Tag Archives: LGBT rights

CNN reports: Vice President Mike Pence once argued that homosexuality was a choice during his fight in the early 1990s against local efforts in Indiana to ban discrimination based on sexual orientation. Pence’s opposition to LGBT equality has long drawn the scorn of gay rights activists and made him a champion of the Religious Right. But scrutiny of Pence’s record …

Chris Johnson reports at the Washington Blade: After obtaining a perfunctory decision last year in her favor, the owner of Arlene’s Flowers in Washington State is back before the U.S. Supreme Court with a renewed call for a First Amendment ruling allowing her to refuse service to same-sex couples seeking floral arrangements for their weddings. In her 41-page petition for …

News 12 New Jersey reports: Uber has fired a driver who kicked out two Camden County women from her car after they kissed, the company confirmed in a statement. One of the women, Kristin Michele, recorded the incident and had posted it on her personal Facebook page – and it went viral. She says the driver told them to get …

NewJersey.com reports: An Uber driver kicked two Camden County women out of her car for being gay, according to the couple. One woman recorded the incident and posted it on her personal Facebook page. Kristin Michele and Jenn Mangan were in an Uber on their way to a Zac Brown Band concert in Camden on Friday night when Michele leaned …

Reuters Australia reports: Australia on Thursday proposed legislation to protect people who express their religious faith outside of the workplace, a few months after Rugby Union international Israel Folau was sacked for posting on social media that hell awaited “drunks, homosexuals, adulterers”. Attorney-General Christian Porter said the proposal would allow Australians to express their religious beliefs away from the workplace …

CNN Philippines reports: The Supreme Court has dismissed a plea to legalize same-sex marriage in the country. The high court, in a statement Tuesday, said it junked the petition for certiorari and prohibition filed by Atty. Jesus Falcis due to its “lack of standing” and for “failing to raise an actual, justiciable controversy.” The court, despite acknowledging that the 1987 …

Vice News reports: When it comes to LGBTQ rights, Southeast Asia has some work to do. In Singapore, gay sex is still illegal. In the Philippines, trans people face blatant discrimination on a daily basis. But at least one country is set to make progress. If things go as planned, Thailand could become the first in the region to allow …

From the Hollywood Reporter: Taylor Swift opened the 2019 MTV Video Music Awards on Monday with performances of “You Need to Calm Down” and “Lover.” The performance began with Swift, Todrick Hall and Dexter Mayfield sitting on lounge chairs as she sang the opening lines to “You Need to Calm Down.” Dancers dressed in colorful ensembles moved around the stage …

Dominic Holden reports at Buzzfeed News: The Trump administration took its hardest line yet to legalize anti-gay discrimination on Friday when it asked the Supreme Court to declare that federal law allows private companies to fire workers based only on their sexual orientation. An amicus brief filed by the DOJ weighs in on two cases involving gay workers and what …

Reuters reports: Limiting marriage to a relationship between a man and a woman will remain China’s legal position, a parliament spokesman said on Wednesday, ruling out following neighboring Taiwan in allowing same-sex marriage, despite pressure from activists. Taiwan’s parliament passed a bill in May that endorsed same-sex marriage, after years of heated debate over marriage equality that has divided the …

The Jerusalem Post reports: The Palestinian Authority has banned members of the Palestinian LGBTQ community from carrying out any activities in the West Bank. The ban came after the grassroots group Al-Qaws for Sexual & Gender Diversity in Palestinian Society, (Arabic for the bow), which engages and supports Palestinians who identify as LGBTQ, was planning to hold a gathering for …

Dominic Holden reports at Buzzfeed News: The Trump administration on Wednesday formally proposed a new rule to let businesses with federal contracts cite religious objections as a valid reason to discriminate against their workers on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, sex, LGBTQ status, and other characteristics — thereby skirting worker protections created by past presidents. But the Trump …

France 24 reports: For the first time, an openly gay candidate has thrown his hat in the ring for a presidential election in Tunisia. Mounir Baatour heads the country’s main LGBT rights group. His bid marks a test for post-revolutionary Tunisia’s fledgling democracy. Baatour, a lawyer at Tunisia’s highest court and the president of Shams, a group seeking the decriminalisation …

The Associated Press reports: A Virginia restaurant operator has agreed to pay $40,000 to resolve a lawsuit that claims its employees routinely harassed a gay server with homophobic epithets and taunted him about his sexuality. A federal judge on Thursday signed off on the settlement between the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and Mejia Corp., which does business as El …

Just in from the ACLU: The U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of Virginia has ruled in favor of ACLU client Gavin Grimm, in his request for summary judgement in a sex discrimination lawsuit against the Gloucester County School Board. Statement from Gavin Grimm: “It is such a relief to achieve this closure and vindication from the court after …

Reuters reports: Advertisements by Coca-Cola around a music festival in Hungary that promote gay acceptance have prompted a boycott call from a senior member of the conservative ruling party. The posters, in tandem with the week-long “Love Revolution” event starting on Wednesday in Budapest, show gay people and couples smiling with slogans like “zero sugar, zero prejudice”. On Sunday, Fidesz’s …

Reuters reports: Poland’s Catholic Church has doubled down on the anti-gay rhetoric that has become the nationalist ruling party’s dominant theme in recent weeks, drawing a rebuke from liberal politicians who compared an archbishop’s remarks to incitement to genocide. In a sermon given to mark the 75th anniversary of the Warsaw uprising by Polish resistance fighters against Nazi occupation, the …

The New York Times reports: The marchers at the first gay pride parade here in the conservative Polish city of Bialystok expected that they would be met with resistance. But last week when Katarzyna Sztop-Rutkowska saw the angry mob of thousands that awaited the marchers, who numbered only a few hundred, she was shocked. “The most aggressive were the football …

The Moscow Times reports: A prominent Russian LGBT activist who had been featured on a blocked website that encourages people to “hunt down” sexual minorities has been killed in St. Petersburg. The website, inspired by the “Saw” horror film franchise and which encourages visitors to track down and assault people believed to be LGBT, was blocked in Russia last week. …

Peter Montgomery reports at Right Wing Watch: Anti-LGBTQ-equality activist Brian Brown declared in a message to supporters on Thursday that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s new “Commission on Unalienable Rights” provides Brown’s International Organization for the Family with “an extraordinary opening to push for clear and consistent recognition of the natural family” and “gives us a forum to challenge American …