Politics: February 2010
Translating Dan Parker's statement on Baron Hill
Filed by Bil Browning | February 27, 2010 | 2:30 PM |Indiana Democratic Party chair Dan Parker's staff put out this press release today. I've translated it below if you're having difficulty parsing it... Indiana Democratic Party Chair Dan Parker on Baron Hill's Decision to Seek Re-Election Applauds dedication and public...Read More
Translating Dan Parker's statement on Baron Hill
Filed by Bil Browning | February 27, 2010 | 2:30 PM |Indiana Democratic Party chair Dan Parker's staff put out this press release today. I've translated it below if you're having difficulty parsing it... Indiana Democratic Party Chair Dan Parker on Baron Hill's Decision to Seek Re-Election Applauds dedication and public...Read More
The ex-gay bar isn't nice to its old friends
Filed by Alex Blaze | February 26, 2010 | 12:00 PM |I read this article yesterday morning, but I'm still shocked that London's oldest gay bar got slapped with a fine for discriminating against gay people. The bar was bought up by a chain (always the beginning of trouble) and then...Read More
President Obama is back! Republicans looked sick at Health Care Reform Summit
Filed by Joe Mirabella | February 26, 2010 | 11:00 AM |I fell in love with President Obama again today during the Health Care Summit. He stood out above the right vs. left politics that has frozen health care reform in the legislature. By the end of the summit the Republicans...Read More
Uganda Is Only the Beginning
Filed by Patricia Nell Warren | February 25, 2010 | 6:00 PM |As Uganda rumbles toward passage of its infamous anti-gay bill with its death penalty, half a million Americans have signed petitions protesting the law. But most Americans are still missing the point about what's going on in Africa. They remain...Read More
Weiner Is a Winner for Telling It like It Is
Filed by Keri Renault | February 25, 2010 | 4:00 PM |Did you catch Rachel Maddow Wednesday? You won't need your V-8 after this clip. Maddow played a video excerpt from C-SPAN. Business as usual for Capital Hill Congress until irate New York congressman Anthony Weiner took to the podium with...Read More
Quiet? Yes. Dignity? No.
Filed by Terrance Heath | February 25, 2010 | 12:00 PM |OK. I wasn’t going to say anything else about the John Edwards mess. It’s gotten sordid past the point of rubbernecking, even. I just want to look away. But after reading this piece about the “quiet dignity of Rielle Hunter,”...Read More
Hilarious: The Mr. Evan Bayh Song
Filed by Bil Browning | February 25, 2010 | 9:30 AM |Presented without knowing who made the video, of course. I'd like to add my thanks for Bayh's decision since it'll more than likely cost us a Senate, House, and State House seat - throwing the entire state under Republican control....Read More
Hilarious: The Mr. Evan Bayh Song
Filed by Bil Browning | February 25, 2010 | 9:30 AM |Presented without knowing who made the video, of course. I'd like to add my thanks for Bayh's decision since it'll more than likely cost us a Senate, House, and State House seat - throwing the entire state under Republican control....Read More
IN marriage amendment dies in committee
Filed by Bil Browning | February 24, 2010 | 7:00 PM |Now that the Indiana legislature is wrapping up their business for the year, Indiana Equality is claiming victory in this years' marriage amendment skirmish. From an e-blast: Senate Joint Resolution 13, the Marriage Discrimination Amendment, has died in the Indiana...Read More
Ads that don't work: French smoking ad and the Tim Tebow anti-choice ad revisited
Filed by Alex Blaze | February 24, 2010 | 6:00 PM |Just because an ad says something doesn't mean that it's message is going to get through. Take this French ad that's supposed to be anti-smoking, even though all I see at first glance is a hot guy getting some action,...Read More
LGBT health care provisions hanging even more tenuously now
Filed by Alex Blaze | February 24, 2010 | 3:00 PM |With all the hub-bub in the straight media this week over Obama's health care proposal cutting the public option (I guess the White House isn't even going to pretend to support a popular cost-cutting measure anymore if it displeases the...Read More
Maryland Attorney General Recognizes Same-Sex Marriage
Filed by Keri Renault | February 24, 2010 | 2:00 PM |Attorney General Doug Gansler has released a long-awaited opinion in favor of recognizing out-of-state, same-sex marriages in Maryland. Senator Rich Madeleno (D-Montgomery) requested the Attorney General's opinion in May of 2009. The opinion concludes the State of Maryland may recognize...Read More
In CPAC's Conservative Circus, Are Gays The High-Wire Act?
