Wisconsin
Janesville, the hometown of Republican Rep. Paul Ryan, passed an ordinance making it illegal to discriminate based on gender identity, WBAY reports:

Officials in the Wisconsin city of Janesville, the hometown of Republican U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan, have passed an ordinance that says public spaces must allow people to use the restrooms of the gender they identify with.
The ordinance is designed to prevent discrimination. The city council passed it 6-1 despite concerns that it could create a loophole for child predators, the Janesville Gazette reports (http://bit.ly/1VRDHKg ).
City Attorney Wald Klimczyk said those concerns were without merit and that people would be prosecuted for lewd acts or offenses in bathrooms, regardless of gender identification.
Similar laws have been passed or considered around the country. Gay rights advocates in North Carolina have sued over a law passed last week that prevents local governments from approving protections for LGBT people

The Huffington Post has more on the new ordinance:

The city of Janesville, Wisconsin, approved an ordinance Monday night that protects lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals from discrimination, giving the hometown of House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) broader protections than those at the state and national level.
The ordinance passed 6 to 1, according to Councilman Sam Liebert, one of the authors of the measure. It provides protections to residents in public accommodations and employment on the basis of 17 categories, including race, religion, military service, disability, sexual orientation and gender identity.
The measure also specifically would allow transgender people to use a public restroom based on the gender they identify with, rather than the gender on their birth certificate.
“Local cities know what is best for their residents, and the Janesville council members did the right thing by passing protections that ensure none of their constituents can be denied a job or refused services because of who they are,” said Matt McTighe, executive director of the pro-LGBT rights group Freedom for All Americans. “This measure will improve the lives of countless people and their families, and will hurt no one.”

The Associated Press noted that Rep. Ryan hasn’t commented on the ordinance:

The Janesville City Council voted 6-1 on Monday to pass the ordinance. Opponents said the bill could create a loophole for child predators, the Janesville Gazette reported.
City Attorney Wald Klimczyk said those concerns were without merit and that people would be prosecuted for lewd acts or offenses in bathrooms, regardless of gender identification. “Those laws still apply,” Klimczyk said…
Ryan spokeswoman AshLee Strong said his office will not comment on the local issue.

WORT-FM has more on the ordinance:

The city of Janesville has been busy over the last week, bracing for the arrival of GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump on Tuesday.
Trump’s visit largely overshadowed a significant city council vote Monday, in which council members voted 6-to-1 in favor of new anti-discrimination protections for transgender people.
Janesville, the hometown of House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI), is only the latest city in Wisconsin to adopt such an ordinance. That list also includes Madison, Appleton, and Cudahy.
City Councilmember Sam Liebert says he’s been working on the Janesville proposal for over a month now. He says it’s much more than a “bathroom bill,” and its purpose is to prevent discrimination against transgender people in the workplace and in the use of public facilities.
“What it states is that for businesses, for the practices of hiring and firing, you cannot discriminate on the basis of gender identification. And two, to businesses and public facilities, people who identify as transgender cannot be denied service or use of public accommodations,” Liebert said.
City Council President Doug Marklein cast the lone vote against the ordinance. He says the scheduling of Monday’s vote did not leave enough time for public outreach and education around the proposal.
“Most of us are enlightened enough to support the transgender community in their struggles, but this [ordinance] snuck in under the radar and it never got vetted in terms of community acceptance,” said Marklein.

Mother Jones took a look at a Ted Cruz supporter in Wisconsin who once suggested gay couples be jailed if the attempted to marry:

One of Ted Cruz’s supporters in Wisconsin once stood up for the idea that gay couples who married in another state should be sent to prison—and be fined hefty sums.
Back in 2008, when California legalized same-sex marriage (before Proposition 8 temporarily ended marriage equality there), same-sex couples in Wisconsin considered heading to California to tie the knot. But there was a hitch. As theMilwaukee Journal Sentinel reported at the time, an obscure state law “makes it a crime for Wisconsin residents to enter into marriage in another state if the marriage would be prohibited here.” The law also carried a serious penalty of up to $10,000 and nine months in prison.
And at least one person wanted to see that law enforced against gay Wisconsin couples who married elsewhere. “If it were challenged and the courts decided to basically wink at it, and refused to enforce the law, we have a problem,” Julaine Appling, who led the Wisconsin Family Council, said at the time.
Appling, now president of Wisconsin Family Action, a conservative Christian group, was dubbed “the most important social conservative” by the Capital Times. Her name appears at the top of a list of 50 evangelical and Catholic Cruz supporters that the campaign released Friday ahead of the April 5 primary in the state.

