Topic: Gay and Lesbian Issues

Champaign-Urbana’s annual gay pride parade takes place Saturday, September 16, at 4 PM in downtown Champaign. The parade is the most popular event in the annual C-U Pride Fest.

President Trump has announced that the government will not allow transgender people to serve in the U.S. military, a year after the Pentagon lifted its ban on transgender service members.

The General Assembly passed legislation aimed at strengthening hate crime laws after a post-presidental-campaign spike in bias incidents. Gov. Bruce Rauner and Attorney General Lisa Madigan each pushed a separate piece of hate crime legislation. Both sailed through the General Assembly.

On a day that has seen huge crowds in cities across the country, the Champaign County Young Democrats brought out an estimated 5,000 people to protest Friday's inauguration of President Donald Trump. Following a series of speeches in Westside Park Saturday, the group made its way through downtown Champaign. The event was touted as an official sister march to the national Women's March on Washington.

On the 21st: We talked about a FDA policy for blood donations that one Illinois lawmaker says is outdated and discriminatory against gay men. Plus, is part-time work becoming the new norm? And a new study shows a grim future for some primates, including apes, monkeys and lemurs.

Bryton Mellott, who was arrested last July for burning an American flag and posting pictures of it on Facebook, has filed a federal lawsuit against four Urbana police officers. He wants to see Illinois' flag descreation law officially declared unconstitutional. The 22-year old Urbana resident says he burned the flag in response to the current political climate, and mass shootings, including the incident that claimed 49 lives at a gay nightclub in Orlando last summer.

We’ve seen rallies in cities around the country following the election of Donald Trump as president - including Friday on the campus of the University of Illinois. More than 300 from groups like the Mexican Student Association and Students Against Sexual Assualt addressed the crowd before marching on the Urbana campus quad. The peaceful rally was promoted as way to come together in solidarity against white supremacy, racism, and overall acts of oppression.

A University of Illinois professor says students of color on the Urbana campus have reported being threatened and harassed after the presidential election.

Latino/Latina Studies Professor Julie Dowling says she's heard students describe seeing a knife flashed at a Muslim student and other cases of harassment.

More than 20 student groups on the University of Illinois' Urbana campus ralled Friday, unveling its 'Demands for a Transformed University.'  Areas addressed before about 150 students included racial and economic demographics on campus, wages of U of I employees, and gender and sexuality-based demographics.

This weekend's C-U Pride Fest is the first since the mass shooting in Orlando and renewed national debate over transgender rights. The theme is Love > Hate.