Welcome to The Morning Pride, ThinkProgress LGBT’s daily round-up of the latest in LGBT policy, politics, and some culture too! Here’s what we’re reading this morning, but please let us know what stories you’re following as well. Follow us all day on Twitter at @TPEquality.
– The California Senate has advanced a bill that protects transgender students, so it now awaits the signature of Gov. Jerry Brown (D).
– The National Center for Transgender Equality has updated its model district policy to help schools best serve trans and gender nonconforming students.
– Massachusetts will soon consider a bill protecting trans people from discrimination in public accommodations.
– Could gay couples who apply for marriage licenses in Indiana be sentenced to three years in prison?
– In its 4th of July message, the National Organization for Marriage suggested that being LGBT and being American are mutually exclusive.
– Conservatives were quick to pounce when a clip of Cornel West suggested an opportunity to drive the black/gay wedge, but they clearly didn’t listen to the full clip.
– Transgender public transit users in the Philadelphia area will no longer have gender markers on their SEPTA passes.
– The Austin Independent School District has backed off plans to offer health benefits to employees’ same-sex partners because of threats they’d violate the Texas state constitution.
– Ex-gay leader Greg Quinlan believes President Obama and Justices Anthony Kennedy and Elena Kagan are all secretly gay.
– The Church of England is going to try to help fight homophobic bullying in schools.
– Singapore’s first openly gay politician has vowed to decriminalize homosexuality.
– A federal judge has upheld a ruling against former Miss Pennsylvania Sheena Monnin that she must pay the Donald Trump’s Miss USA contest $5 million for claiming it was rigged, even though it seemed her real problem was the inclusion of trans contestants.
– Meet Analouisa Valencia, the first openly lesbian candidate for Miss South Carolina.
– Navy servicemembers in the Region Southwest have been given permission to wear their uniforms in LGBT Pride parades.
– Bowler Scott Norton is the first openly gay male nominated for an ESPY award.
– Former Miami Heat star Tim Hardaway, who once said, “I hate gay people,” signed a petition to legalize same-sex marriage in Florida.
– Meet Lon and Jim, a couple who fell instantly in love but were torn apart by marriage inequality.