Transgender Woman Elected (D) Nominee In Utah Senate Race

I have to say this surprises me considering how much the Mormon church is against LGBT, but I’m thrilled to know at least some in the state are open minded enough.

WASHINGTON — Utah Democrats on Tuesday voted for Misty Snow as their party’s nominee for Senate, the first out transgender nominee for Congress from a major party.

On Tuesday, Snow defeated Jonathan Swinton, described by the Salt Lake Tribune as a conservative Democrat and a 35-year-old Mormon marriage therapist.

Snow, the more liberal challenger to Swinton, is described as a cashier at a grocery store currently.

By early Wednesday, she had defeated Swinton 59.4%-40.6% in the returns, with all counties completed.

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Missouri Republicans Pass Anti-Gay Bill After Breaking Democrats’ 39-Hour Filibuster

GO MISSOU! Seriously. Like, GO. We don’t want your hate-fueled rhetoric in this country. There’s enough.

Republicans in Missouri’s state senate have broken a 39-hour Democratic filibuster and voted to pass an anti-gay bill that would that would protect religious people and organizations opposed to same-sex marriage. The GOP state senate passed the bill with a 23-9 vote Wednesday morning.

This vote cut off the debate to pass it to the next stage and killed the filibuster, but the bill must go before the Missouri state senate one more time before going to state house. If passed by the legislature, it will go to ballot.

Democrats are in the legislative minority, but they had possessed the mic since Monday afternoon, trading off in three-hour shifts. With the sun rising again, the banter between two senators had taken on the texture of a morning talk show: eyedrops, watercolor painting, health care management, and, of course, the issue at hand.

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Clinton receives endorsement from largest LGBT organization

To be honest, I don’t know which of the two Democratic nominees I will vote for in the primaries, but if either of them has sense, whoever wins will reach out to the other instantly to offer a vice-presidency. Together they will be unstoppable.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign was endorsed Tuesday by the nation’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender civil rights organization.

But the campaign of her main rival, Bernie Sanders, disputed the group’s decision, pointing to the Vermont senator’s record on gay rights.

The Human Rights Campaign announced its endorsement for the Democratic front-runner, which she is expected to accept at an event in Iowa next Sunday ahead of the state’s leadoff Feb. 1 caucus.

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Maine candidate for governor announces he’s gay

I’m glad we’re progressing toward a time when trying to use a politician’s private life against him. Naturally I believe we still have a long way to go, but I’m glad Mr Michaud is getting ahead of his opponent and cutting him off at the knees with regard to his sexuality.

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — A six-term congressman and former paper mill worker hoping to unseat Maine Gov. Paul LePage next year announced that he’s gay — a response to what he called a “whisper campaign” by political opponents hoping to weaken his gubernatorial bid.

U.S. Rep. Mike Michaud, 58, wrote in an op-ed provided to The Associated Press, the Portland Press Herald and the Bangor Daily News that “whisper campaigns, insinuations and push-polls” attempted to get voters to question whether he’s gay.

“Allow me to save them the trouble with a simple, honest answer: ‘Yes I am. But why should it matter?'” he wrote in the op-ed published Monday by the two newspapers.

The Democrat’s announcement adds intrigue to a tight three-way race with LePage, the Republican incumbent, and wealthy independent Eliot Cutler.

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ENDA Set For Monday Night Vote

Keeping fingers crossed.

WASHINGTON — Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) told his Democratic caucus on Thursday that he will bring the Employment Nondiscrimination Act up for a vote on Monday, a senior Democratic aide told The Huffington Post.

Reid will file a procedural motion on Thursday evening to begin debate on the bill, setting up a Monday evening vote. The bill needs to get 60 votes to clear a procedural hurdle ahead of the final vote, and as of Thursday, 59 senators publicly support it. Meanwhile, Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio), whose son is gay, said Tuesday he is “inclined to support” the bill.

Momentum behind the bill, which would ban workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity, suddenly picked up this week. Sens. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), Mark Pryor (D-Ark.) and Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), who were the three remaining Democratic holdouts, all jumped aboard in the past few days.

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Harry Reid Will Bring ENDA Up For Senate Vote

Something new for us to keep an eye on…

If you’re in Arkansas, Florida or West Virginia, please contact these Senators and tell them you want them to support this bill.

WASHINGTON — The Employment Non-Discrimination Act could come up for a vote in the Senate as early as next week, according to the office of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.).

ENDA would ban workplace discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. The Senate will convene Monday afternoon at 2:00 p.m. At that time, Reid will announce his plans to bring up ENDA during the current work period, which ends the week before Thanksgiving. Reid has long been a supporter of ENDA, cosponsoring it as early as 1997.

Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) introduced the bill in the Senate on April 25, and it currently has 54 cosponsors. Every single Democratic senator has signed on, with the exception of Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) and Mark Pryor (D-Ark.).

