He was known as the “I-95” killer and evaded police for nine months by using stolen identification documents, before finally being caught.
Bowles was given the death penalty following a 1996 trial, but the sentence was reversed by the Florida Supreme Court. He was sentenced to death again in 1999.
Bowles has been on death row for 20 years.
Between March and November 1994, Bowles killed six gay men – attacking them because of their sexuality.
Bowles confessed to all six murders after police caught him in 1994, saying that he was tired of running.
The first was a 59-year-old gay man, Walter Hinton, who Bowles had been living with in Florida, having met him at a bar. Bowles beat and choked the man until he bled to death, and then fled to Washington DC having stolen his victims credit cards and car.
He killed again, and in the following eight months continued to murder gay men and evade police using their stolen ID documents.
Bowles’ victims included John Hardy Roberts, 59, David Harman, 38, Milton Bradley, 72, Alverson Carter Jr, 47, and Albert Morris, 38. All of those he killed were gay men.
Police eventually caught him at an office for day labourers, at that time only suspecting him of the first murder. But Bowles confessed to the rest.
In interviews with police, Bowles described a violent upbringing that led to him leaving home at 14 and working as a sex worker to support himself.
He was first arrested in 1982, at the age of 20, for brutally attacking his then-girlfriend. He was sentenced to six years in prison and released after serving three.
Bowles told police that after leaving prison, he moved to Daytona Beach, Florida, where he moved in with a girlfriend and resumed sex work. According to Bowles, his girlfriend became pregnant but had an abortion after she learned that he was a sex worker.
Bowles’ told police this meant he blamed gay men for the abortion, and this led him to his murderous rampage.
His moved in with his first victim, Hinton, after the breakup of his relationship following the abortion.
Unless there is a last-minute appeal in his case, he will be executed on Thursday.
According to its website, the “radically inclusive” Metropolitan Community Church of Albuquerque celebrates “all forms of self-expressions, identities and orientations”.
Andy Najar, a member of the congregation who has been attending for more than 30 years, told KOB4: “I think it’s really sad.
“Really the first time, I thought, oh, maybe it was just a mistake or some kids playing around, but after six times you really feel you’re taking it personally, this is a hate crime, let’s try to figure this out.”
“We really celebrate diversity in our community because we’re all different,” Najar added.
The pastor, Judith Maynard, said: “After six attacks, I do feel it’s targeted. It’s just the times we live in.”
KOB4 reported that the rocks used to smash the windows are being stacked inside the church to symbolise the strength of the mostly LGBT+ congregation.
Maynard said: “It’s just a visual so show that we forgive, that we’re stronger than a little rock. Together our faith makes us stronger.
“This community is a great community and we’ll get through this.”
The Metropolitan Community Church was founded 45 years ago by reverend Troy Perry, a Pentecostal minister who was kicked out of his former church after members discovered that he was gay.
It started out as a gathering of just 12 people in Perry’s living room, and has now grown to 160 affiliated churches around the world.
Perry has published two books, The Lord is My Shepherd and He Knows I’m Gayand Don’t Be Afraid Anymore, detailing the story behind the congregation.
In a little-noticed development, U.S. Park Police have made at least 26 arrests during the past year in Meridian Hill Park in D.C. of men seeking other men for a sexual encounter after they allegedly act in a way that violates the law, according to a Park Police spokesperson.
Sgt. Eduardo Delgado, a Park Police public information officer, told the Washington Blade the 26 arrests made in the park since Aug. 7, 2018 involve charges of one or a combination of Disorderly Conduct, Lewd Acts, Unlawful Entry, and Simple Assault (Sexual).
He said he couldn’t immediately determine if the arrests were made by plain clothes or uniformed officers, but said the arrests were prompted by complaints from the public about “lewd acts” in the park.
D.C. defense attorney John Albanes told the Blade that several of his fellow attorneys who represent clients arrested at Meridian Hill Park report that the men were arrested by undercover officers who pose as consenting prospective partners interested in a sexual tryst.
