North Dakota
A graphic designer in Fargo refused to create a logo for a church because they requested a rainbow which the designer said is part of the LGBTQ “agenda,” WDAY reports:

A Fargo company says it declined to do business with a gay-friendly church because the church asked the company to design a logo that included a rainbow, a universal symbol of the gay community.
St. Mark’s Lutheran Church had recently been in talks with Custom Graphics Inc., 2501 3rd Ave. N., about creating a logo for the church. But after church council members requested that the logo contain rainbow colors, Custom Graphics General Manager Zach Paxton ended the business relationship.
“The business was declined respectfully,” Paxton said. “I didn’t mean any offense by it or anything like that.”
Ironically, Custom Graphics’ own logo features rainbow colors. Nevertheless, Paxton said he wasn’t comfortable with designing a logo for St. Mark’s that would have advertised what he described as the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender movement.
Paxton said he would have been fine with St. Mark’s asking Custom Graphics to make signs or decals, but creating a logo for the church crossed into a realm of which he didn’t approve.
“If they would come with something to be manufactured or such, no problem,” he said. “But this is trying to come up with a logo and help them come up with ways to promote their agenda.”

Williston is getting a LGBTQ bar after the city passed a law barring drinking and nudity in the same establishment, WDAY reports:

In the wake of the city’s decision to separate exotic dancing from drinking by the end of next week, the owner of Williston’s last remaining strip club says he will turn the business into a gathering spot for the LGBT community.
“We’re just going to relinquish our cabaret license,” said Jarod Holbrook of Heartbreakers.
Topless dancers will perform at the club until May 6, after which Holbrook plans to shut down and re-open in mid-May as a gay and lesbian bar.

A LGBTQ student group at the University of North Dakota is sought student services funding to accomplish its mission but was denied, the Bismarck Tribune reports:

For the past 10 years, the Ten Percent Society — the University of North Dakota’s student-run LGBT organization–has been asking the university for a little bit of help.
As the sole resource for the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender population on UND’s campus, organizers said the mostly self-funded group doesn’t have the resources necessary to help educate the community as a whole.
Which is why they would like UND to step in with a university-funded LGBT center for all students. It would not be run by, or specifically for, Ten Percent Society members, a distinction incoming Ten Percent Society President Tieg Paulson said is important.
“We’ve been advocating for a center for at least 10 years now. It’s not just for us but for the people we represent,” Paulson said. “But the answer from the administration has always been ‘We don’t have the funds,’ which is more prevalent this year.”
At an April 19 meeting of the Student Fee Advisory Committee, a $62,000 request to hire an LGBT coordinator to operate within the Multicultural Student Services was denied.

South Dakota
Students in Sioux Falls could not access LGBTQ websites because of the school’s internet filters, the Associated Press reports:

The Sioux Falls School District is unblocking student access to LGBT resource websites after some students complained and equal rights officials weighed in on the matter.

The sites have been blocked by the school district’s Internet filter. Some students said that indicated a bias against the LGBT community. The American Civil Liberties Union of South Dakota Executive Director Heather Smith said blocking the sites sends a message that being lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender is wrong or shameful.

The district earlier said it errs on the side of student safety when it comes to Internet access. It’s now working with the companies that provide Internet filters to unblock LGBT resource sites, district attorney Kate Bartell Nowak told the Argus Leader newspaper

Iowa
The Des Moines Register profiled Liam Jameson, a student in Des Moines who is being honored with a scholarship from the LGBTQ-centric Eyechaner Foundation:

Last April, a handful of Dowling Catholic High School students had a choice. They could stay silent in the face of what many considered an injustice by their school toward a substitute teacher and volunteer coach who is gay. Or they could stage a public protest in accordance with what they believed to be the teachings of a loving, accepting God.
They chose the latter. Some 250 walked out of school and rallied on its grounds. Some made speeches about teacher Tyler McCubbin, who was let go, and whose offer of a full-time job was revoked after officials learned he was engaged to another man. The bishop cited “the openness of his sexual orientation” as the reason.
One of the five protest organizers was a 17-year-old West Des Moines junior named Liam Jameson, who had come out his freshman year. In the process, he would write later, he “lost everything, friends, family, respect, and myself.”

“I no longer wished to be this way,” he wrote. “I no longer wanted to live.” Jameson uncovered these statistics: Nearly 40 percent of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) youth try to commit suicide. They are three times more likely than others to develop a mental illness in their lifetime, often the result of bullying and abuse.
But Jameson turned his angst into action. And on May 27, he will graduate and go on to study engineering at Iowa State, with a $40,000 Matthew Shepard Scholarship. Named after the gay University of Wyoming student who was lured to his death and left tied to a fence in 1998, the scholarship was established in 2000 by Des Moines businessman Rich Eychaner. It aims to to help successful, community-minded gay students attend college, with mentoring and support. In its 16 years, 187 scholarships worth a total of $2.5 million have been awarded.

