- The U.S. Congress will reconvene next week. 365gay.com summarizes the status of three LGBT-rights bills: the Matthew Shepard Hate Crime Act, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), and the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. Deb Price also looks ahead to what 2008 could hold for LGBT rights around the country.
- Price also discusses why the federal government should provide benefits to partners of employees—not just because it’s morally right, but because it will help recruit needed new employees as baby boomers retire.
- Daniel Koffler of the U.K.’s Guardian casts an eye across the pond to castigate the U.S. Democratic presidential candidates for their support of the Solomon Amendment, which denies federal funding to colleges and universities that does not provide space for military recruiters or provide a ROTC program for its students. A smart look at the issue.
- Presidential candidate Mike Huckabee equated same-sex marriage with bestiality. (Did the fall of Rick Santorum teach him nothing?)
- Marriage equality opponents in Florida are scrambling to gather enough signatures to put a constitutional ban of same-sex marriage on the November ballot. An initial count revealed a shortfall of over 20,000 signatures after some were found to have been counted twice.
- The Iowa Supreme Court overruled a district court and said a woman’s adoption of her partner’s children was legal. The women had separated, and one went to court to determine their various parental rights and obligations. The district court then said the adoptions were invalid because they were contrary to state adoption law, and the court thus could not rule on custody issues here. The Supreme Court now says they must. Note that neither woman was appealing the adoptions. This seems like a rare, civilized custody case in which the court made a misstep.
- Hundreds of people rallied at the Iowa State Capitol in an effort to get legislators to propose an amendment to the state constitution that would prohibit same-sex marriage.
- The Kentucky House Education Committee unanimously approved a bill requiring school districts to create anti-bullying policies. but many predict it will be killed in the Senate. Critics are spouting the usual nonsense about fears that it would lead to teaching schoolchildren about “homosexuality.”
- Denise Simmons became the country’s first African American, out lesbian mayor, taking office in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The citizens of Cambridge previously elected the country’s first openly gay, African American mayor, Ken Reeves.
- A lecturer at the University of Texas began a hunger strike Monday to protest the school’s lack of medical insurance for same-sex partners of its employees.
- The LGBT community in Utah is preparing for the 2008 legislative session, which begins Monday, during which they will fight to remove adoption restrictions on unmarried, cohabitating couples, including same-sex couples,
Around the world:
- A soldier British Army has won a discrimination suit against her sergeant on the grounds of sexual orientation and sex discrimination.
- A court in Cameroon sentenced three men to six months hard labor for being homosexuals.
- Shanghai List (via National Gay News) notes three separate publications that have recently looked at the gay community in China.
- According to Human Rights Watch, Kuwaiti government has arrested 14 people since the National Assembly approved a law making it a crime to “imitate the appearance of the opposite sex”.
- An appeals court in Morocco upheld the convictions of six men for homosexuality. Prosecutors claimed they took part in a gay wedding, although the men plead not guilty.
- The Scottish government has said it will support extending the country’s hate crimes laws to protect LGBT people and the disabled, as England and Wales have done.