Journalists Frank Bruni of the New York Times and Jonathan Capehart of the Washington Post and MSNBC will discuss the future of LGBT rights in America at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday in the Nelson Mandela Auditorium at UNC's FedEx Global Education Center, at the corner of Pittsboro and McCauley streets.

Mayor Mark Kleinschmidt, Chapel Hill’s first and only openly gay mayor, will introduce Bruni and Capehart. They'll discuss marriage equality, homophobia in schools and workplaces, military service and actions taken by LGBT politicians and advocates, according to a news release. The conversation will be moderated by Janie Long, director of Duke’s Center for LGBT Life and an affiliated faculty member with the programs in women’s studies and sexuality studies.

Bruni, a UNC alumnus, joined the Times in 1995, holding his most recent position as op-ed columnist since June 2011. Before that, Bruni was the Times’ chief restaurant critic from June 2004 through August 2009 and Rome bureau chief from 2002 to 2004. He is also the author of the memoir “Born Round,” and “Ambling Into History,” a chronicle of George W. Bush's campaign for the presidency.

Capehart is a member of the Post editorial board and writes about politics and social issues for the PostPartisan blog. He is also an MSNBC contributor, appearing regularly on “Morning Joe” and other dayside programs. Before joining The Post in 2007, Capehart was the deputy editor of New York Daily News editorial page from 2002 to 2005. He worked as a policy adviser to Michael Bloomberg in his successful campaign for mayor of New York City.

Here's another batch of more than 20 letters about the Amendment One vote. Some of these will appear in print on tomorrow's Editorial page.

And the letters just keep coming. Here are more than 70 responses, from all over the country, to Tuesday's vote to amend North Carolina's constitution to define marriage. Some of these you will see in print:

One more batch of Amendment One letters. The election is tomorrow.  Here are nearly 50 more.

We have received several letters (and one newspaper cancellation) since correspondent Flo Johnston's Wednesday article on the wedding of Durham couple Jenny Shultz and Shannon Thomas in United Church of Chapel Hill. Here is a sample:

From Janice Pinchot Woychik of Chapel Hill: I love that people still want to get married.  Marriage is a stabilizing force in modern life and we should support it. When you are married you provide emotional support and financial support to your spouse.  In a world where so many people want others to stand on their own, a family is where the buck stops.

From Marguerite Dingman of Durham: Marriage is a living testimony to the love two people share with each other. While in the deepest sense, marriage is a commitment that is beyond the regulation and control of the state, we believe that it is important that the state, in so much as it chooses to sanction certain marriages, should recognize all unions that are grounded in a true and committed love.

From Annette Tatge of Chapel Hill: It is not my habit of criticizing people or their lifestyles, so if Shannon and Jenny wish to live together, that is certainly their right. However, to publicize their “marriage?” on the front page of the newspaper is unacceptable, and probably offensive to many of your readers, as your accompaning article indicates.

From Laura Sell of Durham: I was so pleased to read Flo Johnston's article on the marriage of Jenny Shultz and Shannon Thomas. Their story shows that love and commitment and making a family are important to all of us and that same-sex couples worry about and celebrate the same things opposite-sex couples do.
I found the sidebar to the article which described how different faiths view same-sex marriage interesting as well. It is important for North Carolinians to know that many faiths support same-sex marriage when they are considering how to vote on the same-sex marriage amendment this May.

From Steve Bocckino of Durham: The brides look pretty harmless to me, gowns and all, and I believe I’ve heard that “for richer, for poorer, for better, for worse” line somewhere before. But appearances can be deceiving, and all of us old married couples need to board up our doors and windows and DEFEND OUR MARRIAGES!  Be afraid, be very afraid – two people who love each other got married in Chapel Hill.

From David C. Franklin of Durham: We live in a society whose government is constitutionally barred from interfering with religious freedom and which purports to treat equally situated persons equally, according to the equal-protection clause. ... Thus, marriage, for  purposes of government, should be a simple civil matter requiring only a license to establish the fact of the marriage and nothing further.
 

A UNC-Chapel Hill freshman who told police he was attacked by a man who burned his hand and called him an anti-gay slur made a false report, the university says.

In a message just released to the campus community, Chancellor Holden Thorp says: "The Department of Public Safety has determined that the alleged aggravated assault reported to campus last night did not occur. That report, filed with campus police on April 5, was false. The University will not report it as a hate crime."

"It is important to recognize that incidents of harassment do occur," Thorp continued. "When they do, we take them seriously. We strive to foster a welcoming, inclusive and safe environment at Carolina.

