The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) applauded MSNBC’s decision on July 7 to cancel “Savage Nation” after GLAAD brought to their attention San Francisco-based commentator Michael Savage’s homophobic attack on a gay caller during his July 5 MSNBC cable show.

“Frankly, it’s about time,” said GLAAD News Media Director Cathy Renna.

“MSNBC has now found itself broadcasting exactly the kind of verbal assaults GLAAD’s been warning them about for the past five months. And to their credit, MSNBC and NBC News have backed up their promises to hold Savage accountable for his behavior.”

After cutting off a self-identified gay caller whose comments were edited out of the broadcast, Savage referred to him as “one of those sodomites” and said, among other things, “You should only get AIDS and die, you pig…. Go eat a sausage and choke on it.”

Savage added, “OK, do we have another nice caller here who’s busy because he didn’t have a nice night in the bathhouse who’s angry at me today? Huh? Get me another one, put another sodomite on, I don’t care about these bums, they mean nothing to me….”

GLAAD brought Savage’s remarks to the attention of MSNBC executives July 7 and called on them to hold Savage accountable for his attacks. On Feb. 12, MSNBC announced it had offered Savage his own weekly cable television talk show.

In a March 7 St. Petersburg Times article, columnist Eric Deggans asked MSNBC President and General Manager Erik Sorenson what might happen if Savage engaged in his trademark verbal assaults on gays and other minorities, including the use of terms such as “Turd World” or “homosexual perversion.” Sorensen said: “Those kinds of statements will not be permitted. And if they do happen, they won’t happen more than once.”

Delaware lawmakers wrapped up the first year of their two-year legislative session June 30. But plenty of issues were left hanging and will be revisited by lawmakers.

Chief among those measures is a proposal to prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation.

The bill, which barely received the number of votes required to pass the state House, is similar to a measure that passed the House by a one-vote margin last year and died in a Senate committee.

The proposed legislation adds sexual orientation “whether real or perceived,” to age, race and other factors that cannot be used to discriminate against people in employment, housing, public accommodations, insurance or public works contracting.

Gov. Ruth Ann Minner said she was disappointed the Senate didn’t approve the measure and send it to her June 30.

“They know that I want that bill done,” said Minner, who suggested the sexual orientation bill might be addressed in a special legislative session later this summer coinciding with Senate approval of judicial nominations.

Fulton County has become the fourth local government in Georgia to provide domestic partner benefits for gay and lesbian employees.

The board of commissioners voted, 4-2, July 2 to give healthcare coverage to employees who fill out a form declaring they are in a committed relationship with the person they seek to insure.

Commissioners Emma Darnell and Mike Kenn voted against the measure. “I can’t support this legislation, because it flies in the face of basically the sanctity of marriage,” Kenn told commissioners.

Atlanta was the first to provide such benefits, in 1999, followed by DeKalb County and Decatur.

A GLBT student group and school officials in Boyd County, Kentucky, broke off talks on whether the group could meet on school grounds.

Weeks of discussion and an eight-hour closed-door meeting with Federal Magistrate Judge Peggy Patterson ended June 30 with no agreement.

A lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union, Tamara Lange, did not rule out further mediation but said its case will continue. The ACLU sued the school district on behalf of the Gay-Straight Alliance of Boyd County High School after it was barred from meeting at the school.

School officials and their lawyers declined comment on the negotiations.

U.S. District Judge David Bunning had ordered the sides to settle the group’s lawsuit against the district in mediation. Representatives of the board and the alliance were scheduled to meet separately with Bunning on July 9.

The suit claims the school violated the federal Equal Access Act by barring the alliance from meeting on school grounds while allowing other noncurricular groups to do so.

Twice last year, the high school’s teacher-parent council denied the gay-straight group permission to meet on school grounds.

The Rev. Aaron R. Payson says he will continue to marry heterosexual couples at the Universalist Church on Holden Street, but won’t sign their marriage licenses as long as the state refuses to legally recognize same-sex marriages.

“It’s a matter of conscience for me,” he told the Telegram & Gazette of Worcester.

Payson said he will perform the religious marriage rite for heterosexual couples, but arrangements will be made for a justice of the peace or a judge to sign the legal document required by the state.

Payson also performs Services of Holy Union in his congregation for gay and lesbian couples, and the ceremony is recorded by the church as if it were a marriage. Gay couples also receive a holy union certificate similar to a marriage certificate given to heterosexual couples.

Payson is part of a statewide movement by clergy to support allowing people who are gay, lesbian and transgender to have the same happiness and legal protections that married couples enjoy.

He said that on June 25 he joined other clergy throughout the state in pledging not to sign wedding licenses issued by the state until gay and lesbian couples are able to receive such licenses. A number of Unitarian clergy, as well as clergy of other denominations, also signed the Massachusetts Declaration of Religious Support for the Freedom of Same-Gender Couples to Marry.

Republican New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg distanced himself from his party’s position on same-sex marriage less than a week after the U.S. Supreme Court handed down a decision to overturn a Texas anti-sodomy law.

“I have always thought that people should be allowed to go about their business themselves,” Bloomberg said at a news conference. “I don’t know why any of these platforms should deal with issues like that.”

Bloomberg’s comments come a year before New York hosts the Republican National Convention. The party’s platform at the 2000 convention strongly supported a “traditional definition of ‘marriage’ as the legal union of one man and one woman,” and is endorsed by President Bush.

Advocates of the gay and lesbian community have been lobbying for Bloomberg to support same-sex marriages. NYC Councilmember Margarita Lopez told Newsday she plans to ask the mayor to perform a marriage ceremony for her and her partner.

“That would be a good test for him, to come out of the closet on gay marriages,” she said.

The Dallas Morning News announced Sunday, July 6, that it has begun accepting and will print same-sex commitment ceremony and civil union announcements in its Sunday Texas Living section. The policy change comes after representatives from GLAAD and the Dallas GLBT community met with Editorial Vice President Gilbert Bailon in October of last year.

The Dallas Morning News’ decision brings the number of newspapers with inclusive announcement policies to 207 — exactly triple the number of papers that accepted gay couples’ announcements when GLAAD launched its Announcing Equality campaign last August.

With the addition of the Dallas Morning News there is now a newspaper that prints same-sex union announcements in all of the nation’s top 25 media markets, 44 of the top 50, and 68 of the top 100.