* Reproductive Health Reality Check details the Democratic response to Bush’s “conscience rule” for medical providers. Party leaders have said they want to reverse it. What they haven’t said is how.

* Wonkette discovers the FOX News Twitter feed hacked by a hillllaaaarious 12-year-old. The tweet? “Breaking: Bill O Riley is gay”

* Gender Goggles collects blogs from male feminist allies.

* According to W, life as aGossip Girl extra is . . . vaguely depressing:

I was inspecting the buffet options when I noticed someone wave at me. I quickly realized the guy summoning me was sitting next to none other than Nate and Chuck! Immediately all the blood in my body rushed to my face and my hands started trembling uncontrollably. The man introduced himself and said they had just been discussing how “rad” my headphones were. To be honest, Nate and Chuck didn’t seem particularly impressed, not even making eye contact with me. Nonetheless, it took me an hour to recover from just standing that close to them.

* This Sunday, BeBar will host an 18-and-over benefit for gay marriage in D.C.

Photo via trialsanderrors

On the books, it’s “Voluntary Manslaughter.” To activists, it’s a “Hate Crime.”

D.C. didn’t know much about Tony Randolph Hunter when police found his body, “lying supine on the ground” with a “laceration on the back of his head,” near Shaw’s BeBar on the night of Sept. 7. When police initially classified the 37-year-old Maryland man’s beating as a potential hate crime, they did so based on the few details they could ascertain about the victim: who he was and where he was going. The assailants, police reasoned, may have been acting on the same basic information—that Hunter was gay and headed to a gay bar—in an attack that had no immediately apparent motive.

In police reports, descriptions of suspects similarly lack specifics. In the case of Tony Hunter, the report identified the suspects as four black males between the ages of 19 and 22, dressed in blue jeans and T-shirts. Other recent attacks against gays produce similar descriptors. In the July 13 beating of Todd Metrokin, the assailants were described as black men between the ages of 17 and 21. In a Sept. 27 incident in Dupont, a gay couple dodged the word “faggot”—and a heaved brick—from a black man they later identified as a security guard at the Metropole.

Read More “The Death of Tony Hunter” »

It’s been over a month since Tony Randolph Hunter, a gay man, was assaulted near BeBar on the evening of Sept. 7. After a stay in the hospital, Hunter was pronounced dead on Sept. 17. A day after Hunter’s death, police announced that the crime was not being classified as a “hate crime.”

Now, D.C. police have secured a warrant for the arrest of a Robert Hannah (pictured) in connection with Hunter’s death. About an hour ago, MPD sent out an “urgent bulletin” announcing that Hannah, who is known as “Rob,” is wanted for “Voluntary Manslaughter in connection with the beating death of Tony Hunter.” Hannah is described as “a 18-year-old black male (DOB: 8/11/1990), 5′7″ in height, and 148 lbs.” Police released this “Wanted” flier, which citizens are directed to distribute. Download the flier here [PDF].

Those with information about the case are directed to contact Detective Jed Worrell at (202) 645-9618 or 202 486-1596 (cell); Detective Jackie Middleton at (202) 645-5501 or 202 497-4606 (cell); or the MPD Command Information Center at (202) 727-9099. Anonymous tips can be called in to 1-888-919-CRIME, or texted to 50411.