Evangelical graduate student Mark Schumacher was expelled from Argosy University, a private school in Minnesota where he was a student in the Doctor of Psychology program. Argosy University expelled him for “demonstrat[ing] intolerance for gays and lesbians.” Schumacher filed a suit, including claims for discrimination, breach of contract, arbitrary expulsion, defamation, and violation of his constitutional rights, against the institution.

Judge Donovan Frank, of the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota, dismissed Schumacher’s entire complaint in early December 2006. See “Federal Court Rejects Suit Over Expulsion of Grad Student Over Homophobia Allegations” in the January edition of the Lesbian/Gay Law Notes (page 8) for the whole story.

San Francisco became the first U.S. city to offer city employees comprehensive coverage for gender transitions in 2001. Since then some major companies have taken notice and have changed their employee benefits packages to follow suit.

General Motors, IBM, Eastman Kodak and Hallmark Cards, as well as the universities of Michigan and California, now include transition-related coverage in their standard employee benefits.

The San Francisco Chronicle reports that the Human Rights Campaign “found in a survey released last year that 67 major companies now cover surgeries, hormone therapy, short-term leave, medical visits and mental health services for transsexual employees.” The HRC also reported, in its 2006 Workplace Gender Transition Guidelines, that “eighty-two companies in the Fortune 500 included “gender identity” or “gender identity and expression” in their written non-discrimination policies to address discrimination against transgender workers as of May 2006.”

The New Mexico Aging and Long-Term Services Department had to change the location of its annual conference this year because Baptist-owned LifeWay Glorieta Conference Center, the usual location of its annual conferences, attempted to to restrict discussion of gay issues.

RainbowVision, a GLBT residential community in Santa Fe, presented at last year’s conference held at the LifeWay Glorieta Conference Center. While the presentation was a non-issue during the conference, the center’s manager later stated that he felt the center’s contract with the Aging and Long-Term Services Department should prohibit presentations in opposition to Baptist teachings.

This year’s annual conference has been moved to Sandia Pueblo’s resort complex.

A woman breaks up with her girlfriend (who had never said “I love you” during the six years they were together). The dumper moves on to a man. The dumpee figures she should try a man too, because, well, her ex is with one. So she (dumpee) hops into bed with the first sensitive guy she finds. Sensitive guy = kinda like a woman?

But Dumpee doesn’t really want to be with a man, so before long she’s after a woman who’s “new to bisexuality.” And guess what? New Bi Woman is the girlfriend of the man she hopped into bed with. (I forgot to tell you that Sensitive Guy is in a relationship.) Oh, the drama.

Once again, I’m train wreck curious.

Puccini for Beginners will be in theaters on February 2nd.

KCBS reports that an estimated 800 to 1,600 of the approximately 4,000 homeless teenagers who call San Francisco’s streets home are gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender. These numbers, unfortunately, match up with nationwide statistics.

Doctors are hopeful that the vaccine against human papillomavirus will be able to prevent a disease gay men are at an elevated risk of: anal cancer.

A case in California’s Ninth Circuit Court in Pasadena is asking the court to decide if stating specific preferences in roommate ads is discriminatory and in violation of federal Fair Housing statutes.

The suit was filed against Roommates.com by the Fair Housing Councils of San Fernando Valley and San Diego.

According to the Ninth Circuit lawsuit, if a straight woman were to advertise that she is seeking a gay male roommate, it could be seen as potentially discriminatory towards applicants who aren’t gay males.

…snip…

The California case raises legal and social questions that intersect individual privacy concerns, the First Amendment and laws meant to protect everyone from discrimination. In a strange irony, the case highlights how groups that have themselves been the historical victims of discrimination-like gays-can themselves be discriminatory. But the case may also highlight legal loopholes by which someone can state exactly who he or she will or will not live with.

Betsy Herzog, director of public information at the New York City Commission on Human Rights, is quoted on rules for owners who rent fewer than three units in homes they occupy in “Lawsuit Questions Gay Roommate Preference”: “”If you live in your house where you have an apartment, you can pick and choose who you want in your apartment…[but if] I advertise that apartment, and I say that I don’t want a black, a Jew or a gay guy, that would be discrimination.” Herzog added that individuals have a right to pick and choose who they want to live with.

This leeway is given since apartments by their very nature, are close and private living quarters. But, the California case calls out Roomates.com and the ads themselves not the individuals posting them.

Sharon Stone is reportedly shocked that Isaiah Washington had to enter a residential treatment facility after his use of an anti-gay slur towards T.R. Knight because she refers to her gay friends as “big fags.”

The outspoken [Basic Instinct] star claims it’s “absurd” Washington has been sent to therapy. She tells the New York Post, “‘I’ve been called a bitch – and a lot worse – for years. And you know what, so what? People who think that aren’t going to change their minds. “And I wouldn’t dream of sending them to therapy to ‘rehabilitate’ their feelings. How absurd. “Please, I call all my gay friends ‘big fags’.”

T.R. Knight, not happy about the way ABC and Disney have dealt with Isaiah Washington’s behavior, might be leaving Grey’s Anatomy, according to a source who says that T.R. “feels that the atmosphere [of Grey’s Anatomy] is so toxic and unhealthy.”

T.R.’s spokeswoman said that rumors the actor will leave Grey’s Anatomy are completely false.

Previous posts here, here, here, here and here.

And he can already read Freakonomics. I’m such a proud mommy.