Tomorrow we’ll learn the outcome in the ACLU’s latest challenge to Florida’s law banning adoption by lesbians and gay men. The judge has told us that she’ll announce her decision in open court.
After weeks of working tirelessly on CA's No on 8 campaign, LGBT Project Director Matt Coles is waiting for the election results and reflecting on the campaign.
During this excruciating wait for the polls to close and the results to be reported on California’s marriage initiative, I let myself think about history for a few moments.
There’s a secret weapon in the campaign against Proposition 8 in California, the ballot measure that would eliminate marriage for gay couples in that state.
It’s you — and the power of your personal story told to your friends, family, neighbors and acquaintances.
Frankly, I'm worried about Proposition 8 on the November California ballot. That's the initiative that would end marriage for same-sex couples.
There are reasons to feel good. The latest California Field Poll shows us ahead by a very respectable 55 percent to their 38 percent. But when you look beneath the surface, the situation is a little more complex. All of the in depth research appears to show: 1) we have a solid 40 to 42 percent; 2) they have a solid 38 to 40 percent; 3) we're both chasing the remaining 16 to 20 percent. That remaining 16 to20 percent is made up of voters who are deeply conflicted; they don't like marriage for same-sex couples, but they also don't like the idea of voting to take someone's rights away.
In June 1975, I'd finished my first year of law school, and I was clerking in a law office in Connecticut. I was sitting in a conference room in a big meeting about a construction contract when the phone rang. One of the senior partners picked it up. He looked over at me, and with a quizzical look, handed me the receiver.
It was my friend Hal from San Francisco. He told me he wanted me to come to the gay parade in New York in a couple of days. I started to say that I couldn't talk about it at that particular moment. Hal said that if I didn't promise to come, he'd call the firm back and tell them their summer clerk was a big homo. I knew he was bluffing — well I was pretty sure. But I promised anyway.
On May 15, the California Supreme Court ruled that the state may no longer exclude same-sex couples from marriage. But anti-gay forces have gotten enough signatures to put on the November ballot an initiative that would amend the state Constitution and overrule the decision. I’ve been getting a lot of questions about the initiative in California, so I decided to put together some of the most common with my answers. Hope you find this helpful.
We won the marriage case in California. No need for hyperbole here; this is big; big in terms of what it does, big in terms of what it means, and big in terms of the opportunity for progress it gives us (I'll suggest some of the ways to take advantage of that opportunity below).
Congress recently threatened to hold a vote on a bill that would cut from the ENDA the people who most need its protections. There is no better example of the reason we need a transgender-inclusive ENDA than Diane Schroer, a highly-decorated veteran who transitioned from male to female after 25 years of distinguished service in the Army. Diane interviewed for a job as a terrorism research analyst at the Library of Congress, and accepted the position, but the job offer was rescinded when she told her future supervisor that she was in the process of gender transition. Watch Diane Schroer's story and learn why we need an ENDA that prohibits gender identity discrimination:
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I'm writing to tell you about a very important parenting case that is now in the Court of Appeals in Tennessee. Here's the story.
Angel Chandler and Joseph Baker divorced ten years ago. They had two children, a daughter, now 13 and a son, now 15. They had joint custody and visitation with both children. Ms. Chandler began seeing the woman who became her partner nine years ago, and Mr. Baker married the woman who is now his wife in 2003.
