LGBT

On Monday, Illinois will become the second state to ban the so-called gay panic defense in cases in which a murder defendant tries to justify his violence as a reaction to learning that the victim was gay.

California banned the defense tactic in 2014, a year after the American Bar Association called for its prohibition.

As The Associated Press reports, there is no single standard for the circumstances leading to the defense:

Bedecked in fondant and flowers, modern wedding cakes are the centerpiece of the marriage feast — an edible form of art. But are they also an expression of free speech?

That is the question the Supreme Court will consider this fall when it hears the case of a Colorado baker who refused to make a custom wedding cake for a gay couple because he said it would violate his religious beliefs.

"You'd think cake would be apolitical, and yet here we are," muses baker Catherine George of Catherine George Cakes.

On the campaign trail last year, after a tragic attack on an Orlando nightclub left 49 people dead, Donald Trump went out of his way to thank the LGBT community, vowing to protect them from violence and tweeting, "I will fight for you."

Years earlier, in an interview with a magazine that reaches a large gay audience, Trump told The Advocate that he supported gay people serving in the military.

Five openly transgender members of the U.S. military are suing President Trump and other leaders of the U.S. government over Trump's declaration, over Twitter, that trans people will no longer be allowed to serve in the U.S. military. The suit alleges that Trump's directive is "arbitrary and capricious," unconstitutionally depriving the service members of due process.

The Tennessee Congressman whose district includes Fort Campbell says the country doesn’t need or want hundreds of commanders-in-chief.

Marsha Blackburn says there’s only one, and his decision to ban transgender troops from the U.S. armed forces should be respected.

Updated at 4:30 p.m. ET

President Trump has announced that the government will not allow transgender people to serve in the U.S. military, a year after the Pentagon lifted its ban on transgender service members.

In a series of tweets on Wednesday morning, he wrote: