Category Archives: A closer look

April 27, 2010   2 Comments

Hospital visitation memo will take months to implement

When President Obama signed a memorandum this month, calling for an end to discrimination against gays and lesbians in hospital visitation policies, many unmarried LGBT people assumed that meant hospitals would no longer be able to bar them from being

Read More
April 22, 2010   3 Comments

A Department of Silence: Bullying of LGBT youth not a priority

From the beginning of the Obama administration, the general attitude of the LGBT people was that things would be better for the community than they were under the administration of President George W. Bush. But even from the beginning, there

Read More
April 14, 2010   1 Comment

Education reform: Will it tackle LGBT-based bullying?

The Obama administration’s proposal to reform the nation’s educational system includes no specific call for anti-bullying programs in schools, and no mention of protections for students from harassment or discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity. This is despite

Read More
March 23, 2010   3 Comments

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

Read More
March 16, 2010   No comments

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

Read More
March 9, 2010   No comments

DADT repeal teeters on the mid-term elections

Google “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” and you’ll get more than 2 million links. Add the word “repeal” to the search, and you’ll get about half a million. Add the words “this year,” and you’re down to 135,000. That’s probably a good

Read More
March 5, 2010   No comments

Rep. Frank: ENDA will get House vote this month

Legislation can be like a train: It runs on a track, makes certain stops along the way, and is often attached to other trains. But, in Congress, the train doesn’t run on time. Last October, Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) said the

Read More
February 24, 2010   1 Comment

Full faith and credit helps gay parents overcome ban

The battle over equal rights to marriage has dominated much of the news concerning the LGBT civil rights movement for the past 17 years, but there have been gains recently in the battle over gay family rights in general.

Read More
February 15, 2010   1 Comment

No strong liberals among Obama’s appeals court nominees

In just a couple of months, speculation concerning the retirement of U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens will once again rev up. He’ll turn 90 in April and, last fall when justices typically do, he did not hire a

Read More
« Older posts
Newer posts »