Posts Tagged ‘lesbian’
Lesbian gang raped in possible hate crime
Watch the video, read the article: http://www.ktvu.com/news/18321357/detail.html
Gay father begs for help to find the son he had with a lesbian
A GAY father today pleaded for help in an international search for his son after the boy vanished with his lesbian mother following a custody battle.
Michael Turberville, 41, has not seen seven-year-old Ashley Skinner since the boy’s mother, Joanne Skinner, disappeared with him more than a year ago.
The IT consultant has launched a public appeal to find him with the backing of Britain’s top family court judge.
There is evidence that Ms Skinner, 35, fled abroad. Mr Turberville believes she may be living with Ashley in Australia.
The president of the High Court family division, Sir Mark Potter, has also lifted reporting restrictions which apply to disputes over children in the hope that publicity will help trace Ashley.
“It is gut-wrenching not to be able to see my son,” Mr Turberville said. “I love him so much. This has ripped my life apart. He was like a little me. I miss him every day.” Mr Turberville, of Reading, fathered the boy with Ms Skinner after advertising in a newspaper for a “like-minded” lesbian. He and Ms Skinner were both in same-sex relationships.
He travelled to her Islington home so she could inseminate herself. Ashley was born in 2001. Until just after his third birthday, she allowed Mr Turberville to see the boy. She then changed her mind and he began court proceedings.
Later, she made criminal allegations against Mr Turberville – unconnected with Ashley – of which he was acquitted by a jury and exonerated by the family court in September last year. Trade union worker Ms Skinner and her son then disappeared. Court orders aimed at tracing them have been unsuccessful.
In April, Ms Skinner’s mother received a letter from her sent from the US, but Mr Turberville believes it was written in Australia and passed on for someone in America to send.
In it she claimed Ashley had started school, and that she was not officially registered at her address. Mr Turberville is originally from Alabama but was born to a British mother and has dual citizenship. He has reported his son missing to Thames Valley Police. He said: “I’m pleading who might know where Ashley is to alert the authorities.”
Sir Mark Potter said: “This mother’s behaviour is to be deplored. She has gone to extreme lengths to cover her trail.” Ashley was being “deprived of a relationship with his father” because of her actions, he added.
Anyone with information is asked to contact the Tipstaff to the Royal Courts of Justice in London on 020 7947 6200.
–Jack Lefley
TV Ads with Gay and Lesbian Families Promoting the Repeal of Proposition 8 to Air Inauguration Week
Read the article: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/tv-ads-with-gay-and,658434.shtml
Assault on woman a hate crime, police say
When the man paid her unwanted attention, the Hudson, Wis., woman told him she was a lesbian.
But Dustan Charles Warren, 27, didn’t stop, the woman testified Thursday.
She said he punched her in the face, held her to the floor and threatened to rape and kill her last month after he made obscene comments about her sexual orientation.
Warren, of Hudson, appeared at a preliminary hearing Thursday to face hate-crime accusations. He was charged last week in St. Croix County Circuit Court with attempted second-degree sexual assault, aggravated battery, second-degree reckless endangerment, false imprisonment and misdemeanor bail jumping, according to a criminal complaint.
The St. Croix County district attorney’s office has added a hate-crime modifier to the charges, saying Warren “intentionally selected the person against whom the crime was committed in whole or in part because of the defendant’s belief or perception regarding the sexual orientation of that person,” according to the charges.
“This case is the epitome of violence against the GLBT community,” said Rebecca Waggoner Kloek, who manages the anti-violence program at OutFront Minnesota, a group that advocates equality for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people. “It’s wonderful that law enforcement and the criminal justice system recognize this as a hate crime.”
The 35-year-old woman testified at the hearing that Warren’s obscene comments came after he arrived uninvited to a small party at her
Hudson home the night of Nov. 26. She said Warren was touching her back during the evening — which she described as groping — and at some point, she told him she was a lesbian.
After others left early Nov. 27, she was alone with Warren. At some point, she woke up with him on top of her, pinning her down with his knees, she said. Warren struck her and told her that he was going to do whatever he wanted to do.
“He wanted to have sex with me,” the woman testified. The Pioneer Press does not generally name the alleged victims of sexual assaults.
She earlier told Hudson police Warren punched her in the face and threw her to the floor, according to the complaint. He held a knife to her abdomen while he hit her, choked her and threatened to rape and kill her. She told police that he said, “If you tell anyone, I will kill you.”
She struggled with Warren and was willing to fight to the death before he could rape her, she testified.
A man who had been at the party found Warren on top of the woman, pushed him off and struggled with him. The woman testified she was bleeding from one eye and had bruises on her body from the alleged assault.
The woman said that on the night of the alleged assault, Warren was intoxicated and vomiting in her bathroom. She said she drank two mixed drinks that night.
Warren told police he was not at the woman’s home at the time of the alleged assault. He said he had been intoxicated and lost in a wooded area of Bayport, Minn., and did not return to Hudson until 3 a.m., according to the complaint.
Warren could not be reached for comment. He was in the St. Croix County Jail on Thursday. Bond had been set earlier at $100,000.
