lgbt

Gays Organize DNC Boycott

Frustration among gay Democrats at the White House's unwillingness to make their issues a first-year priority -- or even, in some cases, to acknowledge them -- is boiling over today in the form of a move to boycott Democratic National Committee fundraising.

Gay donors have long been a pillar of the DNC's support -- its treasurer, Andy Tobias, is a veteran gay fundraiser -- and of financial support for Democrats more broadly.

Posted in gay rights, lgbt

Mourning Gay Marriage in Maine

Tuesday night in Maine, supporters of a state law that would have legalised same-sex marriage lost, 53-47%.

Focus of Gay-Marriage Fight Is Maine

Stace McDaniel, a a retired school teacher from Atlanta, worked on the No on 1 campaign in Portland. (Craig Dilger for The New York Times)

Less than a week before Maine voters decide whether to repeal the state's new same-sex marriage law, donations and volunteers are pouring in to sway what both sides call a nationally significant fight.

Same-Sex Unions Will Enhance the Traditions of Marriage

CommonDreams.org Editor's Note:  This year, the Maine State Legislature and Governor Baldacci - with the rousing support of Maine residents - passed one of the most comprehensive Marriage Equality laws in the country.  Opponents of equality have now forced a statewide vote to challenge the new law.  The Vote No on #1 Campaign  - which supports marriage equality - is fighting bravely against the misleading and hateful campaign lead by those who would deny equal rights to our gay, lesbian, and transgendered neighbors.  The

Be Authentic and True to Yourselves

Recently a New York man named Dwight DeLee was convicted of the murder of Lateisha Green, a young transgendered woman. For only the second time in the Nation since such laws have been enacted, someone was found guilty of a hate crime against a transgendered person. LGBT activists are heralding the conviction as a victory in the fight for justice for the transgendered community, even as it laments the inattention of the mainstream media and the poor quality of reporting when they do. As one example, a Syracuse newspaper incorrectly identified Ms. Green as a man.

Homosexuality Exists Everywhere, So Too Should Equal Rights

It is now 40 years since the start of a riot for freedom in a small tavern in New York City – and the riot has never stopped. It is spreading slowly across the world, to every continent, to Mumbai and Shanghai and Dubai. Everywhere it goes, it wins, in time. Yet on 28 June 1969, it seemed only like another Sixties ruck in the muck against corrupt cops. The Stonewall Tavern was a Greenwich Village bar where gay people huddled together to find friends and lovers in a hostile country on a hostile planet.

Posted in gay rights, lgbt

Obama's Stonewall

In 1996, when Barack Obama was running for the Illinois Senate, he was asked in a survey by Outlines, a gay community newspaper in Chicago, if he supported same-sex marriage. Unlike most candidates, who merely indicated yes or no, Obama took the unusual step of typing in his response, to which he affixed his signature. Back then not a single state permitted same-sex marriage, and sodomy was a crime.

Celebrating Stonewall When the State of the Gay Union Stinks

It’s that time of year when queers hold barbecues and parades, and lift their Cosmopolitans to the dykes and drag queens that helped start the modern LGBT movement. Our institutions honor an activist or two, usually a jovial sort that won’t offend any of their funders, and point to Barney Frank, Ellen, Rachel Maddow, queers marrying in Massachusetts, and then declare, “Yes, we’ve come a long way.”

Our Lost Gay Radicalism

This weekend marks the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall riots in New York when, for the first time in history, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people fought back against ­decades of police harassment.

Posted in gay rights, lgbt

An Open Letter to Obama: Gay Equality Needs Your Voice

Dear President Obama:

I am writing to respectfully urge you to bring the energetic moral vision that you championed as a presidential candidate to the cause of equality for gay and lesbian Americans.

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