Kyle Hawkins made headlines when he came out earlier this year. With his announcement, Hawkins became one of the first openly gay coaches in the United States. Though some of his team objected to Hawkins' sexuality - or, rather, his decision to make it public - the University seemed to support the 32-year old homo-jocko. They at least supported him enough to renew his contract. But that was then and this is now and now Hawkins is out of a job.

Hawkins found out about his termination back in May, when school administrators listed at least eight reasons why they decided not to invite him back. MSNBC reports:

Hawkins said he learned of the decision May 4 in a meeting with team leaders, an assistant coach, faculty advisers and a university official. Hawkins said the group offered eight reasons not to renew his annual contract, which expires May 31.

Among the concerns: dissatisfaction with his practice regimen and the coach’s negative reputation outside the school.

“Those are laughable,” Hawkins said. “A week and a half before the meeting, they had sat in front of the ESPN cameras and said what a great coach I was.”

His young charges agree that Hawkins performed his duties well, but still aren't convinced he's the right man for the job.

CONTINUED »

The discrimination train just keeps chuggin' along, making a not-so-jolly stop in Grandview, Missouri, where two lesbians were getting a little cozy at a local International House of Pancakes. It seems customers at this lovely establishment didn't find the lesbian loving so stimulating and complained to staffers. According to Richard Rothstein over at QueerSighted, the manager then approached the women and said:

It's just that we've had complaints, and it's unacceptable. And as a family restaurant, we don't accept that, and (we) don't accept you. I'm going to have to ask you to leave, and not return.

Yeah, the House is totally family friendly. That's why they refer to it as I-HOP, rather than I-H-O-P (get it?).

Rothstein goes on to remind us all that there are no laws against such discrimination - establishments, even those as fine and upstanding at IHOP, can legally "evict" patrons, regardless of whether or not they're just as American as anyone else. The homo-journo also encourages readers to write in to IHOP to say "howdy". Our words, however, will be a little less jovial.

All right, let's get this day started right. Or is it wrong? We'll let you decide on that one, readers.

Missouri State University has settled a lawsuit with a student by the name of Emily Brooker. It seems Brooker took issue with an assigment to write letters to her lawmakers advocating gay adoption. A good Christian of the Ted Haggard variety, Brooker couldn't reconcile her academic dreams with her deep-seated belief that homos are rotten child-eating mongrels. Thus, she refused to do the assignment.

365 Gay reports:

Brooker claimed that after she refused to sign the letter because of her religious beliefs she was subjected to a two-and-a-half hour interrogation by faculty members, who allegedly asked her personally invasive questions such as, “Do you think gays and lesbians are sinners?” and “Do you think I am a sinner?”

To which Brooker replied, "You're a hell demon, may you burn for all eternity for even posing such a question!"

Okay, she didn't say that, but she did call her lawyers, who successfully argued that Brooker's first amendment rights had been violated. As a result, MSU's agreed to pay Brooker 9,000 bones and the offending profressor, Frank Kauffman has stepped down as the head of the program.

So, what was the program? Social Work. Nice, huh?

In case you're not up on Missouri law, the state lifted the gay foster parent ban back in July, citing that the law did not specifically disqualify gays from fostering/adopting, thus they had a legal right. Conservative lawmakers vowed to write a bill that will permanently prohibit the homos from adopting or fostering children. Said bill has yet to be written.

As part of the social work program, Brooker's professors urged her to sign the National Association of Social Work's code of ethics, a contract that requires workers to honor LGBT rights. The code reads:

Social workers should not practice, condone, facilitate, or collaborate with any form of discrimination on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, color, sex, sexual orientation, age, marital status, political belief, religion, or mental or physical disability.

That sounds pretty fair to us and when we first read this story we got pretty hot under the proverbial collar. The more we think about it, however, the more we wonder if Brooker had a right to protest the assignment.

This brings us back to our follow-up on The Garden Guy, in which we asked "should religion be simply a spiritual practice, or should people attempt to extend their religious beliefs to social - and thus potentially divisive - practices?"

Should social workers - those defenders of civil society, "family values" and America's discarded children and adults - be forced to support cultures/ideals that contradict their religious practices? One reader says, "Religion should not be applied anywhere beyond the self", while another insists, "If your religious values have no social values, then they have no value". Both of which, we think, fall under the category of "notable" (obviously, because we've just noted them).

Loyal readers probably know where we stand on this issue, but why don't you guys duke it our via comments and let us know what you think...

