Raven-Symoné thinks that coming out was the “biggest hurdle” of her life.

The 37-year-old actress announced her sexuality to the world over a decade ago and has been married to Miranda Maday since 2020 but explained that coming to terms with being gay will always be a “mental struggle” and has promised to be there for those who are also battling with their identity.

She told ‘Entertainment Tonight’: “It’s a journey for everyone. No matter how many laws get passed, no matter how inclusive shows are, it’s a struggle that you’re going to go through with yourself and the people around you. That is the biggest hurdle we have to go through: the shame that your society might put on you or your family might put on you or your thoughts, mentally. It’s getting over your personal struggle. And then once you jump over that hump, we’ll catch you. Just gotta get there yourself.”

In the joint interview, Raven’s wife urged others to “stay true” to themselves whilst figuring out their identity and promised that if someone chooses to live as their authentic self, everything else will fall into place.

She said: “Stay true to yourself… I think that when people live in their authenticity, the pieces fall into place naturally. It just takes time, and you have to be patient and offer yourself a lot of grace. And just continue, you know. It’s life.”

Raven became known to audiences around the world when she took on the title role of a teenage psychic in ‘That’s So Raven’ – which ran on Disney Channel from 2003 until 2007 – but insisted that when the sitcom was rebooted as ‘Raven’s Home’ in 2017, there was no need for her alter ego to be made into a lesbian when Disney was rebooting the series in 2016 because she and her character are two different people.

Speaking on the ‘Pride’ podcast, she said: “There was a conversation before the series started and I was asked the question, ‘Would you like Raven Baxter to be a lesbian?’ And I said, no. I said no. The reason I said no wasn’t because I wasn’t proud of who I was, or I didn’t want to represent the LGBTQ+ community in any way.

“It was because Raven Baxter is Raven Baxter is Raven Baxter. There was no reason for me to change the human that she was in order to fit the actress that played her. And Raven Baxter is a character that I was proud to play, even if she is straight, cisgender, I don’t mind. Let her have her moment.”

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States has imposed visa restrictions on Uganda officials after the African nation passed an anti-LGBTQ law that was condemned by many countries and the United Nations, the U.S. State Department said in a statement on Friday.

The State Department did not mention any names or even the number of officials on whom this restriction had been placed but said the U.S. would hold accountable those who are responsible for abusing human rights in Uganda, “including those of LGBTQI+ persons.”

(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington; editing by Susan Heavey)

By Jonathan Allen and Joseph Ax

(Reuters) -A jury on Friday found Robert Bowers guilty of dozens of federal hate crimes for the killing of 11 worshippers at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue in 2018, the deadliest antisemitic attack in U.S. history.

Bowers, 50, now faces the penalty phase of his trial at the U.S. District Court in Pittsburgh in which the 12 jurors must weigh whether he deserves the death sentence.

Federal prosecutors charged Bowers with 63 counts, including 11 counts of obstruction of free exercise of religious beliefs resulting in death.

The jury found him guilty on all counts in what was a foregone conclusion, after defense lawyers did not dispute that he planned and carried out the attack. Instead, Bowers’ attorneys are focused on avoiding a death sentence in the trial’s next phase, scheduled to begin on June 26.

During the trial, which began on May 30, jurors heard testimony from some of the survivors of the attack and evidence of Bowers’ antisemitism, including multiple posts attacking Jews made on a far-right website in the months leading up to the attack.

In a statement, Jeffrey Myers, the Tree of Life synagogue’s rabbi who survived the attack, thanked God, law enforcement and prosecutors.

“Today I’m focused on being with my congregation and praying, singing and clapping in praise of God as we do each Shabbat,” he said. “In the face of the horror our community has experienced, I can think of no better response than practicing my Jewish faith and leading worship.”

In the sentencing phase, prosecutors will try to show that aggravating factors were involved, making a case that Bowers carefully planned the attack and that he targeted vulnerable victims. Most of the victims were elderly.

Defense lawyers for Bowers have argued that a death sentence would violate the Constitution on the grounds that he suffers from major mental illness, including schizophrenia.

All 12 jurors must vote unanimously in order to sentence Bowers to death. Otherwise, he will face life in prison.

(Reporting by Jonathan Allen and Joseph Ax; Editing by Daniel Wallis)

By Jonathan Allen

(Reuters) – Police in Minneapolis routinely use excessive force and discriminate against Black and Native American people, the U.S. Justice Department said on Friday after a two-year investigation prompted by the police killing of George Floyd.

The city has agreed to what will likely be years of federal oversight as it works to reform the Minneapolis Police Department, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said in announcing the findings.

The scathing 89-page report vindicated long-standing community complaints of rampant abuse by the police force that predated Floyd’s murder by white former police officer Derek Chauvin, who kneeled on his neck for more than nine minutes.