“I am on a D.C. Superior Court trial lawyers association listserv and recently several criminal defense attorneys on the email list have mentioned that they have had criminal cases involving essentially the same set of facts,” Albanes told the Blade in an email. “[U]ndercover plain-clothes Park Police officers entice men in Meridian Hill Park for purportedly consensual sexual activity and then proceed to arrest their targets for a crime (often misdemeanor sexual abuse),” according to Albanes.
“I find this pattern extremely disturbing and reminiscent of the Stonewall days when gay men were often the target of police discrimination. The tactics used in these cases just fly in the face of proper police work and should be exposed,” he said.
“The officers are posing as willing participants in a consensual encounter between adults,” Albanes said. “The target is deceived into thinking that what he is about to do is wanted. This raises serious doubts about whether the government can prove criminal intent.”
When asked about Albanes’ assessment of the Meridian Hill Park arrests, Delgado responded with a statement by email that did not address the claim by the defense lawyers that the arresting officers were “enticing” the arrested men into committing an illegal act.
“The U.S. Park Police receives complaints about lewd acts that occur within Meridian Hill,” Delgado said in his email. “As with any other complaint of illegal activity, we then take actions to stop it,” he said. “Plain clothes officers are just one method of enforcement sometimes used to deter, stop, and/or arrest violators within the parks.”
Albanes said he asked the defense lawyers representing some of the men arrested on sex-related charges at Meridian Hill Park to reach out to the Blade to talk about their cases, including whether prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney’s Office have moved the cases forward toward a trial or a possible plea bargain offer. He said some of the cases may also be prosecuted by the Office of the D.C. Attorney General, which handles some misdemeanor cases.
The Blade asked Albanes to inform the attorneys that it would continue its longstanding policy of not disclosing the names of those arrested in cases like this. However, none of the attorneys had contacted the Blade as of late Tuesday.
“While I am sorry to hear that, I am not surprised,” said Albanes. “I suspect the attorneys – in line with their ethical obligations – do not want to disclose client confidences without their informed consent,” he said, noting that many of the clients are most likely closeted gay men.
Meridian Hill Park, also known as Malcolm X Park, has been known for at least 50 years as a cruising spot for mostly African-American gay men. In past years, men who go to the park to seek other men for sexual encounters have told the Washington Post and the Washington City Paper that the cruising often takes place late at night in secluded areas of the park covered by shrubs, bushes and trees.
Similar to other cruising locations in the city, the men interviewed by the Post and City Paper have said they sometimes invited the person they met at the park to their homes or another private location and did not engage in sex in the park.
LGBT activists have said the number of arrests of gay men in public places like parks appears to have declined dramatically in recent years due to the proliferation of online gay meet-up sites and apps like Grindr, in which a sexual tryst can be arranged quickly without the risk of outdoor cruising.
Gay D.C. Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner Rob Hudson, in whose Ward 1 ANC 1B Meridian Hill Park is located, said he had not been aware of the arrests there of gay men until the Blade contacted him about the development. He said he would make inquires with D.C. police and would raise the issue with fellow ANC members.
D.C. police spokesperson Alaina Gertz said D.C. police respond to 911 emergency calls at Meridian Hill Park but notify U.S. Park Police about such a call because Park Police have official jurisdiction over the park, which is considered to be on federal land.
The 12-acre park includes fountains and a highly acclaimed landscaping design modeled off of Italian and French estates. Those who patronize the park say its reputation as a gay cruising place is overshadowed by its more widely known reputation as a cultural melting pot made up of a diverse population that hangs out in the park.
An August 2015 feature story about the park in the Washington Post says that in a changing and sometimes divided city, Meridian Hill Parks serves as a “gathering place for all of the District’s disparate tribes: black and white, rich and poor, young and old, immigrant and local, gay and straight, boring and bizarre.”
