Weekly Political Roundup

• Ken Mehlman, President Bush’s 2004 campaign manager and a former chair of the Republican National Committee, has come out as gay. He led the party when it was increasing its anti-gay campaign rhetoric and trying to rally voters around anti-gay initiatives.
• After harshly criticizing the Pentagon survey of military spouses regarding Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, Servicemembers United announced that members of the Pentagon’s working group on the policy will meet with a group of lesbian and gay military partners during Servicemembers United’s Military Partners Forum in September.
• The New York Times has a great piece on lesbian and gay cadets at West Point.
• The Advocate rounds up this week’s primary election results for LGBT candidates.
• Conservatives in Iowa are trying to get people to vote out of office three State Supreme Court judges who ruled last year that the state law barring marriage for same-sex couples is unconstitutional.
• Supporters withdrew a proposed anti-discrimination ordinance in Memphis, Tennessee, citing a lack of support from the City Council and the mayor. Read the rest of this post »

Weekly Political Roundup

• President Obama included an openly gay man, Richard Sorian, in his list of recess appointments. Sorian would become Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs in the Department of Health and Human Services.
• Lanae Erickson and Jon Cowan have a thought-provoking piece in Politico on how to sway the “persuadable middle” on marriage equality.
• Lt. Col. Victor Fehrenbach and the Servicemembers Legal Defense fund reached an agreement with the U.S. District Court for the District of Idaho, U.S. Department of Justice, and the U.S. Air Force, preventing the Air Force from discharging Lt. Col. Fehrenbach under Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell (DADT) until the Court can schedule a hearing on the Air Force’s request to dismiss him.
• Marriage for same-sex couples in California will have to wait a little longer. The 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals granted Yes on 8’s request for a stay of Judge Vaughn Walker’s ruling that Proposition 8 is unconstitutional. The good news, such as it is, is that the Court also said it would expedite the process for Yes On 8’s appeal.
• The California State Senate passed the Separation Equity Act, which would create a consolidated form and procedure to simultaneously dissolve a civil marriage and domestic partnership—helping couples who are both married and domestic partners. The State Assembly already approved the bill; it now heads to the governor. Read the rest of this post »

Weekly Political Roundup

• Air Force Lt. Col. Victor Fehrenbach has filed a suit to try and stop his discharge under Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell (DADT). And high-ranking West Point Cadet Katherine Miller resigned because she is a lesbian and unwilling to compromise her integrity over the policy.
• Rachel Maddow also has a few pointed words about DADT.
• A a new CNN Opinion Research Poll found that for the first time, a majority of Americans (52%) think that same-sex couples should be allowed to marry (even though they feel it is not a constitutional right). (Thanks, Think Progress.) Nate Silver at FiveThirtyEight has done a meta-analysis of this and other marriage equality polls, and concluded there is “acceleration in the rate of support for gay marriage.” Read the rest of this post »

Weekly Political Roundup

Another slow summer week, but a few items of note:

• Eight members of the LGBT activist organization GetEqual were arrested during a sit-in at the U.S. Capitol. They held the event in order to get House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to take a vote on the Employment Nondiscrimination Act (ENDA).
• The New Jersey Supreme Court declined to hear Lambda Legal’s case claiming that civil unions have failed to provide the equality that the Court earlier mandated for same-sex couples. The Court said “This matter cannot be decided without the development of an appropriate trial-like record,” and told the plaintiffs they could take their case back to Superior Court, if they wished.

Around the world:

• Australia’s first openly gay cabinet minister, Penny Wong, said she agrees with the Labor Party’s view that marriage “is an institution that is between a man and a woman.”
• Nepal will hold its first Pride march on August 25, said Sunil Pant, the country’s first openly gay MP.
• The New York Times looks at the contrast between South Africa’s embracing of marriage equality and the reality for gay men and lesbians in many of the poorer townships.

Weekly Political Roundup

• Senate Armed Services Committee Chair Carl Levin said he expects the full Senate to take up Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell (DSDT) repeal in September, after the August recess.
• Former National Guard Lt. Dan Choi, one of the leading advocates for the repeal of DADT, has been officially discharged from the military. Choi and others were also arrested in Las Vegas after a protest urging Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) to do more to pass the Employment Nondiscrimination Act (ENDA).
• A U.S. District Judge issued an injunction preventing Arizona from enforcing a law that would have prevented the non-spouse domestic partners of state employees (and the partners’ children) from receiving health benefits.
• A new poll found that one in four Californians has become more supportive of gay rights over the last five years, compared with eight percent who had become more opposed (although we should be careful not to place too much faith in polls as predictors of voting outcomes).
• Seven same-sex couples in Montana, represented by the ACLU, filed a lawsuit against the state for failing to provide legal protections to same-sex couples and their families. Read the rest of this post »

