Indiana's Bureau of Motor Vehicles recently agreed not to "red-flag" people whose gender doesn't match their driver's license. That's reasonable: why should someone be suspected simply because they're a different gender? Simple, yes? Not to American Family Association of Indiana member Micah Clark.

Through Clark's imbecilic "logic", an innocuous decision to end trans stigmatization becomes a terrorist win. Here's but a small taste:

In a day of rampant identity theft and a war with terrorists, the Indiana BMV believes that not offending a person who is a cross-dresser or someone who has had a sex change overrides any security risk that could happen through a gender and SSI number mismatch.

It gets twice as bad and three times as offensive, after the jump…

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Indiana's denizens feeling gay marriage these days:

Support among Hoosiers for a state constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage appears to be on the decline, according to an Indianapolis Star-WTHR (Channel 13) poll.

The poll, based on the responses of 600 people statewide, found that 49 percent of Hoosiers supported the amendment. That number is down from 56 percent in a March 2005 survey by The Star.

Of the respondents, 44 percent said they opposed a constitutional ban, up from 40 percent in 2005.

Indiana's Senate definitely doesn't approve of same-sex nuptials: they passed a ban earlier this year. The House of Representatives, however, squashed that nasty piece of legislation. Voters and politicians expect it to rear its ugly head again in 2008.

Something to look forward to, huh?

[Ed. Note: Thanks, HKG. Dyslexia and morning grogginess are a killer combination. Good looking out.]

It sucks to be Daniel Kevin Seltzer. The 50-year old Indiana man had nearly finished a fourteen prison term for the 1983 murder of gay man, George Lamphere. Unfortunately for Seltzer, DNA evidence linked him to the 1981 murder of another gay man, Gerald G. Gherardi.

Cigarette butts from the crime scene held the truth for over 25-years before police got the technology to close the cold case. But they obviously had their suspicions:

[Police] began examining the two cases side-by-side and found striking similarities.

Both victims lived in Mishawaka, both were gay and both were church organists. Each of the victims had been strangled and in both cases the victims' homes had been ransacked.

In each case police believe the victims met their killer at a bar.

Also, both the men's first name's start with 'G'.

Now that coppers have finally proved their point, Seltzer's settling back into his prison digs.

Don't you love technology?

35-year old Crothersville, Indiana resident Aaron Hall lost his life on April 12, 2007. According to court records, three of his friends beat Hall for hours, dumped him in a ditch, came back a few days later, at which point one of the accused fired shots at Hall's body, which may or may not have already been lifeless.

A number of gay blogs have covered the story. Some of you wondered why we've yet mentioned what some people are describing as the most gruesome anti-gay hate crime since Matthew Shepherd. The answer to that's just as complicated as the alleged killer's accounts of incident.

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Indiana's Woodlan Junior-Senior High School may believe in free speech, just not on its property. The Indiana-based school has agreed not to fire Amy Sorrell after the journalism teacher published a "pro-gay" essay in the school's paper, The Tomahawk.

The offending article, penned by a kick ass student named Megan Chase, read:

I can only imagine how hard it would be to come out as homosexual in today’s society. I think it is so wrong to look down on those people, or to make fun of them, just because they have a different sexuality than you. There is nothing wrong with them or their brain; they’re just different than you.

Following the piece's publication, Woodlan principal Edwin Yoder swore he'd set things straight and took control of the paper, suspending Sorrell until he could decide her fate. After being suspended with pay, Sorrell and the school district have come to a "mutual" agreement.

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There's a scourge plaguing our nation, readers. It's worse than homophobic attacks, it's more devastating than AIDS, it's far more frightening than Flotilla DeBarge waving a stilleto. It's free speech.

Yes, we know it's scary, but it's a reality and it won't go away. Luckily for American principles everywhere, Woodlan High School's Principal Edwin Yoder has made it his duty to curb free speech at his Fort Wayne, Indiana stomping ground, ensuring that students will never, ever have to read filth such as this:

I can only imagine how hard it would be to come out as homosexual in today’s society. I think it is so wrong to look down on those people, or to make fun of them, just because they have a different sexuality than you. There is nothing wrong with them or their brain; they’re just different than you.

