Nova Scotia Certification Assures Gay-Friendly Services, Constance McMillen Accepts Precedent Setting Settlement From Itawamba County School District, National Organization For Marriage Summer Swing Tour Of Anti-Gay Hate Hits New Jersey, Field Poll Finds Slim Majority Of Californians Favour Gay Marriage, How Did Oklahoma Become Political Ground Zero In Battle Over Gay Rights

A report from Halifax, Nova Scotia and a plan by Destination Halifax in advance of this week’s pride festivities to encourage hotels and restaurants to attain certification through the international group Travel Alternatives Group or TAG that indicates the businesses have fair hiring practices and that the staffs has undergone diversity training. Atlantic Pride Festival organizer Ed Savage said “It’s actually surprising how many people do get hassled by inns, by hotels, restaurants, for being openly gay. This designation makes it so that you know when you’re booking there, there’s not going to be that hassle. You don’t want to go to an inn that’s not going to let you or your partner stay in the same room or turn you away because you’re gay.”

Attorneys from the American Civil Liberties Union filed noticed Monday that acting on behalf of its client Constance McMillen, it was accepting a judgement offer from the Itawamba County School District to pay $35,000 as well as attorney fees. The agreement also sees the school district agreeing to adhere to a revised policy not to discriminate based on sexual orientation and gender identity in educational or extracurricular activities. The ACLU sued in March after the district cancelled a prom at Itawamba Agricultural High School because the school denied a request from McMillen to escort her girlfriend and to wear a traditional tuxedo. McMillen said Tuesday that she was “so glad this is all over. I won’t ever get my prom back, but it is worth if it changes things at my school,” adding that “I hope this means that in the future students at my school will be treated fairly.”

The National Organization For Marriage continues its “One Man, One Woman” summer swing tour of anti-gay hate Tuesday with a scheduled stop in Trenton, New Jersey where Brian Brown and his merry band of hate mongers will be meet by a coalition of pro-gay supporters, including Garden State Equality, Lambda Legal, and the National Association of Social Workers-New Jersey. The group intends to hold luncheon and town hall meeting focussing on the families of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender state residents.

A new Field Poll released Tuesday reveals that a small majority of registered California voters are in favour of allowing gay marriage, but the poll’s results – 51-percent in favour, 42-percent against, and 7-percent undecided – shows substantial differences exist among age groups, state geography, and party affiliation. As an example, two-thirds of voters polled between the ages of 18 and 29 approve gay marriage, while an overwhelming majority of voters over 65 oppose gay marriage.

How did an Oklahoma House election become a battle between a pro-gay Democratic candidate and an avowed anti-gay pro-choice Republican? Quite easy, in fact, despite assurances that the race would not place sex as an issue, supporters of the incumbent, Sally Kern, who is on record as saying that “the homosexual agenda is just destroying the nation,” and that “homosexuality was a bigger threat that terrorism, making sweeping allegations that the “homosexual lobby” recruited Kern’s opponent, Democrat Brittany Novotny, the state’s first known transgender candidate. For her part, Novotny says that sexual orientation and gender identity “is not an issue.”