California

After a year without a permanent executive director, the statewide LGBT lobbying group Equality California announced Wednesday that the board of directors has selected John O'Connor, who currently serves as the executive director of the LGBT Community Center of the Desert in Palm Springs, to fill the position. [ Read more → ]

Two LGBT advocacy groups, the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR) and Equality California, filed court papers late Friday seeking to intervene in a federal lawsuit challenging the new California law protecting LGBT youth from "gay-to-straight" reparative therapy. [ Read more → ]

The vision stays with me, even after all these years. I’m in junior high, and I’ve just looked into the eyes of an overweight girl, having just delivered a devastatingly cruel blow. Her bright blue eyes, haunted and broken, serve as lingering reminders of how destructive words can be, and I’ve often wished I could take that moment back. Little did I know that girl, Elizabeth Emken, would years later run for public office, in an attempt to unseat California Senator Dianne Feinstein... [ Read more → ]

National Organization for Marriage (NOM) strategist Frank Schubert has made nearly $3 million selling anti-LGBT discrimination in just the past year, according to NOM Exposed, a project of the Human Rights Campaign. [ Read more → ]

I want them to remember us not as the last generation to attack our fellow citizens' individual and religious freedoms, but rather as the first one to defend the right to marry -- for everyone. And, as a Minnesotan, I want future generations to remember my state not as the latest to pass an anti-marriage amendment to its constitution, but rather as the first to defeat such a hurtful measure... [ Read more → ]

LOS ANGELES -- A Moraga, Calif., teen who was kicked out of the Boy Scouts and denied his Eagle award because he is gay, was awarded a $20,000 scholarship from the online photo album company Shutterfly during an appearance on the Ellen Degeneres show on Thursday. [ Read more → ]

If there is one thing that we learned by the Pacific Justice Institute’s lawsuit against California Gov. Jerry Brown, and anyone in his orbit remotely connected to a new law banning “ex-gay” therapy for minors, is that these lawyers are as logic challenged and convoluted as the industry they are poorly defending. [ Read more → ]

Therapists who purportedly counsel gay and lesbian patients into heterosexuality and two anti-gay organizations have filed lawsuits seeking an injunction against California's recently approved ban on reparative therapy for minors. [ Read more → ]

CONTRA COSTA COUNTY, Calif. -- A 17-year-old high school senior from this hillside area just east of Oakland, Calif., has been told by the Boy Scouts that he is not eligible to be awarded the rank of Eagle Scout because he is gay. [ Read more → ]

Just two days after California Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law a bill banning psychological therapy aimed at turning gay and lesbian youth straight — often referred to as reparative therapy -- the anti-gay organization Liberty Counsel announced Monday it is preparing a lawsuit aimed at preventing the law from taking effect. [ Read more → ]

Former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who maintained a public position of opposing same-sex marriage, revealed in an interview with CBS' "60 Minutes" on Sunday that he presided over two ceremonies of gay couples while in office. [ Read more → ]

SAN FRANCISCO -- California Governor Jerry Brown on Saturday made history by signing a landmark legislation banning psychological therapy aimed at turning gay and lesbian youth straight — often referred to as reparative therapy. [ Read more → ]

SAN FRANCISCO -- California Governor Jerry Brown (D) on Friday signed a bill to ensure that women in same-sex relationships and single women can access fertility services on the same terms as women in opposite-sex relationships. [ Read more → ]

SAN DIEGO – A former Playgirl model has been convicted of second-degree murder in connection with the beating death of Jason “Cowboy” Huggins, a beloved figure in the San Diego LGBT community. [ Read more → ]

The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday included no same-sex marriage cases in its first announcement of what lower court decisions it will review during the 2012-13 session. Legal activists will almost certainly begin speculating now whether the high court is preparing to refuse to hear an appeal to preserve California’s same-sex marriage ban, Proposition 8. That action could come as early as Monday, October 1, or be pending for weeks. [ Read more → ]

WEST HOLLYWOOD, CA -- The city of West Hollywood has announced that it make permanent the temporary rainbow crosswalks installed back in June in honor of gay pride month. [ Read more → ]

The U.S. Supreme Court has set at least three cases related to marriage equality and same-sex partner benefits for conference on Sept. 24, including the federal case against California’s Proposition 8, the 2008 voter-approved constitutional ban on same-sex marriage. [ Read more → ]

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- California State Assembly Speaker John A. Perez took to the podium Wednesday at the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C., and praised President Barack Obama for repealing “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and for coming out in support of marriage equality, calling it evidence that the Administration is working to protect and advance “opportunities” for all American people. [ Read more → ]

LONG BEACH, Calif. -- Police in Long Beach, Calif., are investigating an assault involving four U.S. Marine Corps' personnel who allegedly attacked a film student from San Dimas, Calif., and beat him unconscious outside the Silver Fox, a popular gay-patronized establishment. [ Read more → ]

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- The California State Assembly has adopted a resolution carried by Assemblymember Toni Atkins requesting that the U.S. Postal Service honor slain civil rights leader Harvey Milk with a postage stamp. [ Read more → ]