This fall more public school students could see LGBT content as states move toward mandating a more inclusive K-12 curriculum. However, publicly funded private schools continue to seek religious exemptions to anti-discriminatory measures.
In 2011 California passed its Fair, Accurate, Inclusive and Respectful (FAIR) Education Act, and lawmakers in New Jersey, Illinois, Colorado and New York City have moved to follow suit.
California’s FAIR Education Act mandates the inclusion of the political, economic and social contributions of LGBT people and persons with disabilities into educational textbooks across the state. It amends an existing educational code previously mandating inclusions based on race, ethnicity, nationality and gender.
Sen. Mark Leno, the state’s first openly gay state senator, sponsored the bill, stating the goal was to ensure the contributions of LGBT historical figures were “accurately and fairly portrayed in instructional materials.”
In New York, the city council approved a 2019 budget that included $600,000 for LGBT-inclusive educational programming. Included are lessons about pioneers such as Harvey Milk, Bayard Rustin, Marsha P. Johnson, Sylvia Rivera and others. Also included are opportunities to meet current history makers and view an interactive map of LGBT historic sites through the city.
Proponents state the inclusive measures were necessary to protect both LGBT students and faculty from bullying and other forms of discrimination.
Illinois State Rep. Jennifer Gong-Gershowitz (D-Glenview) said if their bill had been law 15 years ago, her brother would not have been harassed and denied tenure in a suburban Chicago school.
“My brother was teaching history,” Gong-Gershowitz said at the time. “And a student asked whether the historical figure, that was the subject of the lesson, was gay. He answered the truth.”
As a result, her brother was subject to hate mail and called into the principal’s office.
New Jersey also passed a law mandating LGBT-inclusive curriculum for middle and high school students. However, the mandate does not apply to private schools.
Len Deo, president of the New Jersey Family Council, said these measures infringed on parents’ choices regarding teaching sexuality to their children, echoing concerns of conservative groups across the country.
Lauri Higgins of the Illinois Family Institutesimilarly said at a hearing on the matter, “The left’s motive is what it always is … to normalize homosexuality,” The Hill reports.
This concern about parental choice in education is at the heart of the school voucher movement championed by Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos. However, the program has its roots in a resistance to school integration efforts in the 1950s and 1960s.
According to the Center for American Progress, a progressive-leaning policy institute, in response to federal desegregation orders following the Brown v. Board of Education decision, Prince Edward County, Virginia issued tuition grant vouchers for white students to attend segregated private schools. Then as now, these schools rely on significant levels of public funding to continue to operate.
While Title IX of the federal Education Amendment prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in educational programs receiving federal funds, the Obama administration’s inclusion of gender identity and sexual orientation in this definition remains controversial.
Still, some schools continue to submit religious exemption waivers to perceived Title IX mandates, permitting them to discriminate against out LGBT students or faculty with impunity.
Additionally, an investigation by Huffington Post found thousands of these schools use discriminatory evangelical Christian curriculum often purchased using public funds.
As of 2017, 30 percent or more of the Christian (non-Catholic) schools participating in private school choice programs in Virginia and Maryland, and up to 10 percent in D.C., used textbooks from ultra-conservative publishers such as Bob Jones University Press.
Bob Jones University, submitted a Title IX religious exemption request in 2017 for permission to discriminate against LGBT students and faculty despite receiving public funds.
Students who attended programs using these discriminatory texts reported feeling ill-equipped to succeed in a diverse society and felt instilled with racist, sexist and intolerant views of the world.
Capri Coleman, an educator in the D.C. area, says it’s important to take students’ feelings into account just as much as parental “choice” when considering curriculum.
“Parents are always going to have a choice in what they want their children to be exposed to,” she says. “But at the same time, children will always run into people who are not like them.”
This is why she felt it was important for parents and society to first “teach tolerance and understanding.”
Unfortunately, due to voucher programs and religious exemptions, the tolerance and understanding promised by LGBT-curriculum legislation is not reaching all students receiving publicly funded education.
