Many lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people (206+ million) and their families live in a state that still needs to update or clarify its laws to include protection from discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Yesterday, Equality Federation, alongside 30 statewide lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) groups from Georgia Equality to…
DENVER, Colo. — The State Department of Regulatory Agencies has notified a bakery owner that a discrimination complaint has been filed against the business because the owner refused to write an anti-gay message on a cake. Marjorie Silva, owner of the award-winning Peruvian Bakery Azucar at 1186 S. Broadway said that last March a man…
If you’re active in San Diego’s trans community, you’ve likely heard of Claire Russell. She’s known for being imaginative, being service oriented and for being an organizer. Her work includes volunteering at the LGBT Youth Center, creating an online San Diego Trans Resource Center and she was a key organizer for the first annual Trans*Pride…
There’s a reason why, in the mid-2000s, my first blogging gig was for The Ex-Gay Watch. My parents made it a requirement for me to live in their house that I go to a Christian therapist to “treat” me for my “transvetism.” My parents and I were Pentecostals, and I wanted to be cured of…
Despite its contentious legacy on racial discrimination, Greensboro, North Carolina hopes to nudge the dial forward on LGBT equality tonight when the City Council votes on several new anti-discrimination ordinances. “The proposed changes in Greensboro include adding sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression to a list of enumerated categories in three ordinances — fair…
After I came out in 2003, most of my holiday seasons have been filled with holiday depression. You know, that kind of seasonal depression one experiences that has known cause or causes and comes and goes at roughly the same times each year in fall and winter. Annual events and anniversaries with gray and black…
According to the USA Today article VA Treats 2,500 Veterans, the Veterans Health Administration (VHA – part of the overall Department of Veterans Affairs, or VA), in 2013 treated 2,567 veterans with the diagnosis of gender dysphoria for transgender specific health care. That’s a significant population of trans veterans in the VA. And, being statistically…
WASHINGTON – Attorney General Eric Holder announced yesterday that the Department of Justice will no longer assert that “Title VII’s prohibition against discrimination based on sex does not encompass gender identity per se (including transgender discrimination).” Holder wrote that the “best reading of Title VII’s prohibition of sex discrimination is that it encompasses discrimination based…
The Duggar family – made famous by TLC’s popular reality television show – just helped repeal an ordinance protecting LGBT people from discrimination. What responsibility does TLC have for the work being carried out by its reality TV superstars asks Media Matters for America. Since the debut of their TLC reality show 19 Kids and…
How does one meet the needs of the local trans community? During holiday seasons I often think about my community peers. I’d say my community peers like me, but many of my peers aren’t like me. I’m white; I transitioned in middle-age; I had a long military career; I’m invisibly disabled and can’t hold down…
