Kenya is on the verge of introducing legislation that would criminalise openly identifying with, or supporting, the LGBTQ+ community, with punishments including the death penalty.
Labelled the Family Protection Act, the East African country’s bill would see a complete ban on activities that “promote homosexuality”, including openly identifying as LGBTQ+ or wearing Pride emblems.
Those found in breach of the law would face a minimum of 10 years in jail while those found guilty of performing same-sex acts would face a minimum of 14 years.
Additionally, anyone found guilty under a clause for “aggravated homosexuality,” defined as engaging in “homosexual acts with a minor or disabled person and transmitting a terminal disease through sexual means”, could be executed.
Similar bills are also being proposed in Tanzania and South Sudan, while Ghana‘s president, Nana Akufo-Addo, has signalled that an anti-LGBTQ+ bill is being proposed there, although he is wary of its “constitutionality”.
MP George Peter Kaluma, who has led the bill through the Kenyan parliament, said that he and the bills’ proponents want to prohibit “everything to do with homosexuality.”
He told the BBC: “The bill will propose a total ban on what the West calls sex-reassignment prescriptions and procedures and prohibit all activities that promote homosexuality.”
He added that this would include Pride parades, drag shows, wearing rainbow colours and flags, and openly wearing “emblems of the LGBTQ+ group.” Same-sex acts are already prohibited in Kenya.
In response, a coalition of LGBTQ+ and human rights groups have urged the Biden administration in the US to impose sanctions on Kenya should the bill be enacted.
In an open letter published on Monday (17 July), at least 50 not-for-profit organisations urged the government to cut Kenya’s Strategic Trade and Investment Partnership (STIP) until the bill was dropped.
The letter asked individuals to sign a petition to “stop US-Kenya trade negotiations until president [William] Ruto commits to vetoing legislation that criminalises the LGBTQI+ community.”
Additionally, Zambian priest and Boston University academic Kapya Kaoma told the BBC that he believed bills such as this are part of lobbying efforts by right-wing groups to impose “militant homophobia” in Africa.
“It’s one thing to say, ‘I don’t agree with you being gay’, but politicians now are saying: ‘You go to jail for life, you go to jail for talking about being gay’.”
Annette Atieno, from the National Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission, branded the legislation hateful, adding that it will make the lives of queer Kenyans unbearable.
A 2019 survey from the Pew Research Center, a non-partisan US think tank, found that 83 per cent of Kenyans think society should not accept homosexuality.
When Adm. Rachel Levine, assistant secretary of health, declared 2023 the summer of Pride, she rang a clarion bell but also delivered a challenge in our hate-filled era because, as per the ACLU, LGBTQ communities have recently seen close to 500 anti-LGBTQ pieces of legislation proposed across the nation .
Yet LGBTQ communities persist in celebration, resistance and resilience. Over 30 cities from Silicon Valley, Calif., to Atlanta are scheduled to commemorate Pride from July to November. Tragically, many communities face homophobic legislation that now bans flying the rainbow flag.
I was dismayed to learn this trend of hatred had reached my home state of Michigan — because it’s a reflection of a broader effort to disappear our flag and disenfranchise our communities.
I am a proud native son of Michigan, a graduate of the Lansing public school system, an alumnus of Michigan State University. My state taught me to respect neighbors from all walks of life. It’s a lesson I keep close to my heart I was profoundly disappointed to learn of the recent ban on flying the rainbow flag in Hamtramck. Since the shocking June 13 vote banning flying the flag, compassionate citizens have protested this legislation. They held a large rally on June 24. Many businesses and citizens proudly flew the rainbow flag in defiance. And, in an act of civil disobedience, a brave soul raised the flag on July 9.
The injustice in Hamtramck reflects a larger trend of rising bigotry.
Make no mistake; these bans and attacks on the rainbow flag are not in Michigan alone. Across the country we are seeing a wave of anti-LGBTQ legislation: They include bans on LGBTQ-inclusive school curricula, on books and on lifesaving trans healthcare needs. Suppressing speech and removing our cherished symbols is part of a larger mission: Relegating the LGBTQ community to permanent second-class citizenship.
As bigotry and violence increase, we must unite and push back against the bullies.
I’ve committed my life to social justice. That is why I founded the Gilbert Baker Foundation. Our group honors the legacy of artist and activist Gilbert Baker, who created the rainbow flag in 1978. Through art and education projects, we confront the haters.
