The Senate in Puerto Rico this week approved legislation that would ban discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity in housing, employment, public accommodations and government services. The bill will now move on for consideration by the House of Representatives. 

This seems to be one of a series of steps aimed at improving the climate for LGBT people in Puerto Rico: 

The bill’s passage comes three days after San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz mandated the Puerto Rican capital’s police department to equally apply the island’s current domestic violence laws, regardless of the reported victim’s sexual orientation. She also signed a second executive order that bans discrimination against the city’s municipal employees based on their sexual orientation or gender identity and expression.

Pedro Julio Serrano of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, lesbian New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and others repeatedly criticized former Gov. Luís Fortuño for not doing enough to curb rampant anti-LGBT violence on the island following the 2009 murder of gay teenager Jorge Steven López Mercado.

Every single piece of legislation makes a difference, even if it takes a while. Here’s hoping this one makes it through. 

French President François Hollande officially signed a marriage equality bill into law this morning, making France the 14th country to legalize same-sex marriage. In addition, all married same-sex couples will now be able to adopt children. 

Hollande is not doing well in terms of public opinion lately, and opponents of LGBT rights have retaliated against the marriage movement with violent protests and attacks. In the face of such adversity, the passing of the law is all the more significant. 

Mr. Hollande signed the bill a day after the Constitutional Council dismissed a legal challenge by the right-wing opposition. “I will ensure that the law applies across the whole territory, in full, and I will not accept any disruption of these marriages,” he said.

Gay rights advocates praised the law, while a watchdog group, SOS Homophobie, said that France “has taken a great step forward today, although it is regrettable that it was taken in a climate of bad faith and homophobic violence.”

Félicitations, mes amis! 

Lawmakers in Portugal voted Friday to allow spouses in same-sex marriages to legally adopt their partner’s children. It was a close vote, too:

Parliament approved the measure by a vote of 99-94, with nine abstentions, the Portuguese American Journal reports. It allows one spouse the right to adopt the other’s biological or adopted children. However, another proposal, which would have let same-sex couples adopt jointly, was defeated.

Portugal criminalized homosexuality as recently as 1982, but it has come far since then, being one of the few countries in the world with a constitution that bans discrimination based on sexual orientation. It has had marriage equality since 2010.

Awesome news; hopefully it’s not too long before we see joint adoption legalized here (and everywhere) as well. 

After one year as the president of the media watchdog organization GLAAD, Herndon Graddick has announced he’ll step down from the position. Details on his contributions to the community, courtesy of The Advocate:

Under Graddick’s leadership, GLAAD launched a highly visible campaign against the Boy Scouts of America’s discriminatory ban on gay Scouts and gay and lesbian scoutmasters. In fact, GLAAD is planning a demonstration on the ground in Dallas, Texas, next week as the BSA’s board considers revising its policy to permit openly gay youth, but continue to bar participation by openly gay or lesbian adults.

“I’m proud to leave GLAAD with a stronger, more efficient organization and an incredibly talented and experienced Board and staff,” said Graddick in the release. “I’m happy the role I was able to play in advancing the need for our community to fully support the rights of our transgender brothers and sisters. Our movement is benefited by the leadership not only of heroes like Evan Wolfson, Chad Griffin, Mara Keisling, and Kate Kendell, but of the necessary and vital blogger and grassroots communities. I look forward to returning to a private life and supporting the fight from behind the scenes.”

Graddick was also instrumental in GLAAD’s awareness and media competency campaigns around issues impacting the transgender community. GLAAD worked closely with the Colorado family of a transgender six-year-old whose school refused to allow her to use the girl’s bathroom, filing a complaint with the state civil rights commission and elevating awareness about the situation.

Hmm, wonder why this is. Regardless, I thank him for his contributions and wish him the best! 

The owner of a Washington flower shop is counter-suing the state after being told she could not refuse service to a gay customer. 

Barronelle Stutzman, the owner of Arlene’s Flowers, told a longtime customer she couldn’t provide flowers for his wedding to another man because of “her relationship with Jesus Christ.” The attorney general is suing Stutzman for violating Washington’s consumer anti-discrimination law, but she says the state is actually violating her religious beliefs.

Her case has become a cause-celeb for opponents of marriage equality, who have long claimed a right to discriminate based on their religious beliefs. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports that Republicans in the Washington Senate have introduced a bill that would make it legal for business owners to discriminate against LGBT patrons.

The florist’s lawyers reiterated that idea when talking about the lawsuit with the Seattle P-I:

“In America, the government is supposed to protect freedom, not use its intolerance for certain viewpoints to intimidate citizens into acting contrary to their faith convictions.  Family business owners are constitutionally guaranteed the freedom to live and work according to their beliefs,” said Dale Schowengerdt, senior legal counsel for the Alliance Defending Freedom, which is defending Stutzman.

I’m floored that we’re still talking about this case. A counter-lawsuit means this incident is going to get tons more media attention; are we really at a place where we have to explain why discriminating is wrong?

International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia. May 17, 2013. 

Michigan, Arizona and Virginia all have constitutional amendments in place that ban same-sex marriage — and they also all have majority support for marriage equality.

Polls in these unlikely states have found that all three show a majority of citizens supporting same-sex marriage, even though voters in these states passed anti-marriage-equality amendments in 2004, 2008 and 2006, respectively. 

A recent poll of Michigan voters found that 56.8% of Michiganders support marriage equality, according to The Detroit News. That’s a sharp reversal from last year, when just over 44% of Michiganders supported marriage equality. …

Support for marriage equality is even spreading south of the Mason-Dixon line to Virginia. A recent Washington Post poll found that 56% of Virginians support the freedom to marry — a 10% increase from support in 2011. …

Even Arizona, where the legislature is currently considering a bill that would forbid transgender people from using the restroom that corresponds with their gender identity, is feeling the push toward marriage equality. Although Arizona voters overwhelmingly passed a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage in 2008, 55% of voters now favor marriage equality, according to a Rocky Mountain Poll released Wednesday and published at TalkingPointsMemo. 

I’m baffled and thrilled by the momentum of this movement. Public opinion is changing quickly, and it’s ridiculously exciting. 

The Japanese 3DS console version of the Nintendo game Tomodachi Collection: New Life reportedly allows two male characters to get married and have children. While some quickly claimed the game was a “breakthrough in LGBT visibility,” Nintendo released a statement saying the same-sex marriage option was actually a bug in the game.

Gaming website Kotaku has posted a translation of the Japanese press release from Nintendo, which described the same-sex relationship bug by saying “human relations become strange”and said the downloadable patch would not only fix the issue, but would address other concerns such as “the inability to save,” “the inability to boot up the game,” and “error messages.”

Protesting Nintendo’s planned “fix,” many users have pledged to not download the patch as a show of support for marriage equality. Others have taken to Twitter posting photos of their male couples and asking the video game giant to leave the feature in the game and instead create a patch that would allow female pairings.

Oof. It’s about time Nintendo got a little more LGBT-inclusive in its games, even if it is by accident! (Ha. Really, though, I wish they’d just let it be.) 

Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval is expected to sign into law a bill that would add gender identity and expression as protected classes under the state’s hate crimes law. 

The state assembly passed the legislation 30-11 on Tuesday, and the senate passed it nearly unanimously last month. 

“This does not afford victims special rights,” openly gay Assemblyman Andrew Martin said Tuesday according to the Associated Press. ”This is a statement of what our society is, and that we will not tolerate the systematic targeting of individuals who are historically disadvantaged groups.”

People who commit hate crimes would be subject to penalties for the actual crime committed, in addition to motivation based on their bias, according to the article.

We need this law. Come on, Nevada.