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 Lisa Keen on March 30, 2012
North Carolina will vote on a proposed marriage ban May 8, when they go to the polls for the Republican and Democratic presidential primaries. And a recent survey indicates that most are likely to approve a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage. But that survey also shows that two-thirds of those people don’t really understand what they’re voting for.
Posted in News Briefs
By Lisa Keen on March 29, 2012
Lesbian attorney Karen Golinski can now get health coverage for her spouse, but no other federal employee can so Lambda Legal’s lawsuit challenging the Defense of Marriage Act in the Ninth Circuit continues.
Posted in News Briefs
By Lisa Keen on March 29, 2012
A political ad on the airwaves in Anchorage, Alaska, claims that a day care center would be forced to hire a “transvestite who wants to work with toddlers” if the city approves an amendment to its human rights law to prohibit discrimination based on “sexual orientation” and “transgender identity.”
Another ad claims that a local fitness gym would have to “open the women’s locker room to anyone who claims a female identity.” It depicts that person as a hairy balding man with a ponytail taking off his swimsuit in the locker room while nearby women scream and cover themselves in apparent shock.
Both ads, done in the form of cartoons, depict the beneficiaries of the proposed new law as burly men hiding behind women’s clothing. They are a new twist on old themes for opponents of civil rights protections for transgender people. But they are the weapons unleashed on Anchorage television to defeat Proposition 5, a ballot measure up for vote on Tuesday, April 3.
Posted in News Briefs
By Lisa Keen on March 28, 2012
Tuesday’s landmark oral argument in a case testing the constitutionality of President Obama’s Affordable Care Act had some very interesting moments—such as when the chief justice seemed to support the notion that if a person doesn’t have kids he or she should not have to help pay for taking care of kids. It’s the kind of argument some in the LGBT community have made in years past when complaining about paying local taxes to support schools even though many gay people don’t have children.
Posted in A closer look
By Lisa Keen on March 27, 2012
One of the biggest lawsuits against the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) is back in court next week, and for the first time for any DOMA challenge, it is at the federal appeals level.
Posted in Federal Courts, Lawsuits, Marriage/Relationships
By Lisa Keen on March 21, 2012
In a dramatic surprise and major victory for supporters of marriage equality for same-sex couples, the Republican-dominated New Hampshire House voted Wednesday (March 21) not to repeal the state’s two-year-old marriage equality law. The vote was 102 to 133.
Posted in News Briefs
By Lisa Keen on March 21, 2012
A robo-called aimed at attacking Republican frontrunner Mitt Romney over his positions–and alleged positions–on gay civil rights apparently had little effect in Illinois’ primary Tuesday. Romney won the primary with ease and racked up the lion’s share of its delegates.
Posted in Election 2012, Presidential 2012
By Lisa Keen on March 20, 2012
The U.S. Supreme Court refused Monday to grant review for a second attempt to challenge school non-discrimination policies by saying they violate the free exercise of religion. But the conflict between the First Amendment and laws prohibiting discrimination is far from over, and at least one school has relaxed its policy rather than go to court in its defense.
Posted in A closer look
By Lisa Keen on March 19, 2012
Openly gay Republican presidential candidate Fred Karger is celebrating a victory of sorts. He got more votes in the Puerto Rico primary than did Rep. Ron Paul.
Posted in News Briefs
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