In response to this alarming trend, the Gilbert Baker Foundation launched a counter-offensive: Save The Rainbow Flag. Working with the ACLU, we‘ve created a toolkit to help you confront and stop bigotry in your hometown.
Hamtramck, like so many other towns, uses faulty thinking in banning the rainbow flag. Their residents and all-Muslim town council said that the Pride flag — and homosexuality — clash with their religious beliefs. Hamtramck’s new policy also bans flags with racist and political views. To identify the rainbow flag this way is a smokescreen for bigotry. The rainbow flag is not a political flag. It is a flag for sexual and gender minorities from all parties, from all races.
To deny public display of the rainbow flag is to place a target on our back. Studies show that when communities remove our flag from public property, there is a concurrent rise in anti-LGBTQ hate crimes. This past January, federal legislation to ban the rainbow flag was submitted to the U.S. Congress — with 30 Republican sponsors.
Public officials are elected to decide between right and wrong. Instead of shirking from these civic duties, leaders of towns like Hamtramck should stand up and state publicly that there is a difference between a bad symbol like the Confederate flag, which celebrates racism, and the rainbow flag, which offers a message of hope and acceptance.
This is my plea to elected officials everywhere: Embrace our founding values of inclusion and justice. By removing the rainbow flag, you send a message of support to our persecutors. Upholding bigotry will be your legacy.
Fighting back against bullies is an American value. And it works. Citizens have already reversed rainbow flag bans in cities in Oregon and New York. Every state needs an energetic community response to end this wave of hate. Let’s prove that America supports all of its people.
Charles Beal is the president of the Gilbert Baker Foundation.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines face bias-motivated violence and discrimination in their daily life, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. The authorities should repeal the country’s colonial-era laws that criminalize consensual same-sex conduct and pass comprehensive civil legislation prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
The 58-page report, “‘They Can Harass Us Because of the Laws’: Violence and Discrimination against LGBT People in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines,” exposes the physical and verbal assaults, family violence, homelessness, workplace harassment, bullying, and sexual violence that sexual and gender minorities face under the shadow of discriminatory laws. Those responsible for mistreatment include people close to LGBT people – family members, neighbors, coworkers, classmates, and teachers – as well as strangers and police officers.
“The criminalization of gay sex gives tacit state sanction to the discrimination and violence that LGBT people experience in their daily lives and compels many to look abroad to live freely and fulfill their dreams,” said Cristian González Cabrera, LGBT rights researcher at Human Rights Watch. “The lack of public policies in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines acknowledging the needs and capacities of LGBT people has furthered their social and economic marginalization, barring them from contributing fully to society.”
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines is one of six countries in the Western Hemisphere that still criminalizes gay sex. It punishes “buggery,” or anal sex, with up to 10 years in prison and “gross indecency with another person of the same sex,” with up to 5 years. These laws single out consensual gay sex in the “sexual offences” section of the criminal code that is otherwise reserved for crimes like rape, incest, and sexual assault. While there have been no recent reported convictions on the basis of these criminal provisions for consensual gay sex, the laws stigmatize LGBT people and create an obstacle to full equality.
The other countries in the region that still criminalize gay sex are Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, and Saint Lucia.
Human Rights Watch conducted most of the 30 interviews for this report during a research trip to Saint Vincent in October 2022. Human Rights Watch conducted additional remote interviews, reviewed documentary evidence and a range of secondary sources, and carried out legal analyses in early 2023.
Archaic laws outlawing consensual same-sex conduct, although dormant, contribute to a climate in which discrimination and violence take place with impunity. As a 25-year-old gay man from Saint Vincent told Human Rights Watch, “People feel they can harass us because of the laws. If people are having an argument, that’s [their] justification for homophobia. They say it’s the laws, that it’s illegal.”
Nearly all LGBT people interviewed reported at least one recent incident of physical or verbal abuse, threats, sexual violence, or harassment. Some had sought police assistance, but in most instances, the authorities were not helpful, and in some cases they were openly discriminatory towards them, those interviewed said.
Most of the LGBT people interviewed said their family members had physically and verbally abused them. For many, family violence deprived them of a social safety net, sometimes leading to a precarious life, including homelessness. Some said that family rejection was often couched in moralistic terms, echoing the homophobic rhetoric preached in some churches, which are a cornerstone of social life and shape social attitudes in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.
