Tag Archives: White House

Ben Smith reports at Politico: The gay soldiers arrested outside the White House protesting “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” will announce today that they’re demanding that President Obama testify in their trial on minor civil disobedience charges. Their novel argument: Obama himself called on gay rights advocates to pressure him, so they were just following orders. “Don’t Ask” has energized gay …

Things are scheduled to begin at 6pm DC time. UPDATE: The president spoke for about ten minutes, during which he renewed his pledges to overturn DADT and DOMA, and to work towards the passage of ENDA. I’ll post a clip of his speech here once it goes up on the White House’s YouTube channel. What did you think? UPDATE II: …

“Could it be that [Elana] Kagan is ex-gay? That would explain the White House insistence on Kagan’s heterosexuality and Kagan’s silence about her past sexual preference. As an ex-gay myself, I sympathize with Kagan and the Obama administration. I have had to face taunts, threats, and phone calls to my employer demanding that I be fired. There is no hate …

Lesbian teen Constance McMillen has been invited to join a select group of activists at a White House reception tomorrow to celebrate LGBT Pride Month. The White House confirmed Friday that Obama will host the event and is expected to deliver brief remarks. After the prom controversy, McMillen said, she faced a hostile environment from her peers and transferred out …

You can’t fire her, she quits! Veteran reporter Helen Thomas has announced her retirement after enduring several days of blistering criticism for saying that Jews should leave Israel and return to their home countries. Thomas, 89, has been a member of the White House press corp for 50 years and has reported extensively on every president since John F. Kennedy. …

The White House has issued a brief to the Supreme Court backing the Vatican’s claim that they should be immune from child molestation lawsuits brought in the United States. The Supreme Court is considering an appeal by the Vatican of an appellate court ruling that lifted its immunity in the case of an alleged pedophile priest from Oregon. In a …

Defense Secretary Robert Gates has issued a lukewarm endorsement of the DADT compromised reached yesterday by the White House and Congress. “Secretary Gates continues to believe that ideally the DOD review should be completed before there is any legislation to repeal the Don’t Ask Don’t Tell law,” Gates’ spokesman Geoff Morrell emailed journalists this morning. “With Congress having indicated that …

Earlier today White House officials met with LGBT groups to hammer out a compromise agreement on attaching a repeal of DADT as an amendment to a pending Defense authorization bill. Following the meeting, the White House for the first time endorsed the amendment attempt. While some see lots of holes in the compromise, most LGBT and progressive groups are responding …

Kerry Eleveld reports at the Advocate on some breaking news about DADT: The Advocate has learned that concurrent meetings took place Monday morning at the White House and on Capitol Hill that could help clear the way for “don’t ask, don’t tell” repeal to be attached to the Department of Defense authorization bill later this week. LGBT groups met with …

Today the White House strongly denounced the sentencing of a gay Malawi couple to 14 years of hard labor merely for holding an engagement ceremony. “The United States strongly condemns the conviction and harsh sentencing of Steven Monjeza and Tiwonge Chimbalanga in Malawi. The criminalization of sexual orientation and gender identity is unconscionable, and this case mars the human rights …

Today’s DADT rally is underway outside the White House, where Howard Dean has joined the protesters. Photos via Twitter. Follow along at #DADT.

The president opened with a dig at Joe Biden’s recent F-bomb then segued into a joke about his supposed Kenyan nationality. Pretty good stuff overall. Jay Leno, not so much.

This afternoon Defense Secretary told Congress not to attempt to vote to repeal DADT until the Pentagon has completed its study. The letter was co-signed by Joint Chiefs Chairman Mike Mullen. Both men have testified in favor of lifting the ban, eventually. In a sharply worded letter, Gates said he believes the Defense Department must be allowed to review the …

The Advocate’s Kerry Eleveld reports that the White House may have made the decision not to pursue a 2010 repeal of DADT as early as February, yet the president still pledged its repeal this year during his State Of The Union address. Early in the year, multiple sources say some administration officials counseled the president against acting on the military’s …

The six GetEQUAL activists who yesterday chained themselves to the White House fence will be arraigned today. Among those arrested was Lt. Dan Choi and transgender activist (and Pam’s House Blend blogger) Autumn Sandeen, a retired 20 year veteran of the Navy. Below is CBS’ raw video of the arrests. (Via – Towleroad)

Lt. Dan Choi gave a brief statement (video below) shortly before he and five other GetEQUAL activists were arrested for chaining themselves to the White House fence today. John Aravosis reports that the media was NOT very happy with how they were handled by police and White House security. After the vets had been at the fence for around half …

Good As You has the first word on an action taking place at this writing at the White House. Advocate reporter Kerry Eleveld is tweeting from the scene. More on this as it becomes available. UPDATE: GetEQUAL sends the following press release. Moments ago, Lt. Dan Choi along with five other lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) discharged veterans — …

Following up today’s earlier press release from Lt. Dan Choi, the new activist group GetEQUAL has announced a May 2nd protest at the White House. On May 2nd, at noon a crowd of impassioned protesters will gather outside The White House to let President Obama know that they demand immediate repeal of the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell (DADT) policy that …

The Secret Service and DC police are on the scene this afternoon as Lt. Dan Choi (above) and others are chaining themselves to the White House’s fence to protest Obama’s inaction on DADT. Story developing, I’ll add to this post shortly. Follow along at Twitter at the hashtag #DADT. UPDATE: Arrests are being made. The person below is being identified …