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The National Park Service announced Friday that it will launch a study to identify places of historical significance to the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community. Secretary Sally Jewell made the announcement at The Stonewall Inn, which was the site of the 1969 riots that helped launch the modern gay rights movement. It is currently the only site in the country designated a national landmark. Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/may/30/obama-administration-launches-250k-study-identify-/#ixzz33FmB3H9X Follow us: @washtimes on Twitter

The National Park Service announced Friday that it will launch a study to identify places of historical significance to the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community. Secretary Sally Jewell made the announcement at The Stonewall Inn, which was the site of the 1969 riots that helped launch the modern gay rights movement. It is currently the only site in the country designated a national landmark.

Continuing their commitment to silence anyone who might stand in the way of their agenda, gay and lesbian groups are now beginning to criticize supporters who are thought to be insufficiently loyal. The most recent case involves Douglas Laycock, a University of Virginia law professor, who is married to the University’s president, Teresa A. Sullivan. A man with impeccable progressive credentials, Laycock has been a longtime supporter of gay rights and same-sex marriage—filing an amicus brief in the 2012 Supreme Court case, United States v. Windsor that urged the court to extend same-sex marriage benefits to every state in...

In California, it may soon be legal for gay men to list themselves as “mother” on birth certificates, and similarly, for lesbians to cite themselves as “father.” Or, the gay parent could simply opt for the more generic label of “parent,” The Associated Press reported. That’s because lawmakers on Thursday passed through the state Assembly with a 51-13 vote a measure to “modernize” the definition of the family to reflect same-sex unions.

The first openly gay Episcopal bishop, who became a symbol for gay rights far beyond the church while deeply dividing the world's Anglicans, plans to divorce his husband. Bishop Gene Robinson announced the end of his marriage to Mark Andrew in an email sent to the Diocese of New Hampshire, where he served for nine years before retiring in 2012. Robinson would not disclose details about the end of their 25-year relationship but wrote Sunday in The Daily Beast he owed a debt to Andrew "for standing by me through the challenges of the last decade."

A national organization is launching a three-year, $8.5 million campaign to promote LGBT equality and push for new legal protections in three Southern states dominated by conservative politics and religion and known for resistance to change: Alabama, Arkansas and Mississippi. Decades after groups used boycotts, marches, sit-ins, pickets and mass rallies to end legalized racial segregation and push for equal protection for blacks, the Washington-based Human Rights Campaign is planning a new kind of civil rights movement. It’s one based on using chats and front-porch visits between relatives and friends to foster an environment more welcoming toward people of all...

The Hemlock Society Compassion and Choices has no shame. Now, they have bootstrapped assisted suicide onto the recent success of LGBT issues. From one of its ubiquitous emails: 1994 was a different time in America. A vicious plague was erasing entire communities across America and hope was scarce. The dark specter of HIV/AIDS loomed large as treatment options were unreliable, and many research programs were starved for funding. Too many in the LGBT community in the later stages of this disease–seeing their friends and loved ones torn apart by it–turned to desperate acts of violence to escape the inevitable, and often excruciating...

Addressing an event on “global LGBT rights,” a senior State Department official on Wednesday sounded a note of caution about how the U.S. promotes such issues in religiously or culturally conservative countries, warning of the risk of a backlash there. “We should maintain enough humility to remember that we are terribly new at promoting LGBT human rights as U.S. foreign policy. Of course we want to do good – but we should do it, with patience, in a way that results in the maximum benefit for those we want to help.” The Obama administration’s State Department has made promotion of...

PORTLAND, OR, April 8, 2014 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A soon-to-be opened natural foods store in Oregon is in danger of never opening its doors after homosexual activists publicized remarks its Mormon owner made online supporting true marriage and organized a boycott targeting not just the store, but its suppliers. Chauncy Childs had planned to open Moreland Farmers Pantry, an organic, locally-sourced grocery store, in the Sellwood neighborhood of Portland. But because of comments she made under a pseudonym during a discussion on Facebook last year in which she defended true marriage and said business owners should have the right to refuse...

The Christian organization Focus on the Family is releasing a movie in theaters May 6 called “Irreplaceable” about the value of traditional families, the importance of fathers being engaged in their children’s lives and the healing power of forgiveness. But apparently to some advocates for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender, or LGBT, community, that’s a cardinal sin. LGBT advocates have launched an effort to disparage the movie online, petition against it and work to make sure “Irreplaceable” isn’t seen in your local theater. Focus President Jim Daly reports in a blog post that some of the more than 700...