• Missouri Governor says non-discrimination clarification takes "too much time." [University Business]

• 15-year old convicted of Gay Pride attacks. We hate to say it, but good. [365 Gay]

• Wait, you can drink Cocaine? Thanks Red Bull! [Jossip]

• Beckham makes Posh eat like him. We'd rather eat him. [The Daily Mail]

• Polish Prez attempts to clarify gay views. Um...okay. [The Advocate]

• In Britain, authorities say they've foiled a plot to blow up plans traveling between the U.K. and the U.S. [NYT]

• The Rev. Fred Daley, a gay priest who claims a vow of celibacy, was supposed to head to Lesotho on an AIDS relief mission on Sunday but had his participation pulled by organizers at the Catholic Relief Services. The reason? Not that he was gay, says CRS, but that he's a gay rights advocate. "Sounds like 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell.'" [ABC News]

• In New York, a preacher is fighting to display Biblical passages on outdoor billboards. She bought and paid for the ads – which read "Thou shalt not lie with mankind as with womenkind. It is an abomination" – but when Staten Island's borough president saw them, he lobbied the billboard owner PME to remove them. PME, meanwhile, accepts plenty of ad dollars from the borough. [Pink News]

• In Missouri, Jolie Justus is set to become the the first openly gay state senator. [U.S. Newswire]

• In Arkansas, the Young Democrats elected as its president Hendrix University's Josh Blevins, the org's first openly gay leader. We've since been notified that the press release we referenced contained many factual errors, among them: Blevins is not, in fact, gay. Meanwhile, many of the quotes cited in the press release are apparently made up, as is the name of Blevins' school; it is Hendrix College. Further, he is no longer a student there. [PR Web]

• Also in Arkansas, candidates for the lieutenant governor position are battling over whether to make a campaign issue out of the the State Supreme Court's reversal of a ban on gay foster parents. [Advocate]

• In California, a gay synchronized swimming team from San Francisco was banned from the FINA World Masters Championships at Stanford University because of official Olympic rules, which state the sport is for women only. [Advocate]

For all you activisty types, we want to give you a heads-up about the Creating Change conference in Kansas City this November.

Creating Change™ is the premier national grassroots organizing and skills building LGBT conference. Each year the conference is held in a different region of the United States and attracts 2,500+ participants from within and outside of the LGBT community. The conference is well known for providing a unique environment where activists and leaders come together from diverse places and backgrounds to create a community that is both strengthening and inspiring to the participants.

Starting the conference on November 8 is an interesting move by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, the organization that puts on the event. Depending on the way the elections go, it could be a very exciting or depressing time.

19th Annual Creating Change Conference [NGLTF]

• The finale of My Life On The D-List brings together one gay icon with another as Kathy Griffin joins Johnny Weir on the ice. [Malcontent]

• Following a court order, Missouri removed from its books a regulation automatically banning gay men and women from becoming foster parents. [AP]

• You've got till tomorrow to nominate a friend – or, more likely, yourself – for Cosmo's Media Men contest. [Cosmo]

• Latvia's gay pride celebrations have been banned, just as they were last year. Except last year a court overturned the decision and the gays marched on. Will it be the same this year? [SMH]

• Boston's WRKO radio station suspened talk show host John DePetro yesterday after he called the Turnpike Authority chairman a "fag." Though most news media aren't printing the actual word. [Boston Globe]

• Rape survivors are always the victims of unfortunate circumstances, but in this case, the cirumstances are somehow even more devastating: A woman was raped by a gay man who wanted to prove he could have sex with a woman. [Aust. News Limited]

• The Born Different campaign is getting a huge PR push, but so far we've yet to see anything more than a couple viral video clips and recycled stats. [Born Different]

• A note to all British gays trying to get married in Hong Kong. "You're in China now, bitch! No marriage for you." [IHT]

• A trannie who served in the Navy during Operation Desert Shield is running for Congress in Missouri as a Republican. Midge Potts is running low on cash, but not on opinions, and we love her. [Columbia Daily Tribune]

• Sen. John McCain is definitely voting against the Federal Marriage Amendment, but supports outlawing samesex marriage in his home state of Arizona. Dammit, he's a federalist not a homo-lover! [Arizona Republic]

• Gays do not have to sit at the back of the bus in D.C., even if the homophobic bus driver tells them to. [Washington Blade]

Since they're pretty much losing the battle against gay marriage, conservatives are now turning their attention toward banning gays& lesbians from adopting children. They're up and running with November ballot inititatives. Someone please save the children from The Gays! But there are already some surprisingly strange laws already on the books across the country. For example, single gays can adopt kids in Mississippi, but queer couple cannot. This is logical. Well, not really.

At least Utah is consistent. All unmarried couples (that includes straights!) are prevented from adopting.

But conservatives are already losing this battle, too. Last week a Missouri judge ruled a lesbian can be a foster mother. It may not be adoption per se, but it's certainly a step in that direction for the state.

Drives to ban gay adoption heat up in 16 states [USA Today]

Missouri judge says lesbian can be foster mom [The Advocate]