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Mississippi Passes Anti-LGBT "Religious Freedom" Bill: Today In Gay

A so-called "religious freedom" bill has passed the Mississippi Legislature and awaits signing from Gov. Phil Bryant, who has signaled he will approve the measure.

The Mississippi Religious Freedom Restoration Act  purports to protect the free exercise of religion, but experts claim it will be used to permit anti-LGBT discrimination on religious grounds. “I believe certainly by the way that this bill is drafted that it will allow discrimination in Mississippi,” said Sen. Derrick Simmons, who opposed the act. “There is nothing in the proposed legislation that prohibits that.”

Arizona Governor Jan Brewer vetoed a similar measure in her state after an outcry from LGBT citizens, allies and business owners.

“Even though the Mississippi legislature removed some of the egregious language from Arizona’s infamous SB 1062, we are disappointed that it passed this unnecessary law and ignored the national, public outcry against laws of this nature,” said the ACLU's Eunice Rho.

Photos: Campaign for Southern Equality


[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="634"] Rohn Neugbauer[/caption]

A Pennsylvania's man's body was rejected by an organ-donor registry because he was gay, reports the Daily Mail.

When Rohn Neugbauer died suddenly of a heart attack in March, his sister, Sandy Schultheis, contacted the Center for Organ Recovery and Education (CORE) about donating—but they took a pass.

Schultheis was told that since her brother had a heart attack, his organs weren't usable. But while skin, corneas and other tissue can normally be donated under those circumstances, she was informed CORE doesn't accept tissue from gay men— because such donations are "life-enhancing" and not life-saving, and therefore not worth the risk of HIV-infection.

All this regardless of the fact that Neugbauer was HIV-negative.  (The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends men who have had sex with other men in the preceding five years should be excluded "regardless of their HIV antibody test results.")

"It truly has me speechless," Neugbauer's grieving partner, Dan Burda, told CBS. "I feel my corneas, skin and tissues are no different from any others... so why I'm different or why Rohn was any different is unacceptable."

Ironically Neugebauer and Burda hosted a fundraiser for CORE at their Pittsburgh hair salon just a few months before his death. Burda is now fighting to change the CDC rules: "His strength is pushing me forward to do this,' he said of his late partner, who was also a decorated veteran, stockbroker and realtor.

You can add your voice to his on Burda's Change.org peitition.


jessica dutroJessica Dutro has been found guilty of kicking her 4-year-old son to death because she believed he was gay.

A Washington County jury rendered a guilty verdict after little more than an hour of deliberation. She was charged with one count of murder, five counts of murder by abuse, and one count of second-degree assault.

During the trial, jurors learned Dutro told to her boyfriend about her concern that her toddler would grow up to be a homosexual, writing “he walks and talks like it. Ugh.”


While IMD is usually rare, the department has identified two dozen cases in the past 17 months— 7 of them among gay and bisexual men. Of the eight cases reported so far in 2014, four were of gay and bisexual men—three of whom have died already.

In response, the Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Center is offering free meningitis vaccinations.

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