Author Archives: Lisa Keen

D.C. marriage survives Senate vote

One of the 41 amendments which the U.S. Senate voted on this week, while passing the companion bill of “fixes” to the landmark health care legislation, was an amendment to allow Washington, D.C. voters to hold a referendum on same-sex

DADT: Air “views” on how, not whether

Defense Secretary Robert Gates has repeatedly said he wants his working group on “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” to discuss the plan to repeal the policy with service members and their families to get their views. But Gates, on Thursday, began

Gates unveils his “more humane and fair” DADT

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates today unveiled the Pentagon’s plan for making enforcement of the current “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy “more humane and fair.”

Grilling of 9th circuit nominee delayed

The Senate Judiciary Committee was squaring up for a showdown this week over President Obama’s most controversial judicial nominee to date, but that showdown has been indefinitely delayed, while Republicans use a parliamentary delaying tactic on the companion bill to

Groups appeal order to turn over documents in Prop 8 case

A snag in completion of the landmark Proposition 8 trial has now become a full-fledged entanglement. The issue? Whether three groups that are not a party to the Perry v. Schwarzenegger lawsuit can be forced to turn over their

Student wins, but prom still off

A lesbian high school senior won a partial victory in a federal court in Mississippi Tuesday. U.S. District Court Judge Glen Davidson, a Reagan appointee, ruled that senior Constance McMillen, 18, had a First Amendment right to

Amid increasing hostilities, health passes, ENDA is poised

The health care reform legislation President Obama signed into law this morning does not include any of the pro-gay provisions sought by the LGBT community. The provisions were not part of a companion bill also passed by the House Sunday

Massacring History

Retired Marine General John Sheehan told a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on March 18 that he believes the Dutch Army’s willingness to accept gays into the service was the reason the Serb Army was able to carry out its

DADT reports: Study or stall?

A “study” in the nation’s capitol is special kind of political capital. It can buy rationale with which to justify a change in policy or it can buy time to stop a change. President Obama

Carry Me Back

Virginia’s new Republican leadership apparently longs for the days of yore, when gays knew their place—the closet. But this month, they’re longing for the days when their discriminatory proclivities were not so well known.