Carl Matthes: June 2013 may well become one of the most remembered Gay Pride months in the amazingly rapid march by the LGBT community towards equal rights under the law.
ACLU Forum: California’s LGBTQ Community Post Prop Hate — May 14
By
Panelists at the upcoming ACLU-SC Pasadena/Foothills Chapter bimonthly public forum on Tuesday, May 14, will recount the battle for LGBTQ rights in our community, discuss the impact discrimination and abuse has on students in local schools — especially for youth of color, and outline legal challenges ahead.
Is the Supreme Court Going to Settle for “States’ Rights” on Same-Sex Marriage?
By
Peter Dreier: When children born this year reach voting age 18 years from now, they will take same-sex marriage for granted. And they will surely wonder how it was even possible that America once deprived gays and lesbians the right to marry.
Tipping Points
By
Steve Hochstadt: TThe shifts away from conservative positions on gay and interracial marriage and immigration signal the decline in the attractiveness of major elements in traditional Republican ideology.
Rob Portman’s New Tune on Gay Rights
By
Julie Driscoll: He’s a hypocrite and a coward, and if he had any integrity at all, he’d tell his son, “Sorry, kid, just like everybody else, you don’t deserve the same rights as the man-on-top/woman-on-bottom crowd get.
DOMA Meets DADT
By
Carl Matthes: Who knew that one of the consequences of the lifting of DADT and the Obama Administration’s parallel decision to no longer defend DOMA, would be the growing participation of same-sex couples in the life of the military?
LGBT Victories: “Breathtaking Leap Forward”
By
Carl Matthes: These LGBY victories, the work of many volunteers, excellent candidates and smart campaigns, were sparked, in part, by President Barack Obama and Vice-President Joe Biden.
Gay Rights: What the Supreme Court’s Decision Portends
By
Carl Matthes: For those of us who grew up when homosexuality was a crime, the United States Supreme Court deciding to take up the Prop 8 and the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) cases for review is astonishing.
Marriage Equality: Waiting for the Other Shoe to Drop
By
Carl Matthes: If the Supreme Court refuses to hear the Prop 8 case, legal same-sex marriage will return to California
The Politics of Marriage
By
Steve Hochstadt: Our marriage debates show that electoral politics is not the only politics, that it reflects the broader and deeper, and much more interesting, politics of the whole American people.
Supreme Court Matters
By
Andy Love: Elections do have consequences, as they say, and the electorate needs to understand that the consequences this time around couldn’t be more serious. If ever there was a time for the President to run against the Court, it is now.
Congressional Candidate’s Husband May Face Deportation
By
Paul Hogarth: As the Administration now refuses to defend DOMA – again, thanks to activists giving him heat – the anti-gay legislation is still used as a basis for deporting immigrant spouses of U.S. citizens.
DHS and Gay Bi-National Couples
By
Seth Hoy: There are currently 36,000 same-sex bi-national couples in the United States, many of whom are routinely denied applications for lawful permanent residence and other relief from deportation due to the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).
Eric Holder: Immigration Appeals Board Should Reconsider DOMA Decision
By
Andrea Nill: Normally, members of the LGBT community who are married to a foreign national would not be able to sponsor their partner for a green card and prevent his or her spouse from being deported.
Will the 2012 Election Be 1996 All Over Again?
By
Paul Hogarth: Will the 2012 election be a repeat of 1996? If so, progressives are in deep trouble – and it’s our job to stand up to this President and demand history not repeat itself.
Defense of Marriage
By
Carl Matthes: Boehner has a secret plan: hiring the unemployed to defend marriage. Makes perfect sense. With over 60 million marriages in the United States and 13 million unemployed, each unemployed person would end- up defending five-and-a-quarter marriages.
Amending the Civil Rights Act of 1964 Would Give Equality to All Americans
By
Tracy Emblem: As a society, we should consider amending the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to include the words “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” placed next to the words “race and gender.”
