By Holly Ramer, The Associated Press CONCORD, N.H. — Democratic lawmakers in more than a dozen states, including Colorado, are following California’s lead in seeking to offer legal refuge to displaced transgender youth and their families. The coordinated effort being announced Tuesday by the LGBTQ Victory Institute and other advocates comes in response to recent […]
LGBT
Posted inEducation, News
Democrats on Colorado Board of Education want LGBTQ issues kept in social studies standards
Three Democrats on the Colorado State Board of Education won’t vote for a long-awaited update to state social studies standards if LGBTQ people are excluded, they said at a Tuesday meeting. The seven-member State Board plans to take until the end of the year to finalize the update after the board has been inundated with […]
Posted inColoradans, News
Valor Christian students hold protest in support of gay volleyball coach who said he was forced to quit
A student-organized walkout was held at Valor Christian High School in Highlands Ranch on Tuesday afternoon, where demonstrators voiced support for former volleyball coach Inoke Tonga, who said he was forced to quit because he is gay. About 50 students, alumni and parents came together at the planned walkout organized by Valor Christian Junior Lucy […]
Posted inEducation, News
High school volleyball coach says Valor Christian forced him out for being gay
Inoke Tonga, until recently the volleyball coach at Valor Christian High School in Highlands Ranch, claimed through social media that he was forced to leave his job because he is gay. In an Aug. 21 post seen on his Facebook and Instagram accounts, Tonga said that after coaching the private school’s girls volleyball team last […]
Posted inColoradans, Crime and Courts, News, Politics and Government
Biden pick for Colorado’s federal bench would be first openly gay LGBT woman to serve as district court judge in the West
By Aamer Madhani, The Associated Press WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden is nominating a Vermont judge who played a critical role in paving the way for the legalization of same-sex marriage to become the first openly LGBT woman to serve on any federal circuit court. Biden has tapped Beth Robinson, an associate justice on the […]
Posted inNews
Jack Phillips appeals Colorado court’s ruling on gender transition cake
A Christian baker found to have violated Colorado’s anti-discrimination law by refusing to make a birthday cake for a transgender woman has appealed the ruling to the state appeal appeals court. In a notice filed Monday, lawyers for Jack Phillips asked the appeals court to review the June ruling by a Denver judge by looking […]
Posted inColoradans, Crime and Courts, News
Colorado baker Jack Phillips sued again over alleged LGBTQ bias
By Colleen Slevin, The Associated Press A Colorado baker who won a partial victory at the U.S. Supreme Court in 2018 for refusing to make a wedding cake for a same-sex couple went on trial Monday in yet another lawsuit, this one involving a birthday cake for a transgender woman. Autumn Scardina attempted to order the birthday […]
Posted inCrime and Courts, News
U.S. Supreme Court rules LGBT people are protected from job discrimination
By Mark Sherman, The Associated Press WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court ruled Monday that a landmark civil rights law protects LGBT people from discrimination in employment, a resounding victory for LGBT rights from a conservative court. The court decided by a 6-3 vote that a key provision of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 known […]
Posted inNews, Politics and Government
Colorado still allows killers to use gay or transgender “panic” defenses. But the strategy could soon be outlawed.
When Allen Andrade was charged with murdering a transgender woman in 2008, he argued that he killed her in the heat of passion after learning she had male genitalia. Andrade simply snapped, his attorneys said, and shouldn’t be sent to prison for the rest of his life. In fact, Andrade’s attorneys claimed, he was provoked […]
Posted inNews, Politics and Government
LGBT activists say new bills — including one in Colorado — target transgender youth
By Lindsay Whitehurst and David Crary, The Associated Press SALT LAKE CITY — At the urging of conservative advocacy groups, Republican legislators in more than a dozen states are promoting bills that focus on transgender young people. One batch of bills would bar doctors from providing them certain gender-related medical treatment; another batch would bar […]