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MA, USA: Scott Brown to Gay Community – I Make No Promises

Wednesday, April 4th, 2012

How obnoxious can U.S. Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA) be? In a guest opinion published today in Bay Windows, a Massachusetts LGBT newspaper, Brown tells us that:

I don’t come before you with a checklist of items promising that I will be an advocate for you on each and every one of them. My opponent has already started down that road, promising to support everyone’s pet project. That’s not the way I have ever operated. [snip]

I believe all people should be treated with dignity and respect. I recognize the liberty of every citizen to live as they choose, and it is from this diversity that we derive our strength as a nation. We are Americans first and must work together to fix our country’s real economic problems.

Full Story from Pam’s House Blend

Click here for gay wedding resources in Massachusetts.

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Tags: ENDA, gay rights, massachusetts, senator scott brown

AZ, USA: Phoenix Mayor Working on Anti Gay Discrimination Ordinance

Wednesday, April 4th, 2012

Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton’s aides and a group of attorneys are working to draft ordinances that could outlaw discrimination against gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender residents.

The aides and attorneys believe that if rewritten, city laws would also give victims of such discrimination in restaurants and other businesses an opportunity to file complaints with the city’s Equal Opportunity Department for investigation — an option they currently do not have.

The effort comes as the Sheraton Phoenix Downtown Hotel near Van Buren and Third streets tries to recover from threats of boycott by the gay community over a decision by the manager of the hotel’s District American Kitchen & Wine Bar to expel a lesbian couple in late February.

Full Story from AZ Central

Click here for gay wedding resources in Arizona.

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Tags: anti discrimination, gay rights, mayor, ordinance, phoenix

AK, USA: Bigots Win in Alaska 58% to 42% With Dirty Campaign Against Gay Rights

Wednesday, April 4th, 2012

Voters in Alaska’s largest city of Anchorage appear to have rejected Proposition 5, which would have “added protections for people regardless of ‘sexual orientation or transgender identity’ to the city’s civil rights laws,” the New York Times reports.

With 97.5 percent of the precincts reporting — and a “surprisingly strong turnout” that overwhelmed some polling stations — the measure failed 58 percent to 42 percent. Prior to the election, polls showed Proposition 5 winning with 50-41 support from voters, but an ugly campaign led by an Anchorage megachurch known as Anchorage Baptist Temple may have taken its toll.

Full Story from Think Progress

Click here for gay wedding resources in Alaska.

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Tags: alaska, bigots, election, gay rights, vote

Senegal: Gay Group Calls on New President to Protect Gay Rights

Tuesday, April 3rd, 2012

Macky Sall, the new president of Senegal who takes office this week, has been called on to improve the legal protection for gay and lesbian people in his country.

The group Human Rights Watch wrote an open letter to the president congratulating him on his election victory and calling on him to address several rights issues as he takes office.

Among them is the repeal of Article 319.3 of the west African state’s penal code, which makes gay acts illegal by criminalising “indecent acts” and “acts against nature” with a punishment of between one and five years in prison.

Full Story from Pink News

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Tags: gay rights, President Macky Sall, Senegal

AK, USA: Voters to Decide Anchorage LGBT Non Discrimination Law Tomorrow

Monday, April 2nd, 2012

Tomorrow, voters in Anchorage, Alaska will be voting on Proposition 5, which One Anchorage explains:

…simply provides to gay and transgender Alaskans the same legal protections that we already provide to other persons in Anchorage in employment, financial practices, housing, and restaurants, department stores and other businesses.

John wrote about the importance of ballot measure last month:

They’ve got a nasty religious right up there that’s been thwarting their efforts for 35 years. This is the year to stop the bigots.

Full Story from AmericaBlog

Click here for gay wedding resources in Alaska.

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Tags: alaska, anchorage, gay rights, lgbt rights, vote

NC, USA: Win for Gay Rights Could Change the Movement

Friday, March 30th, 2012

Politico has a story out Friday, March 30, about how Republicans have “come nearly full circle on same-sex politics” and have backed off from their once vociferous and loud antigay rhetoric. It helps that former Bush Solicitor General Ted Olson considers the American Foundation for Equal Rights’ constitutional fight to overturn Prop 8 the most important case of his prestigious conservative career. It’s far, far cry from the election-year wedge tactics of Karl Rove in 2004 (after burying his gay father) and the recently revealed national strategy proposed by the National Organization for Marriage.

