Covering all the latest news and controversy in the LGBTQI community.
Please we need all members we can get. Be part of the new "civil rights movement".Covering all the latest news and controversy in the LGBTQI community.
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Former President Bill Clinton has come out in support of same-sex marriage.
After speaking at the Campus Progress National Conference in Washington, DC, on July 8, the former president was asked if he supported same-sex marriage. Clinton, in a departure from past statements, replied in the affirmative.
Clinton opposed same-sex marriage during his presidency, and in 1996, he signed the Defense of Marriage Act, which limited federal recognition of marriage to one man and one woman. In May of this year, Clinton told a crowd at Toronto's Convention Centre that his position on same-sex marriage was "evolving."
Apparently, Clinton's thinking has now further evolved. Asked if he would commit his support for same-sex marriage, Clinton responded, "I'm basically in support."
This spring, same-sex marriage was legalized in Iowa, Vermont, Connecticut, Maine and New Hampshire. In his most recent remarks on the subject, Clinton said, "I think all these states that do it should do it." The former president, however, added that he does not believe that same-sex marriage is "a federal question."
Asked if he personally supported same-sex marriage, Clinton replied, "Yeah." "I personally support people doing what they want to do," Clinton said. "I think it's wrong for someone to stop someone else from doing that [same-sex marriage]."Former President Bill Clinton has come out in support of same-sex marriage.
After... more
OK, so you voted for Obama, and you are a big LGBT rights supporter, and you are starting to despair because he has yet to push for the repeal of either DOMA or the Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy. And to make matters worse, you've heard that his Department of Justice filed a brief in a case challenging the constitutionality of DOMA in which it argued that the law is clearly constitutional.
The Administration has been hit hard, and rightfully so, on all of these points by LGBT leaders and by the gay blogosphere.
But I, for one, do not want to completely lose the sense of optimism that I felt just a few months ago when Obama replaced what was without a doubt the worst and most incompetent administration since that of Herbert Hoover's. I want to find reasons to still believe that the Obama Administration will do the right thing for LGBT people, and do it relatively soon. Below are four "signs of hope" (and perhaps you can think of more). Please understand that I am not suggesting that these small steps justify the Administration's refusal so far to push for the repeal of DOMA and of the military's blatantly discriminatory policy. All I am saying is that these are silver linings of sorts which suggest that perhaps better things are on the way when it comes to how the Administration will handle some of the most important civil rights issues of our time.
1. The Administration has decided not to appeal a successful discrimination lawsuit brought by a transgendered person who was denied a position with the library of congress.
This is an important case because the trial judge ruled that the plaintiff, as a transgendered individual, is protected by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the nation's most important employment antidiscrimination law. You can be sure that the Bush Administration would have appealed this ruling By refusing to appeal, the Administration (at least implicitly) is agreeing that transgendered individuals are protected by Title VII, a point that will no doubt be used by future litigants. By deciding not to appeal, the Administration is also sending the message that government agencies should not discriminate on the basis of gender identity. This is consistent with reports that the Administration is in the process of quietly drafting workplace guidelines prohibiting discrimination by agencies of the federal government.
2. The Administration has decided that the 2010 census will count same-sex couples who are married.
It will not surprise you to learn that the Bush Administration took the position that DOMA prohibited the federal government from even counting how many same-sex couples are married under either the laws of foreign countries or of those states that recognize gay marriages. The Obama Administration has reversed that decision, which will help to render visible the thousands of same-sex couples across the country whose marriages have been recognized by at least one jurisdiction.
3. The Administration has proposed eliminating the regulation that excludes HIV + immigrants.
There used to be a time when having a same-sex sexual orientation was a sufficient ground to deny an immigrant the right to enter or stay in the United States. That law was changed in 1990. But a few years before that, during the dark days of the Reagan Administration, the federal government adopted a regulation requiring that those who want to emigrate to the U.S. (or immigrants already here who want to stay) have to be tested for HIV, with their petitions denied if they test positive. Since HIV is not transmitted casually, there was never a public health justification for the HIV immigration ban. It is therefore heartening that Obama's Department of Health and Human Services has started the public comment process that should lead to the elimination of this unnecessary and discriminatory regulation.