For LGBT job seekers, employment discrimination is common. While unemployment is generally high in the country, LGBT people face additional barriers. Many people interviewed said they were not hired, or they had been fired explicitly because of their sexual orientation. Some lesbian and bisexual women interviewed said they faced sexual harassment in the workplace because of their sexual orientation, gender, or both.
At school, most of those interviewed had experienced stigma and discrimination from teachers and fellow students. Most also endured physical and verbal bullying, which led some to leave school early, setting them on a path to economic and social marginalization. For some, bullying was often accompanied by sexual harassment and violence.
Every LGBT person interviewed said they wished to leave the country and envisioned their future abroad due, in part, to the homophobic or transphobic violence and discrimination in the country.
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines has ratified international human rights treaties that obligate the government to protect the rights of everyone, including LGBT people, to life and security, freedom from ill-treatment, non-discrimination, housing, work, and education. Consensual sexual relations are protected under multiple rights, including the right to freedom from discrimination, the right to privacy, and the right to protection of the law against arbitrary and unlawful interference with, or attacks on, one’s private and family life and honor.
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines should repeal the buggery and gross indecency provisions in the criminal code and pass comprehensive civil anti-discrimination legislation that includes protections based on sexual orientation and gender identity. The National Prosecution Service and the National Security Ministry should develop policies to ensure prompt, thorough, and independent investigations into crimes and discrimination against LGBT people and hold those responsible accountable, including law enforcement officers. Ministries responsible for labor and education should initiate public campaigns to educate employers, educators, and the general public on the basic human rights of LGBT people.
“Saint Vincent and the Grenadines should move closer to equality by recognizing and protecting sexual and gender diversity, thereby strengthening the rule of law for everyone,” González said. “It should also shake off relics of its colonial history and contribute to making the Western Hemisphere free of laws that punish people for whom they choose to love.”
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has stepped up his war on “woke-ism,” most recently with an alarming video post on Twitter bragging about his “most extreme slate of anti-trans laws in modern history.” With the stroke of a pen he has already erased LGBTQ visibility in school classrooms, dismantled diversity programs, and banned the teaching of critical race theory. Who or what is next on the list is anyone’s guess, but we know from history that intolerance is like a raging forest fire that consumes everything in its path.
For the LGBTQ community, this is all part of a familiar and ongoing story of progress and backlash. The same visibility that allowed LGBTQ people to create community, educate, and organize for equality has also made us a target of those who hate and want to harm us. As an organizer at the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force (1982-93), I documented thousands of episodes of anti-gay violence, much of it encouraged by a religious right alarmed by our growing visibility and strength as a movement. Moral Majority leader Jerry Falwell filled his treasury with wildly successful direct mail appeals that declared “war against homosexuality” and that urged his adherents to “stop homosexuals dead in their tracks.”
What I learned about people consumed by fear and prejudice is that they are relentless and never stay in one lane. The scapegoating of one vulnerable group inevitably spreads to another. “Queers” were among those singled out for extermination in a White Patriot Party “Declaration of War” against enemies of the white race. A white supremacist leader who was convicted in the 1983 arson of a Jewish community center in Indiana was also found guilty of torching a gay Christian Church in Missouri that same year. I had stacks of incoming mail from indiscriminate haters emblazoned with swastikas (“WHITE POWER! DEATH TO FAGS!”).
Originally a vernacular term in the African-American community for staying alert and awake in the face of racial discrimination, the adjective “woke” gained broader attention during the Black Lives Matter protests against police brutality and, later, to mean someone who is aware of and cares about social injustice more broadly. Almost overnight the word “woke” was weaponized by the right and became a term of derision. Don’t like hearing uncomfortable truths about our history as an enslaving nation? Well, heck, just call it “woke.” Advanced Placement high school courses in African American studies? Woke. Books exploring gender identity? Woke. Disneyland? Woke. Bud Light? Woke.
Dismissing others as woke is a cynical and lazy—but highly effective—way to trigger fear in the listener, dismiss and dehumanize opponents, and shut down curiosity, inquiry, and compassionate action. Uncomfortable with woke teachers? Accuse them of “grooming” children to be gay or trans, as if that were even possible. In an instant, they are transformed from people to predators.
Anti-woke absolves all its adherents of accountability and responsibility to do anything to right historical wrongs or even respect the “other.”
