GA Community Rallies Against Gay Prom Teen

The rollercoaster continues for gay Georgia High Schooler Derrick Martin – whose decision to take his boyfriend to the prom has led to accolades from the gay community – but animosity from his own community.

CA Marriage Coalition Releases Messaging Study Results

Gay marriage strategists in California have released the results of a messaging study – to determine what works and what doesn’t when discussing marriage equality. The “Let California Ring coalition” is a public education campaign, led by Equality California, which includes more than 50 national, state and local groups. The coalition analyzed 75 research studies on marriage messaging to find the way forward.

Investigation Finds NYC Stores Discriminating Against Transgender Job Applicants

LGBT rights supporters gathered in front of a J Crew clothing store in New York on Sunday – to protest what they said are the company’s unfair and discriminatory hiring practices – and to call attention to apparently widespread violations of New York City laws protecting transgender workers and applicants.

National Equality March Organizers Launch New Activist Group

The former directors of October’s National Equality March on Washington have created an online community for LGBTQ activists – just months after leaving the grassroots gay group that put on the event.

Cynthia Nixon, Joy Behar honored at NYC GLAAD Awards

The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation opened its 2010 awards season in New York City over the weekend, with a star-studded ceremony headlined by Sigourney Weaver, Meredith Viera, Alan Cumming and others.

Transgender Activists Launch ENDA Lobbying Effort

Supporters of gay and transgender rights will be doing some heavy lobbying this week in support of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act.

MS School Cancels Prom Over Lesbian Date; ACLU Sues

The ACLU is suing a Mississippi High School – which cancelled its prom, rather than let a lesbian wear a tux and bring a female date.

Former Ex-Gay Leader Quits Movement, Apologizes

One of the most prominent figures in the “ex-gay” community has left the movement, and apologized to anyone he’s hurt.

Thousands march in Austin, TX against hate

Thousands took to the streets in Austin, Texas over the weekend in support of two gay men brutally beaten after leaving a popular gay night club. Jarrod Allen has more from Austin.

Olympic Pride House: The final hours

“This morning, I was watching CTV, and they were showing the highlights, and they talked about Pride House, and I just started to cry,”  said Whistler Pride House’s Dean Nelson. “I’m just so emotional right now.  It’s crazy.”

At Pride House central, guests are on the edge of their seats watching the Canada vs USA hockey final.

Nelson and his business partner, Ken Coolen, invested three years of work and close to C$100,000 of their own money into Whistler’s Olympic Pride House with the goal of raising awareness of homophobia in sport and giving LGBT sports fans a friendly place to watch the events. Vancouver’s LGBT community center,  Qmunity, got on board last year to create a similar space in Vancouver–only with the added goal of providing immigration and refugee services to any LGBT Olympic visitors who might need them.

So was it a success?

“Well you know, our number one goal was to get people talking about it, and I think we achieved that goal,” said Nelson. ” The amount of press we were able to engage [to] get people thinking about fixing the system, that was really big for us.  We’re moving in the right direction in that we’re making it much safer and more inclusive for all our athletes. It would’ve been nice if we’d had more athletes and maybe even more spectators come through and share that, but that was a secondary goal.”