4. The Administration has appointed several open LGBT people for relatively high positions
including John Berry (Director of PersoOK, so you voted for Obama, and you are a big LGBT rights supporter, and you are... more
President Barack Obama said over the weekend that he would like to tackle the military's Don't Ask Don't Tell policy "sooner rather than later." But in an interview with CNN, he also argued that the White House was powerless in seeking such a reversal, forced to wait for the legislative branch to act first. And, in terminology likely to anger the gay rights community, the president called for a "change" rather than "repeal" of the ban on openly gay men and women serving in the armed forces.
In the interview, CNN's Anderson Cooper pressed Obama as to why his administration had not moved on a key promise it made to the gay rights community -- that it would overturn the "Don't Ask Don't Tell" policy crafted during the Clinton years.
"Look," the president replied, "I've had conversations with [Defense Secretary] Bob Gates as well as Admiral [Mike] Mullen about the fact that I want to see this law change. I also want to make sure that we are not simply ignoring a congressional law. If Congress passes a law that is constitutionally valid, then it's not appropriate for the Executive Branch simply to say we will not enforce a law. It is our duty to enforce laws.
"But look, the bottom line is, I want to see this changed," Obama added, "and we've already contacted congressional allies. I want to make sure that it's changed in a way that ultimately works well for our military and for the outstanding gay and lesbian soldiers that are both currently enlisted or would like to enlist."
"Do you personally have a timetable in your mind of when you would like to see [the law] changed?" Cooper interjected.
"I'd like to see it done sooner rather than later," Obama replied. "And we've got a process to not only work it through Congress, but also to make sure that the Pentagon has thought through all the ramifications of how this would be most effective."President Barack Obama said over the weekend that he would like to tackle the... more
More than half of same-sex couples living together in Minnesota in 2007 regarded themselves as married, up from only one-third in 2000, according to an unofficial U.S. Census Bureau estimate.
According to the estimates — a product of a research paper released earlier this year — there were 13,084 same-sex couples living together in the state in 2007, making up about 1.1 percent of all couple households in Minnesota.
About 52 percent of the same-sex couple households in the state, or about 6,750, told the Census Bureau they were married.
Nationwide, about 1.2 percent of all couple households are same-sex partners, according to a 2007 Census Bureau survey. That's about 754,000 same-sex couples living together. Of those, about 45 percent, or about 341,000, consider themselves married.
Researchers and gay rights advocates agree that the number of same-sex couples who told the census they were married far exceed those who could have been actually legally wed.
At the time of the 2007 survey, Massachusetts was the only state that allowed same-sex marriages, and it had only issued about 11,000 marriage licenses to same-sex couples by then.More than half of same-sex couples living together in Minnesota in 2007 regarded... more
court ruled Thursday to decriminalize homosexuality in the Indian capital, a groundbreaking decision that could bring more freedom to gays in this deeply conservative country.
The Delhi High Court ruled that treating consensual gay sex as a crime is a violation of fundamental rights protected by India's constitution. The ruling, the first of its kind in India, applies only in New Delhi.court ruled Thursday to decriminalize homosexuality in the Indian capital, a... more
On Sunday (06-28-09) was the 36th Annual San Francisco LGBT Pride Parade.
The gay community gathered on a joyful march along Market Street in the spirit of its celebration theme: "In order to form a more perfect union…"
Mayor Gavin Newson e other local authorities participated on this event to show their support and commitment to preserve everyone's civil rights.
This event that usually attracts a joyful crowd this year seemed to have motivated everyone to come out. It felt like the rainbow was attracting everyone to show their support to marriage and family equality.
Prop. 8 gave the gay community a sense of union that is beyond the aspect of civil union. It made us realize that denying lawful recognition to longtime commitment among same gender couples affects the lives of their children as well.
The thought that children of same sex gender grew up by under the social stigma of their illegitimacy status, it's enough reason to recognize that Prop. 8 is extremely unfair!
