Equality

Bans Of Same-Sex Marriage Can Take A Psychological Toll

Submitted by ONE Community on May 20, 2013 - 10:05am

As the country awaits two important Supreme Court decisions involving state laws on same-sex marriage, a small but consistent body of research suggests that laws that ban gay marriage — or approve it — can affect the mental health of gay, lesbian and bisexual Americans. When several states passed laws to prohibit same-sex marriage, for example, the mental health of gay residents seemed to suffer, while stress-related disorders dropped in at least one state after gay marriage was legalized.

Here's the research trail: Read more »

ONE Community

Kaitlyn Hunt, Florida Teen, Faces Felony Charges Over Same-Sex Relationship

Submitted by nvillamon on May 19, 2013 - 9:21pm

A Florida teenager faces criminal charges stemming from her relationship with another young female student.

Kaitlyn Hunt, 18, faces two felony counts of "lewd and lascivious battery on a child 12 to 16" after the parents of her 15-year-old girlfriend pressed charges earlier this year, according to Examiner.

"These people never came to us as parents, never tried to speak to us... and tell us they had a problem with the girls dating," Kaitlyn Hunt's mother, Kelley Hunt-Smith, wrote in an statement posted to Facebook. "...They were out to destroy my daughter. [They] feel like my daughter 'made' their daughter gay." Read more »

nvillamon's blog

New Smartphone App BUYCOTT Lets You Boycott The Koch Brothers and Support Pro LGBT Companies

Submitted by ONE Community on May 19, 2013 - 8:32pm

Last year former Microsoft programmer and congressional candidate Darcy Burner pitched a seemingly simple idea at Netroots Nation. The creation of a smartphone app that would allow shoppers to swipe barcodes to check whether conservative billionaire industrialists Charles and David Koch were behind a product on the shelves.

But what Burner didn’t realize at the time is that a group of developers was hard at work on Buycott, an even more sophisticated version of the smartphone app she proposed. Read more »

Duke University Press' Transgender Studies Quarterly To Publish In 2014

Submitted by ONE Community on May 19, 2013 - 8:22pm

Dr. Susan Stryker (University of Arizona) and Dr. Paisley Currah (CUNY-Brooklyn) are collaborating with Duke University Press to bring forth TSQ: Transgender Studies Quarterly, a groundbreaking interdisciplinary academic journal which will debut next year.

Stryker and Currah will serve as co-editors, while Duke University Press serves as the publisher. The two professors first collaborated back in 2008 as co-editors of a special transgender studies edition of Women's Studies Quarterly. After receiving over 200 submissions for the publication and only being able to publish 12, they realized how important it was for transgender studies to have its own high-profile publications domain. Read more »

ONE Community

An executive order could end LGBT discrimination in contracts

Submitted by ONE Community on May 17, 2013 - 11:14am

President Obama’s continuing popularity among lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) Americans is due in large part to major accomplishments of his first term:overturning the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, abandoning support for the so-called Defense of Marriage Act in court and his personal backing for marriage equality, which he announced a year ago this month.

Obama has also supported LGBT rights in other, more indirect ways, including by appointing more “out” LGBT individuals to political office than all previous presidents combined; I was, proudly, one of them. Read more »

ONE Community

Int’l Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia observed around the globe

Submitted by ONE Community on May 17, 2013 - 10:00am

LGBT rights advocates and allies will observe the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia (or IDAHO) in more than 100 countries around the world on Friday.

First recognized in 2004, IDAHO commemorates the May 17, 1990 decision by the World Health Organization that decategorized homosexuality as a mental disorder, and aims to coordinate international events that raise awareness of LGBT rights violations and stimulate interest in LGBT rights advocacy.

In 76 countries around the world, same-sex relationships are still considered illegal and punishable by jail, fines and in some countries, lifetime imprisonment. In seven countries, a conviction is punishable by death. Read more »

ONE Community

Gays 'thrown under the bus' in immigration bill

Submitted by ONE Community on May 16, 2013 - 3:44pm

The Senate Judiciary Committee is marking up the massive bill that leaders in both parties agree presents the best opportunity to reform immigration policy in decades. The bill contains many provisions sought by progressive groups, but lacks protections for LGBT families, specifically binational same-sex couples whose relationships are not recognized by the government.

While endorsing key provisions in the bill drafted by the bipartisan “Gang of Eight,” LGBT civil rights groups continue to urge the adoption of amendments that protect gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people and their families. Read more »

ONE Community

Polls Show Pro-Equality Majorities in Mich., Ariz., and Va.

Submitted by ONE Community on May 16, 2013 - 3:38pm

Momentum for marriage equality is spreading beyond the safely liberal strongholds of the East Coast, according to several new polls that found majority support for the freedom to marry in locales as diverse as Michigan, Virginia, and even Arizona. Read more »

ONE Community

Arizona House OKs religious-protection measure

Submitted by ONE Community on May 16, 2013 - 2:03pm

Supporters of a bill that would change the state’s religious-protection law say it would strengthen Arizonans’ ability to defend their “practice or observance of religion.”

But critics of the legislation, particularly in the gay and transgender community, say it’s so broadly worded that it could have dangerous implications, particularly in providing a legal defense for those who ignore state law or city ordinances meant to protect groups such as same-sex couples and transgender individuals from discrimination. Read more »

ONE Community

Older Americans Are Pushing Marriage Equality Forward

Submitted by ONE Community on May 14, 2013 - 9:25pm

Gallup has just released new data on public support for legalizing same sex marriage. They describe support as “solidifying” above 50 percent, and that’s not just because of the rise of the younger generation: older folks, according to the new data, are quickly coming around to the marriage equality cause.

According to the Gallup data, support for marriage equality has doubled in the 17 years since 1996 going from a meager 27 percent then to 53 percent now. This is a quite remarkable rate of change: about a percentage point and half per year. At this rate, we’ll hit 60 percent support by 2018: Read more »

ONE Community