National

/ /

Military vet Gina Ortiz Jones becomes first lesbian elected mayor of San Antonio

,

Gina Ortiz Jones, a lesbian and military veteran who served in President Joe Biden’s administration, has been elected mayor of San Antonio, the second-largest city in Texas and seventh-largest in the U.S. Jones beat Rolando Pablos, a former Texas secretary of state, in a runoff election Saturday. The margin was 54.3 percent to 45.7 percent, according to Ballotpedia. They advanced to the runoff because no candidate out of 27 in the May 3 general election received a majority of the vote. In the general election, Jones led with 27.2 percent and Pablos came in second with 16.6 percent. The current mayor, Ron Nirenberg, could not run again due to term limits. […]

/ /

Pioneers and Trailblazers: LGBTQ Southerners of Past and Present Celebrated in Pride Season Exhibit in Middle Georgia

,

Members of Macon’s LGBTQ community gathered inside The Tubman Museum of African American Art, History, and Culture on June 5 to celebrate the start of Pride season and the induction of three local advocates at the forefront of activism, art, and education who have contributed significantly to LGBTQ visibility and progress. Portraits of Marques Redd, co-founder and co-executive director of Rainbow Serpent, Richard Frazier, artistic and executive director of Theatre Macon, and Dr. Thomas Bullington, senior lecturer of English and Liberal Arts at Mercer University, were among 21 influential Macon LGBTQ leaders featured in the Pioneers and Trailblazers exhibit. Created in partnership with Storytellers Macon, inductees […]

/ /

A D.C. couple hung flags outside for Pride Month. The church next door cut them down

,

Jay Richards and his partner had decorated their apartment for Pride Month just hours before they received a message from their rental company telling them to take down their banners.  The couple lives in one of three apartments connected to Walker Memorial Baptist Church in Washington, D.C. which the church rent out through EJF Real Estate Services. Since WorldPride is being hosted in D.C. this year, Richards and his partner decided to show their holiday spirit by hanging rainbow flags on their gate alongside a sign reading “Happy Pride.” It wasn’t long before the two received a message from their rental company asking them to take […]

/ /

Lesbian Rep. Becca Balint & ally Sen. Jeff Merkley file bill to nullify Trump’s anti-LGBTQ+ executive orders

,

U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley of Oregon and U.S. Rep. Becca Balint of Vermont, both Democrats, have introduced legislation to nullify Donald Trump’s anti-LGBTQ+ executive orders. The No Place for LGBTQ+ Hate Act, introduced Thursday, would ensure that Trump’s anti-LGBTQ+ orders would have no force or effect and that no federal funds would be used to put them into effect. During his second term, Trump has issued executive orders saying the federal government will recognize only two sexes, male and female as assigned at birth, therefore denying the existence of transgender, nonbinary, and intersex people; reinstating and expanding the trans military ban; seeking to prevent trans youth from receiving gender-affirming care; seeking to keep trans students from […]

/ /

ICE detained a trans migrant at her asylum hearing. Her lawyers still can’t contact her

,

A federal judge has ordered Immigration and Customs Enforcement not to deport a transgender immigrant after officers arrested her during her asylum hearing — but her attorneys say they still haven’t been able to contact her. O.J.M., known only by her initials out of concerns for her safety, was leaving a courtroom during her asylum hearing on Monday when she was detained by ICE agents, who demanded that the court dismiss her case. She was then taken from the courthouse in Portland, Ore. and forcibly moved across state lines to the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma, Wash. ICE did not inform O.J.M.’s attorneys, from the immigration […]

/ /

Haters Get Last-Minute Win Over FL Pride Drag Show

The Naples Daily News reports: Just hours before Naples Pride was set to go with an outdoors drag show performance in the city’s Cambier Park, a federal court ruled against Pride’s plan, forcing it to move the performance indoors. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit in Atlanta on June 6 granted the city of Naples’ motion to stay a preliminary injunction that District Judge John Steele granted last month in Fort Myers. Naples Pride in April filed a federal lawsuit against the city after officials denied a permit to allow it to present the 2025 Pride Fest drag show, […]

/ /

Donald Trump’s attack on Harvard is a sign of what could be coming for LGBTQ+ organizations

,

One of the fundamental tactics of authoritarianism is to attack universities. After all, they foster free thought and inquiry, which are anathema to right-wing leaders who wish to crush dissent. Under Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), Florida has been a pioneer in this effort. But no American leader has ever been as diligent in trying to crush higher education as Donald Trump. In particular, he has singled out Harvard, the nation’s most prestigious university, for punishment. Last week alone, Trump threatened to pull $3 billion in research funding from Harvard to send to vocational schools, issued an order intended to prevent the university from enrolling international students and […]

/ /

Tennessee high school student-athlete banned from graduation after coming out on social media

,

A student-athlete who was banned from graduating with her classmates after she came out in a social media post is suing her high school, local NBC and ABC affiliates WSMV and WTVC report. Morgan Armstrong was a senior at Tennessee Christian Preparatory School (TCPS), a private Christian school in Chattanooga. She played on the school’s basketball team and earned her diploma. Then she came out. “Cats outta the bag,” Armstrong wrote in the post dated April 23, according to court documents obtained by WTVC. The post contained pictures of Armstrong with her girlfriend, including the pair kissing. Armstrong subsequently posted a separate comment urging others to like and comment […]

/ /

Texas Republicans pass bill to ban LGBTQ+ student clubs in schools

Both chambers of the Texas Legislature have passed a bill banning students from forming LGBTQ+-focused clubs like GSAs in schools and have sent it to the governor’s desk. Democratic lawmakers denounced the bill, S.B. 12. “The real monsters are not kids trying to figure out who they are,” said state Rep. Gene Wu (D). “The monsters are not the teachers who love them and encourage them and support them. They are not the books that provide them with some amount of comfort and information. The real monsters are here.” “This bill is hate,” said out state Rep. Erin Zwiener (D). “This is […]

/ /

White supremacists leave threatening messages at homes with pro-LGBTQ+ displays

,

Bigots in the Utah cities of Providence and North Logan celebrated the first day of Pride Month by leaving anti-gay and white supremacist messages in front of homes with pro-LGBTQ+ displays. North Logan homeowner Ryan Thorell, whose family displayed pro-LGBTQ+ signs outside of their home, found several posters stapled to nearby utility poles facing his house — the posters said “White power,” “man plus woman,” and had homophobic slurs, he told KSL-TV. He called the signs “very targeting and inflammatory,” and said that he took down 17 similar signs around his neighborhood, each facing homes that had LGBTQ+ flags and signs outside. “It […]

«‹ 41 42 43 44›»