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UPDATE: Tyler Clementi's Body ID'd; Hate Crime Charges Possible

Tonight there are two updates to the heartbreaking case of Tyler Clementi, the Rutgers University freshman who jumped to his death off the George Washington Bridge after his roommate secretly recorded and live-streamed his sexual encounter with another man.

A body fished from the Hudson River north of the GWB has been positively identified as Tyler Clementi's, reports NJ.com and the Daily News. The body was recovered on September 23, one day after the 18-year-old student leaped from the span. The cause of death was suicide by drowning, with blunt impact injuries to his torso, says the New York City Medical Examiner.

The Middlesex County Prosecutor's office has charged Clementi's former roommate, Dharan Ravi, and another freshman, Molly Wei, both 18, with invasion of privacy. Both are free pending court hearings.

Hate crime charges are now being considered against the Rutgers students, reports NJ.com.

"'The initial focus of this investigation has been to determine who was responsible for remotely activating the camera in the dormitory room of the student and then transmitting the encounter on the Internet,' Middlesex County Prosecutor Bruce Kaplan said in a statement released this evening. Now that two individuals have been charged with invasion of privacy, we will be making every effort to assess whether bias played a role in the incident, and, if so, we will bring appropriate charges.' Gov. Chris Christie called Clementi's death an "unspeakable tragedy" today and said he would let Attorney General Paula Dow to evaluate whether bias charges would be warranted.

Ravi is accused of using a hidden webcam to surreptitiously transmit a live image of Clementi having sex with another man on September 19. Ravi reportedly went down the hall  to Wei's dorm room and used Skype to activate the webcam and streamed the session via Twitter. Ravi has claimed this was an accident, but he attempted it a second time on September 21, authorities said, and messaged on his Twitter account: "Anyone with iChat, I dare you to video chat me between the hours of 9:30 and 12. Yes it's happening again." The live feed was unsuccessful because Clementi was alerted by students and disconnected the webcam and turned off the computer.

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REPORT: NYC's Black Gay Bar Chi Chiz to Lose Liquor License?

Photo: Chi Chiz Gallery

There are new developments in the ongoing problems with Chi Chiz, the predominately Black gay bar on New York City's Christopher Street recently subjected to several raids and closures. In late August, the New York Police Department's nuisance abatement lawsuit was postponed until November. And in a separate action last week, the New York State Liquor Authority heard testimony from undercover police officers who completed drug buys at the bar, reports Gay City News. The Liquor Authority seeks to revoke the bar’s license, "which would effectively close the establishment."

"A New York City police department detective said a drug dealer met an undercover officer at a Starbucks near Seventh Avenue and Grove Street to make a drug sale, but the dealer insisted they walk two-and-a-half blocks to finalize the sale in Chi Chiz. “He kept on arguing with the undercover to go, and the undercover was adamant about not going there,” Frederic Ortiz said at a September 23 hearing at the authority’s New York City offices. ... Police arrested two men after the drug sale was completed, one outside Chi Chiz and a second inside the bar. Neither man was a bar employee or owner.

Citing the same drug arrests, the city brought a nuisance abatement lawsuit against Chi Chiz in March that sought to close the bar. On August 26, that case was postponed until November because Chi Chiz brought a counter-claim charging the suit was motivated by racial and anti-gay animus. Both actions may be moot. Lynn disclosed at the liquor authority hearing that the Chi Chiz owners are trying to sell the business. A new owner might close the business and reopen under a new name with a different business model.

The NYPD cites four drug sales that police say happened at Chi Chiz  between July of 2009 and January of 2010. But the bars owners' and many patrons believe the NYPD and Bloomberg Administration is targeting the bar because local residents resent the club and black/Latino gay youth in the West Village.

In March 2010, Chi Chiz was raided and temporarily shut down by the NYPD. On the night of the raid, owners and witnesses identified an undercover NYPD officer who shouted anti-gay epithets outside the club.

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UPDATE: Chi Chiz Remains Open for Now

Webcam Spying Victim Sought Help on Gay Website Before Suicide?

More details are emerging on the tragic and heartbreaking case of Tyler Clementi, the 18-year-old Rutgers University freshman who apparently jumped to his death off the George Washington Bridge after his roommate secretly recorded and live-streamed his sexual encounter with another man.

"Jumping off the gw bridge sorry," read the final Facebook status on September 23 from Tyler Clementi, days after his private life was splashed across Twitter and the internet. Two witnesses said they saw a young man jump off the bridge that evening. A body has been recovered from the Hudson River but it as yet to be identified.

