About 40 people screamed and waved at Friday night rush hour traffic on Sunset Blvd. across from the famed Beverly Hills Hotel to protest the Sultan of Brunei’s punishment of women and LGBT people with flogging and stoning to death under Sharia law. The Beverly Hills Hotel and Hotel Bel Air are part of Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah’s Dorchester Collection of hotels in London, Geneva, Milan, Rome, Paris and the Beverly Hills demonstration was part of demonstrations planned for 13 cities worldwide. 

San Francisco will celebrate its 44th Annual LGBT Pride on Sunday, June 29, with a parade down Market Street from Beale to 8th. The theme for Cloud City's Pride this year is “Color Our World With Pride.” The parade will be webcast “live and uncensored” on SFPrideLive.com from 10 a.m. to the end.

Right now in New York City TransJustice at the Audre Lorde Project is holding their 10th annual Trans Day of Action, marking a decade of resistance. The march and rally are celebrating the 45th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots by bringing together “trans and gender non-conforming people of color and allies to call attention to continued violence and discrimination, while simultaneously lifting up a legacy of resilience, organizing, and community building,” according to GLAAD. Read more...

Trying to break through all the noise that overwhelms talk about gun safety after every mass shooting, the gun safety advocacy group Evolve created a very funny new ad to get attention.
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“You did it, honey,” is how Edie Windsor told reporters she thought her late spouse Thea Spyer might react to her historic victory at the Supreme Court one year ago Thursday, June 26, when the Court struck down Sec. 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act as unconstitutional.

Howls of disapproval rose up around the country when the Human Rights Campaign announced their endorsement of Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins for re-election over her Democratic opponent, Shenna Bellows, the former executive director of Maine ACLU and head of Mainers United for Marriage coalition fighting for marriage equality. The HRC endorsement coincided with the senator’s formal announcement that she personally supports marriage equality, joining three other senate Republicans who support same-sex marriage.

The Supreme Court did not issue its ruling on the controversial Hobby Lobby case Thursday. It did, however, issue two other rulings that may become more controversial over time, depending on how activists interpret the law.

What a long, strange trip it’s been, only to land in the same old spot once again, with the Religious Right demanding special rights to be exempted from civil law because of their theocratic interpretation of the U.S. Constitution. The LGBT view, to be succinct, is Freedom of Speech and Expression, yes. But as the founders expressed regarding religious persecution, we need a government—a democratic republic—free from religion and religious imposition. “Equal” still means “equal under the law.” 

One participant in the Stonewall Riots the night of June 26, 1969 notes that in every civil rights action up until then, “we ran from the police. That night the police ran from us—and it was fantastic.”

On Friday, June 27, LGBT, feminists, human rights and labor activists will stage an “international day of action” calling for the Sultan of Brunei to repeal the hateful and deadly Sharia laws against women and LGBT people he announced last May 1.  LGBT and women’s groups protested the new law on May 5 across the street from the Sultan’s Beverly Hills Hotel, which will again be the cite for the Friday demonstration slated to start around 7 p.m. under the rubric #StopTheSultan.