Weekly Political Roundup

A light week for news, as we head into the summer doldrums:

• The Employment Nondiscrimination Act (ENDA) looks to be dead for this session of Congress.
• A federal district court heard testimony in a case to overturn Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.
• Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) wrote that he believes the recent rulings against Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) should stand. He illustrates his view with the story of a couple married in Massachusetts, but kept apart when one spouse, a Brazilian citizen, was sent back to his homeland.
• Kerry’s story, of course, is as much an argument for immigration reform as for marriage equality. That’s why it’s good to hear that 37 members of Congress have just issued a new call for LGBT-inclusive immigration reform.
• The Washington, D.C. Court of Appeals said that a proposed initiative to overturn the District’s marriage equality law would violate the Human Rights Act.

Around the world:

• Argentina became the 10th country to legalize marriage for same-sex couples. Blogger Andrés Duque has a lot of background on the vote (and his live tweets earned him praise from Mediaite). The move also means that “there are now about 250 million people worldwide living in jurisdictions which provide for marriage equity,” according to statistician extraordinaire Nate Silver.

Weekly Political Roundup

• Big, huge victories against DOMA lead the news for the week, as already mentioned.
• The battle against Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell is getting even more interesting as two groups for LGBT servicemembers issue conflicting advice about whether to complete the Pentagon’s survey about DADT. Read the rest of this post »

Weekly Political Roundup

A light news week before the U.S. holiday weekend:

• The Senate Judiciary Committee questioned Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan over Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, among other issues.
• The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development issued new guidance for LGBT people facing housing discrimination.
• New York attorney general and gubernatorial candidate Andrew Cuomo (D) said that if elected, he would make marriage equality a “priority.”
• New York State Senator Ruben Diaz Sr. (D) forced the abandonment of a spending-bill provision that would have allowed married gay and lesbian couples to file joint state tax returns. He threatened to vote with Republicans against the bill if the measure was not dropped.
• Rhode Island Gov. Don Carcieri (R) vetoed a bill that would have expanded the state’s definition of a hate crime to include crimes based on gender identity or expression. Carcieri said current law, which covers “racial, religious, sexual orientation, gender or disability prejudice,” is sufficient.
• The Wisconsin Supreme Court unanimously upheld the state’s ban on marriage or civil unions for same-sex couples.

Around the world:

• The lower house of the Irish parliament passed a bill granting civil partnerships to same-sex couples.

Weekly Political Roundup

• The U.S. Labor Department clarified that the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) gives an employee who assumes the role of caring for a child the parental right to family leave—regardless of the legal or biological relationship.
• Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke at a State Department event commemorating Pride Month, and equated LGBT rights to human rights. Worth a read.
• The U.S. Supreme Court upheld a law requiring public disclosure of the names of people who signed a petition to put an anti-gay referendum on the ballot in Washington State—but opponents of equality may try again with a different approach.
• Pedro Segarra, the president of the Hartford, Conn., city council, is set to become the first openly gay mayor of the city following the resignation of the current mayor on corruption charges. Read the rest of this post »

Weekly Political Roundup: Prop 8 Closing Arguments Edition

Closing arguments in the Prop 8 trial dominated the LGBT news this week. Here are a few selections from the many channels that covered it:

• In “Fear v. Equality,” Lisa Keen reports on the closing from the courtroom.
• Chris Geidner offers excellent analysis at Metro Weekly as well.
• The New York Times also covered it, and opined, “tradition seemed on the losing end of the argument.”
• Autostraddle’s Rachel offers the funniest coverage of the closing. (Seriously. Don’t have beverages while reading this. You’ll ruin your keyboard.)
• Karen Ocamb has photos from the post-closing press conference. Plaintiffs’ attorneys Ted Olson and David Boies sure look like they’re happy about how things went.
• Audrey Bilger at Ms. also covers the closing, and notes a fundamental contradiction in what the defense says will happen if same-sex couples can marry: “Will heterosexuals run wild and saddle the state with excessive numbers of bastard children if gay marriage is legalized? Or will they boycott procreation and extinguish humanity once and for all?”
• Vikram David Amar at Findlaw offers a law-geeky analysis that is well worth a read, especially for the argument he makes that the presumed appeal to the Ninth Circuit will be the key to the ultimate result.

And for those who want to delve into greater detail on the closing:

• Heather Gilligan of KALW News has a longer blow-by-blow.
• The Prop 8 Trial Tracker from the Courage Campaign has Rick Jacobs’ liveblog.
• If you really want to get into it, the full (but rough) transcript is posted at the American Foundation for Equal Rights site.