Windsor Retired Teacher On Trial For Sexual Assault Of Two Former Students, Lesbian Cadet Wishes To Return To West Point Post-Repeal Of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” Prince Edward Island Urged To Market Itself To Gay And Lesbian Travellers, Kimpton Hotel Chain Named Most Visible Among Gay And Lesbian Travellers, Joe Jonas And His Adorable Bulldog Pup Winston

The Windsor Star reports on the trial of 68 year old John Gibson charged with two counts of sexual assault against two former male students, Gibson a retired geography teacher and the faculty member in charge of student parliament. The assaults are alleged to have taken place from 1984 to 1986. Thursday, a former student, now 43 years old, who cannot be named because of court order protecting his identity, said Gibson assaulted him at least six times, including twice on Gibson’s sailboat, and once in his own parent’s bed. He testified that he never wanted a sexual relationship with the teacher, but that he never stopped the sex acts when they were occurring, telling court “I remember being ashamed of myself ... At this point I was blaming myself for putting myself in that situation.” The man says he went to the Windsor police in 1997, accompanied by a female friend, to report the abuse, however no record of that meeting has yet to be found.

Katherine Miller, the West Point undergraduate whose resignation from the academy in August was an obvious objection to the American military policy prohibiting openly gay service members, tells the Associated Press that she wants to return once that ban is repealed. The 21 year old openly gay Miller says “she started dreaming of going to West Point around the time she turned 16 – more than a year before she came to accept she was gay. Even after that, the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy was no more than a passing concern. She wanted to be a leader at the academy, someone with honour. She excelled, ranking near the top of her class of more than 1,100 cadets going into her third year. But Miller also was hiding in fear. ‘I realized that I wasn’t becoming the leader of character that I wanted to be,’ she said. Other gay cadets in her small circle of friends tried to persuade her to stick it out. Conforming after all, is a tenet taught in the military. ‘It was definitely an option,’ Miller said. ‘I just chose not to live my life that way. I’m pretty stubborn in my values. I needed to get out and declare who I was.’”

Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corporation vice-president of communications Jeff Guaracino and gay travel expert Ed Salvato, the keynote speakers Friday at the Tourism Industry Association of Prince Edward Island, said the province is missing an opportunity to attract gay and lesbian tourists to the island, and that a long-term marketing plan needs to be created, according to the Charlottetown Guardian. Guaracino, who developed the now famous Get Your History Straight for Philadelphia, said that a survey revealed 77-percent of gay and lesbian travellers who visited P.E.I. said they would recommend the province to others, but unfortunately 51-percent reported feeling uncomfortable, a reality likely born out of the recent hate crime that saw a gay couple burned out of their Little Pond home.

Meanwhile, USA Today reports that the Kimpton hotel chain was voted by gay and lesbian travellers the hotel group that does the best job of promoting itself to the gay and lesbian travel market, Community Marketing conducting its 14 annual tourism survey. W placed second, followed by Hilton, Hyatt, and Marriot. David Paisley, of Community Marketing, said that Kimpton “is the most active in the LGBT community. They have a website, they sponsor tons of events and they advertise in the gay and lesbian media. W is very active and well respected, but they did fall behind.”

Who is cuter?