Gay employees banned at Ga.’s Shorter University
Shorter University has adopted new “faith statements” that include an effective ban on gay people working for the Southern Baptist college, which is located in Rome, Ga.
New documents approved by the university’s Board of Trustees on Oct. 21 include a “Personal Lifestyle Statement” for university employees, as well as other statements and new logo stressing the college motto of “Transforming Lives Through Christ.”
Faculty and staff were told of the new policies on Monday, according to an Oct. 25 press release from the school.
The Personal Lifestyle Statement, which employees are required to sign, includes, “I reject as acceptable all sexual activity not in agreement with the Bible, including, but not limited to, premarital sex, adultery and homosexuality.”
Defendants in Piedmont Park gay bashing plead guilty
Three of the men accused of robbing and violently beating openly gay pastor Josh Noblitt and his friend in Piedmont Park more than a year ago expressed remorse on Tuesday in Fulton Superior Court as they pleaded guilty to reduced charges.
Jarvis Johnson, 21; Sam Johnson, 19; and Benjamin Johnson, 17, admitted their guilt in the attack on Noblitt and his friend, Trent Williams, on July 2, 2010, as the two were enjoying an evening picnic. The three were part of a group of six young men — the youngest was 13 at the time of the crime — arrested in the attack. According to police reports and Noblitt, three of the suspects walked up to them and asked, “Are y’all gay? Two men laying on a blanket. We ought to beat y’all for that.”
The three youths walked off and returned later with a stick and got into a fight with Noblitt and Williams. During the fight, Noblitt called police from his cell phone. At the same time one of the three youths called for reinforcements. Several more teens showed up on the scene and one pulled a gun on Noblitt, held it to his head, and demanded their money.
Atlanta mayor to kick OWS protesters out of Woodruff Park
Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed announced this afternoon that he was reneging on his promise to allow Occupy Wall Street protesters freedom to remain in Atlanta’s Woodruff Park until early November.
During a press conference at City Hall, Reed said that events over the weekend led to his decision to revoke his previous executive order. A two-day hip-hop concert, called Atlanta Hip-Hop Day Free Concert Festival, was scheduled to be held in Woodruff Park on Oct. 23-24, but organizers failed to provide the city with an adequate security plan, according to the mayor. The use of a power generator without a permit was also a cause to shut down the event, Reed added.
Around a half-dozen Occupy Atlanta protesters were present during the often-heated press conference. OWS Atlanta members shouted several times that Reed was lying or fabricating his reasons for the eviction.
[Updated] Rudolph Byrd, noted African-American gay Emory scholar, dies
Rudolph Byrd, a gay Emory professor and noted scholar on African-American literature, has died, according to a report by the Associated Press. He was 58.
According to an Emory spokesperson, Byrd died Friday from multiple myeloma, a cancer of the plasma cells.
Byrd was the founding co-chair of the Alice Walker Literary Society and was a consultant for the United Negro College Fund. He played a key role in bringing Walker’s archives to Emory’s library.
In April, it was announced that Emory received a $234,000 grant to study how the civil rights movement intersects with today’s black LGBT movements.