Two other Rutgers students are charged with invasion of privacy after they allegedly activated a webcam in the dorm room and broadcast Clementi's sexual encounter. The roommate, 18-year-old Dharun Ravi, and 18-year-old Molly Wei are each charged with two counts of invasion of privacy for the September 19 broadcast.

"Roommate asked for the room till midnight," Ravi messaged on Twitter that night. "I went into Molly's room and turned on my webcam. I saw him making out with a dude. Yay."

Now it appears that in the days before taking his own life, Clementi may have sought help online. Gawker reports a user named "cit2mo" started a thread on justusboys.com called "college roommate spying. The timeline and details are eerily similar Clementi's story. The poster says he reported his roommate to school officials after his makeout session was streamed on the Internet.

Gawker adds:

Though not as bothered with his roommate's actions as he likely should have been, cit2mo is clearly disturbed by the disregard for his privacy—and the bigoted disgust—shown by both his roommate and the people commenting on his roommate's Facebook page "with things like 'how did you manage to go back in there?' 'are you ok?'" He says he'll file a roommate change request form, and "see what [the school] can offer" him.

Clementi's roommate Dharum Ravi, is free on $25,000 bail on invasion of privacy charges. The second Rutgers student, Molly Wei, was freed on her own recognizance. Both face up to five years in prison if convicted. Two more counts of invasion of privacy were leveled against Ravi for an attempt to videotape another encounter involving Clementi on September 21, prosecutors say. Prosecutors are considering filing additional and/or more serious charges.

A heartbreaking end to what certainly could have been a promising life. September 2010 has been a horrific month for LGBT teens. Two 13-year-olds and one 15-year-old boy committed suicide after relentless anti-gay bullying and taunting.

WATCH: Spencer LeGrande Speaks Out on Relationship with Eddie Long

For the second time in as many days, one of the four young men who filed suit against Eddie Long is speaking out. This time it's Spencer LeGrande, the North Carolina man who filed suit against Long on Friday. LeGrande was a member of New Birth Charlotte in Charlotte, North Carolina and the fourth man to file a sexual coercion lawsuit against the anti-gay mega-church pastor.

Spencer LeGrande does not repeat the intimate details provided in the lawsuit, including being seduced while taken on trips to Kenya, South Africa and Zimbabwe when he was only 16-years-old.  "Once God is ready to expose everything, it's going to happen. But pray for us ... this is a very difficult time, what we're going through."

"I wasn't free until I came out with it," LeGrande says in the television interview. He said he does not hate Long "because God doesn't produce hate. I pray for everyone, especially the bishop, because he knows the truth."

Two very important details: Spencer LeGrande has never met any of the three other men who filed similar suits, Anthony Flagg, Maurice Robinson or Jamal Parris, who spoke to the media on Tuesday. Also, Spencer LeGrande says he later confided in his immediate family, a few friends, his ex-girlfriend and a police officer.

Sounds like this is will be a very difficult case to dismiss. Watch WSB's report AFTER THE JUMP ...

Maryland Gang Leader Sentenced to Life for Ordering Murder of Gay Gang Member

Two years ago in August 2008, you may recall the tragic story of Steven Parrish, an 18-year-old Maryland high school senior and a member of a street gang. Only one day before his high school graduation, fellow gang members began to suspect he was gay and immediately killed him.

The gang leader who ordered the hit on one his own members has been sentenced to life in prison without parole, reports the Baltimore Sun.

Timothy E. Rawlings Jr., 24, a former quarterback at Parkville High School and the father of a 3-year-old boy, showed no emotion as Baltimore County Circuit Judge Robert N. Dugan told him that the killing of Steven Parrish, for the sole reason that the victim showed signs of being homosexual, was "senseless, brutal, unprovoked, cold-blooded, premeditated murder." Dugan said that Rawlings, as a leader of the so-called 92 Family Swans, affiliates of the Bloods, had "ordered this murder with the same casual attitude of someone walking into a fast-food restaurant and ordering one of the specials off the menu."

Prosecutors said that Rawlings had demanded that two men kill Parrish after they discovered that he had exchanged salacious phone messages with another man. Rawlings believed that Parrish's apparent homosexuality would "make the gang look weak," prosecutors said. Parrish... was stabbed and beaten, his head stomped and a red bandana left over his face as a sign of disrespect.

Parrish was brutally stabbed up to 50 times by two fellow gang members. Even more gruseome: The body was dumped in a wooded location behind his family's home and it was discovered by a relative.

The two gang members who lured and killed Parrish, Juan L. Flythe and Steven T. Hollis, have plead guilty to first-degree murder. Flythe "was given a life sentence, with all but 30 years suspended" and Hollis has yet to be sentenced.

Thanks Reginald Harris!