Filed by David Badash | February 24, 2010 | 11:00 AM |Last week was the perfect storm of Conservative carnival cacophony. "Ladies and Gentlemen, Children of All Ages...." should have been the rallying cry, starting on Valentine's Day, when homophobe Tucker Carlson did a spot with Clayton Morris of "Fox And...Read More
DADT, isolation, and sadness
Filed by Guest Blogger | February 23, 2010 | 7:00 PM |Editors' note: Gina King comes from a family with a strong tradition of military service is a veteran of the US Navy. She identifies as intersexed and trans identified. Currently she works within the military industrial complex as a vital...Read More
Indiana should be polled on the ENDA
Filed by Alex Blaze | February 23, 2010 | 6:00 PM |Dear media outlets considering polling in Indiana, Please consider asking about the ENDA, or, more generally, banning discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. I'm sure some of you are finally interested in Indiana again, interested enough to fund...Read More
Jesse's Journal: Gay Resistance, the Lessons of History
Filed by Jesse Monteagudo | February 23, 2010 | 5:00 PM |Resistance takes many forms. For some of us, it means staging a demonstration or starting a political action group. For others, it means being defiantly different in a society that hates difference. As John Rechy and Charley Shively noted more...Read More
Get hitched or get ditched!
Filed by Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore | February 23, 2010 | 4:30 PM |The Skinny in Edinburgh asked me to write a short piece on marriage (no, my dear, you're not the only one), and here's how it starts: My mother, a straight white woman in her early sixties, recently moved to a...Read More
Uganda's Porn Peddling Pastor Ssempa Responds to Critics
Filed by Waymon Hudson | February 23, 2010 | 12:00 PM |Pastor Martin Ssempa, one of the biggest proponents of Uganda's "Kill the Gays" Bill and a favorite contact for American Evangelicals like Rick Warren, has apparently been googling his name and doesn't like what he's been reading. After numerous scatological...Read More
Canada is still prosecuting people under its sodomy law
Filed by Alex Blaze | February 23, 2010 | 11:00 AM |A former chaplain's been charged with buggery, the equivalent of sodomy, in Canada: Now the retired chaplain faces a basket of charges, including sexual assault. Bazin was also charged with buggery, a now-abolished law, a fact that has alarmed gay...Read More
Brad Ellsworth: A Disaster Waiting to Happen
Filed by Bil Browning | February 23, 2010 | 10:00 AM |Rep. Brad Ellsworth announced on Friday he would seek the Senate seat being vacated by Sen. Evan Bayh. I touched on Ellsworth's history of throwing LGBT people under the bus in a post last week for Huffington Post. Today I...Read More
Fighting against same-sex marriage just isn't the ticket to popularity it once was
Filed by Alex Blaze | February 22, 2010 | 5:00 PM |It's not surprising that marriage ranked lower than it normally does at this year's CPAC straw poll. It's been banned in the constitutions of a majority of states and there aren't any ballot initiatives on it coming up, while the...Read More
Get To DC on 3/16 to Lobby for ENDA: Scholarships Available
Filed by Dr. Jillian T. Weiss | February 22, 2010 | 11:00 AM |The long-stalled Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) is going to roll out shortly. Exactly when, and with what changes are uncertain. But it's coming, and Representative Frank has promised a vote by the end of March. If you value the need...Read More
Get To DC on 3/16 to Lobby for ENDA: Scholarships Available
Filed by Dr. Jillian T. Weiss | February 22, 2010 | 11:00 AM |The long-stalled Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) is going to roll out shortly. Exactly when, and with what changes are uncertain. But it's coming, and Representative Frank has promised a vote by the end of March. If you value the need...Read More
Photo: G. Harrold Carswell - 1st Gay/Bi Supreme Court Nominee
Filed by Gloria Brame, Ph.D. | February 21, 2010 | 11:30 AM |Fascinating and collectible relic of gay history, this vintage photo of Judge Harrold Carswell, selling on eBay right now. Had to wiki him to find out why the vendor listed "gay interest" in the title, and very glad I did....Read More
Ad banned for being offensive
Filed by Alex Blaze | February 19, 2010 | 12:00 PM |To the right is for a New Zealand polling website and went up in Wellington. It got pulled after someone complained that it was homophobic: "Considering that Cuba Street is the city's apparent 'arts and bohemian' precinct, and that Wellington...Read More
On Our Wacky Weather, Or, Did The Olympic Torch Stop In Oklahoma?
