LGBT News

From Indiana’s NBC affiliate: Kokomo has become the latest Indiana community to ban discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Council members voted 5 to 4 in favor of an ordinance protecting members of the LGBT community after what has been a contentious debate. The crowd maxxed capacity of Kokomo’s council chambers. By fire code, only 157 could fit …

Last month I launched a twice-monthly column for the website of Britain’s Pride Life magazine, a quarterly LGBT rights and lifestyle magazine. Today’s third installment takes a look at the never-ending Trump controversies, his down-ballot effect on other GOP candidates, Hillary Clinton’s AIDS gaffe, and the delegate standings in the Democratic race. Clickety-click the link. DISCLOSURE: Pride Life is owned …

Kathryn Knott is staying in prison. Via the Philly Voice: Judge Roxanne Covington on Monday denied a request to reconsider the sentence of Kathryn Knott, the Bucks County woman convicted of simple assault and related charges in the 2014 beating of a homosexual couple in Center City. “The sentence is well within the guidelines and is as appropriate as I …

The Independent reports: Oscar-nominated actor Ellen Page has described how she came face-to-face with a self-confessed serial killer of gay people in Brazil while filming a documentary on attitudes to homosexuality. A former police officer turned hitman told the X-Men star, who came out in 2014, that he had started his murder spree – which he said involved running over …

Eleven men have been arrested in a sex sting conducted in a county park south of Jacksonville, Florida. At least one local new outlet has published all of their names and the mugshots of seven of the men, one of whom has already lost his job. Via News4Jax: Eleven men were arrested after police said they offered to engage in …

JMG reader Kent directs us to the below clips in which street preachers use a portable sound system to scream abuse at the patrons of the popular South Beach gay nightclub Score. Most of the patrons attempted to ignore the screaming, but some left the ticket line to get in the preachers’ faces. A gigantic “all-nude gentleman’s club” is right …

Perhaps in response to Hillary Clinton’s gaffe about the Reagans and her followup policy statement on HIV/AIDS, Bernie Sanders last night issued his own strategy on HIV/AIDS, which includes a multi-billion dollar annual federal prize as a substitute for new drug patents. Below is his message in full: Today, one of the biggest problems in caring for the 1.2 million …

The Guardian reports: Bernie Sanders has criticized Hillary Clinton’s brief praise for Nancy Reagan, whom the Democratic presidential frontrunner said “started a national conversation” on HIV/Aids. “I just don’t know what she was talking about,” Sanders, the independent Vermont senator who is running for the Democratic nomination, said in an interview with CNN on Sunday. “I’m glad [Clinton] apologized, but …

HIV/AIDS activists were far from satisfied by the one-line apology issued yesterday afternoon by Hillary Clinton after she made the astoundingly ahistorical claim that Nancy Reagan’s “low-key advocacy” had spurred advances against the virus. Tonight Clinton issued a second and quite lengthy statement. Below is her message in full: Yesterday, at Nancy Reagan’s funeral, I said something inaccurate when speaking …

JMG reader Joseph points us to today’s poll in the Denver Post, which wants to know if banning ex-gay torture is a good idea. Hit the link. You know what to do.

Late yesterday afternoon the Missouri Senate advanced GOP Sen. Bob Onder’s anti-LGBT bill to the state House. The Human Rights Campaign reacts: Similar to so-called “First Amendment Defense Act” legislation introduced in other states, this extreme resolution would lead to a ballot measure that, if approved by voters, would enshrine discrimination against LGBT people and their families into the state …

Two days ago Democrats in the Missouri Senate launched a 39-hour filibuster in an ultimately failed attempt to thwart a vote on an anti-LGBT RFRA bill. They are at again today, this time filibustering the record of their filibuster. Listen at this link. #HEROES.

Over the anguished screams of the Family Research Council and the American Family Association, today the Senate Armed Services Committee advanced President Obama’s appointment of Eric Fanning as US Army Secretary. If confirmed by the full Senate, Fanning will become the first openly gay head of a branch of the US military. Early this year Fanning stepped down as Acting …

The Human Rights Campaign today announced that 60 major corporations have jointly endorsed the Equality Act. Companies on the list include Amazon, Apple, Google, Twitter, IBM, Facebook, Hilton, Hyatt, MasterCard, General Mills, Coca-Cola, and PepsiCo. See the full list below. Via press release: Since HRC joined with lawmakers and advocates last July to introduce the Equality Act in Congress, HRC …

The Virginian-Pilot reports: Legislation that has passed both chambers of the Republican-controlled General Assembly says no minister or religious organization can be penalized for acting in accordance with a belief that marriage should be only between a man and a woman. Democratic Gov. Terry McAuliffe has promised to veto it. The House of Delegates passed the measure 59-38 on Wednesday. …

The protests apparently worked. From the Richmond Times-Dispatch: Republicans in the Senate and House of Delegates are poised to elect Court of Appeals Judge Stephen R. McCullough of Spotsylvania County to the Supreme Court of Virginia, after former Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli took himself out of the running. “Teiro and I gave serious and prayerful consideration to accepting this honor,” …

Via press release from Lambda Legal: Today, Governor Alejandro García Padilla [photo] announced that the decision issued yesterday by the District Court for the District of Puerto Rico, holding that the historic U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges striking down discriminatory marriage bans nationwide did not apply to Puerto Rico because it is not a state, would not …

The jury took less than a day to find him guilty. GOOD. Via the New York Daily News: A crazed killer was convicted Wednesday of gunning down an unarmed gay man in the West Village nearly three years ago — and the murder was deemed a hate crime. Elliot Morales, 36, now faces up to life in prison for the …

From the Chicagoist: The second creator behind the Matrix trilogy and other reality-contorting content has come out as transgender today. In a letter released to Windy City Times, writer-director Lilly Wachowski explained why she’s making the announcement now. “In response to this threatened public outing against my will,” Wachowski wrote. “I had a prepared a statement that was one part …

From the Lincoln County Times-News: Lincoln County state Sen. David Curtis is among 10 members appointed Tuesday by Senate Leader Phil Berger [PHOTO] to work with the N.C. House of Representatives in overturning a Charlotte City Council ordinance before it can go into effect April 1. The committee, headed by Wilkes Republican Sen. Shirley Randleman, will meet for the first …