Gay Kentucky Students: "You Can't Pee Here"

From The Advocate

May 04, 2009

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By Michelle Garcia

Fifteen students protested outside a Frankfort, Ky., high school on Friday after an official allegedly sent a notification to teachers advising them to bar gay students from leaving class to use the restroom.

The reported e-mail was sent by Franklin County High School assistant principal Karen Buzard after two female students were reportedly seen kissing in a bathroom, according to the Kentucky Equality Federation.

A statement on the school's website says that students have not been singled out, but the directive was "that certain students should not be allowed to leave the classroom during class because they had been in violation of school rules. All students have time between classes to use the facilities."

Protesters waved rainbow flags and signs that read, "Honk if you're gay" and "We have a right to pee," the State-Journal reports.

Wayne Dominick, communications coordinator for the school district, said administrators are figuring out how to address students' concerns.

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Transgender murder, hate crime conviction a first

By Jim Spellman
CNN


DENVER, Colorado (CNN) -- A Colorado man was convicted of first-degree murder and a bias-motivated crime and sentenced to life in prison for killing a transgender teen he met on an online social networking site.
Allen Andrade was convicted of first-degree murder and a hate crime in the slaying of a transgender teen.


It was the first time in the nation that a state hate crime statute resulted in a conviction in a transgender person's murder, the advocacy group Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation said.

Seated in the front row of the courtroom, the family of Justin "Angie" Zapata broke out in tears as the verdicts against Allen Andrade were read.

The jury deliberated for just under two hours before returning the verdict shortly after 3 p.m.

"I lost somebody so precious," said Maria Zapata, the victim's mother. She glanced at Andrade and continued: "The only thing he can't take away is the love and the memories that I have of my baby. My beautiful, beautiful baby."

Andrade spoke just one word. "No," he said when asked if he wished to address the court.

Judge Marcelo Kopcow then imposed the mandatory sentence for the first-degree murder conviction -- life in prison without parole.

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11-Year-Old Hangs Himself after Enduring Daily Anti-Gay Bullying

NEW YORK, April 9, 2009 - An 11-year-old Massachusetts boy, Carl Joseph Walker-Hoover, hung himself Monday after enduring bullying at school, including daily taunts of being gay, despite his mother’s weekly pleas to the school to address the problem. This is at least the fourth suicide of a middle-school aged child linked to bullying this year.

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