1. The engineer at the center of the Amtrak crash in Philadelphia has been identified as gay activist Brandon Bostian. The NTSB says Bostian caused the train to derail by slamming on the emergency brakes as the train took a curve at 106 mph—more than twice the speed limit. Eight people were killed and many more were injured.
2. “Suck dick, fight or quit doing gay shit.” Jezebel has a story on Passion Star and the Texas prison rape problem.
3. The Southern Poverty Law Center says the number of anti-LGBT hate groups has increased by 10 percent in just the past year, reportedly due to the harsher rhetoric and because many groups are losing on several fronts.
4. “Now that the gay community is starting to gain the equality that it has been fighting for, the consequence is that they are just as boring as everyone else. It’s not a defeat; it’s progress. Just like feminism in the ‘70s wasn’t about forcing women out of the house and into the workforce, it was about giving them the choice to live any kind of life they wanted, the gay civil rights movement was about letting gays have the social and legal protection to live any kind of life they want as well.” Brian Moylan with an essay in Time “in defense of being boring and gay.”
5. VIDEO OF THE DAY: Check out this pro-LGBT video released by The United Nations.