Aussie Open, Canada marriages, ‘2 Broke Girls’

By Project Q Atlanta | Jan 12, 2012 | 1:46 PM

Grand Slam’s Rennae Stubbs calls for LGBT solidarity at tournament, Canadian government disavows non-resident gay marriages, Michael Patrick King says being gay gives him right to offend, Facebook disses OutServe, and more LGBT headlines.

• Rennae Stubbs takes on Margaret Court before Australian open. The two grand-slam champs are at odds after Court became an anti-gay preacher and lesbian Stubbs (top photo) called for a show of LGBT solidarity at the upcoming tournament.

• Married in Canada? Maybe not. The Canadian government is denying a petition for divorce by a British-American binational couple because they can’t legally marry at home. The implication for some 5,000 non-resident couples married there is that they “were never really married.” A court case will decide the outcome.

• New Hampshire veteran petitions for gay brother’s right to marry. As the legislature prepares to consider a repeal of the state’s gay marriage law, former Marine Craig Stowell has launched an online drive sharing his family’s story to keep the law in place. His petition on Change.org has already received 75,000 signatures.

• Michael Patrick King: Racist, anti-gay “2 Broke Girls” jokes OK because “I’m gay.” Head honcho at “Sex and the City” and the CBS hit, King (middle photo with “2BG” leads) says that comedy gives him carte blanche to make fun of everybody, and he will keep putting ethnic and gay stereotypes in the show every week.

• Suit claims gay inmates denied right to rehab. Michael Lamar Salomonson is suing the Riverside County, Calif. sheriff’s department for a jail policy that segregates gay prisoners and effectively bars them from drug counseling. Salomonson was denied plea-agreed treatment for methamphetamine addiction.

• Gay man robbed, beaten, pummeled with rocks outside El Paso gay bar. Two men reportedly attacked Emilio Moreno, 23, as he left the bar, calling him anti-gay slurs and finally leaving him for dead. Moreno is hospitalized with a broken nose and other facial injuries.

• Facebook shuts down, restores page for gay military’s OutServe. A fake complaint from a sham OutServe e-mail address claimed infringement. The social media giant simply took it down and initially stuck to the decision. A gay media outlet ran interference, and OutServe’s Facebook page is back up.

• Gay Miss California contestant “like kid in a candy store” at pageant. Mollie Thomas (bottom photo), 19, was one of two lesbians to be the first openly gay contestants in a Miss USA prelim. Neither won or even placed, but Thomas loved being crammed into just a few dressing rooms with scores of other girls. TMZ goes straight-guy misogynistic with the interview:

Stubbs photo via Sydney Morning Herald; King photo by New York Daily News; Thomas photo from TMZ