June 2012
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“That definitely wasn’t the case. I’ve never dealt with the question of my...”
– Queen Latifah, when asked whether she came out by performing at a Pride festival and referring to the crowd as “her people.” Well, there you have it. More.
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Kickoff efforts start for world-class gay and... →
A group called the Lavender Effect has announced efforts to fundraise for a “world-class gay and lesbian museum” to be built in Los Angeles.
The brainchild of gay rights activist Ivy Bottini, the museum would promote LA as a center of gay culture and counteract any negative energy that may come from SoCal toward the LGBT community. The article above from the LA Weekly includes a...
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JC Penney ad includes gay dads for Father's Day →
In its second recent act of LGBT-inclusive advertising, retailer JC Penney featured a real gay couple in an ad booklet for Father’s Day.
Last month for Mother’s Day, the store included a photo of two moms and their kids. Now they’ve done the same kind of spotlight with two dads:
The booklet, being mailed to customers and also available at the JC Penney website, has a picture...
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CNN anchor says being gay is "voluntary," then... →
CNN anchor Ashleigh Banfield is facing harsh criticism from the LGBT community for saying on-air that being gay is voluntary. Corrections she made to her position don’t seem to have helped very much.
During a segment on a morning show, Banfield was discussing an antigay pastor’s comparison of homosexuality to incest and pedophilia. She said homosexuality was the only one of these two...
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Gay British couple win lottery →
Two men from South Wales won one million pounds - roughly $1.5 million - in the lottery this week. They’re believed to be the first gay couple in a civil ceremony to win more than a million dollars in the lottery, though in November 2010 a gay Canadian couple won a $50 million lottery prize.
Ian Pearce and Lyn Sexton have been together for 16 years and bought the lotto ticket on a whim....
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Read this now: "How a Gay, Homeless Teen Became... →
Marquise Brown came out as gay to his aunt when he was 16. She kicked him out immediately - he couldn’t take any of his things, and he wasn’t wearing anything but his underwear.
This is Marquise’s account of how he overcame being homeless on and off and found support at school to ultimately become valedictorian. Sometimes things get really bad, he says, but if you work for it,...
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“The greater the obstacle, the more glory in overcoming it.”
– Moliere
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Report finds rise in anti-gay murders →
A report by the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Projects has found that the number of anti-LGBT murders rose last year - 11 percent higher than the previous year. The Washington Blade outlines the findings pretty clearly:
The NCAVP’s annual report documents 30 anti-LGBT homicides across the county. While it showed that incidents of anti-LGBT hate violence decreased 16 percent from 2010, the...
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El Paso elects gay woman to legislature →
Voters in El Paso, TX have elected Mary E. Gonzalez, an openly gay woman, to the Texas House of Representatives.
Gonzalez is only the second LGBT person to serve in the Texas legislature, and her appointment shrinks the number of states with no openly LGBT lawmakers to 17. She will also have no Republican opponent in the general election.
“This is a big victory for Mary, for El Paso and...
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“I’ve often said if one person has been turned around, if their thinking has been...”
– Oliver White is a Minnesota minister who has lost much of his congregation because he supports marriage equality. His church is facing a financial crisis, but he’s managing to keep his head up. Well, I’m inspired. More.
May 2012
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BREAKING: Appeals court rules DOMA... →
The 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that DOMA is unconstitutional because it discriminates against married same-sex couples by denying them federal benefits. From the LA Times:
The appeals court agreed with a lower court judge who ruled in 2010 that the law is unconstitutional because it interferes with the right of a state to define marriage and denies married gay couples federal...
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Maryland likely to vote on marriage →
It is practically certain that Maryland voters will decide the fate of marriage equality in an upcoming election, based on signatures opponents have collected.
Anti-marriage equality activists turned in what they claimed were more than 113,000 signatures of people in favor of a referendum on marriage equality. This is more than twice what was needed to get on the ballot in November.
Same-sex...
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“I find it incredibly frustrating that people are still being brought up in ways...”
– In a recent interview with The Advocate, Daniel Radcliffe speaks about his work with the Trevor Project and what it was like playing Allen Ginsberg. More.
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Zach Wahls delivers petition supporting gay scout... →
Teen activist Zach Wahls, whose testimony for marriage equality in Iowa went viral, delivered a petition urging the Boy Scouts of America to reinstate a den leader who was forced out of her position when it was discovered she was gay.
Jennifer Tyrrell, the mother of a 7-year-old Cub Scout, started a petition on Change.org in April after being told she couldn’t be a den leader anymore...
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Read the entire complaint behind Lambda... →
“Plaintiffs challenge their exclusion from civil marriage, and seek to end the stigmatization and disrespect the State imposes upon them and their children by relegating them solely to the inferior status of civil union.”
I’m so fired up for marriage rights in my state.
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“I accept responsibility for and regret my thoughtless, insensitive, immature,...”
– In a written statement yesterday, Dharun Ravi apologized for the acts that led to his conviction on charges of bias intimidation. Prosecutors are appealing his sentence of 30 days in prison, saying his behavior merited a more substantive punishment. More.
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Read this now: "No contradiction: I'm black and... →
From CNN columnist LZ Granderson’s point of view, lots of media and political talks try to pin gay and black communities against each other. Recently, it was revealed that NOM was intentionally trying to drive a wedge between the two groups to benefit their anti-gay cause.
For LZ, you can’t separate the categories of “black” and “gay.” As an openly gay black...
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BREAKING: Lambda Legal, ACLU to file marriage... →
Today, May 30, Lambda Legal and the ACLU will file separate lawsuits seeking marriage rights for same-sex couples in Illinois. The organizations will hold press conferences on Illinois marriage equality later today.