Meanwhile, gays everywhere shall stand up and keep on shouting out loud: "homophobia got to go!"On Sunday (06-28-09) was the 36th Annual San Francisco LGBT Pride Parade.
The gay... more
President Obama defended his policies on gay rights on Monday, telling an audience of gay men and lesbians that he remained committed to overturning the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” rule and that he expected to be judged “not by promises I’ve made but by the promises that my administration keeps.”
Mr. Obama made his remarks at a reception in the East Room of the White House to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall Rebellion, the 1969 uprising that gave rise to the modern gay rights movement. Joined by his wife, Michelle, the president directly addressed criticism from gay and lesbian leaders that he had not been a forceful advocate for them.
“I know that many in this room don’t believe progress has come fast enough, and I understand that,” Mr. Obama said. “It’s not for me to tell you to be patient any more than it was for others to counsel patience to African-Americans who were petitioning for equal rights a half-century ago.
“We’ve been in office six months now. I suspect that by the time this administration is over, I think you guys will have pretty good feelings about the Obama administration.”
Many lesbians and gay men supported Mr. Obama’s election, but their leaders have grown increasingly impatient and critical of him as president.President Obama defended his policies on gay rights on Monday, telling an audience of... more
President Barack Obama, under fire from the gay-rights community over slow action on its priorities, promised to deliver by the time he leaves office.
The president gave no new details about how he would advance these issues, but he made passionate remarks saluting the pioneers of the gay-rights movement and expressed solidarity with those working for equal rights.
"Welcome to your White House," the president said at a reception Monday to mark the 40th anniversary of the birth of the modern gay-rights movement. His remarks were greeted warmly by a cheering crowd of some 250 gay and lesbian activists and supporters.
As a presidential candidate, Mr. Obama vowed to overturn the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy, which prohibits openly gay men and women from serving, and to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act, which allows states to ignore same-sex marriages performed in other states and bars the federal government from granting marriage benefits to people in same-sex unions.
The Obama administration has said it will take congressional action to address both issues. But, aware of both the complex politics involved and its full agenda, the White House has done little so far to prod lawmakers along.
Many in the gay-rights community were also angered by the tone of an administration legal brief defending the Defense of Marriage Act.
Earlier this month, Mr. Obama offered a small step, promising to extend certain benefits available to same-sex partners of federal workers. But critics dismissed the move as amounting to little in practice.
The president appeared mindful of these criticisms when he stepped to the front of the East Room on Monday.
"It's not for me to tell you to be patient," he said, comparing the gay activists' struggle to that of African-Americans in the civil rights movement. "I expect and hope to be judged not by words...but by the promises that my administration keeps."
He added that by the time his presidency is over, "I think you guys will have pretty good feelings about the Obama administration."
Mr. Obama said he had asked the secretary of defense and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to develop a plan to repeal the "don't ask, don't tell" policy. He reiterated his pledge to try to reverse the Defense of Marriage Act and said he would work for legislation aimed at preventing workplace discrimination, extending the federal hate-crime law to acts against gays and lesbians, and giving domestic partners of federal workers health and other benefits.
And he said he was committed to repealing rules that prohibit people with HIV from traveling into the U.S.
Joe Solomonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign, a leading gay rights group, was at the event and said afterward that he appreciated the president's strong words. But he added: "It is the actions to advance equality -- not simply the words -- that will be the true marker by which this White House will be judged."President Barack Obama, under fire from the gay-rights community over slow action on... more
LIKE all students caught up in the civil rights and antiwar movements of the 1960s, I was riveted by the violent confrontations between the police and protestors in Selma, 1965, and Chicago, 1968. But I never heard about the several days of riots that rocked Greenwich Village after the police raided a gay bar called the Stonewall Inn in the wee hours of June 28, 1969 — 40 years ago today.
