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  Sketch of the suspect Last week we told you about the man who was brutally beaten Halloween night and asked for your help in locating the perpetrator. Now we not only know the name of the victim, Tim McCubbin, but there is also a benefit concert scheduled for this Saturday to help fund his extensive medical expenses.
McCubbin reports that on top of a broken nose, and a surgery to repair his left eye socket, he has undergone several surgeries for his developed diverticulitis – an additional injury sustained while his groin was stomped while unconscious, and which has resulted in the loss of a third of his colon and two lacerations on his intestines.
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  The coupon in question In a news of the weird what may have been anything from homophobia to a childish prank to a mistake has taken on a life of its own when a $16 coupon for Jiffy Lube’s “signature service” addressed to a “Turd Burgler” sparked a $150K discrimination lawsuit.
Laremy Eck, who received the piece of mail, recently went to his local Jiffy Lube and believes the coupon was sent to him because he’s gay. The Jiffy Lube claims the coupon was sent by mistake and was intended for the resident’s previous occupant, an acquaintance of the shop known as the “Turd Burgler” (their spelling, not ours). Even though the incident could be a mistake the suit pressed on in a court filing in late November.
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  I knew that the unfortunate dissolution of the Tuff Luck Deli would cause quite a rift in a tight need community. I hesitated to publish Tuff Luck’s detailed letter to the community but in the end decided that they deserved to be heard even if it did come with a cost.
Indeed it did, and many discussions on Facebook showed clearly how upset people were. Some comments were thoughtful, others merely angry, but they were almost all passionate. I had hoped some of that discussion could happen here on this blog, as it is a more public forum but instead it was mostly confined to the semi-public gossip realm of FB.
So I would like to say, once again, that not only do I welcome discussion, but would happily publish and opposing editorial. I had hoped this would be a discussion starter and not a proclamation.
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 Sketch of the suspect in the anti-gay beating Although the assault happened over a month ago on November 1st the Mercury has just broken the story of a SE Portland man who was gay-bashed while walking home after police issued an alert today.
According to the Portland police alert that went out today, a man was walking home alone from a friend’s house just after midnight on November 1st and had to cross over the scary, barbed wire-encircled pedestrian walkway that goes over the train tracks at SE 16th and Brooklyn. This is an unsettling area—there is not much light at all and neighbors built an unpermitted skatepark at the base of the walkway, in part because the land was derelict and a magnet for crime.
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  Jenkins (R) and Brown together. Scandalous. Amidst a year of horrific gay teen suicides young queers have yet more to worry about. Yesterday Willamette Week published a heart wrenching story about 19 year old Antjuanece Brown‘s battle against felony charges of sex abuse, creating child pornography and luring a minor.
The crimes that prompted Washington County to press these charges came only from a few suggestive cell phone pictures between Brown and her 16-year-old girlfriend Jolene Jenkins.
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  Today is the 22nd Annual World AIDS Day, a time for communities to come together to ensure we not only that we recognize the 25 million individuals lost to HIV and AIDS, but the 33 million global citizens living with the HIV virus today.
In the US, there are over 1.1 Million Americans living with HIV and more than 20% of those infected do not even know they carry the virus. It is estimated by the CDC that 56,000 new infections are occurring annually, that’s one new infection every nine and a half minutes in the US due to a disease that is completely preventable.
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 Taken from Ellis' Facebook page
In a bit of really sad news, 22-year-old Mike Ellis, patron of CC Slaughters and good friend of Bolivia Carmichaels was found dead in Waterfront Park this morning. An autopsy this afternoon determined that he died of hypothermia.
Twenty-two year old Michael Ellis was partially clothed and inside a frozen fountain (not Salmon Springs) next to the Rose Festival building when he […]
  Rev. Mark Kiyimba at the 2009 UUA General Assembly Uganda has been in the LGBT news a lot lately for its upcoming bill that proposes executions for gays. Introduced in Uganda’s parliament last year, the bill would give the death penalty to any homosexual person who tests positive for HIV, and up to three years in jail for anyone who knows a gay person and does not report them. The proposal emerged after ex-Oregon Citizens Alliance communications director Scott Lively spoke to Uganda’s parliament.
It it likely to pass but there are still Ugandans working for justice in their country. One of them, Rev. Mark Kiyimba, will be in Portland this weekend.
Kiyimba, one of a small number of straight supporters of gay rights in Uganda, has risked his life by holding an LGBT conference last February in Kampala, attended by 200 people. His church runs a school for 150 orphans who lost their parents to HIV and AIDS, as well as an orphanage for 22 children infected with the virus.
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  Oh my, this already feels icky. The Oregonian is reporting today that a transgender motorist is suing the Portland police for more than $200,000 for alleged groping during traffic stop. The plaintiff, Chloe Lucero, claims that the officer, unfortunately named Kevin Macho, grabbed her breasts and genitalia during a search instead of waiting for a female cop.
Macho claims that, although the alleged victim’s driver’s license states she is female that she appeared outwardly male in appearance.
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  Stambaugh speaking at the Q Center. KATU photo Folks were shocked to hear that earlier this month a Lewis and Clark student teacher, Seth Stambaugh was let go from the Beaverton school district for revealing that he would marry a man if it were legal. There has been much discussion and outrage in the last few weeks and last Thursday the Beaverton School District voted unanimously to reinstate Stambaugh, while also issuing an apology. From Superintendent Jerry Colonna:
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