2012
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By Lisa Keen on October 18, 2012
The ruling by a Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel was not a big surprise. But the panel’s related ruling—that laws should be held to a heightened standard of review when they treat people differently because of their sexual orientation—was news.
Posted in Marriage/Relationships, U.S. Circuit Courts
By Lisa Keen on October 11, 2012
Anti-gay activists opposing marriage equality for same-sex couples are counting in fives. They’re distributing videotapes to pastors laying out a five-step plan-of-action for each church. They’re distributing another video offering five reasons voters should defeat marriage equality ballot measures at the polls. And they’ve got their eyes on five votes November 6: four statewide ballot measures and one Iowa Supreme Court justice up for a retention vote. Here’s how things are stacking up:
Posted in A closer look
By Lisa Keen on October 4, 2012
A CNN poll of 430 people who watched the first presidential debate Wednesday night found that 47 percent said the debate would not likely affect their vote. But 35 percent said the debate made them more likely to vote for Republican Mitt Romney and only 18 percent said it would make them more likely to vote for President Obama.
There was relatively little to change the minds of LGBT voters in the debate. No questions concerning LGBT issues were posed but President Obama made a direct reference to one.
Posted in News Briefs
By Lisa Keen on October 3, 2012
After trailing a popular former governor for weeks, U.S. Rep. Tammy Baldwin has now edged into the lead for the U.S. Senate seat from Wisconsin.
Posted in Election 2012, Senate
By Lisa Keen on October 1, 2012
On its first official day of the 2012-13 session, the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday did not include the Proposition 8 case on the list of cases it would or would not review.
Posted in Marriage/Relationships, U.S. Supreme Court
By Lisa Keen on September 27, 2012
Perhaps the most historic U.S. Supreme Court session ever for the LGBT community gets underway officially October 1, with a record nine gay-related cases seeking review, all involving same-sex marriage.
Posted in A closer look
By Lisa Keen on September 12, 2012
The presidential finish line is eight weeks off, and there’s little indication that the LGBT vote in this year’s presidential election will divide up any differently than it has in the past several: 3 to 1 for the Democrat. But it is not an entirely civil divide.
Posted in Election 2012, Presidential 2012
By Lisa Keen on July 3, 2012
It’s not a surprise, but it is news: House Speaker John Boehner and his colleagues in the Republican leadership have given the go-ahead for an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court in hopes of preserving the Defense of Marriage Act –DOMA.
Posted in News Briefs
By Lisa Keen on June 28, 2012
In a dramatic move with significant political and economic implications, a majority of the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday (June 28) voted to uphold President Obama’s landmark health care reform law.
Posted in Federal Courts, U.S. Supreme Court
By Lisa Keen on June 14, 2012
Opposition to ENDA –the Employment Non-Discrimination Act– was all about the bathrooms in the last Congressional session. This time around, it’s about religion.
National Religious Broadcasters Association spokesman Craig Parshall told the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor & Pensions Tuesday (June 12) that ENDA would impose a “chilling effect” on religious organizations that would be monumental. He said ENDA poses a “substantial unconstitutional burden” on religious organizations that would “interfere with their ability to pursue their missions.”
Posted in News Briefs
By Lisa Keen on June 13, 2012
President Obama has been greeted with thunderous ovations and thousands of dollars in LGBT contributions since his May 9 announcement that he supports allowing same-sex couples to marry.
Posted in A closer look
By Lisa Keen on June 7, 2012
For the second time in a week, a federal court has declared the core section of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) to be unconstitutional.
Judge Barbara Jones of the U.S. District Court for Southern New York, which includes Manhattan, issued a ruling Wednesday (June 6), saying DOMA violates the constitution’s guarantee of equal protection when it requires a same-sex spouse to pay a federal estate tax that heterosexual spouses are exempt from.
Posted in News Briefs
By Lisa Keen on June 5, 2012
A glimmer of politics showed through Tuesday (June 5) when the full 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals declined a request from supporters of California’s ban on same-sex marriage to review a circuit panel’s decision that Proposition 8 is unconstitutional.
Posted in Marriage/Relationships, U.S. Circuit Courts
By Lisa Keen on May 31, 2012
A unanimous three-judge panel of the First Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled today (Thursday, May 31) that the core part of the Defense of Marriage Act, barring federal recognition of marriages of same-sex couples, is unconstitutional.
Posted in Marriage/Relationships, U.S. Circuit Courts
By Lisa Keen on May 30, 2012
Lambda Legal Defense and the ACLU filed separate lawsuits Wednesday (May 30), seeking the right to marry for same-sex couples in Illinois.
Posted in News Briefs
By Lisa Keen on May 24, 2012
The Obama campaign Wednesday (May 23) said it would be making a determined effort to turn out LGBT Americans in November “regardless of their political affiliation.”
Jamie Citron, National LGBT Vote Director for the Obama for America re-election campaign, made the statement Wednesday (May 23) during a telephone press conference with reporters. Citron introduced outgoing Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese as co-chairman of the LGBT arm of the Obama for America campaign.
Posted in News Briefs
By Lisa Keen on May 23, 2012
A New Jersey state judge Monday (May 21) sentenced the Rutgers student convicted of a bias crime in relation to the suicide death of his gay dorm roommate to 30 days in jail, 300 hours of community service, and a $10,000 fine.
Posted in News Briefs
By Lisa Keen on May 22, 2012
Saying that the NAACP has “always stood against laws that demean, dehumanize, and discriminate against people,” NAACP Board Chairman Roslyn Brock formally announced Monday (May 21) the board’s vote in favor of a resolution supporting marriage equality.
Posted in Marriage/Relationships
By Lisa Keen on May 16, 2012
Despite a warning that President Obama may exercise his veto power, the U.S. House Wednesday (May 16) approved a version of the Violence Against Women Act that omits provisions, approved in the Senate, to help LGBT victims of domestic violence.
Posted in Congress, National Politics, White House
By Lisa Keen on May 15, 2012
It has been a dizzying week for same-sex marriage.
Consider this: The front cover of Newsweek magazine on Monday (May 14) carried a photograph of President Obama with the caption “The First Gay President.” The president appeared on a nationally televised group talk show to discuss his position. Republican presidential nominee-apparent Mitt Romney reiterated his opposition to allowing gays to marry at a speech before Jerry Falwell’s university. The Washington Post ran a well-sourced story reporting that, in high school, Romney had led an assault on a fellow student that many believed to be gay.
Posted in A closer look
Minnesota: Where the push for a marriage license began
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