The Worst and Best Places to Be Gay in America. All my life Ive loved Texas those big skies, big steaks and big attitudes. Im there several times a year. Escape The Legion. But Texas doesnt love me back. Certainly its lawmakers dont, and lately theyve been hellbent on showing that. In June the governor signed a bill allowing child welfare groups to refuse adoptions that contradict their sincerely held religious beliefs. They can turn away gay men like me. That same month, the Texas Supreme Court approved a lawsuit challenging the city of Houstons provision of equal benefits to all married employees, including those with same sex spouses. Floridians were spared the brunt of Hurricane Irmas destructive power last week, when the storm instead took direct aim at some of the most pristine sections of. Q How do I contact customer service for the Dead. Net Store and what are your regular business hours AFor order information, please call us at 18004408025. Although the United States Supreme Court legalized same sex marriage nationwide in 2. Texas bucks and balks. Not New York. My state loves me something fierce. What it did in June was finalize the design of a monument to L. G. B. T. citizens in downtown Manhattan. New York legalized same sex marriage back in 2. Best Of The Grateful Dead Zip' title='Best Of The Grateful Dead Zip' />Theres no such thing as L. G. B. T. life in America, a country even more divided on this front than on others. Theres L. G. B. T. New York, Maryland, Oregon and California, which bans government funded travel to states it deems unduly discriminatory. Then there is L. G. B. T. life onthat blacklist, which includes Texas, Kansas, Mississippi and South Dakota. The differences between states and between cities within states are profound, and while that has long been true, its much more consequential since the advent of the Trump administration, a decidedlyless ready ally of L. G. B. T. people than the Obama administration was. The federal government under Donald Trump wont be rushing in to help L. How Zip Ties Work. The best way to defeat any type of restraint is to first analyze how it works. Zip ties consist of a sturdy Nylon tape that contains small teeth. Mary is a cool mom who hustles her three hockey loving boys around in an Audi A6 wagon. Unfortunately, the Audi is getting up there in miles and its starting to. G. B. T. people whose local governments fail to give them equal rights, a sense of belonging or even a feeling of physical safety. Despite Trumps happy campaign talk about how fond he was of gays and, Trump being Trump, how fond they were of him, his record as president has beenhurtful and hateful. Immediately after his inauguration, references to the L. G. B. T. community were scrubbed from many federal websites, including the White Houses and the Department of States. Plenty of the people he pulled into his cabinet havelong histories of pronounced opposition to gay rights. One of them, Attorney General Jeff Sessions, leads a Department of Justice that recentlywent out of its way to make clear, in court filings, that it did not consider L. G. B. T. people to be protected by a federal civil rights law that prohibits employment discrimination. The Obama administration had taken the opposite view. L. G. B. T. customersstates dont have non discrimination employment laws protecting L. G. B. T. states dont have hate crime laws specifically protecting L. G. B. T. Source Human Rights Campaign. L. G. B. T. 2. 82. L. G. B. T. states dont have laws prohibiting establishments from discriminating against L. I/41KaY2%2BUOKL._SY355_.jpg' alt='Best Of The Grateful Dead Zip' title='Best Of The Grateful Dead Zip' />G. B. T. customers. Source Human Rights Campaign. L. G. B. T. 2. 92. L. G. B. T. customersstates dont have non discrimination employment laws protecting L. G. B. T. Source Human Rights Campaign. Without consulting or even alerting the heads of the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines, Trump announced a reinstatement of the ban on transgender people in the military, and on Friday signed a directive that prevents transgender people from joining the armed services but leaves the fate of those already serving in doubt. His first Supreme Court appointment suggests that if he is able to ensconce several more, the same sex marriage ruling could well be revisited and changed. But worry not Ivanka Trump has our backs She has tweeted as much, and I guess were supposed to find consolation in those crumbs. Were at the mercy of our ZIP codes Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people are often affected most by their municipality, not their state. In Waco, Tex., the lone justice of the peace who presides over weddingsrecently admitted that she wont do so for same sex couples no matter the federal law. But Houston, just a three hour drive away, has in instances been a pioneer Annise Parker, its mayor from 2. L. G. B. T. person ever elected to lead one of the nations 1. And Austin, the states capital, is practically Key West, Fla. Our cities and our states often dictate how easily we can be our true selves at work, buy wedding cakes, construct families even die. I asked Jon Davidson of. Lambda Legal, an L. G. B. T. advocacy group, about current cases that illustrate just how repressive some corners of America remain. He told me about Picayune, Miss., where an 8. They had been together for half a century. Although prior arrangements had been made with a local funeral home, it refused even to pick up the dead mans body when it learned of his same sex marriage, according to a breach of contract lawsuit by his husband that hasnt yet been resolved. I told Davidson that I thought that such dont make me touch it hysteria ended 2. Many parts of the country are 2. Restart Your Mapi E Mail Program'>Restart Your Mapi E Mail Program. Texas to South Carolina, which, he said, may well generate more than half of