Today is a day of celebration! November 18 is the anniversary of the historic 2003 ruling that made Massachusetts the first U.S. state to allow same-sex couples to marry. It also marks the 2003 repeal of the U.K.’s anti-LGBTQ Section 28 law. Additionally, it’s the “Massaversary” of when my spouse and I legally wed (though we celebrate our true anniversary in April).
Just days after author Robin Stevenson said she was uninvited from a recent school talk because her newest book discusses Harvey Milk, Lesléa Newman, author of the classic Heather Has Two Mommies, writes that she was uninvited from a visit to two different schools because of her LGBTQ-inclusive books.
Yes, it’s a car ad—but it’s also a queer love story that unfolds over 30 years. Yes, you’ll need tissues.
A federal judge issued a decision Wednesday stating that a Trump administration rule allowing health care workers to refuse to provide medical services that violate their religious or moral beliefs is unconstitutional and invalid.
“Noxious”; “heartless and dumb”; “discriminatory and repugnant to our values”—these are just a few of the words that New York Governor Andrew Cuomo used to describe the Trump Administration’s proposed rule that would allow taxpayer-funded foster care and adoption agencies, along with other healthcare entities, to discriminate against LGBTQ people and others. Cuomo pledged to fight the rule and to continue supporting LGBTQ people in New York who want to become parents or care for children in need.
The Trump administration has once again outdone itself in loathsomeness by issuing a new rule today—the first day of National Adoption Month—that allows taxpayer-funded foster care and adoption agencies to discriminate on the basis of sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, and religion. In fact, it would let all recipients of grants from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) engage in such discrimination, which could impact programs dedicated to youth homelessness, HIV, STI, and substance abuse prevention, among others. Here’s what you can do to help counter it.
LGBTQ and reproductive rights advocates are in court today to fight a Trump administration rule that allows health care workers to refuse to provide medical services that violate their religious or moral beliefs. They argue that the rule is unlawful and permits discrimination against LGBTQ people and our families, among others.
A few bits from round and about that I haven’t covered elsewhere, including family vignettes, information on fertility and family formation, and a child of same-sex parents left “stateless” after three countries have refused or delayed granting her citizenship.
Today, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear three cases that could either take away existing LGBTQ employment protections—or affirm that existing federal law does protect LGBTQ people. This could be the decision that has the most impact on LGBTQ people’s lives—and the lives of our children—in the years to come.
Taxpayer-funded adoption and foster care agencies in Michigan may use their religious beliefs as a reason to discriminate against same-sex and unmarried couples, a federal judge ruled yesterday, overturning a settlement that had been reached earlier this year.
