Associated Press

Idaho legislation banning transgender people from changing the sex listed on their birth certificates despite a federal court ruling declaring such a law unconstitutional headed to the governor’s desk on Tuesday, bringing the state closer to becoming one of less than a handful of states with such a restriction. The Senate voted 27-6 to approve the measure that was overwhelmingly passed in the House last month. A federal judge in March 2018 ruled that Idaho’s law barring transgender people from making the birth certificate change violated the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution. The judge scrapped the ban and […]

The discredited practice of conversion therapy for LGBTQ children is now banned in Utah, making it the 19th state and one of the most conservative to prohibit it. Supporters navigated a winding path to passage and some dissent remains, but barring it in Utah could give a boost to similar efforts in other right-leaning states, said Shannon Minter, legal director for the National Center for Lesbian Rights. “It’s really given people a lot of hope,” said Minter, whose group has pushed for bans around the U.S. Virginia is considering a ban, and the issue could also come up in this year in Texas and […]

Two well-known scientific groups have dropped job postings from their websites from Brigham Young University because of the school’s LGBTQ policies, igniting a debate on whether research organizations should take a stance on social issues. The Washington-based American Geophysical Union and the Colorado-based Geological Society of America took down the ads amid mounting pressure from members, the Salt Lake Tribune reported Monday. Both groups say the ads require applicants to abide by the school’s honor code, which includes a ban on homosexual behavior. Members of both nonprofits criticized the ads as discriminatory. The Geological Society of America, which has 27,000 […]

A memorial for Florida’s Pulse nightclub massacre will have a reflecting pool with rainbow-colored lines radiating from it, and a nearby museum will resemble a three-dimensional spirograph, according to design concepts announced Wednesday. Forty-nine people were killed and dozens more were injured when a gunman opened fire at the gay nightclub in June 2016. It was the worst mass shooting in modern U.S. history until a gunman opened fire on Las Vegas concertgoers in 2017. Related NBC OUT Ex-gays descend upon D.C. to lobby against LGBTQ rights The design concepts are only a starting point for discussions on the Pulse […]

The Kentucky Supreme Court has sided with a print shop owner who refused to make a gay pride T-shirt because he says it was against his religious beliefs. The state’s high court dismissed the claim after two lower courts also ruled in favor of Lexington print shop Hands-On Originals. The company declined a T-shirt order from Lexington’s Gay and Lesbian Services Organization for the city’s 2012 Gay Pride Festival. The design said “Lexington Pride Festival” on the front. Related NBC OUT Trump judicial pick breaks down when pressed on LGBTQ views The high court ruled Thursday that the gay advocacy […]