Gay Marriage / LGBTQ Rights / Equality Act

[Tiredretiredlawyer]

[RVInit]

[Volkonski]

Man threatened to shoot up New York City Pride March, FBI says
A Long Island man threatened to use “firepower” that would “make the 2016 Orlando Pulse Nightclub shooting look like a cakewalk."

https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out ... d_nn_tw_ma

Officials from the FBI and the New York Joint Terrorism Task Force announced that Robert Fehring, 74, was charged with mailing dozens of letters threatening to assault, shoot and bomb LGBTQ-affiliated individuals, organizations and businesses, including New York City's annual Pride festival.

After executing a search warrant at his home in Bayport, New York, last month, law enforcement agents recovered photographs from a Pride event on Long Island this year, two loaded shotguns, hundreds of rounds of ammunition, two stun guns and a stamped envelope addressed to an LGBTQ-affiliated attorney containing the remains of a dead bird, federal prosecutors said.

“Fehring’s alleged threats to members of the LGBTQ+ community were not only appalling, but dangerous, despite the fact he hadn’t yet acted on his purported intentions,” Michael J. Driscoll, the assistant director-in-charge of the FBI's New York Field Office, said in a statement.

A criminal complaint released Monday said Fehring had sent more than 60 threatening letters to members of and organizations affiliated with the LGBTQ community since 2013 and as recently as September.

[notorial dissent]

Obviously someone who has nothing better to do with his life, or a life for that matter, other than threaten and harass people he doesn't know or have any real contact with. What a sad, pointless, bitter existence.

[pipistrelle]

Obviously someone who has nothing better to do with his life, or a life for that matter, other than threaten and harass people he doesn't know or have any real contact with. What a sad, pointless, bitter existence.

It seems to be a life aspiration for many Americans. .

[neonzx]

Wow, 74 years old, and this is how he chose to spend his golden years. smh

[notorial dissent]

Obviously someone who has nothing better to do with his life, or a life for that matter, other than threaten and harass people he doesn't know or have any real contact with. What a sad, pointless, bitter existence.

It seems to be a life aspiration for many Americans. .

Certainly a lot of the red hatted ones.

[Lani]

Utah billionaire leaves Mormon church, donates $600,000 to LGBTQ group
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/utah- ... np1taskbar

Jeff Green, a billionaire thought to be the richest person from Utah, resigned from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, writing in a letter to the church's president that he believes the institution has "hindered global progress in women’s rights, civil rights and racial equality, and LGBTQ+ rights," according to The Salt Lake Tribune.

Green, the chairman and CEO of The Trade Desk, a technology marketing company, informally left the Mormon church, as the LDS church is commonly called, a decade ago. But in a letter Monday to church President Russell Nelson, he officially resigned and requested the removal of his records, The Tribune reported.

Neither Green nor the church have responded to requests for comment about the letter.

Green said in his letter that most of the church's members are "good people trying to do right" but that he believes "the church is actively and currently doing harm in the world."

“The church leadership is not honest about its history, its finances, and its advocacy,” he wrote, according to The Tribune.

[Luke]

Lauren Witzke says Gateway House of Boys' Jim Hoft and his husband are "not normal".





The tolerant GOP hard at work.

Witze Hoft.JPG (51.86 KiB) Viewed 1904 times

[notorial dissent]

Lauren Witzke says Gateway House of Boys' Jim Hoft and his husband are "not normal".

And "normal" would be???????

[Volkonski]

Florida gay rights activist found dead in landfill
Jorge Diaz-Johnston and his husband were among six couples who helped pave the way for same-sex marriage in Miami-Dade County.

https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out ... d_nn_tw_ma

A gay rights advocate who was integral in legalizing same-sex marriage in Florida was found dead in a landfill in what is being investigated as a homicide, authorities said Wednesday.

Jorge Diaz-Johnston, 54, the brother of former Miami Mayor Manny Diaz, had been last seen alive Jan. 3, Tallahassee police said. Shortly after a missing person alert was issued for him Saturday, his body was found in a trash pile at a landfill in Baker, Florida, about 60 miles west of the Alabama border, according to the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office.



In January 2015, a Miami-Dade circuit court judge ruled in the couples' favor, legalizing same-sex marriage in the South Florida county more than a year before the Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage nationwide.

Elizabeth Schwartz, who represented the six couples in the case, called Diaz-Johnston's death "heartbreaking."

