New York

The number of adoptions by gay and lesbian parents has almost tripled over the past ten years, despite the "patchwork of discriminatory policies" that often make it difficult for gays and lesbians to adopt, as either couples or individuals, according to a new study released this week. [ Read more → ]

More than 250 gay, lesbian, and same-sex marriage activists have officially registered as members of the Erie County, N.Y. Conservative Party -- which strongly opposes same-sex marriage -- an effort by activists to ensure the re-election of GOP state Sen. Mark Grisanti. [ Read more → ]

A fringe Hassidic group based in Brooklyn is claiming that "man-on-boy" pedophilia has "surged" in New York State since same-sex marriage was legalized bill was passed a few months ago, and is launching an awareness campaign to thwart, repo gay married child molesters. [ Read more → ]

The U.S. Senate on Thursday confirmed openly lesbian Alison Nathan as the newest U.S. District Court Judge for the Southern District of New York. The vote was 48-44 in favor of Nathan's nomination to the Court -- among the 44 nay votes were five Democrats and all Republicans. [ Read more → ]

The Williamsville School District appears to have only one documented case of bullying involving Jamey Rodemeyer, police say. The incident apparently happened when he was a student at Heim Middle School, and disciplinary action was promptly taken. [ Read more → ]

The National Organization for Marriage is erecting more billboards aimed at intimidating pro-marriage equality legislators, and gloating that it was their efforts that cost David Weprin a seat in the U.S. House. [ Read more → ]

The Williamsville, N.Y., Central School District on Friday announced the suspension of a student in connection with an alleged bullying incident of Jamey Rodemeyer's sister at a homecoming event just days after the gay teen took his own life. [ Read more → ]

The parents of 14-year-old Jamey Rodemeyer, a 14-year-old gay teen who committed suicide last week, said Tuesday that the taunts and bullying directed at their son continued after his death. [ Read more → ]

Jamey Rodemeyer was laid to rest on Saturday. .More than 500 mourners, many of who were strangers, turned out in Williamsville, N.Y. to say goodbye to Jamey, a 14-year-old gay teen who committed suicide earlier this week after enduring years of bullying at school and online. [ Read more → ]

Police in the town of Amherst in suburban Buffalo, N.Y. have opened a criminal investigation in the suicide death of 14-year-old Jamey Rodemeyer, who was bullied with anti-gay slurs for the past two years, both at school and online. [ Read more → ]

In a sharply critical letter to the President, Catholic Archbishop of New York Timothy Dolan said that “recent actions" taken by the Administration "escalate the threat to marriage," and urged Obama to discriminate against gay and lesbian Americans by supporting the "Defense Of Marriage Act." [ Read more → ]

There was a time when faculty members in schools across America bracing for the annual after summer break of their students worried about seemingly inconsequential issues. Now it seems, according to a high school teacher in the western New York township of Williamsville, preventing adolescent death by suicide due to extreme bullying seems to be the prevalent challenge. [ Read more → ]

"I always say how bullied I am, but no one listens," Jamey Rodemeyer wrote Sept. 9. "What do I have to do so people will listen to me?" Just over one week later, Jamey, 14, was found dead outside his home of an apparent suicide. [ Read more → ]

Residents used a free-flowing public forum during Monday's Ledyard town board meeting to share their views on town clerk Rose Marie Belforti's refusal to sign same-sex marriage licenses. [ Read more → ]

“It had such an impact because the loss was about death and relationships,” said Jennifer Pizer, senior counsel for Lambda Legal, in a 2006 interview at the time of the 5th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks. “The grief and loss was the same between heterosexual and same-sex couples, and a perception of this seemed to come through to much of the public." [ Read more → ]

The anti-gay National Organization for Marriage continues its sore loser campaign aimed at New York state lawmakers who supported the Marriage Equality Act that legalized same-sex marriage in the Empire state. [ Read more → ]

New York Rabbi Yehuda Levin actually blames gay marriage for causing the East Cost earthquake. But what's important to note about Rabbi Levin is his connection to the anti-gay group National Organization for Marriage. [ Read more → ]

The nation’s leading anti-gay group, the National Organization for Marriage, opposes marriage and civil unions for gay and lesbian couples, and earlier this month, many of the leading Republican presidential candidates signed NOM’s pledge calling for a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage. NOM has... [ Read more → ]

The town clerk of Ledyard, N.Y. -- Rose Marie Belforti -- has finally responded to the controversy over her recent decision to not sign marriage licenses for same-sex couples, and wondered if there was another agenda that would result in allowing marriage between non-humans. [ Read more → ]

Just weeks after same-sex marriage was legalized in New York state, a new poll suggests growing support for marriage equality in the Empire state, and more than six in ten do not want the legislation to be overturned. [ Read more → ]