Tag Archives: LGBT rights

CNN reports: CNN and the Human Rights Campaign Foundation will team up to host a town hall featuring Democratic presidential candidates answering questions on lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer issues. The Thursday prime-time event in Los Angeles, airing live on the eve of National Coming Out Day, will feature the largest ever audience for a Democratic presidential town hall …

NPR reports: Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg both unveiled plans to expand LGBTQ protections and promote equal rights on Thursday, the day of an LGBTQ town hall hosted by CNN and the Human Rights Campaign Foundation. Both Warren and Buttigieg, whose extensive plans are very similar, list passing the Equality Act as a …

Reuters reports: Uganda announced plans on Thursday for a bill that would impose the death penalty on homosexuals, saying the legislation would curb a rise in unnatural sex in the east African nation. The bill – colloquially known as “Kill the Gays” in Uganda – was nullified five years ago on a technicality and the government said it plans to …

Reuters reports: U.S. Supreme Court justices on Tuesday appeared divided over whether a landmark decades-old federal law prohibiting sex discrimination in the workplace protects gay and lesbian employees as they heard arguments in one of the biggest cases of their current term. Liberal justices signaled sympathy toward arguments that gay workers are covered under Title VII of the Civil Rights …

The New York Daily News reports: Some streets in Washington, D.C., had to be evacuated after a “suspicious package” was found in the area surrounding the Supreme Court building, Capitol Park Police confirmed Tuesday morning. Pro- and anti-LGBTQ rights protesters are planning to stage demonstrations in the nation’s capital to mark what’s being called the most significant legal case in …

Roll Call reports: The Supreme Court confronts a major civil rights issue Tuesday over how broadly the justices should read the word “sex” in a 55-year-old anti-discrimination law — and a key aspect is Congress’ current push to clarify that the law covers LGBT individuals. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits private companies from discriminating against …

The Associated Press reports: Several thousand conservative activists of all ages marched through Paris on Sunday to protest a French bill that would give lesbian couples and single women access to in vitro fertilization and related procedures. “Where is my dad?” read some signs as traditional Catholic groups, far-right activists and other marchers weaved from the Luxembourg Garden to the …

Agence France-Presse reports: A Russian court has ruled that two popular LGBT networking sites be blocked for disseminating “anti-family values”, including a major online group with nearly 200,000 members. The court in Saint Petersburg on Wednesday announced the decision against the groups on VK, a Russian platform similar to Facebook. “An inspection showed they contain information available to the public, …

The Indianapolis Star reports: The U.S. Department of Justice on Friday issued a Statement of Interest in support of the Archdiocese of Indianapolis in its ongoing dispute with a former Catholic school teacher who alleges he was wrongfully terminated because he was in a same-sex marriage. Joshua Payne-Elliott is currently suing the archdiocese, alleging it illegally interfered with his contractual …

The Detroit Free Press reports: A federal judge says Michigan cannot stop faith-based adoption agencies that have state contracts from refusing to put children in LGBT homes for religious reasons. District Judge Robert Jonker issued a preliminary injunction Thursday. He says Democratic Attorney General Dana Nessel’s [photo] position targets the religious beliefs of St. Vincent Catholic Charities, and such agencies …

Tucson.com reports: Gov. Doug Ducey won’t support extending state laws to prohibit discrimination against individuals based on their sexual orientation. “I’m against discrimination in all its forms,” the governor said Thursday. But Ducey said he does not think it’s necessary to provide people who are gay the same legal protections that exist for already established protected classes. The governor also …

The New York Times reports: Former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. found himself fending off new questions about his decades-long record on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender issues, in a testy exchange with a female moderator who described his treatment of her as “condescending.” During a Friday night forum focused on L.G.B.T.Q. issues, Mr. Biden seemed to recoil from …

The Cedar Rapids Gazette reports: Candidates scheduled to appear are Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker, Pete Buttigieg, Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Julian Castro, Amy Klobuchar, Tulsi Gabbard, Joe Sestak and Marianne Williamson. This is the first public event of the 2020 election cycle to focus exclusively on LGBTQ issues. The forum will be hosted by “Pose” star and activist Angelica Ross …

“The Arizona decision is one of the strongest and most well-written decisions on free speech that I’ve seen in my career. In fact, the decision itself opens by saying that free speech and free exercise rights are not limited to the soft murmurings that go on in churches or private homes, but that all Americans have the right to be …

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 …