Ohio Mayor Resigns After Questioning Presence of a 'Queer' Officer on the Police Force

Pomeroy, Ohio Mayor Mary McAngus resigned today after complaints that she had questioned the Police Chief about the existence of a "queer" officer on the force and saying she didn't want his partner stopping by the police station.

The Columbus Dispatch reports:

[Police Chief] Proffitt last month submitted to the village council an information packet that included his six-page sworn statement. He warned the council that the mayor’s behavior could get the village of 2,000 residents sued.

Proffitt wrote that McAngus called him into her office about two weeks after Calendine was hired. She said she heard “that Kyle was a queer” and asked what the chief was going to do about it. Nothing, he replied, because that would be discrimination.

“She stated ‘I don’t like a Queer working for the Village, I might be old-fashioned, but I don’t like it.’  ” Proffitt wrote in the statement.

The mayor persisted in making crude comments about the officer and his partner to police department employees, Proffitt said. She asked a newly hired officer if he knew that Calendine was gay and whether that bothered him.When the officer said no, she asked him if he, too, was gay, and smiled and stared at him until the uncomfortable officer said he had to get back to work, Proffitt said.

McAngus showed no remorse for her behavior in her resignation, saying that it was "due to circumstances."

(image via pomeroy daily sentinel)

News: Ezra Miller, Anthony Kennedy, Gay Adoption, Eagle Scouts

The father of Jadin Bell, who hanged himself in an Oregon schoolyard last month, said he had loved his son and accepted him for who he was: "I think we need more of that," said Joe Bell, whose 15-year-old son, Jadin, had been bullied before trying to take his life.  "I don't want Jadin's death to be in vain," Bell said in a voice choking with emotion. "I want it to stand for something. I think we need to look at people for who they are and not who we think they should be."

Gay dad invites SCOTUS Justice Anthony Kennedy to dinner at his home: "If you come, you will meet my 10-year-old sons, who will likely impress you, given how personable, articulate, polite and bright they are...If you were to come to dinner with my family, you would also meet Jim. He is the man in my life..."

Cissy Houston won't be accepting Clive Davis' invitation to his pre-Grammy party.

HRC dissatisfied with Pentagon inaction on same-sex benefits: "There's no explanation for the delay. It's been over two years now since the President signed the repeal bill. Every day that goes by is another day of unnecessary sacrifice for our families," Human Rights Campaign vice president for communications Fred Sainz told BuzzFeed Friday evening.

Ukraine to ban discrimination against gays, rather than ban gay "propaganda"? "Ukraine’s foreign minister Leonid Kozhara stated that a law prohibiting discrimination against gays will be adopted soon, in order to speed up visa entry harmonization with the European Union. During an interview with the Polish newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza, Kozhara stated yesterday (7 February): ‘The issue of homosexuals is now generating strong controversy in Ukraine, but our government has already prepared a draft law and will soon submit it to the parliament..."

A bunch of cool minimalist posters for Oscar-nominated films.

FOX News accidentally uses photo of same-sex couple to illustrate article about the importance of heterosexual marriage.

Valerie Jarrett blogs on Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day: "I had the pleasure of meeting with leaders who are doing outstanding work to prevent new HIV infections and improve health outcomes for African-Americans.  We shared stories and discussed the importance of engaging everyone in these efforts, including faith leaders, educators, athletes, entertainers, artists, scientists, healthcare providers as well as friends, families, and neighbors. This approach also reflects the National HIV/AIDS Strategy, which calls for a collective response to the ongoing domestic epidemic, and sets specific goals with regard to addressing HIV-related disparities among African-Americans."

One gay couple talks about their journey to adopting a child: "I wish we had known that we didn’t need to worry about 'the what-ifs.' We didn’t need to fit into a certain box to become parents and we didn’t need to say this or that to become parents.  All we had to do was be ourselves and everything else would happen when it is/was supposed to. Fortunately, we learned it very early on in our journey."

