Study: 3.4 percent of US adults are LGBT
Study: 3.4 percent of US adults are LGBT
NEW YORK
A new Gallup survey, touted as the largest of its kind, estimates that 3.4 percent of American adults identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender.
The findings, released Thursday, were based on interviews with more than 121,000 people. Gallup said it is the largest study ever aimed at calculating the nation’s LGBT population.
The report’s lead author, demographer Gary Gates of the UCLA School of Law’s Williams Institute, said he hoped the findings would help puncture some stereotypes about gays and lesbians while illustrating the diversity of their community.
US sees potential for anti-Taliban uprising
AB BAND, Afghanistan
Fed up with the Taliban closing their schools and committing other acts of oppression, men in a village about 100 miles south of Kabul took up arms late last spring and chased out the insurgents with no help from the Afghan government or U.S. military.
Small-scale revolts in recent months such as the one in Kunsaf, mostly along a stretch of desert south of the Afghan capital, indicate bits of a grass-roots, do-it-yourself anti-insurgency that the U.S. hopes Afghan authorities can transform into a wider movement.
The effort in Ghazni Province looks like a long shot. The villagers don’t readily embrace any outside authority, be it the Taliban, the U.S. or the Afghan government. American officials nonetheless are quietly nurturing the trend, hoping it might become a game changer, or at least a new roadblock for the Taliban.
Libyan Islamist denies role in attack
TRIPOLI, Libya
A Libyan Islamist militia commander who a witness and officials say helped lead the deadly assault on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi said Thursday that he was at the building that night but denied he was involved in the attack.
Ahmed Abu Khattala, who describes himself as a founder and commander of the Islamist militia Abu Obaida Bin Jarrah, told The Associated Press by telephone that he went to the consulate in the eastern Libyan city Sept. 11 to rescue men that he had been informed were trapped inside.
Abu Khattala said that, despite reports of his involvement, he had not been questioned by Libyan authorities and was not in hiding, and that he was going about his daily business as a construction contractor in Benghazi.
Court: Suspect can be forcibly shaved
FORT WORTH, Texas
An Army appeals court ruled Thursday that the Fort Hood shooting suspect can have his beard forcibly shaved off before his murder trial.
The U.S. Army Court of Criminal Appeals upheld the military trial judge’s decision to order Maj. Nidal Hasan to appear in court clean shaven or be forcibly shaved, according to a release from Fort Hood. The opinion came on the heels of last week’s hearing at Fort Belvoir in Virginia in which the court heard arguments from both sides.
Hasan, who did not attend the hearing, has said he grew a beard because his Muslim faith requires it, despite the Army’s ban on beards. A few exceptions have been made for religious reasons.
Drone strikes kill 7
SANAA, Yemen
Suspected U.S. drone strikes killed at least seven al-Qaida-linked militants in southern Yemen on Thursday, Yemeni security officials and witnesses said.
Associated Press