Tag: Illinois

A gay man has pled guilty to the vicious killing another gay man as part of a twisted fantasy. British citizen Andrew Warren made a deal with prosecutors in Cook County, Illinois, to testify against Northwestern University professor Wyndham Lathem, who was allegedly his partner in crime. As part of the deal, prosecutors will recommend Warren, 58, get only 45 years in prison. The case involves the murder of Lathem’s boyfriend, Trenton Cornell-Duranleau, 26, who was stabbed 70 times in Lathem’s...

Hampton was supposed to be released from an Illinois prison last February; however, her good time was revoked after she said officers retaliated against her for reporting alleged abuse by male guards and prisoners.Hampton told the Chicago Sun-Times she thought her attorneys were lying to her Monday when they told her she was being released. The Illinois Department of Corrections recommended restoring Hampton's good time, and the Illinois Prisoner Review Board approved the request.Hampton, who is 28, was sentenced to...

A Christian school kindergarten teacher in the Chicago suburbs is facing charges related to sexual assault and child pornography after investigators say that she sent explicit material to minors for years. Shannon Griffin is the wife of the pastor of Jordan Baptist Church and is a teacher at the associated Jordan Baptist school in Oak Lawn, a suburb of Chicago. She is now facing five counts of criminal sexual assault, one count solicitation of child pornography, one count of distribution of...

The governor of Illinois signed an executive order to help protect transgender students on the day that Chicago’s pride parade was scheduled. Governor J.B. Pritzker signed the order on Sunday, creating a task force to address transgender students needs in schools. 25 people will be appointed to the task force and will study what schools in the state are doing be “affirming and inclusive for transgender, nonbinary, and gender nonconforming students.” Their report is due by January of next year. “This...

A church is planning out planting “hundreds” of Pride flags after their flags fell victim to vandalism. The Wicker Park Lutheran Church in Chicago flies a rainbow flag and a transgender flag year-round outside its doors. Over a week ago, someone tore down the flags. The church put them back up, but then over the weekend they were vandalized. At 3 am this past Sunday, someone was caught on video spray-painting in black on the flags. The vandal painted a giant “X”...

The rainbow flag is a symbol of the LGBTQ social movement and is widely displayed during Pride month.The flag flying over the Capitol in Springfield was donated by The Phoenix Center, an LGBTQ community center in Central Illinois.  According to the Illinois Secretary of State's office, this is the first time ever Illinois has flown the rainbow flag over its Capitol.On June 7, Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers, a Democrat, issued a similar order, which riled conservatives.  source

The scandal-ridden former Representative Aaron Schock (R-IL) appears to be preparing to run for office again. Schock served as a U.S. Representative from Illinois from 2009 to 2015, when he resigned in disgrace after being accused of misusing campaign and public funds. He was the subject of a congressional ethics investigation and was indicted by a federal grand jury. Federal prosecutors dropped charges earlier this year in exchange for paying $110,000 in restitution and taxes. He has also been photographed making out...

A California court ruled in favor of a man who was denied service at a barber shop because he’s HIV-positive. In 2017, the owner of the King of Kuts barbershop in Los Angeles, Ramsy Milton, refused to cut personal trainer Nikko Briteramos’s hair and said that no one who worked at the shop could either after he found out that Briteramos is living with HIV. Milton allegedly said that he was worried that his “celebrity clientele” would stop coming to the...

The Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) has decorated several train cars with rainbows for Pride Month. Some trains on the north-south Red Line will bear pride colors this month. CTA wrapped some of the cars in rainbows, like they did in 2017 and 2018. The Howard Brown Health Center sponsored the cars, and they’re decorated on the inside with images highlighting the center’s diverse patient population. 14 crosswalks in Boystown, Chicago’s gay village, will also feature pride colors. 13 of them are rainbows,...

A conservative radio host and Christian pastor complained that gay people have stolen the terms “husband” and “wife” from straight people, and straight people are now calling each other “partners” because they’re “weak.” Jesse Lee Peterson discussed South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg and Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot on his show this past Tuesday, and he got into a rant about how gay people who are married refer to their spouses with words that people have been using for centuries. “Now they’re...

After Nathan Etter explained to his class who gave him flowers on Valentine's Day, he was told by administrators "to stick to the curriculum." Supporters are rallying around a gay Illinois teacher who claims he was discriminated against by administrators after talking to his students about marriage equality. On Valentine’s Day Nathan Etter, a first-year music teacher at Prairie View Grade School in Elgin received a bouquet of flowers from his husband, Phillip, prompting some children to make comments like “eww”...