Patrick Leahy

WASHINGTON -- Religious leaders said Wednesday that adding a gay rights proposal to immigration legislation could risk their support for the bill, setting up a potential Senate showdown. [ Read more → ]

WASHINGTON – The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday filed an amendment to a comprehensive immigration reform bill that would allow legally married gay Americans to sponsor their foreign-born same-sex partners for green cards. [ Read more → ]

WASHINGTON -- Republicans in the U.S. Senate are warning that efforts to include an amendment that offers a path to legal residency for foreign-born partners of gay Americans would derail an immigration package currently being considered in the Senate Judiciary Committee. [ Read more → ]

WASHINGTON — Sen. Patrick Leahy wants the government to start affording same-sex, married couples the same immigration benefits that heterosexual couples now enjoy. [ Read more → ]

WASHINGTON -- A Senate panel approved LGBT-inclusive legislation on Thursday that would extend and strengthen programs working to combat and prevent domestic violence. [ Read more → ]

A U.S. Senate committee on Thursday voted to advance the Respect for Marriage Act, an historic bill that would fully repeal the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which defines marriage exclusively as a union between a man and a woman. [ Read more → ]

U.S. House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) this week indicated that he would not bring up the "Respect For Marriage Act" up for a vote in the House of Representatives. [ Read more → ]

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) on Thursday announced that, in the coming weeks, the Committee will hold the first congressional hearing on proposals to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). [ Read more → ]

The Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) was re-introduced in the U.S. Senate on Wednesday, and on Thursday a bill to help bi-national LGBT couples was also re-intorduced. This brings the total 15 the number of pro-LGBT bills introduced to the House and Senate in the 112th Congress. [ Read more → ]

Congressional Democrats on Wednesday went on the offensive, introducing bills in both the House and Senate aimed at repealing the "Defense of Marriage Act." [ Read more → ]

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) has announced plans to introduce a bill in the U.S. Congress that would repeal the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), the law that defines marriage as a legal union between one man and one woman for purposes of all federal laws. [ Read more → ]