Joe.My.God. LGBT News

From the Knoxville News Sentinel: The state must pay more than $2 million in legal fees to three couples who successfully challenged Tennessee’s same-sex marriage ban, a federal judge in Nashville ruled Friday. Judge Aleta Trauger awarded $1.98 million in attorneys’ fees and $59,916 in expenses to the plaintiffs, which include Knoxville veterinarians Valeria Tanco and Sophy Jesty. The award, ...

The LGBT religious group Faith In America gets to the core of North Carolina’s hate bill: Yet again, the religious right has hijacked religious narratives to justify their anti-LGBT bigotry. Ill-informed and misguided religious beliefs are being used against the transgender community in North Carolina. “North Carolina revoked a basic human right for their transgender community — to use public ...

North Carolina’s High Point Market Week bills itself as the world’s largest home furnishings industry trade show and mere days after the state’s anti-LGBT bill was signed into law, the show’s organizers says they are being deluged with attendee cancellations for next month’s convention, which delivers an estimated $5.4B to the local economy with its spring and fall events. Via ...

“In Georgia, turncoat Republican Governor Nathan Deal just vetoed an extremely modest bill to protect pastors and churches from having to participate in same-sex ‘weddings’ and give some minor protection to religious schools from having to hire someone who openly opposes their religious beliefs. Deal ignored dozens of examples of discrimination against people of faith that have occurred across the ...

The Age reports: Victims of some of the worst sexual abuse perpetrated by the Catholic Church are being denied access to a vast archive of clergy crime, as the church continues to ensure the offending is kept secret, despite the files being handed over to the royal commission. The nearly 2000 files – which include evidence about at least 63 ...

From the Los Angeles Times: Federal officials on Monday dropped their legal fight against Apple after unlocking the iPhone used by an assailant in last year’s San Bernardino terror attack, leaving unsettled a vexing debate over privacy and security amid rapid advances in technology. The move comes a week after Justice Department officials put a sudden hold on their demands ...

Add New York state to New York City, San Francisco, and Seattle. From Gov. Cuomo’s edict: Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today signed an executive order banning all non-essential state travel to North Carolina. The order requires all New York State agencies, departments, boards and commissions to immediately review all requests for state funded or state sponsored travel to the state ...

North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory is a very unhappy with the lawsuit filed yesterday. From a statement issued by his office: “The governor respects the right of any legal challenges; however, he does not respect the continued distortion of the facts by the groups challenging this law and by many members of the state and national media,” said Graham Wilson, ...

Yesterday a press conference was held at which the plaintiffs in the federal lawsuit against North Carolina appeared. Watch below. The Associated Press reports: The plaintiffs are two transgender people, a lesbian law professor, the American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina and Equality North Carolina. Defendants include McCrory and the University of North Carolina system, where two of the ...

And for Georgia too, should today’s veto be overridden. Capital New York reports: Mayor Bill de Blasio said Monday he is instituting a ban on “non-essential travel” by New York City employees to the state of North Carolina following the passage of a law there that overturns anti-discrimination protections for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. De Blasio said he ...