January 2012
You are browsing the archive for January 2012.
By Lisa Keen on January 31, 2012
In a speech before a national LGBT conference on Saturday (January 28), U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan said President Obama views the fight for LGBT equality “not as an issue, but as a priority.”
Posted in National Politics
By Lisa Keen on January 30, 2012
Lambda Legal Defense argued before the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals Wednesday, January 25, that the Atlanta Police Department violated the rights of a man with HIV who applied to join the force. Lambda HIV Project Director Scott Schoettes, who argued on behalf of the anonymous plaintiff before a three-judge panel January 25, said Roe v. Atlanta tests under what circumstances HIV can be considered a “direct threat” and who has the burden of proving it—the employer or the employee.
Posted in News Briefs
By Lisa Keen on January 26, 2012
Equality Maine and its supporters announced Thursday (January 26) that they will submit more than 105,000 signatures to the Secretary of State to put on the ballot in November a measure seeking to establish marriage equality for same-sex couples.
Posted in News Briefs
By Lisa Keen on January 26, 2012
There was no breaking news on Thursday morning’s “White House Chat” with the LGBT community, but the questions posed were probably a good barometer of what many in the community believe President Obama should be doing in 2012.
Posted in News Briefs
By Lisa Keen on January 25, 2012
The battle lines between the constitutional right to free exercise of religion and laws prohibiting discrimination are seeing some action at the U.S. Supreme Court these days.
Posted in News, U.S. Supreme Court
By Lisa Keen on January 24, 2012
While there was only one direct reference to anything gay in President Obama’s third State of the Union address, the speech and a large number of White House activities surrounding it were inclusive of gays.
Posted in National Politics, Presidential 2012, White House
By Lisa Keen on January 24, 2012
Colonel Ginger Wallace, an openly lesbian intelligence officer in the U.S. Air Force, will be one of two openly gay people in the First Lady’s gallery seats tonight, when President Obama delivers his State of the Union address for 2012.
The second openly gay guest is Lorelei Kilker, an environmental chemist who was part of the government’s class action suit to secure equal wages for women.
Posted in News Briefs
By Lisa Keen on January 22, 2012
Three different contests, three different winners, and none of the remaining four major candidates for the Republican presidential nomination has a record of supporting equal rights for gays.
But the candidate who described laws banning sexual orientation discrimination as “religious bigotry”—Newt Gingrich—won Saturday’s South Carolina primary. Now, he must slug it out in Florida against Iowa caucus winner Rick Santorum and New Hampshire primary winner Mitt Romney.
Posted in News Briefs
By Chuck Colbert on January 20, 2012
A group of nearly 40 conservative religious leaders released an open letter this month (January 12) that seeks to reframe the battle over same-sex civil marriage as a threat to their freedom of religion.
Posted in Marriage/Relationships
By Lisa Keen on January 20, 2012
Newt Gingrich’s combativeness at a debate in South Carolina Thursday night worked the live audience into a frenzy of standing ovations at the very start of the two-hour event. The audience cheered wildly and stood several times as Gingrich ripped into CNN moderator John King for doing something Gingrich said he found “as despicable as anything I can imagine.”
What did John King do?
Posted in News Briefs
By Lisa Keen on January 18, 2012
The South Carolina primary has distinguished itself in the past by bringing out the worst in campaign tactics. So it is no surprise that this week, some Republican contenders accused supporters of Rick Santorum of rigging a consensus vote by evangelical leaders.
Posted in Election 2012, Presidential 2012
By Dana Rudolph on January 18, 2012
Pro-active efforts got underway this month to establish marriage equality in at least three more states. After a 2011 that saw marriage equality become reality in the most populous state yet and the Obama administration issuing a major statement against the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), 2012 could do even better.
Posted in A closer look
By Lisa Keen on January 17, 2012
Endorsements can work two ways: They can draw support to a candidate or repel it. In the GOP primary campaigns, there are both.
Posted in News Briefs
By Lisa Keen on January 12, 2012
The Canadian Department of Justice told a court in Ontario this week that a lesbian couple from the U.S. and England who obtained a marriage license there in 2005 should not be granted a divorce now because they were not legally married in Canada.
Posted in Law, Marriage/Relationships
By Lisa Keen on January 10, 2012
The New Hampshire primary results took anti-gay Republican presidential hopeful Rick Santorum down several notches Tuesday night and boosted the more progressive Jon Huntsman up a few.
Many pundits are now all but assuming Mitt Romney —who came out on top in Iowa and New Hampshire— will be the Republican nominee to challenge President Obama in the general election. But Republican voter support still seems dramatically split among several candidates, a trend that could easily continue in the next primaries, South Carolina on January 21, and Florida on January 31.
Posted in News Briefs
By Lisa Keen on January 8, 2012
After spending eight minutes discussing gay-related issues Saturday night, the six remaining major candidates for the Republican presidential nomination were asked about the issues once again Sunday morning. Frontrunner Mitt Romney said he would not suggest that gays don’t have “full rights” but continued to oppose allowing gays to obtain a marriage license. Challenger Rick Santorum said he would be “a voice in speaking out for making sure that every person in America, gay or straight, is treated with respect and dignity and has equality of opportunity.” And second-place contender Ron Paul urged candidates to stop referring to “gay rights,” as if such a thing exists separate and different from civil rights generally.
Posted in News Briefs
By Lisa Keen on January 8, 2012
The audience in New Hampshire listening to Saturday night’s debate grew noisily restless with reporters’ questions about the right to privacy as it regards contraception. But when the topic became same-sex marriage, they seemed to be listening more quietly –at least until Newt Gingrich claimed that questions about gay marriage belie the news media’s bias against religions.
Posted in News Briefs
By Lisa Keen on January 7, 2012
Republican Rick Santorum is not the most anti-gay candidate running in the presidential primary in the New Hampshire Tuesday. A candidate on the Democratic side is.
Posted in News Briefs
By Lisa Keen on January 6, 2012
Significant events are crowding the calendar for 2012, and each promises considerable drama and suspense for the LGBT community. Here are the ten most important to keep an eye on:
Posted in A closer look
By Lisa Keen on January 6, 2012
Republican presidential hopeful Rick Santorum is being challenged more frequently now about his anti-gay positions, including by conservative media.
In a live interview Wednesday, Fox News host Bill O’Reilly warned Santorum that he would be “demonized” nationally because “some of your positions are extreme, according to the polls.” And, in front of a college-age audience Thursday, he appeared frustrated by the resistance to his ideas on same-sex marriage.
Posted in News Briefs
Ginsburg on Roe: Is it a signal she’d curb a decision on marriage?
Immigration bill advances without provisions for same-sex couples
Leahy submits language to help bi-national same-sex couples
Delaware votes for marriage equality; becomes 11th state to make it the law
Rhode Island marriage law signed; Two more states could vote next week