News

RAPID CITY, S.D. — A transgender woman in South Dakota who was terminated from her job after she informed her employer that she would be taking steps to transition from male to female, has won a $50,000 settlement in her wrongful termination lawsuit.

HOUSTON — The transgender widow of a Texas firefighter, whom a judge ruled in 2011 was not entitled to her late husband’s death benefits because she was born a man, is now challenging Texas law once more by attempting to get married again.

GREENSBORO, N.C. — Activists seeking marriage rights for same-sex couples in North Carolina continued their search Monday for an official willing to flout state law and issue marriage licenses as an act of personal conscience as similar officials in New Mexico and Pennsylvania have done this summer.

WARRENSBURG, Mo. — A student at the University of Central Missouri in Warrensburg, Mo., said he was given a letter of discipline after reporting he was the victim of anti-gay harassment.

A post-graduate student at the University of Lagos in Nigeria claims he has made a scientific “breakthrough” by proving that homosexuality and same-sex marriage are wrong.

BOSTON — A Boston-based LGBT legal rights advocacy group has set up a new website to provide helpful information to young people in New England about their legal rights in school, sports, work and the juvenile justice system.

NEW YORK — Following lengthy negotiations with United Nation representatives, Russian diplomats have reworded Russia’s version of the symbolic “Olympic Truce” statement to include wording that would preclude anti-gay discrimination.

LANSING, Mich. — Lawmakers could vote this week on bills letting faith-based agencies refuse to participate in adoptions that violate their beliefs, despite accusations that they would permit discrimination against gays and others.

NEW YORK — The U.S. gay-rights movement has achieved many victories in recent years — on marriage, military service and other fronts. Yet one vestige of an earlier, more wary era remains firmly in place: the 30-year-old nationwide ban on blood donations by gay and bisexual men.

CANBERRA, Australia — The Australian Christian Lobby, a powerful anti-gay political faction, announced this week that it will exert pressure on Prime Minister-elect Tony Abbott, to override the Australian Capital Territory’s proposed marriage equality law by passing a bill in the federal parliament to block the effort.