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Thursday, May 15
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Source: Lower Hudson Journal News , AP via Newsday CARMEL, N.Y. -- Unmarried residents of New York's suburban Putnam County could soon have an opportunity to enroll in a domestic partner registry. A committee of county's legislature has voted to advance the proposal. The registry would allow unmarried couples -- gay or heterosexual -- to document their commitment in order to facilitate hospital visits, health benefits and other rights that come with marriage. Patricia McElroy of Patterson has been trying to get the Putnam Legislature to take up the issue since February. She wrote to county...
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Wednesday, May 14
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Source: Chicago Tribune , CBS 2 Chicago , Windy City Times Larry McKeon polished relations between Mayor Richard M. Daley and Chicago's gay and lesbian community in the early 1990s before becoming the first openly gay member of the Illinois General Assembly, where he successfully pushed legislation to ban discrimination based on sexual orientation. McKeon, 63, died Tuesday, May 13, in Springfield, apparently after suffering a stroke. His death was announced Wednesday to lawmakers by House Majority Leader Barbara Flynn Currie (D-Chicago). A Chicago Democrat, McKeon served five terms in the House...
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Wednesday, May 14
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Source: WJLA-TV , Advocate , GLSEN press release Maryland's governor signed into law yesterday a comprehensive anti-bullying bill that protects all students from bullying and harassment, becoming only the seventh state to enumerate categories of protection that include sexual orientation and gender identity. Greg Atkin endured frequent bullying throughout elementary and middle school. "It hurts," he told WJLA. "It can hurt for a few minutes if you're hurt physically, but being hurt emotionally can last a lifetime." He said he's is thrilled by the new law signed in...
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Tuesday, May 13
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Source: Arizona Daily Sun , Arizona Daily Star , Arizona Capitol Times PHOENIX -- Efforts to put a question on the November ballot asking voters to constitutionally deny equal marriage rights to same-sex couples overcame a major roadblock Monday -- passing through a closely divided state House on a 33-25 vote. A lack of support had stalled the measure for weeks, and it appeared dead in early April. But supporters managed to drum up the votes they needed in time for a Monday morning roll call -- due in part to two Democratic crossover votes. Monday's vote sends the measure to the Senate which...
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Tuesday, May 13
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Source: Idaho Press-Tribune Walt Bayes TREASURE VALLEY, Idaho -- Gay and straight students should have separate bathrooms and showers in Idaho schools, a Republican running for the Idaho House said Friday. Walt Bayes is described by Wonkette as "a 70-year-old retired Bitter who is running for Idaho's House of Representatives." A local paper is a bit kinder, simply calling him "a 70-year-old retired blue-collar worker and farmer," and letting his policies speak for themselves. Among his other proposals listed by Idaho Press-Tribune : Make the supplying of pornography to juveniles...
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Monday, May 12
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Source: Staten Island Advance , New York Daily News , New York Times "Family values" Congressman Vito Fossella is embroiled in controversy that started with a DWI-arrest in Virginia last week. photo: Staten Island Advance On May 1, a five-term Staten Island congressman was arrested in Alexandria, Va. for drunken driving. His blood-alcohol level was twice the legal limit, according to police. That's never a good news for any politician, but many have survived similar arrests. What is threatening the political future of GOP Rep. Vito Fossella isn't the arrest itself, but his ride...
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Sunday, May 11
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Source: Oregonian , Victory Fund A local columnist today described City Commissioner Sam Adams as "the kind of mayor you might imagine Portland to have, if you lived elsewhere and only read about this city in fawning national publications." Adams is one of the top candidates running to replace Portland's incumbent Mayor Tom Potter. The first step toward election of the out gay commissioner will come two weeks from now when votes in the state's mail-only primary are counted. Adams is today listed at the top of "Races to Watch" by Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund , an advocacy...
