In a landmark moment for the gay rights movement in America, President Barack Obama announced, for the first time, his support of gay marriage. This comes years after Obama’s views on the issue have "evolved." In an interview with ABC News on Tuesday, Obama told Robin Roberts, "I’ve just concluded that for me personally it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same-sex couples should be able to get married." Many gay rights leaders have long compared their fight to the black civil rights movement of the 1950s and '60s. But do the two compare?
In September 2010, Tyler Clementi's name became synonymous with bullying, suicide, and the "It Gets Better" project. But while many sensational headlines made it seem as though Clementi was unwillingly outed via a sex tape made available on the internet, the real story is significantly different and far more complicated. New accounts of the case published this week in the New Yorker and OUT magazine — the latter of which was written by Clementi's older brother — reveal the role race, class, and personality had to do with this devastating story.
"Don't Ask, Don't Tell," the discriminatory 1993 law that allowed gays and lesbians to serve in the military so long as they kept their sexual orientation a secret is history. After months of preparation by the Pentagon, DADT was officially repealed on Tuesday at midnight. President Obama signed the repeal in December 2010. The Pentagon said that 97 percent of the military has undergone training for accepting the law. The military has been accepting applications from openly gay people for weeks, and investigations into the sexual orientations of current military personal have been halted.
In 2002, a Harvard University sophomore found evidence in the university's archives of a court that sough out and punished gay students. This scandal is the backdrop for "Unnatural Acts," a new play at the Classic Stage Company in New York.
Barack Obama, as a senator then presidential candidate and now as president, has struggled with his political position when it comes to supporting same-sex marriage. As a candidate for State Senate in Illinois, Obama filled out a questionnaire and wrote, "I favor legalizing same-sex marriages." (White House officials have said he was really referring to civil unions.)
In 2004 when he ran for the U.S. Senate, Obama said he would fight for equality for gay couples, but not for gay marriage. And on the presidential campaign trail in 2008, the candidate told Saddleback Church Pastor Rick Warren that, "marriage is the union between a man and a woman." Since becoming president, Obama has had a strong track record on supporting LGBT issues and has said that his position on gay marriage is "evolving." Last night in New York City, speaking at the “Gala with the Gay Community,” gay leaders were listening to see if the president would come any closer to endorsing gay marriage.
Tom MacMaster, a 40-year-old American man living in Scotland admitted that he was behind the "Gay Girl in Damascus" blog, which, for the past six years provided thousands of persecuted gay people with hope – particularly in the Middle East. The blog was supposedly written by a woman Amina Arraf, who, according to the blog, was kidnapped last week. In response, the international media went on high alert. But within days, it became clear that Amina Arraf, was in fact, not a lesbian, not Syrian, and not even a woman. How did MacMaster manage to dupe so many?
Today is the National Prayer Breakfast, an annual event attended by President Obama and organized by “The Family,” a Washington-based fellowship of Christian politicians. “The Family” is also known for its close affiliation with the Ugandan politicians who proposed making homosexuality a capital offense. A coalition of religious leaders are now calling on President Obama to recite a prayer for David Kato, a prominent, Ugandan gay rights activist who was bludgeoned to death in January, at the National Prayer Breakfast today.
What tendencies are we born with? What is a choice? And does it make you feel better or worse to know that certain things – ranging from weight to our intelligence — are one or the other?
Think, for example of sexual orientation. A lot of people have a lot invested in whether we’re born gay or whether it’s a choice. Is it one or the other? Does it even matter?
Last week, things looked a lot different for aspiring gay and lesbian parents in Florida, where a ban on adoption by gay couples has been in place since the 1970s. But after 13 months, the Third District Court of Appeal in Miami struck down the ban, saying it was unconstitutional. One of the people rejoicing today is former television anchor Charles Perez, who joined us last week to talk about the ban.
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.
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.
New Movie Releases: 'Men in Black 3' and 'Moonrise Kingdom'
Is the Private Era in Space Officially Upon Us?
Why Increased Immigration is the Solution for America's Ailing Economy
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