A top health official within the Department of Health & Human Services insists a “conscience rule” recently instituted by the Trump administration will have no impact on its HIV work, although LGBT groups are disputing [...]
Hate crimes against transgender people in England, Scotland and Wales have risen 81 percent, the BBC reported last week. The news service obtained the data from 36 out of 44 police departments throughout Great Britain. [...]
Ken Mehlman, the former George W. Bush operative and Republican National Committee chair who came out as gay in 2010, is leading LGBT-supportive Republicans in urging conservative justices on the U.S. Supreme Court to rule [...]
The U.S. Supreme Court has designated Oct. 8 as the date when it will hear arguments on whether Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 applies to cases of anti-LGBT discrimination, setting up [...]
Johana “Joa” Medina Leon, a 25-year-old transgender woman from El Salvador, died in a Texas hospital on June 1, 2019, after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement released her from ICE custody. Massachusetts Congressman Joseph Kennedy [...]
Organizers of the many events this weekend in New York City to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the 1969 Stonewall riots, credited with launching the modern LGBT rights movement, say an expected turnout of [...]
Kamala Harris pulled off an impressive performance Thursday night during the Democratic presidential candidates debate as racial issues haunted Pete Buttigieg and Joseph Biden. When the smoke cleared after the debate concluded in Miami, Harris [...]
Gay Liberation Front 1969-71 That night, standing in Stonewall, I could not have imagined what the next few hours would do to change the gay and lesbian community around the world. I doubt anyone else could have known. How could we have known on June 28, 1969, that we’d be participating in history?
On first reading, the Reuters headline seemed like dismal news for transgender military servicemembers and advocates fighting the Trump trans ban. “U.S. Court Lets Trump Transgender Military Ban Stand, Orders New Review,” the longtime wire [...]
The U.S. Supreme Court vacated on Monday a $135,000 fine against an Oregon-based family business that refused based on religious objections to make a wedding cake in 2013 for a same-sex couple. In an order [...]
The U.S. Supreme Court will soon get another chance to consider whether businesses can claim religious motivations for refusing service to LGBTQ people. The case will come from the Washington State Supreme Court that ruled [...]
It was a discernible ray of light flashing across an otherwise dark and stormy sea: The U.S. Supreme Court Tuesday, May 28, declined to accept an appeal from a group of students challenging a public [...]
Two separate marches to commemorate the 50th anniversary of New York’s Stonewall riots that are credited with starting the modern LGBT rights movement are expected to draw more than four million people to the streets [...]
For the first-time ever, a chamber of Congress has approved legislation — with bipartisan support — that would amend the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964 to ban comprehensibly discrimination against LGBT people. Under the [...]
For the first-time ever, a chamber of Congress has approved legislation — with bipartisan support — that would amend the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964 to ban comprehensibly discrimination against LGBT people. Under the [...]
The organizer of Cuba’s annual International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia marches on Monday announced they have been cancelled. The marches were to have taken place in Havana on May 11 and the city [...]
A new Trump administration regulation permitting religious bias came carefully wrapped up in the language of civil rights; Its text promises to “remove barriers” for people who want to work in health care, support a [...]
With Pete Buttigieg continuing to show strong numbers in the Democratic presidential primary, a new poll has found 70 percent of voters would be open to voting for a gay man as U.S. president.
The Congressional Black Caucus last week announced it has created an emergency Task Force on Black Youth Suicide and Mental Health that will address what it calls a growing problem of suicide and access to [...]
With Pete Buttigieg continuing to show strong numbers in the Democratic presidential primary, a new poll has found 70 percent of voters would be open to voting for a gay man as U.S. president. However, [...]
Activists in Puerto Rico have sharply criticized two bills they say will allow anti-LGBT discrimination. Governor Ricardo Rosselló on Tuesday at a press conference that took place at his official residence in San Juan announced [...]
“Empire” made history on April 24 by featuring the first wedding between two gay, black men on primetime television. Jamal (Jussie Smollett) and Kai (Toby Onwumere) said their “I dos” for a groundbreaking scene in [...]
For the first time, a federal appeals court has ruled that a local government can exclude a child foster care agency from city-funded programs if the agency refuses to abide by a local ordinance that [...]
The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed hear cases seeking to determine once-and-for-all if ant-LGBT discrimination in the workplace is prohibited under federal law. In its orders list on Monday, the court announced it has granted [...]
Converse has released sneakers with the colors of the Transgender Pride Flag as part of its Pride line. This is the first time Converse has introduced a transgender-specific sneaker. Other shoes in the line include [...]
