Lesbian parents fight to expand LGBTQ+ family rights in EU court

Terry D. Loftis, left, and Regina Lyn Pierce served as cochairs for Black Tie Dinner in 2022. Moving into 2023, Pierce moves up to the senior cochair position, and Dustin Vyres joins her as junior cochair. (Photo courtesy of Black Tie Dinner)

Venton Jones

A Gathering 2022 will honor the battle against HIV/AIDS and celebrate our progress. (Courtesy photo)

Tina Kotek, left, and Maura Healey

I’m a tried-and-true, dedicated-to-my-bad-habits homebody. I will take an evening at home (lots of snacks nearby and TV on) over a night out any day. I even have a special pair of socks specifically for su

Sigourney Weaver

Have an event coming up? Email your information to Managing Editor Tammye Nash at nash@dallasvoice.com or Senior Staff Writer David Taffet at taffet@dallasvoice.com by Wednesday at 5 p.m. for that week’s issue.

Linda Cardellini has responded to the recent news that her Scooby Doo character, Velma Dinkley, has come out as a lesbian.

German footballer Leon Goretzka has condemned Qatar World Cup ambassador Khalid Salman for his recent anti-LGBTQ+ comments. 

The expected red wave may have only hit certain parts of the U.S., but a rainbow wave seems to have swept across the country.At least 340 LGBTQ+ candidates won their elections in the 2022 midterms, according to the LGBTQ Victory Institute, an organization that supports queer candidates. The previous record in 2020 saw 336 out candidates win.The organization estimates that around 1,065 LGBTQ+ people ran for office in this election, which is a historical number.

From left: Steve Padilla, Rick Chavez Zbur, and Corey JacksonCalifornia is on track to be the first state in the nation with 10 percent LGBTQ+ representation in its legislature.Depending on the outcome of the state’s election races, some of which are yet to be decided, California will have 12 to 14 out state legislators, including four to six new ones, according to Equality California.Assembly candidate Corey Jackson, in the 60th District, and Senate candidate Steve Padilla, in the 18th District, have won their races, and former Equality California Executive Director Rick Chavez Zbur is on track to win his bid for Assembly in the 51st District. Senate District 20 candidates Caroline Menjivar and Daniel Hertzberg are both members of the LGBTQ+ community, so the Legislative LGBTQ Caucus will gain a member regardless of the outcome in that race.

Nevada is poised to become the first state to broadly amend its constitution to include protections for historically marginalized people.The measure, Question 1, was supported by 57.5 percent of Nevada voters, while 42.5 percent opposed it at the time of publication, with 83 percent of the vote counted.A wide-ranging amendment to the Nevada state constitution that would include antidiscrimination protections covering gender identity and sexual orientation was on the ballot on Tuesday. Voters could adopt or reject the most comprehensive state version of the Equal Rights Amendment.In Nevada’s ERA, equal rights would be guaranteed for all, regardless of race, color, creed, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, or ancestry. Executive Director of Equality Nevada Chris Davin tells The Advocate that he’s pleased with the trajectory of the vote as final numbers start to come together.

Rosa Lopez

(CNN) -- Running in the quiet, in those spaces between footsteps when both feet are in mid-air and flying for a millisecond, Nikki Hiltz figured out their gender identity.Ever since Hiltz ran on the beach barefoot as a child taking part in lifeguard training, running has seeped into almost every part of their life, becoming a career that took them to the world championships.So when all their races were canceled in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Hiltz organized their own, naming it Pride 5k to create a space for LGBTQ people and to raise money for The Trevor Project — a nonprofit organization providing 24/7 crisis counseling to LGBTQ youth."I was open about my sexuality at that point, but not my gender identity," Hiltz tells CNN Sport."And so I think, deep down, I was just a closeted queer person, trying to make a safe space for people to show up as [themselves] and kind of subconsciously making that space for me to show up as myself."Hiltz says nearly 2,000 people participated from a variety of locations in the first edition of Pride 5k and at least four people used the day to publicly come out as queer, later recording podcasts with Hiltz to share their stories."Something about hearing coming out stories, or just connecting with someone who was hiding something and then got to share it — it just really was the last push I needed to be like: 'OK, I think I'm ready to now come out,'" Hiltz says.And, in what Hiltz calls a "full circle moment," they also publicly came out as transgender on March 31, 2021 — Transgender Day of Visibility — a little less than nine months after that first Pride 5k race."That means I don't identify with the gender I was assigned at birth," they wrote in an Instagram post explaining that they

Minnesota Congresswoman Angie Craig

While most of the attention has been on which LGBTQ candidates won their races for seats in the Texas House and which ones, nationwide, were elected or reelected to Congress, The LGBTQ Victory Fund backed 13 more openly-LGBTQ candidates here in Texas. And all 13 of those candidates, save one, were victorious.

