National

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Chicago community raises more than $40K for husband of gay man killed in alleged stalker shooting

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More than 400 people have donated upwards of $40,000 for the husband of a beloved Chicago gay community member, who prosecutors say was gunned down by his spouse’s ex-partner after years of alleged harassment and stalking claims that had previously reached the courts. The killing of Nicholas “Pup Tugger” Calzaretta, 37, has shaken Chicago’s LGBTQ+ leather and pup communities and intensified scrutiny over the limits of protective orders in cases involving escalating threats and intimate partner violence. Neighbors watched from behind police tape as officers flooded a quiet residential block in Chicago’s Edgewater neighborhood. Children were arriving at nearby schools. And beside Calzaretta’s body, […]

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Focus on the Family’s Complete Track Record of Anti-LGBTQ Hate

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Focus on the Family (FOTF) is a Christian ministry with a half-century history of anti-LGBTQ advocacy. Through the years, they have worked with the biggest American politicians and lawmakers to pass or maintain laws that treat LGBTQ people as second-class citizens. The nonprofit, which today amasses more than $100 million a year in revenue, was founded by James Dobson, who believed secularism was the cause of the rapid decay of American society. Here is the organization’s complete track record on LGBTQ issues. 1970 James Dobson publishes Dare to Discipline, a book that recommends corporal punishment as a way to discipline poorly behaved children, writing: “Pain is a marvelous purifier. […]

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Kentucky city’s LGBTQ+ police liaison faces mounting scrutiny after 9 lawsuits

Curtis Clemons has lived in Northern Kentucky his entire life. The 36-year-old said he’s loved Covington since he was a kid. Growing up 45 minutes away in Williamstown, he looked forward to weekends “in the city” with his family. Stay up to date with the latest in LGBTQ+ news with The Advocate’s email newsletter, in your inbox five days a week. Clemons, now a resident and a local realtor, said he usually felt safe in Covington when he interacted with local law enforcement until he learned of a police officer in Covington named Doug Ullrich. “The interactions I’ve seen on […]

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Missouri Republicans introduced 58 anti-LGBTQ+ bills. Not one became law

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For years, Missouri has been one of the country’s most aggressive testing grounds for anti-LGBTQ+ legislation. It’s a Republican-controlled state where lawmakers have repeatedly introduced bills targeting transgender youth, dragperformers, school policies, and gender expression as part of the broader national culture war over LGBTQ+ rights. This year, none of them passed. Stay up to date with the latest in LGBTQ+ news with The Advocate’s email newsletter, in your inbox five days a week. In what advocates are calling a significant political upset, Missouri lawmakers adjourned their regular legislative session Friday without enacting any of the 58 anti-LGBTQ+ bills introduced during the 2026 session, according […]

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Florida AG Attempts To Ban Surrogacy By Same-Sex Couples, Calling It “Slavery,” Against State Constitution

Slate reports: Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier is attempting to strip legal parentage from families who conceive children using a genetic donor, launching an attack on one same-sex couple that has sweeping ramifications for thousands more—including heterosexual and adoptive parents. The Miami Herald reported last week that Uthmeier, a Republican appointee of Gov. Ron DeSantis, intervened in a routine case to argue that Florida’s surrogacy contract language violates the 13th Amendment’s prohibition on slavery, and, more sweepingly, that the state constitution bars biological parents from transferring parental rights at all. These theories—which one far-right judge has already endorsed—would end both surrogacy and donor […]

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Anti-LGBTQ Scamvangelist James Robison Dead At 82

The Christian Post reports: James Robison, the Texas-based televangelist who founded LIFE Outreach International, died Sunday. No cause of death had been disclosed at the time of the announcement. He was 82. The ministry’s board of directors confirmed the death in a statement posted to social media, saying the mission Robison devoted his life to would continue. “James devoted his life to sharing the Gospel and bringing hope, help, and healing to those in need around the world,” the board wrote, adding that the organization would press forward with food and clean water programs and broader outreach efforts. Robison had a life-altering […]

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Gainesville Reinstalls Rainbow Crosswalk Bricks At City Hall Plaza

The Gainesville Sun reports: Gainesville city officials and residents gathered at City Hall Plaza on May 8 to celebrate the ribbon-cutting of the newly renovated space. The redesigned plaza, city officials said, will provide a more functional community hub and can accommodate more than 2,000 people. The space also incorporates the rainbow bricks salvaged from the downtown crosswalks removed last year. Their removal came after state officials ordered communities across Florida to take down or paint over rainbow crosswalks, including the crossing in Orlando that memorialized the 49 victims of the 2016 Pulse Nightclub massacre. Gainesville officials pulled roughly 1,900 bricks from […]

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Colorado lawmakers pass rewritten conversion therapy ban after Supreme Court ruling

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Colorado lawmakers have approved a rewritten ban on so-called “conversion therapy” in an effort to preserve protections for LGBTQ+ youth after the US Supreme Court struck down the state’s previous law earlier this year. The new legislation, HB26-1322, now heads to Democratic governor Jared Polis, who is gay. Polis is expected to sign the bill into law. The updated bill was drafted in direct response to the Supreme Court’s March ruling in Chiles v. Salazar, which found Colorado’s earlier ban unconstitutional on First Amendment grounds. Now, rather than prohibiting therapists from encouraging minors away from LGBTQ+ identities specifically, the rewritten law instead bars […]

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Florida Anti-DEI Law Will Cut Funding for Key West Pride Events

Monroe County, Florida, home to the Florida Keys, will stop spending public funds to promote several LGBTQ events that draw thousands of tourists to Key West each year. The county announced the decision on May 5, citing a law signed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis last month prohibiting public money from being spent on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives. The law bars preferential treatment or special benefits for groups based on characteristics such as race, sex, ethnicity, gender identity, or sexual orientation. Currently, organizations that host tourist-attracting events can be reimbursed through the Monroe County Tourist Development Council. Groups […]

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WI Gov Roasts Hate Groups: My Administration Has “No Intention” Of Repealing State Ban On Ex-LGBTQ Torture

The Wisconsin Examiner reports: Three weeks after two right-wing groups demanded the repeal of a professional licensing board’s ban on conversion therapy for LGBTQ+ clients of social workers and other therapists, Gov. Tony Evers sent a sharply worded reply. In a letter to the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty and Wisconsin Family Action, Evers declared, “my administration has no intention of repealing Wisconsin’s conversion therapy ban.” Evers asserted that the April 14 demand letter from the two groups was based on “a significant misreading” of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling earlier this year that threw parts of a Colorado ban on conversion […]

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