Newt Gingrich Calls For Barney Frank To Be Jailed, At New Hampshire Town Hall Meeting Mitt Romney Repeatedly Asked Stance On Same Sex Marriage, Hired In May Equality California Executive Director Resigns, Minnesota Man Convicted Of Robbing And Raping Transgender Male, Maine ACLU To Honour Transgender Teen And Her Family

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich targeted Massachusetts Congressman Barney Frank in Tuesday night’s Bloomberg/ Washington Post Republican debate at Dartmouth College. The Boston Globe reports that the Dodd-Frank financial regulatory reform bill signed by President Obama has been a popular target among the Republican candidates. But Gingrich went farther than attacking the bill. Responding to a question about whether Wall Street executives should go to jail for the financial collapse, Gingrich responded, “If you want to put people in jail…you ought to start with Barney Frank and Chris Dodd and let’s look at the politicians who created the environment, the politicians who profited from the environment, and the politicians who put this country in trouble ... In Barney Frank’s case, go back and look at the lobbyists he was close to at -- at Freddie Mac.” Gingrich was referring to a story first reported in May by The Globe that the openly gay Representative Barney Frank recommended his live-in companion, Herb Moses, for a job at Fannie Mae (not Freddie Mac) in the early 1990s, at the same time Congress was writing legislation to improve oversight of the agency. Frank, for more than two decades, was a member of the House Financial Services Committee charged with oversight of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Frank said Moses was qualified, and he never specifically asked the agency to hire him. The revelation originally appeared in a book by New York Times columnist Gretchen Morgenson.

Social issues dominated the second Mitt Romney town hall Monday in New Hampshire, where he was asked so many times about his view on same-sex marriage that he stopped responding to the questions altogether. ABC News reports that the first question came from a young woman in the audience who asked, “Why is it that you feel that marriage between a man and a man or a woman and a woman is lesser than a marriage between a man and a woman?” Romney answered, “I think the ideal setting to raise a child for a society like ours is where there is a man and a woman in the marriage. So I think as a society we are wise to encourage marriage between a man and a woman for the purpose of raising our kids.” A few questions later another young woman followed up on his answer and asked why being raised by two women like she was — her grandmother and her mother raised her — was any different from being raised by a man and a woman. “I can say, look there are a lot of folks who get raised by one parent … but in my view a society recognizes that the ideal setting for raising a child is when you have the benefit of two people working together and when one is male and one is female,” Romney said. “That’s why as a society we say we’re going to call marriage what it has been called for 6,000 years or longer — a relationship between one man and one woman.” But the questions did not stop there. Right away another woman asked Romney about civil unions, to which he said he supported domestic partnerships that would provide couples the ability for hospital visitation rights. Then, turning to another woman in the audience with her hand raised to ask a question, Romney quipped, “Yes, just so long as — no, go ahead, but if it’s the same question I don’t have a new answer.” And it was. “I was raised by two dads,” the woman said. “That’s really offensive to me and I just want to know why you feel it is not right for my dads to be able to walk down the aisle.” Romney said, “I’ve answered that question,” and called on another audience member immediately. Romney was also asked several times during the 45-minute town hall — one of his shortest ever — about AIDS funding, to which he said he would not commit a specific amount of money without considering the cost in the context of the entire budget. When individuals in the audience kept asking questions about AIDS Romney eventually responded, “I’ve got nothing more for you on that.” And then there was the 8-year-old boy who asked Romney what his stance on abortion is. “That’s a question I did not expect from you, but I’m happy I got it,” responded Romney, laughing. “I am pro-life, I am pro-life and what I’d like to see happen, this is a tender and sensitive issue and good people come out on both sides of this issue and so I respect people who have different views on the issue,” he said. “What I’d like to see happen is for the Supreme Court to say we’re going to overturn Roe v. Wade and return to the states the authority to decide if they want abortion in their states.”

