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An AP story about lesbians, drug cartels, gender neutrality, and high-heel shoe dress codes. http://bigstory.ap.org/article/65e3d1cc5b3b424cb5e89f472e6199c8/cannes-steps-big-trouble-high-heels-only-policy

Clinton recently shifted her position on the issue of same-sex marriage slightly. Last summer, in a testy interview with NPR's Terry Gross, Clinton said while she supports same-sex marriage, the issue "had always been a matter left to the states." In a statement released via a spokeswoman earlier this month, Clinton now said she hopes it would become a "constitutional right." “Hillary Clinton supports marriage equality and hopes the Supreme Court will come down on the side of same-sex couples being guaranteed that constitutional right,” Hillary for America spokeswoman Adrienne Elrod said in a statement to ABC News.

An Oregon administrative law judge recommended today that the bakers who refused to bake a cake for a same-sex wedding should be fined $135,000. “[T]he forum concludes that $75,000 and $60,000, are appropriate awards to compensate [the same-sex couple] for the emotional suffering they experienced,” wrote Alan McCullough, administrative law judge for Oregon’s Bureau of Labor and Industries in his proposed order. Aaron and Melissa Klein, owners of Sweet Cakes by Melissa located in Gresham, Ore., say the fine is enough to potentially bankrupt their family of seven. The dispute began in January 2013, when Aaron denied Rachel Cryer a...

Dear LGBT Community, I am not your daughter. I never carried a flag in one of your gay pride parades. I have never written a letter on your behalf to a congressman or anyone else, and I have never felt the need to make people accept the fact I am the daughter of a lesbian. Perhaps it’s because she never felt the need to force people to accept her for being one. I knew from a young age that living with two women was not natural. I could especially see it in the homes of my friends who had a...

I am a queer woman planning to get married next year in a state where my marriage will not be legally recognized. It will probably not surprise you to learn that, sometimes, being gay is not easy. Coming out to your family is nervewracking, people yell slurs and threats when you hold hands on the street, and most lesbian movies are just terrible. With all those drawbacks, those of us who spend our lives with a partner of the same sex must really have no choice in the matter -- or so goes the prevailing wisdom of the gay rights...

On April 3rd, Iowa Safe Schools held our 10th Annual Iowa Governors Conference on LGBTQ Youth. The event hosted over 1,000 attendees including students, college-aged youth, educators, parents, faith leaders, mental health providers, and more who care about the well-being of LGBTQ students in our state. This year’s speakers included the former Prime Minister of Iceland and first out head of government in the modern era - Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir; the first out WWE Superstar Darren Young; and Abbe Land the CEO of The Trevor Project which is a national LGBTQ youth suicide prevention hotline. Our conference provides the only opportunity...

Hillary Clinton isn’t just caught in a political scandal over her missing emails from her stint as secretary of state – she’s also terrified of personal revelations about a secret lesbian lifestyle! Now a world-exclusive investigation by The National ENQUIRER reveals that some of the presidential candidate’s famously “deleted” emails are packed full of lesbian references and her lovers’ names. “I don’t think she’s so concerned about emails referring to her as secretly gay,” said a Clinton insider. “That’s been out for years – her real fear is that the names of some of her lovers would be made public!”...

President Barack Obama's top adviser, Valerie Jarrett, went around the table and kissed reporters before an interview this morning on MNSBC's Morning Joe. The moment was briefly captured on live television before the network cut away to a commercial break. Watch here:

Unbelievers don’t “struggle” with same-sex attraction. I didn’t. My love for women came with nary a struggle at all. I had not always been a lesbian, but in my late twenties, I met my first lesbian-lover. I was hooked and believed that I had found my real self. Sex with women was part of my life and identity, but it was not the only part — and not always the biggest part. I simply preferred everything about women: their company, their conversation, their companionship, and the contours of their/our body. I favored the nesting, the setting up of house and...

A gay student in Louisiana says she is going to skip her prom because the school principal won’t let her wear a tuxedo. Claudettia Love is a senior and one of the top students at Carroll High in Monroe. She says she was planning on going to the prom with a group of friends, but now they are staying away because of the policy. …

A feminist group at the University of Wollongong plans to hold an event on Wednesday about gay pornography. The "cr*p" in their event is never actually specified, meaning that the pornography will either feature fecal matter or disabled people. The event, advertised on Facebook, is titled "FreeSchool #5: The Radical Potential of Queer Cr*p Porn." It will be hosted by FemSoc, which is short for "Feminist Society." This is the picture used to promote the event: The description states, "This weeks free school will be delivered by FemSoc member Liv Todhunter on the radical potential of Queer Cr*p Porn to...

