News (USA)

HARRISBURG, Pa. — Pennsylvania State Rep. Babette Josephs (D-Philadelphia) has introduced a bill that would ban mental health providers from offering “gay-to-straight” reparative therapy for minors.

ASHEVILLE, N.C. — A gay couple from Charlotte, N.C. said they were attacked and beaten on the street during a recent visit to Asheville, and claim they were attacked because they’re gay.

Arlen Specter, an independent-minded moderate who spent 30 years in the U.S. Senate but was spurned by Pennsylvania voters after switching in 2009 from Republican to Democrat, died on Sunday of cancer at the age of 82.

The Human Rights Campaign on Friday announced it was committing an additional $1 million to the marriage equality campaigns in the four states with ballot initiatives this November.

OMAHA, Neb. — An outspoken opponent of LGBT rights in Omaha has launched a petition drive to overturn the city’s legal protections for LGBT residents.

LOS ANGELES — A Moraga, Calif., teen who was kicked out of the Boy Scouts and denied his Eagle award because he is gay, was awarded a $20,000 scholarship from the online photo album company Shutterfly during an appearance on the Ellen Degeneres show on Thursday.

The Southern Poverty Law Center and the Illinois Caucus for Adolescent Health filed a complaint with the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation Thursday, calling upon the department’s licensing board to investigate the practices of a Chicago-area social worker, who they say practices ”ex-gay” conversion therapy services.

The vice presidential candidates sparred during a debate Thursday over issues ranging from foreign affairs to the economy, and took very different views on the role their faith plays in their duties as public officials.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — A political advertisement in the current issue of the Florida Agenda, an LGBT weekly newspaper distributed throughout central and south Florida, and paid for by the Broward (County) Log Cabin Republican Club of Florida, attacked Democrats and President Barack Obama — using an image of the lifeless body of U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens in the aftermath of last month’s attack on the U.S. Embassy in Benghazi, Libya.

In an email to it 56,000 employees, Seattle-based retailer Nordstrom on Thursday announced its support for marriage equality, and the Washington state ballot initiative, Referendum 74, that would legalize same-sex marriage.