“I thank Majority Leader Reid for committing to bring ENDA to the floor this work period,” Merkley said in a statement to The Huffington Post. “Americans understand that it’s time to make sure our LGBT friends and family are treated fairly and have the same opportunities. Now it’s time for our laws to catch up. People should be judged at work on their ability to do the job, period.”

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Same-Sex Partners Of Federal Employees To Get Equal Benefits Under Bipartisan Bill

Never thought I’d see the word bipartisan used in the same sentence as same-sex partners.

WASHINGTON — A bipartisan group of lawmakers in the House and Senate is introducing legislation that would ensure that same-sex partners of federal employees — even those in domestic partnerships or civil unions — will receive the same benefits offered to heterosexual spouses.

The Senate version of the Domestic Partnership Benefits and Obligations Act is cosponsored by Sens. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine). Baldwin is the first openly gay lawmaker elected to the Senate, and Collins is one of the few Republicans in Congress who supports legislation barring workplace discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals. The House version of the legislation is cosponsored by Reps. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.), Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.) and Gerry Connolly (D-Va.). Ros-Lehtinen is a vocal advocate in her party for marriage equality.

The bipartisan measure would provide same-sex domestic partners of federal employees benefits open to heterosexual married couples, no matter what state they live in or whether they are able to be legally married in their home state.

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Employment Non-Discrimination Act Passes Senate Committee

Like most Americans, I had assumed all this time that there was some sort of protection for us against being fired from our jobs. Although I told one co-worker a few years ago about my “orientation” in a rather indirect manner, I don’t typically speak of my relationship to anyone but close friends. It’s certainly none of their business. I also know that my current employer has previously employed a Lesbian and she left on her own terms, not due to being fired over her “orientation”. I know that’s not always the case, but I think in the future I would endeavour to find employment somewhere that is either gay friendly or where, like here, they don’t give a fig. So, I’d never dream of working at a religious institution of any kind.

I hope this protection moves forward. Soon.

WASHINGTON — LGBT rights advocates chalked up a win on Wednesday as a Senate committee passed the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, a bill that would ban workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions passed the bill, 15 to 7. All Democrats supported it, along with three Republicans: Sens. Mark Kirk (Ill.), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) and Orrin Hatch (Utah). The Republicans who voted no included Sens. Lamar Alexander (Tenn.), Mike Enzi (Wyo.), Richard Burr (N.C.), Johnny Isakson (Ga.), Rand Paul (Ky.), Pat Roberts (Kansas) and Tim Scott (S.C.).

Kirk is a cosponsor of the bill and was expected to support it, while Murkowski was mum when asked on Tuesday how she planned to vote. Hatch told The Huffington Post on Tuesday that he planned to support the bill.

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Gay marriage would lead to polygamy

Well, I have to admit, this is a new (and creative) argument against gay marriage: that if you move beyond the bounds of the traditional man/woman relationship within a marriage then it will lead to polygamists demanding that polygamy be decriminalised. As far as I’m concerned, it doesn’t matter to me how many you want to marry. If everyone is happy and no one feels neglected, knock yourselves out. As it stands, those who live in a polygamist relationship can rely on the government for assistance. I mean think about it. One man and one woman can legally marry, yet other women (and presumably their children) live with them in a “marriage” that’s not considered legal. Any and all women who are not legally married to that one man are technically single mothers and can seek government assistance as such. I say let them all marry and get off government assistance!!

Virginia gubernatorial candidate Ken Cuccinelli’s opposition to gay marriage is well established.

But as the U.S. Supreme Court prepares to issue decisions on two major gay marriage cases this week, less well-known is his co-authorship, in January 2013, of a court brief that laid out an argument against the constitutionality of allowing same-sex couples to marry.

In the amicus brief, Cuccinelli, the attorney general of Virginia, and Greg Zoeller, the attorney general or Indiana, used a novel justification to make their point in one section of the 55-page brief — namely that gay marriage could lead to polygamy.

“Responsible parenting is not a justification for same-sex-couple marriage, as distinguished from recognition of any other human relationships. It is instead a rationale for eliminating marriage as government recognition of a limited set of relationships. Once the natural limits that inhere in the relationship between a man and a woman can no longer sustain the definition of marriage, the conclusion that follows is that any grouping of adults would have an equal claim to marriage. See, e.g. , Jonathan Turley, One Big, Happy Polygamous Family , NY Times, July 21, 2011, at A27 (“[Polygamists] want to be allowed to create a loving family according to the values of their faith.”).”

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ENDA 2013 and Transgender People

I will admit freely that I do not understand the whole transgender thing. And the very limited exposure I’ve had turned me off in a huge way because they were M-to-F and just automatically assumed I wanted a relationship when I wasn’t, even though I was single. That being said, though, I do believe they deserve the same rights and protections as the gay/lesbian community.

This is an infographic I pulled from the Huffington Post website. At the bottom I will provide the link to the accompanying story.

 

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