the lawsuits that Lambda becomes involved in. South Carolina another state that I love, another state that doesnt love me back, and the home of Tommy Starling, 4. Jeff Littlefield, 6. Starling told me that they live there, in the coastal community of Pawleys Island, because of Littlefields job in the insurance business, but they dream constantly of moving somewhere that doesnt cast them as provocative social experiments, somewhere that doesnt put and keep them on edge. They had trouble trying to adopt in South Carolina, so they turned to California and to surrogacy to have their 1. Starling said that his family stands out in Pawleys Island in a way that it wouldnt in Brooklyn or, for that matter, Atlanta and disparaging, even menacing, remarks have come his way. To protect his kids from such ugliness, he has created, and works to preserve, a bubble of open minded people around them. But its getting exhausting, he said, adding that the familys occasional travel sustains him. He recalled a trip not long ago to San Francisco, where his husband reached out to hold his hand in public and he reflexively tensed. He had to remind me that it was O. K. there, Starling told me. My fianc and I get disgusted looks when we hold hands walking into places. Holding hands. Such a small thing and yet so incredibly big for many gay couples in conservative environments and even for some couples in more liberal areas that can nonetheless seem threatening. That came through poignantly in more than 1,0. The Times received after asking L. G. B. T. readers to share their reflections on the freedoms and limitations of where they live. Readers were acutely conscious of the absence or presence of employment related anti discrimination laws in their cities or states. Only 2. 2 states have such laws governing all gay and lesbian workers, in both the public and the private sectors, while only 2. New York, have them for transgender workers as well. Readers mentioned the vigor, or laxness, with which their local governments patrolled against and prosecuted hate crimes. And one after another, readers said they wished that a modest public gesture of affection wasnt a potent magnet for stares, slurs or worse. From a 4. 5 year old lesbian in Laingsburg, Mich. Sometimes I fantasize about living in parts of N. Y. C. or Provincetown, where I would be able to feel comfortable walking down the street holding hands with my wife, but our roots are here. From a 3. Spokane area high school. ROCKFORD, Wash. A student who opened fire in a hallway at a Spokane area high school killed a classmate who confronted him Wednesday and wounded three others before being stopped by a staff member, authorities said. The suspect, who a classmate described as being obsessed with previous school shootings, was taken into custody. The wounded victims were expected to survive, officials said. The shooter brought two weapons to Freeman High School in Rockford, south of Spokane, but the first one he tried to fire jammed, Spokane County Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich told reporters. He went to his next weapon, Knezovich said. A student walked up to him, engaged him, and that student was shot. That student did not survive. The sheriff said the shooter fired more rounds down the hallway, striking the other students, before a school staffer stopped him. Knezovich called it a courageous act that prevented further bloodshed. Elisa Vigil, a 1. The Associated Press that she saw a male student shot in the head, who janitors covered with a cloth, and another female student wounded in the back. Michael Harper, a 1. Some students alerted counselors, the teen told AP, but it was unclear what school officials did in response. A call to the school was not immediately returned. Harper said the shooter had many friends and was not bullied, calling him nice and funny and weird and a huge fan of the TV show Breaking Bad. He also said the suspect was obsessed with other school shootings. Students say the shooter was armed with a pistol and rifle and had carried a duffel bag to school. After shots were fired, students went running and screaming down the hallways, Harper said. Authorities didnt release the suspects identity or a possible motive. The victims also were not named. Luis Prito, an assistant football coach at Freeman, called the shooting devastating. This is a real close knit community, he said. A two lane road into the town of about 5. Idaho border was clogged as worried parents sped to the school. Some people abandoned their cars on the street to make it to their children. Cheryl Moser said her son, a freshman, called her from a classroom after hearing shots fired. He called me and said, Mom, there are gunshots. He sounded so scared. Ive never heard him like that, Moser told The Spokesman Review newspaper. You never think about something happening like this at a small school. And U. S. Sen. Patty Murray tweeted. This story will be updated as details become available. The Associated Press. Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center and Childrens Hospital received three pediatric patients, spokeswoman Nicole Stewart said. They were in stable condition and surrounded by family, she said. Stephanie Lutje told the AP she was relieved to hear her son was safe after his high school near Freeman was put on lockdown. She commended the school district for its communication. Its been amazing, within probably 1. Id already received a phone call, Id already received a text message saying that their school is OK, she said. She still worried for others she knew, including a co worker who had yet to hear from her son, a sophomore at Freeman. My stomachs in knots right now, she said. Gov. Jay Inslee said in a statement that all Washingtonians are thinking of the victims and their families, and are grateful for the service of school staff and first responders working to keep our students safe.