Male inmates sue state seeking same-sex marriage behind bars
By PHILLIP RAWLS
The Associated Press
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) -- Two male inmates at Fountain prison near Atmore have sued the state in hopes of getting married, despite a prohibition in state law and no precedent for a married couple behind bars.

"We certainly wouldn't condone this type of marriage," prison spokesman Brian Corbett said Monday.

The inmates, Daruis Chambers and Jonathan Jones, acted as their own attorney in the suit. They argue that the state law banning same-sex marriages violates their constitutional rights of due process and free speech.

"This court must not allow the alleged sexual morals of a society filled with bias to be the scales of balance," they wrote in their five-page lawsuit.



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Araujo Murder Trial Set To Begin
by 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff
(Hayward, California)  The trial of three men charged with killing transgender teen Gwen Araujo will begin this week in Hayward, California, with opening statements by the prosecution and defense lawyers.

Michael Magidson, Jason Cazares and Jose Merel, all 23, are charged with murder with a hate-crime enhancement in the brutal killing.  A fourth man, Jaron Nabors, 20, pleaded guilty last year to voluntary manslaughter in exchange for testimony against his three friends.

Magidson, Cazares and Merel have pleaded not guilty. If convicted they face 25 years to life if convicted, with an additional four years for the hate-crime enhancement.

17 year old Gwen Araujo was murdered in October 2002 during a party at Merel's Newark, California home, after it was discovered she was biologically male.


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Gay Equality Measure Defeated At Banking Chain
(Cincinnati, Ohio) Shareholders at one of the largest regional banks in the country have rejected a call for the inclusion of sexuality in the company's human rights code.

The issue was voted on at the annual meeting of Fifth Third Bank which has 21,000 employees servicing 5.5 million customers in Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, West Virginia, Tennessee and Florida.

Still, supporters of the measure say they are pleased that more than 40 percent of Fifth Third shareholders voted in favor of the measure.