News

President Obama is taking another step to expand the rights of gay workers by allowing them to take family and medical leave to care for sick or newborn children of same-sex partners, administration officials annoiunced Monday. Labor Secretary Hilda Solis is scheduled to make the announcement on Wednesday that will require employers to allow gay […]

The controversial film “8: The Mormon Proposition,” which harshly criticizes the Mormon Church for campaigning in favor or California’s ban on same-sex marriage, opened in select theaters Friday. Focused on the 2008 passage of California’s Proposition 8, Director Reed Cowan’s documentary has struck a nerve with accusations that a “Mormon front group purchased passage” of […]

Closing arguments were presented in court today in the landmark trial challenging the constitutionality of Proposition 8, the final opportunity for attorneys on both sides to influence a federal judge in deciding the fate of California’s voter approved ban on gay marrige. “This case is about marriage and equality,” plaintiffs attorney Ted Olson told the […]

There will be no vote on the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) until Congress completes legislative action on “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” according to U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). During her weekly press conference on Friday, Pelosi told the Washington Blade that lawmakers “still have to finish ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’” before moving on to […]

Jury selection got under way Monday in a gay rights case that could settle a long-running dispute between local Boy Scouts and the city of Philadelphia. At issue is whether the local scouts group, the Cradle of Liberty Council, should be allowed to stay rent-free in its city-owned headquarters, despite the Boy Scouts of America’s […]

With six months left in his four-year term, Illinois state Treasurer (and candidate for U.S. Senate) Alexi Giannoulias signed an executive order on Sunday extending family-leave benefits to gay and lesbian employees in domestic partnerships. The new policy will allow gay and lesbian employees of his office to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid […]

Puerto Rico’s Attorney General has announced the creation of special committee to investigate hate crimes in the island territory, where advocates say gay and transgender people are the victims of an “epidemic” of violence. The announcement was greeted by cheers from activists who complain the government has yet to invoke 2002 legislation establishing harsher penalties […]

Two Marines were arrested and jailed Saturday on misdemeanor battery charges after they allegedly beat up a gay man in Savannah, Georgia. According to the Savannah Morning News, police responded to a call around 3:45 a.m. that an unconscious man was on the ground. At the scene, police found 26-year-old Kiren Daly motionless with friends […]

Iceland, the only country in the world to have an openly gay head of state, passed a law on Friday allowing same-sex partners to get married in a vote which met with no political resistance, reports Reuters. The Althingi parliament voted 49 to zero to change the wording of marriage legislation to include matrimony between […]

A government health committee Friday voted against rescinding the ban on gay men donating blood but also called for new research on alternative policies, citing flaws in the current rules. The Health and Human Services Committee, in its recommendations, noted that current policy permits some potentially high-risk blood donations and prevents some possible low-risk donations. […]