Tag Archives: LGBT rights

NBC News reports: A federal court on Wednesday ruled against a lesbian couple who brought a lawsuit against a Missouri retirement home that rejected the women’s apartment application because their marriage is not “understood in the Bible.” Bev Nance, 68, and Mary Walsh, 72, married a decade ago in Massachusetts and have been in a committed relationship for roughly 40 …

Posted to the State Department’s website: We are deeply disturbed by credible reports out of Chechnya about renewed attacks against individuals perceived to be members of the LGBTI community. Civil society groups report that at least 40 individuals have been illegally detained since December, including two who reportedly died in custody after being tortured. We call on Russia to live …

Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, who last week launched her campaign for president, today posted a video apology for her past as an anti-LGBT activist. From the included text on the below YouTube clip: Aloha. In my past I said and believed things that were wrong, and worse, hurtful to people in the LGBTQ+ community and their loved ones. Many years …

The Huffington Post reports: Karen Pence, wife of Vice President Mike Pence, started at a job this week teaching art at Immanuel Christian School in Northern Virginia. It’s not a school where everyone is welcome. In a “parent agreement” posted online, the school says it will refuse admission to students who participate in or condone homosexual activity. The 2018 employment …

The Wichita Eagle reports: Gov. Laura Kelly ordered Kansas state agencies on Tuesday to again prohibit on-the-job discrimination against gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender state employees. The first openly gay state representatives in Kansas history said they will introduce a bill to extend non-discrimination protections to all LGBT people in the state. Kelly said she would sign such a bill. …

FINALLY now that Democrats control the state Senate! From the LGBT Bar Association of Greater New York: Today we made history in New York! In an historic vote, both chambers of the New York’s Legislature finally passed GENDA—a measure to protect transgender and gender non-conforming people from discrimination statewide. This turning point is a victory some 17 years in the …

The Associated Press reports: The Russian republic of Chechnya has launched a new crackdown on gays in which at least two people have died and about 40 people have been detained, LGBT activists in Russia charged Monday. The new allegations come after reports in 2017 of more than 100 gay men arrested and subjected to torture, and some of them …

CNN reports: Rep. Tulsi Gabbard in the early 2000s touted working for her father’s anti-gay organization, which mobilized to pass a measure against same-sex marriage in Hawaii and promoted controversial conversion therapy. Although Gabbard’s positions on LGBT rights have shifted dramatically in more recent years (she signed a 2013 amicus brief supporting Edith Windsor’s challenge to the Defense of Marriage …

The Associated Press reports: Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on Monday signed a new directive to prohibit LGBT-based discrimination in state services or by state contractors, replacing a narrower order that her Republican predecessor issued days before he left office. Whitmer’s directive, like one signed by Gov. Rick Snyder in late December, says state contracts, grants and loans must include a …

The Associated Press reports: Newly installed President Jair Bolsonaro targeted Brazil’s indigenous groups, descendants of slaves and the LGBT community with executive orders in the first hours of his administration, moving quickly after a campaign in which the far-right leader said he would radically overhaul many aspects of life in Latin America’s largest nation. In removing LGBT concerns from the …

The New York City Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings has upheld a ruling by the Taxi & Limousine Commission against cabbie Martin Morrison for ejecting a gay passenger. The New York Post reports: The male and female complainants said they got into Morrison’s cab at the corner of Fifth Avenue and East 43rd Street in Manhattan just before 1 …

Via press release from Equality Ohio: Today, Governor John Kasich issued Executive Order 2018-12K to take a significant step in ensuring that all Ohioans, including LGBTQ Ohioans, are protected from discrimination in state employment. This Executive Order explicitly prohibits discrimination in state employment on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, and other protected bases such as race, …

The Associated Press reports: Cuba’s government said Tuesday that language promoting the legalization of gay marriage will be removed from the draft of a new constitution after widespread popular rejection of the idea. Gay rights advocates had proposed eliminating the description of marriage as a union of a man and woman, changing it to the union of “two people … …

“Religious liberty is a fundamental freedom. It deserve the very highest protection our country can provide. At the same time, it’s also important to account of other interests as well — especially those of our LGBTQ brothers and sisters. “Pluralism shows us a better way. It shows us that protecting religious liberty and preserving the rights of LGBTQ individuals are …

“I think there’s a lot of ups and downs in the last two years with some of the administration’s actions. He has been more vocally supportive than any Republican candidate or president, but there have been a few things that I haven’t loved that the administration has done, and some things that I think we can do some work on. …

On Friday, minutes after Trump signed the so-called USMCA trade deal, the replacement for NAFTA, GOP House Rep. Doug Lamborn rushed out a wailing statement that the deal’s LGBT employment protections threaten US sovereignty. Dozens of anti-LGBT House Republicans have signed Lamborn’s complaining letter to Trump. But as it turns out, those protections may be effectively useless for LGBT Americans. …

Reuters reports: An Indonesian city has approved a bylaw to fine gay or transgender people up to 1 million rupiah ($70) for behaviour that could “disturb public order” or be considered immoral, the city’s deputy mayor said on Friday. The regulation is the latest example of a rise in government and public hostility toward the LGBT community in the world’s …

Minutes ago Trump signed the so-called USMCA trade deal, or NAFTA under another name. As I previously reported, anti-LGBT hate groups and dozens of the most viciously anti-LGBT Republican members of Congress loudly objected to a section of the deal which provides LGBT employment protections. The Liberty Counsel launched a petition to Trump against the “radical LGBT provision.” But the …

Via press release from hate group leader Tony Perkins: The Democrats, who won control of the House of Representatives, voted to elect Nancy Pelosi as Speaker. The liberal Democratic party leader will be second in succession to the President, after Vice President Mike Pence. Pelosi has a reputation for toughness. Despite the checks and balances of a 53-seat Republican majority …

The Taiwan News reports: Taiwan’s Judicial Yuan Secretary-General publicly announced today that the passage of anti-equality referendums cannot override the Constitutional Court’s 2017 ruling on same-sex marriage. Secretary-General Lu Tai-lang clarified what has already been stressed by many keen legal observers: interpretations made by the Constitutional Court hold the highest rule of law and cannot be defeated by referendums. The …