LGBTQ news and entertainment
• 59% oppose Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act
• 62% believe it is discrimination to deny equal rights to legally married same-sex couples
• 52% support same-sex marriage
Click the pic above for a larger view.
(via AmericanProgress.org)
Stacy Dawson, a 17-year-old senior at Scott County Central High School in Sikeston, Mo., had been told last year that he couldn’t bring his boyfriend due to a line in the school’s handbook that said “students will be permitted to invite one guest, girls invite boys and boys invite girls.”
Today, the district superintendent has said Dawson, or any gay teen, may bring a same-sex date, the line forbidding it has been removed from the rule book, NBC News reports:
“I found out why the stipulation in the student handbook was originally put in there, and it’s rather innocent, to be honest,” Alvin McFerren, Scott County Central School District superintendent, said. “This was during a time 10-15 years ago that the previous administration was having issues with some of the students trying to come in on either the single rate or the couple rate. They implemented that to make sure they couldn’t circumvent the rates that students were supposed to pay as they entered into our dances.”
McFerren said Dawson will be allowed to go to prom with his boyfriend.
“It was never intended to be a discriminatory thing,” he said. “We want an educational environment for all of our kids and we’re not ever going to discriminate as to whether or not the board has the policy and we don’t do that based on sexual orientation. Period.”
(source)
Gallup has completed an extensive poll to determine the percentage of LGBT population in each state of the US.
The District of Columbia was found to have the largest percentage of LGBT-identifying residents by far with 10%, and North Dakota the least, with 1.7%.
Check out the list below:
Excellent riff on the Dodge “So God Made A Farmer” Super Bowl ad.
I like this one more.
Thanks to Crew Magazine.
Valentine’s Day episode of “My Gay Roommate” with Austin Bening and Noam Ash. The web series explores the ins and outs of college dorm life with someone of the opposite orientation.
For all the straight guys out there who might get some bad news on V-Day. Your gay bro has your back.
(Get you mind of the gutter, you know what I meant…)
From today’s Anderson Live, Anderson Cooper talks to Libby Phelps – who recently left the Westboro Baptist Church – about growing up in the WBC, being a part of the church’s pickets and why they picket the funerals of dead soldiers.
Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta on Monday announced he will extend to nearly the full extent permitted under current law the benefits available to gay and lesbian service members and their families.
OutServe-SLDN, the association of actively serving LGBT military personnel, has called on the Department of Defense to issue these benefits for more than two years.
“Secretary Panetta’s decision today answers the call President Obama issued in his inaugural address to complete our nation’s journey toward equality, acknowledging the equal service and equal sacrifice of our gay and lesbian service members and their families. We thank him for getting us a few steps closer to full equality – steps that will substantively improve the quality of life of gay and lesbian military families,” said Army Veteran and OutServe-SLDN Executive Director Allyson Robinson.
The package of recognition, support, and benefits – which includes the issuance of military identification cards, access to family support initiatives, and joint duty assignments – does not address the larger issues of health care, housing, and survivors’ benefits restricted by DOMA and other federal statutes. The Supreme Court is set to consider DOMA next month, and is expected to issue a ruling later this year.
From HRC: “Today, the Pentagon took a historic step forward toward righting the wrong of inequality in our armed forces, but there is still more work to be done. Gay and lesbian service members and their families make sacrifices every day, and this country owes them every measure of support we can provide. Since the repeal of ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,’ the Obama administration has shown true leadership on this issue. But even today, the discriminatory Defense of Marriage Act makes inequality for gay and lesbian military families a legal requirement. It’s time to right this wrong. When the Supreme Court considers the constitutionality of DOMA in the coming weeks, they should take note of the real harm this law inflicts every day.”
Additional benefits for same-sex domestic partners include:
– Dependent ID cards, which will be renewed in accordance with existing policies
– Commissary privilges
– Morale, welfare, and recreation programs
– Surveys of military families
– Quadrennial quality of life review
– Emergency leave
– Emergency leave of absence
– Youth sponsorship program
– Youth programs
– Family center programs
– Sexual assault counseling program
– Joint duty assignments
– Exemption from hostile-fire areas
– Transportation to and from certain places of employment and on military installations
– Transportation to and from primary and secondary school for minor dependents
– Authority of service secretary to transport remains of a dependent
– Disability and death compensation: dependents of members held as captives
– Payments to missing persons
– Space-available travel on DoD aircraft
– Child care
– Legal assistance
(via press release)
The Washington Post is reporting that President Obama is considering issuing an executive order regarding discrimination of gays and lesbians who work for government contractors:
On social policy, Obama is reconsidering whether to issue an executive order prohibiting federal contractors from discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. When he decided not to issue such an order last year, the White House said it would prefer to pass a law applying to gays and lesbians in the workplace.
But if Congress seems unlikely to act on the broader legislation — called the Employment Non-Discrimination Act — officials have signaled to people working on the issue outside the administration that the president would likely consider issuing an executive order, which can only affect government contractors.
The Colorado Senate voted 21-14 to approve SB-11, the Colorado Civil Union Act, in the second of three votes. The bill received bipartisan support from Republican Senator Ellen Roberts voting for the bill.
From Brad Clark, Executive Director of One Colorado:
“Committed gay and lesbian couples in the state have been waiting for years — 10, 20, even 40 years — to have their relationships protected. It’s well past time that these families have equal protection under the law. We applaud the bipartisan passage of civil unions in the Senate and look forward to the debate in the House.”
SB-11 provides committed LGBT couples with important legal protections such as property inheritance, family leave to care for and visit a partner in the hospital , and the right to make medical and end-of-life decisions.
After a third reading and vote on Monday, SB-11 will move to the Colorado House, where it is expected to pass.
A new poll out from Franklin & Marshall College shows that a majority of Pennsylvanians — 52 percent — support marriage equality, while 41 percent oppose it.
Just sharing the good news.
Forward.