Jesus declared, “The truth will set you free,” (John 8:32), but for DeSantis and his fellow Republicans, acknowledging the truth of our nation’s past errors and crimes is an outrage. Calls for reckoning and justice are viewed as pure weakness leading to downfall rather than as an opportunity for understanding, correction, and redemption. Too fragile to face facts, they are on a campaign to destroy truth and those who speak it. “Wokeism” is now described as a “virus,” which makes those who “carry” the virus (e.g., progressive activists, feminists, academics, librarians, and even scientists) spreaders of disease.
The progressive left has been criticized, sometimes with justification, for focusing too narrowly on America’s failures to live up to its stated ideals and for unfairly “canceling” those who violate woke norms and values. What critics overlook is that the conservative right is—and always has been—cancel crazy: Canceling “woke” library books and drag shows, opposing and nullifying laws to protect against discrimination, and even canceling democracy itself by limiting voting rights and casting doubt on fair elections. In the final analysis, the anti-woke right is intent on canceling reality—and the history that undergirds it—in its pursuit of a world of fixed identities and strict hierarchies in which dominant groups are in control of the narrative of who we are as a nation and who is entitled to share in its promise.
While attacking “woke” history as a litany of “victimhood” stories, the anti-woke have embraced a narrative in which everyone from Christian conservatives to Elon Musk and the super-wealthy are actually oppressed by “wokeism.” By exaggerating the power of the historically dispossessed, minimizing the harms done to them, and recasting them as scary elites, the anti-woke encourage those with relatively more privilege to view themselves as victims of those with less. Considering that LGBT people are four times more likely to be victims of violent crime than non-LGBT people and that anti-LGBT discrimination is completely legal in much of the U.S., who is victimizing whom? And how better to cancel someone than with violence or to deny them employment, housing, and services? For those who think the Black Lives Matter movement has “gone too far,” consider how many white people you know who fear for their safety when stopped by the police?
DeSantis and the Republicans are betting that their war on “wokeism” (i.e., democracy, truth, inclusivity, and compassion) will divide and ultimately conquer the electorate. Their campaign is already succeeding—driving down public approval ratings for LGBTQ rights and the teaching of critical race theory. Amid the anti-woke backlash in our politics, schools, libraries, and polling places, progressives and those deemed outsiders can withdraw, go to sleep, or stay small by closing ranks in identity tribes, focusing on narrow self-interest. Or we can become more visible and vocal, enlisting the support of active, unequivocal, unapologetic allies across the boundaries of race, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, class, ability, and ethnicity. Our fates, after all, are intertwined.
Along the way, we can affirm the best of our nation’s history, learn about each other’s struggles and triumphs, and forgive the fact that all of us are uneven in our knowledge and compassion. We must build bridges, stay curious, listen to each other’s stories, and above all, mobilize to win elections, despite the right’s relentless efforts to subvert them. Finally, we must rescue and reclaim the word “woke” from those who distort and disrespect its intent. Recognizing that “woke” is not a fixed destination but an aspiration, let us humbly aspire to live into its deepest and broadest meaning—vigilant, aware of racism and injustice, and passionately committed to wise and just action.
Kevin Berrill, LCSW, was Anti-Violence Project Director of the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force from 1982-1992. He is co
A Portuguese man says he was arrested and jailed in Turkey for 20 days because he “looked gay.”
During a visit to Istanbul last month, Miguel Alvaro says he was on his way to meet a friend for lunch when he asked police officers for directions. According to LBC, Alvaro was unaware that an unsanctioned LGBTQ+ march was happening nearby. Alvaro says that one of the Turkish police officers order his arrest.
“They grabbed my arms and I tried to free myself. One of them hit me in the ribs, they pushed me against a van, they hit me on the shoulder, which started to bleed,” he told the British radio station.
Alvaro told Portuguese media outlet P3 that he was placed in a police van where he reportedly waited for five hours before officers told him that he’d “been detained because of my appearance.”
“They thought I would participate in an unauthorized LGBTI+ march that was going to take place nearby because I looked gay,” he said. “I was in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
Human Rights Watch estimated that at least 149 people were arrested in Turkey, at least 96 of them in Istanbul, during the weekend of June 25, when police violently interfered with Pride demonstrations.
