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When Becky Albertalli published her first young adult novel, Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda, with the HarperCollins imprint Balzer and Bray in 2015, she never expected it to be controversial. She’d worked for years as a clinical psychologist specializing in gender nonconforming children and LGBTQ teens and adults.* Yet her book—about a closeted gay kid whose love notes to a classmate fall into the wrong hands—contained a moment that rubbed readers the wrong way: Simon, the sweet but clueless protagonist, muses that girls have an easier time coming out than boys, because their lesbianism strikes others as alluring. At...

Muslim bakeries in Michigan refuse to make cake for gay wedding. WHERE'S THE FRONT PAGE HEADLINES? WHERE'S THE ACLU LAWSUITS?

The Trump administration has decided to keep President Barack Obama’s top advocate for gay rights issues at the State Department in defiance of Christian groups who called for his immediate expulsion, Foreign Policy has learned. Randy Berry, the Special Envoy for the Human Rights of LGBTI Persons, is continuing “in his role under the current administration,” a State Department spokesperson said on Monday. The move marks the latest surprise decision by President Donald Trump on gay rights as he juggles the agenda of his staunchly conservative cabinet and top aides, and his cosmopolitan, New York-bred daughter Ivanka and son-in-law Jared...

Chadwick Moore, a contributor for the LGBT magazine OUT, has come out as a conservative in an article for The New York Post, citing his gradual move to the right after left-wing friends rejected him for his neutral profile on Breitbart Senior Editor MILO. In his article “I’m a gay New Yorker – and I’m coming out as a conservative,” Moore details how after he published the profile on MILO, fellow liberals and even his best friend started to ignore and cut ties with him. “After the story posted online in the early hours of October 21, I woke up...

A 6ft 5in drag queen with a shock of bright orange hair stole the show at the ceremony to choose Germany's new president in Berlin. Olivia Jones, real name Oliver Knobel, posed for photos with Chancellor Angela Merkel and brought a touch of glamour to the occasion. The 47-year-old was invited to be among the 1,260 voting delegates by the Green Party. They chose the Social Democrats' Frank-Walter Steinmeier, 61, who described President Donald Trump as a 'hate preacher' during last year's US election, as the new president in Germany. She is famous in Germany for her guided tours of...

Fourteen retired Anglican bishops are criticizing the Church of England’s attitude to homosexuality, saying the church is not listening to the voices of gay Christians. They are responding to a report from the church’s House of Bishops, which calls for a “fresh tone and culture of welcome and support” for gays and lesbians, but says the church should not lift its opposition to same-sex marriage. In an open letter , the ex-bishops say that “while the pain of LGBT people is spoken about in your report, we do not hear its authentic voice.” …

The Trump administration has dropped the federal government’s challenge to a nationwide injunction issued last year that blocked the fulfillment of Obama administration guidelines stating that transgender students’ access to bathrooms and other gender-segregated school facilities was protected under existing federal civil rights law. The injunction was issued in August by Judge Reed O’Connor of the Federal District Court for the Northern District of Texas as part of a lawsuit filed by more than a dozen states over the Obama administration’s position that Title IX, the federal law that bans sex discrimination in schools, protects transgender students. Under that interpretation,...

The Trump administration signaled late this week that it will not defend controversial federal guidelines that had been issued by Obama for transgender students. In the first concrete sign that a Trump White House will take a different path on transgender issues, the administration dropped the federal government's challenge to an injunction that blocked implementation of the guidelines, which directed schools to allow students to choose the bathroom that corresponds with their claimed gender identity. Last year, after more than 12 states filed legal challenges to the Obama administration's new interpretation of Title IX to bar discrimination based on gender...

When Out magazine assigned me an interview with the Breitbart.com rabble-rouser Milo Yiannopoulos, I knew it would be controversial. In the gay and liberal communities in particular, he is a provocative and loathed figure, and I knew featuring him in such a liberal publication would get negative attention. He has been repeatedly kicked off Twitter for, among other things, reportedly inciting racist, sexist bullying of “Ghostbusters” actress Leslie Jones. Before interviewing Yiannopoulos, I thought he was a nasty attention-whore, but I wanted to do a neutral piece on him that simply put the facts out there. After the story posted...

Transgender women are allowed to take part in Ireland’s most famous beauty pageant, the Rose of Tralee, the festival’s CEO confirmed today. Previously the pageant had said trans women weren’t eligible to take part, but following a public backlash they changed their mind. “The Festival is a progressive organization that always strives to reflect changes in society in the entry guidelines for women,” the festival originally told the Irish Mirror earlier this week. “Transgender women entering is not something we are considering at the moment; however, we will continue to review our guidelines.” The move took many by surprise, not...

