LGBT News

Stuff New Zealand reports: Religious heckling towards participants of the Auckland Pride march was “quite jarring”, an organiser says. About 7000 members of the region’s lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and intersex (LGBTQI) communities took part in the march on Saturday through Auckland’s CBD. They were met with a group of protesters on Queen St, who then followed the participants …

The BBC reports: Voters in Switzerland have backed a proposal to make discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and sexual identity illegal. The result of 63.1% in favour to 36.9% against is a huge boost for Switzerland’s LGBT community. It had argued Swiss law on the issue lagged far behind other countries in Europe. Opponents of the new law …

Radio Free Europe reports: Artyom Lapov, a lawyer from the gay rights group Stimul, said on February 7 that jurors at the trial at the Basmanny district court found Anton Berezhnoi not guilty of murder in the beating of Roman Yedalov, instead convicting him of a lesser charge of assault. Investigators say Berezhnoi attacked Yedalov and his partner, Yevgeny Yefimov, …

Michael Lavers reports at the Washington Blade: A bill that would add sexual orientation and gender identity to Virginia’s nondiscrimination law passed in the Virginia House of Delegates on Thursday. State Del. Mark Sickles (D-Fairfax County), the openly gay man who introduced the Virginia Values Act in the House, before the vote insisted the bill does not “interfere with anybody’s …

The Sydney Morning Herald reports: A former Uniting Church minister who also ran one of the country’s most prominent gay conversion therapy programs has been charged with committing historical child sexual offences more than 30 years ago. Former Reverend Ron Charles Brookman, 70, faced a Sydney court on Tuesday over allegations he indecently assaulted a 13-year-old who was in his …

The Chicago Sun-Times reports: A 20-year-old Sauk Village man was charged in connection to recent robberies of men who arranged dates through the online app Grindr at Near North Side hotels. Davion Johnson was arrested Monday and charged in three incidents, one of which involved him allegedly threatening a 42-year-old man with a stun gun and stealing his property at …

The Catholic News Service reports: Following consultations in Berlin last week, the chairman of the Marriage and Family Commission of the German bishops’ conference declared that the bishops agreed that homosexuality is a “normal form” of human sexual identity. “The sexual preference of man expresses itself in puberty and assumes a hetero or homosexual orientation,” Berlin’s Archbishop Heiner Koch [photo] …

The New York Daily News reports: The babyfaced killer from Oklahoma who murdered an Upper East Side man 40 years his senior — after meeting him on a dating app — used a knife or a sharp ceramic object to mutilate his victim’s head, a Manhattan prosecutor alleged at his arraignment early Saturday. The suspect, 24-year-old Alex Scott, had met …

The BBC reports: A top Tanzanian official who launched a surveillance squad dedicated to hunting down gay people has been banned by the US from entering the country. The US state department said Paul Makonda, the administrative chief of the capital Dar es Salaam, was involved in “gross violations of human rights”. His immediate family members have also been barred …

Sioux Falls’ CBS News affiliate reports: Rep. Tony Randolph, a Republican from Rapid City, introduced a bill Thursday that would prohibit the state from enforcing, endorsing or favoring policies that cover a range of activities that involve members of the LGBTQ community. In short, the bill wants the state to not enforce, endorse and favor policies that allow same-sex marriage, …

ABC News reports: Authorities in Mauritania have arrested 10 men after a video appeared on social media of a gay couple appearing to take part in a traditional wedding ceremony, human rights groups said. Police later determined the gathering was a birthday party but the men remain in custody with no trial date set yet. Mauritania practices strict Islamic law …

File this one under sorry not sorry: The Church of England will not be withdrawing guidance that said sex is only for “heterosexual married couples”. But the archbishops of Canterbury and York are “very sorry and recognise the division and hurt” last week’s statement caused. Justin Welby [photo] and John Sentamu say the statement “jeopardised trust”. It came ahead of …

NBC News reports: Two of the largest banks in the U.S. say they will stop donating millions of dollars to Florida’s private school voucher program after a newspaper investigation found that some of the program’s beneficiaries discriminate against LGBTQ students. In a statement to NBC News and CNBC on Wednesday evening, Wells Fargo confirmed that it would no longer participate. …

The Waco Tribune-Herald reports: Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton will not defend a state agency being sued for its decision to sanction a Waco judge who refuses to perform same-sex marriages. Dianne Hensley, a justice of the peace who officiates marriages between men and women but refuses to perform marriages for same-sex couples, received a public warning late last year …

Michigan Live reports: Supporters of a ballot initiative to protect LGBT Michigan residents from discrimination say they’ll begin collecting signatures as soon as this weekend following initial approval from a state board. Michigan’s Board of State Canvassers voted to approve summary language and form of an initiative backed by Fair and Equal Michigan Tuesday, a procedural step that clears the …

Louisville’s ABC News affiliate reports: 12th District Republican Senator, Alice Forgy Kerr, is a member of the conservative majority, not necessarily someone you’d expect to be behind a movement like Senate Bill 85. SB 85 would ban conversion therapy in Kentucky. “I think it’s religion gone bad”, said Senator Kerr. That coming from a Sunday school teacher and mother of …

Via press release from GLAAD: Last night’s 62nd Annual Grammy Awards included wins for out LGBTQ artists including Lil Nas X, Brandi Carlile, Lady Gaga, DJ Tracy Young, and more. DJ Tracy Young picked up the Grammy in Best Remixed Recording for her track “I Rise (Tracy Young’s Pride Intro Radio Remix),” a remix of the Madonna track “I Rise.” …

The Tennessean reports: Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee signed a controversial measure Friday that would let religious adoption agencies deny service to same-sex couples. The move comes after several groups, including the state chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, urged Lee not to sign the legislation. The law allows adoption agencies to refuse to participate in a child placement if …

CBS News reports: The parent company of the Hallmark Channel said Thursday that CEO Bill Abbott is stepping down. The move comes about a month after the network became embroiled in controversy after pulling commercials featuring a same-sex couple, then reversing the decision after a consumer backlash. The statement on Wednesday from Crown Media didn’t give a reason for Abbott’s …

The Kansas City Star reports: Public libraries that display “age-inappropriate material” could lose state funding and even see their librarians fined or jailed, under a bill proposed by a Missouri lawmaker. The bill’s sponsor, state Rep. Ben Baker, a southwest Missouri Republican, said Thursday that the “Parental Oversight of Public Libraries Act” did not target books but was drafted in …