In an action one civil rights lawyer called “a deeply disturbing message about the value placed on LGBTQ lives,” the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday refused to hear an appeal from a man on death [...]
Before a crowd of adoring supporters in South Bend who braved the rain to hear him speak, Pete Buttigieg made his 2020 presidential campaign official by declaring he’d pursue the Democratic nomination to run for [...]
The Pentagon initiated Friday the transgender military ban in accordance with Trump administration plans for the policy, returning the U.S. military to restrictions on LGBT service that harken to the days of “Don’t Ask, Don’t [...]
Openly gay Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg has leapt into a surprisingly strong position in the latest poll of Iowa Democratic caucus-goers: Third place. Right behind former Vice President Joe Biden, in first with 25 [...]
Jussie Smollett’s defense attorney Mark Geragos has slammed the city of Chicago’s pending civil suit against the “Empire” star demanding he repays the city $130,000 — the cost of the police investigation into the incident [...]
The D.C.-based National LGBTQ Task Force was part of a coalition of more than 15 national civil rights and progressive advocacy groups that launched a campaign last week to encourage members of marginalized communities to [...]
Massachusetts became the 16th state in the nation to ban “ex-gay” conversion therapy on Monday after Gov. Charlie Baker signed a measure into law prohibiting the widely discredited practice for youth. Brendan Moss, a Baker [...]
More than two years after the Trump administration withdrew federal guidance on rules barring anti-LGBT discrimination in homeless shelters, Secretary of Housing & Urban Development Ben Carson said Wednesday his department won’t reissue the documents [...]
A congressional hearing Tuesday on the Equality Act, legislation seeking to prohibit anti-LGBT discrimination in fundamental aspects of life such as employment and housing, quickly got sidetracked into fears over men participating in women’s sports. [...]
Pete Buttigieg claimed a $7 million haul in first quarter fundraising for the exploratory committee for his 2020 presidential bid — an impressive score for an openly gay candidate who was virtually unknown months ago. [...]
The run-off election Tuesday night in Chicago resulted in a history victory for Lori Lightfoot, who became the first openly lesbian and black woman elected mayor of the city. The Associated Press called the race [...]
BY JAMES WELLEMEYER, Washington Blade The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States has designated Grindr a national security risk, according to an exclusive report from Reuters published on March 27. Reuters could not obtain CFIUS’s [...]
Police in Fairmount Heights, Md., a small town in Prince George’s County just across the border from D.C., are appealing to the public for information about the murder of a 27-year-old transgender woman who was [...]
Washington, DC – Today, Democratic National Committee Chair Tom Perez announced the appointment of Joe Solmonese to be Chief Executive Officer of the 2020 Democratic National Convention Committee. Solmonese just recently served as the Transition [...]
Human Rights Campaign launched its new campaign “Americans for the Equality Act,” a video series which features celebrities who support the Equality Act, on Monday. The proposed bill would amend the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) announced Thursday a vote would take place on the House floor next on a resolution against President Trump’s transgender military ban. Hoyer, the No. 2 in the Democratic caucus, [...]
A prominent LGBTI activist from San Francisco claims the Cuban government has prohibited him from entering the country.
The Democratic field of contenders continues to grow and I am impressed by the wide range of talent in the party. On Nov. 7, 2018 I wrote that Democrats need a coherent message and younger candidates to win in 2020. My thought was there should be no one over 70 on the ticket. I stand by that today.
Fifteen months after firing all members of the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS, President Trump has restaffed the advisory body with nine new appointments.
With court orders barring President Trump from enforcing his transgender military ban out of the way, the Defense Department late Tuesday unveiled its plan to make the policy a reality, announcing it would begin April [...]
Optimistic about the prospects of enshrining a prohibition on anti-LGBT discrimination into federal law with a new Democratic majority in the U.S. House, Democrats on Wednesday introduced legislation known as the Equality Act to make [...]
The two men who allegedly helped “Empire” star Jussie Smollett stage a fake homophobic and racist attack say that they have “tremendous regret” for how the incident has affected minority communities and victims of [...]
It’s pronounced “Boot-a-judge.” That was the first thing South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg cleared up for the Washington Blade in response to questions about his 2020 presidential run in a Jan. 31 interview. Buttigieg, [...]
Masterpiece Cakeshop — famed for its case that reached the U.S. Supreme Court after its owner refused to make a wedding cake for a same-sex couple — has reached a new agreement with the State [...]
A hearing on Capitol Hill Wednesday became a veritable tale of two cities as transgender troops testified about their commitment to military service while Trump administration officials sought to explain why they would seek to [...]