The leader of California's largest gay rights group is leaving his post after only a few months on the job, The Associated Press reporting that Equality California announced Monday that Executive Director Roland Palencia will step down on Friday. Palencia's decision comes less than a week after the group said it would not lead a campaign in 2012 to overturn Proposition 8, the state's voter-approved ban on same-sex marriages. Palencia said last week that recent polls show voters are still divided on Proposition 8 and that the timing is not right to undertake a risky and expensive ballot fight. Proposition 8 passed with 52-percent of the vote in November 2008. Palencia was selected to replace former director Geoff Kors in May. The group says it will announce a transition plan later this week.

A Ramsey County Minnesota jury returned guilty verdicts Monday on charges of rape and aggravated robbery in the case of a St. Paul man who attacked a transgender person. The Pioneer Press reports that Demetrius Miller, 33, did not react noticeably when Judge Rosanne Nathanson read the verdicts, except to quietly shake his head. Nathanson had warned him not to cause any disruptions. During the trial last week, Miller made audible comments about his innocence and asked to be taken back to jail before the closing arguments by attorneys. Sentencing is scheduled for November 17. The May 18 incident started at the BP gas station on University Avenue at Hamline, where Miller and a person he thought was "a dude" met and shared a cigarette, according to testimony in the trial. The victim, whom the Pioneer Press is not identifying because of the sexual assault, was born female and is transitioning to become a male, he testified. He asked to be referred to as male. The victim said he offered Miller some marijuana, so they went into the alley behind BP. At that point, Miller beat and robbed the 27-year-old. The victim had an iPod, a phone and some cash in his pockets. During the struggle, the victim's shorts were pulled down; Miller realized his victim was biologically female and then committed the rape, prosecutor Shereen Askalani told the jury. Both sides agreed that Miller robbed the victim and that the two had sex. Miller said the sex was consensual and that it actually was the other man's idea. Miller said all he wanted was to steal the items so that he could sell them to buy cocaine.

A transgender teen and her family will be honoured October 27 by the American Civil Liberties Union of Maine with the 2011 Roger Baldwin Award. The Bangor Daily News reports that Nicole Maines, her parents, Wayne and Kelly Maines, and the girl’s twin brother, Jonas Maines, are being given the organization’s highest honour for their efforts toward ending discrimination against transgender Mainers. Nicole and Jonas are 14. The family, formerly of Orono, lives in southern Maine. “The ACLU of Maine is very proud to honour [this] family for their advocacy and courage,” Shenna Bellows, executive director of the ACLU of Maine, said Tuesday in a press release. “They took enormous personal risk to advocate for an entire community.” The family, which was profiled in a September 3 article in The Bangor Daily News, became outspoken advocates for transgender rights when Nicole, who is transgender, was told by the staff at Asa Adams School in Orono that she could not use the girl’s bathroom. The Maines family advocated on behalf of Nicole and transgender youth everywhere by taking the issue first to the Maine Human Rights Commission and then to court, according to the press release. In addition, the family decided to speak out publicly when legislation was introduced in the Maine Legislature that would amend the Maine Human Rights Act to explicitly allow “the operator of a restroom or shower facility” to decide who can use which gender’s bathroom. Wayne Maines testified against the bill at a public hearing before the Legislature this past spring. Nicole walked the halls of the Legislature with her father talking to legislators. She and Jonas were interviewed on Maine Public Radio in an effort to educate the Legislature and the public about the dangers of such legislation, the press release said. “Without the [Maineses], we might have transgender discrimination on the books today,” Bellows said in announcing the award. “They were a compelling and moving face for the serious impact this legislation would have for transgender Mainers.” Wayne Maines and his daughter will speak Oct. 21 at the Spirit of Justice dinner in Boston sponsored by the group Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders. GLAD is representing the Maineses in the lawsuit the family has filed in Penobscot County Superior Court against the Orono School Department alleging that school personnel did not do enough to keep her from being bullied in school. The ACLU of Maine award is named for Roger Baldwin, an ardent activist for social justice who helped found the American Civil Liberties Union and served as its director until 1950. Baldwin remained active in the cause of civil rights and civil liberties until his death in 1981 at the age of 97.