• Another host at Fox – Charles Payne – has had sexual harassment charges leveled at him. This time from Trump super-supporter Scottie Nell Hughes.
• A moment of shared experiences as a 78 year-old gay man sits down to chat with a 13 year-old gay boy about what’s it’s like for each of them to be gay. The video was released ahead of the 50th anniversary of the decriminalization of homosexuality in England and Wales. Watch below.
According to the Miami Herald, police have identified and arrested a North Carolina man accused of a homophobic hate crime in Key West, Florida.
The Key West Police Department said Brandon Ray Davis, 30, was taken into custody by the Onslow County (N.C.) Sheriff’s Office on an “extraditable warrant” for felony aggravated battery stemming from the Feb. 23 incident. Davis lives in Richlands, N.C.
He is accused of using a deadly weapon — his scooter — to nearly run down two men on bicycles while deluging them with homophobic comments. Since it’s classified as a hate crime, if Davis is convicted, he could face enhanced penalties.
Kevin Seymour and Kevin Price told police that about 1 a.m. on Feb. 23, they were riding bicycles in the 700 block of Duval when they saw a man swerving on a rented scooter. Seymour says he shouted to warn the scooter rider, identified by police as Davis, that he almost hit a car. Davis yelled, “You guys are a couple of fags,” “I bet you faggots voted for that bitch Hillary” and “You live in Trump country now,” police say.
When Seymour threatened to call police, Davis allegedly told him, “If you do that, I’ll cut you up.”
At one point, the scooter rider struck the rear tire of Seymour’s bike, knocking him to the ground. Seymour and Price got the scooter tag number before he fled. The scooter was rented from A and M Rentals. It was found parked near the Southernmost Point.
Police say they identified Davis in part through the scooter rental agency, where Davis left a copy of his driver’s license so he could rent it. Working with North Carolina law enforcement, detectives obtained a photo of Davis. In a photo lineup, Seymour, Price and another witness said it was Davis in the photo, police said.
You have to admit Davis sounds like an idiot. Did he really think he couldn’t be tracked down when he was on a RENTED scooter?
Kevin Seymour, 38, and Kevin Paul Taylor, 49, said it was a drunken tourist who followed them as they rode south on Duval Street “calling us faggots and a slew of other anti-gay remarks,” according to a police report.
At one point, the scooter rider struck the rear tire of Seymour’s bike, knocking him to the ground.
“We were victims of a hate crime last night biking home from dinner,” Kevin Paul Taylor posted on his Facebook page. “He kept stopping in front of us and swerving into us. Finally Kevin got ahead of him and the guy charges him with his scooter and runs into him and knocks him off his bike. Kevin is okay.”
“I bet you faggots voted for that bitch Hillary,” the suspect said to the couple. “Well, you live in Trump country now.”
A witness gave a statement to police backing the couple’s story and officers said there may be security video available from nearby businesses.
Police described the scooter rider as a white man in his mid- to late 30s with “a southern accent” wearing gray shorts and a blue polo shirt. His moped was a black Eclipse rented from A and M Rentals with the license plate MCUT33, police said. It was found parked outside the Southernmost, 508 South St.
As the scooter followed the couple, Seymour told the man he would call 911. “If you do that, I’ll cut you up,” the man replied, according to reports.
• A NYC bartender is suing Manhattan restaurant Bagatelle for writing him up as “dressing up like a gay porn star” and looking “like a faggot.” The manager then posted the write up for employees to see.
“He yanked the door open, dragged me out, ripped my shirt. I was on the pavement,” said Redding.
His arm is now badly bruised, his hand cut and swollen to twice its normal size, his knee scraped, and part of his toe ripped. Redding says the driver had clearly taken note of his marriage equality and rainbow bumper stickers.
“He kept saying, ‘You know my new president says we can kill all you faggots now,'” Redding said.
Redding is openly gay, but says he’s never been attacked like this. He’s now part of the spike in attacks against minorities nationwide..
“It’s absolutely horrendous,” he said.
Redding’s now taking action to protect himself. He and several friends are applying for conceal carry permits and encouraging others to do the same.
Elliott Morales, convicted of the 2013 murder of Mark Carson, a 32 year old gay black man in the West Village of Manhattan, has been sentenced to 40 years to life in prison.
Morales shot Carson at point blank range in the face after spewing homophobic invectives at Mr. Carson and his companion.
“I can’t help but perceive or observe the parallel tragedy in Orlando,” the judge, A. Kirke Bartley Jr., said as he imposed the sentence in State Supreme Court in Manhattan. “That parallel is revealed in hatred, self-loathing, fear and death.”
Mr. Morales, 36, was convicted after a two-week trial during which he represented himself, assuming the dual roles of defendant and defense lawyer. Addressing Mr. Morales, Justice Bartley said that the defendant’s ability to appear in the courtroom “calm, intelligent, well-prepared, well-behaved” could not deter from the fact that he was “something worthy of a character in a Stephen King novel, in short, a monster.”
Morales defended his own case in court. At the time, he argued that the murder should not be considered a hate crime because he had had sexual encounters with transgender women in the past.
A man identified as Omar Marteen went on a deadly shooting spree at Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, last night killing 50 and leaving 53 more hospitalized.
The shooting incident began at 2AM with approximately 320 people in the club.
It is officially the deadliest mass shooting in the history of the United States.
Mateen — who was armed with an AR-15-style assault rifle and a handgun, according to Orlando’s police chief — entered Pulse club around 2 a.m. Sunday morning and began shooting. After most of the 320 people there escaped, Mateen took hostages from a group that was hiding in a bathroom. Shortly before 6 a.m., a SWAT unit breached the club and engaged Mateen in what’s being called a protracted gun battle. Mateen was killed.