Filed by Don Davis | February 19, 2010 | 10:00 AM |As most of you are well aware, last week was a snow week in Washington, DC, and the odds are pretty good that there's something like that going on for you as well. Our good friends in the conservative community...Read More
Brad Ellsworth's LGBT record causes problems on the road to the Senate
Filed by Bil Browning | February 18, 2010 | 6:00 PM |I wrote a piece for the Huffington Post this morning about the chase to win Indiana Senator Bayh's place on the ballot in the upcoming election. Hoosier Representative Brad Ellsworth is the top contender currently, but Ellsworth has an incredibly...Read More
Brad Ellsworth's LGBT record causes problems on the road to the Senate
Filed by Bil Browning | February 18, 2010 | 6:00 PM |I wrote a piece for the Huffington Post this morning about the chase to win Indiana Senator Bayh's place on the ballot in the upcoming election. Hoosier Representative Brad Ellsworth is the top contender currently, but Ellsworth has an incredibly...Read More
Uganda Be Kidding Me: More Gay Porn from Pastor Ssempa & Dangerous Legal Loopholes
Filed by Waymon Hudson | February 18, 2010 | 5:00 PM |Ugandan Pastor, and Rick Warren's right hand man, Martin Ssempa really hates gay people since he's one of the unapologetic driving forces behind the "Kill the Gays" bill. But he sure seems to love gay porn. I wrote about his...Read More
Branding Irons and Striking Now
Filed by Antonia D'orsay | February 18, 2010 | 4:00 PM |Way back in the murky days of history, Congress and the President put in place a rule for those who serve in the military that was seen as a compromise at the time. They called it "Don't ask them, and...Read More
Catholic Charities pull out of DC because of same-sex marriage
Filed by Alex Blaze | February 18, 2010 | 2:00 PM |It doesn't count as an empty threat if they pull the trigger: The Catholic Archdiocese of Washington has ended its 80-year-old foster-care program in the District rather than license same-sex couples, the first fallout from a bitter debate over the...Read More
Catholic Charities pull out of DC because of same-sex marriage
Filed by Alex Blaze | February 18, 2010 | 2:00 PM |It doesn't count as an empty threat if they pull the trigger: The Catholic Archdiocese of Washington has ended its 80-year-old foster-care program in the District rather than license same-sex couples, the first fallout from a bitter debate over the...Read More
Trans Bathroom Scare Smear used against Gay Gainesville, FL Candidate
Filed by Waymon Hudson | February 18, 2010 | 12:00 PM |Our readers may remember last year's battle in Gainesville, Florida where anti-LGBT forces came together to try to repeal Gainesville's Human Rights Ordinance, which included sexual orientation and gender identity & expression. The fierce battle at the ballot box included...Read More
The question of issue prioritization
Filed by Adam Bink | February 17, 2010 | 7:00 PM |I like to have a lot of discussions around political strategy with friends, both politically-oriented folks as well as more detached friends. I was e-mailing with one fairly politically-oriented friend of mine back and forth through the day yesterday about...Read More
Senate Rule V: Suspension of the Filibuster Rule Only Takes 51
Filed by Dr. Jillian T. Weiss | February 17, 2010 | 5:00 PM |The momentum to amend the filibuster to make it less susceptible to abuse is growing and growing. The cause has now been taken up by more non-partisan media outlets, includingUSA Today, CBS Evening News, That's good for the LGBT agenda,...Read More
Palm Center's Nathaniel Frank: DADT repeal in 'grave peril'; SLDN endorses the blog swarm
Filed by Pam Spaulding | February 17, 2010 | 4:00 PM |Whoa, two bits of big news. An essay at Huff Post by Nathaniel Frank (the author of, Unfriendly Fire: How the Gay Ban Undermines the Military and Weakens America) is a serious endorsement of yesterday's blog swarm, as is the...Read More
Fear
Filed by Joe Mirabella | February 17, 2010 | 3:00 PM |I am afraid that the LGBT community is going to give up. I'm afraid that we are going to make excuses like, "Oh, it's an election year. We're not going to get what we want this year." I'm afraid that...Read More
Civil unions can be about choice
Filed by Alex Blaze | February 17, 2010 | 2:00 PM |An Austrian straight couple wants to get a civil union, which just started in that country in January: A heterosexual couple in Austria is fighting for the right to enter into a registered civil partnership - introduced for homosexual couples...Read More
Rep. Nancy 'Anal Sex in Schools' Elliott: Liar, Liar...
