www.GayPeoplesChronicle.com
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August 12, 2011
GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE 3
newsbriefs
Trial begins in 1982 Mary Ann Finegan murder case
Cleveland-The trial of the man accused in the 1982 murder of Mary Ann Finegan began this week.
Mary Ann Finegan
Richard Anthony Wilson, who was serving time in Pennsylvania on another charge, was identified by DNA evidence from the rape kit when the Cleveland Police Cold Case Unit reopened the case in 2009. He faces 16 charges and could be sentenced to death if found guilty.
The indictment was unveiled publicly on February 10, 2010. Trial began in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court on August 8.
Finegan was killed on June 4, 1982, after she ran into her ex-girlfriend at Isis, a popular Warehouse District lesbian bar at the time. They had broken up a week earlier, and their meeting was unplanned.
The duo sat in Finegan's truck and talked, then Finegan started the truck to move it to a closer parking spot. A man opened the passenger door and put a gun to her exgirlfriend, telling Finegan to drive or he would kill her passenger.
He had her drive to an isolated area of the Flats below Tremont. He ordered them to take off their pants; when they hesitated, he counted to three and shot Finegan, killing her instantly. After raping her friend, the man shot her twice, leaving her to die.
A security guard discovered Finegan's truck 15 hours after the attack, and her friend was rushed to the hospital with a collapsed lung and blood loss.
Finegan was honored by the Cleveland LGBT Center with a project named after her to track anti-gay violence.
A detailed 2010 report on the case is online at www.gaypeopleschronicle.com/ stories 10/february/0226101.htm
HIV increasing in young black gay men
Atlanta-The Centers for Disease Con-
trol and Prevention released a multi-year study on August 3 indicating that, while overall rates of HIV infection have stabilized, they are still increasing among young black men who have sex with men.
"Even though the annual number of new HIV infections was stable overall during those years [2006-2009], there was an estimated 21% increase in HIV incidence for people aged 13-29 years, driven by a 34% increase in young MSM (the only group to experience a significant increase in incidence in this age range," the summary of the report on the CDC's website states.
"Among MSM aged 13-29, HIV incidence among black/African American MSM increased significantly (48%) from 2006 through 2009 with a statistically significant 12.2% estimated annual percentage increase," it continued before theorizing that the prevalence of HIV in the African American community and the stigmas around HIV and homosexuality, lack of access to health care and poverty are likely contributing factors.
Richard Wilson
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Prisons must allow TG therapy
Milwaukee Prisons must supply hormone therapy for transgender inmates, the U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on August 5.
The ruling upheld District Judge Charles N. Clevert's Jr. 2010 decision that struck the state's five-year old Sex Change Prevention Act.
Wisconsin was the only state to ban hormone therapy for transgender inmates, according to Lambda Legal's Dru Levasseur. He posited that, had the court upheld the law, other states might pass similar legislation.
Prison officials said that the three inmates who sued when their hormone treatments were reduced could use anti-depressants and psychotherapy to treat their gender identity disorder.
The court did not appreciate the argument.
"Surely, had the Wisconsin legislature passed a law that DOC inmates with cancer must be treated only with therapy and painkillers, this court would have no trouble concluding that the law was unconstitutional," the court wrote, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Gay men's chorus inks £1 million deal
Brighton, England—The Brighton and Hove Gay Men's Chorus has signed a deal with Universal Records to release an album later this year. The deal, announced August 8, is reportedly worth £1 million, or $1.6 million in U.S. dollars.
The chorus is known for performing songs by Neil Young, David Bowie and other alternative acts, an attempt to move away from standard gay chorus fare. The gamble appears to have paid off for the six-year old group.
"When we started the chorus, part of what we wanted to do was to help to break down some barriers and misconceptions of what gay people are," said chairman John Hamilton, one of the founders.
Jason Pimblett, another founder and the musical director, told the U.K. newspaper The Telegraph, “We wanted to concentrate more on the music, and not necessarily be pigeonholed into, ‘oh, you can do that but you can't do that.''
Let
D.C. officers refused gaybashing report
Washington, D.C.-Seven police officers could be fired over their refusal to take the reports of five lesbians who were gaybashed on July 30.
The women were attacked after they rebuffed two men's advances. The men called them "dyke bitches," according to the Washington Blade, and punched the women in the faces and bodies.
A bystander called 911, and four police cars arrived, but officers refused to take the report, in violation of police department rules. They also released the one suspect they apprehended shortly afterwards, and did not ask for the video a bystander shot of the incident.
Police Chief Cathy Lanier said she was horrified when she heard about the incident, and that police were now obtaining warrants to arrest the two men. She called the incident "lazy policing," and was asked to look into whether officers' anti-gay sentiments were a contributing factor.
Hollywood tries to 'in' a new action star
Los Angeles-It seems the religious right might be correct, that gay people actually can become heterosexual. All they need is a burgeoning Hollywood career and a publicist with no spine.
British actor Luke Evans, a hunk with three major tent-pole pictures out in the next year, gave an interview in 2002 to the Advocate, in which he discussed never really being in the closet. He spoke about a conversation with an ex-boyfriend, and playing a hetero character in the Boy George musical Taboo.
The actor, who will be in Immortals and The Three Musketeers this year and The Hobbit next year, has seen his Wikipedia page change from saying that he is gay, to saying that he is very private, to having no section about his personal life at all. This happened at the same time that the web site After Elton started asking questions about him. And the female PR executive mentioned as dating him in the British edition of Cosmopolitan magazine is listed as single on her Facebook page.
Sir Ian McKellen, who is openly gay and working with Evans on The Hobbit, should really get the man some reparative therapy. Or the phone number of a better agent. continued on page 11
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