City Councilmember Steve Levin, who is a member of that body’s Progressive Caucus and an LGBTQ community supporter, has given at least $64,500 in Council discretionary funds to a Brooklyn community patrol that attacked a gay African-American man in Williamsburg in 2013, leaving the man blind in one eye. Comments (2)

Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), the anti-gay Christian legal organization based in Scottsdale, Arizona, has filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of New York City’s law prohibiting the practice of conversion therapy. Comment

For the fourth year running, Gay City News will honor outstanding achievement in New York’s LGBTQ community and from among its allies in a gala Impact Awards evening. Comment

It’s déjà vu all over again. Comments (1)

Jussie Smollett, the out gay African-American star of Fox TV’s “Empire,” was hospitalized after a pair of individuals who identified themselves as Trump supporters hurled homophobic and racist slurs at him before they punched him, poured a chemical substance on him, and “wrapped a rope around” his neck like a noose, according to the Chicago Police Department. Comments (1)

Brooklyn City Councilmember Jumaane Williams on Saturday spoke to a church that condemns homosexuality and likens same-sex marriage to “disappointing social trends.” Comments (1)

He’s running! Comments (2)

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo on Friday signed into law the Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act (GENDA) and the state’s ban on conversion therapy practiced on minors. Comment

The Lambda Independent Democrats of Brooklyn, an LGBTQ political club, has thrown its support behind former City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito in her campaign for public advocate. Comment

A transgender woman is suing the NYPD for discrimination after police officers, she said, mocked and harassed her when she was arrested for charges including “false personation” after she provided them with both her current legal name and her previous one. Comment

The Gay Men’s Health Crisis had ambitions greater than performing a public service when it joined the New School in hosting a forum for the candidates in the February 26 special election for city public advocate. The group was looking for allies in the drive to end AIDS and reverse the epidemic of overdose deaths. Comments (1)

The only out gay member of Brazil’s parliament has resigned and fled the country after he was bombarded by threats throughout the last year amid a rocky political climate in the South American nation. Comment

Upper West Side Assemblymember Daniel O’Donnell swooped in and delivered an impassioned speech in front of the Stonewall Democratic Club of New York City at the LGBT Community Center on Wednesday night, branding himself a “loud-mouthed, opinionated, independent” candidate with a record of success in the LGBTQ community — and members took notice. Comment

Public advocate candidate and former City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, like Brooklyn Councilmember Jumaane Williams, contributed to an anti-gay politician despite pledging in a questionnaire for the Stonewall Democratic Club of NYC that she had never made such a donation. Comments (1)

Brooklyn Councilmember Jumaane Williams is touting his credentials within the LGBTQ community as he vies for the coveted citywide position of public advocate, but his rhetoric and his answers on questionnaires about his past political giving are in direct conflict with his donations to candidates with anti-gay pasts. Comments (5)

The Supreme Court, on January 22, agreed to US Solicitor General Noel Francisco’s request that it stay the two nationwide preliminary injunctions issued in December 2017 by federal district judges on the West Coast blocking President Donald Trump’s ban on military service by transgender individuals from going into effect. Comment

Just a day after the nation honored a champion of equality, community leaders in Jackson Heights gathered to say that hate has no place in their neighborhood. Comments (1)

Gay male couples — especially black gay couples — are at heightened risk of discrimination by mortgage lenders nationwide when they are seeking to purchase a home, according to an analysis published in the University of Chicago Law Review based on empirical data disclosed under federal housing law. Comments (1)

Two years after women and their allies in untold numbers turned out the day following Donald Trump’s inauguration to protest the new president, Women’s Marches were once again staged in numerous cities on January 19. Comments (1)

No matter where she went or what she did, Congressmember Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez voiced her support for transgender rights all weekend long. Comments (1)

This past Saturday, Queens Pride held its 26th annual Winter Pride gala fundraiser, the proceeds going to produce the June Pride Parade & Festival. The evening included a social hour of cocktails and appetizers followed by a banquet and awards ceremony at the World Astoria Manor. Comment

As the campaign for New York City public advocate races toward a February 26 special election to replace Letitia James, who took office as state attorney general on New Year’s Day, roughly 200 people turned out to hear from eight of the candidates at the LGBT Community Center on Wednesday evening. Comment

A Brooklyn Supreme Court judge denied a defense motion for a new trial in the case of a Brooklyn man convicted last year on assault charges that were originally charged as anti-LGBTQ hate crimes. Comment

When attorney Ben Crump stood outside the Stonewall Inn last August with five clients who were charging that a Texas Chicken & Burgers outlet had denied them service because they are transgender and gender non-conforming, he noted that the civil rights movement had advanced because racial prejudice and its attendant violence was caught in pictures that prompted demands for change. Comment

Several new governors around the country have taken immediate action to bolster nondiscrimination protections on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. Comment

The family of an 11-year-old Brooklyn boy known internationally as one of New York’s most talked about drag queens continues to receive death threats, as well as investigatory visits from city social workers, weeks after writers for conservative and pro-life websites ignited a firestorm over his recent performance at a Williamsburg bar. Comments (3)

A former commissioner of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission told Bloomberg Law that she will not seek a third term with the agency after Republican Senator Mike Lee of Utah blocked her reappointment and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell refused to call a floor vote on her nomination before the January 2 deadline. Comments (1)

Eight years after Zach Wahls went viral with an eloquent speech in favor of marriage equality in front of the Iowa State Legislature, he has returned to Des Moines — this time as a state senator. Comments (1)