LGBT News

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 …

The Associated Press reports: A teenage suspect who allegedly made derogatory remarks about LGBTQ+ people before opening fire at a backyard punk rock show faces seven felony charges for a shooting that killed one person and injured six others in Minneapolis. The document charging Dominic James Burris and another man says the shooting was motivated by bias against the victims’ …

Denver’s NBC affiliate reports: The Colorado Supreme Court is allowing a local group to collect signatures for a ballot initiative that opponents believe would target LGBTQ+ students. The measure would require a public school representative to notify a student’s parents if they are experiencing gender incongruence. Opponents believe the measure could potentially “out” transgender students to their parents. “We believe …

Florida Politics reports: Florida’s Governor is setting the stage with yet another showdown with the Democratic White House. This one is about new language from the Joe Biden administration reconfiguring Title IX to protect students on the grounds of sexual orientation and gender identity, the latter of which Florida Republicans don’t believe is up for debate. “We will not comply …

The Guardian reports: The actor and rightwing activist Laurence Fox has been ordered to pay £90,000 each in damages to two people he libeled by referring to them as “paedophiles” on social media. A high court judge made the order in London on Thursday. Fox lost his high court libel battle in January, after Mrs Justice Collins Rice ruled that …

AL.com reports: The Alabama House of Representatives has passed a bill to expand a ban on teachers providing instruction or classroom discussion about sexual orientation and gender identity in public schools. HB130 by Rep. Mack Butler, R-Rainbow City, would expand the ban that now applies from kindergarten through fifth grade to apply through 8th grade. The ban was first passed …

The Associated Press reports: A top court in the eastern Caribbean island of Dominica has struck down colonial-era laws criminalizing gay sex. It’s the latest nation to repeal such laws in the socially conservative region, joining Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, St. Kitts and Nevis, and Antigua and Barbuda. While the laws stemmed from the British colonial period, they were strengthened …

The Associated Press reports: Maine’s Democratic governor has signed a bill designed to protect providers of abortion and gender-affirming care from legal action brought by other states. Gov. Janet Mills signed the proposal after the Democratic-controlled Maine Legislature approved it earlier in the month. The state joins more than a dozen others that protect medical providers from out-of-state investigations about …

The New Orleans Times-Picayune reports: Louisiana’s top education official advised school districts Monday not to change their policies to comply with new federal rules that extend civil rights protections to LGBTQ+ students, setting up a potential showdown with the Biden administration. The new rules, released Friday by the U.S. Department of Education, say discrimination against students based on sexual orientation …

Reuters reports: Gay dating app Grindr is facing a mass data protection lawsuit in London from hundreds of users who allegedly had their private information, including HIV status, shared with third parties without consent, a law firm said on Monday. Austen Hays, which said the lawsuit is being filed at London’s High Court, said thousands of Grindr users in the …

Roll Call reports: The Biden administration on Friday finalized new rules designed to bolster legal protections at colleges and universities for LGBTQ+ and pregnant students and victims of sexual misconduct. The new rules do not address the politically contentious issue of transgender athletes competing on women’s sports teams, however. The rules released Friday update Title IX, the 1972 law that …

Today reports: Openly gay actor Maulik Pancholy was disinvited from speaking at a middle school anti-bullying assembly after concerns were raised about his political activism and what two school board members called his “lifestyle.” Pancholy’s scheduled appearance at Mountain View Middle School in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, was unanimously overturned by the district’s school board in a public meeting on April 15. …