A 58-year-old man is accused of shouting homophobic and racial slurs during an attack on a group of Latino men leaving a gay nightclub in Portland, Oregon.
The men passed Robert Oden after leaving CC Slaughters at approximately 2am on Saturday as he was sitting in an alcove of a nearby building.
He allegedly punched three of the men in the face and told them: “Go back to your country.” One of the victims was reportedly left with a bloody, swollen lip and pain.
The arrest makes Oden the first person to be accused of a bias crime under the state’s new law.
CC Slaughters nightclub in Portland, Oregon (Google Maps)
Nightclub staff called police and Oden has been charged with one count of bias crime in the first degree, felony assault in the fourth degree, two counts of harassment and two counts of bias crime in the second degree.
Multnomah County District Attorney’s office said this marks the first time this crime has been issued in the state.
Court documents say that he continued to use racial and homophobic language and threatened continued assaults after he was taken into custody.
Bias crime law protects gender identity.
Oregon’s new ‘bias crime law’ came into effect on July 15. It is the most significant update to the state’s hate crime laws since the 1980s.
Portland Pride Parade, 2019. (Diego Diaz/Icon Sportswire/ Getty)
It added gender identity to the list of protected categories and removed the requirement that two or more people commit the crime in order to make it a felony.
Under this law, it is now a felony to commit a bias crime when a person intentionally, knowingly or recklessly causes physical injury to another person because of the perpetrator’s perception of the victim’s race, colour, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability or national origin.
Previously, to be charged as a felony, two or more people would need to commit the offence.
Students in Illinois public schools will learn about the contributions of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people in state and national history after approval today of the Inclusive Curriculum Law by Gov. Pritzker, according to Equality Illinois.
Starting with the 2020-21 school year, the Inclusive Curriculum Law — House Bill 246 — will ensure the inclusion of the contributions of LGBTQ people in the history curriculum taught in Illinois public schools. Illinois is the fifth state to enact such legislation, after California in 2011 and New Jersey, Colorado and Oregon in 2019.
Sponsored by State Rep. Anna Moeller ( D-Elgin ) and State Sen. Heather Steans ( D-Chicago ), the Inclusive Curriculum Law is an initiative of Equality Illinois, the Illinois Safe Schools Alliance, and the Legacy Project and is supported by more than forty education, health care, and civil rights organizations across Illinois.
A 23-year-old Las Vegas man who allegedly wanted to attack Jews and patrons of an LGBTQ bar was arrested on suspicion of possessing parts to make a bomb, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Nevada said Friday.
Conor Climo, who was arrested Thursday, was connected to white supremacists though encrypted online conversations, federal prosecutors said.
“Threats of violence motivated by hate and intended to intimidate or coerce our faith-based and LGBTQ communities have no place in this country,” Nicholas A. Trutanich, U.S. Attorney for the District of Nevada, said in a statement.
Climo had already caused concern among his neighbors in 2016 when, in a video posted to his now-deleted YouTube channel, he announced plans to patrol his Centennial Hills neighborhood with an AR-15-style rifle, four 30-round clips, and camouflaged packs.
FBI agents with the Las Vegas Joint Terrorism Task Force began looking at Climo in April when, according to the complaint, they learned he was communicating with the white extremist group Atomwaffen Division.
Members of that group have been linked to at least five deaths since 2017, including a Tampa man who killed his two roommates and told police they were members of the group planning a large-scale attack.
Climo, who faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted, was arraigned in federal court on Friday, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney for Nevada.
His arrest stemmed from an investigation conducted by an FBI task force specializing in monitoring the activities and online communications of extremists and domestic terror groups. The investigation was detailed in an 11-page criminal complaint and probable cause statement filed in court federal prosecutors and the FBI.
During encrypted online conversations with undercover FBI operatives, Climo discussed attacking a Las Vegas synagogue and making Molotov cocktails and improvised explosive devices, according to the criminal complaint.
