Tag Archives: LGBT rights

It might be hard to believe that a progressive nation like Denmark only yesterday granted equal adoption rights to gay couples, but that’s the case. Danish parliament passed a vote giving equal adoption rights to couples in registered partnerships yesterday, but without the support of the government. The opposition, together with breakaway members of the government’s Liberal Party, voted in …

A court in Lithuania has blocked the parade permit for this weekend’s gay pride event in Vilnius. Vilnius County Administrative Court annulled a license permitting the Balti Pride parade issued by the Vilnius municipal authorities in response to a submission from acting prosecutor general Raimondas Petrauskas. He claimed that allowing the parade of groups from Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia could …

Argentina’s House Of Deputies (similar to the U.S. House) has just voted 125-109 to approve same-sex marriage. The debate now moves to the Senate, where opposition is expected to be strong. I watched the last few minutes of the House vote via a livestream and even though I speak little Spanish, it was quite amusing to me to identify the …

OneIowa.org is the site for Iowa’s long-running LGBT rights organization. But they apparently failed to also reserve the .com extension of their name and the Christianists have jumped on it. Recently, the a “.COM” website was created (www.OneIowa.COM), but with a completely different agenda. The new site includes socially conservative content about several issues: protecting gun rights, restricting abortion, maintaining …

Dr. Jillian Weiss at Bilerico tips us to the above graphic on the status of ENDA in the Senate. Have you lobbied YOUR Reps and Senators about ENDA today? Do it now. Weiss points us to this ENDA spreadsheet which assesses the position of every member of Congress. RELATED: The Family Research Council issued another desperate money plea to fight …

Chistianists in Hawaii are shocked, SHOCKED I tells ya, about yesterday’s House vote to approve civil unions. (We’re shocked too!) Unprepared for the vote, they are organizing to lobby the governor to veto the bill. “It’s not the end of the game,” said Dennis Arakaki, executive director of the Hawai’i Family Forum and the Hawai’i Catholic Conference. “We still don’t …

In a surprise move and with only hours left in the legislative year, late yesterday the Hawaii House approved its civil unions bill by a vote of 31-20. The Hawaii Senate approved the bill back in January, but it later stalled in the House after massive protests were organized by Christian groups and by the Hawaiian Catholic diocese, who created …

“I’m not fearful that change will happen in America. It will happen. I don’t know what will happen with same-sex marriage, but I’m not going to be discouraged if we lose some of those battles. It’s going to be difficult in this culture and the way the demographics are going right now. You look at the under-35 age group. I …

A British high court has resoundingly rejected the appeal of a sex counselor who argued that his firing for refusing to treat gay patients amounted to religious discrimination. Christianity deserves no protection in law above other faiths and to do so would be “irrational” , “divisive, capricious and arbitrary”, a senior judge said today, as he rejected a marriage guidance …

A bill that would have expanded adoption laws to allow joint adoption by unmarried couples was defeated by a 3-1 vote in the Louisiana Senate yesterday. The bill was fiercely opposed by religious groups. Senate Bill 129, which ended up as a combination of two measures by Sens. Ed Murray and J.P. Morrell, would have allowed unmarried couples to jointly …

“In 2004 the social question that animated the campaign was gay marriage. Before the election season had unfolded, I had talked to George about not making gay marriage a significant issue. We have, I reminded him, a number of close friends who are gay or whose children are gay. But at that moment I could never have imagined what path …

This Wednesday the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments from Protect Marriage Washington, who fears retribution from violent homofascists should the names on Referendum 71 become public knowledge. The Court’s decision could affect the transparency of the referendum process nationwide. Though Referendum 71 is at the heart of the legal dispute, the issues are far broader, including how open the …

We’ve been hearing for a day or so that there may be much more to the story of Sonoma County gay seniors Harold and Clay, whose handling by hospital authorities has so riled much of the nation over the last week. According to county officials and the local sheriff’s department, in 2008 Harold attacked Clay, putting him in the hospital. …

Michelangelo Signorile will be broadcasting live from the LGBT Town Hall in DC today where noted activists will spar with Joe Solmonese and discuss the future of the movement. With the developments of the last few days, things promise to be VERY lively. The panelists: National Gay & Lesbian Task Force executive director Rea Carey; Human Rights Campaign president Joe …

The Advocate’s Kerry Eleveld reports that the White House may have made the decision not to pursue a 2010 repeal of DADT as early as February, yet the president still pledged its repeal this year during his State Of The Union address. Early in the year, multiple sources say some administration officials counseled the president against acting on the military’s …

Former Christian Coalition spokesman Bishop E.W. Jackson says that the black members of Congress are in the grips of Godless Democrats and homosexuals. Therefore he is launching STAND America, a new PAC dedicated to electing conservative black lawmakers. Via Christian news site OneNewsNow: “They are pro-abortion, they are pro-homosexuality, they are pro-gay marriage — and the black community doesn’t agree …

The 12th annual Marriage Equality New York gala fundraiser takes place on April 28th in Manhattan. Get tickets here. The MENY Gala will be recognizing and honoring: Queer Rising, NYS Senator Peralta, Sharron Minter, and BD Wong for their work in moving marriage equality forward in New York State and, in some cases, on the national front. This recognition comes …

The Family Research Council has launched an all-out campaign against the coming ENDA vote, assembling a cavalcade of haters for an anti-gay DVD they’re pitching to their followers for $14.99. Here’s the trailer.

Bilerico’s Jillian Weiss alerts us that Roll Call, the respected DC journal of Capitol Hill goings-on, has published a vile anti-ENDA column by Andrea Lafferty of the SPLC-certified hate group, the Traditional Values Coalition. Rather than mentioning that ENDA would protect millions of gays and lesbians from employment discrimination, Lafferty focuses on the haters’ favorite target, trans folk. In 2008, …

Ugandan member of parliament David Bahati, the sponsor of his government’s still-pending “kill gays” legislation, may be banned from entering the UK. According to the Guardian, civil servants in the Foreign Office, the Department for International Development and the Borders Agency are drawing up plans to block Mr Bahati’s visa if he does not drop the bill. A senior government …