LGBT News

ARKANSAS: GOP Lawmakers File Bill To Ban Recognition Of Same-Sex Marriages From All Jurisdictions

Little Rock’s CBS affiliate reports: A bill has been proposed to make marriage only between a man and a woman. Twenty Representatives and one Senator introduced House Bill 2098. Representative Stephen Meeks [photo] is the lead sponsor of the bill. HB2098 would not recognize marriages between two people of the same sex, even if the marriage happened in a different …

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BOSTON: St. Patrick’s Parade Organizers To Reconsider Banning Of Gay Veterans Group After Backlash

The Associated Press reports: The organizers of Boston’s St. Patrick’s Day parade have scheduled an emergency meeting to reconsider their vote to bar a gay veterans group from participating. The vote Tuesday to bar OutVets drew immediate condemnation from high-profile politicians. Ed Flynn, a member of the South Boston Allied War Veterans Council, which organizes the parade scheduled for March …

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Education Secretary Betsy DeVos Meets With LGBT Rights Groups Over Transgender Student Rights

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos today met with three LGBT rights groups to discuss the Trump administration’s revocation of Obama’s guidelines on transgender student protections. Chris Johnson reports at the Washington Blade: Stephanie White, executive director of Equality Michigan, said her organization sought out the meeting to convey the “profound negative consequences” of the withdrawal of the guidance protecting transgender students. …

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TEXAS: Senate Panel Advances Anti-Transgender Bill

The Texas Tribune reports: After 13-plus hours of emotional testimony, largely in opposition, the Senate State Affairs Committee voted Wednesday to advance the so-called Texas “bathroom bill” to the full chamber. The vote was 7-1; Sen. Judith Zaffirini voted against, and Sen. Charles Schwertner was not present at the meeting but asked to be shown as voting yes. The vote …

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BOSTON: Mayor And Iraq Vet Who Was To Lead St. Patrick’s Parade Drop Out Over Banning Of Gay Group

Universal Hub reports: Dan Magoon, who heads an organization to honor and support Iraq and Afghanistan veterans and their families, today quit his honorary position as head of the South Boston St. Patrick’s Day parade after its organizers voted to bar a gay veterans group from the procession. Mayor Walsh [photo] also said this morning he will not march in …

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UTAH: Legislature Repeals “No Promo Homo” Law Banning Public Schools From Discussing LGBT Issues

Ben Winslow reports at Salt Lake City’s Fox affiliate: Utah lawmakers have passed a bill repealing a controversial law forbidding discussion in classrooms of anything that could be construed as “promotion” of homosexuality. Senate Bill 196’s passage might also get the state out of a lawsuit filed by three students and a pair of gay rights groups. The bill, sponsored …

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OKLAHOMA: Tulsa LBGT Center Riddled With Bullets, Man Later Accosts Staff With Homophobic Slurs

Tulsa’s CBS affiliate reports: Monday, the Equality Center in downtown Tulsa was the victim of two separate cases of vandalism. Executive Toby Jenkins said someone in a truck drove by and fired shots at the front doors in the morning, then, Monday afternoon, someone lashed out at the people inside the center. Jenkins said this is the first time they’ve …

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BOSTON: Gay Veterans Group Banned From City’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade After Two Years Of Participating

The gay veterans group that in 2015 was the first LGBT organization to be allowed to participate in Boston’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade has been banned from this year’s event. The Boston Globe reports: Ed Flynn, a South Boston resident and a member of the South Boston Allied War Veterans Council — the parade’s organizer — confirmed that the group …

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ALABAMA: Senate Approves Bill To Eliminate Marriage Licenses And Have Marriages Recorded By Judges

AL.com reports: The Alabama Senate has passed a bill that would eliminate marriage licenses and instead have marriages recorded by probate judges. The bill, by Sen. Greg Albritton [photo], now moves to the House. Similar bills have been proposed the last two years, since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that states had to allow same-sex marriages and recognize same-sex marriages …

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COLORADO: State House Approves Ex-Gay Torture Ban

For the third time in three years. Via press release: One Colorado, the state’s leading advocacy organization for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) Coloradans and their families, released the following statement from Executive Director Daniel Ramos on the passage of House Bill 1156 out of the Colorado House Representatives by a 38-27 vote with bipartisan support. “House Bill …