Will California Kill State Research into Homosexuality “Cure”?
By
Carl Matthes: Lowenthal’s bill would add to California’s law books present-day science and values which were absent in 1950. The State has not conducted research into homosexuality for decades. “This (present) code simply mischaracterizes and institutes bigotry against the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community,” echoed Mario Guerrero, a director of Equality California.
Bumpy Legal Road Ahead for Marriage Equality
By
Paul Hogarth: For years, civil rights groups had carefully kept the federal courts out of gay marriage fights – and the prominent lawyers in Perry filed the suit without consulting them. But with most of marriage’s legal benefits coming under federal law, it was only a matter of time before the federal courts weighed in on this issue.
Activists Rallying to Ensure Obama Administration Brings Change
By
Why are the usual barriers to progressive change falling? Because, as in the 1930’s, we have grassroots movements who are pushing a sympathetic President to the left.
Obamas Welcome Gay Rights Activists to White House
By
During his remarks, President Obama acknowledged gay rights pioneer Frank Kameny, to whom the government recently apologized for firing in 1957, because he was gay.
No Nonsense Census
By
There’s been another informed and intelligent decision by the Obama administration. In August 2008, in an LA Progressive article entitled “Census Nonsense,” which decried the Bush administration’s move to exclude legally married same-sex couples from being counted as married couples during upcoming the 2010 census, I wrote, “…to capsulize the situation, as it stands now, [...]
Community Organizer Obama Asks Activists: “Where’s Your Base”?
By
Some activists excited about Barack Obama’s community organizing background forget what this fully means – namely, that he expects groups seeking progressive measures to mobilize their base. Community organizers do not expect politicians to challenge entrenched interests absent grassroots pressure, and President Obama is not about to spend political capital on issues like Afghanistan, the [...]
Equality Advances? Attack the Gays!
By
Be warned: Those new National Organization for Marriage anti-GLBT “actor auditions” videos posted are gone. NOM noticed that its evil ruse had been exposed and demanded that YouTube take them down. Even a clip of a recent MSNBC Rachel Maddow clip that included the audition tapes is gone. NOM’s reason: copyright infringment. YouTube has to [...]
The Election of Barack Obama and the Politics of Interracial and Same-Sex Marriage
By
The election (and now the inauguration) of Barack Obama has inspired a widespread sense of awe at the scope and scale of change in race relations in America—and more than a hint of self-congratulation. The news media just can’t seem to resist trumpeting the example of interracial marriage. When Barack Obama’s white mother married his [...]
Court Rules Defense of Marriage Act Unconstitutional, Irrational
By
Here is some great news that should be no surprise to anyone really paying attention — after the Proposition 8 kerfluffle, this was inevitable: A federal court ruling was just issued that is based upon the notion — one held by decent and intelligent people all along — that the un-American, anti-equality, anti-LGBT Defense of [...]
Marriage – Gay Grassroots Style
By
I had conversations with four recently married same-sex couples during the first week of January. There were two lesbian couples, one from the Sacramento area (Davis) and the other from West Hollywood. The two gay couples were from the Bay Area and Orange County. Along with my spouse, we represented five of the over 18,000 [...]
Census Nonsense
By
Witnessing the Bush administration’s politicalization of the nation’s governmental agencies, it would be a surprise to learn that the United States Census Bureau (CB) had escaped the political correctness-du-jour, especially in light of it’s history.
Barack Obama Supports “Equality for All”
By
Barack Obama has spoken out against Proposition 8, the proposed California constitutional amendment which takes away the right of same-sex couples to marry. In a letter to the Alice B. Toklas Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender (LGBT) Democratic Club in San Francisco, Barack said: “I am proud to join with and support the LGBT community in [...]
PCL offers monthly Open House Events on the 2nd Saturday at 2pm and 3rd Thursday at 6pm. Click here to learn more.
Recent Comments