LGBT News

The Michigan Advance reports: While Gov. Gretchen Whitmer fielded questions about speculation that she’ll be joining Kamala Harris as her vice presidential pick on the 2024 ballot, she signed Michigan’s $23.4B education budget into law Tuesday, as well as 39 other bills. Among the bills signed was HB 4718, which bans the “gay panic” or “trans panic” legal defense. The …

NBC News reports: John Deere said Wednesday it would cease lending its name to social events like LGBTQ Pride parades — the latest corporation to reassess its stance on hot-button social issues as the culture wars ignite ahead of the presidential election. In a statement posted on its X account, the nearly 200-year-old industrial and farming equipment manufacturer said it …

Mediaite reports: California Governor Gavin Newsom showed his willingness to hit back at political foes, which has long endeared him to Democrats. He used an old insult from Trump to mock billionaire Elon Musk. Musk announced Tuesday that he would be relocating the headquarters of SpaceX and X from California to Austin, Texas due to a new trans rights law …

The United Press reports: Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed legislation making California the first U.S. state to prohibit schools from outing students to their parents. The Democratic governor signed Assembly Bill 1955, better known as the SAFETY Act, Monday, according to a statement from his office, after the legislation passed through the state’s Congress last month. Under the bill, California …

Courthouse News reports: Seven GOP-dominated states filed a federal lawsuit in St. Louis against multiple Biden administration agencies Wednesday, in opposition to recent changes to the Affordable Care Act meant to protect transgender people from medical discrimination. Missouri, Utah, both Dakotas, Iowa, Idaho and Arkansas, joined by a conservative medical professional organization known as the American College of Pediatricians, filed …

Via press release from GLAAD: Pride Month 2024 has come to an end, bringing with it highs and lows. On the upside, dozens of small towns from Alaska to Alabama held inaugural Pride events this June. Tens of thousands of attendees flocked to these celebrations focused on uplifting their local LGBTQ community. On the downside, bigots and extremists continued their …

Reuters reports: Burkina Faso’s military junta said it has adopted the draft of an amended family code that criminalises homosexuality. The West African nation has been among just 22 out of 54 countries on the continent that allow same-sex relations, which are punishable by death or lengthy prison terms in some states. Burkina Faso has been under military rule since …

The Voice Of America reports: Mixed reactions are swirling in Cameroon since Brenda Biya, the daughter of President Paul Biya, declared she is a lesbian. While LGBTQ activists see her declaration as an opportunity to push for greater rights in a country where same-sex relations are outlawed, anti-gay groups say they want Brenda Biya prosecuted. Brenda Biya, the 26-year-old daughter …

Pittsburgh’s ABC affiliate reports: A Western Pennsylvania man is accused of murdering and dismembering a transgender teenager. DaShawn Watkins, 29, is facing murder charges in connection with the death of 14-year-old Pauly Likens. On June 25, the Sharon Police Department received a report that Likens had been missing since June 22, a news release from the Mercer County Coroner states. …

Michigan Live reports: It would no longer be legal to argue that someone’s sexual orientation justified assaulting them under a proposed law headed to the governor’s desk. If signed into law by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a person charged with a violent crime couldn’t seek to reduce or evade criminal liability on claims that they lost control and reacted violently because …

Nashville’s ABC affiliate reports: Mere days after it was painted and installed, Nashville’s first rainbow crosswalk was defaced by an unidentified driver. Hundreds of volunteers joined together Saturday, June 29 to paint the crosswalk at the intersection of 14th Street and Woodland in East Nashville. The crosswalk is meant to be a celebration of Nashville’s LGBTQ+ community. It’s placed outside …

Politico Europe reports: Slovak Culture Minister Martina Šimkovičová blamed the LGBTQ+ minority for Europe’s declining fertility rates in a July 3 interview with Slovak tabloid Topky.sk. “We heterosexuals are creating the future, because we make babies. Europe is dying out, babies are not being born because of the excessive number of LGBTQ+ [people]. And the strange thing is [that it’s …

ABC News reports: Samuel Woodward, a California man accused of murdering his former classmate in 2018, has been found guilty in the hate crime case. Blaze Bernstein — a 19-year-old gay, Jewish student at the University of Pennsylvania — went missing while visiting his family in Newport Beach during winter break in January 2018. His body was found following a …

Al Jazeera reports: A court in Oslo has found an Iranian-born Norwegian man guilty of an attack during Pride celebrations in the Norwegian capital in 2022 and sentenced him to 30 years in prison. Two people were killed and nine were seriously wounded in the centre of Oslo, on June 25, 2022, in the shootings at three locations, including the …

The Associated Press reports: Enforcement of a federal rule expanding anti-discrimination protections for LGBTQ students has been blocked in four states and a patchwork of places elsewhere by a federal judge in Kansas. U.S. District Judge John Broomes’ decision was the third against the rule from a federal judge in less than three weeks but more sweeping than the others. …

The Toronto Star reports: Thousands of people danced, sang and celebrated at Toronto’s Pride Parade on Sunday until the procession was suddenly stopped mid-route, and then cancelled, by a protest. About 30 demonstrators, calling themselves the Coalition Against Pinkwashing, held banners and chanted on Yonge Street, just south of Wellesley Street, three and a half hours after the parade’s 2 …

New York City’s CBS affiliate reports: The Pride March steps off at noon on Sunday, June 30. This year marks 55 years since the Stonewall Uprising and 40 years since Heritage of Pride became the official march organizers. Also happening Sunday, Heritage of Pride is hosting a PrideFest LGBTQIA+ street fair at 11 a.m. in Greenwich Village. There is no …

The Associated Press reports: Operating out of a tiny room in Fabulosa Books in San Francisco’s Castro District, one of the oldest gay neighborhoods in the United States, Becca Robbins uses donations from customers to ship boxes of books across the country to groups that want them. In an effort she calls “Books Not Bans,” she sends titles about queer …

The New York Times reports: Diana Rodriguez, the chief executive of Pride Live, which runs the new Stonewall National Monument Visitor Center, pointed to an old-fashioned jukebox. “Go ahead, give it a whirl,” she said. I dropped in a Stonewall-branded coin and chose a song. The machine whirred, for five seconds, 10 seconds, 15 seconds, as Rodriguez explained that it …

The National Desk reports: Multiple former contestants of “RuPaul’s Drag Race” have launched the Drag PAC, a political action committee aimed at protecting LGBTQIA+ rights. The drag performers claimed in a video released Wednesday elected officials have attacked the LGBTQIA+ community with what they feel is “anti-drag” legislation. “I think everyone is a little disheartened with a lot of our …