February 2012
54 posts
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Judge’s Ruling Adds to String in Favor of Same-Sex... →
A federal judge in San Francisco on Wednesday threw out a key provision of the Defense of Marriage Act, becoming the latest court to rule that the law passed by Congress to prohibit federal recognition of same-sex marriage violated the constitutional rights of same-sex couples.
effrey S. White, a United States District Court judge appointed by President George W. Bush in 2002, ruled that the...
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When Your 7-Year-Old Son Announces, 'I'm Gay' →
It’s amazing, but it’s also shocking. How many people have a 7-year-old come out to them? A lot of people don’t know how to react, and I don’t blame them. Before my son, I’d never met a child who came out this young — and we don’t know anyone else who has. The mere idea of children having a sexual orientation makes people uncomfortable. It’s...
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The Solution to Nimbyism →
Clearly, the Earthscraper – a 65-story, zero-feet-tall building – is the solution to all concerns about height and massing while simultaneously enabling nearly limitless density.
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Obama unveils $3.8 trillion budget →
President Obama unveiled a $3.8 trillion budget request Monday that hikes taxes on the rich, spends new money on infrastructure and education, but does little to reform the entitlement programs that pose the biggest long-term threat to the federal budget.
“We built this budget around the idea that our country has always done best when everyone gets a fair shot, everyone does their fair...
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Truth Needle | Gay-marriage wave of lawsuits claim... →
Gay-marriage opponents have said there will be a rash of civil suits against individuals and businesses that don’t want to provide wedding-related services to same-sex couples because of their religious beliefs. Our Truth Needle concludes that claim is mostly false.
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Santorum: ‘I would overturn’ any Supreme Court... →
GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum said Sunday morning he would try to overturn any Supreme Court decision in favor of same-sex marriage if he became president.
Santorum was asked by Meet The Press host David Gregory about the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals finding Proposition 8 unconstitutional and whether he would seek any change if the highest court ruled in favor of the LGBT...
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The Short List: Who Will Lead HRC? →
Next month, Human Rights Campaign president Joe Solmonese is set to end his tenure at the LGBT organization he’s led since 2005. Politically, the transition in leadership comes at an interesting time, with the White House up for grabs in a few months and growing calls for President Obama to not only sign an executive order barring federal contractors from discriminating against LGBT employees,...
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Activists Arrested After Austin, Tex., Marriage... →
Three LGBT activists were arrested Tuesday morning for occupying the Austin, Texas, county clerk’s office after being denied marriage licenses. The Raw Storyreports that as part of an annual Valentine’s Day marriage equality protest organized by GetEQUAL Texas, approximately 40 people showed up outside the offices of Travis County Clerk Dana DeBeauvoir to request marriage licenses for their...
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Sign this petition: Democratic Party, add marriage... →
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Chris Christie ignores Chris Gregoire’s outreach... →
ThinkProgress has learned that Christie has yet to respond to a letter from fellow Governor Chris Gregoire (D-WA) offering the blunt-speaking Christie advise on the issue.
In the letter, dated Jan. 31, 2012, Gregoire wrote, “I have been on a personal journey, because while I am a Governor, I am also a Catholic.” “If you would like to talk, please give me a call.” The correspondence also...
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UCLA School of Law Study Results on Local and... →
Local ordinances that require city and county contractors to prohibit sexual orientation and gender identity discrimination protect thousands of workers without burdening governments or businesses, according to a new study from the UCLA School of Law’s Williams Institute.
“This study provides evidence that a federal executive order that similarly barred discrimination could protect millions of...
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Federal Court Orders Missouri School To Stop... →
A federal judge has ordered a Missouri school to cease blocking internet content that affirms LGBT people and educates about LGBT identities. The ACLU of Eastern Missouri had filed suit last summer on behalf of PFLAG and other LGBT groups against Camdenton R-III School District for using a website filtering software that blocked access to sites like the “It Gets Better” campaign, The Trevor...
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Dick Cheney Tells Maryland GOP: Vote For Same-Sex... →
ormer Vice President Dick Cheney has reportedly been lobbying behind the scenes for a Maryland same-sex marriage equality bill that is being debated this afternoon. Cheney, who still has pull within the GOP, has a lesbian daughter. He and his wife have spoken publicly in recent years about their daughter and her family on TV talk shows.
Ugh I can’t believe I’m going to say this...
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“Sex work is not inherently wrong. Sex work is not inherently dangerous. Sex work...”
– an excerpt from this wonderful piece on sex work from Bitch magazine. (via thestepswetook)
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Will NOM flout campaign disclosure laws in... →
National Organization for Marriage acts as though it is above the law. And now NOM is coming to Washington.
Brian Brown, President of NOM
It has become a predictable pattern. NOM slinks into a state that is actively debating marriage equality, drops a mountain of cash into the campaign coffers of the anti-gay side, then breaks state campaign disclosure laws by bolting before reporting their...
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Lawmakers facing backlash over gay marriage vote →
OLYMPIA, Wash. — Wednesday’s historic Senate vote to approve same sex marriage has energized supporters, but it has also caused a backlash for some of the lawmakers who voted in favor of the bill. Officials from the state information office said just prior to Wednesday’s vote, 2,300 calls flooded into the state capitol, with most of the calls opposing gay marriage. “There...
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Research Note | Beyond Secular vs. Religious:... →
In 2011, majorities of most religious groups favored allowing gay and lesbian couple to marry legally, illustrating that the old narrative of battle lines between secular supporters and religious opponents no longer serves as an accurate characterization of the landscape of the same-sex marriage debate. In the general population, 2011 was also the first year on record in which supporting...
