Police arrested and charged Juan A. Martinez Matos Wednesday with charges of first-degree murder of a Gay Puerto Rican teenager, CNN reports.

Jorge Steven Lopez Mercado’s body was found Friday on the side of the road in Puerto Rico dismembered and partially burned. Prosecutors are weighing whether to recommend that Martinez Matos be charged under the new federal hate crimes law.

Jorge Steven Lopez Mercado, 19,  was found burned, decapitated and dismembered on Nov. 14 in Cayey, a city only a few miles away from his hometown in Caguas, PR. The teen is said to be well-known in the LGBT community. The investigating officer is being criticized for saying “people who lead this type of lifestyle need to be aware that this will happen.” A call for another officer to replace him is underway. [365gay]

If you missed out on getting a ticket to The Circus starring Britney Spears at the beginning of the year, you’re in luck!

Britney Spears recently finished touring the UK and will bring The Circus back to North America.

Tickets go on sale June 19th.

More + Dates, after the jump.

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I don’t know whether to be excited or if I rather gawk at the stupidity of the U.S. government. In a statement released Monday by the Press Secretary of The White House, President Barack Obama declared June 2009 as national LGBT month.

What exactly does that all entail?
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Hell, fire, and brimstone! “All sinners are going to hell!” “Homosexuals are an abomination and will burn for it!” This was the message that the students at Stephen F. Austin State University woke up to. Poptrends editor Sean K. wandered across the man preaching his hate message Tuesday afternoon and didn’t really think much of it, that was until the man looked over his way and pointed out proclaiming “that homosexual is going to burn in hell!” Apparently, this was the message that the students at SFA were hearing all day.
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An 11-year-old Massachusetts boy, Carl Joseph Walker-Hoover, hung himself Monday after enduring bullying at school, including daily taunts of being gay. This is at least the fourth suicide of a middle-school aged child linked to bullying this year.

We do not like to post about sad stories, but this one just hit us at the heart. It’s a damn shame that in this day and age that people can be taunted and abused over the most little thing.
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Last week was dreadfully bloody for gays in the other half of our hemisphere. Six innocent men were shot to death by their tribe members in two separate incident for being homosexual, according to CNN.

India, with a more positive light, announced that they will be hosting the Bangalore Queer Film Fest 2009. The festival will run from April 10 – 11, and will provide the community an avenue to discuss its domestic issues and engage in a public dialogue.
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John Katehis, 16, has confessed to the murder of newsman George Weber, in his Brooklyn apartment last Friday, in what appears to be rough sex gone very wrong.

Cops tracked down the kid through Weber’s cell phone and email records. Weber had apparently placed a Craigslist ad looking for rough sex. Katehis, a Satan-loving teen with a knife fetish and a girlfriend, answered the craigslist post after the newsman agreed to pay him $60 bucks — boy, this is some cheap ass prostitution!

Katehis orginally told police that “Weber pulled a knife on him, he took it and stabbed the former radio newscaster.” Hmm, but how would that explain how Weber ended up stabbed dozens of times, with his ankles bound with duct tape. The kid later confessed. Pics taken from the kid’s MySpace is after the jump.

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Don’t forget the deodorant!

On Wednesday, March 25, lesbian/gay/bi/trans activists and allies will leave Berkeley, California for a 100-mile walk to the state Capitol in Sacramento. The march kicks off the day before with a short march from San Francisco City Hall to the State Supreme Court building, to bring attention to the lawsuit to appeal Proposition 8. Opening arguments in the case began yesterday.

Marchers hope to build bridges with local communities along the way and enlist former antagonists to help repeal the ban on same-sex marriages. The march is initiated by the direct action group, One Struggle One Fight, and supported by a range of organizations including the LGBT labor alliance Pride At Work as well as And Marriage For All, which coordinated No On 8 outreach among LGBT people of color.

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A Texas lesbian women voiced her candidacy for the position of mayor of Houston, according to a report from the Dallas Voice. Annise Parker (pictured) is taking the same crucial steps that Ed Oakley, a former openly gay Dallas City Councilman, took 2 years ago in which he was defeated by Tom Leppert by a margin of 58% to 42%.

Though Houston may be the mecca of gays in Texas, is Parker setting herself up for failure — and a insufficient bank account?

In San Antonio, two lesbians were arrested for kissing at a mall
Jessica Garcia intends to prove in court that security officers at Rolling Oaks Mall unfairly targeted her and her girlfriend when they were arrested in December on trespassing and “lewd behavior.” Mall officials said the women, both 22, were acting inappropriately and were told to leave because they were not complying with the shopping center’s code of conduct. Don’t they have security cameras for this type of incidents? [Chron]