Lisa Keen
By Lisa Keen on February 2, 2012
Most gay legal activists issued a subtle yawn in reaction to the 22-page decision Thursday by a federal appeals panel to keep the Proposition 8 trial videotapes under seal.
Posted in Lawsuits, Marriage/Relationships
By Lisa Keen on February 1, 2012
The Washington State bill for marriage equality cleared a crucial hurdle Wednesday night (February 1), passing the state senate on a vote of 28 to 21 after it first rejected an attempt to put the issue to a statewide referendum in November.
Posted in News Briefs
By Lisa Keen on February 1, 2012
R. Clarke Cooper, head of the national Log Cabin Republicans group, said Mitt Romney won an “informal vote” among the leaders of Florida’s three chapters on the Saturday before Tuesday’s primary. And voters in Florida’s Republican primary on Tuesday gave Romney a victory, too, albeit a less resounding one than did Log Cabin Florida leaders. [...]
Posted in Election 2012, National Politics, Presidential 2012
By Lisa Keen on February 1, 2012
LGBT activists put together a long wish list when President Obama came into office in January 2009. On that list was a wish for the president to issue an executive order to require companies with contracts to do work for the federal government to promise they would not discriminate against their employees based on sexual orientation or gender.
Posted in News Briefs
By Lisa Keen on February 1, 2012
A 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel announced Wednesday that it will release a decision Thursday (February 2) regarding whether a videotape of the historic Perry v. Schwarzenegger trial should be available to the public.
Posted in News Briefs
By Lisa Keen on February 1, 2012
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie apologized Tuesday night for suggesting that blacks would have “been happy” to put their civil rights up for a vote rather than “fighting and dying” for those rights in the South.
Christie made his remark on January 24 to explain why he was advocating that New Jersey include a referendum on marriage licenses for same-sex couples on this November’s ballot.
Posted in News Briefs
By Lisa Keen on February 1, 2012
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie apologized Tuesday night for suggesting that blacks would have “been happy” to put their civil rights up for a vote rather than “fighting and dying” for those rights in the South.
Christie made his remark on January 24 to explain why he was advocating that New Jersey include a referendum on marriage licenses for same-sex couples on this November’s ballot.
Posted in News Briefs
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 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 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
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
Rhode Island marriage bill clears final hurdle with all Republicans