Danny Evins, the lightning-rod founder of the down-home restaurant chain Cracker Barrel, died on Sunday of bladder cancer at age 76. While his chicken and dumplings will live on in Interstate rest stops across the country, here in New York City, he might be best remembered for some less savory offerings. more ›

Viki Knox, the Union Township, New Jersey teacher who referred to homosexuality as "a perverted spirit that has existed from the beginning of creation," and a "sin" that "breeds like cancer" on a Facebook thread about her school's LGBT pride month, is at the center of a serious battle over free speech. more ›

Further proof that teachers and Facebook don't mix: A Union Township, New Jersey teacher is being investigated over the homophobic comments she allegedly posted on her Facebook, calling homosexuality "perverted" and criticizing Union High School LGBT month events, reports the Star-Ledger today. more ›

Two Harlem men arrested in South Carolina were indicted in Manhattan yesterday in the shooting death of high school basketball star Tayshana "Chicken" Murphy. And the already curious case of apparent gang-related violence has now gained a possible hate crime angle. more ›

Last week, we reported that TOMS Shoes founder Blake Mycoskie spoke at a California event sponsored by Focus On The Family, a right-wing evangelical Christian group with a strong anti-homosexuality agenda, and we weren't the only ones who noticed. Now, following criticism from multiple parties, Mycoskie responds. more ›

More details have been revealed about the motivations behind the Latin King Goonies anti-gay attack last fall. Nine members of the gang were arrested last year for allegedly torturing three gay men (and injuring another man) because of their sexual orientation. It seems that before the attack, the gang members tried to extort protection money from one of their victims—and when he wasn't able to pay up, they sodomized him with a miniature baseball bat. more ›

Yesterday, five men accused of brutal anti-gay attacks were arraigned on hate crime charges including a, gang assault, sexual abuse, robbery and burglary. Two things to note: The Bronx DA's office listed two initial suspects in the attacks as victims and the judge warned the defendants' supporters not to make threats. more ›

Until we get Sarah Palin on the line, we'll have to settle for Skeletor Ann Coulter to provide an even crazier soundbite to gubernatorial candidate Carl Paladino's already crazy statements about homosexuality. Her opinion? The whole thing was basically a "when in Rome" situation. She told Bill O'Reilly, "He's speaking to Hasidim...It's like going to Chicago. You say ‘Go Cubs.'" And she would know a thing or two about telling your audience what they want to hear. more ›

The police's announcement that seven members of the Latin King Goonies were arrested for torturing three men, apparently for being gay, offered horrifying details of the crimes. Now, there are more details about the cruel attacks which City Council Speaker Christine Quinn called "appalling and are even more despicable because the victims were clearly targeted in acts of hate simply because they are gay." more ›

Two Staten Island men were arrested for allegedly attacking a man at the legendary inn Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village. According to the Post, the suspects asked a man in the bar's bathroom if he was gay—which he confirmed—and, after asking for money, punched him, with one saying, "We don't like gay bars, and we don't piss next to f---ts." more ›

Yesterday we reported on an anti-gay attack that occurred in Hell's Kitchen this past Friday night. WPLJ DJ Blake Hayes (pictured), cabaret and Broadway performer Danny Calvert, and another friend were attacked by a patron of McCoy's bar; they claim the police officers who showed up refused to take their attacker's information, or let them file a claim. They also expressed concern that McCoy's bouncer (who stopped the attack) allowed the attacker back into the bar. more ›

When giving his Best Actor acceptance speech, Sean Penn said, "For those who saw the signs of hatred as our cars drove in tonight, I think that it is a good time for those who voted for the ban against gay marriage to sit and reflect and anticipate their great shame and the shame in their grandchildren's eyes if they continue that way of support." LAist has photographs of the protesters, who are from Westboro Baptist Church in Kansas; one said, "I'm picketing the Oscars because the entertainment industry in this country is just ...one of the institutions, that you're using to promote sin and filth and rebellion against the commandments and standards of God." And Penn later said backstage, "I think that these are largely taught limitations and ignorances. It's very sad in a way, because it's a demonstration of such emotional cowardice to be so afraid to be extending the same rights to a fellow man as you would want for yourself." more ›

Mayor Bloomberg met with the family of Jose Sucuzhanay yesterday, and later told reporters, "I pledged to do everything I could in my power to find and to prosecute the despicable people who carried out this act." Sucuzhanay, an Ecuadorian immigrant, was brutally beaten by a group of men who had yelled anti-gay and anti-Hispanic epithets at him and his brother (they were arm-in-arm early from Saturday morning) over a week ago and died this past weekend. The Daily News reports Bloomberg also said, "Unfortunately, this atmosphere is occasionally shattered by dangerous acts of bigotry that undermine our fight to live in peace and security." more ›

Brooklyn real estate agency owner Jose Sucuzhany, who was brutally beaten last week, died yesterday. Sucuzhanay had been declared brain dead last week but, the NY Times reports, his "kept him on life support in anticipation of his mother’s arrival, but on Friday, his heart stopped." more ›

The NYPD's Hate Crime Task Force is looking for suspects who attacked and beat two Ecuadorian brothers in Brooklyn, as one brother was declared brain dead. He remains in life support as relatives wait for his parents to arrive. more ›

Queerty has it that a Rite-Aid on Sixth Avenue and 13th Street posted this anti-gay P.D.A. sign in their store over the weekend. If true, it doesn’t seem like the smartest way to win over the Greenwich Village/Chelsea clientele. But employee Kularee Kamhal, who worked there all weekend, swears “it’s a lie.” There is no manager or employee named Tom Marquez; according to her the store’s manager is one Jose Santos. Something doesn’t add up here; maybe this is all just a desperate attempt at sabotage from a rival Duane Reade? more ›