Oh, it burns! It burns!

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Homophobia's a poppin' in Indiana. Earlier this week a senate sub-committee forwarded an anti-gay-nup amendment and yesterday came news that known homosexual Charles E. Dayton has filed a $1 million lawsuit against Taco Bell after being assaulted by two of the fine restaurant's employees.

It all started way back on December 15, 2005, when Dayton popped into his neighborhood Hobart, Indiana, Taco Bell for a bit of their oh-so-delicious and oh-so-economic meals. He got an earful of homo-haterade from not-so model employee, Amber Barnes. Apparently not one for the 'mos, Barnes refused him service, called him, as Glenn Beck would say, "naughty" names and then kicked his ride as he made his getaway.

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• Libya's come to its senses and has agreed to free the six health workers it sentenced to death for "infecting" children with HIV. Of the mix-up, Muammar al-Gaddafi's son Saif al-Islam said: "The case went in the wrong direction from the very beginning. There were many manipulations in the original files, many errors … This is why we should seek a compromise". That means, of course, that Bulgaria's prepared to cough up the ransom.

• An Indiana senate committee voted 7-4 to ban same-sex marriage today. Protesters singing "We Shall Overcome" were promptly ejected from the room. God bless America.

• Has Tennis great Bill Tilden been written out of sports history because he was gay? Pink New UK's Ben Leung seems to think so…

• Brandy already apologized for accidentally killing someone with her car. Now the family wants $50 million? What's this world coming to?

• The United Nations has finally released a report on the plight of Iraqi gays. Guess what? It's not good.

• Ralph Fiennes love AIDS! Patients, that is. He's in India spreading some good will.

There's a religious debate brewing in Indiana, and for once it has little to do with God. Well, okay, God is still part of the debate – When isn't she? – but this time around it's got more to do with illegal advertising than anything else. The Jesus Metropolitan Community Center, which is being lauded for its inclusion of the gay community, is also on the receiving end of criticism for the way it's going about promoting itself: by placing signs in public rights of way, including on people's yards, in violation of local law. Local publication The Word is mounting the offensive.

The "Would Jesus Discriminate?" campaign is part of the Jesus MCC's push to include all people in its faith, and not just those Pat Robertson would approve. But The Word is calling the church on its have-cake-eat-cake approach, as well as its attempt to speak for an entire community of people that never authorized it to do so:

So what gives with the MCC Church and their recent anti-homophobia campaign? Church volunteers posted signs in public rights of way and then screamed discrimination when towns and cities rightfully asked that they be removed as they would any other illegal postings. And, we’re told by at least one source, church leaders were reminded in advance that such postings were illegal and might result in a backlash, but they went forward anyway.

While this newspaper does not and never would support discrimination, we find the MCC’s double-standard difficult to deal with, but somewhat sadly, we feel, typical of a church which we feel in many ways is as intolerant of others’ points of view as many they criticise for being inflexible and unresponsive to gay and lesbian needs. [...]

… from witnessing and attempts at proslytizing by church members to those who are happily not religious or who have chosen (or been born) into a non-Christian religion, to suggesting that some of the MCC’s leadership speak for many in the general gay and lesbian community who might not agree with parts or all of their message, especially as it relates to their brand of Christianity.

It saddens us when anyone tries to speak for us gays as a group, because just as this newspaper does not have that right, nor do we expect it, neither do any of the often self-appointed "leaders" who step forward and throw themselves in front of TV cameras and call daily newspapers pretending to talk for you and me.

As far as the current hooha and the MCC Church—nothing against their beliefs, but we feel that any attempt to convince outsiders that they speak for you or me any more than local rights groups, rabbis, or mainline Christian leadership do is wrong —regardless of whether or not they feel they have a unique relationship with a higher power.

And we tend to agree. In the same manner we'd call out an anti-gay organization for illegal promotion of their agenda, a pro-gay group has no more right to post placards on property they don't have a right to.

The Word Not Happy With "Would Jesus Discriminate?" Campaign [Advance Indiana]
Would Jesus Discriminate? [Jesus MCC]