The LGBTQ Victory Fund, a national organization dedicated to electing out leaders to public office, endorsed trans woman Sarah McBride on Wednesday in her 2020 bid for the Delaware state Senate.

Pennsylvania’s Attorney General Josh Shapiro and 22 other attorneys general filed an amicus brief in support of a former Gloucester High School student in the case of Gavin Grimm vs. Gloucester County School Board.

Officials at the University of Scranton have asked a federal judge to dismiss the lawsuit of a former student who claims the school failed to implement reasonable safeguards that would have prevented him from experiencing anti-LGBT harassment from another student.

Allentown’s Bradbury-Sullivan LGBT Community Center held a mortgage-payoff ceremony Nov. 20, to celebrate being one of a small number of LGBT centers that owns its building mortgage-free.

On Nov. 25, the New Jersey General Assembly unanimously passed legislation to ban the use of an LGBT-panic defense to get a reduced penalty for committing a homicide in the state. The vote was 72-0, with eight legislators absent. The Garden State is now poised to become the ninth state in the nation to pass such legislation.

New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal last week announced an LGBTQ-equality directive that applies to all state, county and local law enforcement agencies. Every law enforcement officer in New Jersey must be trained on the new guidelines — stemming from a report by the Transgender Equality Task Force — by June 1. All 21 county prosecutors must educate the public about the guidelines, and by Dec. 31, 2020, they must report to the attorney general’s office on their public education efforts.

The New Jersey Transgender Equality Task Force issued a report on the lived experiences of trans New Jerseyans on Wednesday. From a six-month mission of research and community conversations centered on assessing legal and societal barriers to transgender equality, the report provides recommendations to the governor and legislature on ways to improve the lives of transgender people and ensure equity.

The New Jersey General Assembly’s Judiciary Committee this week unanimously approved a bill that would ban the use of an LGBT-panic defense to get a reduced penalty for committing a homicide in the state.

More than 550 LGBTQ elected officials, leaders and activists from across the globe — including Pennsylvania State Reps. Malcolm Kenyatta and Brian Sims — gathered in Washington, D.C. this week for a conference dedicated to LGBTQ policy. 

Three out LGBTQ Democrats were elected last week to the Upper Darby School Board of Directors in what is being recognized as the first time openly-gay officials have sat on the governing council in the DelCo township.