“We found that the Minneapolis Police Department routinely uses excessive force, often when no force is necessary, including unjust deadly force and unreasonable use of Tasers,” Garland said at a press conference at the city’s federal courthouse.

The report found that officers frequently violated residents’ constitutional rights. They used potentially deadly neck restraints, since banned by the city, and shot at people in situations where there was no immediate threat.

Other findings included officers frequently failing to intervene when they saw colleagues using excessive force, discriminating against people with behavioral health disabilities and unconstitutionally retaliating against protesters and journalists.

“We observed many MPD officers who did their difficult work with professionalism, courage and respect, but the patterns and practices we observed made what happened to George Floyd possible,” Garland said at the press conference with Mayor Jacob Frey and other city officials.

Frey and other Minneapolis officials will negotiate an agreement with the Justice Department known as a consent decree in which a federal judge will oversee the city’s progress in reforming the police department.

The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division launched its investigation in April 2021 after Chauvin was convicted of murdering Floyd, a Black man, by kneeling on the handcuffed man’s neck as he begged for his life before going limp.

Floyd’s murder in May 2020, captured in a bystander’s cellphone video, sparked nationwide protests decrying police brutality and racism in the criminal justice system. In Minneapolis, protesters damaged property, including a police precinct house that was set ablaze.

Many in Minneapolis complained Chauvin’s excessive use of force against Floyd was not an exceptional case, but rather a commonplace practice of the city’s police officers abusing the rights of Black residents.

Garland said the investigation found that there were several incidents in which city police officers “were not held accountable for racist conduct” until there was a public outcry.

Marcia Howard, a Minneapolis teacher and prominent civil rights activist, said the report was being cautiously welcomed by community members who have occupied the intersection where Floyd was killed, in what is now a years-long protest seeking an overhaul of the police.

“It emphasizes what Black and Indigenous people have been saying for years, that we have lived under the yoke of a racist regime in the Minneapolis Police and they have gone unchecked with their egregious uses of force,” Howard said.

Mayor Frey said he welcomed the Justice Department’s help in reforming the police department.

“Our success will be defined by the people of Minneapolis feeling safe when interacting with police in our city,” he said.

President Joe Biden, a Democrat, released a statement calling the report’s findings disturbing. He repeated his call for Congress to pass reforms “that increase public trust, combat racial discrimination and thereby strengthen public safety.”

Negotiating the consent decree with the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division is expected to take several months, officials said. The department has negotiated similar federal oversight agreements in other cities, including Ferguson in Missouri, Baltimore and Cleveland.

Chauvin, the former officer convicted on state charges for Floyd’s murder, later pleaded guilty to federal charges that he violated Floyd’s civil rights, and is serving a 21-year sentence in federal prison. Three other police officers involved in the arrest were also convicted on state and federal charges.

(This story has been refiled to correct the spelling of Marcia Howard in paragraph 13)

(Reporting by Jonathan Allen in New York, editing by Deepa Babington and Jonathan Oatis)

Will Young is taking legal action against the “monsters” at his “very abusive” former school.

The 44-year-old singer – who previously revealed he was left with PTSD because of the “appalling” experiences he had as a child – didn’t give specific details about the “big civil legal case” he is involved in against Horris Hill Prep school in Berkshire, but admitted the allegations centre around “physical abuse”.

He told the Daily Mail newspaper’s Weekend magazine: “Singing has always been so personal to me, maybe it’s a vulnerability thing.

“Singing has always been a little escape, since being at a very abusive boarding school, with whom I am now involved in a big civil legal case, with other people. That’s ongoing.”

Asked if he can talk about the legal action, he said: “I think I can say I’m in legal proceedings concerning physical abuse, what the school knew about that and a particular person.

“I was surrounded by monsters. When it does go to court you’ll know exactly what happened, but I can tell you what I saw, which was children being punched in the stomach, thrown down stairs, heads banged against radiators.

“My brother was lifted up by his throat and shoved against a bookcase in the library by a teacher. This place was not normal.”

The ‘Leave Right Now’ hitmaker found solace in music during his difficult school days.

He said: “Singing was a refuge for me. We weren’t allowed music but I’d sneak in a Walkman and go into the woods and listen to music. It’s always been very important to me. You’ve got it wherever you are. I can sing anywhere. Maybe I feel that singing is just for me.”

Will previously claimed staff at the school would throw children “against radiators”, watch them getting changed, and rip out the only phone they had to communicate with their guardians.

He said: “We weren’t allowed to wear pants under our football shorts, so my d*** used to fall out of my football shorts when I got tackled. Less washing.

“I saw kids being made to change on the football pitch because they had worn pants. Teachers looking at our penises in the shower, in the bath.’

“It was appalling. That’s why I’ve got PTSD. There was such a sense of injustice from things that I experienced and witnessed. I think I escaped – not that it didn’t damage me.”