Freshman Quinn Matney told police he was outside his South Campus dorm April 4 when he stopped to speak with an acquaintance. As he stood on a foot bridge near his Craige Residence Hall, he had said another college-age man nearby approached him, called him an anti-gay slur, and pressed a hot piece of metal to his left wrist.

The university planned to report the incident as a hate crime to the federal government. The assault was apparently motivated by Matney’s sexual orientation, Thorp said in a statement Monday. “As a university community, we condemn this act of violence,” Thorp wrote. “Our Department of Public Safety will bring the strongest possible charges against the attacker.”

But police had little to work with. Matney could not identify his attacker or the person he stopped to speak with just before the attack, said Jeff McCracken, UNC’s police chief.

Efforts to reach Matney today were unsuccessful.

Apple has removed the controversial Exodus app popularly referred to as the "gay cure" app.

Exodus International says the app was developed to guide users to "freedom from homosexuality." The iPhone and iPad app featured news and information from the organization designed to address "unwanted same-sex attraction" according to the group.

The app has drawn the ire of some 150,000 that signed a petition calling the app hateful and bigoted, and demanding the app be removed.

The app can no longer be found in the app store. Apple has not yet commneted on the removal.

Note: We have a short story in today's N&O about this and will include more information in the version running Sunday in the Chapel Hill News. Here is an excerpt.

Alicia Stemper’s 75-year-old father took pictures Thursday as she and Carrboro Alderwoman  Lydia Lavelle became the 39th couple to sign the town’s domestic partnership registry.

The women have been together since 2003, and they held a commitment ceremony in front of their families  and friends several years ago. They took the largely symbolic step of registering their union with the town, in part, to protest a push for  legislation that would ban recognition of such unions in North Carolina.

“Those introducing the bill call it ‘defense of marriage,’ but that is a misnomer,” a teary-eyed Stemper said, reading a statement in Town Hall. “They are not looking to defend marriage, which would imply marriage is being threatened. Instead they are looking to exclude gay and lesbian citizens from having the same protections, the same responsibilities, the same recognition, and the same benefits that heterosexual couples enjoy.”

The bill before the General Assembly, Senate Bill 106, would amend the state constitution to state that marriage between a man and a woman is the “only domestic legal union that shall be valid or recognized by the state.” Voters would be asked to approve the measure in an election-day referendum in 2012.

“It’s not just against same-sex marriage,” said Lavelle, an assistant professor at the N.C. Central University School of Law. “It’s against any legal recognition of unions of persons of the same gender.”

Stemper’s father, Jack, of Clemmons, said a neighbor who did not know his daughter is a lesbian remarked recently that gay people should not be teachers or  coaches. He told the neighbor he should be so lucky to have his children taught by women like his daughter and her partner.

“I don’t know why people have to get involved in it, frankly,” Jack Stemper said of the legislation. “It seems to me people should be able to do what they want in this area of their lives.”
 

On ABC's "The View" David Hyde Pierce, who played Niles Crane on "Frasier" told the gals (and the audience) that he and his partner got married last fall.

That marriage was in California, where new gay marriages are now outlawed because of last week's court decision on
Proposition 8.

What you may not have known is that Pierce's partner Brian Hargrove is a Tarboro native and UNC-CH graduate.

Brett Webb-Mitchell wouldn’t be the first openly gay person to run for Chapel Hill-Carrboro school board. Gloria Faley broke that barrier some years ago. And she won.

But Webb-Mitchell, the author of “On Being a Gay Parent,” (also the name of his blog) and an ordained Presbyterian minister, says he is thinking about it.

His inspiration? Slain San Francisco supervisor Harvey Milk.

“Yesterday I saw the movie ‘Milk,’ he writes. "The movie is a ‘must’ for not only those of us who are LGBTQ, and straight allies, but for all of those who need the inspiration of moving forward in speaking truth to power, especially in the day and times that the stress is greatest.”

Milk is believed to have been the first politician to win office as an out gay man (and it wasn’t easy, as the movie shows). There are now 600 in this country, including Orange County’s Mike Nelson (a county commissioner and former mayor of Carrboro) and Mark Kleinschmidt (a Chapel Hill Town Council member). Webb-Mitchell could make that three.

(UPDATE: make that four, per Jason Baker's comment below; Lydia Lavelle is a member of the Carrboro Board of Aldermen.)

“I'm thinking of running for the School Board for Chapel Hill-Carrboro Community School System,” Webb-Mitchell writes. “Any campaign managers out there who read this blog?”