Evangelical Group Supports Marriage Equality

A new group, Evangelicals for Marriage Equality, has stated that Evangelical Christians can support marriage equality regardless of their churches beliefs.

The organization stated on their website earlier this week, “As Evangelicals for Marriage Equality, we believe you can be a devout, Bible-believing evangelical and support the right of same-sex couples to be recognized by the government as married.”

Forty-three percent of Evangelical Christians, aged 18 to 33, support marriage equality, but the group is still facing a bit of opposition from the older crowd. The new group looks promising, however, as part of their new ad reads: “There are hundreds of verses in the Bible that talk about love. There aren’t any that talk about the definition of civil marriage. It’s time for a new evangelical conversation about civil marriage equality.” As of right now, multiple magazines have rejected the new ad, but they are not giving up.

North Carolina and Mississippi Cities Become First to Offer Same-Sex Spousal Benefits

Winston-Salem, N. C. is the first city in the state to offer benefits for married, same-sex employees. Winston-Salem is also the first city in the state to recognize legal, out-of-state same-sex marriages. A few other North Carolina cities offer benefits for domestic-partnerships. North Carolina still has a ban on same-sex marriage.

Starkville, Miss. became the first municipality in the state to offer domestic partner benefits to employees. In January, the city was the first in Mississippi to adopt an inclusivity resolution, which states that all people are worthy, regardless of sexual orientation or identity.

Daniel Pierce Helps Lost N’ Found Youth

The viral video of Daniel Pierce coming out to his family sparked an outpouring of donations to the teen whose family verbally and physically attacked him for his sexual orientation. Donations of thousands of dollars came pouring in for the now homeless teen on his GoFundMe page. Instead of keeping all of the money coming in from supporters around the country, Pierce directed donators to instead send their money to Lost N’ Found Youth, an Atlanta organization for homeless LGBT teens.

Lost N’ Found Youth is the only homeless organization for LGBT teens in Atlanta, and has received more than $21,000 since Pierce mentioned them on his page. The organization is planning on expanding into bigger quarters to allow for more beds and a better place to transition for the teens.