In conservative Mississippi, some business owners who support equal treatment for gay and lesbian people are pushing back against a new law that bans government from limiting the free practice of religion.

LUCEDALE, Miss. (AP) – An investigator says a transgender teenager who was found buried on the suspect’s father’s property in George County earlier this year was beaten to death.

JACKSON, Mississippi -- A national civil rights group called Human Rights Campaign faces significant challenges as it tries to make Mississippi’s legal climate more open for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender residents.

JACKSON -- For weeks, Rebecca "Becky" Bickett and her longtime partner Andrea Sanders kept a bag packed with wedding clothes. It stayed in their minivan, Bickett said, so they could get ready on short notice in case a judicial ruling suddenly allowed same-sex couples, like themselves, to marry in Mississippi.

Arkansas and Mississippi became the latest two states Tuesday to have their gay marriage bans overturned by federal judges, but there are no rushes to the altar as both orders are on hold so the states can considers appeals.

(WB) The National AIDS Memorial has joined forces with the Southern AIDS Coalition to stage a series of art exhibitions and educational forums to honor Black and Brown people in the South who have been lost to HIV/AIDS.

JACKSON, MISS. - An attorney for two lesbian couples and a gay rights group says marriage licenses should be issued to same-sex couples in Mississippi in about 10 days.

(AP) Attorneys for Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant are defending a state law that lets government workers and private business people cite religious beliefs to deny services to LGBT people.

SFGN's Best Of 2022 voting for the finalists has ended. Winners will be announced in November.

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — One of the plaintiffs who filed a federal lawsuit challenging Mississippi's ban on same-sex marriage is running for state auditor.

Less than two months after national media outlets spotlighted the debate over Arizona's proposed license-to-discriminate measure, CNN and Fox News completely ignored the passage of a similar measure in Mississippi that effectively sanctions the refusal of services to LGBT people.

Two years after their divorce filing got entangled in Mississippi's efforts to prevent same-sex marriage, a judge Tuesday dissolved the legal union of Lauren Czekala-Chatham and Dana Ann Melancon.

WAVELAND, Miss. (AP) — A Mississippi mayor has joined hundreds of others across the country to publicly support same sex marriage.

This week read about Sgt. Kristin Kingrey suing the Air Force for harassment in West Virginia, and a mayor in Mississippi demanding LGBT books be removed in a library.

A Black queer student was murdered in Mississippi, and a veteran in Georgia voices support for the LGBT community.

This week read about a library in Mississippi winning a lawsuit after refusing to take down LGBT children's books, and parents suing Alabama over an anti-trans law involving youth.

This week read about a man who advocated banning LGBT books being charged with molestation in Missouri, and Mississippi passing an anti-trans bill.

HATTIESBURG, Miss. (AP) - Hattiesburg Unified Southern Fried Pride - a weekend of events including music, a march and a tea dance - marks the city's first gay pride festival.

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — The Jackson City Council has passed an anti-discrimination resolution recognizing the dignity and worth of all city residents -- including those who are lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender.

(AP) A federal judge ruled Monday that Mississippi clerks cannot cite their own religious beliefs to recuse themselves from issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

MARKS, Miss. (AP) — A jury has been selected for the trial of a man accused of murdering Clarksdale mayoral candidate Marco McMillian in 2013.

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) - The Southern Poverty Law Center has announced a settlement of its federal lawsuit alleging that gay students were routinely bullied in a south Mississippi school district.

OXFORD, Miss. (AP) - A woman's federal lawsuit that accuses the leaders of a north Mississippi town of conspiring to prevent her from opening a gay bar by denying her a business license will go to trial Jan. 26, 2015, in Aberdeen.

NEW ORLEANS (AP) _ Three staunchly conservative Southern states were taking their last stands against same-sex marriage Friday before the U.S. Supreme Court is expected to settle the issue once and for all.

A Mississippi man on Thursday was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole after a jury found him guilty of murder in the 2013 slaying of an openly gay candidate for mayor of Clarksdale.

HB 1523, the “religious freedom” law that has recently been enacted in Mississippi, amounts to affording special rights to religious groups that oppose same-sex marriage, Beth Orlansky, advocacy director for the Mississippi Center for Justice alleged in a statement.

(AP) Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant says he's disappointed by a federal judge's ruling that blocks a law that would let merchants and government employees cite religious beliefs to deny or delay services to same-sex couples.

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Mississippi's Republican governor and Democratic attorney general are asking a federal judge to uphold the state's ban on same-sex marriage.

The Human Rights Campaign says the Waveland City Council has passed an anti-discrimination resolution recognizing the dignity and worth of all city residents -- including those who are lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender.

JACKSON -- Mississippi, which does not allow same-sex marriages, should find a way to grant a divorce to a DeSoto County woman who married another woman in California in 2008, lawyer Carey Varnado told the state Supreme Court on Wednesday.