Missouri

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Some gay students who face financial trouble, often because of rejection from their families, are getting help from the University of Missouri-Kansas City. [ Read more → ]

LEES SUMMIT, Mo. -- The daughter of a Missouri man who was arrested after refusing to leave the bedside of his spouse at a Kansas City hospital earlier this week, is speaking out, and has called the hospital's statement of events "absolute and utter bullshit." [ Read more → ]

LEE’S SUMMIT, Mo. -- A Missouri man has been arrested for refusing to leave the hospital bedside of his sick partner after a family member requested that he do so. [ Read more → ]

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- The Missouri Supreme Court heard oral arguments Wednesday in the case that could allow same-sex partners of state employees to receive death benefits from the state's pension system. [ Read more → ]

SIKESTON, Mo. — An openly gay teen in the southeast Missouri town of Sikeston will be allowed to take his boyfriend to the prom, school district officials said Friday. [ Read more → ]

A school district in southeast Missouri is facing a threat of legal action over a policy that prohibits same-sex couples from attending prom together. The Southern Poverty Law Center on Thursday accused the Scott County Central School District in Sikeston, Mo., of discrimination and gave the district until Feb. 25 to revise the school dance policy or face a potential lawsuit. [ Read more → ]

CLAYTON, Mo. – The St. Louis County Council chamber was filled to capacity on Tuesday as council members voted and passed an ordinance that would include sexual orientation and gender identity in St. Louis County’s non-discrimination protections in unincorporated St. Louis County. [ Read more → ]

This recently released video of the Rev. Phil Snyder, pastor at the Brentwood Christian Church, in Springfield, Mo., is, at first, not much different from the recent anti-gay rants of pastors Sean Harris, Charles L. Worley, Curtis Knapp or Dennis Leatherman, who have each called for violence or death to gays. [ Read more → ]

CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. -- A 17-year-old Missouri teen has pleaded guilty to a hate crime charge in the July 24 beating of a local lesbian resident. [ Read more → ]

ST. LOUIS, Mo — The Human Rights Campaign awarded The Vital Voice magazine its first ever “Equality In Media” award during the HRC’s “Homecoming: The 20th Anniversary St. Louis Human Rights Campaign Dinner Gala” on Sept. 22. [ Read more → ]

MAPLEWOOD, Mo. – Seven St. Louis county municipalities now offer protections for their LGBT citizens following a 4-3 vote on Tuesday from the Maplewood City Council. [ Read more → ]

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- An ordinance that would add sexual orientation and gender identity to the city’s non-discrimination ordinance generated three hours of vigorous public testimony in a public hearing August 13. [ Read more → ]

CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. -- A juvenile court judge in Cape Girardeau, Mo., ruled Wednesday that the 17-year-old female suspect in the July 24 beating of a local lesbian resident will be prosecuted as an adult. [ Read more → ]

CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. -- A lesbian couple in southeastern Missouri is recovering from an alleged attack by three neighborhood youths in what the couple claims is hate crime motivated by the sibling’s discrimination of their sexual orientation. [ Read more → ]

ST. JOSEPH, Mo. -- A 19-year-old Eagle Scout has been terminated from his summer employment as a summer camp counselor at a Missouri-based Boy Scouts summer camp after revealing that he is gay. [ Read more → ]

SPRINGFIELD, Mo -- Scott Lively, a noted anti-LGBT extremist and the head of the Massachusetts-based Abiding Truth Ministries -- a group listed by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a hate group -- told an audience of 70 people on Friday night that a culture war is currently being waged between those fighting for sexual anarchy and those fighting for family values. [ Read more → ]

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. — Actor and human rights advocate Brad Pitt’s mother has penned an anti-gay editorial that appeared in The Springfield News-Leader on Tuesday. [ Read more → ]

ST. LOUIS, Mo. -- A possible piece of legislation could bring major changes to the St. Louis LGBT community, namely domestic partnership benefits for city firefighters. [ Read more → ]

JEFFRSON CITY, Mo. -- Missouri Republican state lawmaker, Zachary Wyatt on Wednesday publicly came out to his colleagues during a press conference asking for the withdrawal of Missouri's “Don’t Say Gay Bill.” [ Read more → ]

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – Anti-gay legislation made its comeback in the Missouri legislature on Thursday as House Bill 2051, sponsored by Rep. Steve Cookson (R-Dist. 153), was referred to the Elementary and Secondary Education Committee. [ Read more → ]