Blogs

Bloggers made jokes last week when Republican state senator Ashburn was arrested and accused of driving under the influence while on his way home from a gay bar www.alternet.org/sex/145941. But it was no laughing matter when the senator finally admitted he's gay, yet has no intention of changing his history of opposing gay rights legislation.

Sometimes it's interesting to step back and look at how other countries strategize for LGBT equality. In England, religious institutions are an important part of the planning, because religious freedom means being able to celebrate their civil partnerships in their own place of worship. Read more in the Stonewall ebulletin dotm1.net/cr.aspx

Recently, Ted Olson and David Boies were interviewed by Bill Moyers during his Friday night PBS Journal. Once adversaries in the 2000 Bush v. Gore Supreme Court case, these two brilliant legal minds are now together on the same bench in a fight for marriage equality. Their battle for basic American values of diversity, equality and tolerance puts them in the middle of a critically important civil rights trial, one that could change our society. Watch the interview, listen to their impassioned plea for justice, and share this link with everyone you know.

As the celebration of Black History Month comes to an end, let's remember Bayard Rustin, an openly gay civil rights leader from the early 60s who counseled Martin Luther King, Jr. on nonviolent resistance, and who was the main organizer of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Read more about Rustin's life and a film based on it at rustin.org/

In a conference sponsored by the School Law Section of the State Bar of Texas, and hosted by the University of Texas Law School's Continuing Legal Education program, Frye delivered a message that she hopes "will positively influence the respectful treatment by schools of both transgender kids and teachers during the next decade." 

As more and more Americans voice their support of the repeal of DADT, the opposition is quick to resort to myths and untruths to substantiate their arguments. Media Matters for America has just published an extensively researched collection of answers to expose those falsehoods. Click here to read the material mediamatters.org/research/201002240012

March 4th marks the date when the 2010 Equality Ride team will begin their two-month long journey across the states visiting a total of 16 university campuses known for policies that are discriminatory to LGBTQ students.  

Sometimes standing up straight can be as simple as choosing a leader because they are the best there is for the job, and voting that person into power regardless of their ethnicity, their religion, their gender, gender identity or who they love. Forty-eight year old Gordon Dennis Fox is a good sign that our American society is moving closer to understanding how necessary it is for all of its citizens to attain equality.

Now that the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Secretary of Defense, and Gen. Colin Powell are on board with the commander in chief in allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly, "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" repeal advocates must take advantage of this new opening. This week was huge. But even more hard work is needed, particularly since our opponents, like Rep. Duncan Hunter, Jr. and Sen. John McCain, are all over the airwaves making their case. Now the U.S. Senate has to act, and we need to do our part to make that happen.

In an extraordinary policy change, the Census Bureau recently announced that when gay and lesbian couples indicate they are married on the 2010 form, the Census will count them as married. The Census is the first Federal agency to recognize marriage of gay and lesbian couples, even though it does not ask anyone about their sexual orientation.