Several federal departments under President Obama have made moves to benefit the LGBT community, but the Department of Education has done little. This is despite growing evidence that LGBT youth are among those most at risk and that safe-schools programs benefit all students, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity. I’ve explored this issue in
The Employment Nondiscrimination Act (ENDA) would prohibit discrimination against employees on the basis of gender identity or sexual orientation and is one of the key pieces of LGBT-related legislation pending this year. ENDA applies broadly across the LGBT community, and isn’t specific to those of us with children (as are, say, adoption rights), but some
A circuit judge today struck down Arkansas’ ban against unmarried couples adopting or foster-parenting children. The Arkansas law was approved by voters in November 2008, during the same election that in California saw the imposition of Prop 8, which halted the previous legalization of marriage for same-sex couples. The news must be particularly galling to
President Obama issued a memo directing the Secretary of Health and Human Services to ensure that same-sex partners have the same visitation rights as other immediate family members. HHS should “Initiate appropriate rulemaking . . . to ensure that hospitals that participate in Medicare or Medicaid respect the rights of patients to designate visitors.” The
Politics and Law Jackson Memorial Hospital in Florida announced a series of improved policies “more responsive to the needs of the LGBT community.” The move was in response to a lawsuit brought by Janice Langbehn, who in 2007 was kept from her partner Lisa Pond who lay dying in the hospital. The couple’s three children
(This ran as my newspaper column on March 16, 2010. A few of the details on the McMillen prom case are a tad out of date, but the bulk of the piece still holds.) The Lego castle was almost done. It was a complicated thing, one of the most intricate constructions my then-preschooler had ever
Former Arkansas governor and erstwhile Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee shared his opinion about same-sex parents in a speech last week at The College of New Jersey. As reported by The Perspective: He also affirmed support for a law in Arkansas that prohibits same-sex couples from becoming adoptive or foster parents. “I think this is
Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens announced his retirement. Michael Jones at Change.org explores his LGBT-rights legacy. Back in February, Lisa Keen took at look at the LGBT-rights records of some potential nominees. The Pentagon grapples with the problem of “How do we ask gay and lesbian troops what they think if they can still
When Constance McMillen filed a lawsuit against her school district after they canceled the prom rather than let her bring a same-sex date and wear a tux, a federal judge ruled that she had a right to clothes and a date of her choice. He did not ask the school to reinstate the prom, however,
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
