A light news week before the U.S. holiday weekend: The Senate Judiciary Committee questioned Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan over Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, among other issues. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development issued new guidance for LGBT people facing housing discrimination. New York attorney general and gubernatorial candidate Andrew Cuomo (D) said […]
The U.S. Labor Department clarified that the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) gives an employee who assumes the role of caring for a child the parental right to family leave—regardless of the legal or biological relationship. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke at a State Department event commemorating Pride Month, and equated LGBT rights
What happened to the ENDA vote Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) said would happen this week? Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) now says she hopes it will happen in the next couple of weeks. Defense Secretary Robert Gates told a House committee that Congress should not pass its own repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell before he
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
Politics and Law A Vermont family court judge issued a warrant for the arrest of Lisa Miller, an “ex-lesbian” who disappeared with the girl who is legally the child of her and her former civil union partner, Janet Jenkins. A bit of good news to follow up on a case I posted about last June,
U.S. National News The National Equality March is taking place this weekend, and the biggest news to come out of it so far is President Obama’s upcoming speech at the HRC dinner tomorrow night. HuffPo has lined up a panel of bloggers to tell us what they think Obama should say. My favorite piece so
Sometimes I read something that is just so mind-blowingly irrational I don’t know where to begin. Robert P. George, in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece titled, “Gay Marriage, Democracy, and the Courts,” begins by stating that it would be “disastrous” for the U.S. Supreme Court justices to rule on a federal lawsuit that “has
The Supremes seem supremely appropriate today: Sonia Sotomayor nominated to the U.S. Supreme Court: “Come See About Me.” The question is, will the California Supreme Court ruling on Prop 8 have us playing, “Where Did Our Love Go” or “Back In My Arms Again”? For another hour or so, however, “You Keep Me Hangin’ On.”
Jenny Durkan, a longtime counselor to Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire, is one of President Obama’s first six picks for U.S. attorneys. She is also a lesbian mom, and lives in Seattle with her partner and two sons. True, there are no out lesbians on Obama’s U.S. Supreme Court shortlist, and one might wonder if Durkan’s
Another week of political milestones: The Hate Crimes Bill, aka the Matthew Shepard Act, aka the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act, passed the House. It would add sexual orientation and gender identity to the categories covered by federal hate crimes laws. The bill now moves to the Senate. President Obama has expressed his
