Tag Archives: LGBT rights

UPS Ships 2nd Class To Gay Employees

UPS is refusing to grant spousal benefits to gay couples who have civil unioned in New Jersey, saying that they can only do so for couples that are married, as the company does for married gay employees in Massachusetts. UPS joins a growing list of New Jersey companies refusing to recognize state law requiring full benefits be granted to the …

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Gay Adoption Rights Advance Nationwide

Time Magazine on gay adoption: While adopted children in gay and lesbian homes were scarce a couple of decades ago, they now number 65,000, or more than 4% of adopted children in the U.S., according to a new study by the Williams Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles, and Washington’s Urban Institute. Almost 2% of the nation’s 3 …

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LA Is Sorry, So Sorry

In what one city council member called “a major hit to the city’s budget”, a Los Angeles jury yesterday awarded black lesbian firefighter Brenda Lee $6.2M in her discrimination suit against that city’s fire department. Lee returns to court today while the jury considers punitive damages, which could ratchet the award much higher. Earlier this year, a straight male coworker …

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Too Butch For The Ladies Room

A butch lesbian was ejected from a West Village restaurant after last week’s Pride parade for using the ladies room. Khadijah Farmer, 27, was confronted in the restroom of the Caliente Cab Company by the restaurant’s bouncer, who escorted her back to her table and forced her party to pay their tab and leave. Farmer, who says she is occasionally …

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Just Asking

From a blind item in today’s Page Six column: “Just asking: Which members of the State Assembly are in trouble with their gay children because they voted no on the same-sex marriage bill? A Queens member was chewed out by her lesbian daughter, and a Brooklyn member was tongue-lashed by his fashion designer son.” Does anybody know who these legislators …

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Dubya: More Pointless Hate

Our ignoble leader is threatening to veto the federal budget for Washington, DC unless a provision is reinserted to prevent DC from using any of the money for its domestic partners registry. Most of the money to operate the District of Columbia comes from local taxes but about 25% comes from a $120M federal appropriation. When the Democrats took over …

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Poll: 77% Of Republicans Support ENDA

The Log Cabin Republicans have released the results of a poll they consponsored which appears to show broad support for gay rights among Republicans, including a 77% support for ENDA. According to the poll, 48% support the repeal of DADT, 43% support gay marriage or civil unions, and 55% agree with the statement “the Republican Party has spent too much …

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HRC Launches Blog

The Human Rights Campaign has launched a blog called Back Story, where you can find up-to-the-minute information about their various projects. Chris Johnson, Back Story’s lead writer, has long been my primary contact at the HRC, tipping me off to the latest on what’s going on with their efforts on behalf of hate crimes legislation, marriage equality, etc. Good luck, …

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HomoQuotable – Daniel O’Donnell

“I want a license that all of you have; some of you have had it two or three times.” New York State Assemblyman Daniel O’Donnell (D-Upper West Side), whose humorous and passionate speech to the Assembly last week is being credited with swaying enough legislators to make New York the second state (after California) to have a legislative body approve …

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Eggs & Excrement At Jerusalem Pride

Jerusalem’s Pride parade was this morning, where marchers encountered hundreds of Haredi, Israel’s bizarre Ultra Othodox sect, who arrived with eggs and bags of human excrement to hurl. Just before the parade kicked off, police arrested a 32-year old man carrying a bomb which he said he’d planned to detonate near the parade to “scare people away.” Two hundred Haredi …

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A Global Swell Of Anti-Gay Hate

What a strange Pride Month it has been so far for LGBT folks around the world. On the sort of plus side, Colombia tried but failed to grant gay couple similar rights to those of straight couples and Costa Rica is contemplating a similar attempt. On the downside, we’ve got Russia with banned Pride marches, violence against gays, and an …

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Bishop Harry Jackson Takes Out
Anti-Matthew Shepard Act Ads

Bishop Harry Jackson: “Gay activists around the country are getting nervous that they are about to experience an embarrassing political setback. Instead of amending the hate crimes legislation that protects churches in a substantive way, they are simply crying out in a louder, more threatening manner. Gay advocates are not looking for fairness; they are looking for an upper hand. …

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HomoQuotable- Matthew Titone

“I have my partner here on the phone and he just asked me to marry him. My answer, Madam Speaker, is yes.” – New York State Assemblyman Matthew Titone (D-Staten Island), cellphone in his hand, moments after the Assembly passed its same sex marriage bill. The chamber gave Titone a round of applause. One day after passing through the Assembly …

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NY Marriage Bill Clears First Obstacle

The bill to legalize same-sex marriage made it out of New York State Assembly’s judiciary committee today, passing 16-5. The bill must now make it past the rules committee before it is put up to a general vote on the Assembly floor. Over on the state Senate side, majority leader Joseph Bruno (R) has said many times that he will …

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Marriage Equality Preserved In Mass.

UPDATE: I neglected to mention that the vote below was much closer than it seems, as only 50 “yes” votes were needed to get the measure on the ballot. My apologies. In a 151-45 vote, Massachusetts legislators just voted “NO” to putting an anti-gay marriage amendment up to a statewide vote in 2008. Putting the amendment on the ballot would …

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Pride’07 Launches

Pride Magazine 2007, the 10th annual issue of the official publication of gay pride nationwide, has shipped to gayborhoods, LGBT organizations, and local pride committees all over the country. Published in partnership with InterPride, the mentoring, networking, and education coalition of gay pride committees worldwide, by this weekend you will find Pride’07 stacked ass-high from Chelsea to Castro. Contact your …

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Gay Protest At NYC Russian Consulate

With Russian news cameras rolling, rainbow flag creator Gilbert Baker and gay activist Brendan Fay poured Stolichnaya vodka into the street in front of New York City’s Russian consulate in protest of the treatment of Russian gays by their government. Under the wary eye of the NYPD (who did NOT want to be photographed) and U.S. State Department operatives (the …

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Russian Embassy Protests Today

UPDATE: This post has been updated above, with photos. Late notice, but there’s a vigil taking place today at the Russian embassies in New York (noon) and San Francisco (4pm) in protest of the treatment of gay pride marchers at last week’s Moscow Pride event. Protesters intend to pour Stolichnaya vodka into the sewers in front of each embassy. Nikolai …

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Anti-Gay Wingnut To Be Surgeon General

President Bush has nominated an anti-gay religious whack-job to be U.S. Surgeon General. Dr. James Holsinger, the man to be put in charge of the health of all Americans, runs a little side project with his wife called Hope Springs Community Church in Lexington, Kentucky, where in addition to helping those with alcohol and drug problems, he ministers to people …

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Unharmonious

A California lesbian is suing dating site eHarmony.com for discrimination because it does not offer any not-hetero options. Linda Carlson is citing California law that prohibits sexual orientation discrimination in business and is moving to make hers a class-action suit, with a jury trial and unspecified damages requested. Recently, competing dating site Chemistry.com launched a widely praised ad that mocked …

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