Filed by Waymon Hudson | February 17, 2010 | 10:30 AM |New Hampshire Representative Nancy Elliott became youtube/Sally Kern famous last week when she gave a detailed rant on gay male sex and made the ridiculous claim that a fifth grade class had been instructed to draw two men having anal...Read More
HRC deflects again - blames Congress, not President, for DADT quagmire
Filed by Guest Blogger | February 16, 2010 | 3:00 PM |Editors' Note: Guest blogger John Aravosis is the founder and publisher of AMERICAblog and AMERICAblog Gay. John is the main organizer of today's blogswarm urging HRC to take a firm stand with the President about repealing DADT this year. It's...Read More
HRC deflects again - blames Congress, not President, for DADT quagmire
Filed by Guest Blogger | February 16, 2010 | 3:00 PM |Editors' Note: Guest blogger John Aravosis is the founder and publisher of AMERICAblog and AMERICAblog Gay. John is the main organizer of today's blogswarm urging HRC to take a firm stand with the President about repealing DADT this year. It's...Read More
New Video Shows Plight of LGBT Binational Families
Filed by Steve Ralls | February 15, 2010 | 7:00 PM |On January 28, 2009, there was a knock on Shirley Tan's door. The mother of two, originally from The Philippines, was starting her morning as usual. She was getting her 12-year-old twin sons ready for school, and preparing to see...Read More
New Video Shows Plight of LGBT Binational Families
Filed by Steve Ralls | February 15, 2010 | 7:00 PM |On January 28, 2009, there was a knock on Shirley Tan's door. The mother of two, originally from The Philippines, was starting her morning as usual. She was getting her 12-year-old twin sons ready for school, and preparing to see...Read More
Standing on the Side of Love in Uganda
Filed by Cathy Renna | February 15, 2010 | 4:00 PM |We have been working with some of the bravest souls I have encountered this past week, as over 200 LGBT and allied people (primarily youth) gathered in Kampala, Uganda, to stand in solidarity and express their faith and love in...Read More
What does Evan Bayh's retirement mean for LGBT rights?
Filed by Jerame Davis | February 15, 2010 | 2:00 PM |[UPDATE: I made a few edits for clarity and added the statement made by Senator Bayh today in Indianapolis. Statement is after the jump.] Evan Bayh, proving he's a bigger douchebag than anyone expected, will announce today that he is...Read More
What does Evan Bayh's retirement mean for LGBT rights?
