Florida Man Sentenced To 15 Years For Murdering Transvestite Lover, Shreveport Man Pleads Guilty To Anti-Gay Hate Crime,Monroe County School Board Of Education Agrees To Allow Students To Wear Tee-Shirts Supporting Gay-Straight Alliances, European Union Legislations Calls On Turkish Cypriots To Repeal Law That Penalizes Gay Sex, Brown University President Supports Continuing Ban On ROTC Until Military Ends Anti-Transgender Discrimination

A 25-year-old suburban Lake Worth janitor was sentenced to 15 years in prison Wednesday after he pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the 2008 stabbing death of a cross-dressing waiter who was one of his lovers. The Orlando Sun-Sentinel reports that deputies arrested Juan Carlos Atenco Camacho in July 2010 after they say he confessed to killing 33 year-old Naum Rafael Mendez before dumping his body west of Palm Beach Gardens. At the time of the killings, according to authorities, Camacho was married but also was having an affair with a 16-year-old girl with whom he'd been involved since the girl was 14. Mendez's brother was the first to alert police to his disappearance in February 2008. The brother described Mendez as a homosexual transvestite who was a waiter at Matteo's Restaurant in Boca Raton but also worked part time at a Greenacres club, where he danced under the name "Gaviota." Camacho, who was the last person seen with Mendez, in 2008 told police he met Mendez at Mendez's Boca Raton apartment, drank a beer with him and then left him in the parking lot. He also told police he had never had a sexual relationship with Mendez. Though Camacho's story changed several times, according to his 2010 arrest report, detectives two years earlier released him after he provided them with an alibi — saying he spent the night with a 16 year-old girl with whom he had fathered a 2 year-old son. Two years later, detectives confronted Camacho with phone records and other incriminating evidence in the case, and he eventually admitted he and Mendez had a sexual relationship and that he'd killed Mendez during an argument after Mendez told him he'd fallen in love with him and wanted him to leave his wife. Camacho led authorities to the scene of where he said he dumped the body after he confessed, but Mendez's body was never recovered. Camacho accepted the plea on Wednesday, speaking through an interpreter in court before Circuit Judge Joseph Marx sentenced him. He could have faced up to 30 years in prison if convicted of second-degree murder, but received the 15-year sentence on the lesser charge of manslaughter with a deadly weapon.

A Shreveport, Louisiana man pleaded guilty this to striking another with a pool cue in what authorities call a hate crime. William David Payne II plead guilty as charged to one count each of aggravated battery and hate crime before Caddo District Judge Ramona Emanuel, according to The Shreveport Times. Payne, 32, struck John Skaggs in the face with a pool cue inside of the Sandbar night club in January. Witnesses say Payne targeted the victim based on the notion Skaggs, 52, is gay. The assault caused serious facial injury to the victim's eye socket and jawbone area and rendering him unconscious. Assistant District Attorney Aaron Crawford filed a multiple offender bill filed against Payne today charging him as a three times felony offender. Payne is to return to court on Monday for further proceedings. He faces at least 25 years in prison if convicted as a multiple offender.

An update on a previous post, the Monroe County Board of Education has agreed to allow students to wear T-shirts that support of the formation of a Gay-Straight Alliance. The American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee earlier this month demanded the board revise its policies after Sequoyah High School student Chris Sigler said he was shoved and taunted by his principal for wearing a T-shirt that supported the club. The Monroe County School System disputed that claim; however the schools agreed this week to review their dress code policy to ensure that it protects students' rights to free speech. Of the decision, Sigler said that “A lot of kids get harassed at our school because they’re gay or they have gay friends, and we just want a space where we can all support each other and do something positive. We still want the GSA to be recognized as a club, but at least now the school won’t punish us for peacefully expressing our opinions.” In a statement, Hedy Weinberg, executive director of the ACLU of Tennessee said that “Public schools have a responsibility to provide a safe and welcoming environment for all students. Preventing students from even discussing discrimination they’ve endured on campus is not only mean-spirited, it’s unconstitutional. We look forward to working with this and other schools in Monroe County to ensure that proper policies and practices are enacted and enforced to protect all students.”

A European Union legislator urged the leader of Cyprus’ breakaway Turkish north on Thursday to repeal an anti-gay law that led to the arrest of a former Greek Cypriot Cabinet minister. The Associated Press reports that Lawmaker Marina Yannakoudakis raised the issue during a meeting with Turkish Cypriot leader Dervis Eroglu, and a top government official said Eroglu agreed that the law should be scrapped. The official spoke on condition of anonymity in keeping with government regulations. Yannakoudakis, whose parents are Greek Cypriots, was visiting the ethnically divided island with other European Union legislators for contacts with the Turkish Cypriot community. “I was horrified when I heard that they hadn’t repealed the law,” said Yannakoudakis, a Conservative Party member of the European Parliament for London. Last week, the law, a leftover from the island’s British colonial past, led to the arrest of Michalis Sarris, a former Greek Cypriot finance minister, on suspicion that he tried to have gay sex in the north. The law considers that a felony punishable by up to five years in prison. On Thursday, a Turkish Cypriot court formally charged and released the 65-year-old Sarris on €46,000 ($63,000) bail and ordered him to appear before a judge next month. Cyprus gained independence from Britain in 1960, but was split into a Turkish-speaking north and a Greek-speaking south in 1974, when Turkey invaded after a coup by supporters of union with Greece. Turkish Cypriots declared independence in 1983, but that is only recognized by one country, Turkey. The entire island joined the EU in 2004, but only the internationally recognized south enjoys membership benefits. The south repealed an identical anti-gay law a decade ago. During his meeting with Yannakoudakis, Eroglu said that if his Parliament were to pass legislation repealing the anti-gay law, he would sign it, said the government official. However, no such bill is pending. Mine Yucel, a Turkish Cypriot social activist, said Thursday that homosexuality is still considered a taboo by many residents of her part of the island. But she said that’s changing with the younger generation. Earlier this week, activists had gathered in front of the courthouse where Sarris was being held to condemn what amounted to institutionalized homophobia. “It’s basically outrageous that we have these laws in this century,” said Yucel.

Brown University President Ruth Simmons is supporting a recommendation to maintain the campus ban on ROTC, though she backs a possible expansion of students' options for participating in the military officer training program at other institutions. The Boston Globe reports that a committee studying the university's ROTC policy recommended that an existing program allowing students to participate in the program at Providence College remain in place. Simmons says she also supports discussing with the Defense Department an expansion of other, off-campus opportunities. The repeal last year of the military's "Don't ask, Don't tell" policy, which prevented gays from serving openly, prompted Brown to reconsider its ban on ROTC. Harvard University lifted a similar ban earlier this year. Simmons has asked the Brown community to push for ending discrimination against transgender individuals, whom the military still does not allow to serve.