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Sunday, May 11
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Source: Falls Church News-Press , Washington Blade Falls Church, Va. -- Virginia history was made in the Falls Church city election Tuesday. By being elected to the City Council, Lawrence Webb has become the first openly gay Afro-American elected official in the history of the commonwealth. Webb, 33, an assistant dean of admissions at Mary Washington University, ran on a slate endorsed by what the Falls Church News-Press calls "the City’s venerable civic organization", the Citizens for a Better City (CBC) along with Incumbent Mayor Robin Gardner, Incumbent Vice Mayor Lindy Hockenberry...
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Sunday, May 11
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Source: Southern Voice , Associated Press via WTVM Montgomery, Ala. -- LGBT advocates expressed both surprise and delight when the Alabama House on Tuesday passed a bill that would expand the state's existing hate crimes law to cover crimes committed against people because of their sexual orientation. "It is a very happy day to be gay in Alabama," Danny Upton, executive director of Equality Alabama. "I'm just almost speechless," he told Atlanta's Southern Voice . "This is something that people told us could never happen." But, if the House vote was unexpected...
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Friday, May 09
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Source: Sacramento Bee , AP via San Jose Mercury News , Sacramento Bee SACRAMENTO -- Former NBA star Kevin Johnson is now running for mayor of Sacramento. In a hotly contested race with six candidates, he's considered one of the most likely to unseat incumbent mayor Heather Fargo who is running for another term. But Johnson upset local gay and lesbian leaders after making an uncommon appearance at a candidates forum during which he said he believes marriage is between a man and a woman. Fargo and the five other candidates support gay marriage. Johnson later issued a statement saying he supports...
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Wednesday, May 07
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Source: Associated Press via Boston.com , ABC6 , Providence Journal PROVIDENCE, RI -- The debate over gay marriage -- and gay divorce -- is taking center stage at the Rhode Island State House today as the issue continues a long and tortuous journey through the state's courts. Lawmakers are talking about several proposed changes to state law. They range from a bill that would allow gay couples to marry, to a constitutional amendment that would do just the opposite, defining marriage as between one man and one woman. The House Judiciary Committee was scheduled to hear testimony Wednesday on several...
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Wednesday, May 07
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Source: Philadelphia Daily News , Bulletin , Associated Press via Philadelphia Inquirer , Patriot-News Advocates of marriage as a special right for heterosexual couples had hoped to debate a measure today in the Pennsylvania senate that would have started a long process to add discriminatory language to the commonwealth's constitution. Instead, supporters of the measure quietly withdrew it from consideration yesterday in the face of Senate opposition to parts of the measure and after it became clear to them that it would not be considered in the state House if it had passed out of the Senate...
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Monday, May 05
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Source: Canberra Times , AFP , The Australian , ABC News (Australia) SYDNEY -- Right-wing Australian Christian groups Monday welcomed a decision by a local territory government to abandon its plans to legalize same-sex civil union ceremonies after intervention from the Labor government of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd. But some members of parliament from Rudd's own party blasted the federal intervention. The Australian Capital Territory (ACT) government, home to the national capital, wanted to introduce civil partnerships legislation that would have allowed gay couples to hold ceremonies legally...
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Sunday, May 04
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Source: Baltimore Sun Gay and lesbian activists thought they had a friend in Maryland governor Martin O'Malley. As a progressive mayor in Baltimore, O'Malley attended gay pride parades and signed into law a measure to protect transgender people from discrimination. When he ran for governor, he said he supported civil unions and wanted to extend benefits to same-sex partners of state employees, as he had done for city workers. But two years into O'Malley's first term in Annapolis, neither has happened. He largely stayed out of the debate over legal recognition for same-sex unions...
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Sunday, May 04
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Source: The Age , ABC News (Australia) , Sydney Morning Herald SAME-SEX couples in Canberra have lost a legal battle for civil unions, after the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) Government was forced into a humiliating backdown on the issue during tense negotiations with the Federal Government. ACT Attorney-General Simon Corbell said the Commonwealth (the federal government) threatened to veto its bill on same-sex unions, leaving the ACT with "no choice" but to amend it. "We are angry, disappointed and frustrated with the approach of our federal colleagues," Mr Corbell told...