Filed by Jerame Davis | February 15, 2010 | 2:00 PM |[UPDATE: I made a few edits for clarity and added the statement made by Senator Bayh today in Indianapolis. Statement is after the jump.] Evan Bayh, proving he's a bigger douchebag than anyone expected, will announce today that he is...Read More
UK man trying to get buggery conviction removed from record
Filed by Alex Blaze | February 15, 2010 | 1:00 PM |A 70-year-old man in the UK is trying to get his 1959 conviction for sodomy removed from his record. He found out that that was on his record a few years ago and thinks it was responsible for his being...Read More
Hiding is bad for the military's mental health
Filed by Guest Blogger | February 15, 2010 | 10:30 AM |Editors' Note: Guest blogger Mary Barber, MD, is a psychiatrist and member of the LGBT committee of the Group for Advancement of Psychiatry. Imagine one day at work that you are being evacuated because of a terrorist attack. However getting...Read More
Senate "Monkey Wrench" Rule Repeal Only Needs 51 Votes
Filed by Dr. Jillian T. Weiss | February 15, 2010 | 9:30 AM |In my last post, I reviewed two court cases bearing on the Senate filibuster rule. These cases, U.S. v. Ballin and Skaggs v. Carle, strongly suggest that the Senate "monkey wrench" rule can be broken by a simple majority vote...Read More
Freedom to Marry Week: Bringing It Home
Filed by Guest Blogger | February 14, 2010 | 4:00 PM |Editors' Note: Guest blogger Marc Solomon is the marriage director of Equality California, where he focuses on overturning Prop 8 and restore the freedom to marry in the state. Before joining EQCA, Marc led the successful fight to protect marriage...Read More
We, The Corporation
Filed by Kate Clinton | February 13, 2010 | 5:00 PM |When the Supremes ruled 5-4 in Citizens United v. The Federal Election Commission - AKA Capitalism v. Democracy - I got that old familiar cement block on sternum feeling of despair that I haven't had since Bush v. Gore, another...Read More
Vintage Photo: Women at Work
Filed by Gloria Brame, Ph.D. | February 13, 2010 | 10:00 AM |Fabulous old photo of three non-nonsense gals working on an engine in Los Angeles. Not sure when it was taken but guessing before or during World War II. Print it, frame it, and give it to the female mechanic in...Read More
Supermajority Rules: "Majority" Leader Harry Reid Is To Blame For Republicans Holding LGBT Issues Hostage
Filed by Dr. Jillian T. Weiss | February 12, 2010 | 6:00 PM |The Republicans have been bad. Very, very bad. And nowhere badder than in the United States Senate, where Republicans and their hypocrisy have brought governance to a complete and utter standstill. Especially anything on the LGBT agenda: ENDA, domestic partner...Read More
Greetings from Maryland: Pushing Snow & Equality
Filed by Keri Renault | February 12, 2010 | 4:00 PM |Two record setting sieges are over. Another delayed. So how come the forecast is bright? Maryland may have had its fill of snow, but its LGBT advocates can't wait to push an aggressive equality agenda to the General Assembly in...Read More
What's the holdup in getting ENDA through the House?
Filed by Bil Browning | February 12, 2010 | 2:00 PM |What's the hold up on ENDA? Why hasn't it been moved to a full vote in the House of Representatives? What language was being "tweaked?" Mara Keisling, the Executive Director of the National Center for Transgender Advocacy, and I talked...Read More
Actually, "homosexual" probably isn't the new "faggot"
Filed by Alex Blaze | February 12, 2010 | 12:00 PM |Everyone's talking about this CBS poll, which shows that people are more amenable to gays than homosexuals: I saw the 57% number earlier this week and wondered if it was just an out-lier; polling I've been seeing for a while...Read More
Charter for Compassion trumps religious-right agenda
Filed by Donna Pandori | February 11, 2010 | 5:00 PM |Gary Glenn, executive director American Family Association - Michigan, was interviewed Monday by WEYI-TV Channel 25 (Flint). Mr. Glenn and mid-Michigan right-wing fundamentalist religious leaders filed lawsuit through the Ann Arbor Thomas More Law Center challenging the "constitutionality" of the...Read More
SAGE awarded $900,000 by DHHS
Filed by Alex Blaze | February 10, 2010 | 3:00 PM |SAGE, the LGBT org for the elderly, received a large grant from the government to provide elder services: Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and the Administration on Aging have awarded Services & Advocacy for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual &...Read More
Creating Change Round-Up: A Broad Approach to Achieve Broad Goals
Filed by Waymon Hudson | February 09, 2010 | 6:00 PM |By the end of the nearly week-long Creating Change Conference held by the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force in Dallas, many of us had joking begun calling it "queer bootcamp." It was a rigorous schedule of sessions, trainings, discussions,...Read More
Creating Change Round-Up: A Broad Approach to Achieve Broad Goals
Filed by Waymon Hudson | February 09, 2010 | 6:00 PM |By the end of the nearly week-long Creating Change Conference held by the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force in Dallas, many of us had joking begun calling it "queer bootcamp." It was a rigorous schedule of sessions, trainings, discussions,...Read More
Guess who's gay?
