By Lisa Keen on January 7, 2012
Republican Rick Santorum is not the most anti-gay candidate running in the presidential primary in the New Hampshire Tuesday. A candidate on the Democratic side is.
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By Lisa Keen on January 6, 2012
Republican presidential hopeful Rick Santorum is being challenged more frequently now about his anti-gay positions, including by conservative media.
In a live interview Wednesday, Fox News host Bill O’Reilly warned Santorum that he would be “demonized” nationally because “some of your positions are extreme, according to the polls.” And, in front of a college-age audience Thursday, he appeared frustrated by the resistance to his ideas on same-sex marriage.
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By Lisa Keen on January 3, 2012
The Iowa caucuses begin tonight, and the startling news for LGBT voters is the dramatic increase in support for the field’s most anti-gay candidate, Rick Santorum.
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By Lisa Keen on December 19, 2011
A three-judge panel of the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled this month that a university could require a student seeking a degree in counseling, as part of her curriculum, to take courses on how to work with LGBT populations. The student had objected, saying such courses violated her religious beliefs.
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By Lisa Keen on December 16, 2011
The Department of Justice sent its top civil rights attorney, Tony West, to argue against the Defense of Marriage Act in a federal district court in San Francisco Friday.
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By Lisa Keen on December 7, 2011
Republican presidential long-shot Rick Perry was one of the first to criticize the Obama administration’s newly announced initiative to push for the human rights of LGBT people around the world. But there were some cautionary notes from the LGBT international community, too.
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By Lisa Keen on December 6, 2011
Valerie Jarrett, a senior adviser to President Obama, met Tuesday, December 6, with pop icon Lady Gaga to discuss Gaga’s new Born This Way Foundation.
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By Lisa Keen on December 6, 2011
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton today (Tuesday, December 6) called on the governments of all nations to ensure that their LGBT citizens are treated with respect and dignity. In doing so, she also announced that President Obama was issuing a memorandum directing the State Department to lead an interagency group to provide a “swift and meaningful response” by the U.S. government to “serious incidents that threaten the human rights of LGBT persons abroad.”
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By Lisa Keen on December 2, 2011
The U.S. Senate passed a defense spending bill on Thursday (December 1) with only a much watered-down amendment seeking to enforce the Defense of Marriage Act against same-sex marriages.
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By Lisa Keen on November 11, 2011
The White House sent out notice Thursday night that it was withdrawing the nomination of openly gay attorney Edward DuMont to serve on the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.
Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee blocked DuMont’s nomination from the start, when President Obama nominated him in April 2010.
In DuMont’s place, President Obama has nominated an attorney with strong Republican ties.
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By Lisa Keen on November 10, 2011
The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday (November 10) voted to recommend passage of a bill to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).
The bill is the Respect for Marriage Act (S. 598). Thursday’s 10 to 8 vote along partisan lines had been originally scheduled for November 3 but was postponed a week at the request of the committee’s Republicans who warn the bill has no chance of passage in the Senate or House.
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By Lisa Keen on November 8, 2011
Fifty major corporations, 11 national law firms, seven trade and professional organizations, and three cities –including Boston and New York—signed onto a legal brief this month supporting a lawsuit that challenges the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act. ??
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By Lisa Keen on November 3, 2011
On a voice vote, the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday recommended the confirmation of openly gay attorney Michael Fitzgerald to serve on the federal bench in Los Angeles. But, at the request of Republicans, the Committee postponed its vote on a bill to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act.
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By Lisa Keen on November 2, 2011
LGBT groups are lining up against the annual bill to reauthorize spending for U.S. Department of Education, but it’s not what the department does that’s making them angry.
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By Lisa Keen on November 1, 2011
A U.S. Attorney this month dropped a grand jury indictment against Timothy Miller, the man accused of helping ex-lesbian Lisa Miller sneak her daughter out of the country in defiance of court orders.
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By Lisa Keen on October 28, 2011
Just one day after being served notice that a federal lawsuit has been launched against it, the Department of Defense issued a press release saying it has “now identified a total of 14 benefits” available to the “beneficiaries” of all service members “regardless of sexual orientation.”
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By Lisa Keen on October 26, 2011
New Hampshire Republicans are taking advantage of their supermajorities in the state house to push for repeal of the state’s marriage equality law.
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By Lisa Keen on October 18, 2011
Openly gay Democratic activist and political commentator Hilary Rosen predicted social issues, including those involving gays, would be a focus of the Nevada debate.
There was reason to expect so –Herman Cain, on Sunday’s Meet the Press, said he would not seek a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage but would leave the issue to the states.
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By Lisa Keen on October 18, 2011
Lesbian attorney and civil rights activist Beth Robinson has been nominated to serve on the Vermont Supreme Court.
Robinson, one of the key attorneys to lead the case for civil unions and then marriage equality in Vermont, was nominated Tuesday (October 18) by Democratic Governor Pete Shumlin.
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By Lisa Keen on October 13, 2011
The U.S. Senate voted Thursday (October 13) to confirm the nomination of lesbian attorney Alison Nathan to serve as a federal district court judge.
The roll call vote was 48 to 44, thus securing Nathan’s appointment to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, in Manhattan.
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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