The United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights has published a new report, “Born Free and Equal: Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity in International Human Rights Law,” which is a good thing—but as LGBT family law expert Nancy Polikoff points out, is mysteriously silent on international law related to LGBT parents and […]
The Senate Armed Services Committee passed its version of the National Defense Authorization Act without any of the anti-LGBT amendments that the House passed in its version—including one that would have delayed repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. The Senate bill would also repeal the military’s long-standing anti-sodomy regulation. The U.S. Department of Health and
In the ongoing tennis match that is Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell repeal, the latest is that President Obama has told Senate Armed Services Committee Chair Carl Levin (D-MI) that he is committed to including repeal in the National Defense Authorization Act. Two Republican senators have expressed support for repeal—Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and John Ensign (R-NV).
Senate Armed Services Committee Chair Carl Levin said he expects the full Senate to take up Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell (DSDT) repeal in September, after the August recess. Former National Guard Lt. Dan Choi, one of the leading advocates for the repeal of DADT, has been officially discharged from the military. Choi and others were
It’s International Women’s Day, a holiday first celebrated in 1909 in honor of a 1908 strike by women garment workers in protest at their working conditions. Now, it’s a holiday endorsed by the U.N., which has set the 2010 theme as “Equal rights, equal opportunities: Progress for all.” While the holiday gets little attention in
The Prop 8 Case Everyone is covering the Prop 8 case. Here are a few of the sites with people on the ground at the courtroom. (As you may have heard, the U.S. Supreme Court banned videocasting of the trial. Jenny Pizer, Lambda Legal’s Marriage Project director, explains why.)j Lisa Keen has a good summary
President Obama named 16 recipients for this year’s Presidential Medal of Freedom, America’s highest civilian honor. They include tennis and women’s rights legend Billie Jean King and LGBT-rights pioneer Harvey Milk, and very many other worthy people. I’m a bit disappointed not to see Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon on the list, but maybe next
Dominating LGBT news this week was Barack Obama’s choice of evangelical minister Rick Warren to give the invocation on Inauguration Day. Warren supported California’s Prop 8, but his homophobia (not to mention his anti-choice stance on abortion) mean his conservatism goes much deeper. Pam Spaulding notes wisely that the Rev. Dr. Joseph Lowery, who will
