The Trump administration will revoke federal guidelines that tell public schools to let transgender students use bathrooms and locker rooms matching their chosen gender identity, the White House said on Feb. 22.The decision would be a reversal of an Obama-era directive advising public schools to grant students access to facilities in line with their expressed gender identity and not necessarily .... Read More
The Washington Supreme Court ruled Feb.16 that a florist in Richland violated a state anti-discrimination law when she denied service to a same-sex couple planning to marry.Curt Freed and Robert Ingersoll were refused service by Arlene’s Flowers because they are gay.The American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Washington are representing Freed and Ingersoll in their lawsuit agains.... Read More
The American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin has hired Christopher Ott as its new executive director, effective in late March of 2017. Ott, a native of Wisconsin, has served as the communications director for the ACLU of Massachusetts in Boston for 10 years, and led the state LGBT rights organization Fair Wisconsin in the early 2000s. Ott will succeed the ACLU of Wisconsin’s longtime executiv.... Read More
Diverse & Resilient has announced the new Room to Be Safe program and resource line serving lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) survivors of intimate partner or community violence and their loved ones. The program has been made possible by a grant through the Department of Children and Family Services.In the Fox Valley, Diverse & Resilient is proud to partner with Chr.... Read More
A New York doll maker says it will be selling what it believes is the first transgender doll on the market.The doll is based on Jazz Jennings, the transgender teen who was the subject of the TLC documentary series “I am Jazz.” The doll will make its debut at the New York Toy Fair next week and be available on the Tonner Doll Co.’s web site and in specialty stores in July.A spokes.... Read More
President Donald Trump is considering issuing an executive order than would allow people to discriminate based on religious beliefs and values.Such an order “is a charter for widespread and divisive discrimination, against LGBTQ people and frankly against everyone. It is designed to destroy lives and roll back fundamental rights,” the National LGBTQ Task Force Action Force said in a statem.... Read More
The progressive People For the American Way on Feb. 6 released a TV ad urging viewers to call their senators to oppose President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee — Judge Neil Gorsuch.The ad features an image of judge ripping up the Constitution and offers details as to why Gorsuch is unfit to sit on the nation’s highest court.PFAW plans to run the ad for a week in Alaska, Ari.... Read More
The White House this week said it would not roll-back Obama administration protections for LGBTQ people employed by the federal government or its contractors. However, the statement from the Trump administration provided no comfort in the wake of a rash of discriminatory executive orders signed by the president in his first weeks in the Oval Office.More orders may come, as hundreds of draft d.... Read More
Donald Trump promised his Supreme Court picks would be cast in the mold of Antonin Scalia, and he delivered, according to legal experts.He also delivered a blow to liberals and centrists who had hoped that Trump would make an ideologically neutral choice.Trump announced this evening that he’d chosen Judge Neil Gorsuch, 49, of the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Colorado. According .... Read More
An Idaho man charged with a federal hate crime in the beating death of a gay man pleaded not guilty in Boise’s U.S. District Court.A March trial was set for 23-year-old Kelly Schneider, who pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in state court this week.He was indicted earlier this month on the hate crime charge that accused him of attacking Steven Nelson last year because he was gay..... Read More
