Change.org Gay Rights Blog

Talk about a day of action. First came the blogswarm to call for Rep. Nancy Pelosi to send the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) to a vote on the U.S. House floor.  Meanwhile, down at Freedom Plaza, another type of swarm was brewing -- a direct action led by Lt. Dan Choi, to take President Obama and Congress to task for moving like a day-old bowl of Cream of Wheat when it comes to repealing "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." Indeed, Lt. Choi wins the award for improviser of the week, one-upping Kathy Griffin, who was speaking at a Human Rights Campaign press conference calling for a repeal of ...

With the health care debate taking up so much oxygen in the room, it's easy to forget that our current Congressional leadership promised that we'd see a vote on the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) this year. Many of us know what ENDA is -- proposed legislation that would prohibit discrimination against employees on the basis of gender identity or sexual orientation. It would mean that it would be unlawful to fire someone solely because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. ENDA has been introduced in almost every session of Congress since 1994. Yet, 16 years later, ENDA ...

I intend to grow old. My 40-year plan includes retirement, a tricked out, zero footprint RV and my darling wife. I'd like to think that by that time all of this anti-gay grumbling will have subsided, having been quieted by marriage equality, the end of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," and the disbanding of Focus on the Family. Even then, when I'm older and kookier and able to finish the New York Times Sunday crossword puzzle in under three days, I'll be thankful for folks like Joy Lynn Lewis and Sheila Ortiz-Taylor for ensuring I have a gay old time when I'm old and gay. Joy and Sheila had, like ...

When Bishop Gene Robinson was consecrated as an Episcopalian Bishop in 2003 in New Hampshire, he had to wear a bullet proof vest under his vestments because he received so many death threats. His election as Bishop sent off a tremor through the worldwide Anglican community, causing the Episcopalian Church to place a moratorium on electing LGBT bishops that lasted for years. Last year, that moratorium was lifted. And months later, a lesbian clergy member from Maryland was nominated to be a bishop in the Episcopalian Diocese of Los Angeles. Her name is Rev. Mary Glasspool. But now you can ...

As the days turn to weeks with no sign of Lisa Miller, or seven year old Isabella Miller-Jenkins, more and more people emerge to opine about the fugitive's location. Her attorneys at Liberty Counsel don't know where she is. Her friends at Americans for Truth About Homosexuality don't know where she is. Concerned Women for America, oddly, is hoping that one day Lisa can "return to her home state," sparking rumors that someone knows her whereabouts. The two, apparently, have vanished, with Lisa ignoring any and all legal mandates along the way. And in doing so, she has become what the ...

Guess which influential constituency sees no problem with openly gay folks serving in the U.S. military? Survey says .... Iraq and Afghanistan veterans! And not just by a slim majority, but by overwhelming numbers. According to the poll, released today, 60 percent of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans believe that a person's sexual orientation has no bearing on their ability to serve the U.S. military. Beyond that, 73 percent of veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan say that it's personally acceptable for openly gay troops to serve in the military. The poll was conducted by the Vet Voice ...

Sometime in the late hours of Saturday night the call will come in. Philbert (not his real name), like many of his Christian lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) buddies, wait anxiously for the call in order to know the time and place of the van pickup, and where it’ll drop them off to a safe and secluded place for Sunday worship. Last week’s worship service was in Montego Bay, just 50 miles from Negril’s Grand Lido, one of the flagship resorts in Jamaica, where Philbert works the night shift at the bar. This week Philbert hopes for a closer worship space, perhaps a safe ...

What is this “traditional marriage” phrase people keep throwing in our faces, anyway? The phrase gets used as shorthand for “not gay,” but it must mean more than that. "Traditional marriage" is supposed to be the most important institution in the world, the thing that upholds civilization and protects the lives of children. There are plenty of heterosexual marriages that clearly don’t deserve those kinds of plaudits — even James Dobson would hardly hold up Britney Spears’ infamous drunken Vegas nuptials, or Who Wants to Marry a Millionaire, as society’s salvation. So what do people mean by ...

Say there's a political commentator out there who has called women's rights activists Nazis, called Michelle Obama a "Marxist harpy wife," said that President Obama only won his Nobel Peace Prize because of "affirmative action," and called the U.S. Department of Education's Safe Schools Czar "profoundly sick and immoral" because of his sexual orientation. Should this guy be rewarded with a promotion? Well, if you're CNN, the answer is yes. They've just hired Erick Erickson, an editor over at redstate.com, to be a political contributor on John King's new CNN show -- "John King, USA." ...

Bhumika Shrestha, who won the first Miss Pink Nepal pageant, joined the Nepali Congress last week. Shrestha's journey from harassment and isolation to being sworn into one of the biggest political parties in Nepal symbolizes the amazing progress metis (transgender women) and the entire LGBT community has made in this conservative, majority-Hindu country in the past few years. Shrestha told Sindh Today that she was constantly harassed by her peers in high school, and was eventually expelled because her teachers thought her gender non-conformity was harmful to the other students. Then ...