Ryerson University Gay Event Marred By Homophobic Vandalism, Three Men Indicted For Hate Crime In Chicago Anti-Gay Attack, Mary Glasspool Confirmed As Second Openly Gay Episcopalian Bishop, Six Same Sex Couples Challenge New Jersey Supreme Court, Verdict In Proposition 8 Trial Delayed, Report That Gays Are Being Excluded From Clinical Drug Studies

On March 9th, at Ryerson University in Toronto, Ontario, the LGBT campus group RyePride held a Queer Positive Pub Night, but the event was marred by anti-gay graffiti. The graffiti was discovered behind a urinal and read of “burning gays,” suggesting that Church Street should not exist, and that the university was “gay” for offering support to LGBT community.

Kevin McAndrew, 23 years old, Benjamin Eder, 23 years old, and Sean Little, 21 years old, were indicted Wednesday with one count each of a hate crime and two counts each of aggravated battery, for allegedly assaulting and harassing a gay man, Daniel Hauff, while the four were aboard Chicago’s Red Line on January 10th. The three men, all from Evanston, originally were charged with misdemeanour battery, but those were dropped on February 24th, and the three were re-arrested as they left court, the hate crime charge attached. The men will be arraigned March 26th. Hauff has intervened, trying to help another man the three were harassing, and Hauff only escaped being badly beaten after telling the men he was HIV positive.

A report that a majority of bishops and dioceses of the Episcopalian Church have approved the election of the church’s second openly gay bishop – the Reverend Mary Glasspool, who will be consecrated in Los Angeles, California on May 15th. V. Gene Robinson was elected in 2003 to serve New Hampshire. The formal approval is likely to increase the tension within the Anglican Church, conservative factions arguing that the Bible condemns homosexuality.

Six same sex couples from New Jersey, assisted by Garden State Equality and Lambda Legal are petitioning the state Supreme Court Thursday to allow gays to marry legally in New Jersey, two months after the state Senate voted down a measure that would have amended the constitution and allowed gay men and women to marry. In 2006, the state sanctioned civil unions, but those union, while seeming a solution, are, in practice, the subject of further discrimination for homosexual couples, Garden State Equality arguing that same sex couples “are blocked from seeing their loved ones during medical emergencies; their state-designated status confuses medical providers, especially in times of crisis. They find it harder to get medical coverage and care than do their married counterparts, as their state-imposed second-class status has encouraged employers to exclude them from coverage.”

The verdict in the federal trial challenging the constitutional validity of Proposition 8 will likely be delayed because civil rights groups who opposed the California voter amendment that effectively eliminated the right of gay men and women in the state are attempting keep sponsors of the referendum from obtaining internal documents. Earlier in March, United States Magistrate Joseph Spero ordered that the three groups opposed to Proposition 8 must deliver all documents that “contain, refer or relate to arguments for or against Proposition 8,” except private communications between central leaders. Closing arguments have yet to be heard, primarily because the defense demanded access to the communications of the plaintiffs. The trial, the first of its kind in America, has been on hiatus since January.

A new study, compiled by researchers at Fox Chase Cancer Center, presents evidence that some clinical trials in the United States explicitly exclude individuals based on their sexual orientation. Their full findings are published in a research letter appearing in the latest issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. Gays and lesbians were excluded significantly from trials that studied sexual function as an endpoint, like those examining erectile dysfunction.