LGBT News

The Hill reports: Four more Republican-led states sued the Biden administration Tuesday over new Title IX rules that bolster protections for LGBTQ students. “Biden’s Department of Education has no authority to do what it is attempting to do,” Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach (R), who is leading the lawsuit, said Tuesday at a press conference at the state capitol in …

The Alabama Reflector reports: A bill that would have expanded Alabama’s “Don’t Say Gay” law died on the final day of the 2024 regular session. HB 130, sponsored by Rep. Mack Butler, R-Rainbow City, would have extended Alabama’s prohibition on discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity from kindergarten to fifth grade to kindergarten to eighth grade. It also would …

Back in February, I reported that Ali Forney Center founder Carl Siciliano had penned a coming book. From the Penguin Random House press release: Carl Siciliano met Ali Forney—a Black nonbinary teenager overflowing with life—in 1994 while working at a daytime center for homeless youth in New York City. Nineteen years old and driven from home, Forney was the heart …

CBS News reports: Leading up to Tuesday’s West Virginia primary, three of the Republican candidates for governor have been trying to outdo each other in proving their opposition to transgender rights. In TV ads running in West Virginia, state Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, Chris Miller and Moore Capito have been accusing each other of harboring transgender sympathies while touting their …

Bloomberg News reports: Target Corp. won’t sell LGBTQ-themed merchandise in some stores during Pride Month in June, after a backlash dented revenue last year. Target faced threats from some customers last year over its Pride merchandise. The Minneapolis-based retailer plans to offer the full assortment online but is considering store-level data to decide which physical locations will carry the products, …

NBC News reports: At least 22 Republican-led states are suing the Biden administration over its new rules to protect LGBTQ students from discrimination in federally funded schools. Attorneys general in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia who sued the administration in separate lawsuits last week argued that the …

Las Vegas’s CBS affiliate reports: A man allegedly shot at his neighbors for being gay, saying in part, “I hope you [expletives] die,” according to documents the 8 News Now Investigators obtained Monday. Larry Walraven, 75, faces a charge of assault with a deadly weapon with a hate crime enhancement, records said. On April 25, Walraven allegedly shot at his …

The Salt Lake Tribune reports: Less than 72 hours after the launch of a reporting form to help Utah enforce its transgender bathroom ban, the Utah auditor’s office says it has received nearly 4,000 complaints — and all of them appear to be “bogus.” “We didn’t see anything that looks credible,” Utah Auditor John Dougall said in a phone call, …

Yahoo News reports: Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed an executive order Thursday objecting to aspects of an updated set of rules related to Title IX — the federal law which bans sex-based discrimination at any schools that receive federal funding. The new rules, released by the Biden administration in April and set to go into effect in the fall, …

The Christian Post reports: The United Methodist Church General Conference voted to drop a ban on funding LGBT advocacy groups and removed a required punishment for pastors who officiate gay weddings after thousands of theologically conservative congregations left the mainline Protestant denomination in the last two years. The change was among the bulk of legislation approved by a vote of …

Jacksonville’s NBC affiliate reports: The University of North Florida’s Office of Diversity and Inclusion shut down Wednesday, along with several campus programs, to comply with a new state law. The Florida law bans universities from spending money on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion programs. Four different centers on campus that were all under the umbrella of the Office of Diversity and …

The Texas Tribune reports: A federal appeals court considering whether West Texas A&M University’s president violated the First Amendment when he canceled a campus drag show last year focused many of their questions Monday on a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that upheld campus non-discrimination policies. But the panel of three judges used that 2010 case — which said universities can …

CBS News reports: Targeting issues about sexual orientation and gender identity, Florida joined three other states Monday in filing a federal lawsuit challenging a new Biden administration rule about sex-based discrimination in education programs. The lawsuit, filed by the attorneys general of Florida, Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina and four organizations, seeks to block the rule that would help carry …

The Associated Press reports: Republican legislators in Kansas failed Monday to override the Democratic governor’s veto of a proposed ban on gender-affirming care for transgender minors. The vote was 82-43 in the state House to reverse Gov. Laura Kelly’s veto, but that was two votes shy of the necessary two-thirds majority. The vote in the House was expected to be …

Austin’s NBC affiliate reports: Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Attorney General Ken Paxton announced separate challenges to federal rule changes extending protections to LGBTQ+ students. Abbott shared Monday afternoon he sent a letter to President Joe Biden, which detailed how he’s instructing the Texas Education Agency “to ignore your illegal dictate” about Title IX. This is the federal policy prohibiting …

Today marks the twentieth blogiversary of this here website thingy. Counting this one, we’re at 151,117 posts over 20 years, the last 15 of which have been without a full day off, although my posting on weekends is usually at a slower rate. As I’ve said on this day every year, whether I am insanely committed or am insane and …

The New York Post reports: A quaint New Hampshire town is being torn apart over a series of colorful LGBTQ-themed murals that an openly anti-gay state senator claims carry “demonic hidden messages.” The murals were installed last August by a nonprofit aiming to “beautify blighted properties” in a neighborhood of otherwise picturesque former mill town Littleton. However, state senator Carrie …

Reuters reports: Iraq’s parliament passed a law criminalising same-sex relationships with a maximum 15-year prison sentence on Saturday, in a move it said aimed to uphold religious values but was condemned by rights advocates as the latest attack on the LGBT community in Iraq. The law aims to “protect Iraqi society from moral depravity and the calls for homosexuality that …

The New York Times reports: The Biden administration announced expansive new protections on Friday for gay and transgender medical patients, prohibiting federally funded health providers and insurers from discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. The new rule reverses a policy instituted by the Trump administration and helps to fulfill part of President Biden’s vow to restore …

Queen City News reports: A Monroe restaurant has issued a counterclaim to a lawsuit against them, saying protesters for the business’s all-ages drag shows have defamed and cost them business. The claim comes after protestors filed suit against East Frank Superette and Kitchen over the use of altered photos of them. In one photo, promotional restaurant material showed images of …