Breaking Christian News on The Gospel Herald

Amid a global debate surrounding transgender rights, Pope Francis has warned that the world is "living a moment of annihilation of man as image of God" as children are being taught at school that gender can be a choice.

Senate Bill 1146 being considered by California legislators, if passed, would remove a venerable exemption from anti-discrimination laws for religious institutions, potentially exposing state colleges to civil rights' lawsuits from students and employees. Some university officials say the exemption allows them to develop campus policies that are in-line with their faith, and that this new measure is an attack on their free exercise of religion. Bill supporters say it would be the first law of its kind in the nation and would create a safe space for LGBTQ students and staff.

The Catholic archbishop of Dublin has removed trainee priests from Ireland's largest seminary over allegations of widespread use of the gay sex app Grindr and the failure of the authorities to properly investigate it.

A U.S. judge will hear arguments on Monday to stop North Carolina from enforcing a state law barring transgender people from using bathrooms in government buildings and public schools that correspond with their gender identity.

In a major win for religious freedom, a Canadian court on Tuesday ruled that a Christian university that requires its staff and students to abstain from sex outside of marriage and homosexual behavior cannot be banned from having its law school accredited.

Lawyers for a transgender high school student in Virginia asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday to keep out of a legal dispute about bathroom rights, an issue that has emerged as an increasingly divisive one in the United States.

Franklin Graham has accused the National Basketball Association of "catering to sexual activists" after the league announced it will not hold its annual All-Star Game in Charlotte next year due to North Carolina's "Bathroom Law," which directs transgender people to use public toilets corresponding to the sex listed on their birth certificate.

Amid increasing pressure from the LGBT community to include more diversity in film and television, the children's TV network Nickelodeon this week introduced a bi-racial gay couple on the animated show "The Loud House."

New lessons for elementary, middle and high school students that recognize the contributions of minorities including "lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Americans," were approved by the California Board of Education members Thursday. The updates are part of a broader overhaul of California's history and social science curriculum.

A transgender woman was charged in Idaho on Wednesday with voyeurism after secretly videotaping a young woman trying on swimwear in the fitting room of a Target retail store, authorities said.

"Star Trek" actor George Takei has slammed the decision to make fan favorite character Hikaru Sulu, the character he portrayed in the '60s, gay in the franchise's new film, "Star Trek Beyond."

"Pokémon Go and sin no more," Westboro Baptist Church representatives stated in an online post with an image of Jigglypuff after a "Pokémon GO" user named LoveIsLove saw the church was marked as a gym and claimed it with a Clefairy. Westboro Baptist Church leaders now are locked in an epic battle for control of a Pokémon Go gym-the group's headquarters.

In a move that has been hailed a "victory" for supporters of Biblical marriage, the Anglican Church of Canada has voted against authorizing same-sex unions after debating the issue for nearly three years.

Thirteen states that have sued the Obama administration over its policy on transgender access to bathrooms asked a federal court in Texas on Wednesday to prevent the administration from enforcing the policy while their lawsuit proceeds.

An Iowa Church is hitting back after the state's Civil Rights Commission attempted to force the congregation to allow biological males who identify as women to use women's bathrooms, and the same for females identifying as men.

Gay and lesbian singles are now permitted to find same-sex matches on the popular dating website ChristianMingle.com following a controversial California court ruling.

The Pentagon on Thursday ended its ban on openly transgender people serving in the U.S. military, formally removing the risk to an estimated thousands of U.S. troops who once could have been kicked out of the armed forces due to gender identity.

With June designated as LGBT Pride Month, some people are celebrating a little day of pride of their own: Heterosexual Pride Day. The hashtag #HeterosexualPrideDay started trending on Twitter early Wednesday morning, with some people calling for fairness and tolerance in celebrating sexuality.

Attorneys for an Air Force officer who was charged with rape, adultery and other crimes assembled a unique argument that the military ban on extramarital sex discriminates against heterosexuals because it doesn't specifically include same-sex couples.

A federal judge on Monday ruled that clerks in Mississippi may not recuse themselves from issuing marriage licenses to gay couples based on religious beliefs, despite a bill passed by the state legislature intended to carve out that exception for them.

After pastor Roger Jimenez of Verity Baptist Church in Sacramento, Calif., said he was upset more people hadn't died in the Orlando shooting massacre on June 12, another pastor in Fort Worth, Texas, publicly just expressed the same sentiment. "These 50 sodomites are all perverts and pedophiles, and they're the scum of the earth," Donnie Romero of Stedfast Baptist Church said in an animated sermon posted to YouTube on Thursday.

The Kentucky clerk who was jailed for refusing to issue marriage licenses to gay couples asked a federal appeals court on Tuesday to dismiss her appeal because the state's new law to remove clerks' names from licenses made her action unnecessary.

A Kenyan court upheld the use of anal examinations to determine sexual orientation of men suspected of homosexual activity, which is a criminal offense in Kenya. Two men, after they were subjected to this type of exam as well as HIV and hepatitis B tests, sought a court ruling Thursday to halt future such procedures on men accused of being gay.

Public schools in the state of Washington will begin teaching gender identity and gender expression to kindergarten and elementary students as soon as next year, a disturbing new report has revealed.

Some gay-rights' activists are expressing concerns and angst on social media about those associated as Christian Conservatives actually causing or contributing to Sunday's shooting massacre at a gay nightclub, Pulse, in Orlando, Fla., during which 50 people died, including the gunman, and 53 more were injured.