California

Pepperdine University has announced a new scholarship for “students who have demonstrated a commitment to the LGBT community,” according to the university’s student newspaper, the Pepperdine Graphic. [ Read more → ]

SAN FRANCISCO -- A California lawmaker has introduced legislation aimed at guaranteeing transgender students the right to use public school restrooms and participate on the sports teams that correspond with their expressed genders. [ Read more → ]

SAN FRANCISCO -- The results of a poll commissioned by the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce last month and published Friday showed that a majority of the city's residents oppose renaming San Francisco International Airport after slain gay civil rights leader Harvey Milk. [ Read more → ]

The state of California on Thursday filed its own amicus brief in the U.S. Supreme Court challenge to Proposition 8, the state’s voter approved ban on same-sex marriage. [ Read more → ]

RIVERSIDE, Calif. -- A transgender woman has filed a lawsuit after she was expelled from a Christian university after she revealed in an episode of MTV’s “True Life” that she is biologically male. [ Read more → ]

SAN FRANCISCO -- A record 61 percent of Californians now approve of allowing same-sex couples to marry, according to a poll released Thursday. [ Read more → ]

LOS ANGELES -- A lawsuit brought by a lesbian U.S. Army veteran and her wife over the denial of disability benefits can move forward over the objections of the Department of Justice, a federal judge in California ruled Monday. [ Read more → ]

A California state Senator on Tuesday introduced legislation that would remove the state's tax exempt status for any youth group -- including the Boy Scouts of America -- that bans members on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity [ Read more → ]

SAN FRANCISCO -- Lambda Legal has filed a friend-of-the-court brief with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, urging the court to uphold the California law known as SB 1172 that prohibits mental health providers from performing controversial “gay-to-straight” conversion therapy on LGBT youth. [ Read more → ]

WESTMINSTER, Calif. -- A group of gay Vietnamese Americans and their supporters in Southern California's Orange County are asking to be allowed to participate in this weekend's Tet parade in celebration of the Vietnamese New Year. [ Read more → ]

The reports of the death of Equality California (EQCA) are greatly exaggerated, the nonprofit’s new boss tells San Diego Gay & Lesbian News. Like Mark Twain once did, John O’Connor, who became EQCA’s executive director about six weeks ago, is dispelling rumors about the health of the organization. [ Read more → ]

Supporters of California's Proposition 8 -- the 2008 voter approved ban on same-sex marriage -- urged the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday to preserve the state's definition of marriage as between one man and one woman, the first of many arguments the high court will hear this year on the issue of marriage equality. [ Read more → ]

LAFAYETTE, Calif. -- A California Synagogue has become the latest group to reject the Boy Scouts of America's anti-gay policies. The board of directors at Temple Isaiah, in Lafayette, Calif., voted unanimously this week to to recommend that the rabbinical staff and synagogue members write... [ Read more → ]

BERKELEY, Calif. -- A California man faces a felony hate crime charge after officers spotted him spray painting anti-gay graffiti on campus buildings at the University of California-Berkeley. [caption id="attachment_72996" align="alignright" width="250"] Anthony Garcia[/caption] Anthony Garcia, 23, of Huntington Park, Calif., was booked on a... [ Read more → ]

SALEM, Ore. — Regulators in Oregon and California have quietly directed some health insurance companies to stop denying coverage for transgender patients because of their gender identity. The states aren't requiring coverage of specific medical treatments. But they told some private insurance companies they must... [ Read more → ]

A San Francisco lawmaker on Tuesday will introduce legislation seeking to rename San Francisco International Airport for slain gay rights leader Harvey Milk. A charter amendment by Supervisor David Campos would place the proposal to rename the airport as Harvey Milk-San Francisco International Airport, and... [ Read more → ]

Among the 229 contestants competing for the title of Miss California USA will be Kylan Arianna Wenzel, a 26-year-old transgender woman from Century City, Calif. Wenzel will be the first ever transgender contestant after the Miss Universe Organization changed its rules in April last year — Miss Universe operates the Miss USA pageant, and the local pageants that determine the state delegates. [ Read more → ]

A California gay teen — who spent more than 10 years working toward become an Eagle Scout — has had his hopes dashed once again in his quest to attain Scouting’s highest honor. [ Read more → ]

A California teen who spent years in the Boy Scouts completing the requirements to become an Eagle Scout, only to be denied the rank because he's gay, has received new support by the local council's review board to receive Scouting's highest honor, the rank of Eagle Scout. [ Read more → ]

SAN FRANCISCO -- California Gov. Jerry Brown this week appealed a U.S. District Court injunction that has blocked the enforcement of a new state law that prohibits providing controversial "gay-to-straight" conversion therapy to LGBT youth. [ Read more → ]