A field guide to spotting, stopping homophobic laws

Behold! A Field Guide for spotting and stopping the sneaky new homophobic laws that are stealthily stealing civil rights from everyone -- gay and straight.

Commentary by MATT BAUME Saturday, March 7, 2015 · Updated on March 9, 2015

A field guide to spotting, stopping homophobic laws

Behold! A Field Guide for spotting and stopping the sneaky new homophobic laws cloaking themselves from coast to coast. They’re stealthily stealing civil rights from everyone — gay and straight. Don’t wake up to discover all of your civil rights have been gobbled up in the night!

Matt Baume reports:

Opinions and advice expressed in our Views & Voices columns represent the author's or publication's own views and not necessarily those of LGBTQ Nation. We welcome opposing views and diverse perspectives. To submit a article, column or video, contact us here. Due to the volume of submissions received, we cannot guarantee publication, however you are invited to express your opinion in the comment section below.

Don't forget to share:

Commentary

Homophobia Religious Freedom

Support vital LGBTQ+ journalism

Reader contributions help keep LGBTQ Nation free, so that queer people get the news they need, with stories that mainstream media often leaves out. Can you contribute today?

Once Monthly Annually

$5 $10 $25 $50

Cancel anytime · Proudly LGBTQ+ owned and operated

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.

Necessary

Always Enabled

Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously.

Cookie	Duration	Description
_abck	1 year	This cookie is used to detect and defend when a client attempt to replay a cookie.This cookie manages the interaction with online bots and takes the appropriate actions.
ak_bmsc	2 hours	This cookie is used by Akamai to optimize site security by distinguishing between humans and bots
ASP.NET_SessionId	session	Issued by Microsoft's ASP.NET Application, this cookie stores session data during a user's website visit.
AWSALBCORS	7 days	This cookie is managed by Amazon Web Services and is used for load balancing.
AWSELB	session	Associated with Amazon Web Services and created by Elastic Load Balancing, AWSELB cookie is used to manage sticky sessions across production servers.
bm_sz	4 hours	This cookie is set by the provider Akamai Bot Manager. This cookie is used to manage the interaction with the online bots. It also helps in fraud preventions
cf_use_ob	past	Cloudflare sets this cookie to improve page load times and to disallow any security restrictions based on the visitor's IP address.
cookielawinfo-checkbox-advertisement	1 year	Set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin, this cookie is used to record the user consent for the cookies in the "Advertisement" category .
cookielawinfo-checkbox-analytics	11 months	This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-functional	11 months	The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-necessary	11 months	This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-others	11 months	This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other.
cookielawinfo-checkbox-performance	11 months	This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance".
csrftoken	past	This cookie is associated with Django web development platform for python. Used to help protect the website against Cross-Site Request Forgery attacks
gdpr	session	Determines whether the visitor has accepted the cookie consent box. This ensures that the cookie consent box will not be presented again upon re-entry.
JSESSIONID	session	The JSESSIONID cookie is used by New Relic to store a session identifier so that New Relic can monitor session counts for an application.
opt_out	1 year	This cookie is used for preventing the installation of third party advertiser or other cookies on the browser.
PHPSESSID	session	This cookie is native to PHP applications. The cookie is used to store and identify a users' unique session ID for the purpose of managing user session on the website. The cookie is a session cookies and is deleted when all the browser windows are closed.
ts	1 year 1 month	PayPal sets this cookie to enable secure transactions through PayPal.
usprivacy	1 year 1 month	This is a consent cookie set by Dailymotion to store the CCPA consent string (mandatory information about an end-user being or not being a California consumer and exercising or not exercising its statutory right).
viewed_cookie_policy	11 months	The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. It does not store any personal data.

Functional

Functional cookies help to perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collect feedbacks, and other third-party features.

