Transgender Woman Shot, Dragged in Arkansas

The body of 25-year-old Marcal Camero Tye was found along a stretch of Highway 334 near Forrest City, Arkansas earlier this week. 

Said "We're going to be, of course, waiting for the lab results, the pathology reports, but it appeared to be that he did have a head wound and also that he had been drug by a car."

Authorities took plaster casts of the tire treads in hopes of identifying the vehicle which struck Tye.

Watch the disturbing report, AFTER THE JUMP...

LGBT Students at Harding University Cry Out for Help in Web Zine; School Immediately Blocks Access

UPDATED

This is the first page of "The State of the Gay at Harding University", a web zine published by LGBT students at Christian conservative Harding University in Searcy, Arkansas. Students have written anonymously about the oppression they encounter at the university, where "conversion therapy" is demanded over the threat of expulsion.

Our tipster writes that within a few minutes of its publishing, the university has reportedly blocked access to it from its computers.

Some quotes from it:

"All is not well for us at Harding. Our voices are muted, our stories go unheard, and we are forced into hiding. We are threatened with re-orientation therapy, social isolation, and expulsion. We are told stories and lies that we are disgusting sinners who are damned to hell."

‎"Three days a week in Harding's Counseling Center, I moved from therapist to therapist trying to find a way out. It was my final act of desperation. The choices were as follow: be saved from my closeted sin or death. I had it all planned out. If this failed, I would die. I had already gotten the gun. It was under my dorm room bed."

‎"My dreams of love ended as counselors told me I would be alone for the rest of my life."

The Arkansas Times has sought comment from school officials but to this point has not received any.

Read the zine HERE. Download it here (PDF).

UPDATE: David Crouch, Director of Public Relations at Harding University, has released a statement:

Harding University is a private Christian university whose mission and policies are rooted in biblical principles. All students are given a copy of the handbook and know about our mission and policies before their first day on campus. The student handbook states that the university holds to the biblical principle that sexual relationships are unacceptable to God outside the context of marriage and that sexual immorality in any form will result in suspension from the university.

Based on that policy, university administrators felt that having this website available on campus goes against said mission and policies. In addition, the handbook states that any literature distributed on campus must be approved by the Office of Student Life and must state the name of the sponsoring organization. These pamphlets were both printed and distributed anonymously with no prior approval, and the website is an online version of that pamphlet.

Watch: Shirtless Arkansas Dudes do Katy Perry 'Firework' Snow Dance

A group of men from the University of Arkansas present the winter of 2011's most amusing lip dub, to Katy Perry's "Firework".

Watch it, AFTER THE JUMP...

Watch: Elton John, David Furnish Now Free to Scare Families in Arkansas

Late yesterday, Harps Foods explained why one of its grocery stores had placed a family shield over a magazine featuring gay parents Elton John and David Furnish (customer complaints). They also said the shield had been removed after review. Their explanation:

We have received a number of complaints regarding an incident in our Mountain Home store involving the current issue of US Weekly Magazine depicting Elton John, David Furnish and their newborn son. I would like to explain how this happened. For many years we have provided each of our stores with shields which can be used at the manager’s discretion to cover the front of magazines when they receive complaints from our customers regarding either the photo on the cover of the magazine or the titles of articles contained within the magazine. Sometimes those photos might be sexually provocative or too revealing. The magazine article titles might also be too suggestive for some customers.

In this case our store manager received some complaints and, as has been our custom, placed the shield over the cover of the magazine. When we began receiving complaints at our corporate office, we reviewed the magazine in question, removed the shield and are selling the magazine in all our locations today without any shield.

Our true intention is not to offend anyone in our stores and this incident happened at just one of our 65 locations, which when brought to our attention, we reversed.

Kim B. Eskew
President & COO
Harps Food Stores, Inc.

Anderson Cooper spoke with Dr. Phil about this "learning moment".

Watch, AFTER THE JUMP...

Gay Parents Elton John and David Furnish Shielded from Children at Arkansas Grocery Store

A vigilant shopper and tweeter at Harps grocery store in Mountain Home, Arkansas notes that the store wants to protect children from a magazine cover featuring gay parents.

UPDATE: Harps has removed the shield.

As you may recall, last April an Arkansas Circuit court struck down the state law banning gays from adopting or fostering children.

Watch: Thousands of Dead Birds Fall from Sky in Arkansas

Residents of Beebe, Arkansas woke on New Years Day to a vision out of some kind of Hitchcockian apocalypse — thousands of dead birds, mostly red-winged blackbirds, had fallen from the sky.

The AP: "The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission said Saturday that it began receiving reports about the dead birds about 11:30 p.m. the previous night. The birds fell over a 1-mile area of Beebe, and an aerial survey indicated that no other dead birds were found outside of that area."

Theories on the deaths include lightning, high-altitude hail, or stress caused by NYE fireworks. Officials doubt poison as the cause, and are investigating.

Watch a news report on the birds, AFTER THE JUMP...