The death of an Oklahoma teen after a fight in school has LGBTQ+ advocates seeking answers

A 16-year-old student died following a fight at an Oklahoma high school – and as an investigation into the cause of death continues, advocates point to a heightened and hostile climate against the LGBTQ+ community. Nex Benedict, whose family says identified as nonbinary, died February 8, one day after they told their family they and a transgender …

Opinion: Utah incident reveals this inherent threat in anti-trans efforts to ‘protect’ girls in sports

A teenage girl in Utah has had to seek police protection after a member of the Utah State Board of Education suggested that she could be transgender (she is not). In a now-deleted Facebook post, board member Natalie Cline made false implications about the teenager’s gender identity. Following the incident, the girl’s parents described their daughter as a tomboy …

Largest survey of transgender people in the US reveals key insights at a time when trans rights are under attack

While many transgender people surveyed who have transitioned said they were satisfied with their lives, the report also noted transgender people continue to face disparities and discrimination across the country. [...] Ninety-four percent of respondents who lived at least some of the time in a different gender than the one they were assigned at birth reported being “a …

Seattle’s queer community is furious after gay bars were raided over the weekend

So they're not happy about what happened. A lot of people are horrified that pictures were taken. A lot of people were horrified at the image of a bunch of officials coming into a bar with flashlights. That is something that really recalls, you know, historical raids on gay bars that happened for decades, where …

Seattle gay bar could be cited for possible ‘exposure of a male nipple’

Seattle city leaders have questions for the state’s liquor board after multiple gay bars were inspected by police last weekend. The board claims these were routine, monthly checks, but bar owners in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood said they feel targeted by law enforcement. Joey Burgess, who owns two gay clubs in Capitol Hill, said Friday …

Cops Crash SUV Into LGBTQ Bar, Arrest Owner For Assault

That’s when, understandably, the bar’s co-owner Chad Morris (who also goes by Chad Wick), allegedly began to “scream obscenities” following the crash, according to police. The officer continued to write that Morris “struck me hard in the chest with an open hand, causing me to temporarily lose my balance.” Even if that did happen, and that’s …

Activists link US nonprofit to anti-LGBTQ laws in Africa. The group says it’s only promoting ‘family values’

Even in the daytime, the curtains in the safehouse are drawn. “With the hate that we are living in today, if you go out there and they notice that I am LGBTQ, sooner or later I will be dead,” he says. It’s unclear how many Ugandans have fled to Kenya, but rights groups in both …

New Hampshire attorney general files civil rights lawsuit against neo-Nazi group for drag story hour protest

New Hampshire’s attorney general has filed a civil rights lawsuit against 20 members of a neo-Nazi group for violating anti-discrimination laws during a protest outside a drag story hour in June. https://www.cnn.com/2023/12/15/us/neo-nazi-civil-rights-lawsuit-drag-story-hour-reaj/index.html -CNN; 12/15/2023

Did Christian homophobia come from a mistranslation of the Bible?

The film hinges its premise on the fact that the word “homosexual” appeared for the first time in the Bible in 1946, in an apparent mistranslation of the ancient Greek words malakoi – defined as someone effeminate who gives themselves up to a soft, decadent, lazy and indolent way of living – and arsenokoitai – a compound word that …

She was censored over trans rights. But lawmaker Zooey Zephyr [D] won’t be silenced

She had feared coming out as transgender for years in this small, conservative town, but finally got the courage to do so when she witnessed Zephyr, 35, a Democratic state representative from Missoula, stand up to a legislative body controlled by Republicans hellbent on silencing her and driving her out of the state capitol where …