Marquette University is looking to fire an anti-LGBTQ professor, the right-wing LifeSiteNews reports:

The Wisconsin Jesuit university that suspended a tenured professor after his blog post exposed a student’s apparent harassment by a graduate assistant for not supporting homosexual “marriage” has moved closer toward firing the instructor.
Marquette University suspended Political Science Professor John McAdams without pay during Holy Week and said it intends to terminate him if he doesn’t apologize for the 2014 blog post.
The suspension is effective April 1, extending through the fall 2016 semester.
McAdams wrote on his blog March 26 that his return to the faculty in January 2017 is contingent upon his submitting a written statement acknowledging his wrongdoing to President Michael Lovell by April 4, and admitting his blog post “was reckless and incompatible with the mission and values of Marquette University,” as well as expressing “deep regret for the harm suffered” by the former graduate student.
“Marquette is an intolerant, politically correct institution whose ‘Catholic mission’ is nothing but a marketing gimmick.”
“These demands are reminiscent of the Inquisition, in which victims who ‘confessed’ they had been consorting with Satan and spreading heresy would be spared execution,” McAdams wrote.
The University first suspended McAdams with pay and threatened to strip him of his tenure and fire him in February of last year, after his November 2014 blog post on a philosophy student being told by an instructor that he was not able to make “homophobic” comments in class.
The instructor had stated in class that everyone agreed with “gay rights” and therefore there was no need to discuss the issue, prompting the student to indicate to her after class that he didn’t support homosexual “marriage” and desired further discussion on it. The instructor said it would be offensive to any homosexual students in the class if his opinion were to be expressed, and ultimately invited the student to drop her class if he didn’t agree with her position.
In addition to being suspended with pay at the time, McAdams was banned from campus.

Wisconsin’s largest LGBT group is backing Hillary Clinton ahead of the state’s Democratic primary, the Wisconsin Gazette reports:

Fair Wisconsin PAC today announced its endorsement of Hillary Clinton in next week’s Wisconsin Democratic presidential primary.
In a press statement announcing the endorsement, the group’s political action committee called Clinton “a champion for LGBT equality.”
Fair Wisconsin is the state’s largest organization dedicated to advancing and achieving equality for LGBT Wisconsinites.
The press statement said in part:
“In the U.S. Senate, Clinton championed hate crime legislation, fought for federal non-discrimination legislation to protect LGBT Americans in the workplace, and advocated for an end to restrictions that blocked LGBT Americans from adopting children. As Secretary of State, she advanced LGBT rights abroad and enforced stronger anti-discrimination regulations within the State Department, declaring on the global stage that “gay rights are human rights, and human rights are gay rights.”

Iowa
Iowa Republicans continue the push to vilify anti-bullying student conferences, but others are pushing back, the Sioux City Journal:

A bill presented as an opportunity for parents to make an informed decision on whether they want their kids to participate in sensitive subject matter met with opposition Tuesday from labor unions, associations representing schools and groups providing human sexuality education.
Rep. Greg Heartsill, R-Columbia, told more than 50 people at a House Government Oversight subcommittee hearing that House Study Bill 647 would require parents to sign a permission slip before their children could participate in curriculum – at school or off-campus – dealing with human growth and development.
“If we’re talking an anti-bullying conference, it doesn’t apply,” Heartsill said. Same with suicide prevention, forming gay-straight alliances and preventing substance and domestic abuse, he said.
However, it would apply to the Iowa Governor’s Conference on LGBTQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Questioning) Youth where students last spring allegedly were provided with instructions on “safe” sexual bondage and how to find orgies.
Several speakers representing teachers and schools warned that an “opt-in” law requiring parents to sign permissions slips for their children would be onerous and prevent many students from participating. Most schools, according to Margaret Buckton of the Urban Education Network representing 17 of the state’s largest districts, have “opt-out” policies that allow parents to hold their children out of field trips and classroom curriculum they judge inappropriate.
Heartsill said HSB 647 stemmed from a situation where parents, teachers and administrator “didn’t realize their kids were going to be taught subject matter beyond what the parents were comfortable with.”

