hunt began a relationship with a fellow classmate, a 15-year old girl. This past February, soon after her 18th birthday, she was arrested and charged with two felony counts of lewd and lascivious battery on a child 12–16 years of age.

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Hunt's parents claim the the family of their daughter's girlfriend has never approved of the same-sex relationship and has since made Hunt a target. According to The Examiner:

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“They are out to destroy my daughter, because they feel like she ‘made’ their daughter gay. They see being gay as wrong and they blame my daughter. Of course, I see it 100% differently. I don’t see or label these girls as gay. They are teenagers in high school experimenting with their sexuality – with mutual consent. And even if their daughter is gay, who cares? She is still their daughter.”

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The other girl's family has taken even more action against Hunt: "The girl’s family petitioned the school board and got Kaitilyn expelled from school, weeks before graduation. This decision was made in spite of a judge declaring she could continue to attend school as long as she didn’t have contact with the girl."

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More from Opposing Views, who reports on a plea deal that Hunt has been offered:

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Her mother, Kelley Hunt Smith, claims State Attorney Brian Workman offered her daughter a plea deal that she has until Friday to accept or face trial. The plea deal includes “two years house arrest and one year probation.”

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Her father, Steven R. Hunt, said the school disapproved of the relationship from the beginning. Hunt reportedly had good grades and participated in cheerleading, chorus and basketball. She was voted “most school spirited.” But when she began dating another girl from the basketball team, her coach dropped her citing that the relationship would cause “drama.”

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Hunt's family has started a petition on Change.org (which has so far netted over 36,000 signatures) as well as a Free Kate Facebook page. 

In a new interview with ESPN, Brittney Griner has revealed that Baylor University head coach Kim Mulkey asked her to conceal the fact that she was gay and claimed that not doing so might jeopardize recruitment for the team. 

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rESPN reports:

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In a series of interviews -- including one on camera Friday -- for an ESPN The Magazine and espnW.com story set to hit newsstands later this month, Griner said her silence during college was because Mulkey and her staff were concerned about the program's image.

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"It was more of a unwritten law [to not discuss your sexuality] ... it was just kind of, like, one of those things, you know, just don't do it," Griner said Friday. "They kind of tried to make it, like, 'Why put your business out on the street like that?'" 

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But Griner reiterated on Friday that her sexuality was an open secret at Baylor.

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"I told Coach [Mulkey] when she was recruiting me. I was like, 'I'm gay. I hope that's not a problem,' and she told me that it wasn't," Griner said. "I mean, my teammates knew, obviously they all knew. Everybody knew about it."

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Watch the ESPN interview with Griner, in which she addresses the above, AFTER THE JUMP.

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Last night saw David Beckham's final home game with Paris Saint-Germain. You may recall that he announced his retirement just a few days ago.

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The AP reports on his reaction to the big night.

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‘‘I want to say thank you to everybody in Paris. To my teammates, to the staff, to the fans,’’ Beckham told the fans after the game. ‘‘It’s been very special to finish my career here.’’

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Watch a clip from the night, which includes a tearful Beckham followed by a celebratory toss of the soccer star by his teammates, AFTER THE JUMP.

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 Game of Thrones set to end after its seventh season.

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r Jake Gyllenhaal strolls around SoHo in disguise.

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 A comic book about Stonewall will hits stands on the 44th anniversary of the riots. Watch a trailer here.

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 Singer and Daft Punk collaborator Romanthony dead at 46.

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 Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson might be done.

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 Neighbourhood Watch survey inquires whether responder is gay, bisexual or straight: "The questionnaire by West Midlands Police asked residents in Birmingham questions about their sexual orientation so they could help officers 'detect crime and anti-social behaviour.'"

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 80,000 expected to attend today's Long Beach Pride parade.

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rPride communion celebrates marriage equality in Minnesota: "Revolution Church in Minneapolis served congregants rainbow-colored communion bread during its inaugural service last Sunday."

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 European Union asks Russia to not move forward with "gay propaganda" bill: "'The EU called on Russia to refrain from adopting federal legislation on ‘homosexual propaganda,’ which it believed could increase discrimination and violence against LGBTI individuals,' the EU said in a statement on its website. The statement referred to the results of a meeting on May 17 in Brussels between Russian and EU diplomats on human rights issues."

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 Yahoo will fork over $1.1 billion dollars for Tumblr.

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 Star Trek: Into Darkness has raked in over $84 million at the box office since it opened Wednesday.

Late last night, hundreds attended a candlelight vigil in Greenwich Village to remember Mark Carson, who was shot and killed in a hate crime just 12 hours earlier. The crowd shouted: "Say his name: "Mark Carson, Mark Carson, Mark Carson!"

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rrA rally demanding an end to hate crimes against the LGBT community will take place in NYC tomorrow. It will begin at the LGBT Community rCenter (208 W 13th St) at 5:30PM and continue with a march to the rmurder scene on West 8th Street and 6th Avenue. Here participants will rally at 6:00 pm.

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The NY Times describes the victim:

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Mr. Carson, who was 32, had recently moved to Brooklyn from Harlem after scrimping and saving money from his job at a yogurt shop in Midtown, according to Kay Allen, a friend for more than a decade.

“He was a proud gay man,” Ms. Allen said. “A fabulous gay man.” She noted that he loved going to the Village. “His spirit was too big for this city,” she said. “He didn’t have a negative bone in his body.”

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Carson's father was interviewed by The NY Post:

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“I thought that kind of hate stuff was gone, but I see that it’s not,” the victim’s distraught father, Mark Carson Sr., told The Post. “It’s simply ridiculous. People are what people are. They do what they do. You can’t knock down who people are.”

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CBS2 reports that the suspect was uncooperative after his arrest, shortly after the shooting:

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Elliot Morales, 33, was charged with Second Degree Murder As A Hate Crime, as well as Criminal Possession Of A Weapon on Saturday. Morales had been in custody but refused to give his name. He was eventually identified by police using facial recognition technology.

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rPolice are still searching for two people who were with Morales' just before and during the shooting. Also, police officials reiterated that the killing was indeed sparked by hate:
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“This fully looks to be a hate crime; a bias crime,” Commissioner Kelly said. “There were no words that would aggravate the situation that were spoken by the victims. They did not know the confronter. There was no previous relationship.”r

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Carson's murder is the latest in a concernig spike of anti-gay crimes in the city:

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Mr. Kelly said there had been a rise in bias-related crimes in New York City this year — 22 compared with 13 during the same period last year. In just the past three weeks, there have been five attacks directed at gay men, including a vicious assault on a gay couple outside Madison Square Garden on May 5.

Timothy Lunceford, 56, who has lived in the West Village for 35 years, said he believed the killing was a brazen display of a kind of intolerance he had not known in New York for decades. “It’s outrageous,” he said. “They say we’ve worked through homophobia, but it’s not gone away. It’s just not usually as out there in the open like it was this morning.”

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?Watch video of last night's vigil, AFTER THE JUMP.

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Top image by Joe Jervis

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Last night's season finale of Saturday Night Live was full of several funny gay-themed skits. There was one promoting New Xanax, which relieves the stress of attending spectacular gay summer weddings, and another in which Ben Affleck's "ex-gay" character tries to pray the gay away. He doesn't.

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SNL also included a grand farewell for Bill Hader and his character Stefon, who is seen about to marry Anderson Cooper.

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Watch two of the three (the Ben Affleck clip can be found here), AFTER THE JUMP.

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