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Sunday, May 04
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Source: Pink News , The Age Conservative Boris Johnson is the new Mayor of London. Gay Liberal Democrat candidate Brian Paddick came third. Paddick has seen the Lib Dem share of the vote slashed. Ken Livingstone, the first Mayor of London, well-known for his support for gay rights, came second. Johnson's victory in London was part of a significant swing that had Conservative Party activists celebrating after making significant gains in yesterday's local council elections in England and Wales. They won a projected 44% of the national vote. The Lib Dems, at 25%, beat Labour, with 24%, into...
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Saturday, May 03
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Source: (Salem) Today's Sunbeam , (Newark) Star-Ledger , Associated Press via USA Today , Washington Blade , Crosscut (Seattle) TRENTON, NJ -- New Jersey on Friday became the third state to allow workers paid time off to care for a sick family member or new child, with the signing of a law more than 10 years in the making. It's the second state after California to extend the benefits to all families, including gay couples. Steven Goldstein, chair of Garden State Equality, told the Washington Blade that his state "arguably leads the way in America amongst state legislatures in advancing...
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Saturday, May 03
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Source: Miami Herald Opponents of a domestic partnership proposal for Miami-Dade government employees threatened county commissioners with political retribution at a news conference Friday. ''Every commissioner who does vote for the proposal will be held accountable,'' said Anthony Verdugo, executive director of the Christian Family Coalition. In a statement released before the press conference the coalition of anti-gay groups said that voters "will know the names of those working against the best interest of working families and children." The proposal defines domestic...
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Friday, May 02
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Source: Denver Post , 9News Denver , Vail Daily DENVER – Credit agencies, landlords and businesses could not discriminate against anyone based on their sexual orientation under a plan moving forward at the State Capitol. "This is about fairness, about equality, about treating every person in our state the same," said Rep. Mark Ferrandino, D-Denver, the House sponsor of the bill. The House spent two hours debating the Senate Bill 200 Thursday as a number of Republican lawmakers spoke against it, several citing concerns over religious freedoms. Rep. Kevin Lundberg, R-Berthoud, said the...
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Thursday, May 01
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Source: Miami Herald , Cape Coral News-Press TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- For the last several years, proponents of anti-bullying legislation have fought for a state law that would prohibit harassment of students. Every year, the bills failed. But on Wednesday, supporters were cheering after the Jeffrey Johnston Stand Up for All Students Act unanimously passed the Florida Senate; it previously got unanimous support in the House of Representatives. Next stop: Gov. Charlie Crist, who told reporters he would probably sign it into law. ''I'm against bullying, too,'' he said. Named after...
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Thursday, May 01
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Source: Prague Post Well-known gay and lesbian rights activist Jiří Hromada has become the first openly gay candidate to run for the Senate in the Czech Republic. Nominated by the Green Party April 19, Hromada’s name will be on the ballot in the upcoming fall elections. Prague Post reports that at least two Czech news websites had to shut down online discussions following reports of his nomination because they were full of homophobic and vulgar comments. The right-wing extremist National Party immediately issued a press statement branding Hromada a “homosexual deviant.” Despite years of hard work...
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Thursday, May 01
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Source: Times of India , AFP , IANS via Thaindian.com The wind of change that swept through Nepal in the form of a historic election this month, dethroned its king, once revered as god, and instead gave power to the former Maoist guerrillas, will also see a fresh social revolution with the first gay representative being nominated to the new constituent assembly, reports Times of India . "We have chosen Sunil Babu Pant as our candidate to ensure the rights of gay and other minority groups," Ganesh Shah, general secretary of the Communist Party of Nepal (United), told AFP. Shah’s CPN-U...
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Wednesday, April 30
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Source: Pittsburgh Post Gazette , Allentown Morning Call , Harrisburg Patriot-News , Lancaster New Era , Philadelphia Inquirer , Harrisburg Intelligencer-Journal HARRISBURG, Penn. -- Lawyers, religious leaders and advocates for gays and lesbians faced off Tuesday in one of the most highly charged Senate Appropriations Committee hearings in recent memory. At issue was a proposal to strengthen the state's ban on marriage equality by placing it in the commonwealth's constitution along with a provision to prevent other kinds of same-sex unions that are "functionally equivalent to marriage...