President Obama was criticized by Republicans for attending a church led by Jeremiah Wright, who repeatedly criticized the United States for being, in his own opinion, an evil terrorist nation.  People wondered, how could Obama sit through sermons like that, year after year?  Didn't that mean that at the very least, Obama didn't have any serious problems with what Wright was saying? Well, we saw after eight years of Obama that that was probably true – that Obama saw America in a bad light.  That's why he kept trying to "fundamentally transform" it. But what about Supreme Court nominee...

A New York doll maker says it will be selling what it believes is the first transgender doll on the market. The doll is based on Jazz Jennings, the teenage transgender subject of the TLC documentary series “I am Jazz.” It will make its debut at the New York Toy Fair next week and be available on the Tonner Doll Co.’s web site and in specialty stores in July. A spokesman for the company said the 18-inch doll, which has a “genderless” plastic mold typical of most dolls, is being tested for kids aged 8 years and older and is...

. That means a commitment to diversity, inclusion, community, open-mindedness and some serious hard work. But it doesn't mean that I or my team will always agree with the opinion of everyone who works there, including its executives. Great leaders inspire and galvanize the masses during turbulent times, they don't cause people to divide and disband. My responsibility here is not only to the global audience we serve, but also to the thousands of workers who pour blood, sweat, and tears into making Under Armour strong. A diverse group of hardworking men and women who possess integrity, respect and compassion...

The NFL is expressing sharper warnings about a Texas ''bathroom bill'' targeting transgender persons than statements prior to the Super Bowl in Houston. NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy on Friday raised the prospect of Texas losing out on future Super Bowls if there were laws ''discriminatory or inconsistent with our values.'' He said such measures ''would certainly be a factor'' taken into consideration. That's more forceful than an NFL statement earlier this month that more generally endorsed inclusiveness.

Department of Justice Office of Public Affairs FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Wednesday, February 8, 2017 Former Catholic Priest Sentenced to 30 Years in Prison for Production and Distribution of Child Pornography A former U.S. Navy Lt. Commander and ordained Catholic priest was sentenced to 30 years in prison today for charges involving the sexual exploitation of children, announced Acting Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Blanco of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney Charles M. Oberly III of the District of Delaware. John Thomas Matthew Lee, 51, of Millsboro, Delaware, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Leonard P. Stark...

Friedland won the State Bar of California's 2013 President's Pro Bono Service Award, and the 2009 ACLU of Southern California’s LGBT Award,” reported the Times. The ACLU honored her for her representation of a gay-rights group in a state challenge of Proposition 8, the 2008 ballot measure that banned same-sex marriage... represented Equality California in Pickup v. Brown, successfully defending a California law that bans state-licensed mental health professionals from using ‘gay conversion’ therapy (or ‘sexual orientation change efforts’) on minors,” said the backgrounder.

February 9, 2017 (TheBridgehead) -- Due to relentless influences from Hollywood and progressive activists, many people now believe that Christians are hateful people. Specifically, Christians are hateful because Christianity forbids a broad range of sexual behaviors, and secular progressives have decided that this makes Christians “homophobic.” This term can be applied willy-nilly and irrespective of whether or not Christians do, in fact, fear or hate gay people. If Christians cannot agree that the definition of marriage can be arbitrarily changed after thousands of years, for example, this is indicative that Christians are desperately in need of the one quality progressives...

Match.com just released their annual “Singles in America” survey, offering a chilling insight into the Millennial Generation -- those born between the early '80s and 2000 -- and what this demographic thinks about love, sex and relationships. It’s no secret that Millennials have a much looser – pun intended – view of sex and commitment than prior generations, following a change in social norms that now seem to place higher value on things like “strong, independent women” than on committed long-term relationships or the notion of waiting until marriage to become intimate. But Match’s study of 5,500 random Millennials pulls back...

lbany Former NFL player Michael Sam said he always felt like an outsider — the deaths of two older brothers, the bullying he endured by other family members and even his mother's religion, Jehovah's Witness, made him feel apart from his peers. But nothing made him feel more like an outsider than being gay in the NFL. "I had to prove myself, to show that I was one of the guys," said Sam, who spoke Tuesday night as part of Sexuality Month at the University at Albany. "I was cut from the Rams, even though I was in the top...

FULL TITLE: Transgender woman, 58, who killed her sixth husband in a botched castration is arrested for threatening to shoot a judge A transgender woman who served jail time for killing her sixth husband in a botched castration found herself arrested again this week. Tammy L. Felbaum, 58, was detained after threatening to shoot a judge at the Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania Courthouse Monday morning. Authorities say Felbaum was going through security when she made a comment that she 'had guns and an Uzi and a rocket launcher' in her purse, which she sent through the X-ray scanner. As she walked...