Protest

PARIS -- France legalized gay marriage on Tuesday after a wrenching national debate that exposed deep conservatism in the nation's heartland and triggered huge demonstrations that tapped into intense discontent with the Socialist government. Within hours, fiery clashes broke out between protesters and riot police. [ Read more → ]

AMSTERDAM -- After getting an earful from Chancellor Angela Merkel on the importance of democratic issues, Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in Amsterdam on Monday to face an eyeful of protests from gay rights activists. [ Read more → ]

SANTA CRUZ, Calif. — Face covered and mouth taped shut, alternative folk and rock singer Michelle Shocked staged a sit in outside a Santa Cruz nightclub that canceled her show because she made an anti-gay slur at a San Francisco club earlier this month. [ Read more → ]

PARIS -- Paris riot police fought back crowds who pushed their way onto Paris' landmark Champs-Elysees avenue as part of a huge protest against a draft law allowing same-sex couples to marry and adopt children. [ Read more → ]

RALEIGH, N.C. -- The North Carolina General Assembly has given final approval to a measure that would impose stronger criminal penalties for people who disrupt funerals or memorial services. [ Read more → ]

PARIS -- Several hundred thousand people converged at the Eiffel Tower in Paris on Sunday to protest the French president's plan to legalize same-sex marriage and allow same-sex couples to adopt and conceive children. [ Read more → ]

The Westboro Baptist Church, home of anti-gay extremists and the "Gods Hate Fags" fundamentalist movement, announced via Twitter on Sunday plans to picket at the scene of the Newtown, Conn., elementary school shooting. [ Read more → ]

SAN DIEGO – All charges against the “Equality 9” have been dropped and the case against them has been dismissed, said Zakiya Khabir, a member of the San Diego Alliance for Marriage Equality (SAME). [ Read more → ]

Thousands of same-sex couples across the country on Friday gathered outside Chick-fil-A restaurants for a "kiss-in," just two days after the company reportedly set a sales record when customers flocked to the restaurants to show support for the fast-food chain president's opposition to gay marriage. [ Read more → ]

In an act of ultimate intellectual cowardice, conservatives have decided to equate any and all criticism of Dan Cathy and his homophobic views/actions, as an attack on his right to freedom of speech. By childishly inciting the false notion that Cathy is a victim of censorship, numerous right wing politicians and preachers have managed to, once again, stir up fear and resentment towards the LGBT community, giving people a gateway in which to wantonly parade their bigotry and spite. [ Read more → ]

TORRENCE, Calif. -- A Los Angeles-area Chick-fil-A was vandalized overnight with the message "Tastes like hate" scrawled in large black lettering on the wall of the restaurant, mimicking the chain's advertising. [ Read more → ]

WASHINGTON -- Protesters disrupted an HIV/AIDS panel discussion on Wednesday involving members of Congress from both sides of the aisle, accusing the Republican senators of blocking efforts to thwart the disease at home and abroad. [ Read more → ]

WASHINGTON -- U.S. Parks Police on Tuesday arrested 13 protesters who gathered in front of the White House. [ Read more → ]

DALLAS -- A gay couple was arrested on Thursday when they launched a planned protest of Texas' ban on same-sex marriage after being denied a marriage license. [ Read more → ]

Occupy Wall Street protesters nearly drowned out Rick Santorum for 44 minutes as he tried to deliver remarks at the Washington State History Museum in Tacoma, Washington on Monday night. Speaking from a balcony, Santorum sought to condemn the state’s newly-enacted same-sex marriage law and the Ninth Circuit’s ruling against Proposition 8, but was repeatedly interrupted by protesters yelling, “we are the 99 percent.” [ Read more → ]

The Occupy Wall Street protests have spread to other countries. This shows, in no small way, that what happens in America doesn't necessarily stay in America. [ Read more → ]

LGBTQ equality rights activist Dan Choi has been dealt a setback in a court case resulting from his arrest during a November 2010 White House protest of the now repealed "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy that banned openly gay service members in the U.S. military. [ Read more → ]

About a dozen protesters from the Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kan., gathered outside of Manhattan Clerks office this morning to protest the legalization of marriage equality in New York State. [ Read more → ]

Several hundred demonstrators gathered outside the locked doors of a London pub Friday evening to to attended a 'kiss-in' protest after a gay couple claimed they were thrown out for kissing. [ Read more → ]

Five members of the LGBT activist group Queer Rising were arrested Monday afternoon when they brought rush hour traffic to a standstill outside New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s Manhattan office in a protest to demand marriage equality. [ Read more → ]