News

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ACLU: SCOTUS Ruling Leaves LGBT Protections Intact

Via press release from the ACLU: The Supreme Court today reaffirmed the core principle that businesses open to the public must be open to all in Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission. The court did not accept arguments that would have turned back the clock on equality by making our basic civil rights protections unenforceable, but reversed this case based on concerns specific to the facts here. The American Civil Liberties Union argued the case on behalf of Charlie Craig and David Mullins, who were refused service at a Colorado bakery because they are a same-sex couple. In 2012, […]

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Trans Woman Dies in US Custody, with Migrant Groups Accusing Authorities of ‘Murder’

Roxana Hernández. (familiatqlm/Twitter) A trans woman has died in US custody, with migrant groups blaming the death on the “medical negligence” on the part of American authorities – and accusing them of “institutional murder.” Roxana Hernández, 33, died in the custody of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) at the Lovelace Medical Center in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She had been seeking asylum at the San Ysidro port of entry on the US border earlier this month, when she was detained in ICE custody on 13 May. Hernández, known simply as Roxy, had travelled to the American border as part of a ‘refugee caravan’ – a group of more […]

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LGBTQ Pride Month I sa Time For Celebration and Protest

Get ready for the rainbows. June is LGBTQ Pride Month, which means Americans around the country should expect some colorful marches throughout the month as people make a stand for equality. In recent years, the month has been marked by celebration — over the US Supreme Court’s decision to legalize same-sex marriage nationwide, as well as some of the other progress made in LGBTQ rights in broader American politics and culture. This year, Pride celebrations fall in a markedly different atmosphere. Although LGBTQ advocates have seen big gains in recent years, the election of President Donald Trump and state-level initiatives […]

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Planned Parenthood’s New Lesbian Spokesperson

The new face of Planned Parenthood is unafraid of the current climate of hyper-conservative populism. If anything, Dawn Laguens is optimistic about the chronically besieged organization’s future. “Planned Parenthood is happy, though, to be taking on the fight, and to be standing up against some of these outrageous attacks that we see both at the federal and state level,” Languages said in an interview with The Advocate. The longtime VEO and president of Planned Parenthood, Cecile Richards, stepping down in January, Laguens, the executive vice president and chief brand officer, has assumed the role of acting spokesperson. Laguens, who identifies […]

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Democrats Celebrate LGBTQ Pride Month: We’ll Never Stop Fighting For The Equality Every Human Deserves

Last year Trump broke with tradition and declined to issue a Pride Month proclamation although he did find time to proclaim Great Outdoors Month, National Caribbean-American Heritage Month, African-American Music Appreciation Month, National Ocean Month, and National Homeownership Month. We expect the same for 2018. Here’s this year’s message from the Democrats: “Pride Month is an opportunity to celebrate the vast contributions LGBTQ Americans have made to our society, to honor the generations of leaders and activists who have fought for equality, and to rededicate ourselves to the work that remains. “We see the impact of LGBTQ Americans throughout our […]

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Army Veteran Sues US Military Over ‘Outdated Ban’ on HIV-positive Soldiers

A US Army sergeant who served in Afghanistan and Kuwait is suing the Pentagon’s policies that effectively ban soldiers serving with HIV. Sergeant Nick Harrison, who serves in the D.C. Army National Guard, says he was denied the opportunity to serve as an officer and faces possible discharge from the United States armed services because he is living with HIV. The soldier, a veteran of two wars, says he was denied a position in the Judge Advocate General (JAG) Corps – because current Pentagon policy considers service members living with HIV “non-deployable”, and will not allow them to enlist. Campaigners say the archaic […]

Thirty-Eight Years of San Francisco Pride: Reflecting Our Community’s Victories, Struggles & Diversity

Held on the last Sunday in June, the San Francisco Pride Parade is recognized as one of the largest Pride celebrations in the world and one of the largest annual public gatherings in the United States. Thirty-eight years after the city’s first Pride march in 1970, community historian Greg Pennington responded to our questions about the early growth of the celebration and its ongoing evolution to reflect the diversity of LGBTQ people. Pennington moved to San Francisco in 1977 as part of the massive wave of gay men who emmigrated from across the United States and beyond during that decade. […]

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National Die-in Planned for Anniversary of Pulse Shooting

Activists are organising a dramatic die-in to commemorate the second anniversary of the Pulse massacre. A total of 49 people were killed at Orlando’s Pulse gay club during the horrific mass shooting in June 2016 when gunman Omar Mateen, who had pledged support for ISIS, opened fire on the crowd. At the time it was the deadliest mass shooting in recent US history, though it has since been surpassed. The National Die-In will take place in Washington DC, at the National Mall, on June 12 – and with the help of Parkland survivors, organisers hope to attract as many as […]

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Family of Gay Man ‘Found Left for Dead’ Say Police are Conducting a ‘Smear Campaign’

The family of a gay man found nearly dead next to train tracks in Truckee, California, have said that the police are conducting a “smear campaign” by claiming the alleged hate crime was an “attempted suicide.” Aaron Salazar, a 22-year-old student at Portland State University, was found left for dead near the tracks in the station at Truckee, California, on May 15. He had been travelling from Colorado to Oregon just before the incident. Authorities from Amtrak – a long-distance passenger rail service that runs across North America – who are investigating the case have suggested the incident was an attempted suicide, but Salazar’s family believe […]

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Deaths of 100 Gay Men in Sydney Identified as Hate Crimes Decades Later

The deaths of almost 100 gay men between 1970 and 1990 have been directly linked to hate crime by one of Sydney’s largest LGBT health charities. Police had previously discovered 88 cases where gay men had died under suspicious circumstances between 1970 and 1990. However, a new report from ACON, an LGBT health and advocacy charity in New South Wales has concluded that many of these deaths can be linked to both homophobia and inadequate investigations by police at the time. The report published on Monday follows an investigation prompted by an initial inquest into the death of Scott Johnson, […]

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