LGBT News

Axios reports: President Biden signed an executive order on Monday overturning the Trump administration’s ban on transgender Americans serving in the military. The ban, which allowed the military to bar openly transgender recruits and discharge people for not living as their sex assigned at birth, affected up to 15,000 service members, according to tallies from the National Center for Transgender …

Politico reports: The Justice Department has taken its first major step under President Joe Biden to reverse the Trump administration’s resistance to expansion of rights accorded to LGBTQ Americans. Greg Friel, the lawyer just named to oversee the Justice Department’s civil rights division on a temporary basis, issued a directive Friday revoking a 22-page memorandum a Trump appointee released earlier …

NBC News reports: President-elect Joe Biden has tapped Pennsylvania Health Secretary Rachel Levine to be his assistant secretary of health, leaving her poised to become the first transgender federal official to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate. A pediatrician and former Pennsylvania physician general, Levine was appointed to her current post by Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf in 2017, making her …

CBS News reports: Conversion therapy is currently still legal in Indiana, the home state of Vice President Mike Pence, who has long been criticized for his anti-LGBTQ positions. But this week, state legislators formally introduced a bill to ban the discredited “therapy” for minors. Democratic State Senator J.D. Ford has authored Senate Bill 32, which would prohibit mental health counselors …

The Independent reports: Greece has appointed its first openly gay minister as part of a cabinet reshuffle. Nicholas Yatromanolakis made history after he was named the new deputy minister of culture on Monday. The 44-year-old was promoted from his role as general secretary of contemporary culture at the same department. The appointment which made him the first openly gay minister …

Another action-packed year has come and gone for this here website thingy, which in a few months will mark its 17th anniversary. I want to sincerely thank all of you, longtime JMG flying monkeys and newbies alike, for being here during what for many of us will be the most memorable year of our lives, if not also the worst. …

The Raleigh News & Observer reports: LGBTQ people in North Carolina can no longer be prevented from getting domestic violence protective orders, the N.C. Court of Appeals ruled Thursday. North Carolina had been the only state in the country to withhold emergency protections from people seeking protection from abuse by a same-sex partner. That kind of protection is offered to …

Deadline Hollywood reports: Marcus D’Amico, the actor best known for originating the role Michael “Mouse” Tolliver in the 1993 limited TV series Tales of the City, died Dec. 16 of pneumonia at his home in Oxfordshire, England. He was 55. Patrick Baca, his former manager, said the cause was bronchial pneumonia. Although best known to U.S. audiences for starring in …

NBC News reports: The newly engaged couple Kasey Mayfield and Brianna May did not expect to ignite an online backlash when they shared on Facebook a recent email exchange that Mayfield had with an employee at a North Carolina wedding venue. In the exchange, Mayfield mentions potential wedding dates, the estimated number of guests and the “other bride.” In response, …

The Hill reports: More than 370 international spiritual leaders this week called for a global ban on LGBTQ “conversion” therapy, a practice that aims to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity. Hundreds of spiritual leaders signed a declaration that calls for a prohibition of conversion therapy, criminalization of people based on their sexual orientation or gender identity and …

From my November 30th report: Indiana’s attorney general submitted a brief to the U.S. Supreme Court arguing that it should reverse a federal appeals court’s ruling that allowed both members of same-sex couples in Indiana to be listed as parents on the birth certificates of their children. The petition from Attorney General Curtis Hill follows a January decision by the …

The Huffington Post reports: Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) introduced legislation in the House on Thursday that would bar schools from receiving federal funding if they allow transgender girls and women and non-binary people to compete on sports teams consistent with their gender identities. The bill — co-sponsored by Republican Rep. Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma — was met with immediate outrage …

The Associated Press reports: The Supreme Court declined Monday to take up an appeal from parents in Oregon who want to prevent transgender students from using locker rooms and bathrooms of the gender with which they identify, rather than their sex assigned at birth. The case came from a school district near Salem, Oregon’s capital city. The federal appeals court …

The Guardian reports: Hungary’s rightwing ruling party has tried to brush off accusations of hypocrisy over a “gay orgy” scandal in Brussels, involving one of its inner circle, the MEP József Szájer. The prime minister, Viktor Orbán, and his ruling Fidesz party have enacted a range of legislation over the past decade infringing on LGBT rights, and Szájer himself boasted …

CNN reports: Dr. Anthony Fauci’s effort to educate the public on the coronavirus pandemic has earned him scores of admirers, but his work on the global HIV/AIDS crisis saw him cheered on Tuesday by one star-studded fan — Elton John. “What a wonderful and fitting way to mark World AIDS Day, by honoring one of the biggest champions in the …

The New York Daily News reports: The actor formerly known as Ellen Page announced he is transgender and now goes by Elliot Page. “I want to share with you that I am trans, my pronouns are he/they, and my name is Elliot,” the “Juno” star shared in a tweet Tuesday. “I feel lucky to be writing this. To be here. …

The Detroit News reports: A federal judge has signed off on a settlement between the estate of Aimee Stephens and the Metro Detroit funeral home that fired her in 2013 after she came out to her boss as transgender. U.S. District Judge Sean Cox on Monday approved the terms of the settlement between the estate of Stephens, who died in …

The Associated Press reports: As vice president in 2012, Joe Biden endeared himself to many LGBTQ Americans by endorsing same-sex marriage even before his boss, President Barack Obama. Now, as president-elect, Biden is making sweeping promises to LGBTQ activists, proposing to carry out virtually every major proposal on their wish lists. Among them: Lifting the Trump administration’s near-total ban on …

The Atlantic reports: The Lesbian & Gay Big Apple Corps, one of the first queer marching bands in the United States, was founded in 1979 in New York City, a decade after the Stonewall uprising. This year, the Big Apple Corps reached what Marita Begley, the group’s director, called “the mountaintop”: Today it became the first openly LGBTQ group to …

The Hackensack Daily Voice reports: A Hackensack School Board member who made national headlines by opposing a LGBTQ curriculum has resigned after an embarrassing incident during a Zoom meeting. Frances Cogelja didn’t realize she’d left her laptop camera on when she took it with her while going to the bathroom during the public comments section of a board meeting Monday …