News

BRUNSWICK, Maine — When a high school math teacher hung a t-shirt containing the message, “gay? fine by me” in her classroom, she was expecting it might elicit some reactions, but was surprised when dozens of students said they wanted a t-shirt like it of their own.

MOSCOW — Russian lawmakers are considering a bill that would impose fines for spreading gay “propaganda” among minors, a measure that is similar to legislation adopted in February in St. Petersburg, Russia’s second largest city.

WASHINGTON — U.S. House Speaker John Boehner on Tuesday appointed Robert George, co-founder and chairman emeritus of the National Organization for Marriage, to the U.S. Commission for International Religious Freedom, which, according to the Commission’s chairman, addresses “the challenges of religious extremism, intolerance, and repression throughout the world.”

ANCHORAGE, Alaska – Supporters of a measure that would add sexual orientation and gender identity to the Anchorage Equal Rights Initiative on Thursday released a response ad to the opposition group’s depiction of an offensive and distorted cartoon ads of gay and transgender individuals.

WASHINGTON — A 29-year-old gay man spoke to the Washington Blade on Tuesday through jaws wired shut to facilitate the healing of facial injuries brought about by a brutal beating that extended over several streets near his home in Columbia Heights on March 12.

TOPEKA, Kansas — The Republican controlled Kansas state House on Wednesday evening passed a bill that would effectively legalese anti-gay discrimination based on religious objections.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Ad new advertisement by opponents of a proposed ordinance to extend anti-discrimination legal protections to gay and transgender people in Anchorage is being called offensive and misleading by stating that day care centers would be forced to hire “transvestites” or face jail time.

A big win for marriage in New Hampshire, and California Democrats pledge to help the campaign to stop an anti-gay measure in North Carolina. But with alarming poll numbers out this week, will that help be enough?

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A top executive at Bank of America this week denounced a proposed constitutional amendment in North Carolina that would define marriage as the union between a man and a woman, and said the initiative would be “disastrous” to the state’s business climate.

LANSING, Mich. — A grievance officer of the state Civil Service Commission on Tuesday ruled that former Michigan assistant attorney general Andrew Shirvell had made a “media spectacle” of himself and the state’s attorney general’s office after publishing a blog attacking the former University of Michigan student body president for his alleged “radical homosexual agenda.”