Texas: Last News

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The Broadway production company that owns Hamilton is considering legal action against a McAllen, Texas, church for illegally performing the masterpiece and adding anti-LGBTQ+ messages and biblical themes to the show. A sermon comparing gayness and addiction was added to Lin-Manuel Miranda's original by the Door Christian Fellowship Ministries. A spokesperson for Hamilton's New York producers told The Advocate that the unauthorized production was granted permission under strict terms for one subsequent performance after it responded to a cease and desist letter. However, the local production company appears to have violated that too. YouTuber and podcast host Hemant Mehta posted videos on Twitter that show Alexander Hamilton and Eliza Schuyler Hamilton referring to Jesus as "saving" them during performances and live streams of Hamilton this weekend.  OnStage Blog, the first to report about the show, noted that Pastor Victor Lopez compared being gay to alcohol and drug addiction after one of the performances.

A Texas boutique owner has been arrested and charged with hate crimes after being accused of attacking a transgender man and his boyfriend in April.Police arrested Evan Berryhill-Jewell, the owner of Texas Angels Boutique, on assault charges Monday, said Richard Espinoza, spokesperson for the San Angelo Police Department.Berryhill-Jewell was charged with assault because of bias or prejudice, an enhancement that carries more severe penalties if found to be guilty."Evan Berryhill's bond was set at $1000," Maj. Todd Allen, the Tom Green County Jail administrator, said in an email to The Advocate.

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A Texas man who contracted monkeypox received a lot of mixed attention after sharing images of the progression of the infection, which has manifested itself in part on his face. By sharing his MPV experience in public, the gay Houstonian says he hopes to raise awareness about its prevalence while also removing the stigma and bringing attention to its isolation.Following the Fourth of July holiday, Wesley Wallace traveled to Austin for Hippie Hollow Otter Fest, a weekend event attended by queer men on Lake Travis, to have a leisurely time on the water.“It’s a lake, boat, shoreline kind of thing,” the 42-year-old tech professional tells The Advocate.When he returned from the weekend of drinking, socializing, and soaking up some rays, he noticed some irritation on his face, which he attributed to shaving and wearing sunscreen while baking in the sun.

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Florida about her appearance, a queer activist from Texas has gotten the last laugh. In addition to clapping back hard, she has raised more than $700K to support abortion care.Olivia Julianna, a political strategist for Gen-Z for Change, a social justice advocacy group led by young people, revealed to The Advocate that she wasn’t prepared for her overnight success but appreciated it.

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There is still hope that Democrats can convince ten Republican senators to join them in codifying marriage equality, even though two Republicans once considered amenable to voting for it have come out against it.Four Republicans have so far said they will support the measure: sponsors Susan Collins of Maine and Ohio’s Rob Portman; Sen. Thom Tillis from North Carolina, who said he's a probable vote; and Sen.

Students at the University of Texas at Dallas are outraged over homophobic tweets a professor posted last week.“Can we at least try to find a cure for homosexuality, especially among men?” Timothy Farage, a computer science professor, tweeted. “Homosexual men have anal sex, which can lead to a variety of diseases.”Farage’s Twitter account is down now, but UT-Dallas’s student newspaper, The Mercury, first reported Farage’s post and captured the tweet. The tweets link to an article about monkeypox, which has disproportionately affected gay, bi, and queer men.“First, it should be noted that this tweet was in response to an article about monkeypox, a disease that is mostly confined to men who have sex with men,” Farage, 71, wrote in an email, The Mercury reports.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg sparred with a Republican after he asked whether the Cabinet had considered removing president Joe Biden via the 25th Amendment, which allows the vice president and senior officials to strip the president of office if the president cannot fulfill their duties. House Transportation Committee members heard from Buttigieg on Tuesday about several infrastructure topics, but the hearing took a turn when Texas Rep.

