Iowa
As the Iowa caucuses near, candidates are courting both LGBT rights supporters and the anti-LGBT religious right. Over the weekend, Hillary Clinton spoke with LGBT rights supporters, the Des Moines Register reports:

Hillary Clinton vowed Sunday night to protect and expand the gay rights gains made under President Barack Obama.
“We all benefit when every one of our fellow human beings can live lives of purpose and meaning without being demeaned, without being discriminated against. This is fight is for all Americans,” she declared, her voice rising as the West Des Moines audience cheered.
Clinton was introduced at Valley Southwoods school by Chad Griffin, president of the Human Rights Campaign. The prominent national group, which defends lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights, has endorsed Clinton’s candidacy and has pledged to help turn out voters.
Griffin urged Iowans to vote for Clinton because she has defended gay rights and because she is the Democrat most likely to win next November’s general election.

The campaign stop came as Clinton was endorsed by the Human Rights Campaign, the Register noted:

Hillary Clinton vowed Sunday night to protect and expand the gay rights gains made under President Barack Obama.
“We all benefit when every one of our fellow human beings can live lives of purpose and meaning without being demeaned, without being discriminated against. This is fight is for all Americans,” she declared, her voice rising as the West Des Moines audience cheered.
Clinton was introduced at Valley Southwoods school by Chad Griffin, president of the Human Rights Campaign. The prominent national group, which defends lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights, has endorsed Clinton’s candidacy and has pledged to help turn out voters.
Griffin urged Iowans to vote for Clinton because she has defended gay rights and because she is the Democrat most likely to win next November’s general election.
MORE: Clinton asks Iowans: ‘Who has the experience?’
“All of the progress we’ve made and all that we’re still fighting for — all of it — is on the ballot this year,” he said.

Supporters of Republican Mike Huckabee went after Ted Cruz for downplaying gay marriage at a New York fundraiser, News Max reports:

A new 60-second radio ad set to air in Iowa accuses Texas Sen. Ted Cruz of being a “phony” when it comes to his Christian faith, Politico reports.

Americans United for Values plans to spend $125,000 on the ad on news-talk, sports and Christian stations across Iowa, a small buy compared to others spending in the millions.
The ad talks about the leaked audio from a December fundraiser in New York in which Cruz says he would not make same-sex marriage a top priority as president.

“I saw something about Ted Cruz. About how gay marriage wouldn’t be a top priority for him,” a woman’s voice says.

“I saw that, too,” another woman responds. “He said it at a New York fundraiser. He tells them one thing, tells Iowa another.”

Out Sports interviewed Clarke University’s openly gay volleyball coach:

I have been publicly out for about five years now. The article ran on Outsports back in 2011. Since then I have always prepared myself to anticipate that my employer will know that I am a gay man. Every school that I have coached at has known that I am a gay man. They’ve hired me based on merit. Which is exactly how it should be.
I received a very warm welcome at Clarke University. After I accepted the position, some of the administration asked for my fiancee’s resume in an attempt to circulate it among some of the other colleges in town so he could find a job upon relocating. It really resonated with us.

An Iowa City author is bringing queer fiction to Bulgaria, Little Village Magazine reports:

Garth Greenwell’s debut novel,What Belongs to You, begins when an American high school teacher meets a young prostitute named Mitko in the bathroom basement of Bulgaria’s National Palace of Culture. The book that unspools their relationship is already poised to be one of the best of the year. It takes us through Sofia, Kentucky and a complex web of memory that makes us consider the ways all of our relationships are shaped by need and longing, both emotional and material. That longing is woven into our narrator’s very fiber and the complex country that surrounds him and the charismatic, complicated Mitko.
Greenwell’s work has appeared in The Paris Review, A Public Space and elsewhere. He is a recent graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and lives in Iowa City. Greenwell will read at Prairie Lights on Jan. 21, kicking off a national book tour.

A University of Iowa field hockey coach may have been subject to anti-LGBT discrimination when she was fired, a state commission found, the Associated Press reports:

A former Iowa women’s field hockey coach has a “reasonable possibility” of proving that gender or anti-gay discrimination played a role in her firing, an Iowa Civil Rights Commission investigator has found.
In a screening decision on Tracey Griesbaum’s complaint last month, investigator Benjamin Flickinger found that a reasonable person could infer that she suffered discrimination when athletic director Gary Barta fired her in 2014 and that further investigation was warranted. While the case remains at a preliminary stage, the finding comes as the former coach prepares to sue the university.
The Office for Civil Rights of the U.S. Department of Education is in the midst of an inquiry into gender bias claims made by field hockey players who supported Griesbaum.
The university says Griesbaum was fired over ongoing concerns about the way she treated some players, four of whom had filed complaints between 2010 and 2014. But Flickinger noted that the university’s investigative report didn’t substantiate any policy violations by Griesbaum and that the one incident singled out as unprofessional also involved the assistant coach hired to replace her.

The Advocate provides a roundup of the anti-LGBT Republican investigation of a youth event:

Iowa legislators will investigate a state LGBT youth conference to see if it included “inappropriate” content, even though the conference receives no state funds.
Republican Rep. Bobby Kauffman, chair of the Iowa House Government Oversight Committee, last week appointed two legislators, one Republican and one Democrat, to look into the Iowa Governor’s Conference on LGBTQ Youth, which is held annually by Iowa Safe Schools, a nonprofit that focuses on protecting LGBT students from bullying, harassment, and discrimination, the Waterloo Cedar Falls Courier reports.
The Republican chosen by Kauffman is Rep. Greg Heartsill, vice chair of the oversight committee, who has a history of opposing the conference, The New Civil Rights Movementreports. Rep. Phyllis Thede will be the Democratic investigator; she “has been a strong advocate for safe schools,” according to the site.
Much of the objection to the conference by antigay lawmakers like Kauffman and Heartsill is based on an undercover report from last year’s event by an attendee connected with Family Leader, an influential antigay group in the state. The attendee reported that the conference contained graphic discussions of sexual matters. “It’s a conference teaching kids how to be confidently homosexual, how to pleasure their gay partners — one session even taught transsexual girls how to sew fake testicles into their underwear in order to pass themselves off as boys,” the operative said. This person’s report also quoted a father whose daughter attended; speaking anonymously, he said the conference included much “crude” sexual content.

North Dakota

Sanford Medical Center in Fargo is disputing a lawsuit by a transgender woman who alleges discrimination, the Associated Press reports:

Attorneys for a Fargo hospital say a lawsuit brought by a transgender employee alleging discrimination in the workplace has no merit and should be dismissed.

Faye Seidler, who was born as a male and identifies as a female, said in a federal lawsuit filed last month that Sanford Medical Center violated her civil rights. She is seeking unspecified damages and an order to stop the hospital from discriminating against employees who have undergone or are undergoing a gender transition.

Managers, Seidler said in court documents, did not treat her fairly and she was wrongly denied access to the women’s locker rooms. She resigned in March 2015, about a year after she started work as a technician.

Hospital attorneys said in a response filed Tuesday that the company made a good-faith effort to address Seidler’s complaints and was working on giving her access to the women’s locker room before she quit.

“Management also instructed all supervisors to watch for any potentially harassing conduct and no harassing conduct was observed,” the response said.

South Dakota
South Dakota lawmakers are once again putting forward anti-transgender legislation aimed at preventing gender inclusive schools, LGBT Weekly reports:

Discriminatory legislation targeting transgender students is gaining traction in South Dakota. Scheduled for a hearing on Monday in the House State Affairs committee, HB 1008 seeks to prevent transgender students in public schools from using restrooms or locker rooms that are consistent with their gender identity and requires taxpayers to assume the costly financial consequences in resulting legal challenges.
“This deplorable legislation would put state law in direct conflict with the United States Department of Education, forcing South Dakota taxpayers to foot the bill in the resulting legal challenges due to discrimination,” said HRC Legal Director Sarah Warbelow. “Transgender students are already tragically subjected to pervasive discrimination, including harassment, bullying, intimidation, and violence. South Dakota lawmakers should be working to protect these students, not attempting to marginalize them and make the widespread discrimination even worse.”

Wisconsin
A trans* activist was awarded the City-County Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Humanitarian Award, the Capital Times reports:

Z! Haukeness, a Madison community organizer and advocate for transgender, homeless and African-American community rights, is the recipient of the City-County Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Humanitarian Award.

“It is complicated getting this as a white person when there are many people of color, and in particular people of color who are confrontational, controversial, or behind the scenes whose leadership isn’t often recognized,” they said.

“Looking back on the year, YGB (the Young, Gifted and Black Coalition) was the main voice for racial justice and for black lives in our community,” Haukeness said. “YGB would have been the most logical award recipient.”