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 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 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
By Lisa Keen on May 7, 2012
Responding earnestly to a question, Vice President Joe Biden has hoisted personal and legal support for same-sex marriages back into the presidential campaign.
Posted in A closer look
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 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 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 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 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 February 9, 2012
Washington Governor Chris Gregoire issued a statement following Wednesday night’s historic vote in the state House, saying the 55 to 43 vote to pass the marriage equality bill there tells the nation “that Washington state will no longer deny our citizens the opportunity to marry the person they love.”
Posted in A closer look
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 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 December 28, 2011
Few in the GOP field could rival President Obama with their records on LGBT issues, and yet, the outcome of the Republican presidential race riveted the attention of LGBT people in 2012. Many of the contenders were notoriously anti-gay. They were often asked about, or were inclined to share, their positions on gay-related issues. And, historically, no matter how much better the Democratic candidate has been than the Republican one, about 25 to 30 percent of LGBT voters vote for the Republican presidential candidate.
Posted in A closer look
By Lisa Keen on December 8, 2011
There was some drama in the courtroom as attorneys litigating Proposition 8 in a San Francisco federal appeals court Thursday took their last swings.
The normally staid somewhat flustered Charles Cooper, lead attorney for the Yes on 8 team, delivered an unusually passionate plea in his final minutes before the 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel.
Cooper was trying to convince the panel to vacate the landmark ruling by U.S. District Court Chief Judge Vaughn Walker –a ruling in which Walker declared California’s ban on same-sex marriage to be in violation of the federal constitution. According to Cooper, Walker should have revealed to attorneys and the public that he had been in a relationship with a man for ten years and given attorneys a chance to challenge his fitness to preside over the case.
Posted in A closer look
By Lisa Keen on November 30, 2011
Something changed for U.S. Rep. Barney Frank between February and November of this year. In February, he announced he would seek re-election in 2012, to a 17th term in office. And on Monday, November 28, he announced this current term would be his last.
Posted in A closer look
By Lisa Keen on November 2, 2011
Many people read late last month that Republican leaders in the U.S. House authorized tripling the attorney fees for an outside legal team “to litigate the constitutionality of Section III” of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). Far fewer likely read Footnote Number 3 in that legal team’s September 22 brief. That footnote indicated that the legal team, led by former Solicitor General Paul Clement, plans to defend DOMA “only with respect to its constitutionality under equal protection.”
Given that a federal district court judge struck down DOMA both on equal protection grounds and Tenth Amendment state sovereignty, one might argue that House Republican leaders have agreed to triple the spending for half the work.
Posted in A closer look
By Lisa Keen on October 25, 2011
It was one of only four questions posed to each Republican presidential hopeful Saturday (October 22) at a conservative forum in Des Moines: “What, specifically, would you do to prevent abortion-on-demand and protect traditional marriage?”
Posted in A closer look
By Dana Rudolph on October 12, 2011
Openly gay men face “significant” hiring discrimination in several parts of the country, but there are wide differences from state to state. That’s the finding of a new, large-scale study—a study that also found that employers in areas where antidiscrimination laws prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation are less likely to discriminate. Additionally, the study found that employers are more likely to discriminate when job descriptions emphasize “stereotypically male heterosexual traits.”
Posted in A closer look
By Lisa Keen on September 20, 2011
U.S. Justice Antonin Scalia has already conceded that laws banning same-sex marriage are unconstitutional, according to one constitutional scholar. And the U.S. Supreme Court is “very likely” to invalidate the federal Defense of Marriage Act once it reaches the U.S. Supreme Court, says another, generally conservative, expert.
These are just two of the conclusions from more than a dozen constitutional law jurists who participated in a recent two-week long discussion of what most consider an inevitable case before the nation’s highest court.
Posted in A closer look
By Lisa Keen on September 15, 2011
In a request that seems more like political theatre than political combat, the House Armed Services Committee sent a plea to Defense Secretary Leon Panetta asking that repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell be delayed.
Posted in A closer look
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