The police classified the attack as a “terror incident. The police and the federal authorities said they were pursuing several angles in the terrorism investigation, both overseas and in the United States.
The shooting was clearly a hate crime meant to target LGBT people, and is being investigated as an act of terrorism.
Law enforcement sources told NBC News that Mateen was born in New York in 1986 and was listed as living at a residence in Port St. Lucie, about 125 miles south of Orlando. The incident is being investigated as an act of terrorism, officials said.
Mir Seddique, Mateen’s father told NBC News, “this has nothing to do with religion.” Seddique said his son got angry when he saw two men kissing in Miami a couple of months ago and thinks that may be related to the shooting.
“We are saying we are apologizing for the whole incident. We weren’t aware of any action he is taking. We are in shock like the whole country,” Seddique said.
According to CNN, the terrorist called 911 about the attack, pledged allegiance to ISIS and mentioned the Boston bombers, according to a U.S. official.
Equality Florida, the state’s lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) civil rights organization is collecting contributions via a GoFundMe page to support the victims of the horrific shooting at Orlando’s Pulse Nightclub. Please contribute and share this page.
We are reeling from the tragic news that a gunman opened fire on the 2am capacity crowd at Pulse leaving 20 people dead and 42 injured according to preliminary reports. We are heartbroken and angry that senseless violence has once again destroyed lives in our state and in our country.
Gay clubs hold a significant place in LGBTQ history. They were often the only safe gathering place and this horrific act strikes directly at our sense of safety. June commemorates our community standing up to anti-LGBTQ violence at the Stonewall Inn, the nightclub that has become the first LGBTQ site recognized as a national monument.
We have received a steady stream of emails and messages from those seeking to help or to make sense of the senseless. We make no assumptions on motive. We will await the details in tears of sadness and anger. We stand in solidarity and keep our thoughts on all whose lives have been lost or altered forever in this tragedy.
President Barack Obama will address the nation about the terror attack in Orlando at 1:30pmET from the White House briefing room.
A casual kiss between two men at a Burger King in Miami Beach upset a customer so much he verbally attacked the men and then slammed one of them to the ground, beating him for over a minute.
A fight involving two people at a Miami Beach fast food restaurant may have been fueled by hate, said police. According to officials, two men were inside a Burger King Whopper Bar on Miami Beach when suddenly an attacker slammed one of them to the ground.
Police said the victim followed the attackers onto Washington Avenue, but the suspects got away. “Once we have the subjects in custody, and we present the case to the state attorney,” said Rodriguez, “we can determine at that point if they will add the hate crime element to this case, which would heighten the penalties.”
The couple has since returned home to California. The police department said an attack, especially one which may be based on sexual orientation, has no place on Miami Beach. “We want a clear message that we want any visitor, any resident here on Miami Beach, or I mean, Dade County for that matter as a whole, everyone is welcomed here and there’s no place for hate,” said Rodriguez.
Two gay men in Atlanta suffered second and third degree burns last month when the boyfriend of one of the two men poured boiling hot water on them while they slept.
Authorities say 48-year-old Martin Blackwell, the boyfriend of the mother of victim Anthony Gooden, told investigators he was disgusted with Gooden’s relationship with Marquez Tolbert and poured “a little hot water on them.”
Tolbert was hospitalized for 10 days and had to undergo surgery. Gooden was released from a hospital two weeks ago.
Blackwell has been charged with two counts of aggravated battery. It’s unclear whether he has an attorney.
Blackwell remains in jail and faces two charges of aggravated battery.
Gooden’s mother, Kim Foster, has said in interviews that Blackwell did not approve of her son being gay. “He got hatred in his heart and God’s gonna deal with him,” Foster said.
In the aftermath of the attack, Gooden spent two weeks in a coma and Tobert spent 10 days in the hospital.
Years of treatment and recovery lay ahead of both men.
Two separate GoFundMe campaigns have been set up – one for Gooden here, and another for Tolbert here. More than $60,000 has been raised for each of the men at this writing.
Elliot Morales has been found guilty of second degree murder as a hate crime in the fatal shooting of openly gay Mark Carson in Greenwich Village in May 2013.
The jury of four men and eight women deliberated for two days after two weeks of emotional testimony in State Supreme Court, during which Mr. Morales represented himself and took the witness stand to declare he was not prejudiced toward gay people. Murder as a hate crime carries a minimum sentence of 20 years to life, five years more than a second-degree murder conviction.
Mr. Morales shook his head in disbelief and muttered under his breath as the jury foreman read the verdict sheet: guilty on all counts.
Several witnesses testified they saw Mr. Morales pull a silver revolver and shoot Mark Carson in the face after an argument during which he called Mr. Carson and his friend, Danny Robinson, “faggots” and “gay wrestlers.”
Mr. Morales denied that his motive had been bigotry and said he was bisexual. He claimed he acted in self-defense because he felt he was about to be attacked by Mr. Carson and Mr. Robinson. He said he raised his gun and fired after he saw Mr. Robinson pull what looked like a black pistol from his pocket. “I just reacted,” he said during his closing argument. “This was not a deliberate act.”
Morales was found guilty of all the charges filed against his: murder in the second degree as a hate crime, criminal possession of a weapon in the second and third degrees, menacing a police officer, and menacing in the second degree.
Morales, who has previously served 11 years in prison for a robbery involved three women who he tied up and beat with a lead pipe, was reportedly drunk the night of the shooting.
As he was being arrested, Morales was captured on video admitting to police that he shot Carson.
Morales, 36, represented himself in the murder trial. He now faces 20 years to life in prison. His sentencing is scheduled for April 11th.
