LGBT Youth

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Two Boy Scouts councils in Tennessee said Tuesday they will not support a proposal to partially lift the group's long-standing exclusion of gays. [ Read more → ]

NEW YORK — Under pressure over its longstanding ban on gays, the Boys Scouts of America is proposing to lift the ban for youth members but continue to exclude gays as adult leaders. [ Read more → ]

LA GRANDE, Ore. — The father of a gay Oregon teenager who hanged himself is ready to begin walking across the United States to spread his message against bullying. [ Read more → ]

Hundreds of thousands of students at thousands of schools around the world on Friday are participating in GLSEN's (the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network) 18th annual Day of Silence by taking a vow of silence to draw attention to the anti-LGBT harassment and discrimination in schools. [ Read more → ]

A new short film written and performed by Kim Ho tells the story of a 17-year-old gay teen who struggles to find the words to be true to himself… and his best friend -- a story that captures the feelings and emotions of gay kids who often feel alone and isolated because of their sexual orientation. [ Read more → ]

Jokes are supposed to be funny. They always start with a set up and then build to a crescendo where the plot twists and the listener bursts out laughing. Last week a “joke” went viral, but no one was left laughing. The “joke” was an article titled, “Parents put 16-year-old daughter up for adoption after learning she is gay." ... The piece was written as humor…satire… but none of the 72,000 who shared it took it that way. They believed it to be real. Who could blame them? [ Read more → ]

AUSTIN, Texas — Parents of gay teens urged Texas lawmakers on Tuesday to give their children the same legal protection as heterosexuals when it comes to prosecuting sex crimes — pleas that helped push a key Senate committee to cast a vote bucking the state's long history of opposing the expansion of gay rights. [ Read more → ]

AUSTIN, Texas -- In Texas, where attempts to expand gay rights have run into strong opposition from Republican leaders, state lawmakers are considering new legal protections for sexually active gay teens. [ Read more → ]

DES MOINES, Iowa -- Conservative state lawmakers threatened Thursday to withhold state funding for an Iowa community college if the school spends tax dollars on a conference for gay youths. [ Read more → ]

STONE HARBOR, N.J. -- New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said Wednesday that he is undecided on whether the state should ban the controversial use of "gay conversion therapy." [ 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 → ]

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- A Minnesota House committee has given its initial backing to a bill meant to crack down on bullying in schools. [ Read more → ]

FOUNTAIN, Colo. -- A transgender advocacy group on Tuesday announced it has filed a complaint with the Colorado Civil Rights Division on behalf of a 6-year-old girl who has been barred from using the girls’ bathrooms at her elementary school. [ Read more → ]

LGBT students can greatly benefit from participation in school-based athletics, but many of these students experience harassment, assault and discrimination that negatively impact their participation in middle and high school physical education and sports teams, according to a research brief released Wednesday by GLSEN, the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network. [ 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 → ]

INDIANAPOLIS — A coalition of gay rights organizations is trying to bolster the confidence of gay teens in response to an Indiana teacher's assertion that gays have no purpose in life. [ Read more → ]

BOSTON — The Massachusetts Department of Education on Friday issued directives for handling transgender students, including allowing them to use the bathrooms or play on the sports teams that correspond to the gender with which they identify. [ 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 → ]

LA GRANDE, Ore. -- Speaking before a crowd of about 200 people Wednesday, the father of an Oregon teen who died Sunday after he hanged himself two weeks earlier, said that he loved his gay son, and accepted him for who he was. [ Read more → ]

CHICAGO — It really does get better for gay and bisexual teens when it comes to being bullied, although young gay men have it worse than their lesbian peers, according to the first long-term scientific evidence on how the problem changes over time. [ Read more → ]