Lawyers for Brandon McInerney are expected to rest their case on Friday and closing arguments in the trial are expected to take place next week. McInerney’s lawyers on Thursday cross-examined Simi Valley police Detective Dan Swanson, who earlier had testified that McInerney was driven by white supremacist ideology when he killed Lawrence King. McInerney's attorneys claimed that the teen was in possession of Nazi imagery because he was writing a paper about Hitler in a class about tolerance. Steven Altman, a lawyer for Dharun Ravi, on Wednesday filed a brief saying that charges against Ravi should be dropped. The brief claimed that Ravi was not intending to spy on roommate Tyler Clementi, who later died by suicide, and that Ravi just wanted to make sure the man who was visiting Clementi was not stealing his iPad. Altman also provided text messages he said Ravi sent around the time Clementi died by suicide. Ravi in the text messages says, "I turned on my camera and saw you in the corner of the screen and I immediately closed it," and, "I've known you were gay and I have no problem with it." Perry Bacon Jr. examined Republican presidential candidates attempting to appeal to Iowa voters who previously supported former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (R) in his presidential run. Jenny Boylan, a GLAAD board member, wrote in the New York Times the discrimination that transgender people face in this country, even after the passage of marriage equality in New York. : "Gay men and lesbians, for their part, ought to remember, on the way home from Niagara Falls, that it was drag queens and transsexuals at Stonewall who began this fight." A spokesperson for Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) said Thursday that the governor is planning on announcing his candidacy for president on Saturday. Perry last weekend held a prayer event sponsored by anti-gay activists. The Colorado Court of Appeals this week upheld the convictions of a man charged with first-degree murder and other counts in what prosecutors said was the bias-motivated killing of Angie Zapata in 2008. The Myrtle Beach Police Department arrested Michael Shawn Miller, who on Wednesday allegedly assaulted his openly gay roommate and prevented him from leaving the apartment they shared. The victim said Miller was intoxicated and used anti-gay slurs while attacking the victim. A poll released Thursday by the Human Rights Campaign found that 77% of Utah residents support nondiscrimination protections for LGBT people. HRC on Friday is scheduled to begin a tour aimed at spreading awareness about the lack of laws protecting LGBT people from discrimination. The Illinois Department of Human Rights recently found "substantial evidence" of discrimination against a gay couple who were turned down by two bed and breakfast inns while looking for a venue to host their civil union ceremony. The 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeal this week rejected the National Organization for Marriage's challenge to Maine's political action committee laws and also upheld a Maine law requiring disclosure of independent expenditures in candidate elections.