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Most heated queer issues on the national stage of 2010

"It Gets Better" project founder Dan Savage (R) with husband Terry

A roller coaster of emotions swept gay America this year. Here’s a snapshot.

5 – University of Michigan’s Student Body President Stalked and Harassed by State’s Assistant Attorney General

When MI Attorney General Andrew Shirvell began harassing UMich Student Body President Christ Armstrong people started to notice, mostly prominently among them CNN’s Anderson Cooper, who interviewed Shirvell on air.

4 – Constance McMillan is barred from her prom and embraced by the rest of the world

When Constance McMillan planned to take her girlfriend to prom, organizing parents canceled the event and held a gay-free dance elsewhere. But instead of cowering McMilan powered along with an ACLU lawsuit and won the support of celebrities, public figures and the world-at-large. Her Facebook fan page has over 400,00 members and she has a scholarship care of Ellen Degeneres.

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Ugandan LGBTQ Rights Advocate to Speak in Portland

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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