Blogs

There's exciting news on the Defense of Marriage Act -- and the possibility of it being overturned -- we wanted to make sure you were aware. There's a good story here and the original brief here, both in the Los Angeles Times, details yesterday's potentially landmark decision.

Greetings from Denver! We're here at the Creating Change Conference, hosted by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. There's a lot of excitement among the attendees as to what we can do in this new climate of change, but there are also some very real challenges for LGBT couples in this economic climate. One of these, brought to our attention by Nicky Grist of the Alternatives to Marriage Project, is the need for COBRA benefits for domestic partners.

You've likely noticed that the Oscar nominations came out this past week, but there's another set of awards that we watch for at Atticus Circle -- the GLAAD Media Awards, honoring those movies and TV shows that portray LGBT individuals in a positive light.

All in all, it's been a good week for us. With President Obama in the White House (and finally President rather than President-Elect Obama), I finally feel like there's an ally for LGBT rights in the White House. If you haven't had a chance to check out the new White House website yet, visit this page and scroll down to the section on LGBT rights.

Though the Obama inauguration is officially on Tuesday, the festivities start on Sunday with We Are One, a celebration of the inauguration from the Lincoln Memorial. HBO is televising it, and inviting its cable carriers to make the broadcast available to all its carriers -- meaning that you'll be able to see it on HBO even if you don't subscribe to it.

The Huffington Post just summarized a Wall Street Journal report on the American Rights at Work founding executive director, Mary Beth Maxwell, who would become the nation's first openly gay Cabinet member if named Labor Secretary. She does have considerable competition -- Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm and Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius, two key Obama allies throughout his campaign. But her nomination would do several things: 1.

President-Elect Barack Obama P.O. Box 8102 Chicago, Illinois 60682 Dear President-Elect Obama: Like many Americans, I was moved by your call for fundamental change in this election, and your victory indicates just how many Americans want change.

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As many of you know, yesterday was Day Without A Gay -- a national day of awareness for LGBT equality. Atticus Circle jumped into the mix of organizers. We especially liked that the day was built around the idea of what individuals could do to reach out to the community. I spent most of the day fielding phone calls from the media.

I just heard from some of the other organizers of tomorrow's rally at Austin City Hall, to cap off Day Without a Gay activities, and we have some great speakers lined up. One of my colleagues from Soulforce, who married in California recently, will be talking about her experience, the executive director of Equality Texas (which does great work) will be speaking, and we've even got a rugby player from our own Austin Valkyries appearing.