LGBT News

The New York Times reports: Edith Windsor, the gay-rights activist whose landmark Supreme Court case struck down the Defense of Marriage Act in 2013 and granted same-sex married couples federal recognition for the first time and rights to myriad federal benefits, died on Tuesday in Manhattan. She was 88. Her wife, Judith Kasen-Windsor, confirmed the death but did not specify …

The BBC reports: Australian political leaders, including Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, have come out in support of a campaign for same-sex marriage. More than 20,000 people gathered in Sydney to campaign ahead of a non-binding postal vote on changing Australia’s marriage act. Mr Turnbull made a surprise appearance and speech at the launch of the New South Wales Yes campaign. …

Via press release from the ACLU: The Justice Department filed a brief today with the Supreme Court arguing that businesses that are open to the public have a constitutional right to discriminate against LGBT people. The brief was filed in Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission, the case in which a Colorado bakery refused to serve a same-sex couple …

The Hill reports: House and Senate Republicans are throwing their support behind the owner of a Colorado cake shop who refused to make a cake for a same-sex wedding in a case headed to the Supreme Court. GOP lawmakers announced plans Thursday to send an amicus brief on behalf of Jack Phillips, the owner of Masterpiece Cakeshop. Phillips is challenging …

ABC News reports: The High Court has ruled 7-0 to dismiss challenges to the Federal Government’s $122 million same-sex marriage postal survey, clearing the way for it to go ahead. The Federal Government welcomed the unanimous High Court ruling, announcing the survey would continue as planned and the final result would be declared by the chief statistician at 11:30am on …

Michigan Live reports: “Make Hell gay again.” That was the message from the newly-appointed-and-then-impeached “mayor of the small, unincorporated community in Michigan’s Livingston County. Confused? Let’s explain further. In a series of comical Tweets sent out on Wednesday, Aug. 30, comedian and internet personality Elijah Daniel explained that he was named the legal mayor of Hell, Michigan when he was …

USA Today reports: Defense Secretary Jim Mattis late Tuesday announced that transgender troops will be allowed to continue serving in the military pending the results of a study by experts. The announcement follows an order from President Trump — first announced in a tweet — declaring that transgender service members can no longer serve in the military, effectively reversing an …

MetroWeekly reports: Gov. Bruce Rauner has signed two bills into law that will help LGBTQ people achieve greater equality under the law. The first eliminates what is known as the “gay panic” defense in murder cases. Historically, the “gay panic” defense is when a defendant claims that the murder victim was homosexual and made a pass at them, making them …

STAT News reports: Legal groups on Monday filed a class-action lawsuit against the health insurer Aetna, alleging the company violated the privacy of its customers by sending many of them letters through which the phrase “filling prescriptions for HIV” was visible through envelope windows. The federal suit alleges the breach affected as many as 12,000 Aetna customers living in 23 …

Politico reports: A pair of advocacy groups said Monday they are going to court to overturn the Trump administration’s ban on transgender troops serving in the military, in the latest legal assault on the controversial directive. The American Civil Liberties Union filed suit on behalf of five transgender service members. The lawsuit, filed by the Maryland branch of the ACLU, …

Yahoo News reports: MTV is sending a message to Donald Trump. Two days after President Trump signed a directive reinstating a ban on transgender individuals from serving in the U.S. military, the network invited a group of transgender military men and women to the Video Music Awards. Airman Sterling James Crutcher, Air Force Staff Sgt. Logan Ireland, Army Capt. Jennifer …

CNN reports: President Donald Trump on Friday directed the military not to move forward with an Obama-era plan that would have allowed transgender individuals to be recruited into the armed forces, following through on his intentions announced a month earlier to ban transgender people from serving. The presidential memorandum also bans the Department of Defense from using its resources to …

The Associated Press reports: The Pentagon expects to renew a ban on transgender individuals joining the military and to consider circumstances in which some currently serving transgender troops could remain in uniform, officials said Friday. The new approach would be based on formal guidance the Pentagon is expecting to receive soon from the White House. The guidance, as described by …

The Sydney Morning Herald reports: A last-minute surge has seen a record number of Australians enrolled to vote ahead of the upcoming postal survey on same-sex marriage. The Australian Electoral Commission on Friday released figures it described as “extraordinary” that show 90,000 new voters – mostly the young – had joined the roll since the survey was announced on August …

STAT News reports: Thousands of people with HIV received mailed letters from Aetna last month that may have disclosed their HIV status on the envelope. The letters, which Aetna said were sent to approximately 12,000 people, were meant to relay a change in pharmacy benefits. Text visible through a small window on the envelopes listed the patients’ names and suggested …

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports: A man who drove his car into a group of protesters in St. Louis on Wednesday night has been charged with a felony. Mark Colao, 59, was charged Thursday with a felony count of resisting arrest by fleeing and two misdemeanor charges of leaving the scene of an accident and operating a vehicle in a …

Reuters reports: A driver in St. Louis on Wednesday was taken into custody after three protesters who blocked traffic were hit by a car during a march for a transgender woman shot and killed by police a day earlier, said police and local media. The driver, who was not identified by police, was taken into custody for felony fleeing, a …

The Hindustan Times reports: The Supreme Court ruled on Thursday Indians have a constitutional right to privacy, a verdict that could have wide-reaching implications on broader civil rights issues, including homosexuality and prohibition. Experts have said the ‘right to privacy’ case would be a test of our democracy, with the possibility of citizens challenging laws based of individual rights. Privacy …

The Wall Street Journal reports: The White House is expected to send guidance to the Pentagon in coming days on how to implement a new administration ban on transgender people in the military, issuing a policy that will allow Defense Secretary Jim Mattis to consider a service member’s ability to deploy in deciding whether to kick them out of the …

Australia’s News Corp outlet reports: A man who was decked by a coward punch while on a night out in Sydney, and said he feared for his life, was rescued by a trio of unlikely saviours. Ivan Flinn, 34, from Surry Hills, said that during the attack earlier this month he hoped someone would come to his rescue. Help did …