- Not news per se, but the Victory Fund has put together a nice video of LGBT women in politics.
- In a constitutional challenge to Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell (DADT), the Department of Justice filed a brief supporting the current DADT law. Several experts on DADT are claiming the Obama administration misrepresented their views in the brief.
- Army Secretary John McHugh stated that soldiers still can be discharged for saying they are gay, clarifying his statement from earlier in the week when he implied that such discharges had been suspended.
- President Obama used his power of recess appointments to appoint lesbian law professor Chai Feldblum and three others to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. An unknown senator had previously put a hold on Feldblum’s nomination.
- The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin struck down a law that barred transgender people from receiving medical care, including hormone therapy or sex reassignment surgery, while they are incarcerated.
- Maryland House of Delegates member Don H. Dwyer Jr. (R) says he will bring impeachment charges against the state’s attorney general, Douglas F. Gansler, claiming Gansler overstepped his authority in issuing a legal opinion stating the state would recognize marriages of same-sex couples from other jurisdictions.
- A Pennsylvania judge has refused to grant a divorce to a lesbian couple who married in Massachusetts. Massachusetts does not require residency to marry, but requires a one-year residency to divorce.
- The Buffalo Common Council approved a bill to give same-sex partners of city employees the same benefits as opposite-sex spouses. The mayor Brown must still sign, but it appears the bill is veto proof.
- Houston, Texas mayor (and lesbian mom) Annise Parker issued an executive order banning employment discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity or expression.
Around the world:
- The Australian delegation at a meeting of the United Nations Human Rights Council condemned the anti-gay legislation now pending in Uganda.
- The Washington Post reports on the more than 300 gay people who have fled Iran since Mahmoud Ahmadinejad became president.
