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When Julie Rodgers came out as a lesbian at age 17, her mom responded by taking her to an ex-gay ministry in Dallas. Rodgers had grown up in a nondenominational evangelical church where she assumed being gay wasn’t an option. “With ex-gay ministries, it gave me the space to be honest about my sexuality,” said Rodgers, now 28. Yet that same honesty eventually led her away from ex-gay ministries. Rodgers spent several years in Exodus, the now-defunct ex-gay ministry, before deciding she couldn’t become straight after trying to date men. Instead, she has chosen celibacy. When Exodus shut down in...

A state federal judge has struck down a lawsuit challenging New Jersey’s ban on “sexual orientation change efforts” or SOCE, as they are referred to in court. This is the second time in nine months a judge has dismissed a lawsuit against a practice called conversion therapy. Gov. Chris Christie signed the law that banned the practice in NJ last year, according to the Associated Press.

California lawmakers will consider updating family law and parental rights to keep up with the evolving nature of families when they return from summer break. Bitter, high-profile disputes have inspired legislators to modernize laws molded for “Leave it to Beaver”-era families. Jason Patric, star of “The Lost Boys,” has been seeking custody rights over a son he fathered through sperm donation. The children of radio personality Casey Kasem had been in a legal fight with their stepmother to visit their father in the last years of his life. Supporters of these bills say such cases demonstrate that laws are lagging...

Leave it to Laverne Cox to make sure Oprah's best friend gets her trans terminology right. The Emmy-nominated “Orange is the New Black” actress — the first openly transgender woman to receive that honor — appeared on “CBS This Morning” Tuesday to promote the show and her other projects. When co-host Gayle King started her section of the interview by saying “So, you were born a boy…”, Cox quickly corrected her by saying that she was “assigned” a gender at birth, but she always felt like she was a girl.

Northwestern University will offer “gender-open restrooms” to its students this fall. “We are trying to be responsive to the needs of all of our students and to be inclusive,” campus spokesman Bob Rowley said in an email to The College Fix. “This is becoming a common occurrence on campuses across the U.S.” At Northwestern, the two sex-segregated bathrooms to be changed will simply have their front door placards replaced to reflect the transition – no major renovations are planned. The bathrooms are located on the third floor of the university’s main building that serves as the campus hub. Northwestern joins...

A federal appeals court panel on Monday struck down Virginia’s ban on same-sex marriage, and that decision could have major political and legal implications for North Carolina. The three-judge panel on the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which includes North Carolina, declared that Virginia’s laws placed an unconstitutional limit on the right to marry. N.C. Attorney General Roy Cooper thinks Monday’s decision will undo North Carolina’s ban on same-sex marriages, and he has no plans to intervene. Cooper said that it now would be “futile” to continue defending North Carolina’s ban against challenges from within the state. Four cases...

Making controversial statements is nothing new for me. Neither is the reaction that usually follows. But perhaps no other issue causes as much discussion, debate, and condemnation from others than when I present my position on the issue of homosexuality. As a known Christian, I have been told that I MUST think a certain way and that I MUST believe a certain way regarding not only people who are gay, but regarding their entire lifestyle as well.

The creator of BBC TV series Sherlock has been inundated with fan mail urging him to make the detective and Dr Watson gay lovers. Mark Gatiss admitted he had been overwhelmed with explicit drawings and plotline ideas ahead of the new series starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman, due late next year. It follows a running joke in the show which hints the pair might be closer than friends, especially by landlady Mrs Hudson, played by Una Stubbs, 77, who often makes references to their sexuality.

The owner of a towing company was arrested Friday and charged with illegally towing vehicles of people who took part in last month's Gay Days events in Orange County. Jason P. Combs, 44, owner of ASAP Towing, faces 29 counts of grand theft of a motor vehicle and other charges. Deputies allege he towed more than 100 vehicles June 5 to 9 from a parking lot at Westwood Town Center off International Drive, which is across the street from the event's host hotel, Doubletree by Hilton. Combs didn't have an up-to-date contract to tow vehicles or have proper signage notifying...

Wichita police say a 10-month-old baby was left alone in a hot car for two to two and a half hours Thursday afternoon. The girl was found dead at around 6:40 pm in the 1500 block of S. Topeka. Police say the girl's 29-year-old foster father picked her up from a babysitter at around 4:00 in the afternoon. They returned to the home along with a five-year-old child. Police say, somehow, the child was left behind in the car as the 29-year-old and the 5-year-old went inside. The foster father's partner, a 26-year-old man who is also a foster parent,...

