News

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Equality California Endorses Openly LGBTQ Local Candidates in 2018 Races Across State

Equality California, the nation’s largest statewide LGBTQ civil rights organization, announced the endorsements of 10 openly LGBTQ candidates running for local office in 2018. The candidates are among a surge of out LGBTQ Californians seeking public office across the state — and a record number of LGBTQ candidates running throughout the country this year. Equality California has endorsed the following candidates in their respective races: San Francisco Board of Supervisors: District 8 Equality California has dual-endorsed Supervisor Jeff Sheehy and City College Trustee Rafael Mandelman for the Eighth District of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. Jeff Sheehy, who was appointed by the late […]

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The June Mazer Lesbian Archives: A Key to the Past

“The lesbian world that I first came into, here in Los Angeles almost 40 years ago, seemed to me to exist only in darkness,” once wrote historian Lillian Faderman in an open letter to explorers of L.A.’s June Mazer archives. “Our world seemed to have been invented in that moment of time. We had no past – or, if we did, no one knew or could tell me about it. Because we had no knowledge of those who came before us, our isolation and loneliness felt tragic and inevitable.” In Oakland, California in 1981, the first large-scale West Coast Lesbian […]

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New York Times addresses its ‘shameful’ coverage during AIDS crisis

The New York Times has addressed its poor history of covering HIV/AIDS during the AIDS crisis. The newspaper came under heavily criticism from AIDS activists and the LGBT community over its “shameful” coverage of the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s, when New York City’s gay community was ravaged by the spread of the disease. Media and politicians faced fury for their silence and slowness to act over what was seen as a ‘gay disease’, with one chilling recording featuring President Reagan’s press secretary laughing after being asked about gay people’s deaths. President Reagan did not mention AIDS in public until 1985, when 5000 people […]

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Thailand Introduces Landmark Same-sex Civil Partnerships Bill

Thailand’s government has introduced a bill to legalise same-sex civil partnerships. The landmark move would make Thailand only the second country in Asia – after Taiwan – to officially recognise same-sex couples. Last year, the highest court in Taiwan stated that restricting unions to heterosexual couples was unconstitutional, and ruled that same-sex marriage would automatically pass into law in May 2019 if Parliament doesn’t legalise it before then. (SAEED KHAN/AFP/Getty) And according to local publication The Nation, Thailand may beat Taiwan to that deadline. The justice minister is set to present the final draft of the bill to the Cabinet […]

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Even in 2018 and People Are Still Successfully Using the ‘Gay Panic’ Defense

One of the most controversial legal defences has been used successfully once again. On Thursday, a 69-year-old man was convicted of criminally negligent homicide after stabbing his neighbour to death in 2015. James Miller will serve 10 years probation after the death of his neighbour Daniel Spencer, in addition to six months in prison. According to NBC, friends Spencer and Miller were together in Austin, Texas, when Spencer made a sexual advance on him. “Hold it, I’m not a gay person,” Miller reportedly replied.  Spencer allegedly became aggressive after Miller rejected his advances, brandishing a glass at Miller. The defence argued […]

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Archives & Museum: Two Places, One Mission ay San Francisco’s GLBT Historical Society

Traditionally, archives collect personal papers and organizational records for use by researchers, while museums collect art and artifacts for preservation and display in exhibitions aimed at the general public. At the GLBT Historical Society, we’ve queered those boundaries ever since our founding more than three decades ago. Faced with a dominant culture that had long ignored the LGBTQ past or actively worked to erase it, the organizers of the Historical Society did not have the luxury of placing this document in an archives and that artifact in a museum. No mainstream institutions of either kind were interested in queer history. […]

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New Filing Fires Back at Trump Administration Request to Move Forward with Trans Military Ban

The National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR) and GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders (GLAD) filed their opposition last night to a Trump-Pence Administration request to dissolve the nationwide preliminary injunction that U.S. District Court Judge Jesus G. Bernal issued December 22, 2017, in Equality California’s lawsuit, Stockman v. Trump. There are currently four separate preliminary injunctions issued by four separate federal courts, blocking Trump’s ban from moving forward while the cases are being heard by the courts. On March 23, the Trump administration filed a motion to dissolve the injunction, claiming to issue a “new policy” on transgender military service. However, as NCLR […]

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San Diego’s First LGBT-affirming Senior Housing Opens in North Park

Assemblyman Todd Gloria, Councilman Chris Ward and others Friday celebrated the opening of North Park Seniors, which is being called San Diego’s first LGBT-affirming senior housing community. The public was invited to attend the celebration, which began 10 a.m. at the apartment complex at 4200 Texas St. Studies suggest the need for LGBT-friendly housing continues to outpace demand amid rental discrimination cases. The building will have 76 affordable apartments for qualified people 55 and older; seniors of all sexual orientations and gender identities will be welcome. “This community is the product of years of advocacy, hard work and collaboration between […]

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Oklahoma Lawmakers Vote to Stop Same-sex Couples from Adopting

Oklahoma lawmakers have voted in favour of a bill which enable adoption and foster agencies to reject same-sex couples because of their religious beliefs. The Oklahoma House of Representatives approved Senate Bill 1140 on April 26, after the bill had been passed by the state Senate on March 13. If Republican Governor Mary Fallin signs it into law, the legislation will come into affect on November 1 this year. The bill says that “no private childplacing agency receiving neither federal nor state funds shall be required to perform, assist, counsel, recommend, consent to, refer, or participate in any placement of […]

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Straight Men Have a Lot of Gay Sex, Study Shows

A significant number of straight men have gay sex, a study has shown. The analysis of 24,000 undergraduate students revealed that of the men whose last hookup was with a male partner, one in eight defined as heterosexual. This figure twice as high among women, with one in four whose last sexual experience was a lesbian one identifying as straight. One explanation for this gap in same-sex encounters between men and women is another study, published in March, which showed that women who have sex with women are much, much more likely to orgasm. That study, which had 2,300 respondents, […]

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