Iowa State Daily‘s Darrall Flowers looked into the debate over gender-inclusive bathroom policies:

As the LGBT rights movement across America progresses, the argument that this country needs separate bathrooms for both men and women becomes increasingly irrelevant. Our transgender brothers and sisters are now facing huge backlash from discriminatory legislatures and have been in a constant battle to maintain their identity. This struggle extends to a decision that most people take for granted every day: “Which bathroom do I use?”
Should society allow people to relieve themselves wherever they choose because, at the end of the day, it’s just a bathroom? Or is the perceived risk that conservatives are preaching of allowing a transgender man to use a restroom with a woman enough to require separate bathrooms? Both sides of the argument have valid points to be raised, however the benefits of creating gender-neutral bathrooms far outweigh the cons.
After a couple of hours of research, you will find that gender defined bathrooms have only existed since the Victorian era, driven by paternalistic desires to protect women from the dangers of male interaction. Legislation upholding these antiquated traditions is enforced by the Uniformed Plumbing Code, dating back to 1887, according to Terry S. Kogan, a University of Utah law professor and a contributor to the book “Toilet: Public Restrooms and the Politics of Sharing.” Kogan views sex-segregated bathrooms as unnecessary. However, as with any major social change, gender-neutral bathrooms come with their own worries.

Mason City’s parks department is developing gender inclusive policies, KIMT reports:

Bathroom access for transgender people is a controversial topic in the country recently, leading to protests, economic losses and arguments about equality and privacy rights.

The Mason City Parks and Recreation Center is currently working with a city attorney on developing some type of policy and procedures to help them follow when dealing with transgender people.

Brain Pauly, superintendent of recreation, says they offer co-ed sports, so family and shower areas and all of their restrooms are gender neutral.

“Everyone is welcome at all of our facilities no matter what. We want to make sure that at the recreation department, people don’t hesitate to come and everyone feels welcomed,” he said.

WHO-TV took a look at how the decision by target to affirm gender-inclusion has impacted the Des Moines area:

Target says its new transgender policy for restrooms and fitting rooms promotes acceptance and inclusivity. The move resulted in a backlash against the store and some shoppers claim it’s having the opposite effect.

“I just don’t agree with it. Period,” said Dan Wagner, of Ankeny.

Up until this week, Wagner was a card-carrying Target customer. He turned in his credit card and canceled his account to boycott the retail giant. The Air Force veteran says men don’t belong in women’s restrooms.

“What are we coming to when we allow a man to go into woman’s bathrooms? What’s going to happen when a little kid is kidnapped or killed,” said Wagner.

Wisconsin
A Supreme Court justice known for hurling invective at a fellow justice — and for his ties to the religious right — is retiring, the Wisconsin Gazette reports:

Prosser was elected to a 10-year term in 2001 and re-elected in 2011, in a close race with huge voting irregularities in Waukesha County.
Prosser has been a chief ally of Gov. Scott Walker and, when the justice ran for re-election in 2011 he had strong support from right-wing organizations, including the anti-gay Family Research Council’s Super PAC.
FRC, in that campaign, criticized Prosser’s main rival, JoAnne Kloppenburg, as having “liberal special interests.”
Prosser also benefitted in the campaign from about $1 million in advertising from two groups linked to Koch Industries – Citizens for a Strong America and Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce. In March 2011, Prosser voted with the Supreme Court’s conservative majority to overturn a lower court decision allowing a public challenge to a permit that gave Koch’s Georgia Pacific plants more leeway in dumping phosphorus into Fox River waterways.
A year earlier, Prosser gained national name recognition after calling Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson “a total bitch” and threatening to “destroy her” in a closed-door meeting.

One Wisconsin Republican is considering a “bathroom bill” next year, the New Richmond News reports:

A state lawmaker who failed to get a controversial “bathroom bill” passed in the current session says he’ll try again next time.
Assembly Republican Jesse Kremer of Kewaskum wanted public schools to make students and staffers to use the restrooms of their birth genders — and now, Kremer tells the Wisconsin Radio Network he might apply it to all public restrooms after North Carolina did the same.
That prompted some star musicians to cancel concerts in North Carolina, saying the law discriminates against transgender persons — and it’s a bone of contention among the top two GOP White House candidates, as Donald Trump says people should use the restrooms of their choice while Ted Cruz says otherwise.
Kremer accuses liberals of discriminating against women, by not wanting to protect them from men who seek to abuse access to female restrooms and changing areas. The group Fair Wisconsin, which fought the original state bill, says it will be ready to do so again in the next session.

Kremer even issued a press release on the matter, the Daily Cardinal reports:

Controversy surrounding a bill requiring transgender K-12 students to use the bathroom corresponding to their biological sex has resurfaced after comments made by the bill’s author Wednesday.

State Rep. Jesse Kremer, R-Kewaskum, issued a statement saying pro-LGBT activists have “unveiled their real war on women,” in pushing back against a similar bill in North Carolina.

“Progressive activists have finally blatantly, and unintentionally, unveiled their real war on women,” Kremer said in the release. “In an attempt to appease a few individuals, these extremists have overplayed their hand and we, as citizens, must stand up to their intolerance and bigotry.”

Kremer added that he would not let his daughters use a changing stall at Target after that company announced last week it would let shoppers use the dressing room corresponding to their gender identity.