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LIVE VIDEO: Texas Senate Hears “Bathroom Bill” Testimony From Haters And Civil Rights Groups

The Texas Tribune reports: Texas senators are expected to take up the so-called bathroom bill on Tuesday, opening up the possibility that the controversial measure could clear its first hurdle in the upper chamber. The Senate State Affairs Committee will debate Senate Bill 6, a legislative priority of Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, that would require transgender people to use bathrooms …

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KENTUCKY: Federal Court Rejects ACLU’s Demand For Legal Fees In Case Against County Clerk Kim Davis

The Huffington Post reports: The American Civil Liberties Union will not be able to recoup legal fees it incurred in a lawsuit against Kim Davis, the county clerk in Kentucky who spent five days in jail after refusing to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, a federal court has ruled. On Monday, U.S. Magistrate Judge Edward Atkins denied an ACLU …

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NORTH CAROLINA: Justice Department Quietly Moves To Drop Federal Opposition To Anti-LGBT Hate Law

The Charlotte Observer reports: The Trump administration is taking steps to drop the federal government’s legal fight against House Bill 2. The Justice Department wrote in a motion last week that it needs time to rethink its 2016 request to halt North Carolina’s requirement that transgender people use restrooms in many public buildings corresponding to the sex on their birth …

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TRAILER: Fire Island, Six Men, One House

Vulture reports: Warm up the lube, because Logo is gearing up for its latest reality-TV show offering, Fire Island, brought to you by Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos’s production company Milojo. The series follows six friends (or, whatever) with active social-media accounts as they summer in the most libidinal place on earth. They’re led by Khasan, a backup dancer who …

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CALIFORNIA: Anti-LGBT Former Mayor Who Beat Teen Strip Poker Charges Arrested Again For Embezzlement

Last year GOP now-former Stockton Mayor Anthony Silva, who held official town hall meetings at an anti-gay megachurch and who ceremoniously gave the key to the city to God (who did not attend), was arrested on multiple charges including secretly recording a male teenager playing a game of strip poker in his bedroom at a summer camp. Silva beat those …

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GERMANY: Renewed Push For Same-Sex Marriage

Pink News reports: The junior party in the ruling coalition in Germany has announced a new bid for same-sex marriage. The Social Democrats (SPD), the junior party in coalition with Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats announced the new bid on Sunday. Accoring to Thomas Oppermann, the parliamentary leader for the SDP, the Green Party will also push for the move. Oppermann …

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RUSSIA: Notorious Anti-LGBT Lawmaker May Ban Disney’s Beauty And The Beast As “Gay Propaganda”

From the Hollywood Reporter: Russia is considering banning Disney’s Beauty and the Beast from screening in the country, BBC News reported. The film, which features a gay character (LeFou) played by Josh Gad, may breach a Russian law prohibiting homosexual propaganda directed toward minors. Director Bill Condon previously revealed to Attitude that the live-action adaptation has a “a nice, exclusively …

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NORTHERN IRELAND: Renewed Hope For Same-Sex Marriage As Conservative Party Loses Power To Block

The Belfast Telegraph reports: The DUP has lost the power to trigger a controversial Stormont veto mechanism that blocked the introduction of same-sex marriage in Northern Ireland. Tabling a “petition of concern” means a proposal before the Assembly can only be carried with the support of a majority of both nationalist and unionist members, rather than a straight head count. …

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Log Cabin Republicans Beg DeVos And Sessions To Reinstate Obama’s Protections For Trans Students

The Log Cabin Republicans have published an open letter to Betsy DeVos and Jeff Sessions. An excerpt: Secretary DeVos and Attorney General Sessions, As transgender members of the Log Cabin Republicans and Republican parents of transgender students, we have deep concerns about your decision to rescind the May 13, 2016 directive entitled “Dear Colleague Letter on Transgender Students” pertaining to …

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KEY WEST: Hate Crime Charge For Man Who Shouted “You Live In Trump Country” During Gay Bashing

The Miami Herald reports: A man accused of a homophobic hate crime in downtown Key West was arrested Wednesday morning in North Carolina and will be extradited to Monroe County for prosecution, authorities say. The Key West Police Department said Brandon Ray Davis, 30, was taken into custody by the Onslow County (N.C.) Sheriff’s Office on an “extraditable warrant” for …

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