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
Sperm, as Helen and I have noted in several of our video blogs, is only the start of the lesbian-parenting journey (and isn’t part of the journey at all for adoptive parents). Choosing sperm is important while you’re doing it, and children may develop a natural curiosity about their donors, but most of us are
It’s World AIDS Day. AVERT, an international HIV and AIDS charity based in the UK, gives us the following statistics: According to UNAIDS estimates, there are now 33.2 million people living with HIV, including 2.5 million children [and 15.4 million women]. During 2007 some 2.5 million people became newly infected with the virus. Around half
Retired Brigadier Gen. Keith Kerr surprised candidates at the Republican CNN/YouTube debate by revealing he is gay and asking “I want to know why you think that American men and women in uniform are not professional enough to serve with gays and lesbians.” He later said he felt he did not get an answer from
