LGBT News

As I reported several days ago, the Archdiocese of Chicago ordered Father Paul Kalchik to cancel his plan to burn a rainbow flag that someone supposedly left in his church. He did it anyway and then some. NBC News reports: “We did so in a private way, a quiet way, so as not to bring the ire of the gay …

The Japan Mainichi reports: The Tokyo Metropolitan Government is set to propose the first ordinance bill including a stipulation to prohibit discrimination against LGBT and other sexual minorities to the metropolitan assembly on Sept. 19. The bill is prospectively named “the ordinance aiming to realize the idea of respect for human rights in the Olympic Charter.” The Olympic Charter, established …

Entertainment Weekly reports: RuPaul’s Drag Race finally topped the competition, snatching the Emmy for Outstanding Reality-Competition Series — marking the fourth show ever to win the category since the prize was introduced in 2003. Previous winners include The Amazing Race (10), The Voice (4) and Top Chef (1). The VH1 series beat out The Amazing Race, American Ninja Warrior, Project …

The BBC reports: Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel has backed same-sex marriage. The Cuban leader, who took over from Raúl Castro on 19 April, said he was in favour of recognising “marriage between people without any restrictions”. In an interview with TV Telesur, he said doing so was “part of eliminating any type of discrimination in society”. It comes as Cuba …

NBC News reports: People born in New York City who don’t identify as male or female will soon be able to select a nonbinary gender category on their birth certificates. The New York City Council and Board of Health voted on Wednesday to include a third gender category, “X,” on birth certificates starting Jan. 1, 2019. Furthermore, the legislation will …

Carrie Maxwell reports at the Windy City Times: In a Sept. 2 Sunday bulletin, Resurrection Catholic Church Pastor Fr. Paul Kalchik announced in a post-script to his re-printed Homily message that a Rainbow flag found in the church, along with parishioner’s pledge cards mixed with incense, would be burned in front of the church as a sacrilege during a prayer …

The New York Post reports: Tadd Fujikawa has become the first male pro golfer to come out publicly as gay. The 27-year-old did so in a lengthy Instagram post on Tuesday, saying his timing was tied to World Suicide Prevention Day. It’s the second time Fujikawa is making a bit of golf history — he also was the youngest golfer …

Chris Johnson reports at the Washington Blade: In an exchange with high school students that was caught on tape, a Republican congressman from New Jersey was tongue-tied over the prospect of same-sex couples adopting children and suggested kids would be better off in orphanages than with LGBT families. Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.) made the remarks May 29 when addressing student …

The Daily Beast reports: Curtis Ingraham uses Twitter to vent his political frustrations – like many left-leaning users in the Trump era. While most of his tweets go largely unnoticed, a few people have taken notice because of what he has to say about one media personality in particular: his sister, Fox News primetime host Laura Ingraham. “I think she’s …

“We are going to get our country back. I have never seen in my career the kind of grassroots energy and activism like we see today. I really do believe if you fast forward two years, four years, five years, we will look back at this moment and see it as one of the great awakenings of our democracy. Marginalized …

The Christian Post reports: Some four years after famously proclaiming himself “delivert” from homosexuality at a church service, internet sensation Andrew Caldwell insists that he has been set free from his same-sex desires and now has a girlfriend. “Now I get hard for women. I don’t get hard for men. Ain’t nothing wrong with a flirtation but I’m still delivered,” …

The Indian Supreme Court has just unanimously struck down Section 377, the 1861 penal law that criminalized homosexuality. With India’s population of over 1.3 billion, the ruling finally frees (at least) tens of millions of LGBT Indians from a cursed holdover from British colonial times. The New York Times reports: In a groundbreaking victory for gay rights, India’s Supreme Court …

The Sacramento Bee reports: The author of a California bill to declare gay conversion therapy a fraudulent business practice has abandoned his effort for this year after a fierce outcry from the state’s religious community. Assembly Bill 2943 would have made it illegal to sell any service intended to change an individual’s sexuality or gender identity. The measure had already …

The Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel reports: Peter Avsenew, convicted of killing a Wilton Manors couple days before Christmas 2010 and stealing their car to escape to north Florida, who told a jury in January that he had no regrets and a judge in March that he had killed before and would again, has been sentenced to die. He is the first …

Reuters reports: The U.S. Supreme Court declined on Thursday to force the city of Philadelphia to resume the placement of children in need of foster care with a Catholic agency that refuses to accept gay couples as foster parents. In a decision that Catholic Social Services had said would force its foster care program to close, the justices refused the …

The Guardian reports: The Vatican has rolled back on a recommendation by Pope Francis that parents seek psychiatric help for children who show homosexual tendencies. The pope made the comments to journalists as he was flying back to Rome from Ireland, but the Vatican later removed his phrase from its official account, saying he had not meant to suggest that …

The South China Morning Post reports: Grindr, the gay dating app owned by Chinese gaming company Kunlun Group, has received approval from its parent’s executive board for an overseas public listing. The timing of the listing is dependent on conditions in the international capital market and progress of approval from domestic and overseas regulators, Kunlun said in a public filing …

Via press release from the Victory Fund: Openly LGBTQ candidate Lauren Baer won her primary for a U.S. House seat and is on-track to becoming the first openly LGBTQ person elected to Congress from Florida. The seat is considered pivotal to Democrats’ efforts to retake the House, and she will face Republican anti-LGBTQ incumbent Brian Mast in November. Baer will …

Agence France-Presse reports: Pope Francis has recommended parents seek psychiatric help for children who show homosexual tendencies, during a press conference on his plane taking him back to Rome from Ireland. A journalist asked the pontiff on Sunday what he would say to parents who observe homosexual traits in their children. “I would say first of all pray, not to …

Via press release from the Democratic National Committee: This weekend, Democratic National Committee members passed historic new rules expanding the definition of gender in delegate selection and caucus participation rules to include gender non-binary Democrats. Members also passed a resolution condemning the Trump administration’s acceptance, empowerment, and promotion of anti-LGBTQ discrimination. New rules, passed first by the Rules and Bylaws …