Tag Archives: LGBT rights

New Version Of ENDA Cites DOMA For Definition Of Marriage

Democrats in Congress have reworked a plank of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) to allow employers to deny benefits to legally married gay couples in California and Massachusetts. ENDA now cites the Defense of Marriage Act in its definition of married couples recognized by the federal government. “It was unanimously agreed by all of us… that we had to put …

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Christianists Win, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal To End LGBT Job Protections

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal is allowing to a 2004 law that protects LGBT people from job discrimination to lapse, claiming (lying) that state and federal laws already protect people from being fired for being gay. Calling the executive order unnecessary, Gov. Bobby Jindal said Wednesday he would not reissue a ban on discriminating against gays and lesbians in the workplace. …

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CA Supes: Docs Must Treat Gays

In a unanimous ruling, the California Supreme Court has ruled that doctors cannot withhold care from gay people because they are personally opposed to homosexuality. Justice Joyce Kennard wrote that two Christian fertility doctors who refused to artificially inseminate a lesbian have neither a free speech right nor a religious exemption from the state’s law, which “imposes on business establishments …

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ACLU: Two Big LGBT Victories At Florida High Schools

The ACLU has bagged big victories on two different LGBT issues at Florida high schools. Victory One: At a rural Florida high school a federal judge has finally overruled the local school board and allowed the Gay-Straight Alliance to meet on campus. In a move the American Civil Liberties Union is calling “groundbreaking,” a federal judge has ruled in favor …

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McCain’s Anti-Gay Family Values

Yesterday John McCain appeared on This Week with George Stephanopolous where he flip-flopped back to his original position against gay adoption. Earlier this month McCain came out against gay adoption only to have his campaign backtrack later from that position. “Family values, family values, family values,” said the man with the spotless personal track record.

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Medicaid Benefits For MA Gays

Excellent news. Yesterday the Massachusetts house passed a bill approving equal Medicaid benefits for married gays. Gov. Deval Patrick is expected to sign the bill, which was passed by the state House on July 15. The lawmakers’ actions defy the federal Defense of Marriage Act, which bans legally wed same-sex couples from receiving federally provided benefits such as Medicaid, the …

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Pam Spaulding’s DNC Travel Fund

Pam Spaulding and her team of co-bloggers are among the very short list of LGBT activists on the Democratic National Convention committee’s list of officially invited bloggers. Pam’s House Blend is also the only blog with press credentials with a transgender blogger on its roster. Since the sanctioned bloggers have to pay their own way, please consider contributing to Pam’s …

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DADT Hearing Tomorrow

Fifteen years after it was enacted, tomorrow the House Military Personnel Subcommittee will meet to discuss repealing “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” Among those scheduled to testify are U.S. Army Major General Vance Coleman (Ret.), U.S. Navy Captain Joan E. Darrah (Ret.), and former Marine Staff Sgt. Eric F. Alva. “This hearing begins a conversation about the national security impact of …

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Orlando Subdivision: No Queers Allowed

Another bit of lovely news from my hometown. The tidy palm lined streets and affordable homes of the Rybolt Reserve subdivision in suburban Orlando have become popular with middle class homebuyers and speculators but if you are a gay or unmarried opposite-sex couple the Homeowners Association has a message – don’t bother to try to rent here according to some …

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McCain Backpedals On Gay Adoption

John McCain has softened his stance on gay adoption. Via his Director of Communications, Jill Hazelbaker: “McCain could have been clearer in the interview in stating that his position on gay adoption is that it is a state issue, just as he made it clear in the interview that marriage is a state issue. He was not endorsing any federal …

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PFLAG Pissed Over McCain’s Anti-Gay Adoption Comments

From Sunday’s New York Times interview with John McCain: Question: President Bush believes that gay couples should not be permitted to adopt children. Do you agree with that?Mr. McCain: I think that we’ve proven that both parents are important in the success of a family so, no I don’t believe in gay adoption.Q: Even if the alternative is the kid …

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Obama Comes Out Against CA Marriage Ban

Barack Obama has issued a letter to a San Francisco-based gay political group in which he states his opposition to the November ballot measure which would ban gay marriage in California. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, who previously said the issue of gay marriage should be left up to each state, has announced his opposition to a California ballot measure …

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Joe Bruno Announces Retirement

Oh, happy day! New York State Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno (R-Brunswick), long the greatest obstacle to getting LGBT rights advanced in the state, has announced that he will not seek reelection. Bruno’s decision will end a more than three-decade career that led him to become one of the most powerful men in state government, and the defacto leader of …

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Maine LGBT Rights Repeal Bid Fails

Another one for the win column! A conservative Christian group has given up its attempt to mount a referendum drive to wipe out all protections for LGBT citizens in Maine. The Christian Civic League of Maine in an e-mail to its supporters said that it was giving up because it has “neither enough funds nor enough volunteer support to continue …

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ACLU Launches “Blog Of Rights Symposium”

In recognition of Pride month, the ACLU has launched the Blog Of Rights Symposium, which features posts from many of the nation’s top LGBT bloggers. “We know that people’s attitudes about LGBT people are more likely to be supportive when they have had an opportunity to talk to LGBT people about what it means to be LGBT,” said Matt Coles, …

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Oregon LGBT Rights Repeal Fails

It’s a day for good news: Social conservatives and church groups are admitting defeat in their efforts to collect signatures for initiatives to repeal two Oregon gay rights laws in this November’s election. The campaigns were aimed at derailing a domestic partnership law and another new law banning discrimination based on sexual orientation. Both were enacted by the 2007 Legislature. …

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Marriage Equality For Norway

Norway, which first granted its LGBT citizens the right to civil unions way back in 1993, today legalized same-sex marriage. Members of Parliament in Norway today approved a bill that will allow same-sex couples to marry by 84 votes to 41. The new law will make marriage gender neutral. The Scandinavian country already allows gay and lesbian couples to enter …

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“Make Change, Not Lawsuits”

A broad coalition of nine major LGBT rights and legal groups have issued a joint statement asking out-of-state gay couples married in California NOT to then sue the federal government, their home states, or their employers for recognition of their marriage status. Four lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) legal organizations and five other leading national LGBT groups today issued …

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A Historic First, For The Second Time

This time, it will be legal. When same-sex marriages start at 5 p.m. June 16, San Francisco will stage a repeat of the ceremony that started the 2004 Winter of Love, when thousands of gay and lesbian couples married at City Hall. This time, though, Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon’s wedding will be legal. Mayor Gavin Newsom said Monday that …

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Brazil’s President Denounces Homophobia

Calling opposition to homosexuality a “perverse disease“, Brazil’s President Luiz Lula launched that country’s first ever national convention on LGBT rights. Brazilian President Luiz Lula had the First National Conference of Gays, Lesbians, Bisexuals, Transvestites and Transsexuals (GLBT), inaugurated by presidential decree, and called for “a time of reparation” in Brazil. Accompanied by six ministers, Lula exhorted all those opposed …

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