Cookie	Duration	Description
__atuvc	1 year 1 month	AddThis sets this cookie to ensure that the updated count is seen when one shares a page and returns to it, before the share count cache is updated.
__atuvs	30 minutes	AddThis sets this cookie to ensure that the updated count is seen when one shares a page and returns to it, before the share count cache is updated.
__cf_bm	30 minutes	This cookie, set by Cloudflare, is used to support Cloudflare Bot Management.
_uid	5 months 27 days	AddThis sets this cookie to enable the visitors to share the web pages on social platforms via sharing buttons on the website.
audit	1 year	This cookie is set by Rubicon Project and is used for recording cookie consent data.
bcookie	2 years	LinkedIn sets this cookie from LinkedIn share buttons and ad tags to recognize browser ID.
bwid	1 year	This cookie is set by the provider The Guardian. This cookie is used for embedding The Guardian video player.
chid	session	This cookie is set by the provider Mixcloud. This cookie is used for implementing audio files on the website. It enables the embedding of Mix Cloud audio player.
ELOQUA	1 year 1 month	The domain of this cookie is owned byOracle Eloqua. This cookie is used for email services. It also helps for marketing automation solution for B2B marketers to track customers through all phases of buying cycle.
geo	never	This cookie is used for identifying the geographical location by country of the user.
lang	session	LinkedIn sets this cookie to remember a user's language setting.
lidc	1 day	LinkedIn sets the lidc cookie to facilitate data center selection.
mx_t	10 years	This cookie is set by the provider Mixcloud. This cookie is used for implementing audio files on the website. It enables the embedding of Mix Cloud audio player.
previmpr	session	This cookie is set by the provider Mixcloud. This cookie is used for implementing audio files on the website. It enables the embedding of Mix Cloud audio player.
sp_landing	1 day	The sp_landing is set by Spotify to implement audio content from Spotify on the website and also registers information on user interaction related to the audio content.
sp_t	1 year	The sp_t cookie is set by Spotify to implement audio content from Spotify on the website and also registers information on user interaction related to the audio content.
v1st	1 year 1 month	The v1st cookie is set by TripAdvisor to collect details about how visitors use the website, by displaying user reviews, awards and information received on the TripAdvisor community.
vsid	30 minutes	This cookie supports the website's live support provider.
X-AB	1 day	Cookie associated with embedding content from Snapchat.

Performance

Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.

Cookie	Duration	Description
_gat	1 minute	This cookie is installed by Google Universal Analytics to restrain request rate and thus limit the collection of data on high traffic sites.
_uetsid	never	Bing Ads sets this cookie to engage with a user that has previously visited the website.
_uetvid	never	Bing Ads sets this cookie to engage with a user that has previously visited the website.
AKA_A2	1 hour	This cookie is set by Akamai. This cookie is used for DNS Prefetch and HTTP2 Push. It helps in improving the performance.
AWSALB	7 days	AWSALB is an application load balancer cookie set by Amazon Web Services to map the session to the target.
countryCode	session	This cookie is used for storing country code selected from country selector.
dmvk	session	The dmvk cookie is set by Dailymotion to record data of visitor behaviour on the website.
SRM_B	1 year 24 days	Used by Microsoft Advertising as a unique ID for visitors.

Analytics

Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.

Cookie	Duration	Description
__gads	1 year 24 days	The __gads cookie, set by Google, is stored under DoubleClick domain and tracks the number of times users see an advert, measures the success of the campaign and calculates its revenue. This cookie can only be read from the domain they are set on and will not track any data while browsing through other sites.
_cb	never	This cookie stores a visitor's unique identifier for Chartbeat tracking on the site.
