The apparent suicide of a Rutgers University freshman after his roommate surreptitiously broadcast him engaging in a sex act on the internet has drawn national attention and left many questions unanswered. What is known is that 18-year-old Tyler Clementi jumped to his death from the George Washington Bridge three days after his roommate, Dharun Ravi, and Molly Wei, another student, used a webcam to stream an encounter between Clementi and an unidentified male student.
This week, the NAACP’s president, Benjamin Jealous, did something previously unheard of for the organization: He encouraged members of New York’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community Center to work with him and specifically, to attend the NAACP march for jobs and justice in Washington next month.
To people in Miami, Charles Perez is a familiar face. He used to be a television news anchor, and he’s currently writing a book called “Confessions of a Gay Anchorman.”
But behind Charles’s familiar face and authoritative television presence is a journey to parenthood that has been incredibly difficult, at times. Charles and his husband wanted to adopt a child. But in the state of Florida, it’s still against the law for gay and lesbian people to adopt. In order to adopt, they temporarily moved to Illinois, and then later to Kansas, where they were eventually able to adopt their daughter.
A federal judge in California overturned the 17 year old policy that affects the ability of gay men and lesbians to serve in the military late on Thursday. Judge Virginia A. Phillips ruled the policy known as "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" unconstitutional, saying the rule violates the rights of gay people and has a "direct and deleterious effect" on the military. Don't Ask, Don't Tell bars gay people in the armed services from disclosing their sexual orientations.
Judge Phillips said she would issue an injunction barring the government from enforcing the rule. Legal observers expect the decision to be stayed pending an appeal.
Today, a new movie called "The Kids are All Right" hits theaters, and for A.O. Scott, film critic from The New York Times, it inspired him to ask: “are the kids REALLY all right?”
In a new article called “They Grow Up So Quickly, Don’t They?”, he looks at this summer’s new releases that speak to the state of childhood and adolescence and family today.
What is it like getting older when you’re part of the first generation of gay people to live fully out of the closet? And who cares for you as you exit the world? We explore these issues with Laurie Young, aging policy analyst at the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and Brenda Austin, a retiree in her late sixties, who lives in New York and has been out of the closet since the 1950s.
Thanks to social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, many aspects of our private lives are made public – whether it’s where we ate dinner last night or the person with whom we chose to eat that meal.
Of course, most of these bits and pieces are benign, or, depending on who you ask, even boring. But for some people - specifically gay people who are closeted or trying to come out - they can serve as an announcement about their sexual orientation.
Closing arguments are scheduled for today in a federal trial that will address the constitutionality of Proposition 8 - the controversial amendment to California's constitution that reinstated a ban on gay marriage in the state in 2008, after it had been legal for some months.
Gay men have been banned from donating blood since 1983. But now, a group of senators led by John Kerry are petitioning to put an end to the 27-year-old ban.
There were/are approximately 15,000-20,000 hemophiliacs in the US. 100% of them contracted hepatitis in the late 1960s and early 1970s when their medication (factor concentrate) was brought to the market. 10,000 of them were then infected when HIV emerged in the early 1980s because of this drug. In 1983, a ban was instituted to prohibit any gay man who had sex since 1977 from ever giving blood. Filmmaker Marilyn Ness explored the history of the ban in her documentary, "Bad Blood."
Twenty years ago this week, the World Health Organization ceased to categorize homosexuality as a pathology, but is it still considered one socially in the workplace?
For this week's work segment, we look at the issue of being openly gay at work. Takeaway contributor Beth Kobliner explains the current laws and trends. And Jeff Barnes, a gay manager at an IT outsourcing company in Colorado, tells us why he keeps his orientation a secret from most of his colleagues.
We want to know from you, Is it acceptable to be gay in YOUR workplace? Text TAKE to 69866 and send your response. (Message and data rates may apply.) You can also just leave a comment below.
Later this morning, Washington, D.C.'s marriage equality law goes into effect, allowing the city’s gay and lesbian citizens to legally apply for marriage licenses. Some officials expect as many as 200 people to decend on City Hall to apply. In the political battle leading up to passing the local legislation, some interesting alliances were formed.
The fight over gay marriage resumes in California today with Perry v. Schwarzenegger ... and you may be able to watch it on YouTube, tonight. Two same sex-couples are suing the enforcers of California's Proposition 8 on grounds that the gay marriage ban violates their federal constitutional rights. This might lay the groundwork for an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. The trial will be the first federal court case in the U.S. to be broadcast on YouTube. Kenji Yoshino, professor of law at New York University, has been following the case.
Mexico City lawmakers Monday voted to legalize same-sex marriage in the capitol – a move that would also give same-sex couples the ability to adopt children. It was a stunning move in a conservative Catholic nation. Ioan Grillo is Mexico Correspondent for Time Magazine; he reports on the reaction in Mexico City and throughout the nation.
A judge blocked Latin America's first gay marriage at the last minute today in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The last-minute reversal highlights the divided opinion on gay marriage in predominantly Catholic Latin American culture. We get the latest from BBC’s South America correspondent, Candace Piette, live from Buenos Aires.
On Tuesday, Maine voters headed to the polls and reversed the state legislature's decision to permit gay marriage. Maine is the third state in the country where voters repealed a legislature-granted law allowing same-sex marriage, and the 31st state to ban gay marriage outright. We ask Columbia University law professor Suzanne Goldberg, director of the Gender and Sexuality Law Program, if this repeal is part of a larger national trend. We also speak with Jill Barkley, a resident of Portland, Me., who was planning to marry her partner next summer; and to Andrew McLean, a gay man in Portland, Me., who volunteered with Equality Maine.
Voters in Maine voted yesterday to revoke gay marriage in the state. Opponents of gay marriage frequently bring up the hypothetical effects of gay parenting on kids as a reason to deny gay couples the right to marry. At this point we don't have to rely on hypotheticals, however: We now have a generation of kids who have grown up with gay parents and can speak for themselves. One of those kids, Becca Lazarus, tells us about her life with two gay dads, while New York Times Motherlode writer Lisa Belkin explains the results of recent research.
"Question 1" on Tuesday's ballots in Maine, much like last year's "Proposition 8" in California, would explicitly revoke recently granted marriage rights for gay and lesbian couples in Maine if it passes. The initiative asks:
"Do you want to reject the new law that lets same-sex couples marry and allows individuals and religious groups to refuse to perform these marriages?"
Abby Goodnough, from The New York Times, gives us an overview of the initiative and its national significance. We're also joined by Shenna Bellows, from Maine's ACLU; and Brian Souchet, from the anti-gay-marriage group Stand for Marriage Maine.
Listeners respond to our interview with Tim Smith, a gay marine featured on a billboard saying, “I’m Gay and I protected Your Freedom.” The billboard was erected in Memphis by the Gay and Lesbian Community Center in the run-up to National Coming out Day on October 11.
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