Archive for May, 2012

NEW YORK -- Award-winning news magazine "In the Life" will celebrate Latin pride in June with "Orgullo Latino," a look at the complexity of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Latinos in the United States. [ Read more → ]

Actress Cynthia Nixon ("Sex and the City") and longtime girlfriend Christine Marinoni married Sunday in New York City. Nixon, 46, and Marinoni, an education activist, 45, have been together since 2004, and had been engaged for three years. [ Read more → ]

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- A Minnesota pastor is at risk of losing his church after most of his congregation abandoned him because he voiced his support for same-sex marriage. [ Read more → ]

While all Americans have a right to serve openly in the military, without regard to sexual orientation, thanks to the repeal of the ‘Don’t ask don’t tell’ law, LGBT servicemembers still suffer rampant discrimination with regard to marriage equality, green card sponsorship of binational partners or spouses and a host of other missing benefits caused by lack of equality under the civil law of the U.S.A. [ Read more → ]

For me, Memorial Day is about honoring not only those who died fighting for our freedom, but also those closer, lost to far different battles, particularly AIDS. ... And so, this Memorial Day, I’ll pause and honor the many of my own troops who have fallen in battle. They may not have had the uniform or the recognition of our armed forces, but the wars they fought were just as valiant, and I, for one, am richer for their many, varied gifts and sacrifices. [ Read more → ]

NEWTON, N.C. -- Over 1,000 people gathered in this small town about an hour outside Charlotte on Sunday to protest what they called messages of hate by Maiden, N.C. Pastor Charles Worley, whose comments at Providence Road Baptist Church during a sermon on May 13 made headlines last week. [ Read more → ]

How and why do otherwise kind and Jesus-esque people become machines motivated by fear and unleashed in ignorance when the topic switches to the gay community? And how, on this one topic, do some Christians neglect the clear Biblical mandates to care for the poor and the outcast and turn all their negative energy onto the LGBT community? Who can we “thank” for this diversion and inoculation of deception and ignorance? "Holy Terror: Lies the Christian Right Tells to Deny Gay Equality," by Mel White, is a treasure map to the answer... [ Read more → ]

The lack of public figures or role models for teenagers, and the hesitancy of schools to include same-sex sexualities in sex-ed curricula, despite these being a normal part of human sexuality, give these negative attitudes more influence by not contrasting them with the more positive reality. Given the body of mental health research that has consistently connected stigma and suicidality, and despite the progress we’ve made, the present state of society leaves me concerned... [ Read more → ]

LEXINGTON, Ky. -- Drivers in Lexington, Ky., have been caught by surprise by a new billboard condemning homosexuality and abortion using Old Testament references. [ Read more → ]

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- The Ohio Supreme Court has dismissed a legal challenge to a proposed constitutional amendment that would that would repeal the state’s existing ban on same-sex marriage. [ Read more → ]

FORT SMITH, Ark. -- An Arkansas university has changed its restroom policies after a transgender student filed a complaint with the U.S Department of Justice. [ Read more → ]

A New Jersey man has been found not guilty in the fatal 2010 shooting of a 28-year-old transgender female that he had met in a nightclub. [ Read more → ]

The Abbey, the iconic West Hollywood gay bar twice-named the “Best Gay Bar in the World,” has banned bachelorette parties until same-sex marriage becomes legal. [ Read more → ]

Churches across the state of Maine will pass the collection plate at Sunday services on Father's Day to raise funds for the lead group opposing the state's November ballot initiative seeking to legalize same-sex marriage. [ Read more → ]

SAN FRANCISCO -- Mariela Castro-Espín, daughter of Cuban President Raul Castro and niece to former Cuba President Fidel Castro, has stirred a firestorm of criticism with her controversial visit to the United States to speak at a conference hosted by the Latin American Studies Association. [ Read more → ]

The notoriously anti-gay group that bills itself as One Million Moms, but in reality has only about 47,000 supporters judging by its Facebook page, is now targeting Marvel and DC Comics over their announcements to introduce and marry gay characters in their mainstream comics. [ Read more → ]

CNN’s Brooke Baldwin on Thursday afternoon gave an almost textbook example of how to tell a complete story when dealing with an anti-gay activist. Joining Baldwin was Tony Perkins, there to speak about his afternoon press conference opposing President Obama’s support for marriage equality. Perkins is certainly one of the loudest anti-gay activists in the country, and his voice was absolutely relevant to today’s discussion, surrounding his press conference. But he always needs to be put into context, since in front of mainstream audiences he plays a completely different character than the one he plays in front of supporters. [ Read more → ]

About the worst thing said about gay men, an allegation that is regularly dragged out by certain religious-right organizations, is that they molest children at rates vastly higher than their heterosexual counterparts. It is as devastating a charge as one can make in a country where jailed pedophiles, known in prison parlance as “short eyes,” are frequently murdered by self-righteous fellow inmates... [ Read more → ]

Dear Ms. Alveda King, you like to talk about the so-called sin of homosexuality, but let me remind you that the Bible also says something against bearing false witness. And between me and you, from one African-American to another, I would personally like to know just what constitutes you as a genuine leader in the black community? To my knowledge, no one has taken the initiative to ask you that question, so I would like to. Do you really think that your relationship to one of the greatest American leaders of the 20th century makes you a leader? [ Read more → ]

A federal judge in Oakland, Calif., ruled late Thursday that a provision of the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), is unconstitutional to the extent that it limits same-sex spouses of state workers in obtaining the insurance. [ Read more → ]