Filed by Alex Blaze | February 09, 2010 | 5:00 PM |It turns out that Vaughn Walker, the judge at the Prop 8 trial, is gay. Not that that means that his position is going to be any more biased than all judicial decisions are, but that did just add another...Read More
A Call for Inclusive Immigration Reform
Filed by Steve Ralls | February 09, 2010 | 4:00 PM |The drum beat for an immigration reform measure that includes LGBT families just got much louder. Earlier today, 60 Members of Congress - led by Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) - released a letter calling on Congressional leaders, and the White...Read More
"Don't Ask, Don't Tell" Suspended - During Gulf War
Filed by David Badash | February 09, 2010 | 3:00 PM |The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is our nation's highest ranking military officer, and the principal military adviser to the President, the National Security Council, and the Secretary of Defense. This country has long had a ban on...Read More
Sarah Palin wants YOU to point fingers and shut up
Filed by Kip Williams | February 08, 2010 | 6:00 PM |I just watched Sarah Palin's speech to Tea Party Nation on MSNBC. She is a used car saleswoman. A deceiver. And she doesn't care about people of color or queer folk, poverty or children in jail. Her message is self-serving...Read More
Traditional marriage: Good enough for King David
Filed by Bil Browning | February 08, 2010 | 3:00 PM |Indiana Family Institute policy director Ryan McCann wrote a post on their blog advocating for passage of a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage and civil unions. Correct me if I'm wrong, but does the "traditional marriage supporter" who blames...Read More
Roll Up Your Sleeves, Arizona
Filed by Antonia D'orsay | February 08, 2010 | 10:30 AM |So it's late in the day today at Creating Change, and I'm pissed off at people from Arizona. Rather intensely so. Here I've encountered a teacher from Coolidge, Alison Davidson from Saga in Tucson, Kim Pearson, who's based out of...Read More
Rep. Frank, Stop Blaming The Community
Filed by Dr. Jillian T. Weiss | February 07, 2010 | 5:30 PM |On Thursday, Representative Barney Frank gave an interview to Michelangelo Signorile on SiriusXM. Frank was alternately defensive and apoplectic. He spent the entire time blaming the LGBT community for lack of movement in Congress. He was full of rage and...Read More
Reviewing the Coakley/Brown Senate Race
Filed by R Conrad | February 07, 2010 | 2:30 PM |Jim and Bob are fast becoming some my favorite folks in Boston. Over the last year we have become better friends, bonding over the shallow lunacy of contemporary mainstream LGBT politics. Our growing friendship has been mutually sustaining as we...Read More
Reviewing the Coakley/Brown Senate Race
Filed by R Conrad | February 07, 2010 | 2:30 PM |Jim and Bob are fast becoming some my favorite folks in Boston. Over the last year we have become better friends, bonding over the shallow lunacy of contemporary mainstream LGBT politics. Our growing friendship has been mutually sustaining as we...Read More
Are We Ready to Help Gay Soldiers?
Filed by Sean Kosofsky | February 07, 2010 | 11:30 AM |All signs point to the eventual demise of the Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy, opening up the possibility for gay and lesbian servicemembers to serve openly. Remember the US Military is likely the largest single employer of LGBT people in...Read More
U.S. Reps: BSA must end anti-gay policy
Filed by Matt Comer | February 06, 2010 | 4:00 PM |This month, the Boy Scouts of America will celebrate their 100th anniversary. There's no doubt: The Scouts have done an amazing, almost immeasurable, amount of good work in our nation since their founding in 1910. Through both World Wars and...Read More
DADT and the Silence / Silencing of Queer Anti-War Voices
Filed by Yasmin Nair | February 05, 2010 | 7:00 PM |The news of a possible repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell has gay and straight liberals billing and cooing at each other like long lost pigeon lovers. If the words of military top brass are to be believed, they really,...Read More
DADT and the Silence / Silencing of Queer Anti-War Voices
Filed by Yasmin Nair | February 05, 2010 | 7:00 PM |The news of a possible repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell has gay and straight liberals billing and cooing at each other like long lost pigeon lovers. If the words of military top brass are to be believed, they really,...Read More
Support The Military! Unless They Support Gays Serving In The Military
Filed by David Badash | February 05, 2010 | 1:00 PM |It's rather ironic, if you think about it. The one politically untouchable segment of our country is the military. Presidents and Senators often say they will "defer to the military leaders on the ground" in matters large and small. President...Read More
Why was the repeal of "Don't Ask Don't Tell" excluded from the 2011 budget?
