Tag Archives: LGBT rights

Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell says he sees no need to re-implement his predecessor’s ban on discrimination against LGBT state employees. Because there’s no evidence that it happens. Gov. Bob McDonnell said today that Virginia does not need to write protections for gays and lesbians into state statute because he has not seen evidence of discrimination in the state workforce. Breaking …

Dan Savage reports that the same Mississippi high school that canceled Constance McMillen’s prom also kicked out a trans student on his first day. Juin Baize was a student at Itawamba Agricultural—for a grand total of four hours. Baize, his mother, and his two sisters moved to Fulton, Mississippi, from New Harmony, Indiana, to live with Baize’s grandmother at the …

Defense Secretary Robert Gates has just announced changes to the enforcement of DADT which go into effect immediately. ”I believe these changes represent an important improvement in the way the current law is put into practice, above all by providing a greater measure of common sense and common decency for handling what are complex and difficult issues for all involved,” …

“A more humane enforcement and application”? It looks like third-party outings may be ignored going forward, but the new policy will not apply retroactively to those vindictively outed by others.

Only yesterday we were cheering the news that Derrick Martin’s Georgia high school had approved his request to bring a male date to the prom. But now his parents have kicked him out of the house. Derrick is staying with a friend for now, but has been getting kind messages of support from the LGBT community. Many gay-rights activists are …

In Italy you can now be fined for calling someone gay if you mean it in an insulting way. Italian gays are debating whether that’s a good thing. Is it an insult to call somebody gay? That is the question Italians are pondering as they await a pivotal court decision on gay marriage expected this week. Last week, in an …

Remember how we all groaned when a DC wedding planner announced that he would stage a world’s record group gay wedding featuring “up to 400 couples”? Fortunately, things didn’t quite go down as planned, robbing the Christian right of years of material. Via Advocate: A group of 10 gay and lesbian couples in Washington, D.C. wed on Saturday at an …

When a tiny group of LGBT activists in Bulgaria attempted to protest a new law banning open displays of homosexuality, they were surrounding and intimidated by almost 100 skinheads. Six activists of the youth organization “Lesbians, Gay, Bi- and Transgender in Action” arrived to the city of Pazardzhik from Sofia in order to protest an order to local City Council …

“Openness about sexuality helps to destroy the foundation for prejudice and discrimination. One day there will be a big parliamentary apology to gay people for the oppression that was forced on them and the inequalities that were maintained in the law well beyond their use-by date. Just like the delayed 2008 apology to the Aboriginal people of our country. “I …

The appellate division of the New York Supreme Court has ruled that the state may annul civil unions made in other jurisdictions. The case involved a lesbian couple that was civil unioned in Vermont seven years ago. They had been told they’d have to live in Vermont for one year before the state could make their separation legal. ”Today, the …

The attempt to place a marriage equality repeal resolution before every town council in New Hampshire has been judged a failure after an overwhelming majority of the state’s municipalities refused to take part or voted the resolution down. Gay & Lesbian Advocates and Defenders (GLAD) exults via press release: New Hampshire citizens this month said no to an anti-equality campaign …

Yesterday Lambda Legal filed suit in the New Jersey Supreme Court arguing that the state had failed to comply with a 2006 ruling from the Court requiring that gay couples be treated the same as straight couples. “We come back to the court to turn equal rights on paper to equal rights in the real,” said Hayley Gorenberg, Lambda Legal’s …

Reichen Lehmkuhl appears in a new campaign from the Open Artist Movement along the lines of the NOH8 photo series. We Can Do It! is a photo campaign to build solidarity and personal strength through positive messaging. The goal is to bring to life modern iconic individuals, by depicting them as powerful and not victims in support of the global …

Members of new activist group GetEQUAL is preparing to sit-in today at House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s offices in San Francisco and DC. Follow on Twitter at #GetENDA and #GetEqual.

LGBT bloggers and allies are today coordinating a national blog swarm, asking readers to contact their members of Congress and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to demand the passage of ENDA. The Bilerico Project’s Dr. Jillian Weiss is leading today’s charge. The Employment Non-Discrimination Act, first introduced in 1994, would prohibit job discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. But …

A California magistrate has ruled that the good guys in Perry vs. Schwarzenegger must submit all of their internal documents, the same condition imposed on Protect Marriage at the start of the trial. (Protect Marriage sent out a triumphant press release about this on Monday.) But the ACLU and others don’t want to comply and this may delay a decision …

For the first time in 33 years, yesterday the issue of gay adoption was debated on the floor of the Florida Senate. Florida is the only state with a specific prohibition on gay adoption. Two legislators attempted to attach amendments legalizing gay adoption to a bill that would ban restrictions on adoption for people with guns in their homes, but …

Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli was recorded discussing how to strike down federal laws signed by the president on the basis on his not being a U.S. citizen. Cuccinelli recently ordered state universities to rescind their LGBT employment protections.