Michael Portantino, Transgender Woman Sues California Department Of Motor Vehicles Over Invasion Of Privacy, Atlanta Could Have Saved Millions And Settled Eagle Bar Botched Raid Suit In February, Facebook And Bain & Company To Compensate Gay Employees For Federal Tax Benefit

Michael Portantino, the longtime publisher of the San Diego’s Gay and Lesbian Times is dead. He was 52. According to the county medical examiner, he died of an apparent suicide, after leaping from a seven-story Balboa Park hotel, the Los Angeles Times reports. He had reportedly been depressed since the newspaper was forced to close because of financial difficulties. Nicole Murray-Ramirez, a longtime columnist for the newspaper says “He was tenacious, a fighter, but it just got to be too much for him” adding that he “brought gay journalism into the modern world” covering cultural, political, and social issues. Mr. Portantino is survived by a daughter.

Transgender Amber Yust, a resident of San Francisco, as previously posted, says that a California Department of Motor Vehicles clerk used a state database to contact her via a letter at her home condemning her sex change, the letter arriving four days after she went to apply for a new driver’s license in October, the letter deeming her sex change “a very evil decision” and identifying the author as the individual who processed her application. Now, reports the Associated Press, Yust has begun the process of suing the DMV for invasion of privacy and for violating her civil rights, filing a claim Wednesday seeking damages.

The Atlanta Journal Constitution reports that attorneys for the Atlanta Eagle bar owners and patrons offered in February to settle a federal lawsuit against the police department for almost all of the same concessions contained in an agreement settled on last week, however one condition not offered months ago, but in the final agreement is that the city will pay 28 plaintiffs a total of $1.025 million. The final negotiations also require Atlanta taxpayers to pay the legal expenses for both sides as well as the costs of depositions and transcripts. There were a total of three attorneys for the Eagle bar and a total of eight attorneys for the city since the suit was filed in federal court earlier this year. Daniel Grossman, an attorney for the bar and for patrons, said “They (the city) could have saved themselves a lot of money. The money is not just the million paid to us. It’s the million they spent defending this case.”

Facebook and the Boston-based consulting firm Bain & Company announced that they will compensate United States-based employees who must pay additional federal taxes for placing their domestic partners on the company’s health benefit plans. The New York Times reports that the plans for both companies come into effect January 1s. Barclays, Cisco, the Gates Foundation, Google, and the Kimpton Hotels are among companies that have similar policies in place.