Waggoner Kloek said incidents of hate and bias crimes are on the rise in the Midwest and Minnesota saw an increase of 135 percent over the past year of hate crimes reported against GLBT people and those perceived to be GLBT. She said there are no numbers for Wisconsin because the state does not have an anti-violence program for the GLBT community.
Andy Rathbun can be reached at 651-228-2121.
Lesbian Couple Fights To Keep Baby
Read the article: http://www.dailymail.com/News/statenews/200812110243
No hate crimes charges in lesbian assault
Toronto: Read the article: http://www.thestar.com/Crime/article/550852
Striving for Parental Acceptance
Read their stories: http://www.kansan.com/stories/2008/dec/09/parental_acceptance/?news
Justices won’t hear Miller’s visitation request
WINCHESTER — For the fifth time, the Supreme Court decided Monday not to hear Lisa Miller’s attempt to prevent her former civil-union partner from having visitation rights with her daughter.
Miller had asked the justices to overturn rulings from the Virginia Supreme Court and the Virginia Court of Appeals allowing visitation with her child by her former partner.
Miller, who lives in Frederick County, also sought to overturn a Vermont appellate court ruling, which held that Vermont had jurisdiction over the case and Virginia must honor its decision to allow visitation.
Miller and her former partner Janet Jenkins entered a legally recognized civil union in 2000 in Vermont.
The couple decided that Miller would use artificial insemination with an anonymous donor to have a child, and Isabella was born in Virginia in April 2002.
The two women subsequently moved back to Vermont with Isabella, but separated after a year of cohabitation. Miller renounced her homosexuality and returned to Virginia with Isabella.
She denied Jenkins’ request for visitation rights, which led to a series of legal challenges from Jenkins in Vermont and Virginia, with courts in each state issuing sometimes conflicting rulings.
Virginia does not recognize the legality of civil unions, so its courts tended to side with Miller. Vermont, which allows civil unions, sided with Jenkins.
Miller had hoped the U.S. Supreme Court would settle the issue, but the justices declined to hear her arguments on four occasions.
Jenkins appeared to have prevailed in August, when Frederick County Circuit Court Judge John R. Prosser dismissed efforts by Miller to deny Jenkins the right to visit Isabella.
Prosser sent the case back to the Frederick County Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court for enforcement of a visitation order handed down by a court in Vermont.
Miller then took her case to the Supreme Court for a fifth time, but the justices again refused to hear her appeal.
Monday’s legal decision was welcomed by Jenkins’ supporters.
“We are very pleased with the Supreme Court’s decision,” ACLU of Virginia Executive Director Kent Willis said in a press release. “With both Virginia and Vermont courts agreeing that Vermont has jurisdiction, there is clearly no need for the U.S. Supreme Court to step in.”
Rebecca Glenberg, the ACLU of Virginia’s legal director, said the Virginia courts had simply moved to recognize the decisions of Vermont, just as they would have expected other states to respect decisions made in Virginia courts.
“Lisa Miller does not get to cherry-pick her courts to suit her liking,” Glenberg said through the ACLU press release. “Simply because she did not like the Vermont court’s decision does not allow her to try to get a more favorable ruling from another state.”
Federal law stipulates that one state court may not interfere with a custody proceeding in another state.
Jenkins is being represented by the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund of Atlanta, as well as the ACLU of Virginia.
Miller is represented by the nonprofit Liberty Counsel, a public-interest law firm and religious ministry that provides free legal assistance in defense of Christian liberty.
The Liberty Counsel is based in Orlando, Fla., but has a strong connection with Liberty University in Lynchburg. Founder and Chairman Mathew D. Staver is the dean of the Virginia university’s Jesse Helms School of Law.
Staver was unavailable for comment Monday evening.
He said previously that Miller would continue to appeal her case, contending that the Virginia courts should not enforce Vermont’s custody orders because of the state’s constitutional amendment barring same-sex marriages and the legal recognition of same-sex civil unions.
–Drew Houff
A lesbian in the cabinet?
A lesbian in the cabinet?
by Ethan Jacobs
associate editor
Wednesday Dec 3, 2008
The Wall Street Journal reports that Obama may choose a lesbian to serve in his cabinet (and no, I don’t mean Janet Napolitano). The journal reports that labor activist Mary Beth Maxwell is being vetted for the the Labor Secretary post, although it is far from a done deal. Here’s the Journal’s description of Maxwell:
For the rainbow cabinet of the nation’s first African American president, Mary Beth Maxwell is the perfect labor secretary you’ve probably never heard of: a gay woman, community organizer and labor leader with an adopted African American son. And this founding executive director of American Rights at Work is about to get the full-court press.
The Journal reports that Human Rights Campaign has thrown their support behind her, but only after announcing their support for an earlier reported candidate for the post, Rep. Linda Sanchez. The paper reported that HRC President Joe Solmonese wrote the Obama campaign:
“While we remain supportive of Representative Sánchez’s candidacy, it has come to our attention that Mary Beth Maxwell is also being considered for this crucial position. Given Ms. Maxwell’s long history of leadership on labor issues, HRC is pleased to also endorse Mary Beth Maxwell for Secretary of Labor.”
The Journal reports that Maxwell may lose out to candidates with more star power, such as Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm or Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius. But time will tell. Maybe we’ll get our first out lesbian cabinet member.
Kicking A Lion 
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