LGBT News

Vice News reports: Trump’s Justice Department appeared in federal court Tuesday to argue that employers should be able to fire people because they are gay. In a rare occasion, all 13 judges of the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals heard oral arguments in Zarda v. Altitude Express Tuesday. The case originated in 2010 when skydiving instructor Donald Zarda sued his …

The Guardian reports: Two weeks after she put herself at odds with her father, the country’s former prime minister, with a post on Instagram, Frances Abbott has appeared in an advert calling on Australians to back marriage equality in the country’s non-binding, voluntary survey. “You can’t help who you fall in love with. Love just happens sometimes and it’s unexpected …

Via press release: Today, HRC hailed the Birmingham City Council for passing city-wide non-discrimination protections that include sexual orientation and gender identity in housing, public accommodations and employment. This ordinance is the culmination of more than ten years of work from local LGBTQ grassroots organizers and a pro-equality coalition including Equality Alabama and HRC. “Today, the City of Birmingham made …

Via press release: More than two million cases of chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis were reported in the United States in 2016, the highest number ever, according to the annual Sexually Transmitted Disease Surveillance Report released today by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The majority of these new diagnoses (1.6 million) were cases of chlamydia. There were also …

The Australian reports: Two women have locked lips on stage during an anti-same sex marriage event in Melbourne, disrupting a “no” campaigner’s speech. The protesters kept kissing as they were dragged from the stage by security at the Coalition for Marriage’s Victorian campaign launch on Saturday night. Australian Christian Lobby chief Lyle Shelton shared a video of the incident on …

The Associated Press reports: Egyptian authorities arrested seven people Monday who they accused of being gay and promoting homosexuality for allegedly raising the rainbow flag of the LGBT movement at a concert, filing charges even though there is no law officially banning the practice. The flag was a rare sign of support for highly marginalized homosexuals in this conservative country …

The Guardian reports: The man charged with assaulting Tony Abbott has denied the alleged attack had anything to do with the same-sex marriage postal vote. Hobart DJ Astro “Funknukl” Labe, 38, was charged with one count of common assault on Friday over an alleged attack on the Hobart waterfront on Thursday afternoon. Labe was wearing a rainbow “yes” badge when …

ABC News Australia reports: The staff of a Launceston pizza shop have altered the meaning of an anti-same-sex-marriage billboard next to their business, a day after a Hobart hotel distanced itself from a billboard atop its premises. Employees at Wiseguise Pizza, in the suburb of Mowbray, started painting the brick wall adjacent to the “It’s OK to say no” sign, …

Metro Weekly reports: “If I hear one more time that LGBT Republicans are like Jews for Hitler or blacks for the KKK, my head will explode,” says Gregory T. Angelo. “Trolls think they’re being clever and they’re really not. I’d appreciate trolls much more if they likened Log Cabin Republicans to White Whales for Ahab.” “If you are already of …

The Sydney Morning Herald reports: Former prime minister Tony Abbott says he was a victim of “politically motivated violence” after he was assaulted by a same-sex marriage campaigner in Hobart. Mr. Abbott said he was headbutted by a same-sex marriage campaigner in a Hobart street on Thursday who told him: ‘You deserve it because of all the things you’ve said.’ …

Finally some good news out of the Philippines. ABS-CBN News reports: The House of Representatives on Wednesday approved on third and final reading a bill that aims to protect the rights of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community. Lawmakers voted 198-0 in favor of House Bill No. 4982 or the Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity and Expression Equality …

Arizona-based Twitter user Sassy Gay Republican is relatively popular as homocons go, with 30,000 readers following his prolific attacks on Obamacare, progressive politics, and “lying and corrupt Democrats.” But today he’s rather a laughingstock after posting a GoFundMe to pay his hospital bill after a car accident. From his money beg: It all happened so fast & my brain is …

USA Today reports: The American Civil Liberties Union filed suit Wednesday against the state of Michigan challenging a law that allows adoption agencies to spurn potential LGBT parents under the guise of religion. Religious exemption laws let people, churches and sometimes corporations cite religious beliefs as a reason not to enforce a law — such as declining to marry a …

CNN’s K-File team reports: In a pair of 2015 speeches, President Donald Trump’s nominee for a federal judgeship in Texas described transgender children as evidence of “Satan’s plan,” lamented that states were banning conversion therapy and argued that sanctioning same-sex marriage would lead to polygamy and bestiality. Jeff Mateer, the current first assistant attorney general of Texas, was serving at …

The Guardian reports: A Brazilian judge has approved gay “conversion therapy” in a ruling which prompted widespread outrage and raised fears of a conservative backlash. Waldemar de Carvalho, a federal judge in the capital of Brasília, overruled a 1999 decision by the Federal Council of Psychology that forbade psychologists from offering widely discredited treatments which claims to “cure” gay people. …

Via press release: The National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR) won the Arizona Supreme Court case, McLaughlin v. McLaughlin, which ruled that a woman was the legal parent of the child she and her same-sex spouse conceived through assisted reproduction during their marriage. As the Arizona Supreme Court recognized, the U.S. Supreme Court rulings in Obergefell v. Hodges and Pavan …

Many JMG readers have written me over the last week, hoping for some inside scoop on the status of Key West’s Island House and the other popular gay guesthouses that are their Old Town neighbors. Today, we actually have some positive hurricane-related news. Via press release: Feeling humbled by our good luck, we’re happy to announce that the Island House, …

Rolling Stone reports: Showtime has shared the first trailer for their upcoming documentary George Michael: Freedom. The late singer himself provided narration for the film, which serves as his final work. Through unseen archival and private home footage, as well as Michael’s own anecdotes, the documentary focuses on Michael’s entire career but especially the height of his fame leading up …

Gay Star News reports: Skywriting appeared over Sydney today to encourage Australians to ‘Vote No’ to marriage equality. Australians are currently voting in a expensive and divisive postal vote on same-sex marriage. They have until 27 October to post their votes back, with results announced 15 November. But the ‘No’ campaign ramped up their attempts to sway people against same-sex …

The Associated Press reports: Serbia’s first-ever openly gay prime minister joined several hundred gay activists Sunday at a gay pride march that was held amid tight security in the conservative Balkan country. Holding rainbow flags, balloons and a banner reading “For change,” pride participants gathered in Belgrade, the Serbian capital, before setting off on a march through the city. Many …