NEW YORK (CNN) — A federal appeals court in New York on Thursday became the nation’s second to strike down the Defense of Marriage Act, finding that the Clinton-era law’s denial of federal benefits to married same-sex couples is unconstitutional. The divisive act, which was passed in 1996, bars federal recognition of same-sex marriages and…
WASHINGTON – House Republicans, under the leadership of Speaker John Boehner, have racked up a $1.5 million bill in their relentless pursuit of the discriminatory Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) – and they are sticking American taxpayers with the cost. Despite the fact that a solid majority of Americans support marriage equality, and despite the…
A who’s-who of big corporations based in Washington have endorsed a full-page ad supporting Referendum 74, the state’s marriage–equality initiative, in the Sunday Seattle Times. Washington United for Marriage funded the ad – which includes endorsements from Amazon, Costco, Google, Microsoft, Nike, Nordstrom, Starbucks, T-Mobile, Vulcan and other companies to encourage votes in the Nov….
WASHINGTON – The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) has furthered its commitment to marriage equality, by announcing an additional $1 million investment in the four states facing marriage-related ballot measures in November – Maine, Maryland, Minnesota and Washington. The announced investments bring the HRC’s contributions to the four ballot measures to $4.4 million and $7.3 million…
WASHINGTON – The chief diversity officer at Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C. has been suspended after it came to light that she signed a petition against same-sex marriage. Dr. Angela McCaskill, who has worked at the university in various capacities for more than 23 years confirmed to a faculty member that she signed the petition on…
LGBT WEEKLY EXCLUSIVE Having served and worked with the last five mayors of San Diego, my relationship and friendship with each of them has been different. I first met Jerry Sanders when he was serving as the San Diego police chief in the mid-1990s. Sanders was a very progressive Republican who extended his hand to…
An all-star celebrity cast, including entertainers and LGBT activists Lance Bass (NSync), Annette O’Toole (Smallville) and Bruce Vilanch (Hollywood Squares), are scheduled to perform in a one-night-only reading of 8. Written by Academy Award-winning screenwriter Dustin Lance Black (Milk, J. Edgar), the play chronicles the historic trial that challenged California’s Prop. 8. The San Diego…
One of the newer data points available to punditocracy is New York Times columnist Nate Silver’s Return on Investment Index. By looking at polls, population and electoral votes (among other things), Silver determines the likelihood that one voter in a given state would decide a razor-thin election, and thus where campaigns might wisely spend their…
WASHINGTON – Ahead of tonight’s presidential debate The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) has compiled an extensive report tracking Mitt Romney’s increasingly anti-LGBT attitude. Mitt Romney may face questions regarding lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) equality during the debate and if his past remarks are an indicator, he is likely to mask his anti-LGBT policies…
Gov. Jerry Brown has signed Senate Bill 1140 (Religious Freedom in Marriage Solemnization), authored by Sen. Mark Leno and co-sponsored by Equality California and California Council of Churches IMPACT. The new law, which will go into effect Jan. 1, 2013, reaffirms the freedom of clergy to make faith-based decisions regarding which marriages they solemnize and…
