• Walz touts Democratic record of defending LGBTQ+ rights, says Harris will advance cause if elected

    Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz touted Vice President Kamala Harris' record of defending LGBTQ+ rights on Saturday night, pledging to a supportive crowd that she will advance their cause if elected president. Walz, the Democratic vice presidential nominee, headlined the national dinner for the Human Rights Campaign, which he praised as “the best party in the nation.”

  • Pride march held in conservative Serbia under heavy police protection

    A Pride march on Saturday in Serbia's capital pressed for the demand that the populist government improve the rights of the LGBTQ+ community who often face harassment and discrimination in the highly conservative Balkan country. The march in central Belgrade was held under heavy police protection because of possible attacks from right-wing extremists. Organizers said assailants had assaulted a young gay man in Belgrade two days ago and took away his rainbow flag in the latest incident.

  • Michigan judge loses docket after she's recorded insulting gay people and Black people

    A suburban Detroit judge is no longer handling cases after a court official turned over recordings of her making anti-gay insults and referring to Black people as lazy. Oakland County Probate Judge Kathleen Ryan was removed from her docket on Aug. 27 for unspecified misconduct. "And I want the people in Oakland County that come to court to get a fair shake, to have their day in court, to have an unbiased trier of fact."

  • Republicans want Trump to stick to economy, immigration. Down ballot, they're fighting the culture wars

    Republican calls are mounting for sharper focus by former President Donald Trump on inflation and immigration, worried that his penchant for personal attacks and scattered stances on social issues could serve as distractions in his quest to defeat Vice President Kamala Harris. In key down-ballot races, however, Republicans are still fighting on the culture-war battlefields. Red- and purple-state Republican Senate challengers are leaning on issues such as transgender rights and "wokeism" to define battle-hardened Democratic incumbents as too liberal and chip away at longstanding brands among their electorates.

  • Resources are out there for LGBTQ+ travelers looking to stay safe

    Do LGBTQ+ tourists have a green book-like system for staying safe while traveling in these politically precarious times? There are organizations that certify the support of transport operators, destinations and special events. “People are concerned because we realize that our rights are under attack in some cases,” said Mark Chesnut, a New York-based travel writer and speaker with 30 years of experience in the industry.

  • In tight Inland Empire race, first transgender candidate could oust first Republican Latina

    Democrat Lisa Middleton is running to become California's first transgender lawmaker against Sen. Rosilicie Ochoa Bogh, the first Republican Latina state senator

  • This Democrat Is Running To Upend His State’s GOP Supermajority

    The Indiana district keeps getting more purple — and many are fed up with Republican bills rolling back the rights of LGBTQ+ and women.

  • A transgender teen in Massachusetts says other high schoolers beat him at a party

    A transgender teenager from Massachusetts is recovering after allegedly being punched, kicked and stomped upon by other high schoolers at a party. Sixteen-year-old Jayden Tkaczyk said he was at an outdoor party Friday night in Gloucester when as many as a dozen teenagers attacked him and called him homophobic slurs. “I was scared, but I thought to myself that if I escape and I get out, that things will eventually get better,” Tkaczyk told The Associated Press.

  • How HIV/AIDS got its name ? the words Americans used for the crisis were steeped in science, stigma and religious language

    The nascent LGBTQ+ rights movement and the Christian right each strongly shaped the early years of HIV/AIDS, a historian explains.

  • Daniel Craig Laughs Off Question About a 'Gay James Bond' at Venice Press Conference for “Queer”

    Daniel Craig's 'Queer' director Luca Guadagnino joked that "nobody would ever know" about the fictional spy's "desires"

  • Daniel Craig Says He 'Tried to Make' His “Queer ”Sex Scenes with Costar 'Fun': We Wanted Them to Be 'Touching' and 'Real'

    Daniel Craig and Drew Starkey share the screen in 'Queer,' an adaptation of William S. Burroughs' 1985 novel of the same name

  • Luca Guadagnino and Daniel Craig present ‘Queer’ to Venice Film Festival

    Venice Film Festival regular Luca Guadagnino was back on the Lido to debut his new Daniel Craig film “Queer” on Tuesday night. A festival favorite, Guadagnino had to forgo a splashy red carpet premiere for the sexy tennis drama “Challengers” last year, when the studio delayed its release amid the actors strike. Guadagnino, 53, first read the book when he was 17 and it made a profound impact on him.

  • Italian transgender runner fails to reach 400m final at Paralympics

    Italian transgender athlete Valentina Petrillo failed to reach the final of the women’s T12 400 meters for visually impaired runners after finishing third in her semifinal at the Paralympic Games on Monday. The 50-year-old Petrillo ran a personal best 57.58 seconds in the second semifinal but finished behind Iran’s Hajar Safarzadeh Ghahderijani and Venezuela’s Alejandra Paola Perez Lopez, who both advanced to Tuesday’s final. Petrillo earlier ran the fourth heat in the first round in 58.35 seconds, qualifying for the later semifinal.