_cb_svref	never	Chartbeat sets this cookie to store the original referrer for the site visitor. This cookie expires after 30 minutes but the timer is reset if the visitor visits a new page on the site before the cookie expires.
_chartbeat2	never	Chartbeat sets this cookie to store information about when a visitor has visited the site before. This helps to distinguish between new, returning, and loyal visitors.
_ga	2 years	The _ga cookie, installed by Google Analytics, calculates visitor, session and campaign data and also keeps track of site usage for the site's analytics report. The cookie stores information anonymously and assigns a randomly generated number to recognize unique visitors.
_ga_Q52H441J15	2 years	This cookie is installed by Google Analytics.
_ga_TM9YBZ48VY	2 years	This cookie is installed by Google Analytics.
_gat_gtag_UA_1203094_4	1 minute	Set by Google to distinguish users.
_gid	1 day	Installed by Google Analytics, _gid cookie stores information on how visitors use a website, while also creating an analytics report of the website's performance. Some of the data that are collected include the number of visitors, their source, and the pages they visit anonymously.
_omappvp	11 years	The _omappvp cookie is set to distinguish new and returning users and is used in conjunction with _omappvs cookie.
_omappvs	20 minutes	The _omappvs cookie, used in conjunction with the _omappvp cookies, is used to determine if the visitor has visited the website before, or if it is a new visitor.
_parsely_session	30 minutes	This cookie is used to track the behavior of a user within the current session.
_parsely_visitor	1 year 1 month	This cookie store anonymous user idnetifier to determine whether a visitor had visited before, or if its a new visit.
ad-id	8 months 17 days	The ad-id cookie is provided by Amazon Advertising for tallying user actions by tracking ad clicks on other websites, to provide targeted content.
ai_user	1 year	A unique user identifier cookie, set by Microsoft Application Insights software, that enables counting of the number of users accessing the application over time.
ajs_anonymous_id	never	This cookie is set by Segment to count the number of people who visit a certain site by tracking if they have visited before.
ajs_group_id	never	This cookie is set by Segment to track visitor usage and events within the website.
ajs_user_id	never	This cookie is set by Segment to help track visitor usage, events, target marketing, and also measure application performance and stability.
at-rand	never	AddThis sets this cookie to track page visits, sources of traffic and share counts.
CONSENT	2 years	YouTube sets this cookie via embedded youtube-videos and registers anonymous statistical data.
demdex	5 months 27 days	The demdex cookie, set under the domain demdex.net, is used by Adobe Audience Manager to help identify a unique visitor across domains.
ELQSTATUS	1 year 1 month	This cookie is set by Eloqua. This cookie is used by PwC to track individual visitors and their use of site. This is set on the first visit of the visitor to the site and updated on subsequent visits.
GUC	1 year	The GUC cookie is set by Yahoo for Yahoo conversion tracking.
s_vi	2 years	An Adobe Analytics cookie that uses a unique visitor ID time/date stamp to identify a unique vistor to the website.
session-id	68 years 18 days 3 hours 14 minutes	Amazon Pay uses this cookie to maintain a "session" that spans multiple days and beyond reboots. The session information includes the identity of the user, recently visited links and the duration of inactivity.
session-id-time	68 years 18 days 3 hours 14 minutes	Amazon Pay uses this cookie to maintain a "session" that spans multiple days and beyond reboots. The session information includes the identity of the user, recently visited links and the duration of inactivity.
UID	2 years	Scorecard Research sets this cookie for browser behaviour research.
uu	68 years 18 days 3 hours 14 minutes	AdScale sets this cookie to target ads by registering the user's movements across websites.
uvc	1 year 1 month	Set by addthis.com to determine the usage of addthis.com service.
vuid	2 years	Vimeo installs this cookie to collect tracking information by setting a unique ID to embed videos to the website.

Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads.

Cookie	Duration	Description
__Host-GAPS	2 years	This cookie allows the website to identify a user and provide enhanced functionality and personalisation.
__qca	1 year 26 days	The __qca cookie is associated with Quantcast. This anonymous data helps us to better understand users' needs and customize the website accordingly.
_fbp	3 months	This cookie is set by Facebook to display advertisements when either on Facebook or on a digital platform powered by Facebook advertising, after visiting the website.
_kuid_	session	The cookie, set by Krux Digital, registers a unique ID that identifies a returning user's device. The ID is used for targeted ads.
_pxhd	session	Used by Zoominfo to enhance customer data.
A1S	session	This cookie is associated with Yahoo Search Analytics and is used for advertising purposes.
ab	1 year	Owned by agkn, this cookie is used for targeting and advertising purposes.
ad-privacy	5 years 2 months 17 days	Provided by amazon-adsystem to make advertising messages more relevant to the users and their interests.
B	1 year	This Cookie is used by Yahoo to anonymously store data related to user's visits, such as the number of visits, average time spent on the website and what pages have been loaded. This data helps to customize website content to enhance user experience.
bkdc	5 months 27 days	Bluekai uses this cookie to build an anonymous user profile with data like the user's online behaviour and interests.
bkpa	5 months 27 days	Set by Bluekai, this cookie stores anonymized data about the users' web usage in an aggregate form to build a profile for targeted advertising.
bku	5 months 27 days	Bluekai uses this cookie to build an anonymous user profile with data like the user's online behaviour and interests.
CMID	1 year	Casale Media sets this cookie to collect information on user behavior, for targeted advertising.
CMPRO	3 months	CMPRO cookie is set by CasaleMedia for anonymous user tracking, and for targeted advertising.
CMPS	3 months	CMPS cookie is set by CasaleMedia for anonymous user tracking based on user's website visits, for displaying targeted ads.
f5_cspm	session	This cookie, set by PubMatic, is used to build a profile of user interests and to show relevant ads.
fr	3 months	Facebook sets this cookie to show relevant advertisements to users by tracking user behaviour across the web, on sites that have Facebook pixel or Facebook social plugin.
IDE	1 year 24 days	Google DoubleClick IDE cookies are used to store information about how the user uses the website to present them with relevant ads and according to the user profile.
IMRID	1 year 24 days	The domain of this cookie is owned by Nielsen. The cookie is used for storing the start and end of the user session for nielsen statistics. It helps in consumer profiling for online advertising.
khaos	1 year	Rubicon Project sets this cookie as an internal user identifier that stores user data to be used for analytics.
lidid	2 years	This cookie is used to collect data on user behaviour and interaction to make advertisement on the website more relevant.
ljtrtb	session	Lijit Advertising Platform sets this cookie temporarily, when multiple partners pass their IDs to the platform simultaneously. To avoid conflicts, each partner's ID is stored using separate cookies, which are merged to the ljtrtb cookie when it is available.
loc	1 year 1 month	AddThis sets this geolocation cookie to help understand the location of users who share the information.
mc	1 year 1 month	Quantserve sets the mc cookie to anonymously track user behaviour on the website.
MUID	1 year 24 days	Bing sets this cookie to recognize unique web browsers visiting Microsoft sites. This cookie is used for advertising, site analytics, and other operations.
NID	6 months	NID cookie, set by Google, is used for advertising purposes; to limit the number of times the user sees an ad, to mute unwanted ads, and to measure the effectiveness of ads.
permutive-session	never	This cookie is set by DoubleClick and is used for re-targeting, optimisation, reporting and attribution of online adverts.
personalization_id	2 years	Twitter sets this cookie to integrate and share features for social media and also store information about how the user uses the website, for tracking and targeting.
pxrc	2 months	This cookie is set by pippio to provide users with relevant advertisements and limit the number of ads displayed.
rlas3	1 year	RLCDN sets this cookie to provide users with relevant advertisements and limit the number of ads displayed.
sa-user-id	session	StackAdapt sets this cookie as a Random Identifier for user identification, to display relevant advertisements.
sa-user-id-v2	session	StackAdapt sets this cookie as a Random Identifier for user identification, to display relevant advertisements.
sc_at	1 year 24 days	The cookie is set by Snapchat to show relevant ads to the users by tracking user behaviour on Snapchat.
test_cookie	15 minutes	The test_cookie is set by doubleclick.net and is used to determine if the user's browser supports cookies.
uids	3 months	This cookie is set by Prebid Server. The cookies contains information that allows Prebid servers to distinguish between browsers and mobile devices. This information is then used to select advertisements delivered by the platform and measure the performance of the advretisement and attribute their payments.
uuid	session	MediaMath sets this cookie to avoid the same ads from being shown repeatedly and for relevant advertising.
uuid2	3 months	The uuid2 cookie is set by AppNexus and records information that helps in differentiating between devices and browsers. This information is used to pick out ads delivered by the platform and assess the ad performance and its attribute payment.
VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE	5 months 27 days	A cookie set by YouTube to measure bandwidth that determines whether the user gets the new or old player interface.
wfivefivec	1 year 1 month	This cookie, set by DataXu, tracks the advertisement report which helps to improve the marketing activity.
YSC	session	YSC cookie is set by Youtube and is used to track the views of embedded videos on Youtube pages.
yt-remote-connected-devices	never	YouTube sets this cookie to store the video preferences of the user using embedded YouTube video.
yt-remote-device-id	never	YouTube sets this cookie to store the video preferences of the user using embedded YouTube video.
yt.innertube::nextId	never	This cookie, set by YouTube, registers a unique ID to store data on what videos from YouTube the user has seen.
yt.innertube::requests	never	This cookie, set by YouTube, registers a unique ID to store data on what videos from YouTube the user has seen.

Others

Other uncategorized cookies are those that are being analyzed and have not been classified into a category as yet.

