Ifti Nasim, Montreal Police Believe Arsonist Responsible For Fire In City’s Gay Village, Study Finds Massachusetts Homosexual Teens Far More Likely To Be Homeless Than Their Heterosexual Counterparts, Miami-Dade Public School District Includes Sexual Orientation And Gender Identity In Anti-Bullying And Harassment Policy, Autopsy Results On Amy Winehouse Inconclusive, Colton Haynes, Joss Whedon Wants To Create Strong Gay Character

A well-known openly gay Pakistani Muslim poet and Chicago radio show host has died. Ifti Nasim was 64. His sister Ajaz Nasreen told The Associated Press he died Friday following a heart attack. Nasim was well known in Chicago's South Asian community, known for his activism, flamboyant fashion and touching poetry that dealt with themes including homosexuality, politics and his native Pakistan. He immigrated more than three decades ago. Nasim was a founder of SANGAT/Chicago, a South Asian lesbian, gay and transgender organization. His book Narman was thought to be the first book of gay themed poetry to be published in Urdu. Nasim was inducted into the Chicago Gay and Lesbian Hall of Fame in 1996. A funeral was Saturday. Religious memorial services were planned Sunday.

The Montreal Gazette reports that police speculate that an arsonist used a Molotov cocktail to cause a fire early Monday in the city's Gay Village. Firefighters were called to an apartment on Wolfe St. about 5:00 am to extinguish the blaze, which caused minor damage to the three-storey building.“An incendiary device was found at the scene and Montreal police were called in to investigate the cause of the fire,” Montreal police Constable Dany Richer said, adding that no arrests have been made. No one was injured in the fire, but about 10 people were ordered out of their homes.

The Boston Globe reports that homosexual teens in Massachusetts are far more likely to be homeless than their heterosexual peers, according to a new study from researchers at Children’s Hospital Boston. The researchers analyzed a survey of more than 6,000 public high school students and found that approximately 25-percent of gay and lesbian teens and 15-percent of those who said they are bisexual were homeless, compared with just 3 percent of heterosexual teens who were homeless. “It may be that their living situation is so difficult that they decide to leave home, and it may be that they are coming out and their parents are telling them, not under my roof,” said the study’s lead author, Heather Corliss, a research scientist at Children’s and an instructor of paediatrics at Harvard Medical School. Corliss’ team analyzed the data from the 2005 and 2007 Massachusetts Youth Risk Behaviour Survey, a comprehensive survey conducted every other year by state education and public health officials to assess teen health, such as tobacco, alcohol and drug use, and sexual orientation. The researchers found that 34-percent of the students who said they were homeless in the survey also indicated that they were either gay, lesbian, bisexual or unsure of their sexual orientation. Of that group, 19-percent said they were gay, lesbian or bisexual. Other studies of homeless teens have found that anywhere from 5 to 50-percent said they were not heterosexual. But the Children’s Hospital analysis is believed to be the first one that studied the issue in the general population, in this case, in the state’s schools, whereas other studies surveyed teens on the street or living in shelters. The Children’s study, which is being published in the American Journal of Public Health, used an expansive definition of homeless -- the same one public schools are required to use under federal law to ensure homeless teens are receiving adequate education and services. Under that definition, teens were categorized as not homeless if they indicated in the survey that they lived “at home with my parents or guardians.” Any other answer was recorded as being homeless. Other studies have shown that teens that are homeless are much more likely to abuse drugs and alcohol and engage in other risky behaviour. Corliss said she hopes those findings, combined with the results of her team’s analysis, spur more help for gay and bisexual youth. “I hope these findings will lead to changes in communities to reduce the disparities,” Corliss said. “There has to be changes in communities, in churches, in schools, and in families so that they become more supportive” of these teens.

On Friday, the Miami-Dade Public School District amended the language of its anti-bullying and harassment policy to explicitly include unwanted harm against any student or teacher based on “sexual orientation and gender identity,” NBC Miami reporting that previously citing the likes of sex, race, color, religion, disability, and socio-economic status, the policy now protects gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender students. Jowharah Sanders, a woman whose mission it is to help bullied students after knowing what it was like not to have such measures, says the move is most welcome. "It immediately brings a smile to my face," she said. "I'm like, 'Wow, finally!'" As a 15-year-old Miami high school student, Sanders confided to a classmate that she was questioning her sexuality, wondering if she might like girls. Her friend quickly spread Sanders' secret, leading to horrifying, sadly predictably consequences. "I was abducted from my school and taken to a house and was sexually assaulted by multiple men," Sanders said. "They wanted to show me that if I just had sex with a guy, I would not be gay." Sanders escaped, and days later admitted to her parents and school principal that she had been raped. But the principal, she says, advised her parents that they should withdraw Sanders from school. "My parents were so ashamed of it, because...no one wants to talk about, you know, this thing that has happened -- whether it's your fault or not. Especially with rape victims, no one wants to talk about it. My parents were like, 'It's better that you don't go to school. Don't tell anybody.' I could've used somebody to talk to." Sanders tried committing suicide twice, and doctors eventually diagnosed her with post-traumatic stress disorder. She slowly started getting her life back on track after eventually telling her mother why the men had assaulted her. Now, Sanders dedicates her life to helping students across South Florida through her non-profit organization National Voices for Equality, Education and Enlightenment, speaking at schools in Miami-Dade and Broward -- and helping kids, whether gay or straight. "When I ask them, 'What'd you do today?" they don't stop talking. And that's telling me either somebody is not asking them about their day, or they don't feel like someone's listening."

An autopsy carried out following the sudden death of singer Amy Winehouse on Saturday has not established the cause of her death, with police saying that definitive results could take up to four weeks, according to a report by The Guardian. Police add that her death remains unexplained and that speculation regarding an overdose is “inappropriate.”

The still-closeted, still so sexy Colton Haynes spotted in San Diego attending the 5th Annual Entertainment Weekly Comic-Con Celebration.

According to a report by IO9, Joss Whedon told an audience at Comic-Con in San Diego that he wants to write a strong gay character, saying “I have actually wanted to do a book. I have one in mind. It's not on the front burner. You write enough lesbians and you start to realize: This is just a guy. This isn't feminism. This is Cinemax. I think it's time for a little equal opportunity. Besides, who doesn't love cock?”