It Gets Better by Allie Osterloh

An illustration created by Allie Osterloh for Spirit Day 2011.

MyAcceptance.org tells stories of LGBT people, two photos at a time

MyAcceptance.org, a new photo essay project, is documenting members of the LGBT community — two photos at a time. The one on the left representing how they’ve felt in the past and the one on the right representing how they feel now.

Much like the It Gets Better campaign, the goal of the project is “to give hope to those out there that are struggling in their lives, those who feel like they’re alone and that there’s no one to turn to.”

The project also invites people to participate by submitting their own photos.

Learn more about the project and view the photos at MyAcceptance.org.

(Photo: Parker Austin)

Man kills 4-year-old on assumption that he is gay

A North Carolina man is accused of killing a 4-year-old boy on the assumption that he is gay, according to WRAL. 

Peter Lucas Moses, 27, led a “religious” group of women and children and according to the report, they feared him.

Moses shot 4-year-old Jadon Higganbothan in the head in fear that the child was gay. According to prosecutors, Moses assumed that the child might be gay because his father had left his mother. He told the mother, Vania Rae Sisk, to “get rid” of the child.

Prosecutors said that Larhonda Renee Smith, 40, told Moses that Jadon had hit another child’s bottom. After hearing this, Moses became angry and started walking around the house with a gun. Later, she told him that he had hit another child’s bottom.

“He starts screaming, ‘I told you to get rid of him!’” and told Sisk, “'How am I going to do this?’” [District Attorney Tracy Cline] recalled the witness’ account.

Moses ordered two of the women to set up computers and speakers in the garage, prosecutors said they were told by the witness. They said he started playing music with the Lord’s Prayer in Hebrew, took Jadon in the garage and shut the door, and the women then heard a gunshot.

Prosecutors said the witness told them that the women helped clean up the body of Jadon, who had been shot in the head, and put it in a suitcase in Moses’ master suite. He later told them to get the body out because it was beginning to smell, prosecutors said.

Moses also killed Antoinetta Yvonne McKoy, 28, after he learned that she couldn’t have children and wanted to leave the group.

Sisk, Smith, and Lavada Harris face charges of first-degree murder for McKoy’s death and accessories in Jardon’s death.

(Photo: WRAL)

ACLU and Yale launch campaign to stop censoring LGBT websites in schools

ACLU has teamed up with Yale Law School to launch the “Don’t Filter Me” campaign, which aims to stop censorship of websites in public high schools.

The ACLU blog post reports that some schools have been blocking LGBT-related websites such as the GSA Network and the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN).

These schools even allow students to access to anti-LGBT sites that condemn LGBT people or urge LGBT people to try to change our sexual orientation. The ACLU describes this as viewpoint discrimination.

ACLU asks students to report unconstitutional web filtering at their schools by filling out a form at action.aclu.org/dontfilterme.

(Image credit: aclu.org)

Spirit

A photograph by I Must Be Dead Photography from Phoenix, AZ. Featured in the Equalitopia Group on deviantART.

Pretty Please: Oh Blue Bird 02

An illustration by RaccoonNook, a designer and illustrator based in New York City.