Jennie Armstrong, left, and Andrew Gray

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel has won reelection.Nessel, a Democrat and a lesbian, beat Republican challenger Matthew DePerno, a 2020 election denier. As of Wednesday morning, Nessel had 52.4 percent of the vote and DePerno 45.3 percent, the Detroit Free Press reports. The race was expected to be closer.

Tina Kotek has been declared the winner of the Oregon governor’s race, meaning that two states have elected out lesbian governors.The Oregonian, the state’s largest newspaper, called the race for Kotek Wednesday morning. Kotek, a Democrat, had been in a close race with Republican Christine Drazan to succeed term-limited Gov. Kate Brown, also a Dem and the nation’s first out bisexual governor.

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, right, and newly-elected Illinois Congressman Eric Sorensen, left

Gerald Lynn Bostock (Photo by Elvert Barnes, extracted from another file via Wiki Commons)

What Jim Obergefell was able to do in the Supreme Court, he was not able to achieve in Tuesday’s Ohio election: come out victorious. The LGBTQ+ rights icon, whose Supreme Court case, Obergefell vs.

Maura Healey has won her bid to become the next governor of Massachusetts, making history in the process as the first woman governor and LGBTQ+ governor of the state, as well as the first-ever out lesbian governor in United States history.

It was a mixed night for the LGBTQ+ community in the US midterm elections, with some historic wins for newcomers, but also victories for Republican candidates who have already enacted anti-LGBTQ+ legislation in their states.

Newly-elected Congressman Robert Garcia of California

Creating a false narrative around parents' rights and painting transgender students as dangerous is not a winning strategy in northern Virginia. That's the lesson Republican Yesli Vega learned when she lost the election against Rep.

Congressman Chris Pappas of New Hampshire

Congresswoman Sharice Davids of Kansas

Tuesday’s election marked a successful round of political activism for the pro-LGBTQ+ Agenda PAC.In the Pennsylvania governor and U.S. Senate races as well as the competitive California 41st Congressional District, the organization spent nearly $150,000 on paid communications, according to an Agenda PAC press release.

Maryland made history Tuesday when the state's voters elected Democrat Wes Moore as its first Black governor. He is only the country’s third Black governor. Alongside Moore, Aruna Miller earned the title of lieutenant governor-elect.

Massachusetts’s new governor, Maura Healey

Becca Balint has been elected as the first woman and first out LGBTQ+ person to represent Vermont in Congress.Balint, a lesbian Democrat, was declared the winner of Vermont’s sole U.S. House seat with more than 60 percent of the vote. She defeated Republican Liam Madden, Libertarian Ericka Rudick, and three independents, Matt Druzba, Adam Ortiz, and Luke Talbot.

Democratic candidate Maura Healey has been elected the first out lesbian governor in the U.S. as well as the first woman to lead Massachusetts.In 2014, Healey previously made history when she became the first LGBTQ+ elected to be a state’s attorney general.The Associated Press called the race shortly after polls closed in Massachusetts.LGBTQ+ rights groups celebrated the historic moment, saying that Healey had shattered the lavender ceiling in Massachusetts.“In the face of so much hate and intolerance sweeping our nation, her win is a sign – especially to LGBTQ kids in desperate need of hope — that LGBTQ people have a place in American society and can become respected public leaders,” said LGBTQ Victory Fund President and CEO Mayor Annise Parker.

Republican Sarah Huckabee Sanders will be Arkansas's next governor, reports the Associated Press.Sanders is best known as Donald Trump's second press secretary and, like all of Trump's spokespeople, her relationship with the truth was tenuous at best. She also defended Trump's ban on transgender service members and even argued that businesses should be allowed to turn away LGBTQ+ customers.

