Former beauty queen turned anti-LGBTQ activist Carrie Prejean is back, and declaring that the Miss Universe Pageant now being owned by a transgender women is a declaration of “war.” In 2009, Miss California, Carrie Prejean, gained national attention for her response to a question by a gay blogger at the Miss USA Pageant about same-sex marriage. What followed were repeated efforts to capitalize on her anti-LGBTQ fame, including a short stint as a spokesperson for NOM, the National Organization For Marriage, an anti-LGBTQ organization that aggressively attempted to prevent same-sex couples from …

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A new report is raising awareness about the growing concerns transgender Americans are facing, namely in states like North Dakota as Republican lawmakers advocate for an alarming number of anti-trans pieces of legislation. According to a new report published by The Daily Beast, Decca Muldowney began with a brief overview of the uptick in proposed bills targeting members of the LGBT community. Sharing details from the Trans Legislation Tracker, Muldowney wrote, “Last year’s legislative season saw a record-breaking number of anti-LGBT bills filed across the country, many aimed at restricting the…

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ST. LOUIS — More than a dozen faith leaders filed suit Thursday in St. Louis Circuit Court to overturn Missouri’s abortion ban, arguing state legislators acted based on their personal religious beliefs and violated the separation of church and state protected in Missouri’s Constitution. The faith leaders, from St. Louis, Kansas City and Columbia, represent several Protestant and Jewish denominations. They partnered with the National Women’s Law Center and Americans United for Separation of Church and State in drafting the suit. “What these abortion restrictions do is enshrine into law the part…

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PHILADELPHIA — Coach John Tortorella said on Thursday that he had spoken to defenseman Ivan Provorov “probably a week before the game” regarding his decision to not take part in warmups on Tuesday night to avoid wearing a Pride Night-themed jersey. General manager Chuck Fletcher was also involved in those conversations, Tortorella said. Additionally, Tortorella said he spoke to Flyers Pride Night ambassador Scott Laughton, who helped start an initiative to invite members of the LGBTQ+ community to Flyers games throughout the season. Per a league source, Comcast Spectacor chairman and CEO Dave …

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United States Congressman George Santos (R-New York) became the first openly gay non-incumbent Republican elected to the House of Representatives in the November 2022 midterms. But a newly surfaced video from 2020 shows Santos railing against children whose parents are the same gender. Speaking with right-wing commentator John Stubbins on his podcast, Indivisible, Santos – who has been outed as a fraud and pathological liar – said that schools should refrain from teaching kids about family diversity and declared that same-sex couples have destabilizing influences over a young person’s psycholo…

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A day meant for reflecting on peace turned violent on Monday when an unidentified Chicago man went on a violent attack that apparently targeted the LGBTQ community at a bar in the Rogers Park neighborhood, reports local news station WGN 9. Right before 6 p.m. at R Public House restaurant, a man approached a man and a woman when they were leaving a vehicle and started screaming anti-homosexual comments and homophobic slurs. The unidentified man then suddenly walked away from the group. After the man and woman entered the restaurant together, the same unidentified man returned with a hammer and …

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A longtime Republican political aide in his 30’s is now suing Matt Schlappfor $9.4 million in a lawsuit that accuses the well-known head of the company that produces the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) of “aggressively fondling” the man’s “genital area in a sustained fashion” while the two were alone in a car, The New York Times reports. The Daily Beast reports the staffer is suing “for battery, defamation, and conspiracy.” “In a letter, the staffer’s attorney, Tim Hyland of Hyland Law, called Schlapp a ‘sexual predator,’” The Daily Beast adds. “Mr. Schlapp has not direc…

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PHILADELPHIA — Not long ago, John Tortorella would’ve benched a player for kneeling during the national anthem. These days, if you wear your homophobia like a Pride flag, you earn Tortorella’s respect. Oh, how far we’ve come. There will be some who will equate that asking Ivan Provorov to skate in a Pride-themed jersey Tuesday night was like forcing him to kneel during the national anthem back in 2016. That’s ridiculous, of course. Kneeling protested systemic racism aimed at Black men in the criminal justice system of the United States. Meanwhile, warming up in a jersey with rainbow numbers an…

