Gays // Current

Good and Bad Elections News for the LGBT community

Supporters of same-sex marriage had reason to be optimistic on Tuesday afternoon and... more

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7 days ago
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Kenya to conduct census of gays

The confidential survey will be carried out by the National AIDS/STD Control Programme... more

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11 days ago
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Obama signs LGBT hate crimes bill into law

President Barack Obama on Wednesday signed the first major piece of federal gay rights legislation, a milestone that activists compared to the passage of 1960s civil-rights legislation empowering blacks.

The new law adds acts of violence against gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people to the list of federal hate crimes. Gay-rights activists voiced hope that the Obama administration would advance more issues, including legislation to bar workplace discrimination, allow military service and recognize same-sex marriages.

Congress passed the hate crimes protections as an unlikely amendment to this year's Defense Authorization Act. Obama, speaking at an emotional evening reception with supporters of the legislation, said that more than 12,000 hate crimes had been reported the past decade based on sexual orientation.

The expanded federal hate crimes law was added to a $680 billion defense authorization bill that Obama signed at a packed White House ceremony.

The hate crimes measure was named for Matthew Shepard, a gay Wyoming teenager who died after being kidnapped and severely beaten in October 1998, and James Byrd Jr., an African-American man dragged to death in Texas the same year.

Shepard's mother, Judy, was among those at the ceremony that also included Vice President Joe Biden, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Attorney General Eric Holder and leading members of Congress and the Pentagon, who were on hand for the appropriations bill signing.

To loud applause, Obama hailed the hate crimes measure in the bill as a step toward change to "help protect our citizens from violence based on what they look like, who they love, how they pray."

He cited the work of the late Sen. Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts and others "to make this day possible."

Several religious groups have expressed concern that a hate crimes law could be used to criminalize conservative speech relating to subjects such as abortion or homosexuality. However, Holder has said that any federal hate-crimes law would be used only to prosecute violent acts based on bias, not to prosecute speech based on controversial racial or religious beliefs.

Former President George W. Bush had threatened to veto a similar measure, but Obama brought a reversal of that policy to the White House.

When the bill won final congressional approval last week, Human Rights Campaign president Joe Solmonese called the hate crimes measure "our nation's first major piece of civil rights legislation for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people."

Earlier this month, Obama told the Human Rights Campaign, the country's largest gay rights group, that the nation still needs to make significant changes to ensure equal rights for gays and lesbians.

More @ linkPresident Barack Obama on Wednesday signed the first major piece of federal gay rights... more

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Gay-Rights Battle Brewing Over 2010 U.S. Census

"Sarah," an active-duty soldier in Iraq, can hardly be questioned for her patriotism or courage. But when it comes to filling out her 2010 census form, her primary emotion is fear. "I keep real quiet about my partner," she tells NEWSWEEK. "Even this conversation is a violation of the law, but I've stepped away from the other soldiers so I'm not 'a threat to morale.' " Sarah is tired of the subterfuge and wishes she could use her real name for this article without getting fired under "don't ask, don't tell" legislation. She's anxious because she knows this census is a watershed moment for the entire lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered (LGBT) community, as it is for gay soldiers. "A lot of people don't want to believe there are 60,000 of us in the military. I don't believe it either. I think that number is bigger."

For the first time in the centuries-long history of the census, the number of same-sex couples who self-identify as married—license or no license—will be tabulated and released to the public. The move is seen as both a friendly nod to the gay community—which had pinned its hopes on President Obama and has, at least in some quarters, been frustrated by a perceived slow response to gay-rights issues—and a boost to policy fights, from challenging laws that limit gay adoptions to the nationwide legalization of gay marriage.

The release of the data also marks a major shift in the evolution of the Census Bureau. In 1990 it edited the answers of self-identified gay husbands and wives to make them appear as opposite-sex partners; in 2000, instead of editing the sex of a gay spouse it edited the data to describe the same-sex couples as "unmarried partners." While the Census Bureau doesn't make policy, its data will be instrumental to inform it. "This will not be a count of the gay population of the U.S., but it will be the biggest, most profound data set that anyone has ever had," says Timothy Olson, assistant division chief in the U.S. Census Field Division. "There will finally be good data for policymakers to engage in the issues with facts, not speculations."

