Over Half of Native Trans People Have Attempted Suicide

As Native Americans celebrated Indigenous Peoples Day last week (the reclaiming of Columbus Day that's taken root in recent years), the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and National Center for Transgender Equality released the fourth and final piece in a series of reports designed to specifically shine a light on the experiences of transgender people of color. Injustice at Every Turn: A Look at American Indian and Alaskan Native Respondents in the National Transgender Discrimination Survey measured transgender people's experiences of discrimination and showed that the combination of anti-transgender with structural and individual racism meant that transgender people of color experience particularly devastating levels of discrimination.
Among the startling results:
• American Indian and Alaskan Native transgender and gender non-conforming people often live in extreme poverty with 23% reporting a household income of less than $10,000 a year. This compares to a rate of 15% for transgender people of all races. It is about three times the general American Indian and Alaskan Native population rate (8%), and nearly six times the general U.S. population rate (4%).
• American Indian and Alaskan Native transgender and gender non-conforming people were affected by HIV in devastating numbers: 3.24% reported being HIV positive and an additional 8.53% reported that they did not know their status. This compares to rates of 2.64% for transgender respondents of all races, and 0.60% of the general U.S. population.

• Fifty-six percent (56%) of American Indian and Alaskan Native transgender respondents reported having attempted suicide compared to 41% of all study respondents.

Body of Ambassador Used in 'Obscene' Ad By Gay Republicans

A print advertisement paid for by the Broward County chapter of the Log Cabin Republicans includes the body of the U.S. ambassador to Libya who was killed in what has lately been called a terrorist attack.

The ad was reported on by Bilerico Project and printed in an LGBT newspaper called the Florida Agenda. It attacks President Obama as unable to protect Americans.

"If the Obama Administration isn't going to protect Gay/Gay-friendly American citizens from the terror of Islamic radicalism," the ad asks, "what makes you think they will protect us from Shariah Law… ANYWHERE?"

The leaders of the national Log Cabin Republicans have already condemned the chapter's inclusion of Christopher Stevens' body in the attack ad as "obscene." "We reject it completely," wrote executive director R. Clarke Cooper in a letter to the newspaper's editor in which he described himself as "deeply embarrassed" by it.

It has never been confirmed whether Stevens is still alive in the photo, though he is unconscious. And several newspapers were criticized for including it in reports after the attack.

The advertisement implies Stevens was gay, which is an unsubstantiated rumor being circulated by the same oddball blog that claims President Obama is secretly gay. The Advocate contacted the State Department about the rumor some time ago and a spokesman opted against commenting on "the ambassador's personal life."

Cooper swatted down the idea that the attack on the consulate was related to Stevens' sexual orientation — a notion put forward in the ad.

"To suggest that the Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb attack on the US consular mission in Benghazi was connected to homophobia is just as ridiculous as US Ambassador to the UN, Susan Rice, claiming the attack in Benghazi was prompted by a film critical of Mohammed," Clarke wrote. "Violence against the LGBT community is a challenge to civil society throughout the world, and America is a beacon for freedom for all minority voices. There are plenty of reasons to vote Republican to protect US interests and human rights abroad, but the obscene ad in this publication is fallacious, grossly inappropriate and irresponsible."
The National Stonewall Democrats countered with a comment calling the ad "shameless and callous," and they called on the local chapter to retract the ad an issue an apology.

"The confused hatchet men at Log Cabin are conflating a number of unrelated issues in order to attack Democrats and President Obama," said executive director Jerame Davis in a statement. "First, they latch onto right-wing rumors that Ambassador Stevens was gay and then they insinuate that President Obama is responsible for the attack because he did not protect the Ambassador from 'Sharia Law'…. It is simply unimaginable to me how any political message, let alone the muddy and ludicrous message of this ad, in any way justifies disgracing the memory of a man who gave his life in service to his country."

Model Admits He Killed Boyfriend and Wore His Testicles on His Wrists

Lawyers for Renato Seabra, the hunky Portuguese model currently on trial for stomping his boyfriend to death in New York, offered some unusual defense theories during the trial's opening statements. According to the New York Daily News, attorney Rubin Sinins alleges that Seabra, 21, was so "tortured" by his romance with much older, renown journalist and LGBT activist Carlos Castro that he beat and stomped the man to death, castrated him with a corkscrew, and then wore the victim's testicles like bracelets on his wrists to "harness" their power and extract the "virus" of homosexuality as ordered by God.
“He put one on each wrist," Sinins said. "He did this for his protection. He could also harness the power. He wandered the streets of Manhattan, touching people, because he had the power to cure people from AIDS, because he had the power to cure them."
Sinins agued that the model had a sudden psychotic break, which explains why he confessed to police. "He wanted to explain why he killed Mr. Castro, because he thought what he had done was right."
While Seabra's team is pushing for a not guilty by reason of insanity verdict (which would mean he'd go to a psychiatric facility instead of prison), the prosecution certainly isn't buying it.
Assistant District Attorney Maxine Rosenthal insinuated that Seabra was a golddigger who "wanted to pursue a career in modeling. He want to be famous and make money. He also wanted nice things — clothes, electronics, gifts for his family. He wanted to eat in nice restaurants. When Carlos Castro showed up in Renato Seabra's life, he saw a means to an end and he got on board."
Castro allegedly flew the young man to the U.S. from Portugal to meet with model agents in New York and their initial weeks in New York seemed idyllic to friends, according to the Daily News. But Castro's friends testified that the two began to fight after Seabra was caught hooking up with women and telling Castro that he was no longer gay, according to the Daily News' Janon Fisher. Castro reportedly booked his lover an early flight home that night. Rosenthal said that was clear indication that the fling was over.
After a marathon fight that followed, Rosenthal said that Seabra beat Castro with a computer monitor because the man was dumping him: "He knew he was beating, stomping, and mutilating Carlos Castro. And he knew it was wrong."