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A spate of teen suicides linked to anti-gay harassment is prompting school officials nationwide to rethink their efforts against bullying -- and in the process, risk entanglement in a bitter ideological debate.The conflict: Gay-rights supporters insist that any effective anti-bullying program must include specific components addressing harassment of gay youth. But religious conservatives condemn that approach as an unnecessary and manipulative tactic to sway young people's views of homosexuality.It's a highly emotional topic. Witness the hate mail -- from the left and right -- directed at Minnesota's Anoka-Hennepin School District while it reviews its anti-bullying strategies in the aftermath of a gay student's suicide.The invective is "some of the worst I've ever seen," Superintendent Dennis Carlson said. "We may invite the Department of Justice to come in and help us mediate this disc
by Kathy DraskyThe story in this video was first brought to our attention last week on Facebook. It is a story not unlike so many of ours. Josh, an American, married Henry, who is from Venezuela, in a state that recognizes gay marriages (Connecticut) last year. We all know the drill - if Josh was "Jane", he would have been able to petition the federal government to sponsor his husband for a green card. While there may be a waiting period and even an "investigation", the couple would not be looking down the barrel of being forced apart, and would most likely end up living happily ever after in the US.But Josh is a man and so is Henry, and as another Congressional session comes to a close with more co-sponsors of the Uniting American Families Act (UAFA) than ever before, but still no debate, much less a floor vote and our secure inclusion in Comprehensive Immigration Reform (CIR) as "iffy
This isn't the historic announcement that many are hoping for, but it is a sign that when it comes to the issue of marriage equality, President Obama might be shifting his political position.Perhaps this doesn't come as a surprise, especially for those who always thought that President Obama's opposition to gay marriage was rooted more in politics than principle. Indeed, in the late 1990s, President Obama (then a candidate for the Illinois State Legislature) indicated that he supported the righ
By Matt Hennie | Oct 26, 2010 | 7:00 PMVIEW PHOTOS | Georgia Democratic Party LGBT Caucus Candidate MixerTop Democrats – including former Gov. Roy Barnes—mingled with LGBT politicos during a reception Monday, urging them to donate money and support them in the closing days of the campaign, but they did so without talking much about gay issues.Barnes (top photo) was joined by state Labor Commissioner Michael Thurmond, who is running for U.S. Senate; Carol Porter, who is campaigning for lieutenan
10/27/2010- by Natasia LangfelderLots of Jon Stewart (congratulations Most Influential Man of 2010) and Obama news today. Did you miss the President on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart last night? Don’t worry, you can watch it here! Let us know what you think of the President’s interview in the comments!Related articles
Hope sometimes can be a rare commodity. It also can be a dangerous one. Hope creates expectations and if they aren't fulfilled they can be devastating to people's dreams. In 2008 many of us responded to Barack Obama's campaign with hope and enthusiasm that I have never seen in my fifty years of working in politics. Millions around the world chanted "Yes We Can" and really believed that our lives would be dramatically different under a President Obama. Our hearts and souls were filled with hope
“I don’t want to be an activist,” Josh Vandiver, a 29-year-old gay man explained.A Harvard graduate completing his Ph.D. at Princeton, with a focus on comparative ancient Greek and Renaissance political theory, Vandiver said, “I want to finish up my dissertation and become a professor… I’m a reclusive scholar. I like to be in the library all day.”Cristina Ojeda, a 24-year-old lesbian who came to the US from Mexico when she was 11 and became a citizen at the same time her father did, has more experience with LGBT causes. As an undergraduate at the University of California at Santa Cruz, she found herself amidst a politically charged student body. “It was natural to be involved,” she said.Still, when Ojeda, who grew up in California, moved to Buffalo to get a master’s in social work at SUNY, she found an apartment off campus in a low-income neighborhood where she felt uneasy leading a vis
Starting in April groups will submit reports on human rights within the U.S. as part of the United Nations’ Universal Periodic Review of the country this year. Dittrich intends to ask pointed questions about the lack of marriage rights for same-sex couples, anti-gay immigration policies and the restriction against gays serving openly in the military.

