Supreme Court Rules Jerusalem Must Fund Gay Community Centre, Florida Governor Crist Announces He Is Reviewing State Gay Adoption Ban, Office Of Personal Management Extends Education And Medical Leave Without Pay To Same Sex Employees With Partners, Philip Johnson Glass House Complex Crumbling, George Michael Sentenced To Jail, Neil Patrick Harris And David Burtka Now Fabulous And Fashionable

Ynet News reports that Tuesday, the Supreme Court in Jerusalem ruled that the city must fund a lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community Open House center, criticizing the city’s decision to reject a request for funds, and ordering that it must provide $120,000 in public monies. The historic ruling determined that city officials repeatedly denied funding to the gay community, and Justice Hayut wrote that the gay community should be granted special status similar to that which it receives in other cities throughout Israel, which guarantee funding would be provided unconditionally. Justice Meltzer wrote that Jerusalem was discriminating against the gay community under the guise of apparent objective criteria, conduct that “has no place in the 21st century.” Justice Amit wrote that proper treatment of the gay community was one of the criteria for a democratic state, and a characteristic that distinguishes Israel from “most of the Mideast states near and far, in which members of the gay community are persecuted by the government and society,” adding that “It seems that the lack of recognition for members of the gay community as a group that constitutes part of Jerusalem’s public sphere is what brings them time and again to the courts, as their cries go unheeded.” Yonatan Gher, the director of the Open House, said of the Supreme Court ruling “The authorities in Israel will no longer be able to ignore the gay community and treat it disrespectfully and a lack of equality.”

Florida Governor Charlie Crist, running as an independent for a United States Senate seat, announced that he is reviewing whether the state should withdraw a lawsuit that seeks to uphold Florida’s ban on gay couples adopting, according to the Orlando Sentinel. In January, 2008 Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Cindy Lederman struck down the ban in the case of Martin Gill, a gay man who adopted two boys, however the state Department of Children of Families appealed the ruling. A decision on the appeal is pending from the 3rd District Court of Appeal, but Crist, who only recently said he does not support the state-wide ban, revealed that he is reviewing the appeal. Martin Gill,, however, does not want the state to drop the suit. Gill and attorneys representing him from the American Civil Liberties Union, say that dropping the appeal will in fact deny opponents of the adoption ban the opportunity for the court to rule that it is unconstitutional and removed from law completely. Crist, who left the Republican party in May, has also announced he supports civil unions, repealing the military ban on openly gay men and women serving, and domestic partner benefits – stances that distance him from the GOP, but that also appear as political pandering.

The Washington Post on an announcement made last week by the United States Office of Personal Management regarding changes made to benefits extended to gay and lesbian federal employees with a sex same partner, now entitled to take leave without pay to attend to family educational and medical needs. As the report notes, the leave without pay policy is separate from the Family and Medical Leave Act, and the president cannot not extend full benefits to the same sex partners of federal employees unless Congress passes a law.

The iconic New Haven, Connecticut home of 20th century architecture great Philip Johnson requires repairing, Bloomberg News reporting that the county home Johnson built and shared with his long time partner David Whitney, known as the Glass House, as well as the adjacent Brick House, need attention. The National Trust for Historic Prevention, which owns the property, is hold two fundraising events this fall, one to be held this Thursday in Chicago, the second in New York City October 6th.

George Michael was sentenced to eight weeks in jail Tuesday, the Guardian reporting that the 47 year old singer, whose real name is Georgios Panayiotou, admitted in August to “driving while unfit through drugs and possessing two cannabis cigarettes while he was held in Hampstead, north-west London, in the early hours of July 4th,” after being arrested when two officers found him unconscious in a grey Range Rover after the vehicle had left the road and hit a branch of Snappy Snaps.

Neil Patrick Harris and David Burtka have been busy as bees this New York Fashion Week, the cuter that cute twosome turned out fashionably at Tommy Hilfiger’s 25th anniversary spring/summer 2011 show at Lincoln Center in New York that also featured a not so secret performance by the Strokes.