Steve Lee, Editor

Alabama House Committee advances bill allowing taxpayer-funded anti-LGBTQ discrimination

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Today, the Alabama House Health Committee put the discriminatory H.B. 24 bill on the fast track to a vote by the full House of Representatives. The bill, titled the “Child Placing Agency Inclusion Act,” would enshrine taxpayer-funded discrimination into Alabama law by allowing state-funded and licensed adoption and foster care agencies to…

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Tennessee Senate Committee advances anti-LGBTQ legislative proposal

A Tennessee Senate Commerce and Labor Committee has voted to advance SB 127 — legislation promoting taxpayer-funded discrimination against LGBTQ Tennesseans and their families. The discriminatory proposal would prohibit state agencies and municipalities from requiring businesses, organizations, contractors and grantees, to not have policies that discriminate against LGBTQ people. SB 127 states, “A government entity shall not…

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GLSEN calls on DeVos to honor her confirmation commitment to address ‘the needs of all parents and students’

NEW YORK – Yesterday, the U.S. Senate voted to confirm Betsy DeVos’ nomination for Secretary of Education, despite hundreds of thousands of calls, emails and letters from parents, students and advocates for inclusive public education asking senators to vote no. GLSEN’s Executive Director, Dr. Eliza Byard, issued the following statement in response. “During her confirmation…

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Former transgender inmate to receive gender affirming surgery Feb. 10

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif.  – Michelle-Lael Norsworthy, most notably known for setting a precedent that the state of California needs to provide gender reassignment surgery for trans inmates, is finally undergoing her surgery this Friday, Feb. 10. In April 2015, in the landmark decision of Norsworthy v. Beard, U.S. District Judge Jon Tigar ruled the state…

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House LGBT Caucus announces bipartisan, 102 person membership in the 115th Congress

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Congressional LGBT Equality Caucus announced its bi-partisan membership list for the 115th Congress today.  The Caucus will continue to be co-chaired by the six openly LGBT members of the House of Representatives:  Jared Polis (CO-02), David N. Cicilline (RI-01), Sean Patrick Maloney (NY-18), Mark Pocan (WI-02), Kyrsten Sinema (AZ-09), and Mark Takano…

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GLAAD launches glaadgrants to amplify diverse voices from the LGBTQ community

NEW YORK – Today, GLAAD launched glaadgrants, which provides completion funding and professional mentorships to content creators for in-progress works that advance GLAAD’s mission of amplifying diverse voices from the LGBTQ community. This comes as part of GLAAD’s goal to develop a pipeline of talented LGBTQ content creators that can move into the mainstream of…

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Covered California finishes fourth open enrollment with more than 412,000 new consumers

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Covered California announced Monday that it finished the open-enrollment period with 412,105 new consumers signing up for health coverage. “California met our projections, driven by the nearly 50,000 consumers who signed up for health insurance in the last two days of open enrollment,” Covered California Executive Director Peter V. Lee said. “This…

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NCSA: North Carolina must repeal HB2 or lose NCAA Championship games through 2022

In a letter sent to state lawmakers today, the North Carolina Sports Association (NCSA) warned that the NCAA will pull all of the state’s championship game bids through 2022 if HB2 is not immediately repealed. In the letter, the North Carolina Sports Association warned lawmakers that the NCAA decision will cost the state at least another half a billion…

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