Charlie Morgan, John Boehner Staffer To Meet To Discuss DOMA Repeal

The lesbian National Guardsman whose fruitless effort to secure an audience with someone in Speaker of the House John Boehner's office was first reported by The Huffington Post Wednesday will meet with one of his policy advisers next week. The meeting between Chief Warrant Officer 2 Charlie Morgan and Katherine Haley, who focuses on social policy, education and labor in the Speaker's office, is s...

Huffington Post • Feb 2, 2012

Adam Levine And Maroon 5 Boycotting Mexican Restaurant For Anti-Gay Marriage Stance

Adam Levine has long been a supporter of the LGBT community and once again he's putting his money where his mouth is -- this time in regards to gay marriage. The Maroon 5 singer and "The Voice" star recently revealed that the band, which is up for the Grammy for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance on February 12, has changed the location of their upcoming post-awards show party due to an unnamed Los A...

Huffington Post • Jan 26, 2012

Maryland Marriage Equality Bill Expected To See Quick Action In State Senate; House Support Still In Question

Expect Maryland senators to approve marriage equality legislation in a hurry. As The Washington Post's John Wagner reported Thursday, Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. (D-Calvert County) "wants his chamber to act quickly on a same-sex marriage bill" during the 90-day legislative session, which began this week....

Huffington Post • Jan 13, 2012

What Washingtonians (And the Rest of Us) Can Do to Help Make Marriage Equality a Reality

Among some of the specific senators whom Washington United for Marriage will be focusing its efforts on is Democratic Senator Mary Margaret Haugen of the 10th Legislative District, who Silk says has publicly admitted to be wrestling with the issue. Silk also identifies Republican Senator Andy Hill of the 45th Legislative District as another target of the campaign. ...

Huffington Post • Jan 10, 2012

Md. Marriage Equality Could End Up On Ballot With State's Dream Act

If Maryland lawmakers approve a marriage equality bill during the upcoming legislative session, opponents of same-sex marriage have pledged to organize a petition initiative and put it before voters during November's general election. If that happens, marriage equality in Maryland may end up on the same ballot as the state's Dream Act, which gives in-state tuition to college students living in th...

Huffington Post • Jan 10, 2012

Rick Santorum Blames Same-Sex Marriage For Plummeting Rates Of Marriage Across The Nation

Rick Santorum indirectly sounded off on same-sex marriage yet again today, blaming the "changing definition" of the institution for plummeting rates of marriage across the nation. ...

Huffington Post • Dec 16, 2011

Snatching Defeat From the Jaws of Victory: Australia's Battle for Marriage Equality

Labor faithfully came up with a compromise that gives the appearance of supporting same-sex marriage while actually throwing gay couples under the bus. Enough Labor MPs oppose equality that if they were free to vote against the platform, it would fail. Gillard insisted on a "conscience vote" and got it. While equality won a place in the Labor platform, Gillard snatched defeat from the jaws of vict...

Huffington Post • Dec 8, 2011

North Carolina Gay Marriage Ban Protested By Gay Ministers

As the battle over same-sex marriage continues to cause tensions around the country, a group of ministers and their supporters are launching a protest Monday afternoon in favor of marriage equality in North Carolina....

Huffington Post • Oct 4, 2011

Cuomo Seeks Gay Marriage Vote By End Of Week; Sources Say GOP Senators Hannon, Lanza, McDonald Ready To Vote 'Yes'

With a vote possible by midweek, Governor Andrew Cuomo has summoned elected officials, gay rights advocates and labor groups to the State Capitol building on Monday afternoon for a strategy session on how to pass a marriage equality bill through the New York state senate., reports the New York Times. Cuomo wants the vote before the legislative session ends on June 20th. The meeting will try to de...

Huffington Post • Jun 14, 2011

King & Spalding Faces Backlash Over Firm's Support of DOMA

Jon Davidson, legal director of Lambda Legal, the nation's oldest and largest legal organization working for LGBT equality, was quoted as saying about King & Spalding's decision to take the case as "Depressing," and that "I think it's going to hurt them in their recruiting of future lawyers." Interestingly, in 2006 the firm announced national sponsorship of the Lambda Legal Defense and Education ...

Huffington Post • Apr 23, 2011

'Brookings' Of Gay Rights Movement Marks 10 Years As Brains Behind Marriage, DADT Policy Shifts

If there has been a single intellectual engine driving the shift in attitudes and laws regarding sexual orientation, it is arguably the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law. As it celebrates its 10th anniversary this month, the California think tank has grown into the 'Brookings Institution' of the gay rights movement. "Objectivity is our modus operandi, the source of our credibility," said B...

Huffington Post • Apr 8, 2011

Exclusive Clip Reveals Church Coerced Members to Raise Millions For Prop. 8 Campaign (VIDEO)

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints waged spiritual warfare with money and misinformation in an epic astroturf campaign against gay citizens, according to a new film by journalist and former Mormon missionary Reed Cowan. The film, "8: The Mormon Proposition," documents the church's historic involvement in the promotion and passage of California's Proposition 8 and the religion's ongoin...

Huffington Post • Jun 4, 2010

The San Francisco Marriage Case, Part Two: The Supreme Court

The political consequences of the case haven't gotten much attention, but they may be very important. Particularly if the plaintiffs win, but perhaps in any case, it is going to be very difficult to rally the LGBT community and its progressive allies to go back to the ballot in California while the case is still going on. People are not going to want to invest lots of time and money in an electora...

Huffington Post • Mar 15, 2010

The San Francisco Marriage Case, Part One: Possible Outcomes

There are essentially four possible outcomes in the San Francisco marriage case (Perry v. Schwarzenegger, the case brought by Ted Olson and David Boies): the Big Win, the Smaller Win, the Smaller Loss and the Big Loss....