<p>When Luke Grimes started on HBO’s “True Blood” last season his character James Kent was wooing a female vampire. But Grimes reportedly quit in December when he found out Kent was bisexual and starting a romantic relationship with a gay character in the seventh and final season.</p>

Last night, New York Times reporter Josh Barro tweeted out a disturbing message: “Anti-LGBT attitudes are terrible for people in all sorts of communities. They linger and oppress, and we need to stamp them out, ruthlessly.” This is rather shocking. Barro is no angry blogger writing manifestos in his basement. He is a respected reporter from a prestigious newspaper that prides itself on equanimity in the face of heated debate. Yet he seems, by any reasonable measure, to be fomenting a campaign to rout all dissenters from the sexual revolution. Erick Erickson wrote a brief response to Barro’s tweet, to...

Former Tampa Bay Buccaneers Head Coach Tony Dungy told the Tampa Tribune that he would NOT have drafted Michael Sam if he were still coaching. “I wouldn’t have taken him,’’ said former Bucs and Colts coach Tony Dungy, now an analyst for NBC. “Not because I don’t believe Michael Sam should have a chance to play, but I wouldn’t want to deal with all of it. “It’s not going to be totally smooth … things will happen.’ What are your thoughts on Coach Dungy’s statements???

The NFL hasn’t been sufficiently accepting of Michael Sam, who came out as the first openly gay professional football player earlier this year, due to the religious Right’s influence in NFL locker rooms, says one ESPN commentator. On Tuesday, Pardon the Interruption’s Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon were discussing former NFL coach Tony Dungy’s recent comments that media attention would have pushed him away from drafting Sam. Kornheiser said he was optimistic that NFL players would be personally tolerant of Sam, though. “I’m more skeptical,” Wilbon countered. “I think there is a component, a subculture of the religious Right, that...

New Zealand’s first same-sex “marriage” is shaping up to become the country’s first same-sex divorce. Less than a year since they became the poster girls for the country’s new legal definition of marriage (last August) the NZ Herald reports that Melissa Ray, a former Ferns football player, and Natasha Vitali, a sales rep, are “believed to have split”. The main source of the story appears to be Ms Vitali’s Facebook page on which the following poem appeared yesterday: Drink it down, laugh it off, Avoid the drama, take chances, And never have regrets Because at one point everything you did...

To be clear, in America's polite upper-middleclass circles, gay domestic violence is the hatred that dare not speak its name. Ditto "progressive" Australia. For the media class, at least, would prefer to talk about white picket fences, rainbow flags and same-sex wedding cakes. The message: Think pretty things. Still, even MSNBC can't wish away ugliness. As one underreported UCLA study found: Although reported incidences of intimate partner violence, or IPV, are widespread, especially among women and certain ethnic groups, reported IPV was surprisingly high among lesbians, gays and bisexuals in California, who are almost twice as likely to experience violence...

"I wouldn’t have taken him. Not because I don’t believe Michael Sam should have a chance to play, but I wouldn’t want to deal with all of it. “It’s not going to be totally smooth … things will happen.’’ That's what former NFL defensive back and head coach Tony Dungy told Ira Kaufman of the Tampa Tribune when asked about the prospects for rookie defensive end Michael Sam. Of course, Sam is the league's first openly gay player, and though many league executives and players may feel exactly that way, Dungy may feel the courage to speak to his own...

The leader of the youth arm of the British National Party has launched an attack on someone that he perceives to ‘challenge his principles’ – his own ‘gay’ dog. Jack Renshaw, a student at Manchester University and the head of the BNP Youth, wrote the Facebook post alongside a picture of Derek the dog, in which he criticised the mutt for ‘licking the (organ) of other male dogs’. ‘I wish my dog would stop licking the (organ) of other male dogs,’ he wrote. ‘I love you, Derek (my dog) – but – don’t challenge my principles because my principles will...

Fascinating data released from the Center for Disease Control about homosexuality. Homosexuality is not becoming more common. Out of 300 million Americans, only 2 million are homosexual men. 98% of men are heterosexual. And the share of the young-adult (18-45) public which is homosexual (1.9%) is almost the same as that of the middle-aged (45-64) public (1.8%), despite AIDS having ravaged the gay population which is now largely middle-aged. Bisexuality may well be another matter. Young adults are three times more likely than middle-aged adults to be bisexual, although that's still just over 1% of the total population. (Women are...

“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves.  You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.  A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Therefore by their fruits you will know them.” When is the last time you heard a good story about...