By Lisa Keen on November 18, 2010
It has become a day-by-day thing. One day, momentum for repealing Don’t Ask Don’t Tell takes a turn for the better; the next day, it takes a turn for the worse.
The latest turn is for the better. President Obama and the White House this week became much more actively involved in pushing the Senate to repeal the law that bars openly gay people from the military.
Posted in News Briefs
By Lisa Keen on November 17, 2010
Hope springs eternal in a lame-duck Congress—or maybe it’s desperation. Democrats and their supporters, bracing for a more conservative Congress starting in January, are rushing to push legislation through during the few days left in the remaining session.
Posted in News Briefs
By Lisa Keen on November 10, 2010
For the fifth time, the U.S. Supreme Court has rejected a petition from ex-lesbian Lisa Miller who has been fighting a Vermont Supreme Court order that she share custody with her ex-civil union partner of a child they had together.
Posted in News Briefs
By Lisa Keen on November 9, 2010
U.S. Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) stated the obvious Monday: “There’s zero chance” of any pro-LGBT legislation passing in the new Congress.
Posted in News Briefs
By Lisa Keen on November 9, 2010
White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer issued a statement Monday night saying, “The White House opposes any effort to strip ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ from the National Defense Authorization Act.”
Posted in News Briefs
By Lisa Keen on November 5, 2010
The horse race for who will lead the Republicans—and therefore the U.S. House of Representatives—in the next Congress is really more of a dog-and-pony show. Everyone fully expects ranking minority leader John Boehner will become Speaker of the House and his sidekick Eric Cantor will become Majority leader.
Posted in News Briefs
By Lisa Keen on November 2, 2010
In one of the most unlikely of places, openly gay construction company executive Jim Gray has won election as the mayor—of Lexington, Kentucky.
Posted in Election 2010, News Briefs
By Lisa Keen on October 29, 2010
Voters in U.S. Rep. Barney Frank’s Congressional district have been flooded in the last two days with campaign literature telling them that Frank has “rich friends,” deserves a grade of “F,” and is “reckless and arrogant.”
Posted in Election 2010, News Briefs
By Lisa Keen on October 29, 2010
Log Cabin Republican leader R. Clarke Cooper has broken his silence about at least one thing at last Tuesday’s meeting at the White House: He didn’t accept the president’s take on who was to blame for last month’s failed filibuster vote on Don’t Ask Don’t Tell.
Posted in News Briefs
By Dana Rudolph on October 27, 2010
A Florida court on Wednesday, October 27, upheld a lower court ruling granting an adoption to a lesbian. The decision comes one week after Attorney General Bill McCollum said he would not appeal another case that overturned the state’s ban on adoption by gay people.
Posted in News Briefs
By Lisa Keen on October 26, 2010
The topic in an office building adjacent to the White House Tuesday afternoon was Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, the federal law banning openly gay people from the military.
More specifically, it was how to help a lame-duck Senate pass the measure after the November 2 mid-term elections.
Posted in News Briefs
By Lisa Keen on October 22, 2010
Monday, December 6, at 10 a.m., the 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals will hear two hours of arguments in the appeal of the decision that found California’s same-sex marriage ban in violation of the U.S. Constitution.
Posted in News Briefs
By Lisa Keen on October 19, 2010
A federal judge on Tuesday evening denied the federal government’s request to postpone enforcement of an injunction she issued last week to stop enforcement of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”
Posted in News Briefs
By Lisa Keen on October 19, 2010
The legal team challenging Proposition 8 in California has argued that proponents of the anti-gay measure don’t have legal standing to appeal a federal judge’s ruling last August that the initiative banning same-sex marriage is unconstitutional. But attorney Ted Boutrous, who was a leading player on the team headed up by Ted Olson and David Boies earlier this year, said the 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals could rule on the merits of the case even if it finds Yes on 8 attorneys do not having standing.
Posted in News Briefs
By Lisa Keen on October 12, 2010
The U.S. Department of Justice on Tuesday filed notice to a federal district court in Boston that it does intend to appeal the court’s decision in two cases testing the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act.
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By Lisa Keen on October 4, 2010
LGBT concerns were included this month in a new immigration reform bill introduced to Congress, but they were not part of President Obama’s words in support of that bill and some say the bill is just a mid-term election tool.
Posted in News Briefs
By Lisa Keen on September 30, 2010
In the current issue of Rolling Stone magazine, President Obama says he’s “probably accomplished,” in the first two years of his administration, “70 percent of the things that we said we were going to do.”
One of his accomplishments, he said, is getting the Secretary of Defense and “the Joint Chiefs of Staff [sic] committed to changing” the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” law.
Posted in News Briefs
By Lisa Keen on September 30, 2010
The federal district court judge who earlier this year presided over the landmark trial challenging the constitutionality of California’s same-sex marriage ban announced Wednesday that he will retire in February.
Judge Vaughn Walker, chief judge of the U.S. District Court for Northern California, sent a letter to President Obama September 29 announcing his plan. Walker is 66.
Posted in News Briefs
By Lisa Keen on September 27, 2010
Just three days after the high-profile gay conservative fundraiser hosted by former Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman and friends, there was another high-profile gay conservative fundraiser in New York City.
Posted in News Briefs
By Lisa Keen on September 23, 2010
The group sponsoring the legal challenge to California’s same-sex marriage ban announced Thursday that a recent fundraiser by conservative supporters in New York brought in more than $1.2 million for the effort.
Posted in News Briefs
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
President praises pro athlete Jason Collins for courage to come out