Cookie	Duration	Description
__Secure-YEC	1 year 1 month	No description
__tad	10 years	No description available.
_adb	1 year	No description
_bit	5 months 27 days	No description available.
_cph	1 month	No description
_dcf	7 days	No description available.
_dlt	1 day	No description
_gat_customGA	1 minute	No description
_genius_ab_test_cohort	session	No description available.
_genius_ab_test_song_recommendations	session	No description
_hulu_assignments	1 year	No description available.
_hulu_at	1 year	No description available.
_ia_uid	5 months 27 days	No description
_ia_version	5 months 27 days	No description
_initReferrer	5 years	No description available.
_lc2_fpi	2 years	No description available.
_pc_subscriber_origin	session	No description
_psegs	never	No description available.
_sc	1 month	No description
_scribd_session	3 years	No description available.
_sid	session	No description available.
_sp_id.80cc	1 year	No description
_sp_ses.80cc	30 minutes	No description
_stid	5 months 27 days	No description
_ttp	1 year 24 days	No description
_v__chartbeat3	never	No description available.
_wr	1 month	No description
-qalmSopsTifk	1 day	No description
.AspNetCore.Antiforgery.t3FzIQCpEDY	session	No description
A1	1 year	No description
A3	1 year	No description
accessToken	never	No description available.
adEdition	1 day	No description available.
adops_master_kvs	never	No description available.
akaas_AS_gray_kosa_prod	15 years 6 months 5 days 5 hours	No description
akaas_AS_gray_kxii_prod	15 years 6 months 5 days 3 hours 12 minutes	No description
akaas_AS_gray_wowt_prod	15 years 6 months 5 days 3 hours 5 minutes	No description
akaas_Config_Variant	past	No description
akaas_MSNBC	10 days	No description available.
akaas_NBCNews	10 days	No description
akaas_TODAY	10 days	No description available.
akacd_z_cdn_prod_ion	2 minutes	No description available.
atl_uuid	15 years 6 months 5 days 1 hour 16 minutes	No description
atltestbucketv1	session	No description
b2b_cig_opt	session	No description available.
BCReferrerOverrule	past	No description available.
BCSessionID	1 year 1 month 4 days	This cookie is set by the BlueConic. This cookie is used as a unique identifier for the BlueConic profile.
BCTempID	10 minutes	No description available.
betaTest	1 month	No description
bm_mi	past	No description available.
BTRAnon	2 months 8 days 11 hours	No description available.
BTRListenGUID	1 month	No description available.
bwid_withoutSameSiteForIncompatibleClients	1 year	No description
cbc_visitor	1 year	No description
CBS_INTERNAL	5 minutes	No description available.
CLID	1 year	No description
client_type	session	No description available.
client_version	session	No description available.
clmedia	4 hours	No description
cloudfront_viewer_country	1 hour	No description
CMTS	3 months	No description
connectionspeed	7 days	No description available.
cookies.js_dtest	session	No description
country	session	No description available.
cto_bidid	never	No description available.
cto_bundle	never	No description available.
da_10	10 days	No description
DE2	session	No description available.
debug	never	No description available.
DotMetrics.DeviceKey	1 year	This cookie is set by the provider Dotmetrics.net. This cookie is used for implementation of the technical part of the MOSS measurement.
DotMetrics.UniqueUserIdentityCookie	1 year	This cookie is set by the provider Dotmetrics.net. This cookie is used for implementation of the technical part of the MOSS measurement.
DS	session	No description available.
edition	7 days	No description available.
edition-view	7 days	No description available.
edu_cig_opt	session	No description available.
embed	session	No description
esi-permutive-id	session	No description available.
esi-uuid	1 year	No description available.
et-ppvid	1 day	No description
f5avraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa_session_	session	No description available.
f77	1 month	No description
FastAB	1 year	No description available.
FastAB_Zion	session	No description
fdc72736e2cd0e3db824377bce878100	session	No description
feat__us_disable_permutive	1 year	No description
fly_device	5 minutes	No description available.
fly_geo	5 minutes	No description available.
fp	never	No description available.
fresh8_toggle	session	No description available.
geoCountry	session	No description
geoData	session	No description available.
geoEdition	1 day	No description available.
geoLat	session	No description available.
geoLong	session	No description available.
geoZipcode	session	No description available.
gnt_eid	session	No description available.
gup_anonid	1 year	No description available.
gup_clientid	1 year	No description available.
gup_lng	1 year	No description available.
is_gdpr	session	No description available.

A field guide to spotting, stopping homophobic laws

Support vital LGBTQ+ journalism

Latest Stories

Sexual assault accuser drops lawsuit against "Drag Race" star Shangela

Former umpire sues MLB, says he was fired after complaining about homophobic harassment

Malcolm Kenyatta wins historic race on road to becoming PA's first out statewide official

Red Robin manager files discrimination suit, says he was fired because he’s gay

‘Mom… I’m gay, I own a porn company, and I’m in a polyamorous relationship’

More in Commentary

The queer community has long struggled with bisexual inclusivity. It’s even worse for bi elders.

Donald Trump claims Democratic Jews are “disloyal.” He’d fail his own loyalty test in an instant.

Too many doctors are still inept at helping queer folks build families

Israel’s flame of empathy is burning out. But it’s not irretrievable.

Arizona’s revived abortion law is a stark reminder that marriage equality is no longer safe

The odds of Donald Trump being convicted in his New York trial are actually pretty strong

Newsflash Donald Trump: Every day in America is Christian Visibility Day

Adm. Rachel Levine is optimistic about the future of trans Americans. I’m not convinced.

Palestinians are dying in the name of LGBTQ+ people. This is not what we stand for.

Support vital LGBTQ+ journalism

Latest Stories

Red Robin manager files discrimination suit, says he was fired because he’s gay

‘Mom… I’m gay, I own a porn company, and I’m in a polyamorous relationship’

More in Commentary

Never Miss a Beat