The evangelical blogger made anti-LGBT comments as he destroyed the books, including young adult novel Two Boys Kissing by David Levithan, illustrated LGBT+ history book This Day in June by Gayle Pitman, Morris Micklewhite and the Tangerine Dress by Christine Baldacchino and Families, Families, Families! by Suzanne Lang.
Dorr was found guilty of 5th degree criminal mischief in Sioux County District Court on Tuesday (August 6).
The state of Iowa had sought the maximum penalty, a fine of $625.
Dorr, who represented himself, had told the court: “My motive was to honour the Triune God in whom my faith resides and to protect the children of Orange City from being seduced into a life of sin and misery.”
LGBT+ campaigners condemn ‘reprehensible’ burning of library books
Courtney Reyes of One Iowa told Iowa Public Radio: “Libraries are safe havens where every person has free access to all ideas and expressions without restriction.
“Dorr intended to deprive the children of Orange City that access, to isolate LGBTQ youth from reflections of themselves in stories, to take from all youth the opportunity to empathise with people different than themselves. Such an act is terrible, and we are glad justice was served today.”
Bettis Austen of the ACLU of Iowa said: “Burning public library books is the destruction of ideas, and that’s reprehensible.
“The destruction of books from a public library is a clear attempt to shut down the open sharing and discussion of ideas.
“No one person or even group should decide that they are the gatekeepers of ideas for the rest of the public.”
Dorr has previously expressed the belief that people become gay because of “the harm that adults did to you as children” and urged LGBT+ people to “walk away from your degeneracy… repent and turn back to Christ.”
Explaining his actions, Dorr had said: “I cannot stand by and let the shameful adults at the Orange City Library Board bring the next group of little children into their foul, sexual reality without a firm resistance.”
One of the books burned, David Levithan’s Two Boys Kissing, was ranked as the fifth most-banned book during the American Library Association’s annual Banned Books Week in 2016.
Between August 2 and August 6, Pence was at a conference organised by conservative blogger Erick Erickson, a roundtable with Donald Trump’s religious freedom ambassador Sam Brownback and a “fireside chat” with Mike Farris, CEO of anti-abortion Christian lawyers the Alliance Defending Freedom.
The Human Rights Campaign said that Pence is on an “anti-LGBTQ crusade.”
On August 2, Pence appeared on stage at The Resurgent Gathering conference in Atlanta with Erick Erickson, a conservative evangelical American blogger and radio host who organised the conference.
Erickson, in a blog post on the same day, lashed out at Democratic presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg for not “repenting” his sexuality.
Erickson, a former Fox News pundit who hosts a right-wing radio show, took aim at Buttigieg on his blog, The Resurgent.
“Pete Buttigieg is a practising homosexual who wilfully refuses to recognise Holy Scripture identifies that as a sin,” Erickson wrote.
Sam Brownback has repeatedly been homophobic and transphobic
On August 5, Pence met with Sam Brownback, Trump’s new ambassador for religious freedom – who has a history of attacking LGBT+ people, often justifying his actions through religious freedom.
Pence and Brownback were part of an International Religious Freedom roundtable, at which Pence “reaffirmed the administration’s commitment to stand with people of every faith in every country around the world.”
Brownback, who gained Pence’s tie-breaking vote to be confirmed in the Senate, repeatedly promoted homophobic and transphobic policies in his seven years as Governor of Kansas.
Alliance Defending Freedom is anti-LGBT, anti-abortion
On Tuesday (August 6), Pence then went to an event run by the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), an evangelical Christian group that lobbies against reproductive rights in the US.
The ADF is currently involved several anti-trans lawsuits, including in Connecticut where it has filed a federal discrimination complaint challenging the state’s policy of letting trans students compete on sports teams according to their gender identity.
