2011: A Great Year For Gay Rights!!

-
2011 was a very good year for gay rights!  It was very encouraging to see more and more people around the globe accepting of gays and lesbians.  It was very heartening to watch Hillary Clinton proclaim that "gay rights are human rights and human rights are gay rights".  There were setbacks as well, especially in Africa.  As Martin Luther King said “The Arc of the Moral Universe Is Long, but It Bends Toward Justice” 
MSNBC’s Thomas Roberts looks back at the year that was in LGBT news. Here are some of his highlights and our reporting from this “banner year” for equality:
Dec. 6: Obama administration pledges to prioritize LGBT equality in its foreign policy and directs agencies to help LGBT refugees. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton delivers a speech in Geneva, in which she reminds the leaders of the world that “gay rights are human rights.”
 Sep. 20: Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell is officially repealed.
July 16: Gay troops participate in San Diego’s gay pride parade.
 June 24: New York passes marriage equality and a record number of couples wed.
June 16: U.N. Human Rights Council passes a resolution condemning discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.
April 29: Department of Labor bans discrimination based on gender identity.
Feb. 23: Justice Department announces it won’t defend the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act.
Feb. 1: Department of State recognizes nontraditional families on passport applications.
2011: Record number of Americans support same-sex marriage.
Watch the round-up:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

George Takei: Scalia Should Recuse Himself From Gay Marriage Cases

-
Image
Courtesy: wikimedia.org George Takei is both a pop culture icon and a gay rights hero!  Follow him on facebook here.  You'll thank me! Via Raw Story: During an appearance on MSNBC, actor and LGBT activist George Takei called for Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia to recuse himself from upcoming cases involving the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) and California’s Proposition 8. Scalia recently told an audience at Princeton University that someone could be  morally opposed to homosexuality  in the same manner they were morally opposed to murder or bestiality. “Well, it seems to me that if Justice Elena Kagan can recuse herself from the Boston case, Justice Scalia needs to consider recusing himself,” Takei said. “He is obviously not unbiased. He is clearly biased in this situation. So how can he look at the issue and make a judgement fairly.” “I really do think, first of all that statement was a repugnant statement to equate homosexuality with murder,...
Read more

Texas superintendent orders LGBTQ books removed from school libraries

-
Image
  Granbury Independent School District Superintendent Jeremy Glenn (Left)  In a continued attack on the LGBTQ community, the state of Texas is leading the charge.  Via The Texas Tribune: In early January, a day before students returned from winter break, Jeremy Glenn, the superintendent of the Granbury Independent School District in North Texas, told a group of librarians he’d summoned to a district meeting room that he needed to speak from his heart. “I want to talk about our community,” Glenn said, according to a recording of the Jan. 10 meeting obtained and verified by NBC News, ProPublica and The Texas Tribune. Glenn explained that Granbury, the largest city in a county where 81% of residents voted for then-President Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election, is “very, very conservative.” He noted that members of Granbury’s school board — his bosses — were also very conservative. And to any school employees who might have different political beliefs, Glenn said, ...
Read more

Texans Ask United Nations to investigate State's Anti-LGBTQ+ Laws!

-
Image
Image Via Texas Governor's Office How is this 2024 and Texas is still acting like it's the 1950's! When you have nothing but hate and grievance to offer, this is what happens!! Via Advocate : A joint ACLU of Texas and Equality Texas press release notes that after a record-breaking legislative session in the state—with more than 140 anti-LGBTQ+ bills filed—Texans are now struggling with a collection of new laws that eliminate medical freedom for trans youth, censor school libraries, ban trans athletes from participating in collegiate sports, end DEI practices at public universities, threaten drag performances, and undermine local governments’ already limited power. According to the press release, these laws are a systemic attack on the fundamental rights, dignities, and identities of LGBTQ+ persons that opens the gates for discrimination by both public and private actors.
Read more