Awesome Mom Wants Federal Investigation Into Gay Son’s Bashing

Dylan Beard’s “friends” are definitely awful people — they lured the 17-year-old to a skate park and then beat him up while shouting gay slurs. Making matters worse, the local police were like “eh,” and haven’t really don’t much about it.

But the good news is that his family is completely awesome.

His mom, Jennifer Beard has hired an attorney and now they’re demanding action from the Department of Justice. They want the attack investigated as a hate crime. Texas is one of the states that identifies sexual orientation as a category for hate crimes (but not gender expression).

And Dylan’s uncle, Tom Plunkett, is furious too. “As a military veteran it kind of disappoints me, a country I defended,” he said. It sucks that Dylan endured this attack, but bless his family for being so supportive.

Dylan is home-schooled, and doesn’t really know his attackers that well. It’s totally mysterious why they would decide to coordinate an attack on him.

According to his mom, police didn’t care that the attackers bragged about it on social media. In fact, the police told reporters that they didn’t know about the bragging at all — but that’s how Jennifer found out about the beating in the first place. (Her son’s black eye and broken nose might also have been a good clue.)

A few months ago, Austin rallied around a victim of a hate crime. A local dentist did reconstructive surgery to fix the nine (!) teeth that were beaten out of a victim’s mouth.

Anti-gay Tenn. lawmaker behind ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill defeated in reelection bid

An anti-gay Tennessee state lawmaker who has spent much of his legislative career sponsoring anti-LGBT bills, and who once blamed AIDS on a gay man having sex with monkeys, was soundly defeated Thursday in his bid for a second Senate term.

State Sen. Stacey Campfield (R-Knoxville) garnered on 28 percent of the vote in Thursday’s GOP primary, losing to Richard Briggs, a Knox County commissioner, reports The Tennessean.

Campfield, first elected to the state House in 2004, and to the Senate in 2010, has a long history of controversial statements and anti-gay legislative initiatives.

Campfield, a 46-year-old confirmed bachelor, has also said homosexuality is a “learned behavior.”He repeatedly sought to ban teachers from mentioning or discussing gay issues in public schools through his failed “Don’t Say Gay” legislation. In 2012 he drew fire after telling a satellite radio host that HIV and AIDS originated from a gay airline pilot having sex with a monkey and that it was nearly “impossible” for AIDS to be contracted through heterosexual sex.

Earlier this year, Campfield compared the insurance requirement under President Barack Obama’s health care law to the forced deportation of Jews during the Holocaust, writing in a blog post that “Democrats bragging about the number of mandatory sign ups for Obamacare is like Germans bragging about the number of mandatory sign ups for ‘train rides’ for Jews in the 40s.”

Following his defeat Thursday, Campfield posted on his blog a video of Frank Sinatra’s “My Way” under the subject line, “That was fun.”

North Carolina Charter School Bill Drops Protections For LGBT Students

Last Friday, new legislation was approved by the North Carolina House of Representatives that fails to provide protections for LGBTI students at charter schools run by for-profit management companies, reports NC Policy Watch.

Senate Bill 793 prevents charter schools from discriminating on the basis of “ethnicity, national origin, gender, or disability” but fails to provide specific protections for LGBT students.

The bill, which also allows charter schools to keep employees’ salaries secret, included protections for LGBT students in earlier versions.

Democrat Rep. Marcus Brandon, who is the only openly LGBT member of the North Carolina General Assembly, had argued that the LGBT community is not a protected class in North Carolina. This prompted the need for a previous amendment that drew on language from federal law, which was eventually stripped in a conference committee.

The Senate must act on the bill before it goes to the Governor.

Last month, during a debate on Senate Bill 793, North Carolina Republican Representative Paul Stam compared pedophilia, incest, masochism and other illegal sexual practices with homosexuality.

TENNESSEE PASSES BILL ALLOWING THE BULLYING OF LGBT STUDENTS IN THE NAME OF ‘RELIGIOUS FREEDOM’

Tennessee governor Bill Haslam has just received a bill that allows and encourages anti-gay bullying in the name of “religious freedom.”

The Tennessee “Religious Viewpoints Anti-discrimination Act” allows students to use religion in any manner they choose, and protects their use of religion.

The ACLU warns that the bill, SB 1793/HB 1547, “crosses the line from protecting religious freedom into creating systematic imposition of some students’ personal religious viewpoints on other students.”

“Should this pass, students with a range of religious beliefs, as well as non-believers, would likely routinely be required to listen to religious messages or participate in religious exercises that conflict with their own beliefs,” the ACLU adds. “Conversely, if a student of a minority religious faith (e.g., a Buddhist, a Wiccan, etc.) or a non-believer were to obtain a ‘position of honor,’ as defined under this bill, that student would be permitted to subject all classmates to prayer and proselytizing specific to his or her faith tradition in connection with school events. In both cases, parents would have no recourse to ensure that their children were not coerced into such religious exercise.”

According to TheNewCivilRightsMovement:

Texas School District Says Picture Of Trans Student In Tuxedo Violates 'Community Standards'

A controversy has emerged out of La Feria, Texas after the town's high school refused to allow transgender senior Jeydon Loredo to wear a tuxedo in his senior portrait for the school's yearbook as it allegedly violates "community standards," according to District Superintendent Rey Villarreal. Villareal apparently told Jeydon's parents that his picture would only be included if he wore "stereotypically feminine attire, such as a drape or blouse." 

 

Jeydon, who was born biologically female but identifies as male, has enlisted the help of the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) who in turn brought in the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) to petition the school board to allow him to appear in his yearbook in a tuxedo, an act that would respect and recognize his gender identity. However, after a meeting on Monday night in front of the La Feria School Board, where representatives from both SPLC and HRC were present to argue on Jeydon's behalf, the school board took no immediate action and is evidently not required to render a decision within any ascertainable time-frame. Moreover, Jeydon and his supporters now find themselves in something of a catch-22 as to how to proceed with their case:

"The superintendent...told representatives from the HRC that the "only formal way to address it" was through filing a disciplinary grievance form, though the district's own policies state that a gender discrimination complaint against the superintendent is made directly to the school board. Complaints made through a disciplinary grievance form, as the superintendent requested, would put the superintendent - the target of the complaint - in charge of the investigation's early stages."

You can read the letter sent earlier this week by SPLC to the La Feria School Board, outlining how they are discriminating against Jeydon and why they must move towards inclusivity, HERE.

In case you wanna call:

Superintendent of Schools

Mr. Rey Villarreal

(956) 797-8300

Or contact the District's Board of Trustees!

America's Got Talent: Gay Youth Kicked Out Of Home Wows America!

In the most moving moment for the LGBT community in the history of America's Got Talent, a young gay youth who appeared last night absolutely had America fall in love with him. The young sweet man was kicked out of his home in Tennessee for being gay. His parents kicked him out of his house on his 18th birthday. Be prepared to be inspired, proud and moved with this Susan Boyle moment!

WE ARE TEAM JONATHAN!!!