The Advocate

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University of Wyoming sorority has the right to admit transgender women, federal judge rules

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For almost three years, a University of Wyoming sorority has been the unlikely epicenter of a national battle over belonging. On Friday, a federal judge dismissed, for the second and likely final time, a lawsuit by several Kappa Kappa Gamma sisters seeking to block Artemis Langford, a transgender woman, from their chapter. U.S. District Judge Alan B. Johnson’s 35-page ruling not only rejected the plaintiffs’ claims of fraud, breach of fiduciary duty, and breach of contract, but also declared that Kappa, as a private nonprofit, has the right to define “woman” on its own terms. “In short, we are required to leave Kappa alone,” Johnson wrote. A case […]

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Ex-police officer pleads not guilty in killing of gay TV reporter and his boyfriend

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A former police officer in Australia has pleaded not guilty in the case of a prominent gay couple who were murdered last February.  Beau Lamarre-Condon, 30, entered a plea of not guilty on Tuesday to two counts of domestic violence-related murder and one count of breaking and entering with the intent to commit an indictable offense. He stands accused of killing Jesse Baird and Luke Davies in February, 2024 at the couple’s shared house in Sydney. Police believe that Lamarre-Condon used his service Glock firearm to fatally shoot the two shortly before 10 a.m. on February 19. Lamarre-Condon was reportedly previously in a sexual […]

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South Carolina rushes emergency petition to U.S. Supreme Court over trans student’s bathroom use

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South Carolina is pressing the U.S. Supreme Court to immediately reinstate a policy that bars transgender students from using bathrooms that match their gender identity, escalating a fight that could set national precedent for the rights of LGBTQ+ youth. In an emergency petition filed Thursday, state officials urged Chief Justice John Roberts to overturn a Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals injunction that blocked the measure just as the school year began. The provision, enacted as part of the state budget in July 2024, requires school districts to restrict multi-user restrooms by “biological sex” or forfeit 25 percent of their state funding. The dispute began last November, when the […]

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Texas Republicans assigned troopers to tail this out lawmaker. He dragged them to a gay bar

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Texas state troopers now follow Democratic lawmakers’ every move to ensure they vote on redistricting. So one out lawmaker led police to a Dallas drag room. Texas state Rep. Venton Jones, the Texas House Democratic Caucus whip and one of the few out lawmakers in the Lone Star State, met with fellow Democratic state Rep. Terry Meza at the Rose Room, a gay bar in Dallas’s Oak Lawn gayborhood, according to Chron. The lawmakers were there to meet with the Stonewall Democrats of Dallas, but their attendance meant dragging police escorts into the venue. “We are always happy to have Reps. Meza and @VentonJonesTX at meetings […]

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Texas is gerrymandering the only LGBTQ+ member of Congress from the South out of her seat

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Texas Republicans‘ redrawn congressional maps will split up the district of the only out LGBTQ+ representative from the South.  Julie Johnson, an out lesbian elected to the state’s 32nd congressional district last year, condemned the GOP’s plans to pick up five seats in the U.S. House of Representatives by gerrymandering Democratic districts. She said the proposal, approved by the state House of Representatives Wednesday, would “decimate TX32, splitting my constituents into 8 different districts spreading all the way to the Oklahoma border and East Texas.” “Today, Texas Republicans and Governor Abbott rammed through the Texas House a set of rigged and racist congressional maps […]

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Despite claims it’s ‘too woke,’ Cracker Barrel actually has a fraught LGBTQ+ history

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Conservatives are threatening boycotts of Cracker Barrel after the company swapped its rustic logo for a cleaner design, accusing the chain of betraying its “middle-American values.” But LGBTQ+ historians say the uproar ignores a deeper irony: Just three decades ago, the Tennessee-founded restaurant was notorious for firing queer employees and became the target of one of the country’s longest-running equality battles. The chain, famous for its biscuits, rocking chairs, and Southern nostalgia, introduced a new logo last week, retiring the mustached man leaning against a barrel in favor of a simplified yellow-outlined wordmark. The update was part of a $700 million rebrand meant to […]

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Illinois launches first-in-nation LGBTQ+ legal hotline

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Illinois Pride Connect will provide resources for health care, education, immigration, family services, elder services, and more, Pritzker said, both informing individuals of their rights and advocating for them. The organization will also host a hotline that can assist callers with legal issues, including but not limited to access to health care such as gender-affirming care, discrimination or harassment, public benefits like Medicaid or SNAP, identity documents, and housing or safety concerns. The website states: “If you’re an LGBTQIA+ individual (or a concerned family member or friend), and you’re facing legal issues that impact your health, safety, or access to care, we’re here to help. The […]

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What are LGBTQ+ people’s views on religion in the U.S.?

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LGBTQ+ Americans are significantly less likely to be religious than their straight and cisgender peers — but they’re still more spiritual.  Less than half of U.S. adults who are LGBTQ+ (48 percent) say they identify with a religion, according to a new poll from the Pew Research Center, compared to 73 percent of non-LGBTQ+ Americans. The majority of queer adults (52 percent) identify as atheist, agnostic, or “nothing in particular,” compared to just 26 percent of their non-LGBTQ+ peers.  LGBTQ+ adults were also far less likely to say that religion is very important to them personally (17 percent vs. 42 percent), that they attend religious […]

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Lesbian Jillian Michaels complains on CNN that Smithsonian teaches ‘just one race’ is responsible for U.S. slavery

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What began as a discussion about President Donald Trump’s unprecedented takeover of the Kennedy Center Honors unraveled into a live-television free-for-all on CNN, veering in minutes from arts programming to slavery, white supremacy, and transgender athletes. On NewsNight, host Abby Phillip opened with the news that Trump had not only handpicked the 2025 honorees, boasting he was “98 percent involved,” but would also host the televised ceremony, a sharp break from decades of tradition in which presidents have sat in the balcony as spectators. “Usually when the honorees are announced, you don’t see the president doing a press conference at the Kennedy Center,” Phillip said. “It’s not […]

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Florida judge strikes down state law used to ban books: ‘None of these books are obscene’

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A judge in Florida has sided with authors and publishers in a lawsuit against the state’s book ban, determining that the law violates free speech protections.  Judge Carlos Mendoza of the U.S. Middle District Court of Florida ruled Wednesday that “the removal of many of these books [is] unconstitutional,” noting that “many are classics, modern award winners, and tested on AP exams.” “None of these books are obscene,” Mendoza wrote. “The restrictions placed on these books are thus unreasonable in light of the purpose of school libraries. And if so, the presence of these books in school libraries certainly does not materially and substantially […]

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