Orlando, FL - Heather Barwick, who was raised by two lesbians, shared her compelling story and why she opposes same-sex marriage. Married to a man and raising four children, Heather has come to realize why same-sex marriage is wrong and why it harms children. In her powerful story, Heather wrote in The Federalist: “Growing up, and even into my 20s, I supported and advocated for gay marriage. It’s only with some time and distance from my childhood that I’m able to reflect on my experiences and recognize the long-term consequences that same-sex parenting had on me. And it’s only now,...

The course of history changes at special moments when courageous individuals step up to take a stand, often at personal risk, on issues burning in controversy. One of those moments was just celebrated with the commemoration of the historic civil rights march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama in March 1965. Another such moment is unfolding before us today. A group of some 150 black pastors, the National Baptist Fellowship of Concerned Pastors, is standing in protest against an invitation from the American Baptist College, in Nashville, Tennessee, to Bishop Yvette Flunder to speak at the college’s annual...

Maybe it is her short, spiky hair, or the cigarettes, which she gives to the men repairing the wiring in her Brooklyn apartment. Maybe it is because she swears. For whatever reason, the Rev. Ann Kansfield does not fit the stereotype of a minister. Not that she is worried about meeting anyone’s expectations for what a clergywoman should say or do. “We shouldn’t have to hide ourselves or worry about being judged,” Ms. Kansfield, who ministers at the Greenpoint Reformed Church, said. In her newest ministry, that self-assuredness is likely to serve her well. Ms. Kansfield, 39, is to...

White House National Security Adviser Susan E. Rice has developed a reputation among those who work with her for harshly criticizing people by using the “F bomb,” according to current and former U.S. officials familiar with two exchanges. The first case involved a 2013 White House meeting between Ms. Rice and Gen.Keith Alexander, who was director of the National Security Agency, regarding NSA spying on foreign leaders including German Chancellor Angela Merkel. According to one senior U.S. official, Ms. Rice opened the conversation with the four-star general, now retired, with: “Why the [expletive] are you listening to Angela Merkel’s phone...

TACOMA, Wash. — A Tacoma woman said she fears for her life after a stranger attacked her in an alley, wrapping her dog’s leash around her neck, writing homophobic slurs on her body, and stabbing her. Tacoma police are investigating the incident as a hate crime.

Christian owners of a bakery in Gresham, Oregon, who were forced to close their business in 2013 due to backlash over their refusal to bake a cake for a lesbian wedding based on religious objections, were found guilty of discrimination Monday and now have to pay the couple up to $150,000 in fines. The Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries announced that the owners of Sweet Cakes by Melissa bakery, Aaron and Melissa Klein, will have to pay the sapphic couple. Whether or not they pay the maximum $150,000 fine will be determined at a hearing on March 10 BOLI...

Exciting news: Virginia-MassResistance has become the first MassResistance state chapter. It was formed this past year and is off and running! It has an incredible website (www.VirginiaMassResistance.org) and is fearlessly tackling the hard-hitting issues across the state of Virginia. It’s very exciting! They are doing first-rate work. Over the past few years people in several states – and a few foreign countries – have contacted us about forming chapters and taking on the MassResistance brand of activism in their areas. This is hopefully the first of many. Virginia MassResistance was founded and organized by Linda Wall. Linda is an ex-Lesbian...

Critics of Houston Mayor Annise Parker’s new protections for transgenders (allowing them to use whichever restroom they desire regardless of their anatomy) saw their petitions aimed at getting Mayor’s policy on the ballot arbitrarily declared invalid. The Mayor now wants these critics to be judged by a “Special Master” for “attempting to overturn simple justice through improper utilization of the petition process.” Those accused of this made-up crime have demanded a jury trial, a demand for something that Parker calls “ludicrous and unnecessary.” “The role of a jury is to determine the facts of a case,” Parker lectured. “In this...

Dozens gathered outside a Colorado church to protest Tuesday after a bereaved family said the pastor stopped a woman’s funeral when he found out she was a lesbian. According to KMGH, Denver’s New Hope Ministries ended Vanessa Collier’s funeral Saturday after the minister saw a video tribute that showed Collier kissing her significant other, which the family had refused to edit. […] The pastor who called off the funeral defended his actions to KCNC, saying he hadn’t been aware of the video until right before the service, and that he gave the family the chance to edit it. …