Washington’s Governor Jay Inslee recently signed into law SB 7522, which protects LGBTQ individuals from conversion therapy. The bill is the result of efforts by the National Center for Lesbian Rights and Equal Rights Washington. These groups have long advocated for the prohibition of conversion therapy throughout the country. In response to this decision, Read More

  Recently, in the case of Zarda v. Altitude Express, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the Title VII prohibition on sex discrimination includes sexual orientation discrimination. The case arose when Donald Zarda, a skydiving instructor who identifies as gay, claimed that his position was terminated after a customer complained that the worker Read More

An anti-LGBT group called Liberty Counsel recently initiated a legal action against the city of Tampa, Florida for banning conversion therapy. This legal action comes after the Tampa City Council unanimously passed Ordinance 2017-47 which prohibits any type of counseling procedure or process that has the goal of changing a person’s gender expression, gender identity, Read More

  Morgantown, West Virginia recently passed a non-discrimination law to protect LGBTQ individuals as part of a human rights ordinance. This addition came when the seven-person Morgantown City Council voted unanimously to add non-discrimination language to the city’s existing ordinance. While this might seem like a small change, Morgantown is only the 11th city in Read More

The Supreme Court of the United States appears to be divided on a case concerning the refusal by a Colorado bakery to design a wedding cake for same sex couples. During the hearing of the cake case before the Supreme Court, the justices asked specific and probing questions of legal counsel on each side. Different Read More

  The state of California recently became part of LGBTQ history when its Board of Education approved 10 history textbooks that include LGBTQ events for K-8 classrooms. This decision made California the first state to approve of such textbooks. More interestingly, the California Department of Education rejected two textbooks that did not include details about Read More

Mississippi’s HB 1523 is a religious exemption law that passed in 2016 as a response to the US Supreme Court’s 2015 decision to allow same-sex couples to marry nationwide.  It is a virulently anti-LGBTQ law that allows both government workers and private companies to refuse to offer their services to LGBTQ individuals on the basis Read More

In two letters from August, 41 House and Senate members urged the Michigan Civil Rights Commission to adopt an interpretive statement to expand a law’s application. Concurrently, the group Equality Michigan asked the commission to contemplate whether they should investigate sexual orientation and gender identity complaints under the definition of sex discrimination that is already Read More

  A group of newly signed pro-trans bills includes a law that public schools in New Jersey will not be able to force transgender students to use bathrooms or locker rooms that conflict with their gender identities. Instead, public schools are required to offer reasonable alternative arrangements to make sure that students remain safe and Read More

Statistics reveal that there are close to 600,000 LGBT individuals living in New York City, of which 100,000 are senior citizens. About 48% of LGBT same sex couples who applied for affordable housing, however, have suffered discrimination in relationship to living conditions. An organization called SAGE has taken up efforts to create affordable housing for Read More