Huffington Post • Mar 12, 2010

Interracial Couple Denied Marriage License By Louisiana Judge

"I don't do interracial marriages because I don't want to put children in a situation they didn't bring on themselves," Bardwell said. "In my heart, I feel the children will later suffer." If he does an interracial marriage for one couple, he must do the same for all, he said. "I try to treat everyone equally," he said....

Huffington Post • Oct 15, 2009

When Should Gay Marriage Advocates Try to Reverse California's Prop 8?

And so the question remains: When best to try to roll back the ultimate failure of 2008? In 2010 or in 2012? The emotional answer is clearly the former. The more measured answer the latter. But politics frequently turns, for better or worse, on emotion....

Huffington Post • Aug 11, 2009

All Hands on Deck in the Prop 8 Litigation

I was one of those voices that raised questions about timing and strategy when the federal lawsuit was filed. I am willing to admit that I may have been wrong, and that the Olson-Boies team may prove to have been visionary. Only time will tell. Our goal right now must be to ensure the best possible outcome for this lawsuit. We all agree: Proposition 8 is an unconstitutional and discriminatory den...

Huffington Post • Jul 22, 2009

Black, Gay and Reclaiming 'Civil Rights'

The thing is that are plenty of allies and leaders from the black community who do support full civil rights for LGBTs who can be cited when dealing with this issue -- John Lewis, Julian Bond, Leonard Pitts, Al Sharpton, Gov. Deval Patrick, Gov. David Paterson, to name a few. Members of black community who consistently oppose LGBT rights conveniently choose to ignore these leaders -- they have to ...

Huffington Post • May 30, 2009

Gay Marriage in Vermont: Three Progressive Lessons

Politics, like baseball, is often a game of inches. Individuals can make a difference. Getting people to the polls and on the phones can be the critical difference between victory and defeat....

Huffington Post • Apr 20, 2009

Winning the Freedom to Marry? Cue the Attack on the Gays!

Though they wrap it in marriage, the opposition is actually about gay - and they are attacking the idea that civil rights laws should protect against discrimination based on sexual orientation at all....

Huffington Post • Apr 11, 2009

Repealing Prop 8: Ballot May Be Last Option

It's depressing to think - after having just lost an expensive and exhausting campaign - that repealing Proposition 8 could mean going back to the ballot. It is unfair and unjust that a slim majority of California voters took a fundamental right away from a minority, jeopardizing equal protection. But the state Supreme Court heard oral arguments on the City Attorney's lawsuit yesterday, and the si...

Huffington Post • Mar 6, 2009

Prop 8: Let's Not Make the Same Mistake Next Time

Research has shownthat the single most effective way to change people's minds on LGBT issues is through one-to-one conversations, between either gay people or solid allies and their friends and family. Knowing someone gay, it turns out, is not enough. People have to talk with someone they trust about what it is like to be gay--ways in which it poses special challenges, ways in which it is quite or...

Huffington Post • Feb 27, 2009

The $248 Million Stimulus New Jersey's Not Taking

Based on the economic impact to places with similar laws, the Williams Institute at UCLA projects that marriage equality would result in $248 million of direct spending in NJ over the course of 3 years. Resident couples and those from out of state would spend, spend, spend. Especially those from New York, whose wedded status would be recognized by their home state....

Huffington Post • Feb 11, 2009

Gay Marriage In New York Unlikely in '09 or '10

Squadron is not opposed to attempting in 2009, but said their were basically two strategies. Either, put the bill up in 2009 and risk a defeat or lay the ground work for passage later. "Just making the Senate Democratic is not enough, we need a fundamental change in Senate culture," Squadron explained. He believes that while the Senate is progressing, we aren't there yet. Laying the ground work f...

Huffington Post • Feb 6, 2009

Marriott and Milk

My guess is that Bill Marriott, who is 76 and a political conservative, has come a long way on the issue of gay rights. But for all his talk about diversity, he has yet to take a position on gay marriage or Prop 8. He has no obligation to do so, but if you believe that gay marriage is a civil rights issue, just as interracial marriage was once a civil rights issue, silence or neutrality is unaccep...

Huffington Post • Dec 15, 2008

Fighting for Gay Marriage in Iowa

Equal Protection is the next logical stop for legal protection in the marriage debate. But courts have determined that the judicial scrutiny provided for legislation that imposes sex discrimination does not apply to discrimination based on sexual orientation....

Huffington Post • Dec 9, 2008

Changing Tides in the Fight for LGBT Rights

We will need to continue to increase our visibility, make our voices heard, and work to translate this progress into policies and legal protections for LGBT people....

Huffington Post • Dec 6, 2008

The Prop 8 Monologues, Vol. 1 of 2 - What Would Ronald McDonald Do?

...here's the no-holds-barred truth about what legalized same-sex marriage has done to Canada: Not a whole heck of a lot. In fact, things are pretty much exactly the same as before the law was passed....

Huffington Post • Dec 3, 2008

Hey, Mormons! Your Yes on 8 Pals Don't Like You!

A number of religious groups don't consider Mormons to be Christians ... But many denominations are more than willing to overlook these divergences of faith and use the "non-Christian" LDS for money and manpower to suppress gays....

Huffington Post • Nov 28, 2008

Proposition 8 Backlash: What's Wrong with Discriminating Against Those Who Want to Discriminate?

...

Huffington Post • Nov 23, 2008

A Letter to My Brother Newt Gingrich

...

Huffington Post • Nov 22, 2008

The Non-Campaign to Beat Proposition 8

...

Huffington Post • Nov 10, 2008

Four Lessons Gay Marriage Activists Must Learn From Obama

...

Huffington Post • Nov 10, 2008