KIMT checked in with how the issue is playing in Mason City:

Every year, there are controversial topics brought to the legislature — but this year one bill is causing Iowa students and some parents to stir.
An Iowa House committee is considering a bill that would require parental permission for students to attend conferences for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning youth.
The bill would also apply to classes that involve any type of LGBT education that could be included in a sex education or social studies class.
After questions were raised about alleged inappropriate content being presented at the annual LGBT conference for youth, Rep. Greg Heartsill says such topics should not occupy school time.
Mason City school representatives don’t deny that parents should maybe have a say in their student’s human development education, and this is what matters most.
“What is the most beneficial situation for that student’s learning at that time. Is the student emotionally and mentally ready to learn about that?” says director for educator quality TJ Jumper.
There has yet to be communication on what kind of change the bill would really create if passed.
The Mason City School administration currently administers permission slips to parents to sign for any and all off-campus events during school hours.

The Gazette’s Todd Dorman lambasted the bill in a column this weekend:

So it just wouldn’t be an official election year legislative session without a misguided overture to the grand order of the perpetually outraged.

This time, it’s a bill approved by the House Government Oversight Committee this past week seeking to micromanage Iowa students’ ability to attend the Governor’s Conference on LGBTQ Youth. That’s lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning, in case you’re a puzzled state lawmaker. It’s not affiliated with Gov. Terry Branstad’s office, although the governor deserves credit for rebuffing demands from the religious right that he order a name change….

The good news is even if the bill somehow passes the House, I’m betting it will die in the Senate. And the LGBTQ conference, its 11th annual edition, will go on as planned later this month. Hundreds will attend its speakers and workshops.

And I suppose it’s a sign of progress that culture crusaders who once filled the Statehouse with thundering throngs chanting against marriage equality are now reduced to picking on a youth conference. Their outrage may be perpetual, but, fortunately, their political clout is perishable.

North Dakota
The Dickenson Press took a look at how gender inclusion works — or doesn’t work — at North Dakota State University fraternities or sororities:

The 12 fraternities and three sororities at North Dakota State University are similar in many ways, from their emphasis on community service to their campus locations.
But on the topic of transgender students, their positions are all over the map.
While one fraternity at NDSU recently announced that it would now accept transgender students, another explicitly bans them unless they have “completed the transition”–a standard that trans activists say is too high.
At least eight of NDSU’s Greek organizations have a nondiscrimination policy, but seven of those policies don’t mention gender identity, which would protect the rights of trans students. Almost all of the policies cover sexual orientation.
Several national spokespeople and executive directors said there hasn’t been a need to develop policies regarding transgender students in fraternities and sororities, which tout themselves as places to make lifelong friends, hold leadership positions and network.
“We haven’t had that level of conversation yet, but it’s certainly one that we’ll have as the issue either impacts our organization directly or as our members ask us to take a position on it,” said Chad Harris, executive director of FarmHouse.
Harris said he didn’t know of any occasion when a transgender student had applied to be a member of the FarmHouse fraternity.
“Maybe it has (happened) at the local level, but it hasn’t come to our attention,” he said.
At NDSU, neither staff in Greek life nor students involved with Pride Alliance knew of any trans students in fraternities or sororities.
Perhaps that’s because students say the Greek system isn’t perceived as open to those who are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender.
“Either if you’re in a sorority, you’re very feminine, or if you’re in a fraternity, you’re very masculine,” said Chad Pitts, a transgender man and NDSU graduate. “It really follows those stereotypical gender roles in society, so I think because of that, it’s really seen as something not accessible for trans students and not accessible for anyone who doesn’t fit that mold.”

Manitoba
The province’s New Democratic Party is seeking to advance LGBTQ rights if elected, the CBC reports:

The Manitoba NDP promises to appoint a minister for LGBT issues if re-elected on April 19.
Transcona NDP candidate Barb Burkowski made the promise at a meeting Pride Winnipeg hosted for candidates and community stakeholders on Monday night.
NDP would expand surgical coverage for transgender people if re-elected
Transcona LGBT candidate accepts Wab Kinew’s apology for past homophobic lyrics
“Whether or not there is a cabinet position, whether or not it’s a minor portfolio or a major portfolio, the big thing is going to be … how does that party take that policy and ultimately adapt it into actions and change for our community,” said Pride Winnipeg president Jonathan Niemczak.
The organization invited all major parties to the meeting, and they all said they would attend the Pride Winnipeg Festival this year.