News (USA)

Anchorage Mayor Dan Sullivan vetoed the controversial anti-discrimination ordinance on Monday, citing negative comments and arguing that there is no need for the measure. City leaders passed the measure that bans discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity in areas of employment, housing and credit by a 7 to 4 vote last […]

The Obama administration declared today that the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) discriminates against gays and lesbians, while at the same time Justice Department lawyers moved in federal court to defend the law, and urged a federal judge to throw out a case brought by a gay couple married in California. “The Department of Justice […]

The Mormon church’s aggressive support for Proposition 8, which banned gay marriage in California last year, has turned the Utah-based church into a lightning rod for gay rights activism, including a “nationwide kiss-in” today in more than 50 communities. The event comes after gay couples in Utah and Texas were arrested, cited for trespassing or […]

In what’s shaping up to be a heated race in Iowa’s House District 90, Republican Stephen Burgmeier has received the endorsement of anti-gay rights organization Everyday America. The race between Burgmeier and Democrat Curt Hanson to fill the seat left open when Democratic Rep. John Whitaker accepted President Obama’s appointment to serve as the Iowa […]

One of California’s largest gay rights advocacy groups announced this week it will wait until 2012 to push for an amendment to the state Constitution permitting same-sex marriage, but other organizations with the same agenda insisted they want to bring the issue back to voters in 2010. Leaders of Equality California, which spearheaded the campaign […]

Minnesota’s largest school district, Anoka-Hennepin, has agreed to pay a family $25,000 after two teachers allegedly harassed a boy because of his perceived sexual orientation, according to the Star Tribune. The teachers reportedly harassed the boy and subjected him to classroom jokes, comments and innuendos. The boy’s “fence swings both ways,” teacher Diane Cleveland commented […]

From NPR. The American Civil Liberties Union announced today that they have settled out of court with two Tennessee school districts sued on behalf of local students for blocking classroom access to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Web sites. The lawsuit alleged that Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools and Knox County Schools violated the rights of […]

A southern Utah newspaper has rejected a gay couple’s wedding announcement, saying its policy is to publish announcements only for marriages legal under Utah law. The Spectrum in St. George initially accepted […]

Tim Hortons, the Canadian based coffee and doughnut house, is distancing itself from an upcoming Rhode Island event designed to “take a stand” against same-sex marriage. Brochures for this Sunday’s “Celebrate Marriage and Family Day“ in Warwick, R.I., listed the popular coffee-and-donut chain as one of its sponsors. The weekend celebration is being put on […]

More than 440 same sex couple applied for Wisconsin’s domestic partnership registry in its first week. A spokeswoman for the Department of Health Services cautions the numbers are incomplete because only 58 out of 72 counties responded to the department’s request for numbers. Dane County had the most with 115 couples. Applicants need to sign […]

Both the National Education Association (NEA) and the American Bar Association (ABA) have adopted resolutions backing full LGBT rights, including gay marriage. The ABA, a professional organization for lawyers, approved a resolution supporting the repeal of at least part of legislative language contained in the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), a 1996 law that denies […]

Even if you’re not in the mood for a vanilla cone, you can’t miss Doug Quint’s ice cream truck on the streets of New York City. Quint owns and operates the Big Gay Ice Cream Truck. And with that name emblazoned on the truck — along with a big, rainbow-colored soft-serve cone logo — Quint […]

The prominent lawyers leading the fight to legalize gay marriage in California on Friday formally told San Francisco officials and three other groups supportive of same-sex weddings “thanks, but no thanks” for trying to join their federal lawsuit. The two couples represented by attorneys Theodore Olson and David Boies note that the gay rights organizations […]

Marriage equality organization Maine Freedom to Marry announced July 30 that 60,000 Mainers have signed pledges defending the state’s marriage equality bill. “Volunteers, ready and willing to go door to door and speak neighbor to neighbor to protect marriage equality, are the fuel of our campaign to defeat Question 1,” Jesse Connolly, Campaign Manager of […]

The American Psychological Association declared Wednesday that mental health professionals should not tell gay clients they can become straight through therapy or other treatments.

The Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which would ban workplace bias based on sexual orientation and gender discrimination, has a chance of becoming law by the end of 2009, according to Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., its lead sponsor in the Senate. The measure was introduced in the Senate on Wednesday with 38 co-sponsors, including Sens. Edward Kennedy, […]

A new online high school targeting LGBT students, believed to be the first of its kind, plans to launch in January 2010.

The Census Bureau plans to release raw data from the 2010 Census about the number of same-sex marriages in the United States, according to new guidelines issued Monday. The announcement reverses an earlier decision made under the Bush administration. Same -sex couples “will be counted, and they ought to report the way they see themselves,” […]

Gay couples trickled into county clerk’s offices in Wisconsin on Monday for their first chance to sign up for the state’s new domestic partnership registry.

Newly released film footage shows four LDS Church security guards separating and handcuffing a gay couple after the two men kissed on the Main Street Plaza. The Salt Lake Tribune obtained the film through an open-records request with Salt Lake City. The church provided the film to the city as part of a prosecutor’s review […]