BLOOMFIELD HILLS, Mich. — A former chemistry teacher at a suburban Detroit Catholic high school said she was fired for becoming pregnant after marrying her same-sex partner. Barbara Webb, 33, of Madison Heights said she was fired from the all-girls Marian High School in August after working there for nine years. She notified employers of her pregnancy in July.

A new study from Italy finds that social networking sites like Facebook have a negative impact on individuals’ mental well-being, as well as their levels of social trust, because of their exposure to hate speech and other offensive content. Researchers analyzed a wide representative sample of 50,000 Italian citizens, assessing how much they interacted with social media and how they…

NEW YORK — A gay group will march under its own banner for the first time in the world’s largest St. Patrick’s Day Parade, organizers said Wednesday. The prohibition on identified gay groups in the centuries-old New York parade had made participation a political issue. Democratic Mayor Bill de Blasio refused to march this year, and Guinness beer dropped its sponsorship.

CHICAGO — An Illinois couple is continuing their fight against a Chicago cab company after they claim a driver tried to kick them out of his taxi for kissing in the backseat. Matthew McCrea and Steven White have filed a lawsuit against Sun Taxi after their original complaint, filed with the Illinois Department of Human Rights last October, was dismissed because the department said…

NEW YORK — The theft of nude photographs from celebrities’ online accounts has thrown a spotlight on the security of cloud computing, a system used by a growing number of Americans to store personal information over the Internet. On Tuesday, Apple acknowledged the security breakdown and blamed it on intruders who were able to figure out usernames and passwords and bypass…

Last Thursday, August 28, the LGBT movement suffered a terrible loss with the passing of Andrew Cray. Andy had been struggling with cancer since October 2013. But before his diagnosis, and even during his treatment and the period of remission that was all too brief, Andy was a pivotal figure in the struggle for LGBT rights. Despite the too few years we had with him, he was a champion…

As a representative serving in Congress, Mike Pence was a strong advocate for a constitutional same-sex marriage ban. Earlier this year, as governor of Indiana, Pence repeated his support for “traditional marriage” and urged legislators to act on a state ban on gay marriage. But in recent months, as gay marriage has become a rapidly developing issue in the Hoosier state…

COLUMBIA, S.C. — An organization that supports transgender rights has filed a lawsuit against the state of South Carolina after it refused to issue a driver’s license to a 16-year-old gender non-conforming teen unless he took off his makeup. The Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund filed the lawsuit filed in federal court Tuesday on behalf of Chase Culpepper…

It’s unusual when the winners of a case ask the U.S. Supreme Court to hear an appeal of their victory. But that is exactly the plea being made by lawyers for same-sex couples who successfully challenged bans on such unions in Virginia, Oklahoma and Utah. And for good reasons. Although some same-sex couples have been able to enjoy the protections of marriage …

SCHAGHTICOKE, N.Y. — The owners of an upstate New York farm who were ordered to pay $13,000 in fines and restitution for refusing to host a lesbian couple’s wedding say they will discontinue hosting all weddings rather than accommodate same-sex wedding ceremonies. Cynthia and Robert Gifford, owners of the Liberty Ridge Farm in Schaghticoke, N.Y., “have decided…

SALTILLO, Coahuila, Mexico — The Congress of the Mexican state of Coahuila has voted to legalize same-sex marriage. The congress on Monday voted 19-1 to alter more than 40 parts of the state’s civil code to make marriage gender neutral, making Coahuila the first state in Mexico to legalize same-sex marriage through its state legislature.

MANASSAS, Va. — A Virginia law firm says it has taken “immediate and severe” action against an attorney who railed against same-sex marriage in company-wide email, in which he also referred to AIDS as the “gay plague.”

An inaugural gay pride weekend in the Bahamas was cut short as members of the LGBT community abandoned the planned events “out of fear” of repercussions from irate members of the public, reported the Nassau Guardian. Event organizer Victor Rollins said he received death threats on his Facebook page after posting pictures Sunday of event attendees holding gay pride flags along with Bahamian flags on a beach.

MONTPELIER, Vt. — Former Gov. Jim Douglas says he was acting on conscience in 2009 when he vetoed a same-sex marriage law that had been passed by the state Legislature. In a frank new memoir being released Wednesday, the 63-year-old Douglas said that he had no objection to same-sex couples forming relationships and that he and his wife Dorothy have gay friends.

INDIANAPOLIS — Indiana voters who’d hoped to decide whether to place the state’s same-sex marriage ban in the constitution won’t find the issue on the November ballot. But marriage equality is still playing a role in many political races, giving Democrats hopes of gaining a critical foothold in the heavily Republican state.

Anti-gay attorneys took a beating before the Seventh Circuit last week, trying and failing to defend marriage bans before a panel of hostile judges. Now all eyes are on the Supreme Court to see which cases they’ll take up in their fall session. There’s another major marriage argument coming up in a few days. And the National Organization for Marriage still isn’t …

Why are we celebrating the obligation to toil most of our lives? Seriously, why is Labor Day an American holiday? Is it an excuse for one last blowout before – before what? I’m tempted to research the origins of Labor Day, though I have no doubt that I learned all about it back in fourth grade. It’s never made sense to me to get a day off to celebrate work. Of course it’s never made sense to me…

HERNANDO, Miss. — A Mississippi man has filed a complaint alleging that a teacher at a church-run school sexually abused him in an attempt to change his sexual orientation from gay to straight. The National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR) assisted in filing the complaint Friday with the DeSoto County Sheriff’s Department on behalf of Jeff White, 32, a former student of …

BEREA, Ky. — The city of Berea, Ky., has scheduled two meetings in September to discuss a proposed city law that bans discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity. The proposal, modeled after several other so-called fairness ordinances that have passed around the state, would outlaw discrimination in employment, housing and public accommodations.

SEATTLE — The bicyclist who died in a collision with a truck in downtown Seattle on Friday has been identified as a well-respected attorney who was part of the American Civil Liberties Union legal team that successfully challenged the U.S. military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy for gay service members.