5 LGBT things you need to know today, Jan. 4

1. Hundreds of foreign LGBT individuals seek asylum in America, persecuted and exiled from their home countries because of their sexuality. Donald Trump’s campaign, built on anti-refugee, anti-immigrant rhetoric, along with Mike Pence’s anti-LGBT past, lead advocates and activists to a conclusion that worked for AIDS activist Larry Kramer many years ago: It is “Time to Panic.”
2. The Human Rights Campaign wants the US State Department to formally apologize for the “lavender scare” of the 1950s and ’60s, when hundreds of people were dismissed from the State Department because of their alleged sexuality.
3. Rev. Osagyefo Sekou, a straight pastor from Missouri has a question for black faith leaders: “There are so many contradictions within the unspoken laws of the Black Church regarding homosexuality. Some gay people are alienated while others appear to be accepted for their God-given gifts,” he writes for the St. Louis American. “At bare minimum, if the homophobic contempt perpetuated by the Black Church persists, it begs the question, ‘Who’s going to direct the Choir?'”
4. Out member of the New Jersey Devils staff, Joe Altenau, shares what it’s like to work for a sports organization that openly supports his sexuality, a privilege not everyone is afforded in a country that has no federal laws protecting LGBT individuals from workplace discrimination.
5. VIDEO OF THE DAY: Yesterday, Caitlyn Jenner and MAC Cosmetics announced the release of their first full makeup line collaboration. See YouTuber Raven Ovah preview the collection, which will hit shelves tomorrow: