U.S. District Judge Richard Smoak release a 36-page opinion July 25 that compares Ponce De Leon High School Principal David Davis’ actions against gay students last year to a witch-hunt. Smoak says Davis led a “ relentless crusade” against gay students when he barred students from wearing pro-gay slogans, symbols and stickers at the high [...]
Republican congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen has vowed to fight Amendment 2, Florida’s proposed ban on same-sex marriage, The Miami Herald reported Tuesday. “We have a big challenge ahead of us,” Ros-Lehtinen, a House leader on gay issues, told members of the Miami Log Cabin Republicans Sunday night. If passed in November, Amendment 2 would ban gay [...]
Pacific Gas and Electric Company, the utility company that powers most of Northern California, has donated $250,000 to the fight against Prop. 8, the proposed amendment that would exclude same-sex couples from marriage equality: PG&E Announces $250,000 Contribution to Fight Prop. 8 So the company that routinely takes folks out of dark ages is helping [...]
Mars Inc. has pulled its newest television commercial for Snickers candy bars after communication with the Human Rights Campaign. “Following conversations between the Human Rights Campaign and senior Mars representatives, the company has agreed to pull its most recent ad using stereotypes of gay men to sell its Snickers product line,” HRC workplace director Daryl [...]
Seventy-five percent of Americans believe that gays and lesbians should be allowed to serve in the US military, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll. The Washington Post reported that the number of Americans who support gays in the military is up from 62% in 2001. Eighty percent of registered Democrats support the repeal [...]
The gay community of greater Fort Lauderdale has been put through another homophobic incident. After numerous physical attacks against LGBT people — including the murder of teenager Simmie Williams Jr. in February — and verbal attacks from Fort Lauderdale’s antigay mayor Jim Naugle, three south Florida homes were vandalized by homophobes early Friday, the Miami [...]
Finance company Prudential announced Wednesday that in a partnership with the Human Rights Campaign it will begin marketing its long-term care insurance plans to LGBT consumers and couples, according to a Prudential press release. Sales representatives for Prudential’s long-term care resources have been trained to handle some of the unique financial challenges gays and lesbians [...]
A subcommittee in the U.S. House of Representatives is scheduled to hold a hearing on the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy July 23, reports the Washington Blade. The event will be the first hearing in which lawmakers have evaluated military policy toward gays since “don’t ask, don’t tell” was enacted in 1993. The law [...]
A 1913 law preventing out-of-state gay and lesbian couples from tying the knot in Massachusetts may be repealed next week. The antiquated law has its roots in racial bigotry — it was originally designed to prevent interracial couples from dodging the laws in their state of origin and marrying in Massachusetts. It was quickly forgotten [...]
A scene in Will Smith’s new blockbuster Hancock takes a “cheap, unfunny shot at gay people,” according to the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation. Ireland’s Breaking News website reported Thursday that the offending scene involves Smith’s character dismissing images of other superheroes, saying, “Homo. Homo in red. Norwegian homo.” GLAAD told Breaking News that [...]