“Tomorrow same-sex couples from across the state will be on hand to share their stories about why it’s just time for Illinois to allow them to marry,” said Lambda...
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Trans activist wins provincial election in... →
Yollada “Nok” Suanyot, a transgender model, actress, singer and activist in Thailand, has been elected as the top financial officer in Thailand’s Nan province. This makes her the highest-ranked trans politician in the nation.
Suanyot won the election Sunday against a candidate from the ruling Pheu Thai party. She’s the founder of a trans activism organization as well as a former beauty...
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Against Me! singer's first performance since... →
Laura Jane Grace, the singer-guitarist from Against Me! who was formerly known as Tom Gabel, made her debut in her first performance since coming out as transgender.
Grace and the band performed in San Diego and played six new songs, including one titled “Transgender Dysphoria Blues.” She earned wild applause during a particular line of another song that goes, “If I could have...
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Florida teen still not well after bullying,... →
Zachery Gray, a teenager from Florida, is in 24-hour care at a medical center and unable to walk or talk after attempting to hang himself a year ago. Gray’s mother found him at the time and was able to save him, but he has suffered serious brain damage.
Gray’s family and others have said that he was bullied at school and called hurtful antigay slurs. The catch is that Gray is not gay...
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Post-DADT, gay veterans honored on Memorial Day →
Yesterday’s observance of Memorial Day was the first since the official repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, and some people took note.
At a Memorial Day ceremony in Atlanta yesterday, attendees honored openly gay soldiers and reflected on how far LGBT service members still have to go before reaching equal treatment in the armed forces. From Public Broadcasting Atlanta:
“This is...
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“Here‘s the thing about rights—they‘re not actually supposed to be voted on....”
– Rachel Maddow
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Pressure builds for ExxonMobil to protect LGBT... →
ExxonMobil shareholders will meet Wednesday to discuss adding sexual orientation and gender identity to the company’s employment nondiscrimination policy.
Some activists are planning to protest outside the hall where the shareholders will be voting. Because Obama hasn’t signed an executive order mandating that companies that do business with the federal government protect their LGBT...
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“They did not force me to resign. I resigned because I’m very passionate about...”
– Richard Grenell, the openly gay man who briefly served as the national security spokesperson for Mitt Romney’s campaign, speaks out about why he resigned. He says he wasn’t forced out of his job for being openly gay, but he thought discussion about his sexuality had obscured his message....
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Obama launches reelection efforts among LGBT... →
Just in time for Pride month, President Obama launched his official LGBT outreach efforts last week.
His LGBT campaign will be hosted on barackobama.com/lgbt, a section of his campaign site dedicated to LGBT issues, endorsements and activism efforts. He’ll have voter registration drives at Pride events nationwide as well as phone banks and house parties in a number of different states.
...
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“I’m not different for the sake of being different, only for the desperate...”
– Vivian Stanshall
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Read this now: "San Diego Dedicates Harvey Milk... →
On May 22, the city of San Diego unveiled the country’s first Harvey Milk Street, named, of course, for the famous gay rights pioneer whose career in public office centered in San Francisco.
The Huffington Post blog above tells us why that’s important. The piece highlights different people’s reactions to the street naming and different perspectives on the significance of...
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Nepal will allow "other" gender on official IDs →
The government of Nepal has announced that citizens will now have the option of designating “other” as their gender on an official ID, rather than stating “male” or “female.” The change will take effect in a few weeks.
From Advocate.com:
LGBT activists in the nation welcomed the decision, which implements a ruling made by Nepal’s Supreme Court in 2007,...
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Trans woman wins bathroom rights at UA →
A transgender lecturer at the University of Arkansas won the right to use the women’s restrooms on campus after the Department of Justice got involved.
Jennifer Braly, 38, was a guest lecturer at UA as well as a student. She was told she could only use unisex/gender-neutral bathrooms at the school, essentially banned from using bathrooms designated female (or male, for that matter).
She...
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WatchIn which CNN’s Brooke Baldwin challenges the Family Research Council’s Tony Perkins to justify his anti-gay views. More.
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Petition calls for correction in Dictionary.com... →
The web site Dictionary.com defines marriage asa “social institution under which man and woman establish their decision to live together as husband and wife by legal commitments, religious ceremonies, etc.” But the organizer of an online petition is trying to correct it.
Mike Raven organized a petition asking Dictionary.com to correct its definition of marriage to include same-sex couples, and...
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High schooler suspended, then excused for bullying... →
A high school student in New York was suspended for creating a video and a Facebook page about a fictional student who was bullied and committed suicide, but upon outcry from the community, her punishment was lifted.
Jessica Barba, 15, created a video about a fictional 12-year-old character named Hailey who was bullied, became depressed and committed suicide. She also created a Facebook page for...
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Civil unions on their way in Brazil →
A measure that would allow same-sex couples to enter into civil unions is making progress in Brazil.
The bill passed through a human rights committee in Brazil’s Congress, where it’s been held up for 16 years. The measure would change Brazil’s civil unions law from saying such unions are between a man and a woman to being between two people.
This may pave the way for marriage...
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“In the end, some of your greatest pains become your greatest strengths.”
– Drew Barrymore
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DOMA ruled unconstitutional once again →
A federal judge ruled yesterday that a provision of the Defense of Marriage Act is unconstitutional because it limits same-sex spouses of state workers in getting insurance.
DOMA recognizes marriage as between one man and one woman, keeping legally married same-sex spouses from obtaining some federal benefits. U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken ruled that benefits like insurance must be made...
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