More @ link"Sarah," an active-duty soldier in Iraq, can hardly be questioned for her patriotism... more

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Specter Proposes Reapeal of Gay Mairrage Amendment

Arlen Specter more famous for his recent switch to the Democratic Caucus than his record on civil rights or mairrage equality made a surprise move on the Senate floor proposing the repeal of the so called Defense of Mairrage act that barrs gays from many federal rights and priviledges.

From the New York Times:

First, he spoke on the Senate floor Monday evening and then put out a bulletin on Twitter.

And on Tuesday morning, Senator Arlen Specter, the Pennsylvania Republican-turned Democrat who is running for his sixth term in the Senate, posted a short piece on the Huffington Post’s Web site in which he says it’s time to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act.

The announcement by Senator Specter, a longtime supporter of the marriage act who once said he favored fortifying it with a constitutional amendment, came amid his primary battle for the Democratic nomination against Representative Joe Sestak, who favors its repeal.

Both Mr. Sestak and the Republicans, in the past 12 hours or so, have been quick to point out that Mr. Specter voted for the act in 1996 and even proposed that it be fortified with a constitutional amendment in 2004, when he faced a tough Republican primary challenge from Pat Toomey, a conservative. (Mr. Toomey is running again as a Republican for the Senate seat and is opposed to repealing the marriage act, which bars federal recognition of same-sex marriages.)

But now, Mr. Specter writes:

“Enacted 13 years ago when the idea of same sex marriage was struggling for acceptance, the Act is a relic of a more tradition-bound time and culture.

Connecticut, Iowa, and Massachusetts have already passed laws recognizing same sex marriage and other states are moving in that direction. The states are the proper forum to address this divisive social and moral issue, not the Federal Government with a law that attempts to set one national standard for marriage.

Mr. Sestak released a statement pointing out the shifts in Mr. Specter’s position and highlighting the campaigns by gay and lesbian groups under the L.G.B.T. abbreviation. He said:

“As the longtime Republican Senator carries on his attempt to run away from his 30-year Republican record, this time on his vote to support the Defense of Marriage Act, he should be honest about his votes to oppose equal rights for L.G.B.T. Americans. He actually voted with Republican Senator Rick Santorum to deny equal benefits to legally married L.G.B.T. Americans in the first place. Without Joe Sestak’s leadership in supporting L.G.B.T. rights, the Senator would continue to deny married gay and lesbian couples their right to file joint tax returns, receive spouse benefits under social security, take an unpaid leave to take care of a sick or injured partner, or share retirement benefits like straight couples.Arlen Specter more famous for his recent switch to the Democratic Caucus than his... more

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14 days ago
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Obama to Create a National Resource Center for LGBT Elders

HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius today announced plans to establish the nation`s first... more

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Don’t let OBAMA run our churches too! Speak out with Dallin H. Oaks -

There are forces in America that want to make it mandatory for U.S. churches to hire GAYS. Eric Holder, U.S. Attorney General, is already in communication with groups that support this attack on our U.S. Constitutional right to practice our religion without government interference.

Included in the groups are the Anti-Defamation League, the American Jewish Committee, B'nai B'rith International, Central Conference of American Rabbis, Hadassah, Jewish Council for Public Affairs, National Council of Jewish Women, Na'amat USA, Rabbinical Assembly, Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism and Women of Reform Judaism.
http://www.rense.com/general87/jewishg.htm

I do not know the status of the bill proposed May 2009 in England that would demand their churches hire gays. Check out the story here: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/religion/5357247/Law-will-force-churches-to-employ-gay-staff.html

Elder Oaks served as a justice on the Utah Supreme Court, was a professor at the University of Chicago Law School and Brigham Young University’s J. Reuben Clark Law School, and clerked for Chief Justice Earl Warren of the United States Supreme Court. These are comments made in a religious setting on Oct 13, 2009.
http://newsroom.lds.org/ldsnewsroom/eng/news-releases-stories/religious-freedom

Yogyakarta Principles: “PRINCIPLE 21. THE RIGHT TO FREEDOM OF THOUGHT, CONSCIENCE AND RELIGION. Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity. These rights may not be invoked by the State to justify laws, policies or practices which deny equal protection of the law, or discriminate, on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.”

“The so-called Yogyakarta Principles implicitly calls for governments to invade religion and override religious doctrines or practices. This imposition contradicts the very purpose of my church which is to become morally clean, pure, and undefiled from the world.” – Reid BaerThere are forces in America that want to make it mandatory for U.S. churches to hire... more