[Volkonski]

George Takei
@GeorgeTakei
·
29m
The last time a state tried this, I lent my name to the cause, and I’ll do it again. In schools, if you can’t say “gay” just say “Takei.”

[notorial dissent]

I see DeSantis now has two repressive unconstitutional laws on the books. I wonder how long before they are in court.

[RTH10260]

Singapore’s LGBT content ban slammed after gay kiss caught in news broadcast

Published on Wednesday, February 9, 2022 17:28
By Thaiger

In a Singaporean news broadcast on the Winter Olympics, it wasn’t the coverage that got the attention of viewers, it was what was happening in the background at the Beijing bar. Behind the Channel News Asia correspondent were two men passionately kissing, a taboo for Singaporeans where broadcasting laws prohibit LGBT content and homosexual relationships between men are illegal.

Although the kiss was removed from a version on CNA’s website, a video of the kiss has been seen over 825,000 times on TikTok and a popular Chinese social media network Weibo. One TikTok user wrote “This is actually an act of revolution”.

It was the look given by one of them who posed directly to the camera post-kiss has caught many people’s attention, according to a representative of Kaleidoscope NTU, a group formed by students at Nanyang Technological University to raise awareness of discrimination on LGBTB rights.



https://thethaiger.com/news/regional/si ... -broadcast

[Volkonski]

[Kriselda Gray]

Disgusting. They're basically telling principals that if they think it's best to withhold that information, they have 6 weeks to figure out how to best do exactly what they think shouldn't be done. They're forcing principals to overrule their own best judgment. And how can you ensure a safe, supportive, non-judgmental environment for this disclosure if you had reason to believe thatthe parents were likely to abuse, abandon or neglect their kid? Isn't concern that they might do those things pretty much the definition of un-supportive?

Gods these idiots are going to cause so much hurt!

[RTH10260]

Waiting to see those law suits for falsely identifying students gender....

[bob]

Law & Crime: Supreme Court Agrees to Hear Case of Christian Web Designer Who Claims She’s Being ‘Forced’ by State Government to Promote Same-Sex Marriage:

The Supreme Court of the United States on Tuesday agreed to hear a case involving a Christian website designer and her company, an LLC, who claim they are being “forced” by the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act to support same-sex marriage.

Designer Lorie Smith and her company 303 Creative LLC argued as follows in a petition for a writ of certiori filed on Sept. 24, 2021:

Artist Lorie Smith is a website designer who creates original, online content consistent with her faith. She plans to (1) design wedding websites promoting her understanding of marriage, and (2) post a statement explaining that she can only speak messages consistent with her faith. But the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act (CADA) requires her to create custom websites celebrating same-sex marriage and prohibits her statement—even though Colorado stipulates* that she “[works] with all people regardless of … sexual orientation.”

The Tenth Circuit applied strict scrutiny and astonishingly concluded that the government may, based on content and viewpoint, force Lorie to convey messages that violate her religious beliefs and restrict her from explaining her faith. The court also upheld CADA under Employment Division v. Smith, 494 U.S. 872 (1990), even though CADA creates a “gerrymander” where secular artists can decline to speak but religious artists cannot, meaning the government can compel its approved messages.

* * *

According to an order, the court only wishes to consider the first question [in her cert. petition], namely “[w]hether applying a public-accommodation law to compel an artist to speak or stay silent violates the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment.”

The state argued everyone's favorite nemesis -- standing -- because no one has asked Smith to design a pro-gay website, nor has Smith been threatened with state-imposed penalties. (This argument presumably failed below because the 10th ruled on the merits against Smith.)


* Stern, if he still were here, would have some choice phraseology about the abuse of "stipulation" by Smith's lawyer's (Kristen Waggoner of the conservative Alliance Defending Freedom, who also had represented the Colorado anti-gay bakers).

[Volkonski]

[raison de arizona]

Those decision should be made between you, and your doctor.

And the state of Texas.

Of course.

Government small enough to fit in your bedroom.

[jemcanada2]

Those decision should be made between you, and your doctor.

And the state of Texas.

Of course.

Government small enough to fit in your bedroom.

Where’s Pierre Trudeau when you need him?

https://www.cbc.ca/archives/entry/omnib ... the-nation

[Volkonski]

[Volkonski]

[neeneko]

And yet conversion therapy and faith healing are still protected as a parent's right....

[RTH10260]

I think the ACLU will be very busy in TX in the near future.