WASHINGTON — Clarence B. Jones says he thought a prankster was on the line when he answered the telephone and heard the person on the other end say they were calling from the White House. “I said, ‘Is this a joke or is this serious?’” Jones recalled. The caller swore they were serious and was … Read more
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Tennessee’s GOP-controlled Statehouse on Thursday gave their final approval to legislation penalizing adults who help minors receive gender-affirming care without parental consent, clearing the way for the first-in-the-nation proposal to be sent to Gov. Bill Lee’s desk for his signature. The bill mirrors almost the same language from a so-called anti-abortion trafficking … Read more
A gay actor’s speech that was canceled over his “lifestyle” is back on at a Pennsylvania school after residents spoke out. The Cumberland Valley School District’s board voted 5-4 Wednesday night to allow children’s book author Maulik Pancholy, who is gay, to speak against bullying during a May 22 assembly at Mountain View Middle School. … Read more
ST. PAUL, Minn. — As a queer and out youth, Shae Ross was alarmed when she heard that conservative groups were organizing in her community to ban books dealing with sexuality, gender and race. So she and her friends got organized themselves, and helped persuade their school board to make it much harder to remove … Read more
VENICE, Italy — Outsider, queer and Indigenous artists are getting an overdue platform at the 60th Venice Biennale contemporary art exhibition that opens Saturday, curated for the first time by a Latin American. Brazilian curator Adriano Pedrosa’s main show, which accompanies 88 national pavilions for the seven-month run, is strong on figurative painting, with fewer … Read more
NEW YORK — A county outside New York City has lost its bid to block the state from taking legal action against its ban on women’s and girls teams that include female transgender players, state Attorney General Letitia James said Friday. U.S. District Court Judge Nusrat Choudhury dismissed Nassau County’s lawsuit seeking to prevent the … Read more
BOISE, Idaho — Idaho lawmakers have passed a series of bills targeting LGBTQ+ residents this year, including two this week that prevent public employees from being required to use someone’s preferred pronouns and redefine gender as being synonymous with sex. On Wednesday, the Senate approved a bill allowing people to sue schools and libraries over … Read more
ATLANTA — Former Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines was among more than a dozen college athletes who filed a lawsuit against the NCAA on Thursday, accusing it of violating their Title IX rights by allowing transgender woman Lia Thomas to compete at the national championships in 2022. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Atlanta, … Read more
TOPEKA, Kan. — A Kansas judge ruled Monday that the state isn’t violating transgender residents’ rights under the state constitution by refusing to change their driver’s licenses to reflect their gender identities. District Judge Teresa Watson kept in place indefinitely an order she first issued in July 2023 to prevent the Kansas Department of Revenue … Read more
NEW YORK — Happy 150th birthday, dear jockstrap. How far you’ve come from your modest but mighty days of protecting the precious parts of bicycle messengers as they navigated the bumpy cobblestones of Boston. Invented for that purpose in 1874 by C.F. Bennett, who worked for a company now known as Bike Athletic, the strappy … Read more
