National news and events that affect Illinois.
NEW YORK — An executive at gay app Grindr announced his resignation on a Medium.com post over the weekend, just under two weeks after anti-marriage equality statements were made by the app’s president. Landen Rafe Zumwalt said he was resigning as the app’s head of communications. Although Zumwalt didn’t expressly say his resignation was because…
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday refused to hear appeals from two states that were sued to prevent them from cutting Planned Parenthood from their budgets. Louisiana and Kansas were wanting to cut their payments through Medicaid, Reuters reported. Even recent SCOTUS appointee Brett Kavanaugh voted to refuse the appeal. From Reuters: The…
CHICAGO — The national LGBTQ community got worried this week when Facebook issued new policies that seemed to ban any discussion of anything sexual or even just flirting. From PC Magazine: The expanded policy specifically bans “sexual slang,” hints of “sexual roles, positions or fetish scenarios,” and erotic art when mentioned with a sex act.…
EVANSTON — A new Northwestern Medicine study found that young black gay men are 16 times more likely to have HIV than young white gay men, despite more frequent testing and being less likely to have unsafe sex. MedicalXpress reported that the study was published in the Journal of Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndromes. From MedicalXpress: “We…
WASHINGTON — The Hill reported that a federal judge last week denied a request to limit or hold a ruling that stops the Trump administration from enforcing its ban on transgender people in the military. U.S. District Court Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly said in a decision that the court is not convinced the government will suffer…
ALBUQUERQUE — The family of a transgender Honduran migrant who died in ICE custody are saying the woman did not receive medical care and was abused. From the SF Gate: Tennessee-based civil rights attorney Andrew Free released details of an independent autopsy this week that noted deep bruising along Roxsana Hernandez’s ribs that wasn’t evident…
WASHINGTON — A LGBTQ Victory Fund report last week stated that from 432 out LGBTQ candidates, 244 won their races. The Victory Fund, a group dedicated to getting LGBTQ people into elected office, was active in the midterm elections and 162 of the candidates they endorsed won office. The high points from the data: 5 percent…
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review the administration’s ban on transgender people in the military. Challenges to the ban are still working through the lower courts. The Washington Post reported that Solicitor General Noel J. Francisco has asked the court to consolidate the challenges and make a ruling during…
TUCSON – Lambda Legal on Tuesday filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Social Security Administration (SSA) on behalf of a 65-year-old gay man seeking spousal survivor’s benefits based on his 43-year relationship with his husband, who died seven months after Arizona began allowing same-sex couples to marry. The lawsuit filed on behalf of Michael Ely…
NEW YORK – Today, Lambda Legal and the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) sued the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) to compel the federal agencies to produce all documents and communications connected to the Trump administration’s decision six months ago to alter its Transgender Offender Manual, including communications…