Alvaro says he spent a total of 13 hours in the van before being taken to a police station for processing the next day. According to LBC, he spent several hours in an immigrant detention center where the sheets were reportedly crawling with maggots before being driven 17 hours to a prison near the Syrian border.
Alvaro says that other prisoners threatened him because he was gay and that he barely slept during his stay at the prison for fear of being attacked. He also claims that prisoners were barely given any water.
In early July, he was finally allowed to phone his father, who asked the Portuguese embassy for help. Alvaro was not released until July 12, 20 days after his arrest.
Alvaro told P3 that the ordeal has left him “in a horrible psychological state.”
“I’m very afraid of the consequences in the future,” he said. “I can’t believe this happened to me.”
According to LBC, Alvaro is now warning members of the LGBTQ+ community not to visit Turkey. While homosexuality is legal in Turkey, the country lacks anti-discrimination protections, and same-sex marriage is not legal. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is staunchly anti-LGBTQ+. In 2021, Erdogan withdrew from the Istanbul Convention – an agreement between 45 countries to better protect women from violence – after stating it was “hijacked by a group of people attempting to normalize homosexuality.”
Last year, police in Istanbul arrested hundreds of marchers, protesters, and bystanders in and around Taksim Square, where LGBTQ+ people had gathered for a Pride march that was banned by the local governor.
When Amy Vance and Martha Martin checked out nearly all of the books from the Rancho Peñasquitos branch of the San Diego Public Library, they had a nefarious plan. The incompetent duo emailed the administrator that they would not return the “inappropriate” books.
The duo thought they had the upper hand with the plan to hold the books hostage, but instead, their plan backfired spectacularly. They inadvertently raised $45,000 for the library to expand its LGBTQ+-themed programming and materials.
“Minor children have the right to belong to a community that respects their innocence and allows families to have conversations about sex and sexual attraction privately, and only when parents deem it appropriate,” the women wrote in a June 15 email to the library after checking the books out. “It’s time for the American public libraries to once again be a respectful space for young children to freely explore great ideas that unite and inspire us all, rather than places where controversial and divisive new ideological movements are given free rein to promote their theories and policy positions about sexuality to children without the consent or notification of parents.”
Manager Adrianne Peterson told the New York Times that she felt bad that the Pride display wasn’t up to par this year due to staff vacations and training. So when the pair opted to subvert the system, she was surprised that the display had caused such consternation.
Libraries typically have lax return policies and allow patrons to check out books repeatedly. The fees for returning them late are minimal and rarely enforced to encourage low-income people to check out materials without worrying about charges.
But when Peterson shared the women’s email, city councilor Marni von Wilpert amplified the news, asking people to support the library. And that’s where it all went sideways for the would-be censors.
“Stacks” of Amazon boxes began to pour into the building as people from around the nation replaced the stolen books – including ones that the system didn’t have already. Thousands of dollars in donations were raised for the library, and the city pitched in with an extra $30,000 to help expand the offerings and programming further – including the drag queen story hour, a particular target for rightwing prudes.
After public condemnation and realizing their plan had backfired, the two women returned the books to the library. They’re currently avoiding the media and have no comment on how their plan blew up in their faces.
Across the country, schools and public libraries have increasingly become the focus of conservatives attempting to ban books dealing with the LGBTQ+ experience. At the same time, armed members of far-right hate groups have shown up at local libraries to intimidate patrons attending drag queen story time events in some states.
Michigan has just become the 22nd state to ban the use of conversion therapy on minors.
Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed two bills into law Wednesday — House Bill 4617, defining conversion therapy, which seeks to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity, and House Bill 4616, which bars licensed therapists from subjecting minors to the practice and lays out penalties for violation, including discipline by public health regulators.
Both take effect in 90 days.
“Today, we are banning the horrific practice of conversion therapy in Michigan and ensuring this is a state where you can be who you are,” Whitmer said in a statement. “As a mom of a member of the community and a proud, lifelong ally, I am grateful that we are taking action to make Michigan a more welcoming, inclusive place.”
Conversion therapy has been condemned as ineffective and harmful by every major medical and mental health organization. Research has indicated it heightens the risk of suicide among LGBTQ+ young people.
