NEWARK — A state appeals court upheld the murder convictions of two East Bay men today for their roles in battering and strangling a transgender teenager after learning she was biologically male.

The killing of 17-year-old Gwen Araujo of Newark in 2002 drew national attention to incidents of violence against transgender people, which often include defense claims that the victim provoked the attack by having sex under false pretenses.

In this case, lawyers for both defendants argued that the slaying was manslaughter at most, because their clients had acted in the heat of passion when they learned the person with whom they had had oral and anal sex was born male. But the First District Court of Appeal in San Francisco ruled 3-0 that the Alameda County trial judge had defined the crimes properly to the jury, and that the panel had substantial evidence for second-degree murder convictions.

Mark Greenberg, a lawyer for defendant Michael Magidson, said he would appeal to the state Supreme Court.

See Verdicts upheld in murder of transgender teen

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Phillipsburg resident Dale Rissmiller draws three-year sentence in for gay bashing

A Phillipsburg man convicted in a 2006 gay-bashing case drew a three-year state prison today in state Superior Court.

Dale Rissmiller, 27, apologized to the judge before sentencing.

“I’m sorry for what happened to the victim,” he said.

Rissmiller — who has a history of assault convictions — pleaded guilty in February to bias intimidation and aggravated assault. “I clotheslined him,” Rissmiller told Superior Court Judge John Pursel during the plea hearing.

The term refers to striking someone on the throat with a forearm.

Rissmiller admitted he attacked Bryan Wesselius because the victim is gay. The clotheslining incident occurred after Rissmiller launched a 1:46 a.m. barrage of anti-gay comments at Wesselius and the victim’s two gay companions in the bar, authorities said.

Drunk and angered after a bartender bounced him, Rissmiller attacked Wesselius at the door, followed him outside and punched him, authorities reported.

Phillipsburg resident Dale Rissmiller draws three-year sentence in …

The Express Times - LehighValleyLive.com* Tags = gay men gay news lesbian news transgender bisexual

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SENEGAL SCARE: Gay Witch Hunts & Lynchings Queerty

In Uganda, anti-gay hatred is manifested by newspapers printing of the names and faces of “gay suspects” and activists “storming Parliament” with their message to rid the nation of gays. But across the continent in Senegal, things aren’t any better for the gays. They’re being hunted down Jim Crow-style, with threats of lynchings.

Even though nine AIDS activists were just released from prison after their attorneys successfully argued the evidence for “unnatural acts” charges was insufficient, the climate is anything but tolerant. Rather, you have youth leaders calling for the lynching of gay men: “The homosexuals will not escape lynching. They will be fish food,” one told Dakar newspaper L’Observeur, according to GlobalPost.

See SENEGAL SCARE: Gay Witch Hunts & Lynchings

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Gays under threat in Senegal

DAKAR, Senegal — A mob gathered near a mosque outside Dakar. They were there to hunt down and kill nine men accused of homosexual acts.

Earlier this week the nine Senegalese AIDS activists were freed from eight-year-prison terms for alleged homosexual acts, but they went into hiding because of death threats from Muslim religious leaders and the general population.

“The homosexuals will not escape lynching. They will be fish food,” Dakar newspaper L’Observeur quoted a local youth leader as saying.

“Gay men will never be free in Senegal. They expose us all to danger,” said Imam Mbaye Niang, a prominent religious leader and member of parliament. “The judges should understand that Senegalese people need to protect their children, their families from homosexuality.”

In Senegal — where 95 percent of the population is Muslim — homosexual acts are punishable by fines and up to five years in prison. In January, the nine men received the harshest sentence yet for such an offense in Senegal, getting the maximum of five years and an additional three for criminal conspiracy.

Though widely supported in Senegal, the conviction was condemned by international human rights groups and foreign governments, most notably France.

“They were judged and condemned very severely, surely on the basis of public outcry, therefore the justice was neither objective nor founded in law,” said lead defense attorney Barim Sassoum Sy, who called the initial ruling hasty and emotional.

A Dakar appeals court overturned that decision Monday, citing violations of legal protocol.

Acting on an anonymous tip, police had arrested the men — most of whom do HIV prevention work in the “men having sex with men” community — in December at the home of a prominent gay activist. But the police did not have a search warrant, nor did they catch the men in the act, which is required by the Senegalese law prohibiting “indecent acts against nature.” The judge hearing the appeal therefore declared their convictions null and void, Sy said.

Yet even as smiling attorneys and supporters celebrated in the packed courtroom Monday and exchanged congratulations, plans were already in place to get the freed men into hiding outside Dakar.

“The first judge sentenced them to eight years,” said Imam Niang. “He had the courage to say it. The judge that let them go was much less courageous. He yielded to international pressure.”

See

Gays under threat in Senegal

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On gay rights, two steps forward, one step back in the Alabama house

In a headspinning series of moves today, the Alabama House of Representatives today voted to add gays and bisexuals to the list of classes of people protected by a state hate crimes act — and passed a resolution praising Miss California for speaking out against gay marriage.

In a 46-41 vote today, the Alabama house approved a bill sponsored by Montgomery Democrat Alvin Holmes that would make it a crime to attack someone because of the victim’s sexual orientation. The bill updates a law passed in 1994 that included race, colour, religion and national origin.

Also today, the body passed on a voice vote a resolution sponsored by Republican Montgomery Representative Jay Love praising Miss USA contestant Carrie Prejean. Love said she stuck to her convictions even though it may have cost her the pageant.

At the Miss USA pageant earlier this week, Prejean, competing as Miss California, was asked by gay blogger Perez Hilton, a judge, if she believe same-sex marriage should be allowed across the country. She said: “in my family, I think that I believe that a marriage should be between a man and a woman. No offense to anybody out there but that’s how I was raised.”

Hilton later said on his blog that she gave “the worst answer in pageant history”, and that she lost not because she doesn’t believe in gay marriage but because “she’s a dumb bitch”. See

On gay rights, two steps forward, one step back in the Alabama house guardian.co.uk