LGBT News

The Guardian reports: New diagnoses of HIV among gay and bisexual men have dropped to their lowest level in 20 years, according to Public Health England. A PHE report reveals that overall, across all genders and sexualities, the number of people with a new HIV diagnosis dropped by 10% from 4,580 cases in 2018 to 4,139 in 2019. There was …

Miami’s CBS News affiliate reports: With all the vitriol that has surrounded this election season, there’s another claim of harassment – this time from the mayor of Fort Lauderdale.  He recalled how homophobic slurs were hurled at him while he was at an early vote location at Coral Ridge Mall. Trantalis is the city’s first openly gay mayor. “I encountered …

CNBC reports: The Supreme Court’s conservative majority on Wednesday seemed prepared to rule in favor of a Roman Catholic adoption agency in Philadelphia that argued that it is entitled to discriminate against potential foster parents on the basis of sexual orientation. Arguments in the case, known as Fulton v. City of Philadelphia, No. 19-123, concluded around 12 p.m. ET, as …

Reuters reports: In a case pitting LGBT rights against religious rights, the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday is set to hear arguments in a dispute over the city of Philadelphia’s refusal to place children for foster care with a Catholic Church-affiliated agency that excludes same-sex couples from serving as foster parents. It will be the first major case to be …

Nashville’s ABC News affiliate reports: Two new state legislators made history with their wins by becoming the first openly LGBTQ politicians to serve in the Tennessee General Assembly. Until Tuesday night, Tennessee was one of just five states in the country to have never elected an openly LGBTQ person to the state legislature. Democrat Torrey Harris [photo] and Republican Eddie …

ABC News reports: Sarah McBride has won a seat in the Delaware state Senate Tuesday night, making history by becoming the first openly transgender state senator in the United States. McBride, 30, will also be the nation’s highest-ranking openly transgender elected official. She defeated her Republican opponent, Steven Washington, 73% to 27%, with all precincts reporting. This is not the …

Chris Johnson reports at the Washington Blade: It’s official: Voters in New York have gave final approval Tuesday night to U.S. House candidates Mondaire Jones and Ritchie Torres, making them the first openly gay Black candidates elected to Congress. Jones was elected in New York’s 15th congressional district in the Bronx and Torres prevailed in New York’s 17th congressional district …

Buzzfeed News reports: Democratic Rep.-elect Ritchie Torres made history Tuesday night, becoming the first openly gay Black person elected to Congress. In June, Torres won the primary to replace retiring Rep. José Serrano in New York’s 15th District. Decision Desk HQ called the race in the heavily Democratic district soon after the polls closed in the general election. Mondaire Jones, …

NBC News reports: Athletes Sue Bird and Megan Rapinoe have found a winning combo. The couple announced their engagement Friday night on Bird’s Instagram with a photo of Rapinoe kneeling and putting a ring on Bird’s left land. Bird, a guard for the Seattle Storm, and Rapinoe, a leader on the U.S. women’s national soccer team, met at the 2016 …

Reuters reports: The U.S. State Department backed down this week from legal battles over the citizenship of gay couples’ children who were born to surrogates overseas. The government withdrew its appeals without making any public comment in the cases of a family whose daughter had been born to a surrogate in Canada and a family whose daughter was born to …

Deadline Hollywood reports: Leanza Cornett, the American TV personality and former Miss America winner, has died at the age of 49 after suffering a head injury earlier this month. The Miss America Organization and her former husband Mark Steines both confirmed the death in separate social media posts. Reports said she suffered the head injury on October 12 and had …

From the Parliament House’s Facebook page: For over 45 years, The Parliament House has called Orange Blossom Trail our home. We have to announce that our home at its current location will be closing Monday, November 2, 2020. We put up a good fight over the last 11 months to secure financing and renovate our existing property. Unfortunately, that fight …

NBC News reports: Amy Coney Barrett has been fueling the fears of LGBTQ advocacy groups since President Donald Trump first nominated her to the federal bench in 2017. Now, with Barrett officially confirmed as an associate justice of the Supreme Court, advocates worry that she and the court’s five other conservatives could start stripping away gay rights imminently. The most …

The Texas Tribune reports: After backlash from lawmakers and advocates, a state board voted Tuesday to undo a rule change that would have allowed social workers to turn away clients who are LGBTQ or have a disability. The Texas Behavioral Health Executive Council voted unanimously to restore protections for LGBTQ and disabled clients to Texas social workers’ code of conduct …

The New York Daily News reports: A U.K. couple has been found guilty of killing an Irish man by poisoning him with a powerful drug known as “devil’s breath.” Joel Osei, 25, and Diana Cristea, 19, were arrested after the body of Adrian Murphy, a 43-year-old champion dancer, was found in his South London apartment in June 2019. Investigators say …

The New York Times reports: The Vatican had required that the interview be filmed with Vatican cameras and that the Vatican be given control over the footage. The Vatican cut out the pope’s remarks on same-sex unions in the edited version provided to Televisa, the two people said. Gone was this comment from the pope: “What we have to create …

Via press release from Courage International: First, and most importantly, Jesus Christ is the Head of the Church, which is His Body, and the Spouse of the Church, which is His Bride. He has promised never to leave us abandoned (cf. John 14:18), to give us the Holy Spirit to teach and remind us what He has said (cf. John …

From San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone: In our bishops region’s audience with Pope Francis last January during our ad limina visit (the visit diocesan bishops make every five years to the Vatican), the topic of civil unions came up in conversation. The Holy Father clearly differentiated between a civil arrangement which accords mutual benefits to two people, and marriage. The …

The Wrap reports: James Randi, a magician and illusionist known as “The Amazing Randi” as well as a scientific investigator who debunked paranormal and occult phenomena through his organization the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, has died. He was 92. Among one of Randi’s more famous instances of debunking — a word he frequently said he disliked in favor of “investigator” …

From the Public Religion Research Institute: The vast majority of Americans (70%) favor allowing gay and lesbian couples to marry legally, compared to 28% of Americans who oppose it. Majorities of Democrats (80%) and independents (76%), as well as half of Republicans (50%), support same-sex marriage. White evangelical Protestants stand out as the only major religious group in which a …