By Ramy Eletreby

Florida Rep. accused of solicitation won’t resign; Fort Lauderdale mayor says gays are unhappy

Florida Rep. Robert Allen (R-Merritt Island) says that he has no plans to resign in light of his July 11 arrest for soliciting sex from an undercover police officer at a restroom in a public park.

In a taped statement made just days after the incident, Allen told investigators that he was just playing along when the undercover officer suggested $20 for oral sex because, Allen said, he was intimidated by the black officer and his other black friends and believed he was about to be robbed, reports the Sun-Sentinel.

“Based on the police officer’s own report, this case should be dismissed,” Greg Eisenmenger, Allen’s attorney, tells the Sun-Sentinel. “The officer did all the soliciting.”

In other Florida news, Fort Lauderdale Mayor Jim Naugle made headlines recently for a series of comments which many gays and lesbians view as homophobic. In an article that ran in the Sun-Sentinel on July 4, Naugle stated that he does not refer to homosexual men as gay because “most of them aren’t gay. They are unhappy.” In the article, Naugle defends a city-proposed $250,000 robotic one-stall toilet that would be used on public beaches, which he said would deter “homosexual activity,” which often plagues public restrooms, according to the Sun-Sentinel.

In response, a coalition of national gay and lesbian rights groups protested outside the mayor’s office in Fort Lauderdale wearing T-shirts which read, “Flush Naugle” and holding signs stating, “Get Lost Naugle.”

Naugle later held a press conference in which he was supposed to apologize. Instead, the mayor said that gay sex was a bigger problem than he thought and is contributing to the growing spread of HIV/AIDS in the Fort Lauderdale community. Police reports show that only four incidents of gay sex acts have been reported in public bathrooms in Fort Lauderdale since November 2005, and none were on the beach.

Equality Florida is calling for those who oppose Naugle’s comments, especially gays who are indeed happy, to mail a roll of toilet paper to Fort Lauderdale City Hall.

For more information and to sign a letter criticizing Naugle, visit www.ga4.org/campaign/naugle.

Young Republicans chairman resigns after being accused of sex crime

Glenn Murphy, Jr., 33, the newly elected chairman of the Young Republican National Federation, announced his resignation earlier this month after bloggers made public an incident on July 29 which involved Murphy attempting to have sex with a sleeping man, which is known as a criminal deviate conduct, a class B felony in Indiana.

According to a police report in Clark County, Ind., Murphy had been drinking with a man and his sister on the night of July 28. The three of them ended up at the sister’s home where the two men shared bunk beds, Murphy on the top and the other man on the bottom. In the morning, the man on the bottom bunk reportedly awoke and found Murphy performing oral sex on him, according to the police records.

Murphy’s resignation comes only one month after being elected chairman.

Evangelical Lutherans vote to keep gays in clergy—for now

In a surprising move, leadership at the biennial national assembly of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) in Chicago on Aug. 11 voted to refrain from invoking a policy that defrocks gay and lesbian ministers who violate the church’s rule of celibacy until after findings from a task force’s eight-year study on human sexuality is released in 2009.

The ELCA recommendation had members of Atlanta’s St. John’s Lutheran Church cheering the next day in support of their own Rev. Bradley Schmeling, who became the focus of the debate over gay clergy when he was removed from the church’s roster last year after he revealed he was in a relationship with another man.

The assembly’s 538-441 vote is only temporary and a more concrete decision on gay clergy is expected at the next national assembly in two years after the extensive commissioned study on human sexuality is complete, reports The Associated Press.

Texas church cancels gay veteran’s funeral

A Texas-native Navy veteran’s funeral service was abruptly canceled by High Point Church in Arlington after church leaders learned that he was gay, reports the Dallas Morning News.

Cecil Sinclair, 46, who served in Operation Desert Storm, died on Aug. 6 while waiting for a heart transplant. High Point Church, where Sinclair’s brother is a member, offered to host the funeral but rescinded the offer when the family submitted photographs to be displayed at the service, some of which showed Cecil kissing and hugging his partner, Paul Wagner.

“The church opposes homosexuality, and there was no way a service could be held that appeared to endorse it,” said Rev. Gary Simons, pastor of High Point, in a statement.

Though High Point did offer to pay for the funeral at a different location, the family turned it down and held the service at a local funeral home, reports the Morning News.

Gay-friendly Kucinich’s campaign headquarters vandalized

The presidential campaign headquarters of Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) in Cleveland was vandalized mere hours after the congressman appeared on Visible Vote ’08, the Logo/Human Rights Campaign presidential LGBT forum held in L.A. on Aug. 9. The Cleveland Plain Dealer reports that someone threw an object through a plate glass window.

According to a spokesperson for Kucinich, it is not known whether the incident is connected with the congressman’s participation in the LGBT forum, in which he pledged his support for same-sex marriage, one of only two of the six Democratic presidential candidates at the forum to do so.

New Reform Judaism manual includes transgender blessings

In a newly revised edition of Kulanu (Hebrew for “all of us”), a manual published by the Union for Reform Judaism, there are two short blessings written by Rabbi Elliot Kukla, a transgender rabbi who came out as a male last year, for Jews undergoing sex changes.

The New York-based Union for Reform Judaism represents 900 Reform synagogues across North America, the largest branch of Judaism on the continent. The new transgender blessings are included alongside liturgy for same-sex unions, which follows in Reform Judaism’s tradition of liberal positions on sexuality such as allowing openly gay and lesbian rabbis and cantors.

Foundation to unveil new memorial for hate crime victims

People who have been murdered because of their sexual orientation or gender identity will be remembered when the Gay American Heroes Foundation unveils its national memorial honoring LGBT victims of hate crimes at the end of the year.

The foundation’s plan is to assemble a traveling memorial and exhibition constructed of six individual rainbow-colored, multi-dimensional panels bearing the photos, names, ages and occupations of LGBT hate crime victims. Once completed, the 8-foot tall exhibit will stretch more than 100 feet and will be transported nationally to college campuses, LGBT events and to communities where anti-gay hate crimes have occurred.

Numbers as of 1:15 p.m., August 16, 2007

American Deaths in Iraq: 3,701 - www.antiwar.com/casualties
American Wounded in Iraq: 27,279 -www.antiwar.com/casualties
Iraqi Dead since 2003: 69,660- 76,112 - www.iraqbodycount.org
Cost of War: $452,540,000,000+ - www.nationalpriorities.org
National Debt: $8,966,450,929,415.72 - www.brillig.com/debt_clock
U.S. Trade Deficit: $459,466,000,000.00+ -
www.americaneconomicalert.org/ticker_home.asp