Filed by Joe Mirabella | February 05, 2010 | 11:00 AM |All things cost money, even the implementation of new rules that would repeal the outdated and completely unfair Don't Ask, Don't Tell(DADT) policy that prevents gays and lesbians from servicing openly in the military. One of the President's jobs is...Read More
Why not just ask about sexual orientation or gender identity in the Census?
Filed by Guest Blogger | February 05, 2010 | 10:30 AM |Editors' note: Ché Ruddell-Tabisola joined the U.S. Census Bureau in January to serve as national LGBT Partnership liaison and coordinate the work between the Our Families Count census public education campaign and nearly two dozen Census Partnership Specialists who work...Read More
President Obama: Uganda Kill-the-Gays Bill 'Odious'
Filed by David Castillo | February 05, 2010 | 9:30 AM |While President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton addressed the invite-only ticketed National Prayer Breakfast, Americans gathered in cities around the country to protest the event. The American Prayer Hour was organized to protest the involvement of American politicians and...Read More
President Obama: Uganda Kill-the-Gays Bill 'Odious'
Filed by David Castillo | February 05, 2010 | 9:30 AM |While President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton addressed the invite-only ticketed National Prayer Breakfast, Americans gathered in cities around the country to protest the event. The American Prayer Hour was organized to protest the involvement of American politicians and...Read More
HIV+ Man Sues Chicago Area Police
Filed by D Gregory Smith | February 04, 2010 | 3:30 PM |Demetrius Anderson, a gay, HIV+ Muslim, is suing the Blue Island Police Department with allegations of excessive force, malicious prosecution and verbal assault - the latter specifically for being an HIV+ gay man. The story began in April 2009, when...Read More
Good News from Kansas
Filed by Diane Silver | February 04, 2010 | 3:00 PM |A Kansas legislative committee has approved a bill outlawing discrimination against LGBT people. This is the second year the Senate committee has passed the bill, but it's the first time this has happened early enough in the session for the...Read More
The Real Life Experience of Rhiannon O'Donnabhain: "It's such an affirmation."
Filed by Keri Renault | February 04, 2010 | 2:00 PM |"I'm almost at a loss for words here," said an emotional Rhiannon O'Donnabhain, after being introduced to a national phone conference audience Wednesday evening. "This is an affirmation that my cause was a right cause, and that I was right...Read More
James O'Keefe's same-sex marriage stunt
Filed by Alex Blaze | February 04, 2010 | 1:00 PM |Surprise surprise, the guy who hated ACORN so much he went and asked them for financial advice and then doctored the video to make them look bad doesn't like gays all that much either. Here's another one of his "busts"...Read More
Our missing voice in the Senate
Filed by Chuck Wolfe | February 04, 2010 | 11:30 AM |John McCain has become a leading Senate opponent of repealing the military's ban on openly gay servicemembers, even as top Pentagon officials say they want Congress to repeal the law that makes them enforce the policy. Many believe a repeal...Read More
Rep. Sestak: Implementing repeal of DADT "doesn't need to take a year"
Filed by Adam Bink | February 04, 2010 | 9:30 AM |Cross-posted at OpenLeft.com I sat down this morning with Rep. Joe Sestak (D-PA) to discuss the news around Don't Ask, Don't Tell, and specifically questions around implementation of a repeal. Sestak is a decorated, former 3-star Vice Admiral in the...Read More
Democrats Play Shell Game With Gay Rights
Filed by Dr. Jillian T. Weiss | February 03, 2010 | 6:00 PM |Why have I not seen anyone commenting on the obvious shell game that the Democrats are playing with LGBT rights? Shell game - you know, where they put a pea under one of three walnut shells, mix them up, and...Read More
U.S. Tax Court Rules in Favor of Transsexual Woman
Filed by Keri Renault | February 03, 2010 | 4:00 PM |Rhiannon O'Donnabhain finally got the tax break she deserved from the IRS in 2001. Tuesday, Federal Tax Court ruled in favor of the petitioner, a transsexual woman in the landmark case of O'Donnabhain v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue. The favorable...Read More
The Injustice and the Hope of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell"
