BY NATASHA BARSOTTI — The owner of a Mississippi newspaper is defending a decision to run a story about a lesbian wedding on the paper's front page after intense backlash from readers, according to a Yahoo News report.

Jim Cegielski says the "deluge of hate calls, letters, emails, Facebook posts, soundoffs and random cross stares thrown in my direction" after the Laurel Leader-Call published the piece, entitled "Historic Wedding: Women Wed in Laurel Through Smiles, Tears," required a response. 

The couple in the story, Jessica Powell and Crystal Craven, exchanged vows earlier in the month, Yahoo notes.

"We were well aware that the majority of people in Jones County are not in favor of gay marriage. However, any decent newspaper with a backbone cannot base decisions on whether to cover a story based on whether the story will make people angry," Cegielski wrote in an editorial. 

"Our job is to inform readers what is going on in our town and let them make their own judgments. That is exactly what we did with the wedding story," Cegielski continued. "If there had been protestors at the wedding, we would have covered that the exact same way . . . but there weren't any. We never said it was a good thing or a bad thing, we simply did our job by telling people what took place."

He noted that the paper carries "stories about child molesters, murders and all kinds of vicious, barbaric acts of evil committed by heinous criminals on our front page and yet we never receive a call from anyone saying, 'I don't need my children reading this.' Never. Ever. However, a story about two women exchanging marriage vows and we get swamped with people worried about their children."

"You have every right to cancel your subscription. But you have no right to berate and belittle anyone on our staff," he concluded.

The Leader-Call is receiving support for its stance on its Facebook page.

BY NATASHA BARSOTTI — “Education plays a key role in supporting LGBT young people and also tackling the underlying prejudices which can lead to homophobic and transphobic bullying," Ireland's education minister said at the first European Union-level conference on homophobic and transphobic bullying in schools.

Ruairí Quinn opened the conference, which brought together Irish policy makers, teachers, school leaders and NGOs to tackle the issue, Pink News reports.

Michael Barron, of BeLonG To Youth Services, is quoted as saying there is a "growing understanding of the seriousness of the issues for young LGBT people, both in Ireland and across Europe."

Barron noted that Ireland's education department recently produced a national action plan on bullying that "integrates measures to tackle prejudice, including homophobia and transphobia, which are the root causes of much bullying."

BY NATASHA BARSOTTI — New York police are reportedly investigating an attack on a gay man as a possible hate crime after he was targeted with homophobic slurs and beaten on the subway Feb 18. 

According to a report in the New York Daily News, a woman took a photo of Urena Morel Frankelly, 23, and his partner while they were eating on the train, while another woman called them names.

One of the women allegedly told Frankelly, "Feed your face, faggot," when he asked about the photo.

A Gay Star News report says the exchange escalated, and the two women, joined by four other persons, allegedly attacked Frankelly, repeatedly punching him as his partner tried to intervene.

Frankelly suffered cuts to his face and his eye was swollen shut; his partner was not harmed in the attack, the New York Post says.

No arrests have been made. The NYPD's Hate Crimes Task Force is looking into the incident, the Daily News notes. 

The incident follows another confrontation last weekend — that remained verbal — between two passengers on the subway. As one passenger described in news reports, as a preacher loudly objected to homosexuality, another who said he was gay called the preacher a "false prophet."

"I'm a good man, and I'm a gay man, and Jesus loves me," he said to the applause of others on the train. 

Watch a video of the incident:

Landing image: New York Daily News

BY NATASHA BARSOTTI — Bahamas' chief justice says it's a "matter of time" before the country's courts will have to address gay marriage, The Nassau Guardian reports.

Sir Michael Barnett says the Bahamas will have "respect for the decisions that emanate not only from the Commonwealth countries like Canada and Australia, but also from decisions from the courts of the United States of America." 

The report notes that while gay marriage is not allowed in the Bahamas, some gay Bahamians have married abroad. 

The Bahamas and the US are linked by commerce, trade and tourism, Barnett adds. "More and more citizens of both our countries are finding it necessary to resort to the courts of our countries to resolve the disputes that inevitably arise. 

According to the Guardian, Barnett's remarks follow Anglican Bishop Laish Boyd's recommendation that the Bahamian constitution reflect that no one should be discriminated against based on sexual orientation. Boyd does not believe same-sex marriage should be included, the report says.  

Landing image: worldatlas.com

BY NATASHA BARSOTTI — A Jamaican MP in Prime Minister Portia Simpson-Miller's People's National Party (PNP) came under fire on Twitter for his criticism of lyrics sung by openly gay R&B star Frank Ocean, Television Jamaica (TVJ) reports.

Ocean won the Grammy for Best Urban Contemporary Album at the recent music awards, where he also performed. But according to TVJ, MP Dayton Campbell was not happy with Ocean's performance of the track "Forrest Gump," whose lyrics about same-sex love made the politician uncomfortable. 

TVJ quoted from Campbell's tweet, which invoked the name of late reggae superstar Bob Marley and reads in part, "Frank Ocean man fi have ooman pon dem mind. How di hell man end up on your mind massah?? Bob done tell you say man to man is so unjust!!!"

One Twitter user fired back at Campbell that "the same bob marley seh one love" and told the MP to "have a seat."

The Jamaica Star quotes another Twitter user as saying, "I hope the Jamaican social media space makes this a teachable moment for a Jamaican politician. Dr Campbell, your hate will not be condoned."

And yet another weighed in: "Really?? Dayton Campbell doan have NO other contribution to make to Twitter than a Frank Ocean comment? When di dollar is 95 for ONE USD?" 

Asked by TV Jamaica if his comments were appropriate, Campbell said he has "no problem with somebody, irrespective of what sexuality they choose. The problem I have is with the message that is being [transmitted] in the music. Elton John opened the show, and I didn't have a problem with that, so it is not just the sexuality; it was the fact that he was using masculine pronouns to relate his affection, and I thought that for a family show that was inappropriate."

TV Jamaica reminded Campbell that the prime minister had said during an election debate that she would have no problem with gays serving in her cabinet and that she had raised the possibility of having a conscience vote in parliament over whether the country's buggery laws should be repealed. 

Campbell said the Bible is his moral compass. "If somebody is homosexual and whatever they do in the privacy of their own home, that's their business. As a matter of fact, I don't even believe that it is the responsibility of a politician to legislate who someone should love. I think that judgment of these individuals should be left to God."

Jamaican gay rights activist Javed Jaghai recently filed a complaint with the Jamaican Supreme Court challenging his country's anti-sodomy laws after his landlord allegedly evicted him from his home because of his sexual orientation.

“We can sit patiently while our humanity is denied and wait for the paradigm to shift in a generation or two, or we can aggressively agitate for change now. I choose to do the latter,” Jaghai says in a Facebook posting cited by the Washington Blade. 

Related: 

Jamaican outcry over gay attack marks 'phenomenal shift': delegate

Where is Portia?

Jamaica: Health minister in favour of buggery law review

Gay activist: Jamaica 'disappoints and surprises'