GRAND Strand pride kickoff party

LGBTQ veterans who were given other than honorable discharges from the U.S. military due to their sexual orientation are eligible to receive full benefits, the Department of Veterans Affairs announced on Monday.

We reaffirm support for protecting LGBTQ youth from 'conversion therapy,' following an opinion from the South Carolina Attorney General (requested by anti-LGBTQ Sen. Kimbrell) that Columbia's ordinance banning the practice could be unconstitutional.

Supporters of LGBTQ youth today expressed strong support for the City of Columbia’s 2021 ordinance protecting minors from so-called ‘conversion therapy,’ the dangerous and debunked practice of attempting to change someone’s sexual orientation or gender identity. Earlier today, in a response to a request from Sen. Josh Kimbrell for an advisory opinion, South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson issued an opinion that the ordinance could be found unconstitutional in court. 

In the United States, 20 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico now prohibit ‘conversion therapy,’ while an executive order in North Carolina prohibits state funding of providers. More than 100 cities across the country have passed local ordinances like Columbia’s. A majority of Americans (56%), including a majority in every region of the country (53% in the South) believe that ‘conversion therapy’ should be illegal. 

This week the Attorney General of South Carolina, Alan Wilson, joined with Attorneys General in 19 other states to file a lawsuit seeking to block the Biden Administration’s guidance that federal laws protecting Americans from discrimination based on “sex” also protect LGBTQ people from discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation. The Administration’s guidance is based on the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2020 decision in the Bostock case, which concerned specifically employment discrimination but ostensibly applied to every other area of federal law that covers “sex” discrimi

Back to school season is a great time to remind everyone that LGBTQ students deserve to feel safe, accepted, and included - in and out of the classroom.

Here are steps that school staff can take to make the classroom a safe space for LGBTQ students.