South Carolina

COLUMBIA, S.C. -- A couple filed a lawsuit Tuesday against the state of South Carolina for what they say was an unnecessary sexual assignment surgery performed on a toddler they later adopted. [ Read more → ]

COLUMBIA, S.C. — A bill protecting all workers from discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity will be introduced in the South Carolina House of Representatives next Tuesday, according to staff at a state LGBT equality group. [ Read more → ]

Mark Sanford perfectly encapsulates the particular sanctimony the Right reserves for homosexuality. Republican politicians perfected this selective intolerance back when gay people were a convenient political punching bag – an unfamiliar other with whom the majority could not immediately identify. Since then, gay people have come out of the closet in droves and most Americans have come to embrace gay rights. But the GOP is sticking with its reflex condemnation of gay people. Does it trouble Mark Sanford or give him any pause at all as he goes from being the ambassador of international love back to his embrace of a position that is now laughingly hypocritical? [ Read more → ]

CHARLESTON, S.C -- A new political ad is emphasizing U.S. Senator Jim DeMint's previously stated belief that LGBT people shouldn't be allowed to teach in schools has angered DeMint supporters because, they claim, it falsely portrays the Senator as anti-Semitic. [ Read more → ]

It's obvious that if Newt Gingrich is interested in, as NOM claims, preserving marriage as the union between one man and one woman, he seems to think that he is exempt from the rule. And it's even more obvious that NOM's silence regarding his, shall we say, indiscretions is signalling that the organization is turning a blind eye to his past behavior. [ Read more → ]

Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich pulled a surprise win in the South Carolina primary on Saturday, throwing off expectations for the race for the GOP nomination. With 31 percent of precincts reporting, Gingrich had a wide lead with 40.8 percent of the vote. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney was in second with 21.1 percent. [ Read more → ]

COLUMBIA, S.C. -- South Carolina Equality, the Palmetto state’s LGBT education and political advocacy organization, announced Thursday that South Carolina joins Indiana this week as one of three states to claim pro-equality license plates. Maryland was the first in 2008. [ Read more → ]

A Spartanburg, S.C. gay man said he was attacked in a local sports bar early Sunday morning by several men who dumped a pitcher of beer on him, and proceeded to use anti-gay slurs while beating him with a broken beer bottle. [ Read more → ]

Officials in South Carolina have charged five men with the attack on a gay teen who was assaulted outside a convenience store in Rock Hill on April 9. [ Read more → ]

An attack on a gay teen in South Carolina has prompted a state lawmaker to call for legislators to once again consider a hate crime bill. [ Read more → ]

The FBI on Monday confirmed it is investigating the brutal attack on a South Carolina gay teen who was assaulted outside a convenience store in Rock Hill on April 9. [ Read more → ]

Authorities in Rock Hill, S.C., are are looking for suspects who assaulted a gay teen outside a Rock Hill convenience store last weekend in what the victim describes as a hate crime. [ Read more → ]

Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.), an emerging Tea Party hero, told a crowd of supporters in South Carolina Friday that he will continue to recruit like-minded Conservatives across the nation to run for Congress and pastors to join the fight to “take our country back.” [ 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 → ]

In a recent interview with Bolomberg's Al Hunt, Senator Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) said he cringes at the idea of an openly gay president. "It would be bothersome to me just personally because I consider it immoral," DeMint said. The South Carolina Republican, who has become... [ Read more → ]