Ezra Miller: I was gay bashed. "One time I was at a show in New York City for a hardcore band. I was wearing a velvet green jacket, and I was doing sort of a swing step, kind of Lindy-hopping in the mosh pit. Then I walked out of the mosh pit, and I was standing in the back of the crowd, someone tapped me on the shoulder, and all I heard was the word, 'Faggot.' I got punched in the eye."

J. Justin Wilson and Steven Seigel write about how their Eagle Scout badges helped prepare them for marriage: "Although it has been more than a decade since we both earned our Eagle Scout badges, we can still recite that mantra from memory. So it seemed like an obvious choice for our marriage vows—those values embodied the essence of what we learned as scouts, and they continue to guide our conduct today. For us, earning our Eagle was about much more than learning to tie knots or build a fire in the rain. Although those are important skills scouts learn along the way, at its core, the Boy Scouts is about imparting the amorphous but critical skill of leadership. The basic premise of scouting is to build a future generation of leaders, to grow a cadre of young men who embody the moral and ethical virtues of a society and have the capacity to mobilize those values for good."

Lesbian with Foreign Spouse Threatened Under DOMA to Attend State of the Union Address

Kelly Costello, a Potomac, Maryland woman whose native Peruvian spouse is threatened with deportation under DOMA, will attend the State of the Union address as the guest of Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), the lead sponsor of the Uniting American Families Act, the Washington Blade reports:

Speaking with the Blade, Costello said she’s “grateful and excited” for what she called a “once-in-a-lifetime experience” — particularly in the wake of Obama’s call to include bi-national gay couples as part of comprehensive immigration reform.

“This is something that we have been fighting for a long time,” Costello said. “People before me have fought for it. I feel like, right now, we are living in an important historical moment where the president has already addressed providing equal rights for us, and I think it’s really come to forefront.”

The couple, who married in D.C. in 2011, is in danger of separation because the Defense of Marriage Act prohibits Costello from sponsoring Morales via a marriage-based green card application for residency in the United States.

The Uniting American Families Act (UAFA) was reintroduced last week (with bipartisan support), as we wait on whether same-sex binational couples will be included as part of comprehensive immigration reform legislation.

Activists to Stage White House Protest Over ENDA Sunday Night

Activists demanding Obama keep his first-term promise to extend workplace protections to LGBT people will gather outside the White House two days before the President's State of the Union address to demand he do so.

From activist group GetEQUAL:

As he was running for president, then-candidate Obama pledged to extend workplace protections to all lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people employed by federal contractors, but has yet to deliver any policy to protect these vulnerable employees, who can be fired in over half the states in the country based simply on their sexual identity, and 39 states based on their gender identity or expression.

President Obama could offer these protections today to 16 million people with the stroke of a pen by signing an Executive Order which would protect anyone employed by a contractor who receives over $10,000/year in federal funds. As we approach the first State of the Union for the president’s second and final term, GetEQUAL is reminding the president to keep the promises he made that will not only help boost our suffering economy but protect millions of workers and families.

The demonstration is scheduled to take place Sunday night at 6 pm on the south side of the White House.

Mariah Carey Celebrated Christmas Again During the Blizzard: VIDEO

Nobody loves Christmas more than Mariah Carey, so why not re-celebrate it during a blizzard in February!

Watch Mariah's "re-Christmas" video, AFTER THE JUMP...

'How to Survive a Plague' Activist Peter Staley Offers Advice to Younger Gay Men on 'Anderson Live': VIDEO

Peter Staley, the longtime AIDS activist and ACT UP founder who is at the center of David France's excellent Oscar-nominated documentary How to Survive a Plague, appears on Anderson Live on Monday for a discussion about the film.

Staley has some advice for younger gay men: "Learn your history. Learn about the people that pushed against the hatred and the ignorance and made this country give a damn about your lives and about your health..."

Watch, AFTER THE JUMP...