Tag Archives: LGBT rights

The Guardian reports: Two weeks after she put herself at odds with her father, the country’s former prime minister, with a post on Instagram, Frances Abbott has appeared in an advert calling on Australians to back marriage equality in the country’s non-binding, voluntary survey. “You can’t help who you fall in love with. Love just happens sometimes and it’s unexpected …

Via press release: Today, HRC hailed the Birmingham City Council for passing city-wide non-discrimination protections that include sexual orientation and gender identity in housing, public accommodations and employment. This ordinance is the culmination of more than ten years of work from local LGBTQ grassroots organizers and a pro-equality coalition including Equality Alabama and HRC. “Today, the City of Birmingham made …

The Australian reports: Two women have locked lips on stage during an anti-same sex marriage event in Melbourne, disrupting a “no” campaigner’s speech. The protesters kept kissing as they were dragged from the stage by security at the Coalition for Marriage’s Victorian campaign launch on Saturday night. Australian Christian Lobby chief Lyle Shelton shared a video of the incident on …

The Guardian reports: The man charged with assaulting Tony Abbott has denied the alleged attack had anything to do with the same-sex marriage postal vote. Hobart DJ Astro “Funknukl” Labe, 38, was charged with one count of common assault on Friday over an alleged attack on the Hobart waterfront on Thursday afternoon. Labe was wearing a rainbow “yes” badge when …

ABC News Australia reports: The staff of a Launceston pizza shop have altered the meaning of an anti-same-sex-marriage billboard next to their business, a day after a Hobart hotel distanced itself from a billboard atop its premises. Employees at Wiseguise Pizza, in the suburb of Mowbray, started painting the brick wall adjacent to the “It’s OK to say no” sign, …

And Teabistan explodes. From the right wing Free Beacon: Daytime talk show host Ellen DeGeneres said she would not have President Donald Trump as a guest on her show because she feels he is “dangerous” to the country and the world. “I would not have him on my show,” she said without hesitation. “You know, he is who he is, …

Finally some good news out of the Philippines. ABS-CBN News reports: The House of Representatives on Wednesday approved on third and final reading a bill that aims to protect the rights of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community. Lawmakers voted 198-0 in favor of House Bill No. 4982 or the Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity and Expression Equality …

The Minneapolis Star-Tribune reports: A St. Cloud couple will not be able to refuse wedding videography services for same-sex couples after a federal judge on Wednesday dismissed their lawsuit challenging Minnesota’s human rights laws. In a 63-page ruling, Chief U.S. District Judge John Tunheim wrote that a provision of the Minnesota Human Rights Act (MHRA) prohibiting discrimination by businesses was …

Via press release: The National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR) won the Arizona Supreme Court case, McLaughlin v. McLaughlin, which ruled that a woman was the legal parent of the child she and her same-sex spouse conceived through assisted reproduction during their marriage. As the Arizona Supreme Court recognized, the U.S. Supreme Court rulings in Obergefell v. Hodges and Pavan …

Gay Star News reports: Skywriting appeared over Sydney today to encourage Australians to ‘Vote No’ to marriage equality. Australians are currently voting in a expensive and divisive postal vote on same-sex marriage. They have until 27 October to post their votes back, with results announced 15 November. But the ‘No’ campaign ramped up their attempts to sway people against same-sex …

Via press release from Christian Newswire: The Foundation for Moral Law, a Montgomery nonprofit corporation dedicated to the defense of the Constitution as written and intended by its Framers and to the free exercise of religion, has filed an amicus brief with the United States Supreme Court in defense of a Colorado bakery and its owner. A gay couple filed …

The Guardian reports: A robocall asking Australians their opinion about the same-sex marriage postal survey has suggested that marriage equality may lead to “radical gay sex education” and threats to freedom of speech and religion. The poll, which was first reported by social media users on Tuesday night, stated that it was conducted by the Republican-linked American pollster WPA Intelligence. …

Last night the Birmingham News, Alabama’s largest newspaper, posted a blistering video attack on Roy Moore which compares him to notorious racist George Wallace and ticks off some of Moore’s nastiest attacks on LGBT Americans. The video’s narrator, columnist Kyle Whitmire, flatly declares, “Roy Moore hates gay people and it’s worth taking a moment to see how much.” Whitmire then …

Reuters reports: The alarming volume of hate-speech during Australia’s ballot over whether to legalize same-sex marriage spurred parliament to pass emergency legislation on Wednesday to outlaw opponents spewing their vitriol while the vote was in progress. Australia began a non-compulsory postal vote on Tuesday that will determine whether it becomes the 25th country to legalize same-sex marriage. But with an …

Posted tonight to President Obama’s Facebook page: America’s long journey towards equality has been guided by countless small acts of persistence, and fueled by the stubborn willingness of quiet heroes to speak out for what’s right. Few were as small in stature as Edie Windsor – and few made as big a difference to America. I had the privilege to …

From the ACLU: Today, we lost one of this country’s great civil rights pioneers, Edie Windsor. The wheels of progress turn forward because of people like Edie who are willing to stand up in the face of injustice. One simply cannot write the history of the gay rights movement without reserving immense credit and gratitude for Edie Windsor. We were …

The New York Times reports: Edith Windsor, the gay-rights activist whose landmark Supreme Court case struck down the Defense of Marriage Act in 2013 and granted same-sex married couples federal recognition for the first time and rights to myriad federal benefits, died on Tuesday in Manhattan. She was 88. Her wife, Judith Kasen-Windsor, confirmed the death but did not specify …

The BBC reports: Australian political leaders, including Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, have come out in support of a campaign for same-sex marriage. More than 20,000 people gathered in Sydney to campaign ahead of a non-binding postal vote on changing Australia’s marriage act. Mr Turnbull made a surprise appearance and speech at the launch of the New South Wales Yes campaign. …

Via press release from the ACLU: The Justice Department filed a brief today with the Supreme Court arguing that businesses that are open to the public have a constitutional right to discriminate against LGBT people. The brief was filed in Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission, the case in which a Colorado bakery refused to serve a same-sex couple …

The Hill reports: House and Senate Republicans are throwing their support behind the owner of a Colorado cake shop who refused to make a cake for a same-sex wedding in a case headed to the Supreme Court. GOP lawmakers announced plans Thursday to send an amicus brief on behalf of Jack Phillips, the owner of Masterpiece Cakeshop. Phillips is challenging …