Black Gay Pride organizer killed
The Georgia Voice reports a Black Gay Pride organizer was shot and killed Aug. 25.
Durand Robinson, 50, of Decatur, an owner of the popular Traxx Atlanta club and promotion team, was shot after he got into an altercation with another person.
Philip Boone, Robinson’s business partner, said, “This was devastating for our community and the Traxx family. He was an angel … we will miss him.”
According to a preliminary police report, Robinson was found around 1 a.m. in southwest Atlanta lying in the middle of Hadlock Street with a gunshot wound to the chest.
Police continue to seek a motive and have not named a suspect in the case.
Former officer admits transgender beating
Tennessee’s MyEyewitnessNews.com reports a former Memphis police officer has pleaded guilty to beating a transgender prisoner at a jail more than two years ago.
Bridges McRae pleaded guilty Aug. 26 in federal court to a felony civil-rights charge. He had faced up to 10 years in prison, but instead he will serve two years under his plea agreement.
McRae acknowledged he used excessive force when he repeatedly hit Duanna Johnson in the face while she was being booked on a prostitution charge in February 2008. The beating was captured on video.
Johnson, 43, was shot to death later in 2008 on a street corner near her home.
Will Batts, executive director of The Memphis Gay and Lesbian Community Center, said he was pleased McRae will serve time, but that he felt two years is a light sentence.
“It’s incredibly senseless. It’s hard to imagine somebody watching that and not feeling horror,” Batts said of the video.
Another study says gay parents OK
Stanford University News reports a new study showed little difference in educational achievement between children raised by gay couples and those raised by married heterosexual couples.
The study, published in Demography magazine, showed that children of gay and married couples had lower grade-repetition rates than their peers raised by opposite-sex unmarried couples and single parents.
Stanford sociologist Michael Rosenfeld, using data from the 2000 Census, concluded that children raised by same-sex couples have nearly the same educational achievement as children raised by married heterosexual couples.
— Larry Nichols