- A Zogby Poll found that more than six in 10 U.S. voters say they could support an openly gay candidate for president of the U.S.
- U.S. Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA), chair of the House Financial Services Committee, is looking into a Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) policy that disqualifies domestic partners from receiving coverage available to married opposite-sex couples. The FDIC restricts its bank deposit insurance protection for revocable trust accounts to a list of “qualifying” beneficiaries, which does not include domestic partners.
- A former Army Special Forces colonel testified in federal court that she lost a job offer as a terrorism research analyst at the Library of Congress after she told her future boss that she was transitioning from male to female.
- In “we could have predicted this” news, senior members of Concerned Women for America (CWA) have condemned Hallmark’s new greeting cards for same-sex weddings or commitment ceremonies, saying, “Now parents will need to steer their kids from Hallmark’s section of the greeting card aisle and away from its previously heart-warming movies for fear that they too will push homosexual messages.” Blegh.
- In Arkansas, supporters of a proposal to ban unmarried cohabiting couples from adopting or fostering children turned in another 31,012 signatures to try and get it on the November ballot. Under state law, they had been given an extra 30 days to gather signatures after their initial submission fell short. A group opposing the ban says it will petition the state Supreme Court to stop the measure going on the ballot.
- Opponents of marriage equality have raised more cash in support of California’s Proposition 8 than LGBT advocates have raised to defeat it. The Connecticut-based Knights of Columbus, a Catholic service organization, donated $1 million to Prop. 8 supporters last week, which helped give Prop. 8 supporters an edge.
- More than two dozen couples in Miami-Dade County, Florida registered under the new domestic-partnership law.
- Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) will not renew an executive order prohibiting employment discrimination against gay and lesbian state workers when it expires today. It was instituted in 2004 by his Democratic predecessor. Jindal says he doesn’t want to create “additional special categories or special rights.”
- The Coquille Indian Tribe, based on the southern Oregon coast, adopted a law recognizing marriage of same-sex couples. It is believed to be the first Native American tribe to do so. Although Oregon’s state constitution bans such marriages, the tribe is a federally recognized sovereign nation. Two women, one a member of the tribe and one not, already plan to marry under the law next spring.
- In the ongoing and continuing and perpetual saga of separated lesbian moms Janet Jenkins and Lisa Miller, a judge dismissed Miller’s latest attempt to deny visitation rights to Jenkins. He agreed with lawyers for the ACLU, who said lower courts and the Virginia Supreme Court already had ruled in Jenkins’ favor.
Around the world:
- Liberal Democrat Member of the European Parliament (MEP) Sharon Bowles has drafted a written declaration for the recognition of U.K. civil partnerships (CPs) in other EU states. A French pacte civil de solidarité (PACS) is fully recognised in Britain, but France does not recognise U.K. CP’s.
- The Argentine government granted same-sex couples the right to collect the pensions of their deceased partners.
- Brazil’s lower house of Congress withdrew a measure giving same-sex couples the right to adopt because federal law doesn’t recognize same-sex civil unions.
- Canada may have legalized marriage for same-sex couples, but same-sex non-biological parents are still not automatically recognized as parents, as a divorce and custody case in Toronto shows. “A man in a heterosexual relationship who is not the biological father has greater rights than a lesbian woman in the same factual circumstance. . . . There have been court rulings that declared the male to be the father without a biological connection to the child, even when the couple separated before birth.”
- We may be catching a glimpse of modern China during the Olympics, but gay men and lesbians in Beijing still live largely in the shadows, as the San Francisco Chronicle reports.
- The Ugandan AIDS Commission Chief has warned the education ministry that homosexuality is “rife” in schools, and they should stamp it out, aided by parents and guardians.