Kansas’ child welfare agency has drafted guidelines urging foster parents to allow LGBTQ kids in their care to “express themselves as they see themselves,” riling conservatives a little more than a year after the state granted legal protections to faith-based adoption agencies that do not place children in LGBTQ homes.
The Department for Children and Families issued draft “guidance” for “prudent parenting” in mid-July, six months after Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly took office. It said foster homes should recognize LGBTQ children “by their preferred identity if it differs from their sex assigned at birth.”
Conservatives read the document as a policy directive for reshaping foster families’ lives and an attempt to skirt a 2018 law that Kelly doesn’t like for protecting faith-based adoption agencies. It’s a sharp break in tone with that law, which prevents the state from barring agencies from providing services if they refuse to place children in homes violating their religious beliefs.
The department’s move drives home the difference Kelly’s election last year made on hot-button social issues. Her administration followed eight years of conservative Republican control in a state that still has a GOP-dominated Legislature and a Republican Party with a platform declaring, “We believe God created two genders, male and female.”
“It’s going to continue pushing this envelope,” said Kansas House Majority Leader Dan Hawkins, a conservative Wichita Republican, who worried in a recent newsletter about the department pursuing a “social experiment.”
The department presented the first draft of its guidelines during a quarterly meeting with private agencies that place abused and neglected children in foster and adoptive homes.
State officials said a final version could be ready later this month and won’t be formal policy or regulations, just principles for placement agencies and foster families. As such, they wouldn’t be subject to outside review — though Hawkins and other conservatives are considering legislative hearings.
Department officials said their first draft was a response to questions that private agencies passed along from foster parents who want to support LGBTQ youth. They said they’re picking up on best practices from other states and national groups.
“The fact of wanting children we’re caring for to feel safe and welcome in their foster homes just shouldn’t be a controversial issue to anybody,” Laura Howard, the department’s top administrator, said in a recent interview.
But Kelly’s views on LGBTQ rights already had conservatives on edge. Kansas said in June that it would allow transgender people to change their birth certificates to reflect their gender identities. Under Republican Gov. Sam Brownback, the state had some of the nation’s toughest rules for making such changes.
Kelly also said before taking office that she would try to avoid enforcing last year’s adoption law if she could. Conservatives link that stance and the department’s new guidance, though its officials say there is none.
“It looks like an end-run around the adoption-protection act,” said Chuck Weber, director of the Kansas Catholic Conference.
The department’s guidance says foster children have the right to wear clothing and hairstyles “that suit their gender identity” and that refusing to use their preferred pronouns “can endanger their physical and emotional well-being.”
Within days, the conservative Family Policy Alliance of Kansas criticized the guidance publicly as imposing an “invasive sexual agenda.” The first draft of the guidance included a “Q&A” discussion about transgender foster youth sharing rooms with other children and having sleepovers.
State Sen. Mary Pilcher-Cook, a conservative Kansas City-area Republican, said the guidelines endanger safety. For example, she said, the first draft tells foster parents that if space in their home is limited, a “biological boy” teenager can share a bedroom with a teenage girl.
Pilcher-Cook said both the foster parents and a child’s birth parents — who still might have parental rights — might object to the guidelines.
“It’s a problem when government takes such a heavy hand to coerce people to live out beliefs that they don’t embrace,” Pilcher-Cook said.
A later draft of the department’s guidance on its official letterhead dropped the Q&A section because, Howard said, “it’s really difficult to sort of script any particular situation.” Both drafts said case workers should ensure all children in a foster home are comfortable with the living arrangements.
The guidelines’ defenders said the state and placement agencies don’t require foster parents to take particular children and that the agencies work through issues before a placement. If issues arise after a placement, the agencies would attempt to work through them with families individually, rather than apply the guidelines as rules, they said.
And, they said, the goal always is to find foster homes that best fit children already traumatized by abuse or neglect.
“What it really boils down to is, we’re not going to be putting these kids in a hostile environment,” said Tom Witt, executive director of the LGBTQ-rights group Equality Kansas.
