North Carolina

RALEIGH, N.C. — A bill restricting teenagers’ access to medical and mental health care initially scheduled to be voted on in the North Carolina House of Representatives on Wednesday was taken off the calendar and sent back to the Judiciary Committee. [ Read more → ]

DURHAM, N.C. — Duke University has announced it will begin offering student health insurance coverage for gender confirmation surgery. The university joins a handful of other institutions offering similar coverage, though the University of North Carolina System currently does not. [ Read more → ]

RALEIGH, N.C. -- The North Carolina General Assembly on Wednesday confirmed six appointments to the state Board of Education, despite an objection raised by Democrats who said one nominee had offended gays with a vote on a bullying measure. [ Read more → ]

RALEIGH, N.C. — North Carolina state lawmakers have introduced bills that would extend non-discrimination protections to LGBT state employees. [ Read more → ]

In a scene reminiscent of a Westboro (“God hates fags”) protest, parishioners at a gay friendly Methodist church in Winston-Salem, N.C., were the target of a wailing youngster and his faceless, off-camera adult coach, who screamed at them as they left Easter services to tell them they were going to hell and that gays are worthy of death. [ Read more → ]

RALEIGH, N.C. -- U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan of North Carolina, one of the few Democratic senators who had not previously come out in support of same-sex marriage, said Wednesday that she now supports marriage equality for gay and lesbian couples. [ Read more → ]

ASHEVILLE, N.C. — Buncombe County, N.C., commissioners voted 4-3 on Tuesday to begin offering health and other benefits to the same-sex partners of county employees. [ Read more → ]

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — A Methodist church in Winston-Salem, N.C., said it will no longer perform marriages for heterosexual couples until United Methodist pastors are allowed to officiate at marriages for same-sex couples. [ Read more → ]

RALEIGH, N.C. -- The North Carolina General Assembly has given final approval to a measure that would impose stronger criminal penalties for people who disrupt funerals or memorial services. [ Read more → ]

SPINDALE, N.C. — A North Carolina man who accused his former church of holding him against his will while he was physically and emotionally abused him because he is gay, has recanted his story. [ Read more → ]

RALEIGH, N.C. -- The North Carolina state House is unanimously backing efforts to increase criminal penalties for people who disrupt a funeral or memorial service in response to an anti-gay Kansas church picketing military funerals nationwide. [ Read more → ]

FORT BRAGG, N.C. -- A woman who is married to a female Army officer at Fort Bragg and who was recently denied membership in its officers' spouses club said late Friday that she has been invited to become a full member. [ Read more → ]

FORT BRAGG, N.C. -- Ashley Broadway, the military spouse embroiled in an ongoing discrimination controversy at Fort Bragg, was select as that base's "Military Spouse of the Year," following an online vote by her peers and supporters. [ Read more → ]

RALEIGH, N.C. — Sgt. Karen Alexander fought for her country in Iraq, but back home she often feels the U.S. Army is fighting against her. Married to another female soldier with a 4-year-old son, Alexander is denied the same housing allowance and other family-friendly benefits... [ Read more → ]

WASHINGTON -- A leading advocacy group for LGBT service members and veterans announced Thursday it had filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request at Fort Bragg, N.C., seeking to obtain documents and correspondence relating to an officers' spouses club's refusal to admit a same-sex... [ Read more → ]

What is it about your spirituality, your religion, that you feel you have the absolute right to judge another human being? It certainly can’t be from the teachings of the Jesus I know who simply said: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.” I see nothing there of judging or intolerance – only the commandment to love one another. Period. [ Read more → ]

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. -- An undergraduate student at Salem College, who is transitioning from a woman to a man, is asking to stay on the campus of the all-female school, a college alumnae says. Annie Webb, a 2005 Salem graduate, said in an email to fellow... [ Read more → ]

NEW BERN, N.C. -- A married lesbian couple in North Carolina is outraged and going public after receiving a letter from a cafe owner condemning them because they are gay. Ariel and Shawnee McPhail said that after finishing their meal at The Stingray Café in... [ Read more → ]

A Massachusetts-based biotechnology company announced it will join just a few dozen companies in the United States to supplement gay employees for taxes incurred when covering their spouse or partner in the company's health plan -- taxes that are not paid by their straight counterparts. [ Read more → ]

FORT BRAGG, N.C. -- A meeting lasting more than an hour on Thursday brought no resolution to nearly two weeks of controversy surrounding the denial of Ashley Broadway, the wife of an Army Lieutenant Colonel, for membership in the Association of Bragg Officer’s Spouses. [ Read more → ]