1. According to the results of a new Harris Poll, there has been an “alarming erosion” of support for LGBTQ people in the U.S. over the past year. Thirty percent of non-LGBTQ respondents in a national poll reported they would be either “very uncomfortable” or “somewhat uncomfortable” if they learned a family member was LGBTQ. This is up from both 2015 and 2016’s findings, when 27 percent of non-LGBTQ respondents reported they would be uncomfortable on some level. This is the first year that GLAAD commissioned such a survey in which such a marked shift in attitudes was registered, perhaps due to the changing political climate in the United States.
2. Joel Taylor, the 38-year-old host of the Discovery reality show “Storm Chasers” was found unconscious and unresponsive in his room aboard an Atlantis gay cruise ship when it was docked in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The gossip site TMZ suggested that many on board the cruise were using GHB and other party drugs. Law enforcement sources told TMZ , “It appears the death could be an overdose and Joel Taylor was consuming controlled substances.”
3. Ali Khorasan could become only the second openly bisexual person elected to Congress if he wins the seat he’s running for in Congressional District 2 in Houston, Texas. Rep. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Arizona), who’s running for Senate this year, became the first in 2012. District 2 covers the Montrose neighborhood, Houston’s historically LGBT district, but GOP candidates vocally opposed equality in a recent candidate forum, according to Outsmart Magazine.
4. The ACLU of Illinois is “extremely disappointed in the judge’s ruling” in the case of Palatine High School senior Nova Maday, a transgender student who was ordered to use a private stall in the girls’ locker room separated from the other female students at her school. The Cook County judge ruled that state law only requires that Maday be given access to the changing facilities. “The analysis we heard suggests after years and years of hard-fought efforts … we’re being told there is a place where that discrimination is permitted and that is in our public schools. And I think that’s something that frankly should alarm people,” ACLU spokesman Ed Yohnka said.
5. VIDEO OF THE DAY: Happy 60th birthday to Ellen DeGeneres, who got a birthday surprise from Justin Timberlake on her show!