Just ten days after becoming CEO of web company Mozilla, Brendan Eich resigned after drawing the ire of LGBT advocates. In 2008, Eich donated money to the Proposition 8 campaign, an effort around legislation to make same-sex marriage illegal in California. When he was announced as the new Mozilla head, members of the LGBT community and even Mozilla employees expressed their dissatisfaction through social media and called for Eich’s resignation. Many have since spoken out against the backlash calling it unfair. On Monday’s “NewsOne Now,” Roland Martin was joined by a panel of guests to discuss the news, whether the...

I have written about the incident at the High School in Charlotte, where Dominican Sister Jane Laurel gave a talk on human sexuality that produced sparked a mob reaction. Spittle-flecked nutty, bullying, intimidation ensue. From LifeNews: Charlotte diocese backs nun who gave school talk promoting Church teaching on homosexuality CHARLOTTE, NC, April 7, 2014 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The bishop of Charlotte is backing a Dominican nun who has been at the center of a fiery controversy since last month when she gave a speech promoting Catholic teaching on sexuality to students at Charlotte Catholic High School. After a public meeting with...

As we enter this golden age of tolerance and diversity, the nation’s gay rights community is sending a warning message to Americans: If you don’t support gay marriage, you don’t deserve a job. Apparently, Brendan Eich did not get that message. He’s the former chief executive officer at Mozilla, the technology group that gave us the Firefox Web browser. Eich resigned under a firestorm of controversy after it was revealed he had donated $1,000 in support of California’s Proposition 8, a ballot initiative that protected traditional marriage. It’s unclear who outed Eich. But that really doesn’t matter. Once his donation...

A male-born transgender student was caught using the women’s bathroom at a local NC College by a female security officer and was escorted from campus and asked not to return until further notice. The suspension was lifted the next day, but he was told by the dean that he must bring medical proof that he’s a female in order for the school to allow him to use female restrooms. This student is now claiming harassment and discrimination and wants an apology from the school for the suspension and better policies toward transgender students. But the school says they’ve reviewed their...

What's not being widely reported is that Eich was one of the founders of mozilla.org, the nonprofit he now runs. This is no outsider brought in to whip up profits, because it's a nonprofit. This is no outsider brought in at all. Eich was one of the designers at the original Netscape in 1995, and worked on Javascript, one of the backbones of Internet technology today (if it weren't for Javascript, most interactive websites, including blogs, would not function). He's a technical person, and served as CTO of Mozilla since 2005, and also on the board of the Mozilla Foundation....

As parents in Germany have protested a new pro-homosexual “sexual diversity” curriculum in their schools, homosexual activists have attacked them by hurling feces and destroying their property, according to the Observatory on Intolerance and Discrimination against Christians, which documents anti-Christian incidents in Europe. "Protesters were physically attacked and it was felt that the police failed to protect the parents’ basic right of assembly," said a statement from the Observatory describing incidents at recent rallies in Baden-Württemberg and Cologne. According to eyewitnesses, says the Observatory, "Christian parents were shouted at with obscenities.” "They were spit at, eggs were thrown, and little...

A national gay rights organization has taken issue with a Roman Catholic Archdiocese's recently implemented "morals clause" added to their private school teacher contracts. "As support for LGBT equality continues to grow, particularly among Catholics, the Cincinnati Archdiocese is enacting draconian restrictions on Catholic school employees," Paul Guequierre of the Human Rights Campaign wrote in an entry on the group's website Tuesday that calls for the Archdiocese of Cincinnati to reconsider its new rule. "HRC is calling on Diocese leaders to model Christian values and not discriminate against LGBT teachers or straight allies in their employment practices." Guequierre argued that...

Guinness pulls out of St. Patty’s parade over LGBT ban Guinness beer has pulled its sponsorship from New York’s famed St. Patrick’s day parade over a controversial policy that prohibits gays and lesbians from marching openly, according to reports. “Guinness has a strong history of supporting diversity and being an advocate for equality for all,” the company said in a statement on the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation website. “We were hopeful that the policy of exclusion would be reversed for this year’s parade. As this has not come to pass, Guinness has withdrawn its participation. We will continue...

(CNSNews.com) – The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force seized on an advocacy group's report on transgender military service Thursday to call on President Barack Obama to issue an executive order allowing transgender men and women to serve in the military. “We commend the commission for stating independently what we all know: there is no compelling medical reason to exclude trans people from serving their country, and transitions would place almost no burden on the military,” Rea Carey, executive director of the task force, said in a press release . “The President should sign an executive order to lift the...

Police say a transgender teen who said he was beaten and sexually assaulted in a California high school bathroom has recanted the story. Hercules police spokeswoman Detective Connie Van Putten says detectives interviewed the student Tuesday and determined nothing had happened to him. On Monday, the 15-year-old student reported he was attacked by three boys in a bathroom at a suburban San Francisco public school. The teen, who is biologically female but identifies as male, had told officers he was leaving a boy's bathroom late Monday morning at Hercules Middle/High School when the assailants...