NEW YORK – GLAAD, the world’s largest LGBTQ media advocacy organization, today called attention to new USDA religious exemptions policy statement that furthers the Trump Administration work to further undermine LGBTQ non-discrimination protections. The new statement appeared on the USDA website yesterday and states that the USDA supports the discussion, display, and distribution of religious…
Washington, DC – SPARTA, the national organization of LGBT members of the U.S. armed forces and their families, commended Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel for his service on behalf of lesbian, gay, and bisexual service members and their families, while calling upon him to initiate immediately a promised review of the outdated policy prohibiting transgender…
Social Security has published new instructions that allow the agency to process more claims in which entitlement or eligibility is affected by a same-sex relationship. These instructions come in response to last year’s Supreme Court decision in U.S. vs. Windsor, which found Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act unconstitutional. This latest policy development lets…
WASHINGTON – Tuesday, Attorney General Eric Holder harshly condemned a Boy Scouts of America (BSA) policy that prohibits gays and lesbians from serving as Scout Leaders. While the group’s National Council recently voted to end a longstanding ban on gay youth in Scouting, it left in place a policy that bars gay and lesbian adults,…
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Dept. of Health and Human Services (HHS) ruled today that “sex reassignment surgery” and other transition-related medical care should no longer be automatically excluded from coverage. “As HHS appropriately points out, excluding coverage for transition-related surgery is unreasonable as viewed by the standards of the medical profession today – incomplete, unfair, and…
What a weekend it was for the LGBT community this past Mother’s Day weekend. Michael Sam became the first openly gay football player drafted by an NFL team, drag performer Conchita Wurst won the annual Eurovision Song contest and the Arkansas State Supreme Court ruled for marriage equality. But in a development that truly made…
Monday, the Department of Defense (DoD) released a new DoD Human Goals Charter, signed by Secretary of Defense Hagel. The last iteration of that document was released in 1998, and included mention of equal equality based on sexual orientation for civilian employees, but not for military servicemembers. The new iteration includes a language based on…
SAN DIEGO – Broadway/San Diego and The Book Of Mormon, winner of nine Tony Awards including Best Musical, today announced a lottery ticket policy for the National Tour, which begins May 27 at The San Diego Civic Theatre and plays a limited two week engagement through June 8. In San Diego, the production will conduct…
Speaking to more than 1,000 LGBT rights supporters at the Human Rights Campaign Los Angeles gala, SaturdayVice President Joe Biden said the United States will be a world leader in the fight for LGBT equality. His keynote address, which lasted 28 minutes, outlined the administration’s commitment to stand up for the human rights of LGBT…
My friend, Nicole Shounder, currently serves on board a Military Sealift Command (MSC) ship out of the Pacific Northwest. She’s a nurse, and when she’s assigned onto any U.S. Navy ship she takes on the equivalent rank of a lieutenant commander (LCDR). She was cited in a document entitled Report of the Transgender Military Service…
