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Top firms decry religious exemption bills proposed in Texas

By : wire report

March 29, 2019

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Tags:bathroom bill, bills, Charles Perry, nondiscrimination laws, religious exemption, texas

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) | Some of the world’s biggest companies are back to oppose a range of new Texas legislation they say is discriminatory, two years after Apple, Facebook and other Fortune 500 companies banded together with gay rights activists in defeating the state’s “bathroom bill” targeting transgender people.

The corporate giants, which also include Google, Amazon, and IBM, joined Texas businesses and more than a dozen local chambers of commerce in a letter to lawmakers March 27 urging the Republican-controlled Legislature to focus on other legislation.

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Texas sick leave bill alarms LGBT advocates

By : Staff Reports OF THE WASHINGTON BLADE, COURTESY OF THE NATIONAL LGBT MEDIA ASSOCIATION

March 18, 2019

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Tags:Austin, dallas, Ed Sills, Fort Worth, Plano, Senate Bill 15, texas, The Dallas Morning News

AUSTIN, Texas — A proposed bill affecting paid sick leave in Texas is being criticized for its implications for LGBT workers, The Dallas Morning News reports.

Sen. Brandon Creighton (R-Conroe) filed Senate Bill 15 to prohibit municipalities from requiring private employers to offer paid sick leave and other benefits to workers. But a tweak made to the bill a few weeks ago has some worried it could threaten city ordinances that prohibit employers from discriminating against workers based on sexual orientation or gender identity, The News reports.

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4 men charged in beating of gay couple in Texas

By : wire report

February 15, 2019

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Tags:Austin, Kolby Monell, Margaret Moore, Miguel Macias, Spencer Deehring, texas, Travis County District, Tristan Perry

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) | Police say they have charged four men with aggravated assault after a gay couple was beaten in Texas.

Frank Macias, his brother Miguel Macias, Quinn O’Connor and Kolby Monell were in jail Feb. 13 in Travis County. They each were charged Feb. 12 with two counts of aggravated assault, a second-degree felony, for the Jan. 19 attack in Austin. Their bonds were set at $150,000. Jail records list no attorneys for them.

Google Play faces backlash for gay conversion therapy app

By : MARIAH COOPER OF THE WASHINGTON BLADE, COURTESY OF THE NATIONAL LGBT MEDIA ASSOCIATION

January 18, 2019

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Tags:Amazon, apple, Change.org, Google Play, Living Home Ministries, Microsoft, Newsweek, texas, Truth Wins Out

Google is facing criticism for having an app promoting gay conversion therapy available in its Google Play store.

The Christian group Living Home Ministries, which is based in Texas, produces the app. LGBT rights organization Truth Wins Out started a Change.org petition to have the app removed. The petition says the app “repeatedly belittles transgender people as suffering from ‘gender confusion.’ The group refers to gay men as ‘sexually broken guys’ who can ‘walk out of false identities’ and claims, without evidence, that the ‘gay lifestyle’ is ‘spiritually and physically harmful.’”

USF alum Steven Reigns brings ‘The Gay Rub’ to Tampa

By : Ryan Williams-Jent

October 11, 2018

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Tags:Centre Gallery, Charles Howard, maine, Nicholas West, Steven Reigns, texas, The Gay Rub

University of South Florida (USF) graduate Steven Reigns, now West Hollywood’s first Poet Laureate, says he’s motivated by a sense of love for the LGBTQ community. “Some of the most beautiful and brilliant people I know are a part of it,” the educator says. “We’re complex and complicated.”

It’s that love which led to his touring art exhibit “The Gay Rub,” opening Oct. 15 at his alma mater’s Centre Gallery. The collaborative project, which Reigns created in 2010 and continues to organize, showcases a growing collection of over 350 important markers in LGBTQ history.

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Lesbian sheriff wins Dem nomination in Texas gubernatorial race

By : Chris Johnson of the Washington Blade, courtesy of the National LGBT Media Association

May 24, 2018

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Tags:dallas, democrat, lesbian, Lupe Valdez, sheriff, texas

ABOVE: Former Dallas County Sheriff Lupe Valdez won the Democratic nomination to become governor of Texas. (Photo courtesy Valdez campaign)

Former Dallas County Sheriff and out lesbian Lupe Valdez won the Democratic nomination Tuesday night to take on anti-LGBT Republican incumbent in the upcoming Texas gubernatorial election.

