Governor Steve Beshear has been receiving threatening letters ordering him to resign according to his security detachment from the Kentucky State Police. Governor Beshear kept a campaign promise to Kentucky’s gay and lesbian community by issuing an executive order adding equal opportunity employment to all employees and prospective employees.

Budget negotiations in Frankfort collapsed Wednesday amid enormous differences over a sliver of the spending plan that would create a spate of state-backed construction projects while adding to the Commonwealth’s debt. Organizations across the Commonwealth have expressed alarm and dismay that the budget will be passed that does not include funding for the Kentucky AIDS Drug Assistance Program (KADAP).

With the World Equestrian Games coming to Lexington in September, the Lexington Art League has planned events to highlight the diverse culture Lexington has to offer people around the Commonwealth, the nation, and the world. According to the Lexington Art League, Passing: Fashioning Drag and Alternate Selves uses visual art to explore identity, investigate transformation and celebrate the courage required for individuality.

The separation of church and state are even more blurred in Kentucky thanks to a resolution passed by the House of Representatives. The Kentucky House of Representative passed an anti-gay right-wing resolution. The House passed Resolution 232, the Manhattan Declaration, with a 45 member vote; 55 members of the House didn’t vote, mostly Democrats.

In a proposed commonwealth budget that allocates over $3.4 billion for road projects, a small request of $3.5 million to fund the Kentucky AIDS Drug Assistance Program (KADAP) has been ignored, leaving hundreds living with HIV/AIDS facing difficult choices. The nearly 1300 patients enrolled in KADAP, which is currently unfunded, receive medications through a hodge-podge of resources that are temporary and unsustainable. In the meantime, Kentucky has the longest waiting list in the nation for drug assistance—numbering over 160 men and women—with more being added every day.

Curtis Morrison has been a diplomatic, honest, opinionated (especially on his blog, Louisville Courant), direct, no-nonsense “cut to the chase” kind of guy since I’ve known him. Earlier this year, Mr. Morrison (D-Louisville) decided to run for the Office of Jefferson County Judge/Executive. United We Stand – Kentucky’s LGBTI News™ has the pleasure of interviewing him.

Top defense officials will tell the U.S. Senate on Tuesday that the military will no longer aggressively pursue disciplinary action against gay service members whose orientation is revealed against their will by third parties, sources told the Washington Post. Figures released Monday show that 428 people were discharged from the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines last year for violating the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, according to the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network. The total is about one-third lower than in 2008, when 619 people were discharged.

Pennsylvania Senator John Eichelberger (R – Bedford, Blair, Fulton, Huntingdon and Mifflin) has introduced Senate Bill 707 to add an Commonwealth’s Constitution that reads: “Only a union of one man and one woman shall be valid and recognized as a marriage in this Commonwealth.” The gay and lesbian culture war continues across the United States, which some are now referring to the “Divided States of America.”

Viewpoint: I see the Fairness Campaign, Kentucky Fairness Alliance, and the Kentucky Equality Federation tirelessly show up for -fight after fight, and I think- geez, when will this ever end? And I also wonder, what can we really do for today’s gay teenager in Elizabethtown or Paducah? I came across an unexpected answer in my reading tonight.

Data released by the FBI shows that hate crimes in the United States has reached a seven-year high, yet another increase from 2005′s report. 64 hate crimes related to sexual orientation or gender identity happened here in Kentucky.