News

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Equality California Endorses Pro-Equality Candidates Running for State and Local Office

Equality California, the nation’s largest statewide LGBTQ civil rights organization, announced the endorsements of 17 pro-equality candidates running for state and local office this year. The candidates include a number of openly LGBTQ Californians seeking public office across the state — part of a surge of LGBTQ candidates running throughout the country this year. “Our state and local elected officials are on the front lines of the fight for LGBTQ civil rights and social justice, and we’re excited to be supporting such an outstanding group of candidates this year,” said Equality California Executive Director Rick Zbur. “With a record number […]

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San Francisco Plans World’s First Citywide Effort to Promote LGBTQ Cultural Heritage

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    Aiming to curb the effects of gentrification and displacement on LGBTQ heritage and culture in San Francisco, a city-sanctioned group of cultural activists, community organizers and city staff has developed a series of wide-ranging policy proposals in a draft report recently presented to the San Francisco Historic Preservation Commission. Regarded as the first comprehensive effort of its kind anywhere in the world, the report from the LGBTQ Cultural Heritage Strategy Working Group makes recommendations in three general areas: community services and education; economic opportunity and equity; and arts, culture and heritage. The draft report is available here. This […]

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Go Purple for Spirit Day October 18

October is Bullying Prevention Month and Thursday, Oct 18 is #SpiritDay, a tradition started in Oct 2011 after a number of LGBTQ young people were lost to bullying & suicide. To visibly let our LGBTQ youth know they are loved & supported by a community that cares, we wear purple (the color for Spirit on the rainbow flag) and, since 2012, we’ve been making a big, beautiful, community collage! Visit our website for full details on these 3 ways you can get involved this year and show support for LGBTQ youth: “Go purple” for #SpiritDay, Thursday, October 18! Drop by our Napa or Santa […]

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Valdez rejects Anti-trans Bathroom Bill as ‘Fear-mongering’ in Texas Debate

Lesbian candidate for Texas governor Lupe Valdez rejected anti-transgender bathroom legislation — once a priority for anti-LGBT Gov. Greg Abbott — as “fear-mongering” in a debate Friday night with her opponent. During the debate at the Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library in Austin, KSAT-TV anchor Steve Spriester asked Abbott whether he’d sign a bill barring transgender people from using the restroom consistent with their gender identity. Abbott, the Republican incumbent, initially dodged and talked about his priorities, including cutting property taxes, job creation and arresting gang members, eliminating gun violence in schools and taking care of Hurricane Harvey victims. “That […]

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HB2 Replacement Doesn’t Bar Transgender People from Using Restrooms Aligned with Gender Identity, Judge Rules

A federal judge ruled Sunday that a 2017 law replacing the controversial HB2 doesn’t prohibit transgender people from using restrooms and other public facilities that correspond to gender identity. U.S. District Judge Thomas D. Schroeder also allowed a legal challenge to go forward on one part of the new law, known as HB142. The challenge is to the part of the law which, until Dec. 1, 2020, prohibits local governments from passing any nondiscrimination ordinances regulating public accommodations or private business practices. “While HB142 does not prohibit plaintiffs’ efforts at advocacy, it plainly makes them meaningless by prohibiting even the […]

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Lesbian Denied Spousal Benefits After Partner’s Death Sues Social Security Administration

Helen Thornton has filed a lawsuit seeking spousal survivor’s benefits. (Helen J. Thornton/Facebook) A lesbian has filed a lawsuit accusing US authorities of denying her of spousal survivor’s benefits because her long-term partner died before same-sex marriage was legal. Helen Thornton, from Washington state, lodged the case with LGBT+ civil rights organisation Lambda Legal, seeking the the benefits based on her relationship with her parter of 27 years, Margery Brown, who died in 2006. Thornton claims that it is unconstitutional for the Social Security Administration (SSA) to exclude her from claiming benefits because she was unable to marry her partner before she […]

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LGBTI Groups Welcome UN Report Supporting Gender Diversity

UN expert on sexual orientation and gender identity Victor Madrigal-Borloz (Photo: Facebook) A collection of LGBTI and transgender groups have welcomed a United Nations report on gender identity. The report said member states should not classify varied forms of gender as diseases. The UN Independent Expert on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity, Victor Madrigal-Borloz, released his report ahead of the UN General Assembly in New York this week. The UN expert urged countries to respect gender as an important part of identity. The report also provides guidelines on how to prevent violence and discrimination based on gender identity. The expert […]

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Four Arrested for Homosexuality in Senegal as Part of Pre-election Crackdown

Police arrest men on suspicion of homosexuality | Photo: Facebook/Arc en ciel 25 September 2018 LGBTI groups in Senegal said an increase in arrests for alleged homosexuality is a government crackdown on the LGBTI community. The latest arrests of two men and two women in the capital, Dakar, prompted the comments. Police arrested the four after people in their neighbourhood circulated videos of them engaged in sexual acts. Anti-gay president, Macky Sall, is up for re-election in 2019. Sall has vowed to never legalize homosexuality in the western African country. ‘Acts against nature’ are illegal and punishable by up to […]

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Chechnya Starts Concentration Camps for Gay Men, First Time after Hitler

Homosexual men are being tortured with electric shocks and beaten to death in concentration camps in Chechnya. This is the first concentration camp for homosexuals since Hitler’s camps in 1930s. Reports have emerged that 100 gay men were detained and three killed in these camps last week. Novaya Gazeta, a Russian newspaper known for its critical and investigative coverage of Russian politics and social affairs, said that several camps have been set up in Chechnya where gay men have been forced to promise to leave the republic. The report in Novaya Gazeta said that those arrested include well-known local television personalities and religious […]

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Government Risks ‘Neglecting Needs of LGBT Youth’ in Sex Education

Campaigners have expressed concern with the findings of the first round of public consultation on what schools should be teaching in the Relationships Education and Relationship and Sex Education (RSE) curricula. The consultation, which runs until November 7, 2018, was called following government plans to introduce the mandatory subjects in schools across the country by September 2020. Then-Education Secretary Justine Greening promised the revised curricula would be inclusive of LGBT issues, although the draft guidance published under her successor Damian Hinds in July leaves schools “free to determine how they address LGBT specific content,” even if the ministry’s recommendation is that the teaching “is integral throughout […]

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