By Lisa Keen on May 21, 2013
The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee approved an immigration reform bill Tuesday, May 21 without voting on two amendments seeking to provide benefits to same-sex couples, and the room erupted into loud applause and cheers.
Posted in Congress, National Politics
By Lisa Keen on May 8, 2013
As expected, U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy introduced amendments Tuesday (May 7) to enable gay citizens to sponsor their “permanent” same-sex partners for immigration, under the proposed comprehensive immigration reform legislation.
Posted in Congress, Immigration, National Politics
By Lisa Keen on May 7, 2013
Just minutes before the Delaware Senate was set to vote on its marriage equality bill, a Democrat senator who had been quiet about how she would vote announced on her Facebook page that she would vote yes.
Posted in Marriage/Relationships, State Politics
By Lisa Keen on May 2, 2013
Rhode Island Governor Lincoln Chafee signed a marriage equality bill into law this evening, just an hour after the state House gave the measure its final procedural approval. Two more states could approve marriage for same-sex couples next week.
Posted in Marriage/Relationships, State Politics
By Lisa Keen on April 30, 2013
President Obama expressed his support for the decision by professional basketball player Jason Collins to come out this week in an interview with Sports Illustrated.
Posted in National Politics, White House
By Lisa Keen on April 24, 2013
After a moving speech by a senator who described herself as a lifelong, devout Catholic and said she would support marriage equality, the Rhode Island Senate Wednesday afternoon voted to approve a bill allowing same-sex couples to marry in the state.
Posted in Marriage/Relationships, State Politics
By Lisa Keen on April 10, 2013
The race to become the tenth state to provide for marriage equality just got more interesting, as both Illinois and Rhode Island legislatures are on track to take final votes this month.
Posted in Marriage/Relationships, State Politics
By Lisa Keen on March 27, 2013
Today’s argument in the U.S. Supreme Court over the Defense of Marriage Act sounded at times as if President Obama was on trial for enforcing the law even though he considers it unconstitutional. At other times, it sounded like Congress was on trial.
Posted in Marriage/Relationships, U.S. Supreme Court
By Lisa Keen on March 26, 2013
The U.S. Supreme Court took the marriage equality issue on a roller coaster ride Tuesday as it heard almost 90 minutes of argument in the case testing the constitutionality of California’s ban on same-sex marriage.
Posted in Marriage/Relationships, U.S. Supreme Court
By Dana Rudolph on March 6, 2013
As many as six million adults and children in the United States have an LGBT parent, and an estimated three million LGBT Americans have had a child at some point in their lives, according to an analysis released February 27 by the Williams Institute of UCLA.
Posted in Marriage/Relationships
By Lisa Keen on February 28, 2013
In a major victory for Democrats, the U.S. House voted Thursday to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act.
Posted in Congress, Health, National Politics
By Lisa Keen on February 21, 2013
One month away from the most historic and, perhaps, influential U.S. Supreme Court cases in LGBT history, a surprising number of facts are still unknown.
Posted in Marriage/Relationships, U.S. Supreme Court
By Lisa Keen on February 13, 2013
President Obama continued his trend of including references to LGBT people in his State of the Union address Tuesday night (February 12), but he got mixed reviews from the community itself.
Posted in National Politics, White House
By Lisa Keen on January 23, 2013
President Obama, in his second inaugural address, emphasized the nation’s principle of equality for all and, in doing so, specifically included the struggles of LGBT Americans to achieve equality.
Posted in National Politics, Presidential 2012, White House
By Lisa Keen on January 9, 2013
U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin said that she wants to see whether Defense Secretary nominee Chuck Hagel’s apology for anti-gay remarks 14 years ago is “sincere and sufficient.” But former U.S. Rep. Barney Frank said his opinion of Hagel has gone from opposition to reconsideration.
Posted in National Politics
By Lisa Keen on January 8, 2013
The race to become the tenth state to provide marriage equality for same-sex couples is underway, with Rhode Island and Illinois running neck-and-neck. Marriage equality bills were launched in both states’ legislatures last week.
Posted in Marriage/Relationships, State Politics
By Lisa Keen on December 13, 2012
Chances are, if you are even remotely plugged into the news, you’ve grown weary of hearing about the “fiscal cliff.” That’s the metaphor du jour for the sudden and dramatic cuts in federal spending and tax breaks set to occur at midnight on December 31.
Posted in National Politics
By Lisa Keen on December 7, 2012
In a surprise development, the U.S. Supreme Court announced today that it will review both the Proposition 8 case concerning a statewide ban on same-sex marriage and a DOMA case concerning a ban on federal recognition of same-sex marriages.
Posted in Marriage/Relationships, U.S. Supreme Court
By Lisa Keen on November 15, 2012
A first-ever openly gay person elected U.S. Senator, the largest ever number of openly LGBT people elected to Congress, two new speakers at state houses, the first-ever openly transgender person elected to a state legislature, and the first openly LGBT candidates elected in numerous states.
Posted in Congress, Election 2012, National Politics
By Lisa Keen on November 7, 2012
In an historic victory Tuesday, U.S. Rep. Tammy Baldwin became the first openly gay person to be elected to the U.S. Senate. Her victory, along with the apparent wins of six out of seven openly LGBT candidates for the U.S. House, marks a new high for the number of openly LGBT members of Congress: seven.
Posted in Election 2012, House, Senate
Ginsburg on Roe: Is it a signal she’d curb a decision on marriage?