-
GOP speaker who ‘normalizes’ gays signals end of Trump era, Texas tea party group says
FORT WORTH, Texas — A Tarrant County tea party group won’t be attending a dinner for the local Republican Party, sharing an article that promotes the idea the event’s keynote speaker is “trying to force-feed the normalization of homosexuality within the party.” The excerpt was shared in a Jan. 3 post on True Texas Project’s Facebook page in reference to U.S. Rep. Madison Cawthorn, a 25-year-old Republican who recently won a North Carolina House seat. Cawthorn is the keynote speaker for the Tarrant County Republican Party’s Lincoln Day Dinner on Feb. 6. In a recent interview with Fox News, Cawt...
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
-
While restaurants suffer, women who work in them share recovery and confront harassment
For years, it went like this: a high-energy, pressurized shift moving from tables to the bar to the kitchen, serving, smiling, keeping track of a happy kind of chaos. Then came the "end of shift" drink, gratis. A second, for half-price. Co-workers bought for each other, the bartender's wrist loosened, and somehow, Hilary Boyce made it home. Until the night she didn't. She was pulled over for a DUI and spent the night in jail. That was the start of Boyce's effort to change how she dealt with the culture familiar to many people in the food and beverage industry. It's also the center of Ben's Fri...
The Seattle Times
-
Former Cuomo aide loses press staffer over harassment allegations against governor, source says
NEW YORK — Lindsey Boylan’s accusation that Gov. Andrew Cuomo sexually harassed her appears to have had an unintended consequence. Her communications consultant has left Boylan’s campaign for Manhattan borough president, and, according to a source, Boylan’s handling of the accusations against Cuomo was “the straw that broke the camel’s back.” Boylan took to Twitter last week to blast the governor, tweeting last Sunday that Cuomo “sexually harassed me for years.” “Many saw it, and watched,” she wrote at the time. “I could never anticipate what to expect: would I be grilled on my work (which was...
New York Daily News
-
Army fires, suspends 14 Fort Hood leaders after troubling year of violence, soldier deaths
AUSTIN, Texas — More than a dozen members of Fort Hood’s top brass are being punished after an independent investigation released Tuesday showed leadership failed to protect soldiers from systemic sexual misconduct and other violent crimes on post. U.S. Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy on Tuesday announced 14 Army leaders at Fort Hood were fired or suspended in light of the report, which found that the commanders of the Central Texas military installation created a “permissive environment” that led to its culture of crimes. Among those relieved of their duties Tuesday was Maj. Gen. Scott Efflandt,...
Austin American-Statesman
-
Appellate ruling scraps conversion therapy bans in cities across Florida
MIAMI — As a result of a federal appeals court ruling that struck down laws in Palm Beach County banning LGBTQ conversion therapy, other Florida municipalities with similar laws can no longer enforce such bans on therapies that attempt to change a minor’s sexual orientation or gender identity.That’s according to attorney Rob Rosenwald of the city of Miami Beach, which in 2016 became the first city in Florida to pass a law banning licensed medical providers from practicing conversion therapy on a child.The two laws struck down by a panel of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, in Palm Beach Count...
Miami Herald
-
Appeals court strikes down Boca Raton's ban on anti-gay conversion therapy
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — A federal appeals court struck down Boca Raton’s ban on conversion therapy for gay adolescents struggling to come to terms with their sexuality, calling the ban an infringement on the First Amendment rights of the teens and the counselors who try to treat them.Licensed family therapists Robert Otto and Judy Hamilton sued the city for the right to talk to their juvenile clients about conversion if the clients had “unwanted” attraction to members of the same gender or “confusion” about their gender identity.The city’s ordinance prohibited conversion therapy as harmful to ...
Sun Sentinel
-
Transgender cashier claims torment by co-workers at Miami Publix store put her in hospital
A former Publix cashier who identifies as a woman says co-workers tormented her with anti-gay and anti-trangender slurs until she suffered a nervous breakdown and had to be hospitalized. It’s the latest in a series of accusations against the grocery giant by LGBTQ employees.Publix was aware of Kevin Whitter’s gender identity when it hired her to work as a cashier in June 2018 at a downtown Miami store, according to a lawsuit filed Sunday in U.S. District Court in Miami. Whitter’s driver’s license identifies her as a female.Her suit describes a series of humiliating encounters that began with s...
Sun Sentinel
-
Braving COVID and long waits, US citizens cross the Mexican border to vote
SAN DIEGO — Hundreds — possibly even thousands — of Tijuana residents who are also U.S. citizens have already voted or plan to cross into the United States to cast their ballots in the presidential election.Voters coming from Baja may face longer border waits than in normal years and be required wear a mask, but county election officials say they are welcome.“As long as someone is a U.S. citizen, they have a right to vote,” said Michael Vu, the San Diego County Registrar of Voters. Vu estimated there were nearly 16,000 voters registered to cast ballots in San Diego County from abroad, includin...
The San Diego Union-Tribune
-
Transgender woman sues Whitmer to keep job in Michigan National Guard
LANSING, Mich. — A transgender woman who served in Afghanistan as a member of the 101st Airborne Division sued Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and her top military official Friday, saying she is being kicked out of the Michigan National Guard over her gender identification.Blaire McIntyre, who was assigned a male gender at birth but identifies as a female, sued in federal court in Grand Rapids, asking a judge to declare unconstitutional a policy forcing transgender service members to discharge from the U.S. military.Named as defendants in the suit are Whitmer and Paul Rogers, the adjutant general of the...
Detroit Free Press