Many LGBT residents of New Hampshire are starting the new year off right by uniting under the state’s new civil union law. The Granite State is the first to pass the law without legal challenge, as Seacoast Online notes. That’s progress, much as many of us still hope for full marriage. All of New England
Originally published in Bay Windows, December 20, 2007 (online); December 27, 2007 (print). Was 2007 a good year for LGBT parents and our children? Politically, it was a mixed bag. Here are some highlights. In Massachusetts, we stopped marriage equality from going to the ballot. New Hampshire and Oregon approved relationship-recognition measures to give same-sex
Harlyn Aizley, author of Buying Dad and editor of Confessions of the Other Mother, both books that deserve a place on any lesbian mom’s bookshelf, will no longer be writing her Are You My Mothers? blog for Parents.com. She was fired by Parents.com’s parent company, Meredith Corporation, ostensibly because her blog did not generate enough
Senators Gordon Smith (R-OR) and Joe Lieberman (ID-CT) introduced legislation in the Senate to provide federal health benefits, including the Family and Medical Leave program, long term care, insurance, and retirement benefits, to the domestic partners of federal employees. The workers and their partners would then be subject to the same obligations as married employees
Florida is gearing up for a fight over a “Marriage Protection Amendment” that looks likely to be on the November 2008 ballot. Supporters of the amendment say it is needed to “prevent children from being raised in homosexual families.” They might want to note some new statistics: 17% of same-sex couples in Florida are raising
Jamison Green and Donna Rose, former members of HRC’s business advisory council who resigned over the organization’s handling of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), launched the Transgender Employment Partnership “to continue the work they began at HRC.” The Arizona Department of Administration filed a proposal last month, without announcement, to offer health and other benefits
The Family Equality Council (formerly the Family Pride Coalition) is in the midst of their strategic planning process and is looking for feedback from individuals about how they can best support LGBT families and promote family equality. They want your thoughts, regardless of whether you are already familiar with their work. If you have a
Tennis legend Billie Jean King is the subject of a long interview in today’s Sunday Times (London), after having received the Lifetime Achievement award at the newspaper’s Sports Women of the Year banquet. She talks in depth about her career, her fight to establish a women’s tour, the much-hyped match with Bobby Riggs, being outed,
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA.) dropped a gay- and transgender-inclusive hate crimes bill, aka the Matthew Shepard Act, from the National Defense Authorization Act, bowing to pressure from House Democratic leaders. House democrats are now asking the Senate to pass a standalone hate-crimes bill. The Scottsdale, Arizona City Council
The LGBT-inclusive Hate Crimes Bill, aka the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act, is dead. House Democrats removed it from the Defense Reauthorization bill to which it was attached. According to the Washington Blade, “gay-supportive Democrats who oppose the war would join more than 150 Republicans who oppose the hate crimes bill to defeat the
