Tag Archives: LGBT History

Another first for Obama: In what is almost certainly a presidential first, President Obama highlighted an historic gay rights riot as he issued the annual “Loyalty Day” proclamation Thursday. In the presidential decree, Mr. Obama said it was “the understanding that our Union is a constant work in progress that guided our forebears through places like Seneca Falls, Selma, and …

Bloomberg gives us some interesting history: [Ted] Cruz is making the gay marriage debate the cornerstone of a bid to rally conservatives to his 2016 presidential bid, but same-sex issues haven’t always been the top priority for a lawmaker who built his profile as a limited-government, Tea Party-aligned conservative. As Texas solicitor general when the Lawrence v. Texas case came …

Important history from GLAD: “On April 28, 2015, Mary Bonauto will argue before the U.S. Supreme Court for the freedom to marry for all same-sex couples nationwide. In 2001 Mary and Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders (GLAD) filed the case that first brought marriage equality to the U.S. – with the landmark 2003 Goodridge v. Department of Public Health …

“We’ll have oral argument before the Supreme Court this week. Ted Cruz has introduced two new bills in Congress to stop marriage, but they may backfire on him. And the National Organization for Marriage has lost yet another court case.”

Attorney General Eric Holder has left the building. But not before a press conference in which he righteously spiked the ball about the LGBT triumphs seen during his tenure. Moments ago the Department Of Justice joined in on Twitter by posting the above photo. Earlier today the DOJ posted the below recap of Holder’s life and six years with the …

Clip recap: “In 1970, the ACLU filed the first freedom-to-marry lawsuit in the United States. We are now at the Supreme Court to fight to win the freedom to marry for couples in all 50 states. As we get closer than ever before to the freedom to marry for all, let’s take a walk down memory lane. Thank you to …

“It was so revolutionary. It had never been done before anywhere in the world. We all wore coat and ties and we all had pseudonyms. I wasn’t scared. I was intrigued by the idea. But I was intimidated by all the photographers. I was only 23. And as they came across the street they started photographing us. Every time I …

Fun clip. The schedule of events is here.

Buzzfeed reporter Chris Geidner has profiled Doug Hallward-Driemeier, who will argue the issue of marriage recognition before the Supreme Court. An excerpt: As to his plan for April 28, he said he hopes to “be able to go to where the justices’ concerns or questions or comments suggest” — a chance he will have since he will take to the …

Via the New York Times: If California legislators succeed, a statue of Sally Ride, astronaut, physicist and educator, will be enshrined in the nation’s Capitol. But first they will have to remove an impediment: the statue of the Rev. Junipero Serra, an 18th-century Catholic priest who established California missions and is about to be canonized by Pope Francis. In the …

Michigan, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Ohio all filed their marriage ban defense briefs with the Supreme Court yesterday afternoon. Chris Geidner reports at Buzzfeed: In Michigan, where a same-sex couple wishes to marry and has sued the state, the state filed its brief with the Supreme Court on Friday afternoon, arguing that the Constitution does not require that states allow same-sex …

First Ladies Of Disco are Martha Wash, Linda Clifford, and Evelyn “Champagne” King. This is the remix of their first single, which I posted last month. Both versions are now available on iTunes.

“Genocide is the deliberate and systematic extermination of a national, racial, political, or ethnic group. Such as gay people. Such as people of color. To date, around the world, an estimated 78 million people have become infected, 39 million of whom have died. When we first became acquainted with HIV there were 41 cases. The main difference between the Larry …

Chris Geidner has written a wonderful profile of the late John Arthur and his husband Jim Obergefell, whose marriage will take center stage at the Supreme Court next month. Geidner’s Buzzfeed piece begins: The plane was only on the ground a matter of minutes. Just enough time for wedding vows and little else. Jim Obergefell and John Arthur had wanted …

Via the Boston Globe: History marched through South Boston on Sunday as gay organizations took their place for the first time in the annual St. Patrick’s Day parade. Joining them in front of hundreds of thousands of green-clad revelers was Mayor Martin J. Walsh, the first Boston chief executive to walk the route in two decades. “I’m very excited,” Walsh …

As you can see in the tweet above, there were two pieces of good news out of Utah last night as the “license to discriminate” bill is dead for this legislative session. The clip below was posted to Gov. Herbert’s official YouTube channel.

From Oscar Wilde Tours: Everyone knows that gay liberation began on a summer night in June 1969, with the Stonewall riots in Greenwich Village. But who knows that Mae West was arrested in Manhattan for producing a pro-gay-rights play in 1926? Or that Walt Whitman read his homoerotic poems to friends at a bar on Broadway? New York is bursting …

Eric Holder’s promised brief has arrived. Chris Geidner reports at Buzzfeed: The United States government on Friday urged the Supreme Court to strike down bans on same-sex couples marriages across the country, concluding, “There is no adequate justification for such a discriminatory and injurious exercise of state power.” Specifically, the Justice Department urges: “The marriage bans challenged in these cases …

Equality Case Files has the announcement.

“This week, the Justice Department will file a brief setting forth our position that state bans on same-sex marriage violate the fundamental constitutional guarantee of ‘equal protection of the laws.’ It is clear that the time has come to recognize that gay and lesbian people deserve robust protection from discrimination. Nothing justifies excluding same-sex couples from the institution of marriage. …