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NEW YORK — Music, movie and sports superstars will come together as co-chairs of the 2023 Met Gala. Dua Lipa, Penelope Cruz, Michaela Cole and Roger Federer are this year’s selections for the glitzy, fashion-focused event in New York City paying tribute to designer Karl Lagerfeld, organizers announced Wednesday. The latest edition of the Metropolitan Museum fund-raising gala takes place May 1. The night’s Lagerfeld theme coincides with an exhibit, “Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty,” opening May 5 and featuring more than 150 of the designer’s original looks. The selection of Federer as a co-cha…

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By Adam Bloodworth George Takei’s most famously known from the original cast of Star Trek, but in recent years has been celebrated as an LGBTQ role model following his decision to come out in 2005 aged 68. It’s curious that Allegiance, the play Takei calls his “legacy” play, omits queer themes. But nevertheless, it’s a hammerblow critique on human rights violations of a different kind. Allegiance is about historical cases of racism from White US forces in the Second World War towards Japanese Americans. In the Second World War, residents of Japanese descent were taken from their homes and held…

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A study published in the Journal of Marriage and Family sheds new light on the sociodemographic factors that make someone more likely to be estranged from a parent. Compared to heterosexual respondents, gay, lesbian, and bisexual respondents were more likely to be estranged from fathers. White respondents were more likely than participants of other races to be estranged from their mothers but less likely to be estranged from their fathers. Not all parent-child relationships are happy, and some children grow to be estranged from one or more parents as adults. Estrangement can mean no contact at…

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By Leroy Leo

(Reuters) -Johnson & Johnson said on Wednesday that it was pulling the plug on a late-stage global trial of an HIV vaccine after the shot was found ineffective at preventing infections.

The trial’s failure marks yet another setback in the search for a vaccine against a virus known to mutate rapidly and find unique ways to evade the immune system, and comes more than a year after another of J&J’s HIV vaccine failed a study.

“It’s not the outcome we had hoped for, unfortunately,” said a spokesperson for the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), a J&J partner in the trial.

“The development of a safe and effective HIV vaccine has been a considerable scientific challenge, but we will learn from this study and continue forward.”

The trial involved administering two different types of a shot, which uses a cold-causing virus to deliver the genetic code of HIV, spread over four vaccination visits in a year. J&J used similar technology for its COVID-19 vaccine.

The study, which began in 2019, was conducted at over 50 sites and included about 3,900 gay men and transgender people – groups that are considered vulnerable to the infection.

Another J&J partner, the HIV Vaccine Trials Network (HVTN), said the shot was being tested only on individuals who did not accept pre-exposure prophylaxis, a treatment to prevent infections.In 2021, around 650,000 people died from HIV-related causes while 1.5 million people acquired the infection, according to the World Health Organization.Various HIV vaccine candidates, including from Moderna Inc, HVTN and NIAID are currently under trial.

While no HIV vaccine has successfully cleared trials so far, some drugs are used in high-risk groups and patients.

Shares of J&J were down 1.3% at $170.14 in morning trade.

(Reporting by Leroy Leo in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli and Anil D’Silva)

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By Muvija M

LONDON (Reuters) – The Church of England will refuse to allow same-sex couples to get married in its churches under proposals set out on Wednesday in which the centuries-old institution said it would stick to its teaching that marriage is between a man and a woman.

The proposals were developed by bishops, who form one of three parts of the Church’s governing body known as the General Synod, after the Church of England’s six-year consultation on sexuality and marriage – among other subjects – and will be put to the General Synod at a meeting next month.

The Church of England is central to the wider Anglican communion, which represents more than 85 million people in over 165 countries.

“Same-sex couples would still not be able to get married in a Church of England church,” the statement said, confirming a BBC report overnight that bishops had refused to support a change in teaching to allow priests to marry gay couples.

Under the proposals, same-sex couples could have a service in which there would be “prayers of dedication, thanksgiving or for God’s blessing on the couple” in church after a civil marriage. Gay marriage was legalised in Britain in 2013.

Still, the prayers would be voluntary for clergy to use and could be used in combinations “reflecting the theological diversity of the Church”, the Church of England said, implying spiritual leaders could choose not to offer such blessings.

“I am under no illusions that what we are proposing today will appear to go too far for some and not nearly far enough for others, but it is my hope that what we have agreed will be received in a spirit of generosity, seeking the common good,” said Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Separately, Church of England bishops will be issuing an apology later this week to LGBTQI+ people for the “rejection, exclusion and hostility” they have faced in churches, according to the statement.

The Church of England, which was founded in 1534, has been divided for years on how to deal with same-sex marriages, with lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) activists fighting for the same rights as heterosexual Christians.