Mothers Against Greg Abbott, grew out of a protest by one mom, Nancy Thompson, last year when the Texas Education Agency put out guidance saying schools didn’t have to inform parents when someone in the school tests positive for COVID-19. She held a protest sign in front of the Texas capitol in Austin, and a picture of her action was shared widely on social media, giving rise to the group.Mothers Against Greg Abbott, with an acronym that gives a twist to Donald Trump’s “MAGA,” has found much more to oppose in the Republican governor’s policies: the “constitutional carry” law that allows Texans to carry a handgun without a license; the failure of the state’s power grid last winter; harsh anti-abortion laws; statewide restrictions on teaching about racism, along with local efforts to keep LGBTQ-inclusive materials away from students; and, of course, his order that parents who allow their transgender children access to gender-affirming care be investigated for child abuse, an order partially blocked while lawsuits against it proceed.As Abbott seeks a third term as governor this year, the mothers’ group has endorsed his Democratic opponent, Beto O’Rourke.

Attorney Jonathan Mitchell has made a career of trying to erode hard-fought rights under the guise of constitutional literalism, and now that Roe v. Wade has fallen, he has his sights set on PrEP access.Mitchell, the former solicitor general who helped write Texas’ so-called “bounty-hunter” abortion law, opened up his own private firm in 2018 to target several of the High Court’s rulings.The Dallas Morning News reports that Mitchell’s approach has always been dismantling decisions on the argument that the rulings stray from the Constitution’s language when it was written, as opposed to the idea that document is a “living” thing that must adapt to modern knowledge.

testified against harmful bills in the state legislature last year, posted on Twitter recently that she and her family have sold their home and most of their belongings and are planning to move elsewhere. They have set up a GoFundMe campaign to help fund the move and help other families as well.

Texas Standard about LGBTQ+ Texans reconsidering their future in the state. In the story, Texas real estate broker Bob McCranie talks about a new relocation service he launched called Flee Texas, which is designed to help queer people sell their house and find a trusted real estate agent in another state — a state with more reliable protection of LGBTQ+ rights.The article goes on to say that McCranie started thinking about launching his new website around the time a draft leaked of the Dobbs Supreme Court opinion, which ended up overturning Roe v.

With the Supreme Court overturning on Roe v. Wade last month, the architect of the Texas abortion law has already aimed at marriage equality, and his next target could leave Texans without access to lifesaving preventive care.Jonathan Mitchell, the former solicitor general who helped write Senate Bill 8, the restrictive abortion law, opened a private law firm in Texas in 2018 to go after decades of the High Court's rulings, according to The Dallas Morning News.Since the beginning of his career, Mitchell has been vocal about his desire to dismantle decades of decisions he believes depart from the Constitution’s language or recognize constitutional rights that do not have a textual foundation.

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Sent to a kid who asked what it meant to be a good citizen, circa 1970. (Image via Joel Lipton)

overturned Roe v. Wade, said the justices should revisit Lawrence v. Texas, the ruling that invalidated state antisodomy laws across the nation; Obergefell v.

LGBTQ activists “shielded” children attending a Pride Month Family Story Time event from far-right elements yelling homophobic and transphobic slurs by placing themselves in between the anti-LGBTQ protesters and families attending the event.On June 26. the Roy and Helen Hall Library in McKinney, Texas, was hosting the event which promised to include reading from “Pride-positive” books, singing familiar songs, and social time where children would be able to play with toys and color.

It’s been less than a week since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, and some conservative leaders are already positioning themselves for what could come next.In his concurring opinion with the Friday ruling to undo federal abortion rights, Justice Clarence Thomas said the court should now reconsider rulings that protect same-sex marriage, same-sex relationships, and contraception.Thomas mentioned a few of the high court’s past rulings, including Obergefell v.

USA Today condemning the Texas Republican Party’s recently adopted anti-LGBTQ+ platform but claiming the national party is actually a welcoming space — something with which many LGBTQ+ people would no doubt disagree.“The Texas GOP isn’t just on the wrong side of history. They’re shortsightedly on the wrong side of the modern Republican Party,” Log Cabin President Charles Moran wrote in the op-ed, taking the state party to task for calling homosexuality “an abnormal lifestyle choice” and not letting Log Cabin have a booth at its recent convention.

