Benjy the gay bull moving to animal sanctuary, getting snipped
Benjy, an Irish bull who failed to inseminate his herd because of his preference for other bulls, will move to an animal sanctuary this weekend after he was saved from the slaughterhouse by a crowd-funding campaign. In an Imitation Game–like twist, however, Benjy will be castrated when he gets there to prevent him from accidentally impregnating other cows.
US senator to propose gay civil rights law
Go big or go home. The US has repeatedly failed to pass any federal law to protect gay people from discrimination for decades, including the currently languishing Employment Non-Discrimination Act. Now, Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley says he will try for the big fish: a gay civil rights act, similar to the 1964 act extending civil rights to black people.
Scott Lively will go to court for crimes against humanity
Scott Lively, an American pastor who deliberately stirred up hatred of gay people in Uganda, can be charged in a US court for crimes against humanity, an appeals court has ruled. The case relies on the Alien Tort Statute, a law that allows Americans to be charged by people in other countries for violating international law. Lively was likely responsible for inspiring Uganda’s “Kill the Gays Bill,” which was passed and then struck down on a technicality earlier this year.
Read more at Christianity Today.
The straight lawyer who fights for Cameroon’s gays
Alice N’kom was the first woman to become a lawyer in the African nation of Cameroon, but she didn’t stop there. Four decades later, she defends the rights of gay people, who face the constant threat of violence, arrest and torture in her country.
Read N’kom’s story at The Daily Beast.
US Air Force secretary: Let trans people serve
“From my point of view, anyone who is capable of accomplishing the job should be able to serve,” says US Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James. She says the Air Force should drop its ban on trans people in the service, the first secretary of any branch of the US military to say so.
Isis claims to have killed another gay man
Terrorist group ISIS claims it has killed another man for being gay, this time by throwing him off a roof and then stoning him. ISIS killed two other men for being gay in November, though many observers thought the killings likely used homosexuality as an excuse for politically motivated murder.
Read more from Agence France-Presse.
Why you can trust Xtra