Seeking to address the contentious issue, Welby called on the bishops last year to “abound in love for all”, even as he backed the validity of a resolution passed in 1998 that rejected “homosexual practice as incompatible with Scripture”. (This story has been refiled to fix a typographical error in paragraph 5)

(Reporting by Muvija M; Editing by William James and Mark Heinrich)

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Florida’s Republican Governor Ron DeSantis is proposing legislation to ban all COVID-19 protection requirements in the state of Florida, even in private businesses, despite the state having far higher than average per-capita case and death rates. Florida ranks eighth in total coronavirus cases per capita and thirteenth in total coronavirus deaths per capita. DeSantis calls his state a “refuge of sanity” in a press release announcing his anti-protection proposals. The legislation DeSantis is urging would “prohibit vaccine and mask requirements in schools, masking requirements at businesses, and…

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Bishops of the Church of England said Wednesday they will continue to refuse to perform same-sex marriages, reaffirming that “holy matrimony is between one man and one woman for life.” The announcement comes after a six-year period of “listening, learning and discernment” on issues related to sexuality, relationships and marriage. Under the proposals, which will be discussed in detail next month during the church’s national assembly, bishops urge all congregations to welcome same-sex couples “unreservedly and joyfully.” Described by church officials as a “historic plan,” the proposals will let…

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After much speculation and teasing on social media, Madonna drove her fans to ecstasy, announcing Tuesday morning that she’s going on a world tour to celebrate her 40-year career. The announcement came in an NSFW video, which was posted on her YouTube page. Featuring stars such as Jack Black, Dido, Meg Stalter and Judd Apatow, the five-minute clip recreated a scene from the singer’s groundbreaking 1991 documentary “Truth or Dare.” At the end of the video, Amy Schumer dares the Grammy-winning musician to do “a world tour and play your greatest motherf—ing hits.” “The answer is: ‘F— yeah,’” Mado…

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One of the biggest literary events of 2023 occurs today (17 January), when Bret Easton Ellis’ first novel in 13 years, ‘The Shards’, finally gets released. The American author best known for his controversial 1991 novel ‘American Psycho’ returns with a fictionalized memoir of his final year of high school in 1981 in Los Angeles – his first since ‘Imperial Bedrooms’ in 2010. The novel was first serialized by Ellis as a 27-part audiobook released between September 2020 and September 2021 through the “Bret Easton Ellis Podcast” on Patreon. Reviewing the audiobook for The Times in 2021, Theo Zenou…

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Written by Chaikhana.media, Arzu Geybullayeva This post originally appeared on Global Voices.

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The U.S. Supreme Court last year issued a potentially devastating ruling for communities beleaguered by gun violence, striking down New York’s law regulating concealed weapons in public. The ruling employed the controversial legal theory of constitutional originalism: interpreting the Constitution based strictly on the original understanding of its text at the time it was adopted. Lower courts have since applied this standard to rule that restraining orders for domestic violence can’t bar individuals from obtaining weapons, and that it’s OK to file the serial numbers off of guns — since neithe…

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By Sachin Ravikumar LONDON (Reuters) -Britain will seek to ban conversion therapy targeting lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, cracking down on so-called treatments that claim to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity. Culture minister Michelle Donelan said on Tuesday the government would publish draft legislation soon, setting out proposals to ban conversion practices in England and Wales. “The Bill will protect everyone, including those targeted on the basis of their sexuality, or being transgender,” Donelan said in a statement. Conversion practices, which may in…

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Christian nationalists are looking to end liberalism once and for all — and they’re not the only political faction dreaming of the end of the Enlightenment-era ideal of tolerance, according to a Daily Beast columnist. Anti-liberalism has gained widespread influence in U.S. politics on both the right and left, according to journalist and author Bonnie Kristian in an article published Tuesday. But the various illiberal groups’ differing agendas has so far prevented them from gaining anything close to a majority bloc that could win elections. If it does, she warns, America could be facing a dark…

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By Elena Siniscalco Did you think you would get a month without the culture wars? Think again. This week, Holyrood and Westminster went head to head over Scotland’s gender recognition legislation. The Scottish parliament voted in favour of a bill that would lower the age at which individuals can change gender to sixteen. It would also make it easier to obtain a gender recognition certificate by bringing down waiting times and taking away the need for a medical diagnosis of gender dysphoria. Sturgeon first floated the plan in 2017, and after years of consultation between different parties, the …

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