According to results from The New York Times, Valdez secured 53.1 percent of the vote in the Democratic run-off compared to the 46.9 percent won by her competitor, businessperson Andrew White. After polls closed in Texas at 7 p.m., the Associated Press called the race a few hours later at 9:37 Central Time.

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Kansas governor signs ‘religious freedom’ anti-LGBTQ adoption law

By : Chris Johnson OF THE WASHINGTON BLADE, COURTESY OF THE NATIONAL LGBT MEDIA ASSOCIATION

May 21, 2018

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Kansas Gov. Jeff Colyer has signed anti-LGBTQ adoption legislation making his state the latest to enact a “religious freedom” law enabling taxpayer-funded agencies to deny placement into LGBTQ homes.

Colyer signed the legislation, Senate Bill 284, into law on Friday, according to a local media report. The Washington Blade has placed a call in with Colyer’s office seeking confirmation that he signed the bill.

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Kansas, Oklahoma approve religious veto on LGBTQ adoptions

By : wire report

May 9, 2018

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TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — State lawmakers in Kansas and Oklahoma have approved legislation to grant legal protections to faith-based adoption agencies that cite their religious beliefs for not placing children in LGBTQ homes.

Supporters of such measures argued that the core issue is protecting a group’s right to live out its religious faith, while critics saw them as attacks on LGBTQ rights. Both Kansas and Oklahoma have GOP-controlled legislatures and governors, but in Kansas, the proposal split Republicans.

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Transgender Texas mayor loses election bid for full term

By : wire report

May 8, 2018

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Tags:Jess Herbst, lost election bid, New Hope, texas, transgender

NEW HOPE, Texas (AP) — The mayor of a small Texas town who came out as transgender after being appointed to the job has lost her election bid for a full two-year term.

The Dallas Morning News reports that New Hope Mayor Jess Herbst was running to become the first openly transgender elected official in Texas. Election results show she finished third Saturday in the four-person race, with 53 votes. The winner received 95.

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Man who used dating app to assault, rob gay men gets prison

By : wire report

January 5, 2018

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Tags:dallas, Nigel Garrett, social media dating, texas

DALLAS (AP) — One of four Texas men accused of using a dating app to assault and rob gay men has been sentenced to 15 years in prison.

Federal prosecutors say 21-year-old Nigel Garrett and three other Dallas-area men were charged with hate crimes, kidnappings, carjackings and using firearms to commit violent crimes.

Mississippi gay marriage law affects college baseball

By : wire report

January 4, 2018

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Tags:andrew cuomo, Hattiesburg, Mississippi, Nacogdoches, Phil Bryant, same-sex couples, Stephen F. Austin University, Stony Brook University, texas, University of Southern Mississippi

Photo from State University of New York Stony Brook athletics web site

HATTIESBURG, Miss. (AP) — College baseball is affected by a Mississippi law that lets government clerks or private business people cite their own religious beliefs to deny services to same-sex couples.

The Sun Herald reports the University of Southern Mississippi was supposed to play three games in Hattiesburg in late February against Stony Brook University. The games were canceled because New York Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo banned all non-essential state travel to Mississippi after Republican Gov. Phil Bryant signed the law in 2016.

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Supreme Court won’t review Texas decision against same-sex benefits

By : Chris Johnson of the Washington Blade, courtesy of the National LGBT Media Association

December 4, 2017

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Tags:LGBTQ, marriage equality, Obergefell, same-sex marriage, Supreme Court, texas

The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to take up review of a Texas Supreme Court decision casting doubt on whether the 2015 ruling for LGBTQ nationwide requires municipalities to offer same-sex spousal benefits to employees.

The Supreme Court announced it has denied certiorari, or refused to take up the petition seeking review of the decision, in an order list Monday reflecting decisions justices made during a conference last week Friday. It takes a vote of four justices to take up a case, but the vote on petitions isn’t made public.