Equality Michigan praised the laws’ passage. “Governor Whitmer has demonstrated unwavering commitment to the wellbeing and safety of Michigan’s LGBTQ+ youth and is sending the powerful message that every young person in our state deserves to grow up free from the damaging effects of this dangerous practice,” Executive Director Erin Knott said, according to MLive. “By affirming that LGBTQ+ youth should be embraced, supported, and loved for exactly who they are, Michigan is paving the way for a brighter and more inclusive future for everyone who lives, works, and visits here.”
Praise also came from the Human Rights Campaign. “This comes on the heels of Governor Whitmer establishing the first ever, state-wide LGBTQ+ Commission this past June, in addition to signing into law a bipartisan amendment to the Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act (ELCRA) that explicitly includes protections for sexual orientation and gender identity,” said a press release from the group. “All of this progress is not only due to decades of organizing by pro-LGBTQ+ groups and activists, it’s a direct result of the will of Michigan voters in the 2022 midterm elections, who rejected a dangerous, anti-LGBTQ+ campaign by radical politicians.”
“By signing the conversion therapy ban into law today, Governor Whitmer continued to demonstrate that she is a champion for LGBTQ+ equality,” Sarah Warbelow, vice president of legal at HRC, said in the release. “So-called conversion therapy is a dangerous and discredited practice that will hopefully never see the light of day again here in Michigan.”
Warbelow added that voting matters “because it directly led to days like today.” She referenced Whitmer’s establishment of an LGBTQ+ Commission last month and other pro-LGBTQ+ legislation supported by the governor.
In addition to the 22 states, the District of Columbia and numerous cities and counties bar licensed therapists from subjecting minors to conversion therapy.
In January, Italy’s right-wing government ordered state agencies to cease registration of children born to same-sex couples. Now they’ve taken it a step further: a state prosecutor in northern Italy has ordered the cancellation and re-issuance of 33 birth certificates of lesbian couples’ children, endangering access to medical care and education.
Non-gestational mothers are receiving letters informing them that they are being retroactively removed from their children’s birth certificates. New birth certificates are being issued listing the name of only one of the child’s mothers.
In February, Human Rights Watch released the first global report on violence and discrimination against lesbian, bisexual, and queer (LBQ+) women, which found access to fertility treatment and the rights of non-gestational lesbian mothers were two of the top concerns for LBQ+ activists across 26 countries. In January 2022, a United States court removed lesbian mother Kris Williams from her child’s birth certificate, replacing it with the name of the sperm donor, who petitioned for custody. In December 2022, a Japanese draft law proposed prohibiting doctors from providing fertility treatment to any woman not married to a man.
In Italy, lesbian couples cannot access fertility treatment, same-sex couples cannot marry, and the law does not explicitly regulate whether same-sex parents can both be registered. Many lesbian couples go abroad for fertility treatment and even to give birth, then bring home their child’s birth certificate for registration with the local municipality. Italy’s recent moves attack this already expensive, precarious, and difficult path to legal parenthood.
In interviews I conducted for the 2023 investigation, queer women’s concerns about parental rights often superseded hallmark LGBT rights issues, like marriage equality or the decriminalization of same-sex conduct. Lesbians want to create and protect their families, regardless of if, when, and how the government decriminalizes their lives and recognizes their relationships.
The right to create a family is enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, and the European Convention on Human Rights – all of which Italy has ratified.
Italy should immediately reinstate the women removed from their children’s birth certificates and drop its ban on the registration of children born to same-sex couples. Authorities should pass inclusive parental recognition bills that explicitly recognize the legal parenthood of non-gestational lesbian parents.
ndiana State Police and forensic investigators have completed DNA profiles for two different humans whose remains were exhumed from the estate of now-deceased wealthy Republican businessman Herbert Baumeister. Police believe Baumeister murdered over 20 men and boys that he met at Indianapolis gay bars during the mid-1980s and ’90s.
Baumeister, who is considered one of Indiana’s most notorious serial killers, lethally shot himself in the head on July 3, 1996, after police found evidence of 11 men’s bodies hidden at his 18-acre Fox Hollow Farm estate in Westfield, 20 miles north of Indianapolis. Investigators recovered over 10,000 charred bones and bodily fragments from the property. Police believe the remains may belong to at least 25 different murder victims, Yahoo! Newsreported.
So far, police have only identified eight of the bodies, but late last week investigators announced that they recovered two complete DNA profiles for two additional bodies. They will now check these profiles against DNA samples donated by families who suspect Baumeister of possibly killing their missing relatives.
