By Lisa Keen on April 26, 2012
A casual listener to U.S. Senate debate Thursday (April 26) would not have heard the skirmish over protections for LGBT victims of domestic abuse.
Posted in Congress, National Politics, News
By Lisa Keen on April 24, 2012
The U.S. Senate will try again this week to consider reauthorization of a law to prevent domestic abuse, but for weeks now, the routine, non-controversial law has been tied up in partisan disputes over new provisions, including one to eliminate discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
Posted in A closer look
By Lisa Keen on April 23, 2012
Republican presidential nominee apparent Mitt Romney has begun his run toward the political middle, and one aspect of that shift appears to have been the choosing an openly gay man to his team of campaign advisors.
Posted in Election 2012, Presidential 2012
By Lisa Keen on April 20, 2012
Less than three weeks before voters in North Carolina go to the polls to cast a vote on same-sex marriage early voting has begun, an embarrassing sex scandal involving the state Democratic Party has burst into the national media.
Posted in Election 2012, Presidential 2012
By Lisa Keen on April 18, 2012
A recent poll suggests that most Americans “trust” President Obama over Mitt Romney to “do a better job” at “dealing with social issues such as abortion and gay marriages,” but it’s not a big difference.
Posted in News Briefs
By Lisa Keen on April 18, 2012
The Obama administration revealed a political calculation last week: Now is not a good time to sign an executive order prohibiting discrimination against LGBT people who work for federal contractors.
There has been more than the usual expression of “disappointment” from various quarters, but not much more. The general tenor of comments reacting to the news on various gay and gay friendly news sites has been been “no one really gets everything they want,” “Rome wasn’t built in a day,” and “the President will probably have the same position as Mr. Romney.”
Posted in A closer look
By Lisa Keen on April 12, 2012
Longtime Democratic and lesbian activist Hilary Rosen was in the proverbial political hotseat this week over a critique she offered Wednesday night regarding Republican presidential nominee-apparent Mitt Romney.
Posted in Presidential 2012
By Lisa Keen on April 10, 2012
Former U.S. Senator Rick Santorum was one of the most virulently anti-gay candidates in the large field of Republican presidential wannabes who started out last year. And most political observers said early on and often that Santorum’s harsh positions against gays and same-sex marriage were dooming his chances to carry the GOP mantle into the general election where moderation wins votes.
Santorum stayed in the race, even as more viable Republican candidates dropped out and threw their support to the more moderate former Governor Mitt Romney.
But Santorum announced at a press conference Tuesday in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, that he was suspending his campaign. And in doing so, he gave a subtle nod to Romney.
Posted in News Briefs
By Lisa Keen on April 8, 2012
The seventh-floor courtroom of the U. S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in Boston was packed to capacity. An overflow room equipped with closed circuit TV was provided for those not arriving early enough—shortly after 8 a.m.—for seating in the En Banc Hearing Room at the John Joseph Moakley U.S. Courthouse on the Boston waterfront.
Posted in A closer look
By Lisa Keen on April 4, 2012
BOSTON — A three-judge panel in Boston heard oral arguments Wednesday (April 4) in the first challenge to the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) to reach a federal appeals court.
Posted in Marriage/Relationships, U.S. Circuit Courts
By Lisa Keen on April 4, 2012
Voters in Anchorage, Alaska, overwhelmingly rejected a ballot measure Tuesday that sought to add “sexual orientation” and “transgender identity” to the city’s human rights law.
With 102 of 121 precincts counted late last night, the vote on the measure, Proposition 5, was 58 percent to 42 percent, according to the city elections division.
Posted in News Briefs
By Chuck Colbert on April 1, 2012
When a panel of three judges on a federal appeals court hears arguments against the federal Defense of Marriage Act, three openly gay lawyers will argue the law is unconstitutional. Opposing them, one straight attorney.
Posted in Federal Courts, Marriage/Relationships
Ginsburg on Roe: Is it a signal she’d curb a decision on marriage?
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
President praises pro athlete Jason Collins for courage to come out
Rhode Island marriage bill clears final hurdle with all Republicans