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.
– Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) has introduced a bill, the Social Security & Marriage Equality Act (SAME) that would ensure married same-sex couples receive all the federal benefits of marriage throughout the country.
– Activists are launching an effort to overturn Michigan’s ban on same-sex marriage at the ballot in 2016.
– Pennsylvania Auditor General Eugene DePasquale is concerned about the money the state is wasting to defend the ban on same-sex marriage.
– The North Carolina High School Athletic Association has limited student athletics based on birth certificate gender markers, and given the state requires sex reassignment surgery to change those markers, the policy effectively bans transgender athletes.
– The city of Elyria, Ohio has voted to recognize same-sex couples’ marriages from other states for the purposes of health insurance benefits.
– The Family Research Council’s Tony Perkins doesn’t believe pro-gay Christians have the same religious freedom as anti-gay Christians.
– A new survey finds that about 70 percent of LGBT students in Japan have experienced bullying in school, and 30 percent of them have had suicidal thoughts.
– Russian officials have approved a gay rights protest for the first time.
– Cyprus is considering extending its hate speech laws to cover “homophobic behavior.”
– Zoe, who his transgender, and her mother Ophelia talk about how their family has adjusted to her gender identity: