[caption id="attachment_164128" align="alignright" width="231"] Connor Huntley[/caption]

A British man who beat his gay roommate with a hammer so badly it left him with brain damage has been sentenced to 14 years in prison.

Joseph Williams, 21, attacked 18-year-old Connor Huntley with a claw hammer while Huntley was asleep in their apartment in Margate, Kent. Huntley, who was openly gay and was known to cross-dress, survived the life-threatening assault, but suffered a depressed skull fracture and traumatic brain injury.

Following surgery to remove the hammer and bone fragments, he was left with brain damage and epilepsy.

Prosecutor Philip Bennetts said the assault by Williams, who was raised Catholic and had been known to make anti-gay comments, was clearly because of Huntley's sexual orientation and gender identity. And it was clearly lethal in intent.

"To hit someone more than once with a hammer in their sleep hard enough for the hammer to be embedded in their head clearly demonstrates an intention to kill them.”

The Illinois Family Institute's Laurie Higgins is appalled that the “self-righteous, dissembling librarians” of the American Library Association are promoting Banned Books Week.

She suggests, instead, that they promote titles that “challenge Leftist assumptions about the nature and morality of homosexuality.”

Will they ask for young adult (YA) novels about teens who feel sadness and resentment about being intentionally deprived of a mother or father and who seek to find their missing biological parents?

Will they ask for dark, angsty novels about teens who are damaged by the promiscuity of their “gay” “fathers” who hold sexual monogamy in disdain?

Will they ask for novels about young adults who are consumed by a sense of loss and bitterness that their politically correct and foolish parents allowed them during the entirety of their childhood to cross-dress, change their names, and take medication to prevent puberty, thus deforming their bodies?

Will they ask for novels about teens who suffer because of the harrowing fights and serial “marriages” of their lesbian mothers?

Will they ask for picture books that show the joy a little birdie experiences when after the West Nile virus deaths of her two daddies, she’s finally adopted by a daddy and mommy?

We can't think of a single book that fit the bill, but Higgins insists “Surely there are some teens and children who will identify with such stories.”

Congratulations to queer YouTube stars Hannah Hart and Tyler Oakley, who took home awards at the 4th annual Streamys on Sunday.

Hart, who co-hosted the ceremony, won for in the Best Comedy Series category for My Drunk Kitchen, while Oakley received the Audience Choice Entertainer of the Year Award.

“Thank you for letting me be part of this little fun group. When I first got on YouTube, it was [just] a way for me to keep in touch with friends.” said Oakley.

There's another country to cross off your vacation list: Gambia has passed a law proposing life in prison for "aggravated homosexuality," meaning repeat offenders and people living with HIV/AIDS.

The current sentence is 14 years.

National Reconciliation Party leader Samba Jallow said that, while he doesn't condone homosexuality, he was one of two lawmakers who voted against the measure. "In our view, [homosexuals] did not commit a crime worthy of life imprisonment or any treasonable offense."

The bill now awaits signing by President Yahya Jammeh, an dictator who told gays and lesbians in 2008 to leave Gambia or risk having their heads cut off.