Then again, I didn’t know a single person, student or teacher, male or female, in my entire Ivy League university who was openly identified as gay. And though my friends and I were obsessed with every iteration of the era’s political tumult, we somehow missed the Stonewall story. Not hard to do, really. The Times — which would not even permit the use of the word gay until 1987 — covered the riots in tiny, bowdlerized articles, one of them but three paragraphs long, buried successively on pages 33, 22 and 19.
But if we had read them, would we have cared? It was typical of my generation, like others before and after, that the issue of gay civil rights wasn’t on our radar screen. Not least because gay people, fearful of harassment, violence and arrest, were often forced into the shadows. As David Carter writes in his book “Stonewall,” at the end of the 1960s homosexual sex was still illegal in every state but Illinois. It was a crime punishable by castration in seven states. No laws — federal, state or local — protected gay people from being denied jobs or housing. If a homosexual character appeared in a movie, his life ended with either murder or suicide.
The younger gay men — and scattered women — who acted up at the Stonewall on those early summer nights in 1969 had little in common with their contemporaries in the front-page political movements of the time. They often lived on the streets, having been thrown out of their blue-collar homes by their families before they finished high school. They migrated to the Village because they’d heard it was one American neighborhood where it was safe to be who they were.
Stonewall “wasn’t a 1960s student riot,” wrote one of them, Thomas Lanigan-Schmidt, in a poignant handwritten flier on display at the New York Public Library in the exhibition “1969: The Year of Gay Liberation.” They had “no nice dorms for sleeping,” “no school cafeteria for certain food” and “no affluent parents” to send checks. They had no powerful allies of any kind, no rights, no future. But they were brave. They risked their necks to prove, as Lanigan-Schmidt put it, that “the mystery of history” could happen “in the least likely of places.”
After the gay liberation movement was born at Stonewall, this strand of history advanced haltingly until the 1980s. It took AIDS and the new wave of gay activism it engendered to fully awaken many, including me, to the gay people all around them. But that tardy and still embryonic national awareness did not save the lives of those whose abridged rights made them even more vulnerable during a rampaging plague.
On Monday, President Obama will commemorate Stonewall with an East Room reception for gay leaders. Some of the invitees have been fiercely critical of what they see as his failure, thus far, to redeem his promise to be a “fierce advocate” for their still unfulfilled cause. The rancor increased this month, after the Department of Justice filed a brief defending the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), the most ignominious civil rights betrayal under the last Democratic president, Bill Clinton.
The Obama White House has said that the Justice Department action was merely a bureaucratic speed bump on the way to repealing DOMA — which hardly mitigates the brief’s denigration of same-sex marriage, now legal in six states after many hard-fought battles. The White House has also asserted that its Stonewall ceremony was “long planned” — even though it sure looks like damage control. News of the event trickled out publicly only last Monday, after dozens of aggrieved, heavy-hitting gay donors droppLIKE all students caught up in the civil rights and antiwar movements of the 1960s, I... more
For 15 minutes in the Oval Office the other day, one of President Obama’s top campaign lieutenants, Steve Hildebrand, told the president about the “hurt, anxiety and anger” that he and other gay supporters felt over the slow pace of the White House’s engagement with gay issues.
But on Monday, 250 gay leaders are to join Mr. Obama in the East Room to commemorate publicly the 40th anniversary of the birth of the modern gay rights movement: a police raid on the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in New York. By contrast, the first time gay leaders were invited to the White House, in March 1977, they met a midlevel aide on a Saturday when the press and President Jimmy Carter were nowhere in sight.
The conflicting signals from the White House about its commitment to gay issues reflect a broader paradox: even as cultural acceptance of homosexuality increases across the country, the politics of gay rights remains full of crosscurrents.
It is reflected in the surge of gay men and lesbians on television and in public office, and in polls measuring a steady rise in support for gay rights measures. Despite approval in California of a ballot measure banning same-sex marriage, it has been authorized in six states.
