Morning Sweep

A second man has been arrested in anti-gay, anti-Hispanic hate crime killing of Ecuadorean immigrant Jose Sucuzhañay, who was beaten to death in a brutal attack last December.

In a Gannett news story (featured in the Elmira Star Gazette and Rochester Democrat & Chronicle), Pride Agenda executive director Alan Van Capelle reiterates what we’ve been saying all along – the Democratic Majority in the Senate doesn’t guarantee marriage, but it does guarantee that it’s time to do the hard work necessary to win hearts and minds.

The White House has announced that Jeffrey S. Crowley, and openly gay Senior Research Scholar at Georgetown University’s Health Policy Institute, will be the Director of Office of National AIDS Policy.

Legislation update: New Mexico’s domestic partnership bill was voted down in the Senate, and Rhode Island has introduced a marriage bill in both houses.

Colorado State Senator Scott Renfroe, who during a debate on partner health benefits on Tues. compared extending benefits for the “sin” of homosexuality to legalizing the sin of murder, has clarified his statements. You see, unlike murderers, he doesn’t think homosexuals deserve to be punished – but he does stand by his beliefs. Thanks for your leniency, Sen. Renfroe!

Speaking of gays and violence, a clip of Liberty Counsel radio host Mat Staver’s speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference yesterday is circulating widely. Staver says gay parenting leads to kids being raised in “fatherless households,” which turns them into violent offenders. So inversely, having two gay daddies will make you a Rhodes scholar, right?

Continuing on today’s “gay and violent” theme, Sean Hannity was unhappy with gay kissing at the Oscars, saying “They keep showing the scenes of men kissing. And I’m thinking do we have to expose our children to more and more sex, more and more violence, you know, more and more controversy?” GLAAD responds with a video montage of all the kisses – 14 straight and 3 gay – shown at the Oscars. What Zac and Vanessa want to do in the privacy of their own home is one thing, but not in front of the children…

Bilerico guest blogger Monica Helms, president of the Transgender American Veterans Association, reflects on the recent series of articles on trans veterans in the Tucson Daily Star.

The home of Franklin E. Kameny, who has been called "the father of gay activism," has been designated as a D.C. Historic Landmark.