News

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Teen Says her Catholic High School Disciplined her for being Lesbian

A Los Angeles County Catholic high school has made headlines after a teenage girl told BuzzFeed News that school administrators disciplined her and forced her into counseling for being gay. High school senior Magali Rodriguez attended the co-ed Bishop Amat Memorial High School in La Puente, a city about 20 miles east of downtown Los Angeles. The high school was built in 1957 by the Archdiocese of Los Angeles to serve Catholic families of the San Gabriel Valley. During her time at Bishop Amat, Rodriguez said she was forbidden from sitting next to her girlfriend at lunch and was forced […]

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Principal Who Banned Gay Books Charged with Child Pornography

A former Kentucky school principal has been indicted on child pornography charges, a decade after he first made headlines for banning books with LGBTQ storylines. Phillip Todd Wilson, the former principal of the Clark County Area Technology Center in Winchester, Kentucky, was charged with 17 child pornography and distribution charges in August, according to Kentucky state police. A spokesperson for the Kentucky Department of Education told NBC News that Wilson was no longer employed at the school. Wilson, 54, was the principal of the Montgomery County High School, another institution in Kentucky, 10 years ago when he banded together with […]

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News, Events & Ongoing Services at Marin County’s Spahr Center for November

RECRUIT, RECRUIT, RECRUIT!!The Spahr Center is fortunate to have a large, warm and loyal base of supporters who attend our events, volunteer on a variety of tasks, and make generous donations to help us achieve our life-saving and life-affirming mission. We want to GROW that family in order to accomplish even more and better things for our community moving forward. Will you help us to do that? Learn more SAVE THE DATE!Click the photo for more info!The Spahr Center revises its logoThe Spahr Center is rightfully proud of its name and logo, which pay homage to our brilliant and accomplished founder, Jane […]

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LGBTQ Acceptance Grew Globally Over Past Four Decades — but Not Everywhere

The “most accepting” LGBTQ countries are becoming “more accepting,” while “the least accepting” are becoming “less accepting,” according to a recent report from The Williams Institute, a think tank at the UCLA School of Law. In executing the study, which came out last month and was built upon the organization’s previous reports, researchers analyzed survey data from 174 countries to produce the Global Acceptance Index (GAI). The GAI uses a country’s public beliefs and policies regarding lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people to determine the nation’s score, which was then used to rank each of the countries in order from most […]

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Nearly 1 in 5 Hate Crimes Motivated by Anti-LGBTQ Bias, FBI Finds

Of the 7,120 hate crime incidents reported in 2018, more than 1,300 — or nearly 19 percent — stemmed from anti-LGBTQ bias, according to the FBI’s latest Hate Crime Statistics report. According to the FBI data, of the nearly 1,200 incidents targeting people due to their sexual orientation, the majority targeted gay men (roughly 60 percent), while approximately 12 percent targeted lesbians, 1.5 percent targeted bisexuals, 1.4 percent targeted heterosexuals and the remaining incidents targeted a mixed group of LGBTQ people. Transgender and gender-nonconforming people were the targets in 168 reported incidents, approximately 2.4 percent of all reported hate crime incidents […]

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Singapore’s Colonial-era Gay Sex Ban to Face First of 3 Legal Challenges

Tomorrow the high court in Singapore will hear the first arguments to overturn Section 377A, a colonial-era law that criminalises gay sex. Singapore’s strict penal code classes sex between men as an act of “gross indecency” punishable by up to two years in prison, although prosecutions are rare. The law doesn’t apply to sex between women. Three Singaporean activists have launched three separate challenges against the outdated law – Roy Tan, a former organiser of the Pink Dot gay rally, Johnson Ong Ming, a DJ, and Bryan Choong, a former leader of the non-profit organisation Oogachaga. The trio are arguing that Section 377A […]

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Sebastopol Center for the Arts Presents the Fall Arts & Crafts Fair on November 15

The annual Fall Arts & Crafts Fair will be open for holiday shoppers in the auditorium of the Sebastopol Center for the Arts on Friday, November 15 from 10 AM to 8 PM. Eighteen local artists will be selling fine art, ceramics, jewelry, poetry and books for holiday shoppers looking for special, handcrafted gifts. All of the artists showcased are members of Sebastopol Center for the Arts and regularly have items for sale at the SCA Store on a rotating basis year-round. Attendees may recognize some of the more well-known artists such as watercolorist Sally Baker, artist and poet Sherrie […]

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Gay Veterans Dishonorably Discharged Can Reclaim Benefits Under Rhode Island Law

Rhode Island’s governor kicked off Veteran’s Day weekend by approving legislation that will extend local and state benefits to veterans who were dishonourably discharged for their sexuality. It’s estimated that more than 100,000 LGBT+ people were ‘dishonourably’ or ‘less than honourably’ discharged from the US military between World War II and the repeal of the ‘Don’t ask, don’t tell‘ policy in 2011. On Friday, November 8, Governor Gina Raimondo ceremoniously signed the crucial legislation allowing these veterans to reclaim the benefits they deserve. “In the state of Rhode Island, if you’re a veteran who’s served, you oughta be eligible for […]

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Saudi Arabia Declares Homosexuality, Feminism and Atheism as ‘Extremism’

Homosexuality, feminism and atheism are classed as extremist ideas in Saudi Arabia, according to the country’s Security Agency. The claims were made this weekend in an official promotional video posted by the verified Twitter account of Saudi Arabia’s Presidency of State Security, but this now appears to have been deleted. According to Reuters, the video listed homosexuality, feminism and atheism as takfir – the Islamist militant practice of labelling followers of other schools of Islam unbelievers. “Don’t forget that excess of anything at the expense of the homeland is considered extremism,” said the video’s voiceover, adding that “all forms of extremism and […]

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Scientific Groups Remove BYU Job Posts Over School’s LGBTQ Policy

Two well-known scientific groups have dropped job postings from their websites from Brigham Young University because of the school’s LGBTQ policies, igniting a debate on whether research organizations should take a stance on social issues. The Washington-based American Geophysical Union and the Colorado-based Geological Society of America took down the ads amid mounting pressure from members, the Salt Lake Tribune reported Monday. Both groups say the ads require applicants to abide by the school’s honor code, which includes a ban on homosexual behavior. Members of both nonprofits criticized the ads as discriminatory. The Geological Society of America, which has 27,000 […]

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