What happened?
Radio host Bryan Fischer after a Colorado court declared a Christian baker could not discriminate against gay customers. Fischer lashed out at what he calls the “storm troopers in the homosexual movement”.
IN A VICTORY FOR trans rights, Governor Andrew Cuomo announces that the state of New York will no longer require proof of sexual-reassignment surgery in order to change the sex listed on birth certificates.
THE BRITISH FOREIGN And Commonwealth Office announces it will allow marriages to be performed for Britons and their samesex partners in its overseas missions, even in countries where it is illegal. Hong Kong officials, however, refuse to comply or allow for such ceremonies at their British consulate.
THE US NATIONAL PARK Service begins the process of identifying and commemorating locations of LGBT historical significance by placing them on its National Register Of Historic Places.
AFTER REFUSING TO MAKE a wedding cake for a gay couple, Jack Philips of Colorado’s Masterpiece Cake Shop, loses his court case. The court determines his religious beliefs are not enough to justify discrimination and that he must serve all customers. Phillips vows to “stand by his convictions” until someone shuts him down.
FOR THE FIRST TIME, the US Census Bureau starts counting gay couples as families.
STORME DELAVERIE, widely credited with throwing the first punches at the Stonewall Uprising of 1969, dies in her sleep at the age of 93.
TWENTY-EIGHT-YEAR-OLD Pakistani paramedic and serial killer Muhammed Ejaz confesses to murdering three gay men he met online, stating, “They were spreading evil in society and I had to stop it.”
IN A STEP TOWARDS EQUALITY, Costa Rica’s social security system unanimously decides to extend medical benefits to same-sex couples. Costa Rica has yet to legalise gay marriage or civil unions.
ON THE ISLAND NATION of Cyprus, several thousand turn out to celebrate the first gay pride parade. A scuff le ensues when hundreds of protestors, including orthodox clerics, are held back by police.
US DISTRICT JUDGE Barbara Crabb strikes down Wisconsin’s ban on same-sex marriage and becomes the 19th US state to legalise gay marriage.
IN GHANA, A GROUP of Muslim youths rally an anti-gay mob to the home of Yaw Nkrumah who is taken from his home, stripped naked and lynched. Nkrumah’s suspected lover goes into hiding as the mob vows to pursue him in order to eliminate the “curse” of homosexuality.
WESTBORO BAPTIST CHURCH pickets Wilson High School on Pride Day but is drowned out by a counterprotest. “I’ve never seen this many people come together,” says the student body president.