It’s official. Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick has signed a repeal of the 1913 law prohibiting out-of-state couples from marrying in the state if their home states forbid the unions. At the same time, he signed the MassHealth Equality bill, granting equal benefits to married same-sex and opposite-sex couples through MassHealth, the state’s Medicaid program. MassHealth, […]
Religion and LGBT rights often stand in opposition. A new study (PDF link) in the June 2008 Journal of Family Psychology, however, found that “religiously invested lesbians and gay men, and those with children, were the most likely to cohabit and to legalize and ritualize their couple relationships.” Study participants were residents of Illinois, so
Out-of-state same-sex couples could marry in Massachusetts later today. Lawmakers have attached an emergency preamble to the bill lifting marriage restrictions on out-of-state couples, stating that it will take effect as soon as the governor signs it, rather than after the usual 90 days. The bill could go to the governor today, according to the
Two people are dead and seven injured after a man entered the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church Sunday and fired a sawed-off 12-gauge semiautomatic shotgun during a children’s performance of the musical Annie. The shooter, Jim David Adkisson, left a letter in his car stating he hated liberals and gay people and was motivated by
The Massachusetts House just voted to repeal the 1913 law that prevented most out-of-state same-sex couples from marrying in the Bay State. The bill now goes to Governor Deval Patrick, who has said he will sign it. Massachusetts was, of course, the first state to legalize marriage for same-sex couples, although California was the first
The U.S. House approved repeal of a law barring HIV-positive visitors and immigrants to the country. It now goes to the President. The Personnel Subcommittee of the U.S. House Armed Services Committee heard testimony for and against the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy. SLDN executive director Aubrey Sarvis notes the irony that this was
Alan O’Brien-Myers is a rising senior at Holyoke High School in Massachusetts, where he lives with his two moms and younger brother. He posted on Bilerico today in response to John McCain’s statement that he doesn’t believe in gay adoption. He says, in part: What’s not to believe in? Many gays and lesbians adopt children
The U.S. Senate voted to drop travel and immigration restrictions on persons who are HIV-positive. The House Armed Services personnel subcommittee has scheduled a hearing on the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy for July 23. The Washington Blade reports, though, that “as of Wednesday, the subcommittee was not scheduled to hear from even one
Last Sunday, presidential candidate John McCain told the New York Times, “I think that we’ve proven that both parents are important in the success of a family so, no, I don’t believe in gay adoption” (which, like “gay marriage,” is a misleading term implying there is something so fundamentally different about the act when it
Four retired officers, each from a different branch of the U.S. military, recommended that the military repeal the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy and let gay men and lesbians serve openly. In the “Report of the General/Flag Officers’ Study Group” released by the Michael D. Palm Center of the University of California at Santa Barbara,
