Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton gave a speech that focused on the human rights of LGBT people—a speech that some LGBT advocates are already calling a “landmark.” Supporters of anti-discrimination protections for LGBT people in Anchorage, Alaska, appear to have collected enough signatures to put the measure on the April city ballot. The U.S. Ninth Circuit […]
Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) became a co-sponsor of the Respect for Marriage Act, which would repeal the anti-LGBT Defense of Marriage Act. Levin was one of the leaders in repealing “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” Michigan state Rep. Thomas McMillin (R-Rochester) introduced a bill that would eliminate LGBT people as a protected class under all local
The Michigan House voted to ban benefits for domestic partners of all public employees in the state. The bill now goes to the Senate. North Carolina’s legislature approved a ballot measure to ask voters whether to ban marriage for same-sex couples under the state constitution. It is already banned by statute. I covered the story
Because today is the Day of Silence, an annual observance to raise awareness of anti-LGBT bullying and harassment, I’ll point out my piece over at Keen News Service on court cases sparked by the event. The Employment Nondiscrimination Act (ENDA) and the Uniting American Families Act (UAFA) (which would allow people to sponsor same-sex partners
Bits and pieces from the info-stream: Politics and Law A follow-up to my story about the change to U.S. passport applications to say “Mother or Parent 1″ and “Father or Parent 2”: Rep. J. Randy Forbes (R-VA) introduced a new bill that would require federal agencies to use only “mother” and “father” in all official
Elections As I’m sure you all know, we lost marriage equality in Maine. Everyone is writing about this. A few pieces of note are those of Jeremy at Good As You and Nan Hunter at Bilerico, who look at how the right won against a solid equality campaign; Pam on the “dying hog of homophobia”;
Let’s start with a funny: When I first saw the Advocate headline, “Lesbian Named Part Owner of Cubs,” my first thought was, “And I thought it was hard enough for lesbians to adopt human babies.” Politics and Law Lisa Neff’s piece at 365gay.com gives a touching example of how HUD’s proposed new anti-discrimination policies would
On parental rights: A Michigan state House committee approved legislation for second-parent adoptions, splitting the vote along party lines. (Do I really need to specify which party voted in favor?) A Montana woman, Barbara Maniaci, is asking the state Supreme Court to overturn a lower court ruling that recognized her former partner as a co-parent
The U.S. Supreme Court refused to take the case of a Kentucky high school student who wants to sue his school district over a policy he says barred him from expressing opposition to homosexuality. Alaska North Star Borough School Board voted to add gender identity to the nondiscrimination and harassment policies that cover students, staff,
Dan Savage says the Arkansas ban against adoption or fostering by unmarried couples is even more of a threat to LGBT equality than the marriage bans: Most ominous, once “pro-family” groups start arguing that gay couples are unfit to raise children we might adopt, how long before they argue that we’re unfit to raise those
