Obama and VAWA

The Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) has been a controversial bill since it was first passed in 1994. It has been up for reauthorization multiple times since then, as well as facing a Supreme Court hearing. It’s been modified and changed along the way, including creating more gender-neutral language, including same-sex couples, and even eliminating some parts of it on the grounds that those parts were unconstitutional.

Newsweek Declares Obama First Gay President

Obama Newsweek Cover

Same-sex marriage has been in the news a lot lately. North Carolina voted to ban it, along with civil partnerships, and a day later Obama held an interview where he voiced his personal support for same-sex marriage. Although I am frustrated at the limits of the support Obama gave, I also understand that it is a pretty big symbolic victory, particularly considering the fact that we’re right in the middle of election season. I also understand those people who are heaping praise on Obama and are unwilling to criticize his statement as perhaps not going far enough. I get it.

Matthew Shepard’s Mother Speaks About Romney’s Alleged Bullying

Perhaps the most tragically famous mother of an LGBT individual is Judy Shepherd. She’s been fighting for LGBT rights for the past 14 years, ever since the tragic murder of her son, Matthew Shepherd, because he was gay. If anyone can understand the emotional impact of having one’s personal life thrust into the media, it’s her. And if anyone can understand the tragic impact homophobic and anti-LGBT actions can have, it’s certainly her. Her reaction to the news that Mitt Romney apparently bullied a kid when he was in high school being perceived as gay was understandably strong.

Obama Personally Supports Same-Sex Marriage

Barak Obama

The relationship between federal and state laws in the U.S. is surprisingly complicated. Sometimes state and federal laws clash. Sometimes the federal government has to persuade state governments to enact certain laws. Rarely is the relationship as simple as federal trumps state. In many ways it’s a good system. The U.S. is geographically and culturally quite diverse, and the federal system we have helps ensure that the cultural and political norms of one region don’t overshadow the norms of another. However, as it’s a system that was created by people, it’s not perfect. There is one aspect to our system that I wish was more national instead of federal, and that is with regards to civil rights.

Marriage Map

On November 4, 2008 I sat in a pub in Durham, U.K. with a bunch of other U.S. students watching the election results come in with anticipation. However, unlike most of those other students, my attention wasn’t really focused on whether Obama would be elected or not. I kept waiting to hear about the results from the three states that had ballot measures banning same-sex marriage. I was particularly anxious about my home state of California. Up until just a couple weeks before the election I had been sure that the ban would be shot down. It’s California, one of the most liberal states in the country. Yet as I sat in that pub, refreshing a website with election data every 30 seconds, I was really worried. The Yes on 8 Campaign had seemed to be so much more successful than I had thought it would be.

C4EM: An Acronym You’ve Probably Never Heard Of

C4EM

Contrary to what a lot of people outside the United Kingdom think, same-sex marriage isn’t actually legal in the U.K. Instead they have civil partnerships, which grant all the same rights as marriage, except for the label. There is a home office consultation underway asking the population its opinion on civil same-sex marriage. Pretty much the U.K. is considering changing its policy regarding same-sex marriage and so it’s conducting a poll, sort of.

Tolerating Intolerance

Coming out of the closet was a gradual process for me. The first person I came out to was a friend in 2003, but I had my biggest coming out in 2005. That’s the year I finally told my parents, and every other little coming out since then has been easy in comparison. Or at least, almost every other coming out has been easy. I have gone back into the closet exactly once in my life, and this is a discussion around that situation.

Somebody Shoot Me Now

Missouri is poised to become the first state to pass legislation which bans discrimination in the workplace against an often forgotten and maligned political minority. No, it’s not sexual orientation or gender identity; it’s not ethnicity or religion. The group they’re providing legal protections for is gun owners. Apparently in Missouri, a state with some of the weakest laws regarding firearm ownership in the country, there is a fear that the people who own these easily obtainable firearms will be fired from their jobs without cause. Yeah, that makes total sense.