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Tuesday, April 29
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Source: Sydney Morning Herald , ABC News (Australia) , The Age A major victory is on the horizon in the long battle by gay and lesbian partners in Australia for the same legal and financial rights as de facto heterosexual couples, Sydney Morning Herald reports. Australia's federal government plans to remove inequalities in 100 areas of the law. But Rodney Croome from the Australian Coalition for Equality says discrimination will not be eliminated until same-sex couples are allowed to marry. "While this is a very important reform in itself and it'll certainly remove many of the more...
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Tuesday, April 29
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Source: Newsday , 1010 WINS , WABC News , Gay Financial Network Dan Pinello and Lee Nissensohn asked for a marriage license, but were given trespassing tickets WINS photo by Mona Rivera Frustrated by lack of progress on a marriage equality bill in the state legislature, a gay New York couple turned to act of civil disobedience. They refused to leave the Oyster Bay, N.Y., town clerk's office on Long Island Monday until they were given a marriage license. Although the state of New York doesn't issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, the protesters, Dan Pinello, 58, and Lee Nissensohn...
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Tuesday, April 29
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Source: Sarasota Herald Tribune , News-Press Tallahassee -- Instead of celebrating her son's 26th birthday yesterday, Pat Mulder was at the state capitol urging lawmakers to pass a bill that she hopes will help prevent another mother from suffering the pain she feels every day. "Last year I was in way too much pain to do anything like this," she said after testifying at a hearing for a tough new anti-bullying law. "The pain is still there but the motivation to make a difference is so much stronger." Mulder's son Ryan Skipper, who was openly gay, was killed last year...
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Sunday, April 27
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Source: Orlando Sentinel , News-Press , CBS News The parents of Ryan Keith Skipper, the victim of a gay-hate-crime murder in Polk County, will mark what would have been his 27th birthday Monday by joining others in support of anti-bullying legislation in Tallahassee. The Florida State Senate is one vote away from passing a bill designed to protect children who are picked on, legislative aides say. The measure's supporters say it would be the toughest law of its type in the nation. It would shift some focus to prevention, and require schools to take disciplinary action to stop physical or verbal...
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Sunday, April 27
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Source: Express Gay News An anti-discrimination bill that would have added sexual orientation as a protected class under the Florida Civil Rights Act was brought to a halt in the Florida Senate on April 23. The bill, sponsored by Sen. Ted Deutch (D. Delray Beach), had a breakthrough moment earlier this month when Sen. Jeff Atwater (R. North Palm Beach) agreed to co-sponsor it. Atwater, the bill’s first Republican sponsor, was influential in getting the bill heard in the Senate’s Commerce Committee on April 8. The bill passed the committee with a 7-1 vote, but it wasn't scheduled for another...
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Thursday, April 24
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Source: News.com.au , SameSame Sydney -- A GAY couple have won a landmark discrimination case after they were banned from becoming foster parents because they are homosexual. The couple, whose identities have been suppressed, took legal action when their application to become foster carers was refused by a welfare agency linked to the Uniting Church. After a hearing the New South Wales (NSW) Administrative Decisions Tribunal has ruled that they were "unlawfully discriminated against on the ground of homosexuality". In its judgment the tribunal said: "The evidence makes it clear that...
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Thursday, April 24
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Source: Gulf Daily News BAHRAIN'S gay community, human rights activists, and foreign embassies were furious yesterday over a parliamentary campaign to stamp out homosexuality, reports Gulf Daily News , an English-language newspaper in Bahrain. MPs this week demanded that the Interior Ministry stop granting residence permits to foreign homosexuals and that it deport any that are already in the country, as soon as they are detected. Under the proposals, according to a report in Gulf Daily News , students could soon be spied on as part of what some MPs envision as a campaign to "stamp out"...
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