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well known for its anti-LGBTQ+ stances, but the party platform it adopted this year goes beyond even previous ones, with language calling homosexuality “an abnormal lifestyle choice” and opposing “all efforts to validate transgender identity.”The party adopted the platform Saturday at its convention in Houston, The Texas Tribune reports. Republican elected officials aren’t required to follow the platform, but the document indicates the general feelings and direction of the party.Previous platforms included much antigay and anti-trans language, but the “abnormal lifestyle choice” statement is new. The platform also endorses conversion therapy, as it has in the past, and calls it by a new name, “reintegrative therapy.”“Homosexuality is an abnormal lifestyle choice,” the platform reads.

40-page document includes a section on “Homosexuality and Gender Issues.”This describes homosexuality as “an abnormal lifestyle choice”, before going on to say, “We believe there should be no granting of special legal entitlements or creation of special status for homosexual behavior … and we oppose any criminal or civil penalties against those who oppose homosexuality out of faith, conviction, or belief in traditional values.”In relation to gender identity, it goes on to state, “We oppose all efforts to validate transgender identity”, vowing to campaign against any medical practitioner who acts to “Intervene in any way to prevent natural progression of puberty” or who offers gender-affirming hormones or surgery to those under 21 years of age.It further states, “We oppose the use of taxpayer funds for any type of medical gender dysphoria treatments or sex-change operations and/or treatments.”It backs the right of counselors to offer so-called conversion therapy to “clients of any age with gender dysphoria or unwanted same-sex attraction.”Conversion therapy is the discredited practice of attempting to change someone’s sexual orientation or gender identity through psychotherapeutic means. It doesn’t work and usually does far more harm than good.Related: Texas Gov. Greg Abbott being called a “monster” for latest attack on trans kidsEarlier this year, GOP Governor Ted Abbott ordered state officials to investigate any parents supporting their children to have gender-affirming care.

RuPaul has called out attempts by Republican lawmakers to bring in laws to ban drag queens around children as a “diversion tactic”. The host of RuPaul’s Drag Race made the comments while speaking with host James Corden on The Late Late Show. RuPaul was asked about Republican Bryan Slaton proposing a law to ban drag shows in the presence of minors in Texas. “This is a diversion tactic to take the narrative away from the gun debate into something, to scare people into thinking about something else, and they’ve been successful,” said RuPaul.

be investigated for child abuse.“Gregory, Gregory, Gregory,” Porter says in one video. “It’s hard enough with you being an intolerable, soulless, and empty shell of a human being.

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Texas, a small town is rallying around a gay couple and their daughter following vandalism to their home during Pride Month.Someone set fire to several rainbow flags on the family’s property near Dallas on June 2. But, as the family refuses to give up, the rural community is showing them great kindness, and the police chief is devoting significant resources to finding the perpetrator.Keith Dowler, 51, and Terry Garner, 54, knew they had to make trade-offs to live in Corsicana and commute to Dallas.

Earlier this week, the American Civil Liberties Union, Lambda Legal, and the ACLU of Texas, along with Texas-based law firm Baker Botts LLP filed the suit on behalf of PFLAG National.The Travis County District Court’s ruling will stop the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) from investigating the parents involved in the suit, according to a news release from the organizations. For those families, if they are contacted by the agency, they will only need to provide information on their PFLAG membership.

Texas labeled a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center delivered a sermon calling for the government execution of LGBTQ+ folks, and it’s not the first time he’s made such disturbing calls for violence.In his sermon entitled, Why We Won’t Shut Up, Dillon Awes of the Stedfast Baptist Church in Hurst said gay men were predatory pedophiles who have either committed sex crimes against a child or just haven’t had the opportunity to do so yet, leading him to the conclusion that “We need to put these people to death through the proper channels of the government.”Awes claimed the Bible’s solution to what he called the “sodomite deception” is queer people “should be lined up against the wall and shot in the back of the head.”“What does God say is the answer, is the solution for the homosexual in 2022, here in the New Testament, here in the book of Romans? That they are worthy of death,” Awes said. “Every single homosexual in our country should be charged with a crime, the abomination of homosexuality that they have, they should be convicted in a lawful trial, they should be sentenced to death, they should be lined up against a wall and shot in the back of the head.” Awes and the Stedfast Baptist Church are in the midst of an anti-Pride month where he visits various local churches and organizations celebrating Pride, and filming himself calling these churches blasphemous and tools of satan. Last month, another preacher at the church, Jonathan Shelley, made the news for his call to commit violence against LGBTQ+ people.

