Camille is a twentysomething working in the LGBT nonprofit industry. She runs an LGBT news blog at gaywrites.org.
It’s an easy assumption that any policy that harms LGBT adults would have an equally (or more) devastating effect on LGBT youth. However, it’s also dangerous to assume disastrous effects without digging deeper. One recent example that’s been in the news is the link between Mormon communities and teen suicide rates. Read more
Same-sex families just won a huge victory in Portugal, and the country’s Left Bloc political party is celebrating with an in-your-face billboard featuring an illustration of a pro-gay Jesus. The billboard is acknowledging a major political turning point for same-sex couples in Portugal: the right to adopt children, made official this month. Right-wingers are furious over the measure, which outgoing President Cavaco Silva signed into law on February 25. Read more
It’s the job of a church leader to model empathy, kindness and compassion — something that can be hard to do when your church teaches discrimination. But one pastor wants to show his church what it really feels like to be cast away by your congregation. Rev. Michael Tupper, the pastor of Parchment United Methodist Church in Parchment, Michigan, is calling attention to his church’s exclusion of LGBT people by sleeping outside his home in a tent for 175 consecutive nights. In February. In Michigan. Read more
You read that right. Michigan is one of 12 states that has kept its sodomy bans on the books since Lawrence v. Texas outlawed such bans in 2003. And thanks to some suspect language in a new bill meant to stop animal cruelty, anyone who engages in sodomy — anal or oral sex, whether with a same-sex or different-sex partner — could be subject to major jail time. Read more
