gay rights

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Pro-Life Votes Are Obama's First Target in Culture War

Gay rights will come later, when it's easier: Douthat

(Newser) - Democrats pushed Barack Obama into the White House hoping he could end the culture wars—and when they say “end,” they mean “win,” writes Ross Douthat in the New York Times. Obama’s strategy: “Engage on abortion, and punt on gay rights.” Though he...

Get Off Prejean's Back: Pastor
 Get Off Prejean's Back: Pastor 

Get Off Prejean's Back: Pastor

Plus, pageant exec stars in new pro-diversity campaign

(Newser) - Topless photos of Carrie Prejean may disqualify her from being Miss California, but “they do not disqualify her from being able to share her opinion,” her pastor tells E! “We all have things in our past that we would not want to have broadcast on national television....

Obama Needs to Take Gay Marriage Stance

(Newser) - Barack Obama has called himself a “fierce advocate of equality for gay and lesbian Americans,” but with legalized same-sex marriage spreading to state after state and “don’t ask don’t tell” ripe for repeal, he’s been silent, complains Eugene Robinson in the Washington Post. Washington...

Gay Activist Swipes Back at Joe the Plumber

Activist prez: Who cares?

(Newser) - Joe the Plumber's latest social commentary is a non-issue, according to a leading gay rights activist. “It would matter if Joe the Plumber mattered,” the Human Rights Campaign president said of Samuel Wurzelbacher’s recent labeling of gay people as “queer” as in “strange and unusual,...

Advocates Call for First Openly Gay Justice

Post would 'break glass ceiling in a huge way'

(Newser) - Gay-rights advocates are calling on President Obama to fill David Souter’s Supreme Court seat with an openly gay person, Politico reports. “It’s not so much we want to check that box at the Supreme Court level, but that achievement would be breaking the glass ceiling in a...

DC Council Recognizes Other States' Gay Marriages

Council passes measure 12-1

(Newser) - Washington, DC’s city council voted 12-1 today to recognize gay marriages from other states, the Post reports. The vote was initially unanimous without debate, but member (and former mayor) Marion Barry asked for a re-vote, saying he hadn’t initially understood what he was voting on. Another member said...

NC Rep Calls Shepard Murder a 'Hoax'
NC Rep Calls Shepard Murder a 'Hoax'

NC Rep Calls Shepard Murder a 'Hoax'

Republican cops to 'poor choice of words' in House debate

(Newser) - A North Carolina congresswoman is backtracking after saying during a House debate that the 1998 murder of Matthew Shepard was a “hoax” used by gay-rights activists, WTVD-TV of Raleigh-Durham reports. Arguing against a new hate-crimes bill, Republican Virginia Foxx said the highly publicized killing of Shepard—whose mother was...

Iowa Marries Gays but Licenses Won't Cross Border

Federal courts may get involved

(Newser) - As of today, gay couples will be welcome to wed in Iowa, regardless of whether they live there. If judges waive the three-day waiting period, some could be married by sundown. But for out-of-staters who are already chartering buses, the legally recognized bliss will be short-lived, the Des Moines Register...

Freed Gay Activists Flee Senegal Lynch Mob

(Newser) - Gay AIDS activists in Senegal are fleeing a mob that vows to turn them into "fish food," GlobalPost reports. Arrested late last year, the nine activists were sentenced to 8-year terms for “indecent acts against nature," but an appeals court freed them early this...

Gay-Rights Group Reaches Out to Miss California

Group hopes to change her mind in light of anti-gay harassment

(Newser) - Carrie Prejean, the Miss USA contestant who stirred up controversy with her opposition to gay marriage, may soon be having dinner with gays and lesbians from her home state, the San Francisco Bay Times reports. Geoff Kors, executive director of Equality California, said he invited Prejean because “Miss California...

Top McCain Aide Comes Out for Gay Marriage

Support consistent with conservative values, Schmidt argues

(Newser) - Backing what he calls "a sound conservative argument," a top McCain campaign operative is explaining his newly public personal support for gay marriage, CNN reports. Steve Schmidt will address the Log Cabin Republicans today and urge them to reverse their position. “No other exercise of one's liberty...

Paterson Introduces Gay-Marriage Bill

It's a civil rights issue: NY gov

(Newser) - Inspired by Vermont’s legalization of gay marriage, New York Gov. David Paterson has introduced legislation to bring “equality to everyone” in his state, too. It’s the second time he has touted the same-sex marriage bill, the Post reports. Paterson today urged the legislature to move it forward—...

There's Method to Andrew Sullivan's Madness
There's Method to Andrew Sullivan's Madness
GLOSSIES

There's Method to Andrew Sullivan's Madness

... But conservatives, gays can't figure it out

(Newser) - At age 8, Andrew Sullivan asked his mother if God really was omniscient. Her affirmative reply terrified him: “Then there’s no hope for me, Mum.” Despite his success, conservatives, Catholics, and gay activists might agree—even though he belongs to each of their constituencies, Johann Hari writes...

Washington State Boosts Rights for Same-Sex Partners

Domestic partners given all the rights of married couples

(Newser) - Lawmakers in Washington state have voted to give same-sex domestic partners all the same rights as married couples, reports the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Republicans, fearing the move would lead to legalized same-sex marriage in the state, unsuccessfully tried to add amendments to the bill to keep a clear distinction between domestic...

Paterson to Push for Gay Marriage

But bill's passage through the NY legislature is not certain

(Newser) - Gov. David Paterson plans to introduce a bill to legalize same-sex marriage, the New York Times reports, doing so without the customary cultivation of legislative support in the wake of laws legalizing gay unions in Iowa and Vermont. Sources close to the governor say he feels New York should plow...

Meghan McCain: GOP Needs to Rock Out Its Inner Gayness

Opposing gay marriage is 'un-Republican'

(Newser) - It’s time for a gayer GOP, Meghan McCain writes in the Daily Beast. Opposing gay marriage is anathema to the GOP's founding beliefs of personal freedom and liberty, charges the mini maverick, and it’s a political misstep, too. Ditching the anti-gay rhetoric is critical to restoring the party’...

Gay Rights Gain Upper Hand in Courts
Gay Rights Gain Upper Hand in Courts
ANALYSIS

Gay Rights Gain Upper Hand in Courts

Faith-based groups perceive loss of religious liberty

(Newser) - Religious groups are coming out losers in an increasingly significant body of lawsuits: those involving discrimination based on sexual orientation. The groups say it’s an impingement on their religious freedom, but a gay-right advocate tells the Washington Post, “We are not required to pay the price for other...

Momentum Builds Behind Gay Marriage

Vermont, Iowa wins energize supporters of same-sex unions

(Newser) - Decisions in Iowa and Vermont have doubled the number of states allowing gay marriage in less than a week and campaigners feel they are on a roll, the New York Times reports. At least nine other state legislatures will consider measures to legalize gay marriage this year. Newly energized supporters—...

Gays Deserve Reparation Checks
 Gays Deserve 
 Reparation Checks 
OPINION

Gays Deserve Reparation Checks

(Newser) - “The time has arrived to place economic reparations for gay and lesbian Americans on the political agenda,” Jacob Appel writes in the Detroit Free Press. Equality under the law is inevitable, if still a few years out; meantime, homosexuals must be compensated for their trouble. “While the...

Iowans Herald, Decry Gay Marriage Ruling

(Newser) - Gay marriages will begin taking place in Iowa on April 24, the Des Moines Register reports. The state supreme court’s ruling today that prohibiting the unions is unconstitutional applies to Iowans as well as visitors, because the state has no residency laws for marriage. “I’m off the...

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