Tag Archives: LGBT rights

Gallup reports: Gallup’s latest update on lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender identification finds 5.6% of U.S. adults identifying as LGBT. The current estimate is up from 4.5% in Gallup’s previous update based on 2017 data. Currently, 86.7% of Americans say they are heterosexual or straight, and 7.6% do not answer the question about their sexual orientation. Gallup’s 2012-2017 data had …

Chris Johnson reports at the Washington Blade: Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) signaled late Tuesday he would oppose the Equality Act, legislation to expand the prohibition on anti-LGBTQ discrimination under federal law, throwing a massive wrench into plans of the bill’s supporters to guide it into law. “Sen. Romney believes that strong religious liberty protections are essential to any legislation on …

The Hill reports: The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced Thursday that it will use the Fair Housing Act to prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender. The federal agency announced in a memorandum that it will invoke the sweeping 1968 housing law to penalize those who refuse to rent, sell or advertise housing to …

The Associated Press reports: Asserting a broad reset of American foreign policy, President Joe Biden said Thursday that he would halt the withdrawal of U.S. troops stationed in Germany, end support for Saudi Arabia’s military offensive in Yemen and make support for LGBTQ rights a cornerstone of diplomacy. In his first visit to the State Department as president, Biden called …

Via press release from hate group leader Tony Perkins: President Biden’s executive order effectively targets people of faith and faith-based organizations that provide social services that are even more vital in the midst of a pandemic. Now, those who hold to biological reality and the doctrines of the world’s major religions will be forced to violate their consciences, or even …

Chris Johnson reports at the Washington Blade: The executive order implementing the decision in Bostock v. Clayton County comes nearly six months after the Supreme Court issued the ruling, which found anti-LGBTQ discrimination is a form of sex discrimination, thus illegal in the workplace under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The ruling has wide-ranging implications and …

The New York Times reports: The Trump administration has embarked on an 11th-hour bid to undo some civil rights protections for minority groups, which could have a ripple effect on women, people with disabilities and L.G.B.T. people, according to a draft document, in a change that would mark one of the most significant shifts in civil rights enforcement in generations. …

The Raleigh News & Observer reports: LGBTQ people in North Carolina can no longer be prevented from getting domestic violence protective orders, the N.C. Court of Appeals ruled Thursday. North Carolina had been the only state in the country to withhold emergency protections from people seeking protection from abuse by a same-sex partner. That kind of protection is offered to …

From my November 30th report: Indiana’s attorney general submitted a brief to the U.S. Supreme Court arguing that it should reverse a federal appeals court’s ruling that allowed both members of same-sex couples in Indiana to be listed as parents on the birth certificates of their children. The petition from Attorney General Curtis Hill follows a January decision by the …

The Huffington Post reports: Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) introduced legislation in the House on Thursday that would bar schools from receiving federal funding if they allow transgender girls and women and non-binary people to compete on sports teams consistent with their gender identities. The bill — co-sponsored by Republican Rep. Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma — was met with immediate outrage …

EuroNews reports: A Hungarian lawmaker has mocked former Fidesz MEP József Szájer by holding up a drainpipe in Parliament. József Szájer resigned last week after he was caught by police fleeing a gay sex party in Brussels he had been attending, despite coronavirus lockdown restrictions. Drainpipes have become the centre of internet jokes and memes in Hungary while the guttering …

The Associated Press reports: The Supreme Court declined Monday to take up an appeal from parents in Oregon who want to prevent transgender students from using locker rooms and bathrooms of the gender with which they identify, rather than their sex assigned at birth. The case came from a school district near Salem, Oregon’s capital city. The federal appeals court …

The Detroit News reports: A federal judge has signed off on a settlement between the estate of Aimee Stephens and the Metro Detroit funeral home that fired her in 2013 after she came out to her boss as transgender. U.S. District Judge Sean Cox on Monday approved the terms of the settlement between the estate of Stephens, who died in …

The Associated Press reports: Indiana’s attorney general submitted a brief to the U.S. Supreme Court arguing that it should reverse a federal appeals court’s ruling that allowed both members of same-sex couples in Indiana to be listed as parents on the birth certificates of their children. The petition from Attorney General Curtis Hill follows a January decision by the U.S. …

The Associated Press reports: As vice president in 2012, Joe Biden endeared himself to many LGBTQ Americans by endorsing same-sex marriage even before his boss, President Barack Obama. Now, as president-elect, Biden is making sweeping promises to LGBTQ activists, proposing to carry out virtually every major proposal on their wish lists. Among them: Lifting the Trump administration’s near-total ban on …

The Guardian reports: Brussels has put itself on a collision course with the Polish and Hungarian governments after proposing to criminalise hate speech against LGBTQ+ people under EU law and secure recognition of same-sex partnerships across the bloc’s borders. Věra Jourová, a European commissioner, said the measures followed new “worrying trends”, with the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights reporting that …

Politico reports: Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito delivered an unusually inflammatory public speech Thursday night, starkly warning about the threats he contends religious believers face from advocates for gay and abortion rights, as well as public officials responding to the coronavirus pandemic. Speaking to a virtual conference of conservative lawyers, the George W. Bush appointee made no direct comment on …

CNBC reports: The Supreme Court’s conservative majority on Wednesday seemed prepared to rule in favor of a Roman Catholic adoption agency in Philadelphia that argued that it is entitled to discriminate against potential foster parents on the basis of sexual orientation. Arguments in the case, known as Fulton v. City of Philadelphia, No. 19-123, concluded around 12 p.m. ET, as …

Reuters reports: The U.S. State Department backed down this week from legal battles over the citizenship of gay couples’ children who were born to surrogates overseas. The government withdrew its appeals without making any public comment in the cases of a family whose daughter had been born to a surrogate in Canada and a family whose daughter was born to …

From the Public Religion Research Institute: The vast majority of Americans (70%) favor allowing gay and lesbian couples to marry legally, compared to 28% of Americans who oppose it. Majorities of Democrats (80%) and independents (76%), as well as half of Republicans (50%), support same-sex marriage. White evangelical Protestants stand out as the only major religious group in which a …