LGBT News

The Washington Blade reports: A group of more than 50 LGBTI rights advocates on Friday met with a high-ranking Vatican official and renewed their calls for the Catholic Church to condemn laws that criminalize consensual same-sex sexual relations. ILGA World in a press release said the activists met with Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s secretary of state, and presented him …

NPR reports: LGBT people are typically depicted as city and coastal dwellers. And those who live in rural America are often characterized as people yearning to escape rural life for more acceptance in urban areas. But a new study from the Movement Advancement Project, a think tank that advocates for LGBT equality, shatters that stereotype. Between 2.9 million and 3.8 …

SBS News reports: A petition to ban Royal Brunei Airlines from landing in Australia has gathered steam as Virgin Australian cancelled staff travel on the airline following the country’s introduction of harsh Sharia law that includes the death penalty for gay sex. The petition, directed to the Minister and Shadow Minister for Transport, calls on the government to “commit to …

The New York Times reports: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints announced a remarkable reversal to its policies on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people on Thursday. The decision rolls back a 2015 policy that barred children living with same-sex couples from important religious practices like baby-naming ceremonies and baptisms. That policy also declared that church members in …

The Hill reports: A number of luxury hotels owned by the ruler of Brunei have deleted their social media accounts amid calls for a boycott over the island nation’s new law punishing homosexuality. The accounts were removed the same day that the law, which makes gay sex and adultery punishable by death and calls for stoning, took effect. The Dorchester …

The BBC reports: Brunei is introducing strict new Islamic laws that make gay sex and adultery offences punishable by stoning to death. The new measures, that come into force on Wednesday, also cover a range of other crimes including punishment for theft by amputation. The move has sparked international condemnation. Brunei’s gay community has expressed shock and fear at the …

Ben Winslow reports at Salt Lake City’s Fox affiliate: After years and years of trying and failing, Utah finally has a working hate crimes law. In a public ceremony at the Utah State Capitol on Tuesday, Governor Gary Herbert signed Senate Bill 103 into law. “I think with the passage of Senate Bill 103, we are sending a message that …

The Chicago Tribune reports: Lori Lightfoot won a resounding victory Tuesday night to become both the first African-American woman and openly gay person elected mayor of Chicago, dealing a stinging defeat to a political establishment that has reigned over City Hall for decades. After waging a campaign focused on upending the vaunted Chicago political machine, Lightfoot dismantled one of its …

The Texas Tribune reports: After emotional testimony, a forceful show of opposition from leaders in the state’s business community and more than an hour of floor debate, the Texas Senate on Tuesday gave preliminary approval to a sweeping religious refusals bill, a priority proposal for Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick that LGTBQ advocates have called a “license to discriminate.” The measure, …

“My beautiful, now-22 year old child told me last year that they were gender non-conforming. And over the last year, I have come to understand from a deeply personal mother’s perspective. I came to understand what their newfound freedom—it is the only way I can describe what has happened to my beautiful child — what their newfound freedom to wear …

The Associated Press reports: Tennessee lawmakers are working to become the latest state to ensure faith-based adoption agencies can refuse to place children with gay parents and other families because of their religious beliefs without facing any penalties. The GOP-dominant House overwhelmingly voted 67-22 in support of the proposal after a brief but tense debate. The bill must now pass …

Via press release: The first-ever hearing on the Equality Act set to take place this morning in the House Judiciary Committee. The crucially important, bipartisan legislation will finally provide clear, comprehensive non-discrimination protections for LGBTQ people across the country. The Equality Act has unprecedented support and is backed by nearly 70% of Americans, hundreds of members of Congress, more than …

The Buffalo News reports: Air travelers hungry for a chicken sandwich can stop at a Chick-fil-A restaurant inside 28 airports around the United States, but not at Buffalo Niagara International Airport. Nor will they any time soon. Delaware North Cos. on Friday apparently scuttled plans for the area’s second Chick-fil-A announced not even 24 hours previously by the Niagara Frontier …

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports: One of two men accused of using Grindr to lure gay men to a vacant apartment in Dallas where they’d be beaten, robbed and sexually assaulted has pleaded guilty, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Texas. Michael Atkinson, 24, pleaded guilty on Thursday to kidnapping and conspiracy charges in connection …

The Washington Examiner reports: Sen. Ted Cruz is making common cause with actor George Clooney, known for his liberal brand of politics, in calling for an economic boycott of Brunei after the Southeast Asian country approved a measure that would make gay sex and adultery punishable by stoning. In an op-ed published on Deadline Friday, the actor condemned the Bruneian …

The Daily Beast reports: Mike Pompeo, the U.S. secretary of state, and the State Department have declined to directly condemn a new law in Brunei stipulating the stoning to death of LGBT people. In follow-up questions, The Daily Beast then asked if Pompeo and the State Department specifically objected to the violently anti-LGBT law, set to take effect on April …

The Salt Lake Tribune reports: The Florida man who was caught on video asking a Utah man if he is gay and then punching him failed to show up for a court date on Friday, and a warrant was issued for his arrest. Carlo Alazo, 22, faces three misdemeanors — one count of threatening to use a weapon in a …

The Cayman Compass reports: Same-sex marriage is legal in the Cayman Islands after a landmark judgment in Grand Court this morning. Chief Justice Anthony Smellie ruled that the definition of marriage as between a man and a woman was unconstitutional and violated multiple rights. He ordered that the local law be changed to reflect that same-sex couples are allowed equal …

Australia’s News Corp outlet reports: A gay couple that had booked flights to a tiny Asian nation before it introduced laws allowing it to stone people to death for gay sex received shocking advice from the federal government’s Smart Traveller hotline. Adultery and gay sex in Brunei will be subject to death by stoning and thieves will have their limbs …

The New Jersey Advance reports: A nonprofit organization that was found guilty of consumer fraud in New Jersey and ordered to disband for promoting gay-to-straight conversion therapy is operating under a new name and continues to make money from the discredited treatment, according to a new lawsuit. The SPLC filed an injunction in state Superior Court in Hudson County Wednesday …