Tag Archives | Gay Rights

Gay Conversion Therapy Goes To Court

By on November 28, 2012 in News 3

Freud (1856–1939) was skeptical of the possibility of therapeutic conversion.

Not surprisingly several paying customers want their money back (and a whole lot more in damages) after undergoing so-called “gay conversion therapy.” Erik Eckholm reports for the New York Times:

Gay “conversion therapy,” which claims to help men overcome unwanted same-sex attractions but has been widely attacked as unscientific and harmful, is facing its first tests in the courtroom.

In New Jersey on Tuesday, four gay men who tried the therapy filed a civil suit against a prominent counseling group, charging it with deceptive practices under the state’s Consumer Fraud Act.

The former clients said they were emotionally scarred by false promises of inner transformation and humiliating techniques that included stripping naked in front of the counselor and beating effigies of their mothers. They paid thousands of dollars in fees over time, they said, only to be told that the lack of change in their sexual feelings was their own fault.

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U.S. Supreme Court To Rule On Gay Marriage

By on November 25, 2012 in News 28

Will the Roberts-led Supreme Court dare to stop the gay marriage juggernaut? This may be the week we find out, per this report in the LA Times:

After two decades in which gay rights moved from the margin to capture the support of most Americans, the Supreme Court justices will go behind closed doors this week to decide whether now is the time to rule on whether gays and lesbians have a constitutional right to marry.

For justices, the issue is not just what to decide, but when to decide it. In times past, the court has been faulted for waiting too long or moving too quickly to recognize constitutional rights.

The justices did not strike down state bans on interracial marriage until 1967, 13 years after they had declared racial segregation unconstitutional. Yet in response to the growing women’s rights movement, the court in 1973 struck down all the state laws restricting abortion, triggering a national “right to life” movement and drawing criticism even from some supporters that the Roe vs.

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Washington, D.C. Launches Transgender Respect Ad Campaign

By on September 20, 2012 in News 14

The new series of PSAs breaks ground as the first such effort by an American city. DCist writes:

Mayor Vince Gray and the D.C. Office of Human Rights yesterday launched an ad campaign promoting respect for the city’s transgender and gender-non-conforming residents. The five ads, which will appear this fall, use images of members of the transgender and gender-non-conforming and convey the message that they are no different than any other D.C. resident.

City officials say that the government-funded ad campaign is the first of its kind in the nation to focus on transgender and gender-non-conforming residents.

At the launch of the ad campaign yesterday, Gray admitted that while the ads themselves would not be enough to stop discrimination and acts of violence, they would serve to raise awareness and highlight legal rights and protections that members of the community enjoy under the expansive D.C. Human Rights Act.

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American Family Association Spokesman Calls For ‘Underground Railroad’ To Kidnap Children Of Gay and Lesbian Parents

By on August 25, 2012 in News 18

The idea of an underground network of Evangelical extremists dedicated to “rescuing” the children of gays and lesbians seems like the stuff of dystopian science fiction. The Huffington Post writes:

A prominent anti-gay pundit has sparked the ire of many in the blogosphere after calling for an “Underground Railroad to deliver innocent children from same-sex households.”

In [one] tweet, Fischer included the link to a Reuters article about the case of Kenneth Miller, a Virginia-based Mennonite minister who has been charged with aiding and abetting the kidnapping of 10-year-old Isabella Miller-Jenkins.

Isabella’s mother, Lisa Miller, reportedly took her daughter to Nicaragua three years ago after losing a series of family court battles in Vermont with Janet Jenkins, her former lesbian partner. Miller has been assisted by evangelical groups who endorsed her decision to kidnap her daughter rather than expose her to Jenkins’ “homosexual lifestyle.”

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Gay Couples Can Marry But Are Wed-Locked With No Divorce In Some States

By on June 7, 2012 in News 8

Amidst all the sturm und drang over President Obama’s endorsement of same-sex marriage, few people realize that even when gay couples are allowed to marry, getting divorced can be a whole other (and much tougher) challenge. Elizabeth Landau reports for CNN:

…Same-sex couples can currently marry in six states and the District of Columbia, and there’s no residency requirement to marry. That means that couples who live outside of those states can just pop in for a day to get married and then go home. There are also five states that allow civil unions.

But if a marriage should fall apart in a state that doesn’t recognize the couple’s legal status in the first place, that’s when things get complicated.

Some states that do not allow same-sex marriages to be performed also do not grant divorces for same-sex marriages that occurred outside of the state’s borders. It’s a tricky situation when a couple wants to dissolve their same-sex marriage, and neither spouse is a resident of a state that recognizes their marriage as legal and valid.

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Homophobic Politician Gay Sex Scandal Tracker

By on September 12, 2011 in News 11

Gay Homophobe provides the service of tracking the most recent gay sex scandal involving a prominent anti-gay politician — and the sometimes fascinating explanations offered. For the Christian Right, the site is kind of equivalent to those “days since our last tornado” signs which all old Wild West towns had. (Or which I imagine they had?) In conclusion: who knows when the latest tornado in someone’s pants will arrive.

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Last “Pink Triangle” Holocaust Survivor Dies At 98

By on August 7, 2011 in News 6

Rudolf BrazdaReports Agence France-Presse via the Raw Story:

Rudolf Brazda, last known survivor of the so-called “Pink Triangles” — gays interned in Nazi camps because of their homosexuality — died in France Wednesday aged 98, officials said. “Rudolf passed on peacefully in his sleep at dawn on August 3″ at an old people’s hospital in Bantzenheim, eastern France, said Philippe Couillet, a friend and associate of the deceased.

Brazda, born in 1913, was sent to the Buchenwald concentration camp in August 1942 and reamined there until it was liberated by US troops in 1945. After the war he moved to Alsace, the eastern French region that borders Germany, and lived there until his death. He was awarded France’s Legion of Honour in April this year.

Tens of thousands of people were convicted under Nazi Germany’s laws that made homosexual acts a crime. Those who were sent to concentration camps had to wear a pink triangle on their prison clothes that identified them as homosexual.

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Pentagon to Lift U.S. Military’s Gay Ban

By on July 21, 2011 in News 15

Don't Ask, Don't TellViola Gienger reports on Bloomberg:

Top Pentagon officials will announce tomorrow their decision to certify lifting the ban on gays serving openly in the armed forces, two defense officials said.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, are ready to certify that the armed forces are fully prepared for the change and that it won’t harm military readiness, said the officials who weren’t authorized to discuss the decision before the announcement.

President Barack Obama signed legislation into law in December that would repeal the prohibition, called “Don’t ask, don’t tell,” 60 days after the Defense Department drafts a plan for putting the new regulations in place and Obama and Pentagon officials certify that the shift wouldn’t harm recruitment, retention or readiness.

Obama is scheduled to meet with Panetta and Mullen tomorrow afternoon.

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