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Arizona State Football Player Chip Sarafin Comes Out As Gay

  Arizona State football player Edward “Chip” Sarafin has publicly come out as gay. The redshirt senior made his announcement in an interview with Compete magazine. The 6’6″, 320-pound backup offensive lineman is believed to be the first active college football player at a Division I program to publicly come out as gay, according to Outsports. Like openly gay NFL rookie Michael Sam, Sarafin came out to his teammates before the public. Sarafin revealed to the magazine that he began telling his teammates that he was gay last spring. Unlike Sam, who came out publicly after finishing his final season […]

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Transgender Woman Says Immigration Detention Officials Told Her To Pretend Her Rape Was Consensual

  Marichuy Leal Gamino is a 23-year-old transgender woman who has spent more than a year living in an immigration detention facility, housed with men. Though she spent most of her life growing up in Arizona, she was born a Mexican citizen, making her an undocumented immigrant. After repeatedly experiencing harassment and threats of abuse, she says she was sexually assaulted last week by her cellmate. When she reported the abuse to the staff of the for-profit facility, they allegedly responded by asking her to sign a statement claiming that she had consented. A number of LGBT and immigrant rights […]

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Wisconsin Supreme Court Upholds Registry For Same-Sex Couples

The Wisconsin Supreme Court on Thursday upheld a 2009 law that establishes a registry for same-sex couples, saying it does not violate an amendment to the state’s constitution banning gay marriage. The registry gives registered same-sex couples the right to hospital visits, family medical leave to care for a stricken partner, health benefits under a partner’s insurance and the right to inherit assets when a partner dies. The court said the ban on same-sex marriage did not include a ban on certain rights for same-sex couples. The gay marriage ban was approved by Wisconsin voters in 2006. Three years later, […]

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Obama Signs Executive Order On LGBT Job Discrimination

President Barack Obama on Monday signed an executive order banning workplace discrimination against millions of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender employees of federal contractors and the federal government. The executive order has two parts: It makes it illegal to fire or harass employees of federal contractors based on their sexual orientation or gender identity, and it explicitly bans discrimination against transgender employees of the federal government. The part targeting federal contractors affects 24,000 companies employing roughly 28 million workers, or about one-fifth of the nation’s workforce. “America’s federal contracts should not subsidize discrimination against the American people,” Obama said during […]

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Oklahoma’s Same-Sex Marriage Ban Overturned

A federal appeals court on Friday ruled Oklahoma must allow gay couples to wed, marking the second time it has found the U.S. Constitution protects same-sex marriage. The decision from a three-judge panel in Denver upholds rulings that struck down Oklahoma’s gay marriage ban. The 2-1 ruling comes after the same panel ruled June 25 that Utah’s ban on same-sex marriage violates the Constitution. It was the first time an appellate court determined last year’s U.S. Supreme Court decision striking down the Defense of Marriage Act means states cannot deny gays the ability to wed. The 10th U.S. Circuit Court […]

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Children Of Gay Parents Are Happier And Healthier Than Their Peers, New Study Finds

  Children raised by same-sex couples have better health and well-being in comparison to their peers, according to a groundbreaking new study which is being billed as the largest of its kind. Conducted by Australia’s University of Melbourne, the new research aimed to “describe the physical, mental and social wellbeing” of children with gay and lesbian parents, and “the impact that stigma has on them.” On average, children raised by same-sex couples scored six percent higher than the general population when it came to general health and family cohesion. Meanwhile, in other categories — such as behavior, mental health and […]

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Supreme Court Rejects Challenge To Law Banning Gay Therapy

The Supreme Court has rejected a challenge to California’s law that bars mental counseling aimed at turning gay minors straight.  The justices on Monday let stand an appeals court ruling that said the state’s ban on so-called conversion therapy for minors doesn’t violate the free speech rights of licensed counselors and patients seeking treatment. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled last year that California lawmakers properly showed that efforts to change sexual orientation were outside the scientific mainstream and have been rejected for good reason. Liberty Counsel, a Christian legal aid group, had challenged the law along with […]

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New Jersey Judge: Ex-Gay Therapists May Be Liable For Damages To Former Clients

  A preliminary ruling in a New Jersey court suggests that an organization that provides supposed ex-gay therapy may have to pay out damages to clients who were harmed by the conversion therapy. The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) brought the suit a year and a half ago, accusing Jews Offering New Alternatives for Healing (JONAH) of consumer fraud for providing ex-gay therapy. Plaintiffs outlined humiliating and degrading experiences from their treatment, including having to strip nude in front of their therapist and re-enact past trauma. Their suit demands compensation for the failed treatment, as well as for the therapy […]

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Lawsuit Filed To Block Nation’s Last Unchallenged Same-Sex Marriage Ban In North Dakota

Seven couples have filed a federal lawsuit challenging the ban on same-sex marriage in North Dakota, the last remaining state without a court challenge. The clerk of the court confirmed that the lawsuit was filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Fargo. It challenges both North Dakota’s constitutional ban on gay marriage and its refusal to recognize marriages of same-sex couples who legally wed in other states. The lawsuit means cases are currently pending in all 31 states with gay marriage bans. Judges have overturned several of those bans since the U.S. Supreme Court struck down part of the federal […]

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Supreme Court Refuses To Put Gay Marriage On Hold In Oregon

The Supreme Court is refusing to halt a federal judge’s order declaring Oregon’s same-sex marriage ban unconstitutional. The court issued an order Wednesday declining to block any new same-sex unions in the state while a federal appeals court considers whether an anti-gay marriage group can intervene in the case. The order follows an emergency appeal by the National Organization for Marriage that seeks to overturn the May 19 ruling of U.S. District Judge Michael McShane. The group had unsuccessfully tried to intervene in the lower court proceeding after Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum declined to defend the same-sex ban. Hundreds […]

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