JailBird (Image via Instagram)

Pictured: Adam and Amber Briggle with their son MaxAnother lawsuit has been filed in hopes of stopping the investigations of transgender-supportive families in Texas.Adam and Amber Briggle, parents of a trans son, two other families identified by pseudonyms, and PFLAG filed the suit Wednesday in the District Court of Travis County, Texas. The pseudonymous families include one in which a trans teen attempted suicide as a result of Gov.

(Image via TMZ)

Texas House of Representatives in the coming days that would ban children from drag shows.Slaton says his move is a reaction to a local drag show in Dallas that allowed children to attend.The legislation would protect "kids from drag shows and other inappropriate displays," according to a news release by Slaton.“The events of this past weekend were horrifying and show a disturbing trend in which perverted adults are obsessed with sexualizing young children,” Slaton said in the release. “As a father of two young children, I would never take my children to a drag show and I know Speaker Dade Phelan and the rest of my Republican colleagues wouldn’t either. Protecting our own children isn’t enough, and our responsibility as lawmakers extends to the sexualization that is happening across Texas.”The release also stated that Slaton would continue "his fight" to have gender-affirming health care considered "child abuse" in the state.  Following Slaton's announcement, Equality Texas CEO Ricardo Martinez said in a statement to The Advocate,  “In spite of Rep.

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Texas this week, saying the Bible teaches “we should hate pride, not celebrate it.”“God’s already ruled that murder, adultery, witchcraft, rape, bestiality, and homosexuality are crimes worthy of capital punishment,” Jonathan Shelley, pastor of Stedfast Baptist Church in Fort Worth, said at the council meeting Tuesday.The council was taking public comments on whether to proclaim June as Pride Month. It has issued such proclamations for the past several years, TV station KERA reports.

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offered a mixed ruling May 13 in a suit challenging Gov. Greg Abbott’s order that started the investigations. It lifted an injunction placed by a lower court on enforcement of the order while the lawsuit is heard, but it also said the policies of the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services were at the discretion of that agency, not the governor.

targeting transgender youth and their families with laws criminalizing gender-affirming care. But one video game development company is offering to help employees move away from such restrictive states.The CEO of Certain Affinity — an Austin, Texas-based video game studio that has helped develop several best-selling military combat games like Call of Duty, Halo and the 2016 version of the demon-slaying classic Doom — recently told his employees that his company would help relocate anyone residing in a state that outlaws abortion or trans-related medical care.“If the state or province you live in restricts access to what a majority of medical experts consider essential care, and this makes remaining there untenable for you and your family, we will cover the pre-approved, documented, reasonable out-of-pocket costs of your relocation to another, safer state or province that we operate in,” Certain Affinity CEO Max Hoberman said in a recent letter to all employees.Certain Affinity has an approximate number of over 250 employees working in offices in Austin, Texas and Toronto, Ontario as well as remote workers in other U.S.

And unbelievably, the mayor of Uvalde insulted Beto for this — he was madder at Beto than at the killer!

From left: Jolanda Jones, Christian Manuel-Hayes, and Venton JonesThanks to victories in primary runoffs Tuesday, Texas is poised to have its first Black gay male state legislators — and one Black lesbian, who won a special election just weeks ago to fill a vacancy, is likely to be elected to a full term.Before Jolanda Jones’s victory in the special election, Texas had never had a Black member of the LGBTQ+ community in the state legislature. She won the special election May 7 in the Houston-area Texas House District 147 to succeed Rep.

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the state’s Supreme Court ruled Friday.An appeals court had blocked the investigations while a lawsuit against the state is heard. But the Texas Supreme Court, ruling in an emergency appeal from state officials, asserted that the appeals court had “abused its discretion,” The New York Times reports.However, the state cannot investigate the family and psychologist who sued, the high court said, as that would cause “irreparable harm.” And the court cast doubt on the authority of the governor to order the probes in the first place, saying whether to investigate any case is at the discretion of the state’s child welfare agency.In February, Gov.