Yet if the culture is moving on, national politics is not, or at least not as rapidly. Mr. Obama has yet to fulfill a campaign promise to repeal the policy barring openly gay people from serving in the military. The prospects that Congress will ever send him a bill overturning the Defense of Marriage Act, which defines marriage as between a man and a woman, appear dim. An effort to extend hate-crime legislation to include gay victims has produced a bitter backlash in some quarters: Senator Jim DeMint, Republican of South Carolina, sent a letter to clerics in his state arguing that it would be destructive to “faith, families and freedom.”For 15 minutes in the Oval Office the other day, one of President Obama’s top... more
President Barack Obama promised gay and lesbian voters he would repeal a law banning their open service in the military, would do away with a federal marriage law and would champion their causes from the White House. In his first five months, he's taken incremental steps that have little real effect and left some people feeling betrayed.President Barack Obama promised gay and lesbian voters he would repeal a law banning... more
Gay equality is still a long way from reality.
June 26th will mark the 40th anniversary off the Stonewall riots in New York initiating the start of equality for the gay community. Since that historic event, this perspective is about justice or the lack thereof concerning equal rights for gay people.Gay equality is still a long way from reality.
June 26th will mark the 40th... more
On Wednesday morning, June 3, at 10 a.m. the Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing on the Uniting American Families Act (UAFA). (If you are in town, the hearing is in Room 226 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building.) C-Span does not have Wednesday's television schedule up yet, but the Committee website offers a webcast of the hearing.
UAFA would amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to allow a citizen to sponsor a same sex partner for citizenship.
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This is great news! Hopefully this is not ignored.On Wednesday morning, June 3, at 10 a.m. the Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a... more
New Hampshire's governor has signed legislation making the state the sixth to allow gay marriage.
Gov. John Lynch was surrounded by cheering supporters of the move as he signed the three bills about an hour after the key vote on the legislation in the House.
The law will take effect in January, exactly two years after the state legalized civil unions. New Hampshire joins Massachusetts, Connecticut, Maine, Vermont and Iowa in recognizing same-sex marriages, though opponents hope to overturn Maine's law with a public vote.
Lynch demanded — and got — language protecting the rights of religious opponents of gay marriage before signing the bills.
It also clarified that church-related organizations that serve charitable or educational purposes are exempt from having to provide insurance and other benefits to same sex spouses of employees. The earlier version said "charitable and educational" instead of "charitable or educational."
The House rejected the language Lynch suggested two weeks ago by two votes. Wednesday's vote was on a revised bill negotiated with the Senate.
The vote was supporters' last chance this year in New Hampshire.New Hampshire's governor has signed legislation making the state the sixth to allow... more
California's highest court on Tuesday upheld the state's gay-marriage ban but allowed existing same-sex marriages to stand.
The California Supreme Court handed down its decision in a series of lawsuits seeking to overturn November's Proposition 8. Gay-rights advocates maintain the ballot measure so dramatically revised the state constitution's equal protection clause that it needed the Legislature's approval before it could be put to voters.
The seven-member court upheld the initiative as a constitutional expression of the electorate's will, but also decided to sustain the marriages of an estimated 18,000 gay couples who wed before the measure passed with 52 percent of the vote.California's highest court on Tuesday upheld the state's gay-marriage ban but allowed... more
Elton John speaks during his solo concert benefiting the Matthew Shepard Foundation in Laramie, Wyoming on April 3, '09 about Matthew & the work Mathew's Mother, Judy, has been doing for 10 years since the murder of her Son.
Over $500,000 was raised for the Matthew Shepard foundation with this ONE event.
Get involved! Go to www.matthewshepard.org Erase hateElton John speaks during his solo concert benefiting the Matthew Shepard Foundation in... more
30 years after the tragedy, remembering Harvey Milk legacy, in Castro, San Francisco, November 2008. Produced and edited by Edana Contreras; Cinematography by Britta Vineyard.30 years after the tragedy, remembering Harvey Milk legacy, in Castro, San Francisco,... more
From the page: "Just so happens that Huckabee was on. His special guest was Mat Staver from Liberty Counsel. The two of them were preoccupied with details of President Obama's new (quote) 'Very left, very radical gay and lesbian agenda'..." (more)From the page: "Just so happens that Huckabee was on. His special guest was Mat Staver... more