Filed by Diane Silver | February 03, 2010 | 3:30 PM |Retired Joint Chiefs Chairman Colin Powell has just joined the current chairman of the Joint Chiefs and another past chairman in calling for repeal of "don't ask, don't tell." Powell, by the way, did more than almost anyone else in...Read More
St. Louis officer killed in the line of duty, life long partner left in the cold
Filed by Joe Mirabella | February 03, 2010 | 1:00 PM |The AP reports: Kelly Glossip and Dennis Engelhard shared love, a life together for 15 years and a modest ranch home in Robertsville. But in a state that doesn't recognize gay marriage, the two men didn't have a legal document...Read More
Supporters of Anti-gay Legislation in Uganda Hosting President Obama Thursday
Filed by David Castillo | February 03, 2010 | 9:30 AM |Heads of state and other dignitaries will gather this week to attend the annual National Prayer Breakfast. A highly secretive Christian fundamentalist organization called The Family hosts the event each year. The Family has ties to major players in our...Read More
Supporters of Anti-gay Legislation in Uganda Hosting President Obama Thursday
Filed by David Castillo | February 03, 2010 | 9:30 AM |Heads of state and other dignitaries will gather this week to attend the annual National Prayer Breakfast. A highly secretive Christian fundamentalist organization called The Family hosts the event each year. The Family has ties to major players in our...Read More
TSA Plays Derogatory 'Jeopardy': More Fun in the Friendly Skies
Filed by Waymon Hudson | February 02, 2010 | 6:00 PM |I'll take misogynistic, homophobic, racist crap for $100, Mr. Trebek... CNN is reporting that the Transportation Security Administration has launched an investigation into a field office in Florida where supervisors used a game show-style crew assignment board to ridicule and...Read More
Hate crimes law and disordered sexual behavior
Filed by Alex Blaze | February 02, 2010 | 5:00 PM |I can't find anything in traditional media about this, but the Thomas More Law Center says they're suing to overturn the Matthew Shepard Act. This group is known for silly lawsuits, the kinds that make even those who feel like...Read More
Congress and the public don't see eye-to-eye on ENDA
Filed by Alex Blaze | February 02, 2010 | 1:00 PM |Update: People are providing links to state-level anti-discrimination legislation in the comments. If you know of any, please pass it along. I'd like to see how much there is and make another post out of it, since the numbers are...Read More
Congress and the public don't see eye-to-eye on ENDA
Filed by Alex Blaze | February 02, 2010 | 1:00 PM |Update: People are providing links to state-level anti-discrimination legislation in the comments. If you know of any, please pass it along. I'd like to see how much there is and make another post out of it, since the numbers are...Read More
Third gay adoption in Florida despite ban
Filed by Donna Pandori | February 01, 2010 | 3:00 PM |A gay adoption in Florida was granted to a lesbian couple by Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Maria Sampedro-Iglesia. This makes three in Florida despite the state-wide ban gay men and lesbians adopting. The story behind this adoption is heartwarming and just....Read More
Moving forward on employment, with or without ENDA
Filed by Nan Hunter | February 01, 2010 | 11:30 AM |One implicit message of President Obama's State of the Union address last week lies in what he did not say. He promised to move ahead with prioritizing a repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell; he did not mention ENDA. While...Read More
Moving forward on employment, with or without ENDA
Filed by Nan Hunter | February 01, 2010 | 11:30 AM |One implicit message of President Obama's State of the Union address last week lies in what he did not say. He promised to move ahead with prioritizing a repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell; he did not mention ENDA. While...Read More
Baptist Press assistant editor clueless on DADT
Filed by Donna Pandori | February 01, 2010 | 10:30 AM |Having served in the United States Air Force 11 years gives me some credibility on the subject of Don't Ask Don't Tell. That said, I think "Close quarters make military policy opposing gay service necessary, experts say" written by the...Read More
Marriage equality takes a hit in Hawaii and Indiana
Filed by Bil Browning | February 01, 2010 | 9:30 AM |The concept of marriage equality has not had it easy in the past few months. Washington DC passed legislation legalizing same-sex marriage and Washington kept their domestic partner registration, but other states haven't fared as well. Maine lost at the...Read More