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Gay marriage in Washington creates personal divide →
KENNEWICK After 36 years of celebrating anniversaries and Valentine’s Days, of arguments and make-ups, of raising children and growing old, Larry Gettmann and Jack Frisch of Kennewick can’t think of themselves as anything other than “married.”
It doesn’t really matter to them how the state or any church describes them. The only validation they need for their relationship comes from each...
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Senate passes insider-trading bill →
The bill states that insider trading is criminal and requires public disclosure online of any trades within 30 days of a transaction. It was aimed initially just at Capitol Hill. However, Republicans clamored for the inclusion of executive-branch employees.
“The same standards should apply to the White House and the executive agencies that spend hundreds of billions of dollars at the...
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Westboro Baptist Church Gets Tires Slashed, Locals... →
Shortly after protesting the funeral of Army Sgt. Jason James McCluskey in Oklahoma, members of the Westboro Baptist Church headed back to their minivan, only to discover that its front and rear passenger-side tires had been slashed. To make matters worse, when they drove into town they were unable to find anyone who would repair it. Ha ha.
I don’t support the tire slashing, but I...
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WATCH: Washington Governor Makes Marriage Equality... →
Gov. Christine Gregoire has joined the Americans for Marriage Equality video series from the Human Rights Campaign as Washington stands poised to become the seventh state to recognize equal rights for same-sex couples. HRC released the 36-second spot online Thursday, the day after the Washington State Senate passed the marriage equality bill in a 28-21 vote with support from four Republicans....
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Gallup: Number Of States That Are Solidly... →
“Democrats have lost their solid political party affiliation advantage in 18 states since 2008, while Republicans have gained a solid advantage in 6 states,” Gallup states. “A total of 17 states were either solidly Republican or leaning Republican in their residents’ party affiliation in 2011, up from 10 in 2010 and 5 in 2008. Meanwhile, 19 states including the District of Columbia showed a...
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Marriage Equality is a Trans Issue, Too →
When Nikki and Thomas Araguz were married in Texas in 2008, she had been married and divorced once before, and she had legal documentation identifying herself as a woman. Although Nikki, born biologically male, didn’t have her gender transition surgery until a few months after the ceremony, she had no reason to think their marriage wasn’t legal. In 2010, Thomas, a firefighter, died...
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Hey, Gays: Don't Pull Up the Ladder After Gay... →
I also wanted to post this because Davis hits on something I’m afraid of: that after the election gay people are going to think their work is done. Assuming voters pass same-sex marriage on the ballot—knock on wood with a rabbit’s foot—many may see it as the finish line for LGBT rights in Washington State. It’s time to be fully coopted into mainstream society! Don’t get...
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More Than Half of Women Attracted to Other Women →
The study evaluated 484 college students with a range of sexual orientations, according to Elizabeth Morgan, a Boise State psychology professor. Among the participants, 45% report that they had kissed a woman, and half said they fantasize about other women. “Women are encouraged to be emotionally close to each other,” Morgan said in the Daily Mail(U.K.). “That provides an...
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VIDEO: Goldman Sachs CEO campaigning for gay... →
Things were so much simpler when the bad guys wore black and the good guys wore white. From the Chicago Trib:
Goldman Sachs Chief Executive Lloyd Blankfein, one of Wall Street’s most powerful figures, has become the first major business leader to join a national media campaign in support of same-sex marriage. Gay rights advocacy group Human Rights Campaign published a video on Sunday in...
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WATCH: Evan Wolfson Destroys NOM President in... →
when Brown claimed that “democracy doesn’t count here” because Wolfson opposes a proposal by Gov. Chris Christie to put same-sex marriage up for a statewide debate and vote, it was answered with a civics lesson on American values: “I disagree with Mr. Brown’s explanation of how the United States is supposed to function,” Wolfson said on New York’s...
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Proposition 8: What Happens Next? →
the narrow focus of the opinion might convince the Supreme Court to pass on this case. “The grounds for the opinion, I think, do make it somewhat less likely that the Supreme Court will take it,” said Boies, because it “just applies to California,” which has a number of characteristics that are different from other states, “including that citizens of California were clearly entitled to marriage...
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VIDEO: Prop. 8 ruling could derail an anti-gay... →
The big question is whether the ruling prevents voters in Washington from doing a similar thing. Would a Washington referendum overturning gay marriage, stripping same-sex marriage rights, be thrown out as well?
“I can’t call it a slam dunk but if I were betting money, my money would be on the side of advocates for same sex marriage in Washington in terms of the impact of the 9th Circuit...
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State-by-State Laws on Gay Marriage Produce... →
“We are one country, not 50 separate kingdoms, and we all deserve equal protection under the law,” he said in an e-mail. “Same-sex couples should not have to play ‘now you’re married, now you’re not’ depending on which state they are in, or where their employer sends them, or where their kids go to college.”
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Our Groups Need More Color in Their Rainbow →
The rainbow flag, the very the symbol of gay pride, represents both our aspirations and the diversity of our population. Yet the top of the gay community’s rainbow — the leadership tier of LGBT non-profit organizations — is more awash in white than any other color.
At the executive director position, LGBT groups have historically been led almost exclusively by white men. A step down at the...
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Chris Gregoire Pledges To Contact Chris Christie... →
Washington Governor Chris Gregoire (D) pledged to make an appeal to New Jersey Governor Chris Christie (R) over same-sex marriage legislation.
Gregoire, who is expected to sign a recently passed gay marriage bill on Monday, said she’s been touched by the response she’s received over her support of same-sex marriage. During a radio interview with the Wall Street Journal program The...