Civil Rights

Politico has published a deep dive into the myriad ways the Trump administration is rolling back, curtailing, or completely ignoring the many pro-LGBT advances won during the Obama administration. The piece begins: The nation’s health department is taking steps to dismantle LGBT health initiatives, as political appointees have halted or rolled back regulations intended to protect LGBT workers and patients, …

From the clip description: A controversial decision came from a court in Kern County, California that ruled in favor of a bakery that refused to make a cake for a same sex wedding because the owner said it would violate her Christian faith. This isn’t the first instance of a bakery refusing to make a cake for a same sex …

The Denver Post reports: Republican members of a powerful budget committee in the legislature on Thursday voted to withhold funding for the Colorado Civil Rights Commission, a move that could be revisited but which quickly stoked political outcry from Democrats and the LGBT community. State Sen. Kevin Lundberg, a Berthoud Republican who sits on the Joint Budget Committee, which held …

The Bakersfield Californian reports: Kern County Superior Court Judge David Lampe has ruled that owner Cathy Miller can continue to refuse to make wedding cakes for same sex couples. “The State cannot succeed on the facts presented as a matter of law. The right to freedom of speech under the First Amendment outweighs the State’s interest in ensuring a freely …

The Associated Press reports: Riding a tsunami of moral conservatism and anti-gay prejudice, Indonesia’s Islamic political parties appear on the cusp of a major victory: outlawing all sex outside marriage. Revisions to Indonesia’s criminal code being considered by Parliament would allow prison sentences of up to five years for sex between unmarried people. Those changes would also criminalize gay sex, …

Vogue reports: Cecile Richards is stepping down from her position as president of Planned Parenthood after more than a decade at its helm. Richards, 60, has become the de facto face of the reproductive rights organization, and has navigated major wins (such as getting 55 million women covered for birth control under the Affordable Care Act) and major obstacles (like …

Via press release: GLAAD, the world’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) media advocacy organization, today announced the findings of its fourth annual Accelerating Acceptance report, a national survey among more than 2,100 U.S. adults conducted on GLAAD’s behalf by The Harris Poll. The results were announced during a panel discussion hosted by GLAAD and The Ariadne Getty …

Crowd estimates are still pouring in from around the country, but it’s clear that millions attended the Women’s March today, perhaps even more than turned out for last year’s historic marches. The Associated Press reports: Demonstrators from Los Angeles to New York marched in support of female empowerment and denounced President Donald Trump’s views on immigration, abortion, LGBT rights and …

ABC News reports: The Trump administration announced on Thursday a new division within the Department of Health and Human Services devoted to “conscience and religious freedom.” Social conservatives and religious liberty leaders have anticipated conscience and religious freedom protections to come out of HHS, and the work of the new division, which will fall under the purview of the Office …

Coconuts Jakarta reports: Indonesia’s IT Ministry says it has filed a request to Google to block around 70 LGBT social networking apps from being available to download in the country through the Google Play Store. IT Minister Rudiantara confirmed today that the ministry is unable to block the apps themselves as they are all available under Google’s platform. One of …

Politico reports: The Trump administration is poised to overhaul the HHS civil rights office as part of a broader plan to protect health workers who don’t want to perform abortions, treat transgender patients seeking to transition or provide other services for which they have religious or moral objections. Under a proposed rule — which has been closely guarded at HHS …

Bloomberg reports: The U.S. Supreme Court left intact a Mississippi law that lets businesses and government workers refuse on religious grounds to provide services to gay and transgender people. The justices turned away two appeals by state residents and organizations that contended the measure violates the Constitution. A federal appeals court said the opponents hadn’t suffered any injury that would …

The Times Of India reports: Thanks to the right to privacy being deemed a fundamental right, the Supreme Court (SC) today agreed to reconsider its 2013 decision which criminalised gay sexual relations and said it will review Section 377 of Indian Penal Code that makes such relations a crime. The SC today also issued a notice to the Centre seeking …

The Independent reports: The Committee on Religion in the Egyptian Parliament has disclosed plans to pass into law a bill that makes atheism a criminal offence in the North African nation. Current Egyptian law says atheists can be prosecuted for expressing their disbelief in public but the committee’s proposal would go further and criminalise disbelief itself. It would be recalled …

The Louisville Courier-Journal reports: A Kentucky Family Court judge who refused to hear adoption cases involving gays and lesbians has been found guilty of misconduct by the state’s Judicial Conduct Commission. The commission issued a public reprimand Tuesday against W. Mitchell Nance, who announced his intention to resign earlier this year amid the ethics and misconduct inquiry. That resignation was …

Via press release from Tony Perkins: The president can’t personally oversee the hiring of 4,000 political appointees — which might explain the latest news. In a shock to conservatives, the Trump administration wants to give one of the most liberal LGBT activists of the Obama years another term. Plenty of Republicans will remember the name Chai Feldblum, Obama’s head of …

CBS News reports: Nathan Mathis, the Wicksburg man who this week criticized U.S. Senate candidate Roy Moore for calling gays perverts,  appeared today on the “Ellen” show. Mathis received national attention after holding a sign outside Moore’s Midland City rally Monday that read “Judge Roy Moore called my daughter Patti Sue Mathis (who committed suicide) a pervert because she was …

Courthouse News reports: In an echo of the high-profile gay wedding cake case before the U.S. Supreme Court, California this week sued a Bakersfield bakery to stop it from discriminating against same-sex couples. The Department of Fair Employment and Housing on Wednesday filed an ex parte application for a temporary restraining order against Cathy’s Creations dba Tastries and its owner, …

The Associated Press reports: Indonesia’s top court on Thursday ruled against petitioners seeking to make gay sex and sex outside marriage illegal in a victory for the country’s besieged LGBT minority. The 5-to-4 decision by the nine-judge panel of the Constitutional Court rejected the arguments of a conservative group, the Family Love Alliance, which believes Indonesia is being swamped by …

Via press release from Lambda Legal: Today, the U.S. Supreme Court announced it will not review the Lambda Legal case on behalf of Jameka Evans, a Savannah security guard who was harassed at work and forced from her job because she is a lesbian. “By declining to hear this case, the Supreme Court is delaying the inevitable and leaving a …