The Coalition to Protect all North Carolina Families, which has been battling the horrific antigay Amendment One on the May 8 ballot, has also picked up support from North Carolina Republicans such as former Republican mayor of Charlotte, Richard Vinroot, a onetime conservative nominee for governor, and other notable Republicans in opposing Amendment One.

But something else spectacular is happening in North Carolina: the campaign has reframed the perennial antigay “kids” message and, according to prominent pollster Celinda Lake who is working with the campaign – if they can raise the money to air TV ads produced by Chad Griffin and his business partner Mark Armour – the antigay Amendment One could be stopped in North Carolina and change the LGBT movement forever.

Full Story from Frontiers LA

Click here for gay wedding resources in North Carolina.

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Tags: gay rights, north carolina, win

AK: Gay Rights Ordinance Ahead, Poll Says

Friday, March 30th, 2012

It cannot be overstated that if Anchorage’s proposed LGBT non-discrimination protections pass, it could have a huge impact on the future of LGBT rights in Alaska. Currently, polling shows the measure known as Proposition 5 winning with 50-41 support from voters. Nevertheless, the campaign is getting ugly and attracting national attention as a result.

The campaign against Prop 5 is being led by an Anchorage megachurch known as Anchorage Baptist Temple, which has donated 61 percent of the nearly $80,000 effort.

Claiming that there’s no evidence of “widespread discrimination” and that “Anchorage is already a tolerant city,” these opponents are disproving their own point with a series of ads that portray transgender people in incredibly negative ways. One ad portrays trans people as “transvestites” who are somehow a threat to children while another shows a cross-dressing man using a women’s locker room to the detriment of a gym owner’s business.

Full Story from Think Progress

Click here for gay wedding resources in Alaska.

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Tags: alaska, anchorage, gay rights, poll

USA: Tax Filing as Civil Disobedience

Thursday, March 29th, 2012

In the watershed essay “Civil Disobedience,” Henry David Thoreau writes, “Under a government which imprisons unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison.” Thoreau would know: in 1846 he spent one lonely night in jail for refusing to pay his taxes, in protest of the Mexican-American War. This one act revolutionized the very act of revolution, inspiring independence in India and the civil rights movement in our own country. In Thoreau’s view the intentional violation of unjust laws can change the world.

The spirit of civil disobedience has infiltrated the gay rights movement. The first inkling of such a spirit can be found in the Stonewall riots, but there are also some recent examples. The Campaign for Southern Equality has launched the WE DO campaign, which encourages gay couples to apply for marriage licenses in states where gay marriage is disallowed.

In order to protest Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, Lt. Dan Choi chained himself to the White House fence and organized sit-ins in several congressional offices. While some of these protests have resulted in successful change, gay and lesbian Americans are still forced, in many cases, to abide by laws and regulations that require them to hide their true identities and demean their lifestyles. A glaring example would be the filing of an annual tax return under the United States Tax Code.

Full Story from the Huffington Post

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Tags: civil disobedience, filing, gay rights, income tax, marriage equality

AK, USA: Anti Gay Group Runs Offensive Transphobic Ad

Wednesday, March 28th, 2012

As weve mentioned several times in recent weeks, Anchorage is set to vote on April 5 on an anti-discrimination ordinance that LGBT advocates have been working to pass for 35 years, and opponents are ramping up their action against it.

An opposition group has begun running an offensive anti-gay and transphobic ad to convince voters to reject it.

The Anchorage Daily News reports:

In the ad, a cartoon “transvestite” who wants to work at a day care is drawn as a man with a jutting jaw and body hair, wearing a short pink dress, red high heels and lipstick. If Prop. 5 passes, the narrator of the ad says, “it will be illegal for Carol to refuse a job to a transvestite who wants to work with toddlers.”

Full Story from Towleroad.com

Click here for gay wedding resources in Alaska.

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Tags: ad, alaska, anchorage, gay rights, offensive, transphobic

AK, USA: Anti Discrimination Law Could Pass Next Month

Tuesday, March 27th, 2012

An ordinance banning discrimination against LGBT people in Anchorage, Alaska, could be passed on an upcoming municipal ballot in April.

There have been attempts to pass such an ordinance several times since Anchorage was granted city status in 1977, but the State’s vocal conservative Christian community always ensured the bill was vetoed or crushed at the final hurdle.

Surprisingly, the ordinance – which has been garnering almost as much attention in Alaska as the US presidential race — has won unprecedented support from faith leaders, including the Episcopal bishop and 50 other churches and religious groups. However, twice as many churches have mobilised in an attempt to defeat the measure.

Full Story from Pink News

Click here for gay wedding resources in Alaska.

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Tags: alaska, gay rights, law