news

Gay journalist Dan Savage is defending himself against critics who say he went too far when he referred to “bullshit” in the Bible during a talk with high school students.

Savage made the remarks to young journalism students at a high school in Seattle.

A freelance photographer is accusing Elton John of stealing the lyrics for the 1980s hit “Nikita” in a lawsuit filed in Chicago.

Photographer Guy Hobbs filed the complaint against the gay musical superstar, collaborator Bernard John Taupin and Big Pig Music, according to the Courthouse News Service.

A board member with the Ohio River Valley Council of the Boy Scouts of America has resigned to protest the ouster of a lesbian mom as the leader of a tiger scout den.

The Boy Scouts of America, from the national level down, bans gays from serving as leaders and joining as members. The ban has been upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Hate crimes in Tennessee jumped in 2011 from a five-year low the year before.

According to Tennessee Bureau of Investigation statistics reported in the Commercial Appeal, there were 261 recorded hate crimes last year.

May Day protests may disrupt the morning commute in major U.S. cities today as labor, immigration and Occupy activists rally support on the international workers’ holiday.

Demonstrations, strikes and acts of civil disobedience are planned around the country, including the most visible organizing effort by anti-Wall Street groups since Occupy encampments came down in the fall.

Wall Street executives are meeting May 2 for the second annual Out on the street Leadership Summit focused on LGBT issues.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch is hosting the event at its New York City headquarters.

Cartoonist Tom Batiuk’s new storyline for “Funky Winkerbean” began this week. He’s chronicling a gay couple determined to go to their high school prom together and the consequences that ensue.

Launching during the strip’s 40th anniversary year, the series distributed by King Features Syndicate is appearing in more than 400 newspapers.

An aspiring actor and graduate of a Michigan Catholic school will not be allowed to speak at next month’s senior class commencement because he is openly gay.

Dominic Sheahan-Stahl had been invited to speak at Sacred Heart Academy’s graduation ceremony on May 20, but the invitation was withdrawn, the Mount Pleasant Morning Sun and The Saginaw News reported.

The ouster of a lesbian mom from a Boy Scouts of America post has drawn attention to the record of a former member of the national executive BSA board: Mitt Romney.

In 1994, Romney was running for the U.S. Senate in Massachusetts, and the Boy Scouts of America’s ban on gay troop leaders and scouts was in the spotlight.

Equality Illinois has called for a hate crime investigation into the April 21 beating of a gay Illinois State University student on his way home from a party.

The student, Eric Unger, 23, of Deerfield, Ill., was hospitalized from injuries sustained in the attack.

Iowa joined a growing list of states to approve a “Choose Life” license plate after the transportation department determined the message doesn’t violate content criteria.

Iowa becomes the 29th state to approve the plate, which has a drawing of two smiling children, the Des Moines Register reported. The transportation department announced the plans late last week.