5 THINGS TO KNOW

This politician blamed marriage equality for rising crime rates.

Republican congressional candidate Fern Shubert has a unique theory about the root cause of crime. In a statement on her campaign website during her unsuccessful 2004 bid for North Carolina governor, she explained that she opposed same-sex marriage because “[t]he government’s…

5 THINGS TO KNOW

Gays are ‘sick’ and should be ‘cured,’ lawmaker says.

An outspoken communist lawmaker in Russia has said in an interview on state television that gay people are “sick” and need to be “cured” of their homosexuality. Russia banned displays of “homosexual propaganda” to minors in 2013, while courts regularly ban…

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Now a third person may have been cured of HIV.

A third person may now be HIV free after receiving a bone marrow transplant, leading to renewed hope that a cure could be found for the virus. The “Dusseldorf patient” appears to have no trace of the virus three months…

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Evangelicals sue to allow conversion therapy in Florida.

A US federal magistrate judge has said that a ban on gay cure therapy should be blocked because it violates constitutional free speech protections. Evangelical law firm Liberty Counsel had brought a legal challenge against a 2017 ordinance passed in Tampa…