Constance McMillen Wins $35,000 for Being Banned From Her Prom

If you don't remember Constance McMillen, she's the lesbian high school student in Mississippi who was banned from attending her own senior prom with a female date. After much legal wrangling and a cruel trick in which Constance's classmates staged an alternative prom without her, and as reported recently she has won a victory, one that LGBT students everywhere can cheer.

As a result of a lawsuit brought on her behalf by the American Civil Liberties Union, Constance will be receiving $35,000 plus attorney fees from Itawamba Agricultural High School, where she was so cruelly denied the chance to attend prom with her girlfriend. Even better, and heartening for LGBT youth everywhere, the school will be instituting a brand-new policy that bans discrimination based on gender identity or sexual orientation.

Essentially, this is the school saying: We were really, really, wrong. So wrong, we're going to create a policy banning ourselves and everyone else from discriminating in exactly the manner we did. Constance's graduation can sparkle with the knowledge that she made a tangible difference in the school she attended, one that will help many future students to pass through its locker-lined halls. How many of us can say we did that at 18?

But while this sets a positive precedent for schools across the country, the only thing that will truly make sure that future LGBT youth don't have to undergo what Constance did is to have Congress pass the Student Non-Discrimination Act and Safe Schools Act, prohibiting discrimination and bullying in high schools nationwide. Ask your representative to get moving and protect our country's children today.

Putting Discrimination To a Vote in Bowling Green, Ohio

Did you think 2010 would slip by without an anti-gay ballot measure? Think again, and direct your eyes toward Bowling Green, Ohio.

This November, voters in the city of nearly 30,000 will head to the polls to decide on whether two historic ordinances will be allowed to become law, protecting LGBT folks from discrimination. Those ordinances, originally passed in August 2009, amended city law to prevent LGBT people from being discriminated against when it comes to employment, housing, education and public accommodations. And they were necessary, because currently federal-level anti-discrimination protections don't go far enough to stop discrimination against LGBT people.

But what was a bold move for equality was interpreted by a number of anti-gay folks to be a step toward indecency. And they did what so many anti-gay groups have done in the past decade: they froze the city council ordinances by gathering signatures to put the policies on a November 2010 ballot. Meaning that Bowling Green, Ohio voters will now decide on whether LGBT people should be thrown out of restaurants because of their sexual orientation, or denied an apartment because of their gender identity.

"Exporting Hate" Exposes Role of U.S. Evangelicals in Uganda

The climate toward gay people in Uganda is terrifying. Gay Ugandans can already face up to 14 years in prison for homosexual acts. And now, with the Parliament considering legislation proposed by David Bahati that would impose the death penalty or life imprisonment on offenders of "homosexual acts," the situation may become much worse. Gay Ugandans are already being harassed and forced out of their communities. The bill requires Ugandans to report suspected homosexuals to the police, further ostracizing gay Ugandans from their families and friends.

Research into the origins of the bill show that conservative Americans are behind the bill and used their influence and status as representatives of the United States to convince Ugandans that they should hate LGBT people. Not only were conservative Americans supportive of the bill and trying to spread their agenda, but the president of Uganda and Bahati, who introduced the bill, are both members of "The Family," a U.S.-based anti-gay organization.

"The Family" is one of the most powerful Christian organizations in Washington, D.C., and has had ties to Uganda since 1986. Bahati has publicly admitted that he is a part of "The Family" and expressed frustration that "The Family" distanced themselves from him and didn't rally behind him after he introduced the bill.

In the Life Media, an organization that produces media exposing social injustice toward LGBT people, is helping to get the word out about "The Family" and their influence in Uganda. As a part of their In the Life LGBT TV show, they produced a documentary on Uganda, called Exporting Hate. The documentary is available online on Youtube by clicking here, and embedded at the end of this post.

"The Family," of course, should stay out of Ugandan politics. It's bad enough that the group supports anti-gay politics here in the United States. But exporting their hate through the false guise that they represent the American viewpoint is nothing short of deceitful and wrong.

Check out Exporting Hate after the jump.

by Jordan Rubenstein

The Las Vegas Church Working to Kill Gay People in Uganda

They don't call it "Sin City" for nothing. Though forget gambling, drinking, overeating at behemoth buffet lines or any of the other images you might associate with Las Vegas. Because when it comes to the Vegas-based Canyon Ridge Christian Church, there's another sin in mind: proudly supporting the people in Uganda who want to enact a law that will kill or imprison LGBT people.

Canyon Ridge has a tight relationship with Pastor Martin Ssempa, the Rev. Fred Phelps of Uganda. Except while Phelps has largely been marginalized and ostracized, Ssempa enjoys quite the bit of influence in Uganda. You can see him live and in person in various documentaries, including Missionaries of Hate and Exporting Hate, where Ssempa travels around various parts of Uganda rallying people to call for the killing of and imprisonment of LGBT people.

But forget quoting the Gospel. Ssempa's sermons focus exclusively on his understanding of gay sex, which is not only distorted, but quite limited. "I want to say homosexuals eat each other's poop. Homosexuals stick their hands into their rectum. Homosexuals stick all sorts of deviant sexual things into their rectum," Ssempa tells his flock of followers. Then he whoops the crowd up by telling them to keep gay people out of Uganda by any means necessary.

These tactics have earned Ssempa worldwide condemnation from even some of his formerly close allies. Rick Warren's condemned the dude. WAIT Training has condemned Ssempa, too. The Philadelphia Bible University, which had previously awarded Ssempa an honorary degree, also blasted his work championing the killing and jailing of gay people.

But Canyon Ridge? Nope, they haven't condemned Ssempa's ministry to kill and imprison gay folks. Instead, they proudly list him as a partner on their Web site, and note that Ssempa "has a prophetic ministry through the media." Yeah, if by prophetic you mean calling for a gay genocide in the country.

But Canyon Ridge's praise for Ssempa doesn't end there. They hold both Ssempa and his wife up as moral compasses that everyone should follow.

"As a father of three sons and two daughters, [Ssempa] firmly recognizes that Africa's problem is primarily leadership, and together with his wife, desires to raise a new generation of world-class leaders," Canyon Ridge says on their Web site. Indeed, a generation of world-class leaders who call on people to be killed because of their sexual orientation, and jail straight people who support gay rights. Now that's some vision of leadership.

It's time to demand better from Canyon Ridge Christian Church. Their own mission statement says they believe that church can be "where all people can come as they are and experience God's grace, love, forgiveness, healing, and hope." Yet their own works, by supporting the politicians and faith leaders behind Uganda's "Kill the Gays" bill, say exactly the opposite. They can't be a house of worship that says they experience grace, love and forgiveness, and then partner with people who want to commit genocide.

by Michael A. Jones