QueensSpeech - gay news

Item: Rumor confirmed – Advocate to become Out insert

   ::: The blog of the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association confirmed today a press-industry rumor first reported last week by Queerty: The Advocate will no longer be available as a standalone magazine, but will be included as in insert with Out, another magazine also published by Here Media.

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Must read: Report – Health care reform benefits could be blocked by DOMA

Washington Blade’s Chris Johnson reports that the health care reform bill unveiled Monday by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi could could restrict benefits from flowing to LGBT people.

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Advocates and couples try to make sense of Tuesday’s ‘devastating’ vote results

Source: Bangor News, Associated Press, Portland Press Herald, San Francisco Chronicle, Seattle Times

“Devastating” is an adjective often used in press articles to describe the results of Maine’s vote on Question 1 Tuesday that denies marriage rights to the state’s gay and lesbian couples.

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Video: Daily Show take on Question 1

After an election like Tuesday’s a bit of humor is welcome relief. Jon Stewart does offers a funny summary of Maine’s vote on Question 1.

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Item: Wisconsin high court turns away challenge to DP law

   ::: Wisconsin’s Supreme Court today declined refused to hear a constitutional challenge to the state's new domestic partnership law for same-sex couples, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports.

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Item: Ref 71 approval rate approaches 52 percent

   ::: The approval percentage for Washington’s Referendum 71 has reached nearly 52 percent in the latest figures from the secretary of state’s office, which were released at 4:43 pm PST.

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Item: Report expected to mostly clear Rainbow raid officers

   ::: At a press conference tomorrow, Forth Worth Police Chief Jeff Halstead will announce the results of a long-anticipated internal investigation by his department of a June raid on Rainbow Lounge, a gay club in Fort Worth, a police spokesman confirmed today.

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Video: Colbert explains why Mormons ‘nailed-em’ for kiss

As only he can, Stephen Colbert, gives the Report treatment to the July detention by Mormon church security guards of a gay couple, Derek Jones and Matt Aune, who were charged with “criminal trespass” after they shared a kiss on the cheek while they walked through a generally public plaza in Salt Lake City which is owned by the church.

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Razor thin margin still favors partner rights in Washington

While voters in Maine rejected a law offering full equality in marriage rights to gay and lesbian Mainers, voters on the opposite side of the continent appeared to give tenuous support to a measure that would give slightly more limited rights to gay and lesbian Washingtonians.

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Kalamazoo voters resoundingly support equal rights

Andrea Siferd, 26, left, was one of dozens of exuberant One Kalamazoo supporters who cheered news that the city’s anti-discrimination measure had passed photo: Kalamazoo Gazette

Through a decisive vote in favor of the anti-bias measure, Kalamazoo last night became the 16th city in Michigan to adopt an ordinance protecting its gay, lesbian, and transgender citizens from discrimination.

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Downcast crowd helpless as Maine’s voters strip rights from LGBT citizens

The defenders of marriage equality in Maine last night were downcast as they left a hotel ballroom where hundreds had gathered to watch election returns trickle in last night.

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Victory in Kalamazoo -- Election notes (updated regularly)

7 pm PST:

Several hopeful results are coming in from Maine.

Bangor News (@bangordailynews) reports on its Twitter feed at 15:57 PST: “Q1 "no" leads with 51%” (A ‘no’ vote retains marriage equality.

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Video: PBS show profiles Florida gay father’s legal fight for adoption

Martin Gill

According to all the social workers and psychologists they’ve let into their home, Martin Gill and his partner are great parents to the two boys they’ve raised for the past five years.

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Item: Louisiana JP who wouldn’t marry bi-racial couple resigns

   ::: A Louisiana justice of the peace who refused to marry a couple because the bride was white and groom was black resigned Tuesday, Associated Press reports.

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Rio gay pride draws over a million to Copacabana

Some of the festival-goers at Copacabana use a giant rainbow flag as an umbrella photo via Made In Brazil via Made In Brazil photo by Marina Rodinsky via Flickr

Despite a persistent light drizzle, over a million people congregated near Copacabana for Rio de Janeiro’s glittering 14th Annual Gay Pride Parade, Made In Brazil blog reports.

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Uganda vows to ignore world as it considers anti-gay law

Uganda

Officials in Uganda fired back against human rights groups and foreign diplomats who have blasted a draconian law being considered by the country’s legislative body.

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Voter turnout will be key in three vital LGBT equality votes

Source: Maine Today, Washington Post, Olympian, OPB, Seattle Gay News, Kalamazoo Gazette

In Maine, Washington, and in Kalamazoo, Michigan, volunteers worked the phones, knocked on doors, rallied, and visited businesses this weekend to urge supporters of LGBT equality in Tuesday’s election.

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Oregon’s major LGBT group launches marriage equality drive

Source: Oregonian, Just Out, Associated Press Oregon’s largest LGBT advocacy group, Basic Rights Oregon (BRO), is launching a campaign today to persuade the state’s residents that they should reverse their vote of five years ago and support same-sex marriage.

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Item: TNT to air ‘Southland’ with its gay cop

Michael Cudlitz plays a gay cop on ‘Southland’

   ::: Cable network TNT has announced that it will pick up the cop drama Southland which was cancelled in October by NBC before any episodes had aired from the show’s second season, AP reports.

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Item: 20,000 march in Taipei for LGBT equal rights

   ::: An LGBT pride march that attracted only 500 people just five years ago, drew about 2000 participants Saturday in Taipei, Taiwan, DPA reports.

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