Category: Sexual Orientation
Girls file federal discrimination complaint after transgender track wins
Three Connecticut girls who have run high school track have filed a federal discrimination complaint saying a statewide policy on transgender athletes has cost them top finishes in races and possibly college scholarships.
The complaint filed Monday with the U.S. Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights was submitted by the conservative Christian law firm Alliance Defending Freedom on behalf of the girls, who are asking for an investigation of the policy and orders that would make competitions fair. The complaint also cites the federal Title IX rules aimed at equal rights in sports for female athletes.
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‘My Little Pony’ introduces ‘LGBTQ couple’ in children’s cartoon
The “My Little Pony” franchise is selling more than plastic toys to little girls.
A cartoon series based on the Hasbro company’s popular figurines aired an episode in which a same-sex female pony couple take charge of a school-aged pony named Scootaloo. Previously released in Europe, “The Last Crusade” was broadcast Saturday on the Discovery Channel.
In an interview with Buzzfeed News, writer-producer Michael Vogel said he and co-writer Nicole Dubuc were delighted to introduce a same-sex couple, “Aunt Holiday” and “Auntie Lofty,” to the children’s show.
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Pride Flag Raised at California State Capitol for First Time
California on Monday raised the LGBTQ-pride flag over the state capitol for the first time in honor of Pride Month.
“For the first time ever, the Pride flag has been raised at the State Capitol!” Democratic governor Gavin Newsom’s office wrote on Twitter.
“In California, we celebrate and support our lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer community’s right to live out loud — during Pride month and every month,” Newsom said. “By flying the pride flag over the State Capitol, we send a clear message that California is welcoming and inclusive to all, regardless of how you identify or who you love.”
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Bermuda to Have First Pride March After Legalizing Gay Marriage
Bermuda will have the first Pride event in the territory’s history after gay marriage was legalized there last year.
Bermuda’s first Pride march is slated to take place Aug. 31, nearly a year after the British island territory again legalized same-sex marriage.
The Supreme Court had legalized gay marriage in May 2017, but Bermuda became the first national territory in the world last February to repeal its gay marriage legislation.
Supporters of the Pride event called it a “huge step” forward for the LGBTQ community there, according to the Royal Gazette.
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How Families with Two Dads Raise Their Kids
Some states, including Texas, South Dakota and Alabama, have tried to defy the 2015 Supreme Court ruling that made marriage equality the law of the land. Their “religious freedom” bills allow taxpayer-funded agencies to deny qualified LGBTQ adults to foster and adopt children.
LGBTQ protection in education appears limited as well. When pressed on the question, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is refusing to tell lawmakers whether she believes the federal government should include “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” in anti-discrimination policies.
That reminds me of how former Kentucky family court judge W. Mitchell Nance refused to hold hearings on same-sex couples’ adoptions in 2017 “as a matter of conscience.” He resigned after his state’s Judicial Conduct Commission found him guilty of misconduct.
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50 Years After Stonewall, LGBT Rights Are a Work in Progress
They didn’t set out to change history; they weren’t the first LGBT Americans to mobilize against bias.
Yet the June 1969 uprising by young gays, lesbians and transgender people in New York City, clashing with police near a bar called the Stonewall Inn, was a vital catalyst in expanding LGBT activism nationwide and abroad. This month’s anniversary provides an opportune moment to ask: How has the movement fared over the past 50 years? What unfinished business remains?
From the perspective of veteran activists, the progress has been astounding. In 1969, every state but Illinois outlawed gay sex, psychiatric experts classified homosexuality as a mental disorder, and most gays stayed in the closet for fear of losing jobs and friends.
Today, same-sex marriage is the law of the land in the U.S. and at least 25 other countries. LGBT Americans serve as governors, big-city mayors and members of Congress, and one — Pete Buttigieg — is waging a spirited campaign for president.
NYC May Take Big Step to Recognize LGBTQ-Owned Business
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Confused about religious freedom and LGBT rights? Most Americans are
The clash between religious freedom and LGBT rights is a key feature of today’s “culture wars,” but it turns out that Americans are deeply confused about what actually happens when these two realms come into conflict. In fact, according to the latest survey conducted by PRRI, Americans are more united in their lack of knowledge about the current state of religious freedom and LGBT protections than they are in their opinions about what should be done to ensure such protections.
Consider one such scenario: Can the U.S. government require a church to perform a wedding for an LGBT couple? Almost half of Americans are either unsure of the answer to this question (11%) or incorrectly convinced that religious organizations can in fact be required to do this (38%). Moreover, American ignorance on this matter transcends political orientation, gender and age — typically some of the most significant markers of disagreement in the debate over LGBT rights. In other words, while Democrats and Republicans, men and women, and younger and older Americans differ significantly in their opinions about whether people should be granted religiously-based refusals to serve LGBT people in a variety of contexts, these groups are indistinguishable in their confusion about the legal protections that actually currently exist.
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The U.K. Just Banned ‘Harmful Gender Stereotypes’ in Advertising
A ban on advertisements containing “harmful” gender stereotypes came into force in the U.K. on Friday, in a move experts hope will reduce gender inequality.
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Why the Gay and Lesbian Equality Movement Must Oppose Surrogacy
As gay people, we cannot insist on the right to carry out practices that harm the rights of others. Rather than being an LGBT rights issue, surrogacy is a women’s rights issue and a children’s rights issue; and like the sale of human organs, it is not an activity that should be promoted or indeed permitted.
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Reason at risk from transgender activists – and the Catholic Church comes to the rescue
The Catholic Church has emerged as this week’s unlikely champion of open dialogue and intellectual freedom. As lesbian, gay, bisexual, and especially transsexual activists seek to close down society’s debate over the nature of sexuality and gender, the Vatican seems determined to pry it open.
On Monday, the Vatican’s Congregation for Catholic Education published a report called Male and Female He Created Them to lay out the church’s views on the proper role of modern gender theory in Catholic education. The title is a quote from Genesis (the book, not the band), chapter 5. The report, unsurprisingly, comes out in favour of traditional sex roles and gender identitie
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Catholic restaurant under LGBT fire over refusal to host lesbian ‘wedding’ rehearsal dinner
Several days ago some of us learned from the St. Louis media that Madison’s Cafe, a restaurant in O’Fallon, MO, is earning the shocked indignation of the progressivist apostles of tolerance and inclusivity for politely declining – yes, even during their hallowed “Pride” month! – to host a wedding rehearsal dinner for a lesbian couple “marrying” the next day. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch ran a report here.
The woman whose request for a pro-lesbian “marriage” event was turned down by Madison’s presented herself to the media as a tolerant, compassionate victim of bigotry: she’s reported as saying that she wasn’t really interested in causing trouble for the restaurant since she didn’t want to “repay hate with more hate.” (In that case, one wonders, why did she talk to the media about it at all? Given their firm and well-known support of the militant homosexual agenda, that was a sure-fire way to make trouble for the restaurant’s proprietors.)
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Drag show at Iowa public library features kids giving drag queen dollar bills
A public library in Ames, Iowa, hosted “family-friendly” entertainment offered by drag performers who accepted cash tips from children in attendance.
In the city that is home to Iowa State University, the public library offered music and dance drag performances by amateurs and professionals. Adults and children were in the audience on April 6 to watch gyrations, lip-synching, and exotic costumes during an evening that included “all-ages” performances that were followed by a “teens only” show featuring “sparkles, costumes, free snacks, and mingling!” According to local reports, more than 240 people attended the fourth such event organized by the library.
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