If the profiles don’t match those samples, police will compare them to those stored in the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS), a national database of DNA evidence taken from convicted offenders, unsolved crime scenes, and missing persons. If that fails, investigators may partner with private DNA testing companies that conduct “forensic genetic genealogy” to see if the profiles match any DNA they can access.
Hamilton County Coroner Jeff Jellison told WXIN that investigators will continue to test the numerous bone and body fragments to see if they can complete additional DNA profiles for other victims. However, DNA may not be recoverable from all of the bones and fragments, Jellison said.
Baumeister was a married father of three and the founder of the local Sav-A-Lot thrift stores that made him wealthy. His wife of 25 years said that she and Baumeister only had sex six times during their marriage and that she never saw him nude. In 1994, his 13-year-old son found a partly buried human skeleton on the estate, but Baumeister said the cadaver had belonged to his father who was a doctor.
In the early 1990s, when Indiana State Police began investigating the murders of gay men who had last been seen at Indianapolis gay bars, one man identified Baumeister as a person who nearly suffocated him to death during a sexual encounter at Baumeister’s estate. Concerned about Baumeister’s increasingly erratic behavior, Baumeister’s wife allowed police to search the family’s estate while he was out of town.
Police initially found evidence of 11 bodies on the estate’s grounds and issued a warrant for his arrest. In response, Baumeister killed himself at Pinery Provincial Park in Ontario, Canada.
Police also suspect that Baumeister may have been the “I-70 Strangler,” a serial murderer who dumped his naked or partially clothed victims’ bodies near Interstate 70 during the late 1980s. Though the serial killings remain officially unsolved, in April 1999, police named Baumeister as their prime suspect in the case, noting that bodies stopped appearing on the interstate after Baumeister purchased his estate in 1991. Baumeister’s victims ranged in age from 14 to 45.
Authorities in Plano, Texas, are investigating what they call “an intentionally set fire” at a Unitarian Universalist church Sunday, just weeks after it was targeted for criticism in a video by an anti-LGBTQ Christian YouTuber.
A passerby spotted flames coming from the Community Unitarian Universalist Church early Sunday, Plano Fire-Rescue said in a statement. The fire was around the front door and was extinguished quickly, causing no injuries, it said.
The department is leading the criminal investigation into the fire, with the city’s police department working on its own investigation, authorities told NBC News.
The church called the incident “a firebomb attack” in a statement on its Facebook page, saying “an incendiary device with a chemical accelerant was thrown or placed at the front doors of the main church building.”
It also referred to the visit from right-wing content creator Bo Alford, who goes by “bodittle” on social media, less than a month earlier.
“Church officials have been reviewing building security and working with the Plano Police Department since the intrusion of a hate group in the church building during and after Worship Service on Sunday, June 25. That group has posted video of their activities inside the church on various social media sites.”
Church board member Jodie Zoeller Bloom confirmed that the statement referred to Alford’s video, titled “We acted LGBT at LGBT Church,” which he uploaded to YouTube on July 12.
YouTubers Bo Alford, right, Cassady Campbell, center, and another man outside the Community Unitarian Universalist Church in Plano, Texas.via YouTube
In the video, Alford, fellow YouTuber Cassady Campbell and another man film themselves visiting the Plano church. They ask the congregation about their beliefs while in their words, “pretending to be LGBTQ” with the goal of “testing” the church’s theology and exposing “false teachers.”
At the end of the video, which has been viewed more than 200,000 times, the men stand by the church sign and ask viewers to “pray for these people,” calling the church “pagan and satanic.”
In an email, Alford said, “First and foremost, my prayers go out to anyone effected by the fire. As to the accusations, My channel spreads the message of Jesus and his love for us. If you watch the video you will see the members of the church having nothing but nice things to say about us. She enjoyed our conversation and even ended it with a hug. The fact we are being labeled as a hate group and being tied to this fire in any way is appalling.”
In his social media bios, Alford describes himself as, “Believer Of Christ YouTuber/ Boxer/Pro Lib Troller.” His videos often feature him and his friends “pranking” politically and socially liberal Americans, particularly focusing on members of the LGBTQ community.
Authorities have not suggested any connection between Alford’s visit and subsequent video and the church fire. Plano police told the Dallas Morning News on Sunday that the department “cannot confirm” the fire “as a hate crime” at this time, though the investigation is ongoing.
