Ronald Paris, Jr., 22, was sentenced on Aug. 19 to 30 years imprisonment after being convicted of second-degree murder and aggravated child abuse for slamming his 3-year old son, Ronnie, into a kitchen wall and teaching him to fight to prevent him from being a ‘sissy,’ according to a Gender PAC press release. Swelling on both sides of the brain was the official cause of Ronnie’s death. The boy’s mother, Nysheerah Paris, 20, is also charged with child neglect and faces a maximum of 15 years in prison if convicted.
Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan has invited The Black Justice Coalition, the nation’s largest African-American gay civil-rights group, to become one of about 100 co-conveners of the Millions More Movement rally, which is expected to take place in Washington, D.C., Oct. 15, according to the New York Blade. As a co-convener, the group will help organize the event and recruit participants.
The attorney for 19 gay men and women argued in circuit court that Maryland’s ban on same-sex marriages violates the guarantee of equal rights under the state constitution, according to the Associated Press. After hearing more than an hour of arguments from opposing lawyers, Judge Brooke M. Murdock said she would issue her decision in a written opinion, but did not say when the opinion would be ready.