LGBT News

The Sacramento Bee reports: Five years after a former California Highway Patrol officer sued the agency alleging he was driven out of his job because he was gay, the CHP has settled the lawsuit for $2.2 million. Jay Brome, who spent 20 years with the CHP until he took medical stress leave in January 2015, agreed to the settlement after …

The Moscow Times reports: Russia’s LGBT, radical feminist and child-free groups should be recognized as “extremist,” the chairman of an influential government commission said Wednesday. “LGBT ideology, radical feminism and child-free movements should be recognized as extremism — an extremist ideology,” the state-run TASS news agency cited Andrei Tsyganov, chairman of a commission for the protection of children at the …

Florida Politics reports: Florida may soon become the 16th state to ban the use of “gay/trans panic defense” under a new proposal filed Tuesday by two Democratic lawmakers. The bills (SB 374 & HB 205) would prohibit the legal strategy in Florida courtrooms, which would make Florida the latest state to do so within the decade. Senate Minority Leader Lauren …

The BBC reports: Swiss voters have backed same-sex marriage in a referendum, according to projections. More than 60% supported the measure, which would bring the country into line with most of western Europe. In the build up to the vote, church groups and conservative political parties opposed the idea, saying it would undermine the traditional family. Switzerland has allowed same-sex …

The Associated Press reports: In an interview Thursday with The Associated Press on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly’s meeting of world leaders, Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said his country would not cede ground on policies that have caused the European Union to impose financial penalties and start legal proceedings against it over violations of the bloc’s values. Topping …

Reuters reports: Swiss voters decide on Sunday whether to allow same-sex couples to wed and adopt children after a highly charged campaign pitted gay rights activists against conservative opponents in one of the last Western European countries to still ban gay marriage. The federal government and parliament approved opening civil marriage to same-sex couples, but opponents forced a referendum on …

The Texas Tribune reports: Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is suing the Biden administration over recent federal guidance issued to protect LGBTQ people in the workplace, including a directive that says employees should be allowed to use the bathrooms, locker rooms and showers that correspond with their gender identity. The guidance also clarifies that misuse of a person’s preferred pronouns …

Jacksonville’s NBC News affiliate reports: A troubling series of videos posted to social media this week appears to show a group of students hurling hate speech at other students at a St. Johns County high school. Students can be heard using homophobic slurs in the videos, which have been edited by News4Jax to shield the identities of students. Parents told …

Reuters reports: The Madrid prosecutor’s office opened an investigation on Monday after a crowd of about 200 people sporting Nazi paraphernalia marched in the Spanish capital’s gay-friendly neighbourhood of Chueca on Saturday shouting offensive anti-LGBT slogans. The protesters shouted “Out of our neighbourhood” and “Get out of Madrid” prefaced by derogatory words for gay people, the prosecutor’s office said in …

The Hollywood Reporter reports: Television Academy voters delivered a special message to RuPaul on Sunday: “Shantay, you stay in the history books.” VH1’s RuPaul’s Drag Race won a trophy for outstanding competition program at tonight’s telecast, a victory that gives RuPaul an 11th Emmy and solidifies his place as the most decorated Black artist in Emmy Awards history. During the …

The Guardian reports: In the same brief, which calls for Roe to be overturned, Mitchell and co-counsel Adam Mortara, an anti-abortion activist and lawyer who clerked for the Supreme Court justice Clarence Thomas, said such a decision could open the door for other “lawless” rights and protections to be reversed, including the right to have gay sex and the right …

Euronews reports: Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has accused the European Commission of blocking funds over the country’s LGBT policies. Orban claimed on Friday that the EU had failed to approve Hungary’s coronavirus recovery plan because of their disagreements over gay rights. “The funds are loans that Brussels does not want to give us because of the debate on our …

The Military Times reports: Tens of thousands of LGBT veterans forced from the military for their sexual orientation and given other-than-honorable discharges will be able to receive full Veterans Affairs benefits despite their dismissal status under a new move set to be announced Monday. The change comes as the country approaches the 10th anniversary of repeal of the controversial “don’t …

NPR reports: Colorado Democratic Gov. Jared Polis wed his longtime partner on Wednesday, marking the first same-sex marriage of a sitting United States governor. In 2018, Polis became the first openly gay man ever elected governor in the U.S. A decade earlier, he was the first openly gay man elected to the U.S. House. “Over the course of Jared’s career …

NBC News reports: Like the state at large, an overwhelming majority of California’s LGBTQ voters voted “no” to a Republican-led effort to recall Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, and remove him from office, according to an NBC News Exit Poll of early and Election Day voters. The poll found that 7 percent of California recall voters identify as LGBTQ. Of …

Reuters reports: Hungary’s media regulator published guidelines for broadcasters to comply with new LGBT laws on Wednesday, relegating some films portraying homosexuality or gender identity issues to the same age group restrictions as gory horror movies. Publication of the guidelines follows the June adoption of a law banning the “display and promotion of homosexuality” among under-18s despite criticism from rights …

The New York Times reports: Alphonso David, the president of the Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest L.G.B.T.Q. advocacy organization, was ousted by the group’s board on Monday night over a report revealing that he had advised former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo on how to handle sex harassment allegations. Mr. David, the group’s first Black president, was terminated “for cause” …

Bloomberg News reports: The European Union threatened to block as much as 126 million euros ($150 million) of cohesion funds to local Polish governments over anti-LGBTQ zones introduced in five provinces. The European Commission, the bloc’s executive arm, sent letters to the governors of the provinces last week warning that if the resolutions weren’t rescinded the money would be withheld. …

The Associated Press reports: Tens of thousands protested in Switzerland on Saturday for the legalization of same-sex marriage in the Alpine country. The protests came ahead of a national referendum on Sept. 26 on the legalization of gay marriage, which has already been introduced in many other European countries. So far, same-sex couples in Switzerland can only get official approval …

The Advocate reports: After announcing earlier this summer that they were expecting, Pete and Chasten Buttigieg have now revealed the birth of their two children. It is assumed that the children are twins. The history-making couple have been looking to become parents for some time. In August, the pair announced they would soon be growing the family, which already includes …