Judge allows new route to challenge Mississippi LGBT law

A gay rights group is getting another chance to challenge a Mississippi law that lets government workers and private business people cite their own religious beliefs to refuse services to LGBT people. Legal experts say it's the broadest religious-objections law enacted by any state since the U.S. Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage nationwide in 2015.

Stopping hate crimes against transgender Americans

It's compelling and important news that Attorney General Jeff Sessions is so concerned about the killing of a transgender Iowa high school student that he has sent an experienced federal hate crimes lawyer to help prosecute the man charged in the murder. This act of compassion also begs a question: Why isn't Sessions more concerned about violence against transgender people while they are still alive? There have long been concerns about Sessions' stance on the civil rights of gay and transgender Americans.

Trump’s DOJ: OK to Fire People for Being LGBT

Why does President Donald Trump care about what gay people do in the bedroom? The question came up this week, when a lawyer for Trump's Department of Justice argued that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 does not protect LGBT Americans from being fired because of their sexual orientation -- a complete reversal of the government's position on such matters under previous presidents.

Trump-Pence Administration Unleashes Sweeping Anti-LGBTQ #LicenseToDiscriminate

Today, the Human Rights Campaign , the nation's largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer civil rights organization, strongly condemned the Trump-Pence administration's decision to carry out a sweeping " license to discriminate " that puts millions of LGBTQ Americans at risk of discrimination, as well as release a new regulation that could deny millions of Americans access to critical contraceptive care previously guaranteed under the Affordable Care Act . Today the Trump-Pence administration launched an all-out assault on LGBTQ people, women, and other minority communities by unleashing a sweeping license to discriminate, HRC President Chad Griffin .

New delay in Miss. law on objection to gay marriage

New court action has created a slight delay for a Mississippi law that, barring an intervention from the U.S. Supreme Court, will let government workers and business people cite their own religious objections to refuse services to gay couples. Opponents asked the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday to keep blocking the law, which has been on hold more than a year.

Supreme Court conservatives on rise as important term begins

Disputes over a wedding cake for a same-sex couple and partisan electoral maps top the Supreme Court's agenda in the first full term of the Trump presidency. Conservatives will look for a boost from the newest justice, Neil Gorsuch, in a year that Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has said will be momentous.

Op-Ed Columnist: How Donald Trump Opened the Door to Roy Moore

In 2002, the Alabama Supreme Court issued a ruling in a child custody battle between a lesbian mother and an allegedly abusive father. The parents had originally lived in Los Angeles, and when they divorced in 1992, the mother received primary physical custody.

Roy Moore: Meet the controversial Alabama Republican who upset…

Roy Moore is a widely popular, and deeply controversial, hardline conservative who won the Republican party's nomination for Alabama's open Senate seat. Moore has promoted conspiracy theories, including "birtherism," is virulently anti-gay, and has twice been removed from his position as chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court.

LGBTQ Women Balance Opportunity, Possible Extinction in Congress

If Arizona Rep. Kyrsten Sinema vacates her 9th District seat to run for Senate, there could be no LGBTQ women in the House in the next Congress. It's been almost 20 years since Tammy Baldwin 's historic election, yet just one woman has followed her through the LGBTQ glass ceiling.