The United States has also felt Dittrich’s influence. Through his involvement with the U.S. Council for Global Equality, he pushed the State Department to require all American ambassadors to include reports on LGBT issues in the countries where they are stationed.
For supporters of LGBT rights, the election of President Obama represented an apparent historical turning point for sexual minorities in our country. As a presidential candidate, Obama had said all of the rights things: he criticized the military's Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy (DADT); he called for the enactment of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), which would protect employees against sexual orientation and gender identity discrimination; and called for the repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).

But now that almost a third of Obama's first term has gone by, there is growing despair among many of his LGBT supporters over how little the administration has accomplished on gay rights. We have been here before. Eighteen years ago many gay rights advocates celebrated the election of President Clinton, the first presidential candidate to reach out to the LGBT c
A resolution supporting the federal bill that would allow gay U.S. citizens to sponsor their partners for a visa passed the California Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday and now heads to the Senate floor for a vote.

Our cover story this week, "Worlds Apart," tells the story of three Bay Area couples whose lives would be changed by the Uniting American Families Act (UAFA), a federal bill that allows "permanent partners" to be treated the same as straight spouses in immigration matters. Currently, gay couples have no legal pathway to sponsor their foreign partners to stay in the country.


While the federal UAFA bill is on hold while lawmakers decide whether to include it in the comprehensive immigration reform, California legislators such as Assemblyman Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco) introduced a resolution last year urging the U.S. Congress to pass the s
Imagine Joe Solmonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign, standing up to the president like this.Given all on Obama's political plate, is immigration doable before the Nov.
Gay immigrants will be helped by immigration reform, even if it doesn’t allow gay Americans to sponsor their partners. But should you support a bill that excludes LGBT families?

When thousands of marchers descend on the National Mall this Sunday to rally support for immigration reform, hundreds of them will be representing the LGBT population.

“Immigration Equality has registered 200 marchers and has also learned that an additional 100 LGBT advocates will be coming to D.C. by bus to join us at the march,” Steve Ralls, director of communications for the organization, said Tuesday. “We’re now expecting a contingent of more than 300, standing for LGBT immigrants and families on the National Mall.”

Immigration activists hope to impress upon Congress that they expect to see action taken on immigration reform this year, even as President Barack Obama dec
To all of those against immigration reform: Oh yeah, it's better to just keep ignoring the problem and perhaps it will go away. Support Comprehensive Immigration Reform and support the Uniting American Families Act. ...
California Democratic representative Maxine Waters, a member of the House Judiciary Committee's subcommittee on immigration, has cosponsored legislation that would provide immigration rights to binational gay couples and their families.

Waters’s support comes at a crucial time for LGBT immigration reform. Last week 60 Congress members issued a letter to President Barack Obama and congressional leaders urging passage of the legislation, originally introduced in the House by New York representative Jerrold Nadler and in the Senate by Vermont’s Patrick Leahy.
As a presidential candidate, Barack Obama did not support marriage equality, but he did support the repeal of the so-called "Defense of Marriage" Act (DOMA), a 1996 law that bans any federal recognition of gay and lesbian families and allows states to deny marriage rights even to same-sex couples who have been legally wed in their home states. Obama also spoke of supporting some sort of legal provision to allow same-sex families access to civil unions on a national level.

Pro-family parity lawmakers have a bill that would strike down DOMA. They call it the Respect for Marriage Act; if passed into law, the bill would protect marriage--all marriages, that is--by granting federal-level recognition to families, gay or straight, who had been married in any jurisdiction.

Some family equality advocates do not support the bill because it applies only to married couple

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Promoting public awareness of the need for fairness in immigration policy particularly as it relates to the rights of same-sex bi-national couples in the United States who seek equal immigration rights; Providing information regarding political issues relating to gay immigration equality issues, rights and policy.