Nick Duffy

A school district is facing legal action from the mother of a 12-year-old who took his own life after homophobic bullying. Marcy Peterson has filed a lawsuit against the school district in Upper Deerfield, New Jersey, after the suicide of her son Tristan in 2017. Tristan faced bullying and taunting from his classmates at both Elizabeth Moore School and Woodruff School before taking his own life. The lawsuit alleges that the school district failed to address “an extended and persistent period of bullying, intimidation, and harassment related to Tristan’s sexual orientation and identity.” School district sued for ‘failing to act’ […]

A conservative law firm has threatened legal action against a school district over a policy that bans teachers from outing their students. The Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty sent a letter of demand to Madison School District, seeking the repeal of its policy on support for transgender, non-binary and gender-expansive students.ADVERTISING The disputed policy, issued in 2018, directs that “school staff shall not disclose any information that may reveal a student’s gender identity to others, including parents or guardians and other school staff, unless legally required to do so or unless the student has authorised such disclosure.” Madison School […]

The US Social Security Administration is facing legal action, after refusing to approve survivor’s benefits for a woman whose same-sex partner died before they could legally marry. Helen Thornton, of Washington, was with her partner Marge Brown for 27 years. The couple raised a son together, and Thornton served as Brown’s carer for three years before her death from cancer in 2006. However, as Brown died before same-sex marriage became legal in the state, the US Social Security Administration refuses to recognise their relationship – denying Thornton, who is now 64, access to survivor’s benefits that a heterosexual spouse would be entitled […]

A gay police officer has won $19 million in damages from his employer, after he was told to “tone down” his sexuality. Sgt. Keith Wildhaber, an officer within Missouri’s St. Louis County Police Department, had filed a lawsuit in 2017 after he was passed over for promotion to lieutenant despite 15 years’ service. Police officer was told his sexuality is a ‘problem’ According to Wildhaber’s lawsuit, a member of the St. Louis County Board of Police Commissioners had told him: “The command staff has a problem with your sexuality. If you ever want to see a white shirt [be promoted], […]

Pete Buttigieg has surged into third place in the key state of Iowa, according to polling. The out South Bend mayor is proving surprisingly popular in the traditionally-conservative state, surpassing Bernie Sanders to make it into third place. Pete Buttigieg is third in Iowa, ahead of Bernie Sanders. According to the Suffolk University/USA Today poll, 13 percent of Iowans support Buttigieg, behind only Elizabeth Warren on 17 percent and Joe Biden on 18 percent in the crowded Democratic field. Sanders, who has seen his left-wing support eroded by Warren, is in fourth on 9 percent, with no other candidate receiving above 3 percent in […]

The parents of murdered gay man Matthew Shepard snubbed a Trump administration ceremony in his honour, accusing the GOP-led Department of Justice of exploiting his memory. A ceremony was held at the Department of Justice on Thursday to mark ten years since the passage of the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, a law signed by president Obama that extended federal hate crime laws to cover LGBT+ people. The law is partly named in memory of Matthew Shepard, who was murdered in Wyoming in 1998 in a homophobic attack that saw his killers escape hate crime charges. Shepard’s […]

A Wisconsin man was so badly beaten in an an alleged anti-gay hate crimeattack that he had to have all his teeth removed. Cedrick Green of Racine, Wisconsin, is facing a hate crime charge of battery causing great bodily harm over the incident, as well as a charge of bail jumping. Local outlet The Journal-Times reports that the victim, who is yet to come forward publicly, was attacked by three men who called him gay and taunted him for his sexual orientation. Victim’s jaw was ‘so broken he had to have teeth removed’. According to the criminal complaint, the victim was repeatedly beaten […]