  • Moms For Liberty Goes All In On Transphobia

    “There’s no such thing as a transgender child,” the far-right group’s co-founder told HuffPost at a convention that platformed speakers fearmongering about LGBTQ+ rights.

  • Women's college in Virginia bars transgender students based on founder's will from 1900

    Sweet Briar College in Virginia has instituted an admissions policy that bars transgender women next school year, making the school an outlier among the nation's diminishing number of women's colleges. The private women's liberal arts school said the policy stems from the legally binding will of its founder, Indiana Fletcher Williams, who died in 1900. The phrase "must be interpreted as it was understood at the time the Will was written,” Sweet Briar's president and board chair wrote in a letter earlier this month to the college community.

  • Nursing home oversight would be tightened under a bill passed in Massachusetts

    Massachusetts' oversight of nursing homes would be strengthened, LGBTQ+ nursing home residents would be protected against discrimination, and better controls would be in place to protect against the spread of infectious disease outbreaks, under a new bill lawmakers passed this week. Approved on Thursday, the bill would require long-term care facilities to provide staff training on the rights of LGBTQ+ older adults and those living with HIV, and bar staff from discriminating based on a person’s sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, intersex status or HIV status. The proposal also would streamline the licensing process for “small house nursing homes,” alternative care centers that focus on smaller groups of residents and using familiar domestic routines.

  • Families, trans adults sue South Carolina to block state's gender-affirming care ban

    Transgender South Carolinians and their families filed a lawsuit Thursday to block the enforcement of restrictions on gender-affirming health care in their state. The lawsuit comes just over three months after Gov. Henry McMaster signed House Bill 4624, which includes prohibiting gender transition procedures to a person under 18 years of age and prohibits the use of public funds for gender transition procedures -- including puberty blockers, hormone therapy and surgeries. The law also prohibits gender-affirming care coverage under South Carolina’s Medicaid program.

  • Election 2024 Latest: Trump to appear at Moms for Liberty event, Harris campaign launches bus tour

    Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump is scheduled to appear Friday at the annual gathering of Moms for Liberty, a national nonprofit that has spearheaded efforts to get mentions of LGBTQ+ identity and structural racism out of K-12 classrooms. Meanwhile, Vice President Kamala Harris ’ campaign is announcing that it is launching a 50-plus stop “Reproductive Freedom Bus Tour,” as it looks to motivate voters ahead of November. The first stop will be next Tuesday with an event near former President Donald Trump’s Florida home in Palm Beach.

  • Trump questions acceptance of transgender people as he courts his base at Moms for Liberty gathering

    Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump lamented the growing acceptance of transgender Americans Friday in an appearance at the annual gathering of Moms for Liberty, a national nonprofit that has spearheaded efforts to get mentions of LGBTQ+ identity and structural racism out of K-12 classrooms. Trump said transgender women should not be allowed to play in women's sports and said access to gender-affirming health care should be restricted.

  • In rare agreement, California Democrats and Trump both pitch insurance coverage for IVF

    The pricey bill now heads to Gov. Gavin Newsom and is supported by LGBTQ+ groups that would benefit from it as well as advocates concerned about the future of reproductive rights under Trump.

  • Colman Domingo is practicing racial healing on and off the screen -- and wants you to join him

    Colman Domingo has implicitly invited audiences to take the journey of racial healing throughout his career. The Afro-Latino actor's portrayals often complicate popular representations of Black masculinity. There's his Oscar-nominated Bayard Rustin, the unsung gay civil rights leader.

  • 'Baywatch' Actor Alexandra Paul Helped Costar Jaason Simmons By Being His 'Beard'

    Paul remembered the '90s as a time when being openly LGBTQ+ could hurt your career and put you in harm's way.

  • “Baywatch ”Star Alexandra Paul on Being Jaason Simmons' 'Beard' in the ‘90s: 'You Weren’t as Safe’ (Exclusive)

    In 2008, Simmons came out as gay and went public with his engagement to his then fiancé

  • Death threats, legal risk and backlogs weigh on clinicians treating trans minors

    The rise in transgender health care bans is putting providers in the crosshairs.

  • Lowe's changes some DEI policies amid legal attacks on diversity programs and activist pressure

    Home improvement chain Lowe’s is scaling back its diversity, equity and inclusion policies, joining the ranks of several other companies that altered their programs since the U.S. Supreme Court outlawed affirmative action in college admissions or after facing a conservative backlash online. In an internal memo shared by Lowe's with The Associated Press, its executive leadership said the retailer began “reviewing” its programs following the court's July 2023 ruling and the company recently decided to combine its resource groups, which were for "individual groups representing diverse sections of our associate population," into one umbrella organization. The retailer also will no longer participate in an annual survey by the Human Rights Campaign that measures workplace inclusion for LGBTQ+ employees, and will also stop sponsoring and participating in events, such as festivals and parades, that are outside of its business areas.