Illinois

CHICAGO -- The Howard Brown Health Center, a nationally recognized LGBT health care organization, on Tuesday announced it will repay $715,000 to three separate federal agencies to settle a claim that the clinic improperly used research grant monies. [ Read more → ]

CHICAGO -- The Chicago Department of Public Health unveiled a new LGBT health strategy to community leaders and advocates Friday as part of the city’s Healthy Chicago initiative. [ Read more → ]

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. -- A bill that would amend the Illinois Religious Freedom Protection and Civil Unions Act to allow religiously based child welfare institutions to decline adoption to couples in a civil union was killed in Springfield Friday by activists from the ACLU of Illinois and The Civil Rights Agenda. [ Read more → ]

CHICAGO -- Ald. Joe Moreno introduced an ordinance in the Chicago City Council Wednesday that would set specific guidelines for police to follow while handling transgender people. [ Read more → ]

CHICAGO -- Chicago Alderman Joe Moreno and a group of local LGBT rights activists are pushing for an ordinance that would establish a transgender issues commission in the Chicago Police Department as well as set guidelines for police to follow while handling transgender people. [ Read more → ]

CHICAGO — Mayor Rahm Emanuel pledged his support for a new bill introduced in the General Assembly last week that would legalize same-sex marriage in Illinois. Emanuel’s support for the bill comes nearly a day after Gov. Pat Quinn suggested that he was unsure about his stance on same-sex marriage, despite having signed the civil unions bill into law last year. [ Read more → ]

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — Illinois Rep. Greg Harris (D-Chicago) on Wednesday introduced the Religious Freedom and Marriage Fairness Act in the General Assembly, a bill that would allow same-sex marriage in Illinois. [ Read more → ]

A Southern Illinois lawmaker is leading another attempt to add adoption exceptions to the state’s civil unions act, which if passed, would allow religious institutions the ability to deny adoptions to couples in civil unions. [ Read more → ]

CHICAGO -- Truth Wins Out, a non-profit advocacy group that fights anti-LGBT religious extremism -- stepped up its campaign against Cardinal Francis George with a full-page ad in Sunday's Chicago Tribune, rebuking the Chicago Archbishop for his recent comments comments likening gay activists to the Ku Klux Klan. [ Read more → ]

One leading advocate called 2011 an “epic” year for marriage equality. Was it? While only one state -- New York -- enacted full marriage rights for same-sex couples, it was the most populous state to do so. Five other states also moved closer to marriage equality than ever before. Public opinion shifted dramatically towards supporting equality. And the Obama administration announced that it no longer considers a key part of the Defense of Marriage Act constitutional. [ Read more → ]

According to ABC News Chicago, Cardinal Francis George has began to backtrack on comments likening gay activists to the Ku Klux Klan, even after earlier refusing to do so. Last week Chicago’s Roman Catholic leader decried a rerouting of the 2012 June LGBT Pride parade route to a path that would take the march in front of a Catholic church, saying “You don’t want the gay liberation movement to morph into something like the Ku Klux Klan, demonstrating in the streets against Catholicism.” [ Read more → ]

On the heels of an agreement about parade times reached between Chicago LGBT Pride organizers and Our Lady of Mt. Carmel church — which sits on the June parade route — the Windy City’s Cardinal Francis George compared the event to “something like the Ku Klux Klan.” [ Read more → ]

DANVILLE, Ill. -- A Vermilion County, Ill., family is in mourning after discovering that their daughter, 10-year-old Ashlynn Conner was found dead hanging in her closet in what the local coroner, Peggy Johnson, described as an apparent suicide. [ Read more → ]

It seems one of the final frontiers in the struggle for equality for LGBT families is teaching the rest of the world that we are incredible parents, and that our families not only deserve equality, but we are suffering without it. [ Read more → ]

Three Roman Catholic dioceses have dropped their lawsuit against the state of Illinois, agreeing to transfer more than 1,000 foster care children and staff to other agencies in their regions to avoid placing children in the homes of gay and lesbian parents. [ Read more → ]

SALT LAKE CITY -- A Mormon bishop on Sunday apologized for the way gays are treated and perceived by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, calling it "an atrocity." [ Read more → ]

Anyone who thinks that the Family Research Council is either a Christian or “pro-family” group obviously has not done their homework -- just last week, FRC anointed Rep. Joe Walsh (R-Ill.) a pro-family leader — in spite of the fact that he allegedly owes over $100,000 in child support. [ Read more → ]

An Illinois gay couple has filed complaints with the state's Human Rights Commission against two bed-and-breakfast inns that have allegedly refused to host their civil union ceremony, telling the couple they only host "traditional weddings" and that the Bible says that "homosexuality is wrong." [ Read more → ]

The number of adoptions by gay and lesbian parents has almost tripled over the past ten years, despite the "patchwork of discriminatory policies" that often make it difficult for gays and lesbians to adopt, as either couples or individuals, according to a new study released this week. [ Read more → ]

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. -- A Christian school in suburban Chicago was vandalized on Saturday in advance of a scheduled appearance by ant-gay activist and hate group leader, Scott Lively. [ Read more → ]