Associated Press

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Kincade Fire Evacuation Orders Lifted For Guerneville, Sebastopol

A day of calm winds and an intense air attack aided firefighters battling the Kincade Fire Monday to gain a foothold on the western edge of the massive blaze, allowing evacuation orders for nearly a dozen communities including Guerneville and Sebastopol to be downgraded to warnings. The Sonoma County Sheriff said residents of the far western reaches of the massive evacuation zone that extended from Geyserville, Healdsburg and west to the Pacific Ocean at the height of the firefight over the weekend could return home. Officials said residents could return to their homes unimpeded by law enforcement officers patrolling the […]

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Idaho Makes it Harder to Change Gender on Birth Certificates

Idaho officials have made it more difficult for young transgender people to change the sex listed on their birth certificates despite a U.S. court ruling that appears to ban such obstacles. The Idaho Department of Health and Welfare released comments from the public Wednesday on a temporary rule requiring people younger than 18 to get approval from medical or mental health professionals before requesting the change. Many of the comments said they wanted the conservative state to go back to banning all gender changes on birth certificates. A federal judge ruled last year that an Idaho law barring transgender people […]

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Bogota, Colombia’s Capital, Elects First Woman and Lesbian Mayor

Colombia’s capital city elected its first female mayor Sunday in what is being hailed as an important advancement for both women and LGBTQ rights. Claudia López won the race for mayor of Bogota on a platform promising to combat corruption and advance equal rights for minority communities. The Alianza Verde candidate captured over 1.1 million votes, or about 35 percent of the vote, defeating runner-up Carlos Galán by 2.7 percentage points. Related NBC OUT Chicago’s Lightfoot leads way in what could be ‘year of the lesbian mayor’ With her victory, López also becomes the first openly lesbian mayor of a […]

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Wide Gaps in Legal Protection of LGBTQ Workers, Analysis Finds

Rumors started circulating around the fire station in Byron, Georgia, within a year after the medical treatments began. The fire chief’s once-crewcut hair was growing longer, and other physical changes were becoming noticeable. Keeping quiet was no longer an option. The chief said that once members of the tiny Fire Department were told, word spread “faster than a nuclear explosion” through Byron — a city of about 4,500 in a farming region outside Macon known for growing Georgia’s famous peaches. The fire chief was undergoing a gender transition and would continue to run the department as Rachel Mosby. A City […]

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California OKs Pharmacists to Dispense PreP

Pharmacists in California will be able to dispense HIV prevention pills to patients without a doctor’s prescription after Gov. Gavin Newsom signed legislation Monday that supporters say will greatly reduce the spread of infection. Advocates of Senate Bill 159 say California is the first state to authorize pre-exposure prophylaxis, also called PrEP, and post-exposure prophylaxis, known as PEP, without prescriptions. California is already considered a leader in AIDS prevention, they say. PrEP is a once-daily pill for HIV-negative people while PEP is a medication that people take to prevent the virus from taking hold. Supporters say PEP significantly reduces the […]

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Pope Meets with Jesuit Targeted by Conservatives for LGBT Outreach

 Pope Francis met privately Monday with an American Jesuit who has been attacked by conservative U.S. Catholics for reaching out to gays, the latest evidence of Francis’ willingness to shrug off right-wing criticism for the sake of his pastoral priorities. The Vatican listed the audience with the Rev. James Martin among the pope’s daily activities, in a sign that Francis wanted it publicized. Since only some of Francis’ private meetings are announced, the implicit message was a public vote of confidence in Martin’s ministry. Martin, author of “Building a Bridge,” a book about how the Catholic Church should reach out […]

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Alaska Shelter Can Turn Away Transgender Women following City Decree

A faith-based Anchorage women’s shelter claimed victory Monday in a lawsuit against the city over a requirement that it accept transgender women. The city has agreed to make permanent a judge’s recent order affecting the downtown Hope Center shelter, conservative Christian law firm Alliance Defending Freedom and city attorneys said in documents filed Monday in federal court. In August, U.S. District Court Judge Sharon Gleason issued an injunction preventing the city from applying its gender identity law to the shelter. The injunction showed the city it was unlikely to succeed in further litigation, Anchorage Municipal Attorney Becky Windt Pearson said. […]

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Transgender Woman in Supreme Court Case is ‘Happy Being Me’

Aimee Stephens lost her job at a suburban Detroit funeral home and she could lose her Supreme Court case over discrimination against transgender people. Amid her legal fight, her health is failing. But seven years after Stephens thought seriously of suicide and six years after she announced that she would henceforth be known as Aimee instead of her given name, she has something no one can take away. “I’m happy being me,” she said in an interview with The Associated Press. “It’s taken a long time.” The Supreme Court will hear Stephens’ case Oct. 8 over whether federal civil rights […]

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Justice Department Backs Catholic Church in Firing Openly Gay Teacher

The U.S. Justice Department is supporting Catholic Church leaders in Indianapolis who are being sued over the firing of a teacher in a same-sex marriage. Recommended NOWFelicity Huffman says she just wanted to give her daughter ‘a fair shot’ U.S. NEWSPresident Donald Trump is an ‘idiot’ — says Florida middle school teacher Assistant Attorney General Eric Dreiband says the First Amendment protects the free exercise of religion and gives faith-based schools the right to associate with some people and not others. The government filed a statement Friday in Marion County court. Joshua Payne-Elliott says the Archdiocese of Indianapolis illegally interfered […]

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Gay Couple Sues over U.S. Refusal to Recognize Child as Citizen

A same-sex couple in Georgia said in a lawsuit filed Tuesday that the U.S. State Department is unconstitutionally refusing to recognize their daughter’s rightful American citizenship. The State Department’s policy treats married same-sex couples as if their marriages do not exist and treats them differently from married straight couples in violation of the law and the Constitution, according to the suit filed in federal court in Atlanta. It was filed on behalf of Derek Mize and Jonathan Gregg, whose daughter Simone was born in England in July 2018 via surrogate. Both men are U.S. citizens and are listed as her […]

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