(WM) The family of a transgender woman with epilepsy who died in an isolated cell in New York City’s Rikers Island jail complex has settled its lawsuit with the city, the family’s lawyer said.

This week read about the possibility of same-sex couples gaining more rights in Thailand, and Tunisia releasing an LGBT activist after international protests broke out upon her arrest.

A memorial service was held Saturday Dec. 5, 2015 for Larry Daniel Kaufman, 42, a gay man who was killed while working at a coffee cart inside the Inland Regional Center for people with disabilities in San Bernardino. He was gunned down when Syed Farook and Tashfeen Malik attacked the facility killing 14 and wounding dozens more.

The president of a hedge fund contributed $1.25 million to the National Organization for Marriage's efforts to defeat Maine's gay marriage law in 2009, providing more than half of national anti-gay marriage group's donations during the campaign, according to a campaign disclosure report.

KAILUA-KONA, Hawaii (AP) – A father of two has filed a lawsuit claiming East Hawaii public schools have failed to protect his kids from bullying because of their dad’s sexual orientation.

During this time of COVID-19, when many of us are forced to stay in our homes, we search for books that would entertain and inspire us.

Every Sunday evening, Hunter’s Nightclub in Wilton Manors brings back disco. With DJ Richie Rich at the helm, Hunter’s Sunday Tea Dance features dance classics from the '70s and '80s.

On May 12, NBC’s “Today Show” began its broadcast with the usual array of bad news.

The Transplant Games of America is a biennial event that brings together transplant recipients, living donors, donor families, individuals on the waiting list, caregivers, transplant professionals, supporters, and spectators.

For much of my life, I have been a fan of public television. Unlike broadcast and cable television, which mostly exist to sell advertising and appeal to the lowest common denominator, public TV serves the public with (mostly) quality programs that educate, entertain and elevate our minds and hearts.

When “Society and the Healthy Homosexual,” Dr. George Weinberg’s most famous book, was published in 1972, the consensus was that LGBT people were mentally ill. 

On October 14, 1979, over 100,000 people (including this author) took part in the first March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights. Since then, LGBT people and our allies marched on Washington in 1987, 1993, 2000 and 2009. Though little was achieved as a result, the LGBT Marches on Washington united our community and brought attention to important issues, such as AIDS - the 1987 March was the first time the Quilt was exhibited - queers in the military, or marriage equality. Though the victory of marriage equality in 2015 led many to believe that activism was no longer necessary, the election of Donald Trump reminded us that there is still much work to be done.

This two-part article first appeared in 1994 as part of a series about South Florida LGBT history that was published in Miami’s The Weekly News (TWN). Part one is about Broward County’s queer social life and part two is about the rise of LGBT activism in this county. Many of the people I interviewed, friends and fellow-activists, are no longer with us. This article is dedicated to their memory. Two decades later, during LGBT History Month, we look back in time to the days before we had groups like the Pride Center or communities like Wilton Manors, Oakland Park, or Palm-Aire.

The current campaign to take down Confederate monuments has led many people to wonder who would take their place. Dan Avery, writing for NewNowNext.com, suggested 7 LGBT Americans who are more deserving of honor than Nathan Bedford Forrest or Jefferson Davis.

Recently actor Haaz Sleiman (“Nurse Jackie”) caused a sensation when he came out on social media, declaring to the world the following:

Readers who followed me over the years know that sometimes I’ve been critical of public television.

John Lauritsen is “an independent scholar” who has “the freedom to tell the truth as I see it, without concerns for career or ‘collegiality.’”

This week SFGN recognizes our community’s “Out 50.” However, even as we honor today’s LGBT heroes, we should also look back and remember those individuals who made our community what it is today. Unlike today, when leading an LGBT community organization is often a profession, the heroes of the 1960s and 1970s were volunteer leaders of a movement. And while being out is now a given, the individuals of the sixties and seventies were openly lesbian or gay, bisexual or transgender, at a time when most of us were still in our closets. What would our community be without the likes of Harry Hay, Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon, Frank Kameny, Barbara Gittings, Jack Nichols or Harvey Milk? Even in South Florida we owe much to the likes of Frank Arango, Staci Aker, Bob Basker, Edda Cimino, Rev. Joseph Gilbert, Jay Freier and Tom Bradshaw. Milk is still remembered, thanks to the movie of the same name and his nephews work. How will we remember the others?

Recently the Dolphin Democrats of Broward County honored 15 LGBTA (for straight Ally) Pioneers at their Annual Awards Gayla. (Full disclosure: I was one of the honorees.)

I met Michael Robert Greenspan on the last Sabbath of February, 1985; and I lost him on the last Sabbath of February, 2017. During those 32 years Michael enriched my life more than any person ever could, other than my parents. 

Recently New York City Mayor Eric Adams took advantage of the plight of LGBT people upset by Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” law to promote his city.

The lesbian and gay liberation movement (though not yet the bi or trans movement) that flourished after the Stonewall Uprising of 1969 was reflected in the explosion of queer literature that appeared in its wake.

I have a confession to make: I missed my hometown Equality Rally for Unity and Pride in Fort Lauderdale. I was on my way south from gay summer camp when I got caught in a massive tie-up that stopped my car for hours; no surprise to all who have to drive on I-95 from Jacksonville and Miami. Looking back, I could have gone to the Rally in Nashville, which was close to the camp, or even to the National March in Washington, D.C. Or I could have gone to the Rally in West Palm Beach, had I known about it. But I tried to make it home on time, and I failed.

“There is a Providence that protects idiots, drunkards, children, and the United States of America” is a famous quote often attributed to German chancellor Otto von Bismarck (1815-1898).

The election of Donald Trump as President of the United States was the most traumatic and unexpected event in modern American history. Trump, a businessman and reality show star with no political or military experience, triumphed over Hillary Clinton, a deeply flawed but much more experienced candidate.

With the United States on the verge of a second civil war, it is appropriate that one of the things that divide us today is our interpretation of the first one. It seems that, though the Confederate States of America lost the American Civil War, it won the peace that followed.

“Santos” is the Spanish or Portuguese word for “Saints.” George Santos, the recently elected, gay Republican Congressman from New York, is far from saintly.

Recently I enjoyed 15 days traveling through much of the American Southwest, a region aptly called the wide-open spaces.

Elections have consequences. The power to nominate federal judges, especially members of the United States Supreme Court, became a major issue during the 2016 presidential election between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.

June 2017 will be remembered as our LGBT community’s Pride Summer of Resistance; when the joyful celebrations of previous pride seasons were replaced by protest marches and rallies.