LGBT News

Yesterday Rep. Jared Polis (D-CO) attempted to introduce the Equality Act as an amendment to an anti-union bill before the House Committee On Education & The Workforce. The amendment was blocked by a voice vote of the panel after Rep. David Roe (R-TN) objected on the grounds that the Equality Act is not germane to the main bill. More from …

A Los Angeles lesbian couple yesterday filed a federal lawsuit against a Honolulu police officer whom they accuse of arresting them for kissing in a grocery store. The couple was on a Hawaii vacation at the time. The Associated Press reports: Courtney Wilson and Taylor Guerrero, who were visiting Hawaii from Los Angeles in March, said in a federal lawsuit …

Yesterday Sally Field declared her support for Houston’s LGBT rights law by reprising the most iconic scene from her 1979 Oscar-winning Norma Rae performance. This morning Field, who has a gay son, will take part in a joint press conference with Houston civic leaders in support of the “Yes” side. The repeal referendum is Tuesday.

It was 25 years ago this week in 1990 that the Pet Shop Boys released Behavior, the album that provided Being Boring, which many consider to be the most heart-wrenching and beautiful song about AIDS, loss, and survivorship. Christian Gerard at Pop Matters looks back: Being Boring sets a bittersweet tone for the album. “All the people I was kissing …

The Washington Post has reluctantly awarded Hillary Clinton its “four Pinocchios” Fact Checker rating for her claims about DOMA. After a lengthy look back into the history of DOMA, they conclude: This is a difficult claim to fact-check, because Clinton essentially explained what she believed her husband was thinking when he supported DOMA. Clearly, The Fact Checker has no insight …

Teofil Brank, who performed in gay porn as Jarec Wentworth, has been sentenced to six years in prison for extorting $500,000 and a luxury sports car out of Florida tech tycoon Donald Burns, who went to the FBI early this year after Brank’s blackmail demands escalated. The Los Angeles Times reports: At trial, Burns testified that he was “scared to …

Hillary Clinton appeared on The Late Show last night, where she told Stephen Colbert that she’ll defend advances in gay rights as president. But the real buzz is about Clinton’s statement on banking. Politico has more: Hillary Clinton would not bail out big banks on the verge of failure if she faced a situation like the 2007 financial crisis, she …

HUD Secretary Julian Castro, the former mayor of San Antonio, today urged Houstonians to retain their city’s HERO ordinance. In the clip below, Castro points out that the bill covers more than just LGBT rights. Castro, not incidentally, is on some shortlists to be Hillary’s running mate.

Well, this should be fascinating: After the Polish priest Monsignor Krzysztof Charamsa came out as gay, the Vatican is about to suffer another heavy blow. The documentary ‘Amores Santos’ (Sacred Loves), due out in January 2016, tells the story of the priests who lead double-lives, condemning homosexuality from the pulpit but then enjoying virtual gay sex as soon as they …

Italian Interior Minister Angelino Alfano has won a battle before Italy’s highest administrative court which will force mayors to remove foreign same-sex marriages from city registries. Last year Rome Mayor Ignazio Marino defied Italian law by registering 16 marriages conducted abroad and his action was followed by several other mayors. The Gazzetta del Sud reports: “Last year my circular banning …

“I still believe in my heart of hearts that our gay and lesbian communities are protected currently under the law. If there are cases that need to be brought, let’s bring them. I don’t know why they feel they need special protections when there are other categories that might need protections. My little experimentation over the last six years hasn’t …

From Houston Unites: We have a clear path to winning on Election Day and protecting Houston’s Equal Rights Ordinance (HERO)—we need to knock on 60,000 doors and keep two TV ads on the air this week. Right now there isn’t enough money in the bank account to cover these expenses. That’s why until Thursday at midnight, Houston’s Mayor Annise Parker …

From the New York Daily News: The Giants came out strong in support of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender athletes on Sunday with a star-studded video to help promote the You Can Play Project – an organization dedicated to the rights of LGBT coaches and athletes in sports. The video features six prominent Giants, including Victor Cruz and Prince Amukamara, …

The NAACP has endorsed the “Yes” side in Houston’s battle to retain its LGBT rights law. In related news, the leaders of 16 local churches yesterday took part in a “Souls To The Polls” campaign in which they urged their congregations to support HERO. Recent polls show the “Yes” side leading by a slim margin with a large percentage of …

Chris Johnson reports at the Washington Blade: Sen. Bernard Sanders isn’t the only one taking Hillary Clinton to task over her recent assertion that the Defense of Marriage Act was a “defensive” measure to prevent worse discrimination against LGBT people. A number of gay rights activists took to Twitter to say Clinton engaged in historic revisionism during her appearance Friday …

The chance of any advances for LGBT rights in Poland were dashed yesterday as an anti-LGBT right wing party won a commanding number of seats in Parliament. Reuters reports: Poland’s eurosceptic Law and Justice party (PiS) claimed victory on Sunday in a watershed election that risks putting the ex-communist state on a collision course with key European Union allies. Run …

Anti-gay television personality Jimmy Morales has been elected president of Guatemala in a landslide win against a former first lady. And according to Breitbart, that means television personality Donald Trump will probably beat a former first lady too. They write: Because worldwide political trends are often contagious, the outcome of Guatemala’s presidential election could have a serious effect on the …

On Thursday, Hillary Clinton told Rachel Maddow that her husband’s signing of the DOMA bill was a “defensive action” meant to ward off a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. Bernie Sanders isn’t having it. Via The Hill: “To my mind, I think the evidence is very, very clear that that legislation was anti-gay legislation, it was playing off the fears …

The Associated Press reports: April Miller and Karen Roberts stood before a minister Saturday night, hand-in-hand, and said the two words they fought for months to exchange. “I will.” The people packed into the room around them jumped into a standing ovation. They all wore matching rainbow buttons that read #LoveWins. The couple, the first denied a license by Kentucky …

Two Communist Party members of the DUMA have introduced a bill that would criminalize coming out. A note attached to the bill declares that gays were once executed in ancient Greece, so (presumably) they should just be glad that breaking the proposed law would only result in jail time. RT.com reports: Ivan Nikitchuk [inset] and Nikolay Arefyev want to amend …