Minnesota Independent

Lawsuit filed against Anoka-Hennepin School District on behalf of lesbian couple

By Andy Birkey | 01.28.11 | 3:49 pm

A lawsuit was filed in federal court Friday afternoon over the Anoka Hennepin School District’s refusal to allow a lesbian couple to walk together in the Snow Days coronation ceremony at Champlin Park High School. The lawsuit, filed on behalf of the two students by the Southern Poverty Law Center, alleges that the school district violated the students’ First and Fourteenth Amendment rights, as well as the Minnesota Human Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

Woman knocked out in Uptown beating, police suspect hate crime

By Andy Birkey | 01.25.09 | 10:24 pm

Kristen Boyne, 32, was walking home from her job at Calhoun Square at 11 p.m. Thursday and decided to stop at a nearby grocery store to buy ice cream. Before she could make it into the store,

MnIndy Interview: Amy Johnson takes the helm at OutFront Minnesota

By Andy Birkey | 12.19.08 | 3:41 pm

When she was five, Amy Johnson’s mom took her to a counter-protest at the then-new Planned Parenthood clinic on Ford Parkway in St. Paul. Her mom gave her a placard to hold, she recalls, and with three words — “Come on, honey!” — “an activist was born.” Ever since, she’s been active in the reproductive rights movement. After months of searching, OutFront Minnesota has hired Johnson, a longtime lawyer who’s helped countless GLBT families navigate the confusing world of family law, as executive director of the state’s largest public policy and advocacy group for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community. I recently met with Johnson at her office in the fittingly named Rainbow Building in Minneapolis to talk about the future of the GLBT movement in Minnesota, the sense of grief and urgency California’s Proposition 8 has evoked in the community and how technology might impact OutFront’s future.