HONOKAA, Hawaii (KITV) – Inside, a welcoming oli was chanted to a packed house of hundreds.Many came to support Honokaa local Elise Itried’s homecoming performance. The returning drag performer now lives on the mainland.“It means a lot to be able to bring queer art and queer representation to such a small town, because growing up, I didn’t have a lot or many people to look up to,” Elise told KITV4.Outside, protesters said they came from across the Big Island, some upset that a prior Pride event in Kona had a bouncy house for kids next to the performance stage. They also took issue with the Honokaa People’s Theater flier offering a discounted ticket for “18 and under.”“Just leave the kids out.

A school district near Milwaukee has removed seven books that deal with LGBTQ+ themes from circulation in what critics call a coordinated far-right attack on Wisconsin schools.Elmbrook School District, which includes the town of Brookfield, removed seven books from its school libraries, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinal reports.According to the paper, the seven stricken books were Jessica Shirvington's Embrace, Perfect by Ellen Hopkins, Lauren Myracle's TTYL and The Infinite Moment of Us, Queer: The Ultimate LGBTQ Guide by Kathy Belge and Marke Biesche, as well as Traffick: The Sequel To Tricks by Ellen Hopkins, and Juno Dawson's This Book is Gay.Republican state assembly member Jesse James spearheaded the removal of books from Wisconsin schools using a list he generated.

Amy Schneider, the 40-time Jeopardy! champion, took to Twitter on Monday night to urge followers to vote in Tuesday's midterms, emphasizing the importance of voting to help protect the rights of transgender youth.“The stakes are high in every election, but they're particularly high these days for trans children,” she wrote.Schneider added, “Trans children's lives are on the line. I understand that, for many people, it may not seem that way.

Venton Jones is set to make history tonight in Dallas. (David Taffet/Dallas Voice)

Thousands of protesters rallied in Prague on Wednesday to honour two gay men who were shot dead outside a bar in neighbouring Slovakia.Demonstrators have called for more protection for the LGBTQ community and their families following the shooting.The gathering in the Czech capital’s Wenceslas Square was held on the same day as the funerals of Matúš Horváth and Juraj Vankulič in Slovakia.The two Slovaks were killed two weeks ago in front of a popular bar in Bratislava.The 19-year-old suspect was found dead by police.

Gay, bisexual and transgender Americans fear their rights are at risk as the United States goes to the polls for midterm elections on Tuesday.

Daily Wire host who recently released the documentary What Is a Woman?, which attempts to poke holes in arguments surrounding transgender issues.

The third episode of UK Black Pride: A Time Capsule Podcast, hosted by Lady Phyll, has arrived.

Netflix’s hit LGBTQ+ series Heartstopper has earned nine Children’s & Family Emmy nominations.

Growing up Black, queer, and different in the ’80s and ’90s, I used to wish I saw more people like me on TV and in the news. This year, I’m heartbroken that LGBTQ+ youth — especially trans and nonbinary children — are being thrust into the spotlight not for their brilliance or leadership, but as political pawns ahead of elections.Last month, a handful of anti-LGBTQ+ politicians in Congress stooped to a new low in their efforts to rile up their base when they introduced a bill to ban discussions of LGBTQ+ people and history in schools nationwide.

Out actress Rebel Wilson is now the mother of a daughter.Wilson is “beyond proud to announce the birth of my first child, Royce Lillian, born this past week via surrogate,” she wrote on Instagram Monday.The Pitch Perfect and Senior Year star called the baby “a beautiful miracle” and thanked everyone involved, especially “my gorgeous surrogate who carried her and birthed her with such grace and care.”"I am ready to give little Roycie all the love imaginable,” Wilson continued. “I am learning quickly … much respect to all the Mums out there! Proud to be in your club.” Wilson, 42, came out in June by sharing a picture of herself and girlfriend Ramona Agruma on Instagram.

Television star Julie Bowen opened up about falling in love with a woman last week.In an episode of her podcast Quitters, Bowen, 52, discussed her sexuality. She said that while she identifies as straight, she has been in love with another woman before.“I’m straight.

The post LGBTQ+ Muslims shouldn’t grow up feeling as lonely as I did, and it starts with breaking down these myths appeared first on GAY TIMES.

right to religious freedom was violated when she was reprimanded for refusing to marry same-sex couples.Dianne Hensley, a justice of the peace in McLennan County, was reprimanded by the state’s Commission on Judicial Conduct in 2019. She had quit performing marriages after the U.S.