Alabama

The Lauderdale County Board of Education in Florence, Ala. has decreed that Queer students, racial minority students, overweight students, or any students that do not meet the standards of normalcy of the local community are worth precisely “2 weeks suspension without pay.” For the average teacher in Alabama this comes to roughly $2,655. [ Read more → ]

The Alabama public school high teacher and football coach who was secretly recorded in a classroom setting making derogatory comments about gays and First Lady Michelle Obama, has been suspended. [ Read more → ]

ROGERSVILLE, Ala. -- An Alabama high school teacher and football coach has been secretly recorded in a classroom setting launching verbal tirades directed at First Lady Michelle Obama and LGBT people. [ Read more → ]

PHENIX CITY, Ala. -- Derek Shrout, a 17-year-old self-proclaimed white-supremacist, was released on a $75,000 bond Monday evening after being arrested Friday for planning to kill six students and a teacher in a bomb plot. Five of the intended victims were African-American, while one was gay. [ Read more → ]

The attorney representing Mallory Owens, the Alabama woman who claimed that she was brutally beaten by her girlfriend's brother on Thanksgiving Day, has quit without after Owens told a local television station that the statement released Friday on her behalf was mostly fiction. [ Read more → ]

MONTGOMERY, Ala. -- Zachary Stirewalt, a 21-year-old openly gay Eagle Scout and former student at Appalachian State University, has been charged with murder of a man with whom he was staying at the time. [ Read more → ]

MOBILE, Ala. -- Mallory Owens, the 23-year-old Alabama woman who claims that she was brutally beaten by her girlfriend's brother on Thanksgiving Day, has released a statement as said she believes her attacker intended to kill her. [ Read more → ]

MOBILE, Ala. -- An Alabama woman who was allegedly beaten by her girlfriend's brother on Thanksgiving Day, says the attack was not a hate crime, and is now recovering at the home of her attacker's parents where the assault occurred just days ago. [ Read more → ]

MOBILE, Ala. -- An Alabama man has been charged with second-degree assault for brutally beating a woman because she is in a relationship with his sister and he does not approve. [ Read more → ]

MOBILE, Ala. -- The Alabama Court of Civil Appeals has denied a lesbian the right to adopt her partner’s 6-year-old son, because the the state does not permit or recognize same-sex marriages or civil unions. [ Read more → ]

Former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore, who is seeking to regain the office of chief justice, denounced same-sex marriage and predicted it would be the downfall of the country. [ Read more → ]

During the game against Spanish Fort High School and its arch-rival Daphne High School, ESPN cameras captured students displaying a sign which read, "Purple? Man, that's GAY." The sign was a reference to Daphne High School colors, one of which is purple. [ Read more → ]

Republican presidential hopeful Rick Santorum scored two wins in the GOP primaries on Tuesday by adding Alabama and Mississippi to his column after prevailing in Kansas over the weekend. [ Read more → ]

MONTGOMERY, Ala. -- Alabama's first openly lesbian legislator, state Rep. Patricia Todd, (D-Birmingham), pre-filed legislation last week to expand anti-bullying policies to explicitly prohibit harassment in schools on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. [ Read more → ]

In a follow-up to a story we reported earlier this week, an Alabama high school has reversed its decision and will allow a student to wear a t-shirt that expresses the message, “gay? fine by me.” [ Read more → ]

An Alabama high school faces a possible federal lawsuit for banning a student from wearing a t-shirt that expresses the message, "gay? fine by me." [ Read more → ]

Tom Parker, a Republican state supreme court justice in Alabama who has spent nearly $1.5 million dollars on his campaign for reelection, has compared U. S. District Court Judge Virgina Phillips to the Islamic extremist terrorist group Al-Qaeda. [ Read more → ]

Ten U.S. states signed onto a legal brief Friday in opposition to same-sex marriage, claiming a federal court “exceeded its judicial authority” when it ruled that California's Proposition 8 -- the 2008 voter-approved ban on gay marriage -- was "unconstitutional." The amicus brief sent Friday... [ Read more → ]

RUSSELLVILLE, Alabama -- Cynthia Stewart, a 17-year-old junior at Tharptown High School in northern Alabama, is a member of her school’s prom planning committee and had personally raised over $200 for the prom. But if she shows up to the prom, it may be canceled... [ Read more → ]