LGBT News

Paging you-know-who. Via GLAAD: The Disney Channel show “Andi Mack” will break new ground for the network during its second season premiere this Friday, October 27 at 8pm ET/PT when it introduces its first LGBTQ storyline. In the episode, Andi’s friend Cyrus lets Buffy know that he has a crush on the same boy Andi does. In the episode, Cyrus …

The Texas Tribune reports: Texas House Speaker Joe Straus, a San Antonio Republican, announced Wednesday he will not run for re-election in 2018, a decision that has the potential to upend the political balance of power of the state. Straus, who has lately been the most powerful moderate Republican in the Texas Capitol, said he will serve until the end …

AdWeek reports: Once upon a time, there were three bears who lived in a house deep in the sun-dappled woods. We’re talking about Matt, Joel and Phil. You’ll notice pretty much immediately that they’re not axially bears—well, not in the ursine sense They’re burly, hirsute gay men—slang term: bears—starring in agency BMB’s cheekily unconventional content play for Britain’s Rowse Honey. …

The Guardian reports: Cory Bernardi does not accept there will be an overwhelming “yes” vote in the same-sex marriage postal survey, with more than 70% of forms returned. The Australian Conservatives leader said he believed people were pressured by political correctness and were saying they voted “yes”, even if they had voted “no”. “I’m not even conceding defeat quite frankly,” …

Politico reports: Elton John Monday condemned Georgia state Rep. Betty Price, wife of former HHS Secretary Tom Price, for making comments suggesting that HIV patients be quarantined. The singer, an advocate for HIV patients, said that Price’s comments captured on videotape during a legislative meeting last week are “horrific, discriminatory, and astonishingly ill-informed.” “As a doctor and elected official from …

The Sydney Morning Herald reports: Gay couples – but not straight ones – will be able to marry for free in some of the City of Sydney’s most prominent buildings and parks, in a move that will outrage the progressive council’s conservative critics. A motion passed on Monday night will allow same-sex couples to hire community facilities, halls and parks …

The Bangor Daily News reports: A man protesting against LGBT rights earlier this week at the University of Maine during the school’s Coming Out Week celebrations was met with a counter-protest: an a capella song. The unidentified man, holding a sign printed with Bible verses about sexual immorality, had been standing in front of the Memorial Union on campus for …

The Washington Post reports: This week, a government journal in the former Soviet republic of Tajikistan announced that the country’s interior ministry had compiled a registry of “proven” gays and lesbians. The list named 319 men and 48 women, whom Tajik federal prosecutors identified in operations they called “Morality” and “Purge.” A purge — likely in the form of mass …

Regina Willis reports at Project Q Atlanta: State Rep. Betty Price, a Republican from Roswell, suggested quarantining people living with HIV during a House study committee meeting addressing the barriers HIV-positive people face. Price’s suggestion came Tuesday during a two-hour meeting of the House Study Committee on Georgians’ Barriers to Access to Adequate Health Care. Price – a medical doctor …

The Bangor Daily News reports: Gray-New Gloucester’s top school official told WMTW television a high school football coach is no longer employed by the district after allegations he told players to taunt an opponent for having two mothers. Maine School Administrative District 15 Superintendent Craig King told WMTW the district “takes concerns about the safety and security of students very …

Posted today to Major League Baseball’s website: We still have the blue of the Dodgers and Cubs, the Yankees’ navy, and Houston’s navy and orange. Now you can add postseason purple as well. Today is Spirit Day, and Major League Baseball and all 30 clubs are again taking a united stand against bullying by joining GLAAD in “going purple” to …

In a CareerBuilder survey fittingly released on GLAAD’s anti-bullying Spirit Day, four in ten LGBT workers say they’ve been bullied at the workplace. CBS News reports: The majority of those who said they were bullied said it was by one person, while about 13 percent said it happened in a group setting. The number of LGBTQ workers with concerns about …

Radio Free Europe reports: Prosecutors in Tajikistan say authorities have drawn up a registry of more than 300 lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in the Central Asian state, a move purportedly aimed at protecting sexual minorities and halting the spread of sexually transmitted diseases. An article in an official journal published this month by the Tajik Prosecutor-General’s Office …

From the Facebook page of attorney Helmut Graupner: In a decision of 12 October just delivered, the Austrian Constitutional Court followed all my arguments and reversed its case-law (that segregation in marriage and registered partnerships is admissible.) I am representing five children (and their same-gender parents) arguing that the marriage ban stigmatizes the children as illegitimate and the families as …

Via press release: GLAAD, the world’s largest LGBTQ media advocacy organization, today announced participants in Spirit Day. Taking place on October 19, Spirit Day inspires millions around the world to wear purple or ‘go purple’ online in a unified stand against bullying and to show support for LGBTQ youth. To support this effort, Kellogg Company launched a video featuring its …

Cleveland’s CBS affiliate reports: A flier posted all over the main classroom building at Cleveland State University targets the LGBTQ community. “Kinda just surprised and disgusted,” one person on campus said about the flier. The flier depicts an illustration of a man with a rope tied around his neck. It also gives statistics of what it claims are suicide rates …

Andy Humm reports at Gay City News: Abel Cedeno, 18, the bullied gay teen charged with killing one classmate, Matthew McCree, 15, and wounding another, Ariane Laboy, 16, with a knife spoke to Gay City News from Rikers Island on Sunday, recounting the incident, the anti-gay bullying that preceded it for years, and the way it intensified on September 27 …

Via press release from Lambda Legal: Of course it is important and right that the Department of Justice assist in bringing to justice the murderer of Kedarie/Kandicee Johnson, one of the far too many transgender people, and especially transgender people of color, targeted in the ongoing lethal epidemic of hate violence. But it is the height of cynicism for Attorney …

From a lengthy New Yorker profile of Mike Pence: “Trump thinks Pence is great,” Bannon told me. But, according to a longtime associate, Trump also likes to “let Pence know who’s boss.” A staff member from Trump’s campaign recalls him mocking Pence’s religiosity. He said that, when people met with Trump after stopping by Pence’s office, Trump would ask them, …

The New York Times reports: The Justice Department has dispatched an experienced federal hate crimes lawyer to Iowa to help prosecute a man charged with murdering a transgender high school student last year, a highly unusual move that officials said was personally initiated by Attorney General Jeff Sessions. In taking the step, Mr. Sessions, a staunch conservative, is sending a …