A national rights group says more U.S. companies are providing strong benefits and protections to LGBTQ+ employees despite conservative activists pressuring high-profile brands to stop participating in the organization’s annual workplace report card.

Vigils and other events are being held to draw attention to transgender people who have lost their lives due to violence in the past year.

More than two decades ago, a national LGBTQ+ rights group decided to promote change by grading corporations on their workplace policies.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz touted Vice President Kamala Harris’ record of defending LGBTQ+ rights, pledging to a supportive crowd that she will advance their cause if elected president.

Home improvement chain Lowe’s is scaling back its diversity, equity and inclusion policies, joining the ranks of a few other companies who have altered their programs since the end of affirmative action in higher education and amid conservative backlash online.

Tractor Supply says it is ending an array of corporate diversity and climate efforts.

Jill Biden says former Republican President Donald Trump is a “bully” who is “dangerous” for the LGBTQ community.

A federal judge has blocked a new Texas law that drag artists fear will be used to shut them down or put them in jail.

Tennessee’s first-in-the-nation law placing strict limits on drag shows is facing another legal challenge.

President Joe Biden has welcomed hundreds to the White House for a delayed Pride Month celebration.

Questions remain over how a law designed to limit drag shows in Tennessee will be enforced after a federal judge declared it unconstitutional while saying the decision only applied to the state’s most populated county.

Sounding the alarm about the current political climate, the Human Rights Campaign has declared a state of emergency for LGBTQ+ people in the U.S. The civil rights group warns of what it calls an “unprecedented and dangerous” spike in discriminatory legislation sweeping state houses.

A federal judge says Tennessee’s first-in-the-nation law designed to place strict limits on drag shows is unconstitutional.

The country’s largest advocacy group for LGBTQ+ rights has suspended its benchmark equality and inclusion rating for Anheuser-Busch.

A federal judge has again dismissed a lawsuit challenging the Florida law critics have dubbed “Don’t Say Gay."

An LGBTQ advocacy group says at least 32 transgender and gender-nonconforming people have been killed in the United States in 2022.

The unusual legal strategy used to ban most abortions in Texas is already increasingly being employed in Republican-led states to target pornography, LGBT rights and other hot-button cultural issues.

Tennessee is being sued over a law that puts public schools and their districts at risk of legal consequences if they let transgender students or employees use multi-person bathrooms or locker rooms that do not reflect their gender at birth.

More than 400 companies __ including Tesla, Pfizer, Delta Air Lines and Amazon __ have signed on to support civil rights legislation for LGBTQ people that is moving through Congress.

– Mississippi is on track to become the first state this year to enact a law banning transgender athletes from competing on girls or women's sports teams. Tate Reeves said Thursday that he will sign a bill that the Republican-controlled Mississippi Legislature has passed. AdRepublican legislators who pushed the bill gave no evidence of any transgender athletes competing in Mississippi schools or universities. A Mississippi mother with a transgender daughter spoke Thursday during the Human Rights Campaign news conference. AdSupporters of bills such as the one in Mississippi argue that transgender girls, because they were born male, are naturally stronger, faster and bigger than those born female.

SAN ANTONIO – The city of San Antonio is one of the 94 cities in the U.S. that received the maximum score for inclusivity on the Human Rights Campaign Municipal Equality Index (MEI) Scorecard for 2020. San Antonio earned 100 points on the scorecard based on how inclusive its laws, policies and services are for the LGBTQ population, according to the HRC. San Antonio received a score of 83 and 18 additional FLEX points, which added up to 100 points on the scorecard. To see San Antonio’s scorecard, or for more on the 2020 MEI process, click here. RELATED: San Antonio has some of the nicest neighbors in the country, survey finds

While most Americans continued awaiting the presidential election results, history was silently being made in Delaware. Sarah McBride, 30, made history on election night by becoming the first openly transgender person to be elected to the state Senate in U.S. history. “I hope tonight shows an LGBTQ kid that our democracy is big enough for them, too,” McBride tweeted Tuesday night after the election was called. McBride is a former spokesperson for the LGBTQ advocacy group Human Rights Campaign and also became the first trans person to speak at a major political convention. McBride will represent parts of Bellefonte, Claymont and Wilmington, the state’s largest city.

(AP Photo/Jason Minto)Among transgender-rights activists, there’s a powerful mix of hope and fear heading toward the Nov. 3 election. “The stakes are extremely high,” said Shannon Minter, a transgender attorney with the National Center for Lesbian Rights. — Support from administration attorneys for efforts to prevent transgender girls from competing in Idaho K-12 girls' sports and university women sports and from doing so in Connecticut high school girls' sports. There have been at least 33 violent deaths of transgender or gender nonconforming people this year in the U.S., according to the Human Rights Campaign, a national LGBTQ-rights organization. “If Trump loses, I’m hopeful we’ll see federal agencies reversing the many anti-trans policies that the Trump administration has adopted,” Strangio said.

FILE - In this Oct. 8, 2019, file photo, protesters gather outside the Supreme Court in Washington where the Supreme Court is hearing arguments in the first case of LGBT rights since the retirement of Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy. Former Vice President Joe Biden, Trumps likely election opponent, hailed the Supreme Court ruling as a momentous step forward for our country, and said he looked forward to signing the Equality Act. The Supreme Court has teed up years of social conflict, said the National Association of Evangelicals. Mondays high court ruling is likely to be cited in future litigation over the scope of those exemptions. The court ruling came at a moment when many LGBT activists are aligning with the Black Lives Matter movement and other groups protesting police brutality and racial injustice.

SAN ANTONIO – The non-profit, Human Rights Campaign, just released its annual Corporate Equality Index, which grades companies across the nation on their level of inclusion for LGBTQ employees. Two San Antonio companies received perfect scores this year: Rackspace and USAA. "I think we both experienced that before Don't Ask Don't Tell was repealed. HRC puts together an annual Corporate Equality Index, which uses a list of criteria to rate companies on inclusivity. We’re asking you to understand it and respect it in the workplace,” said USAA Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer Jason Kamiya.