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WATCH: Bishop Eddie Long's Tuesday Night Sermon

Bishop Eddie Long has addressed his congregation for the second time since he has been accused of luring young men into sexual relationships and using church funds to give them cash, gifts and cars. The embattled pastor delivered his usual Tuesday night sermon and again did not deny the allegations. "I'm not talking about specific individuals, this is spiritual warfare," the pastor claimed.

"You're not talking about me," Long said later in his sermon. "You're touching God's order!"

Tuesday night's service at New Birth Missionary Baptist Church began with a group prayer from fellow ministers who are beginning a week-long prayer for the embattled pastor. And to continue a trend we first saw on Sunday, thousands of churchgoers gave thunderous applause to the pastor accused of using church funds to buy cars and give cash to teenage boys. Watch CBS Atlanta's report plus video of the sermon AFTER THE JUMP ....

WATCH: Jamal Parris Speaks Out on Eddie Long, Calls Him a "Predator"

Eddie Long is a "predator" who routinely targets and seduces young teenage boys and then "turns his back on them" after he finds younger boys. That's according to Jamal Parris, the 23-year-old Colorado man who was the third of four young men to file suit against Long last week ... and becomes the first to speak publicly.

Parris says he was without a father figure in his life when he joined New Birth Missionary Baptist Church at 14-years-old. Bisnop Eddie Long encouraged the teen to call him "daddy" and lavished him with gifts, cars and money. "You finally have a father that you've always wanted for and always dreamed of," Parris says.

Parris says the anti-gay mega-church pastor seduced him and used Scripture to justify male-to-male sexual activity, which the three other accusers have said as well . "While the media and the rest of the people around the city, around the country look at us like how could grown men let another man touch him, what you have to understand is this man has manipulated us since childhood," Parris explained. "This was our father and we loved him."

"We would have to be the craziest kids in the world to want to come out and admit to another man touching on us publicly," Parris says. "To really believe this is about money would be absolutely ludicrous."

It's a very compelling interview. And kudos to Jamal Parris for agreeing to speak with reporters. These young men are undoubtedly under a tremendous amount of pressure right now. Watch the  FOX Atlanta's WHEN YOU JUMP ...

WATCH: Jeanne-Moutoussamy-Ashe Supports Marriage Equality

Jeanne-Moutoussamy-Ashe, the widow of the late tennis legend Arthur Ashe, is featured in the Human Rights Campaign's latest "New Yorkers for Marriage Equality" video.

"My husband fought discrimination throughout our lives," Mrs. Moutoussamy-Ashe says. "I know he would support marriage equality."

Arthur Ashe remains the only African American man to ever win the singles title at Wimbledon, the US Open, or Australian Open. Ashe died from AIDS-related pneumonia in 1993. Ashe apparently contracted HIV from a blood transfusion during heart surgery. In the last year of his life, he was a prominent voice to end stigma against the HIV positive.

Watch the video WHEN YOU JUMP ...

REPORT: Rahm Emanuel to Resign from White House on Friday?

White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel is expected to make a bid in Chicago's open mayoral race and could resign as soon as Friday, according to Lynn Sweet at the Sun-Times.

"A source close to Emanuel said "Rahm is nearing a decision on whether to leave the White House and explore a run for mayor of Chicago; an announcement could come as early as Friday. Because of family considerations, no final decision has been made." President Obama said Monday that Emanuel needs to make "a decision quickly." The word from the Emanuel source confirms what I reported last week that all signs point to Emanuel leaving the White House to move back to Chicago and run in the primary Feb. 22."

Meanwhile: Black Democratic committeeman, who are hoping to unify behind one candidate, say Emanuel "has a problem" with Black voters. Emanuel is reportedly hiring a Black campaign manager—Terry Peterson,  the well connected chairman of the Chicago Transit Authority and Mayor Richard Daley's former campaign manager and—but reports suggest that "doesn't seem to make much difference."

To be continued ...

WATCH: Victory Fund Asks What's at Stake for LGBT Voters on Nov. 2

Thinking of sitting out the mid-term elections on Nov. 2? Don't.

The Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund releases a hard-hitting new web video entitled "What Will You Lose?" to explain what is at stake for the LGBT community. And there are dozens of reasons to vote in November, from health care reform to the Supreme Court. Most important: Preventing anti-gay conservatives from controlling Congress.

Shout out to hottie Democratic National Committee member Evan Low at 1:00, the mayor of Campbell, California and the youngest openly gay mayor in the country. And thanks to the Victory Fund for its help in electing Maryland's Mary Washington, the second openly lesbian Black legislator in the nation.

Submit your video HERE. Watch the video AFTER THE JUMP ...