In October 2014, Lonnie Billard announced through social media that he and his longtime partner would be getting married. A couple of weeks after that post, he was told he could no longer teach at Charlotte Catholic High School. An unnamed assistant principal of the school told Billard of his termination.
In September 2020, in an interview with BBC’s Lucy Ash, Tomasz Sakiewicz, the editor of Gazeta Polska, a right-wing weekly magazine, said that he believes people should be allowed to have sex with whomever they chose to. Sakiewicz also noted that “aggressive ideology promoting homosexuality” is not suitable for Poland. More than half of the regions in Poland have established resolutions announcing that their community is “LGBTQ-Free.”
April 2016 was a dark time for Bangladesh’s LGBTQ+ community. On April 25, 2016, Bangladesh’s top gay rights activist, Xulhaz Mannan, was brutally murdered along with actor Rabbi Tonoy, identified by the local media as Tanay Mojumdar. Both are figureheads, pillars in Bangladesh’s thriving LGBTQ+ community.
In a study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, a team of researchers from the Washington University in St. Louis in Missouri revealed some vexatious frames of mind from ultra-conservative Christians.
On June 8, 2021, a Virginia Circuit Court judge ruled that Tanner Cross should be reinstated as a teacher after he was suspended. Less than three months after Loudoun County Public Schools' (LCPS) appeal, Virginia's supreme court upheld the decision to restore Cross as a PE teacher at Leesburg Elementary School.
On Aug. 19, Inoke Tonga — a volleyball coach at Valor Christian High School — was invited to meet before a session with his team. “Our interactions prior to that day were always so refreshing,” Tonga said. He happily complied with Brian Bonn, the Athletic Director, and the campus pastor’s request to meet.
On August 13, 2021, Illinois Second District Appellate Court declared that Meggan Sommerville, a transwoman who was in a legal battle with her former employer — Hobby Lobby — over bathroom access, is no doubt a female and "just like the women who are permitted to use the women's bathroom."
On Aug. 11, 2021, a paradox unfolded during a school board meeting in Virginia. In a single statement, Laura Morris — a 5th-grade public school teacher — juxtaposed her school district's "cutting-edge technology" and the religious ideology of a "believer in Christ." Laura ruefully announced her resignation, failing to see that the liberal movement that allowed her to speak openly against a policy is the same movement that compels the board to respect transgender children.
"School board, I quit," she announced defiantly, with white tears.
On July 26th, the U.S. Court of Appeals held the lower court’s decision to deny a web designer’s petition to discriminate against the LGBTQ+ community in Colorado. There have been many other court rulings in the United States deciding if a business that denies service to LGBTQ+ people is considered prejudice or exercising their right to religious freedom.
On July 20, Archbishop Jose Gomez directed a memo to bishops in the US. In the message, he announced the resignation of Monsignor Jeffrey Burrill, the General Secretary of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) since November. Archbishop Gomez added that the monsignor’s resignation is immediate and cited “possible improper behavior,” referencing his presence in gay dating apps.
