Week of July 1
UK Deputy Prime Minster and leader of the Liberal Democrats Nick Clegg personally requested that the Pride Flag be flown on Whitehall, the country’s main executive offices, to mark World Pride. Clegg said, “There has to be a first time for everything – flying this iconic flag in the heart of Whitehall is a small but important emblem that the Government and this country are behind equal rights.
“I’m absolutely delighted that, with a little bit of persuasion and determination, we’ve been able to fly the rainbow flag for this weekend’s festivities. I hope this is the start of a new era of pride across the historic Whitehall village.”
Clegg recently came out in favor of marriage equality in the UK. He become the most senior politician to join the Out4Marriage campaign. Yesterday he said he believes churches and other religious institutions should be allowed to perform same-sex marriages.
——————————————————————————————————-
Washington state citizens will not have the opportunity to vote on a state constitutional amendment that would define marriage as only between a man and a woman. Stephen Pidgeon, an anti-gay Republican candidate for state attorney general, had been collecting signatures for the citizens initiative but failed to collect enough; he was more than 140,000 short of the necessary signatures to have it placed on the ballot.
——————————————————————————————————-
Last weekend, the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) passed a resolution affirming their support of marriage equality and opposition to the discrimination or denial of civil rights against any American. LULAC is the nation’s oldest hispanic rights organization.
——————————————————————————————————-
France’s Junior Minister for Family, Dominique Bertinotti, announced last Friday that the country’s new Socialist government is moving forward with plans to legalize same-sex marriage next year.
Bertinotti said, “Within a year, people of the same sex will be able to marry and adopt children together. They will have the same rights and duties as any married couple.”
——————————————————————————————————-
This week, the FDA approved OraSure, making it the first at home HIV testing kit. The kit allows people to swab their gums and obtain their results in less than an hour. However, the FDA warns that the results should not be overtly trusted, regardless of outcome.
In a press release, the FDA warned, “A positive result with this test does not mean that an individual is definitely infected with HIV, but rather that additional testing should be done in a medical setting to confirm the test result. Similarly, a negative test result does not mean that an individual is definitely not infected with HIV, particularly when exposure may have been within the previous three months.”
——————————————————————————————————-
USwoman’s soccer player Megan Rapinoe came out in an interview with Out magazine this week:
“Not that Rapinoe has been hiding anything; it’s just that no one ever asked her directly. ‘I think they were trying to be respectful and that it’s my job to say, ‘I’m gay.’ Which I am. For the record: I am gay,’ she says. In fact, Rapinoe’s been dating her girlfriend, an Australian soccer player, for three years, and even brought her home to visit her family in Northern California last Christmas.”
Rapinoe even talked about homophobia in sports. “I feel like sports in general are still homophobic, in the sense that not a lot of people are out,” she says. “I feel everyone is really craving [for] people to come out. People want — they need — to see that there are people like me playing soccer for the good ol’ U.S. of A.”
——————————————————————————————————-
On July 1, Massachusetts’ Transgender anti-discrimination law went into effect making Massachusetts the 16th state (and the District of Columbia) to extend such protections.
The new law, signed by Gov. Patrick (D) last November, adds “gender identity” to the list of protected characteristics under Massachusetts’ employment, housing, credit and public education anti-discrimination laws, as well as adding transgender protections to the state’s hate crimes law.
——————————————————————————————————-
Two county clerks are seeking to intervene on behalf of an effort spearheaded by the Catholic affiliated anti-gay Thomas More Society to defend Illinois’ state ban on same-sex marriage.
The move was prompted by the stances taken by both Cook County Clerk of Courts David Orr and state Attorney General Lisa Madigan (D), whom don’t plan on fighting the law suit.
——————————————————————————————————-
On Tuesday night, R&B singer Frank Ocean came out via his blog.
He wrote, in part:
“In the last year or 3 I’ve screamed at my creator, screamed at the clouds in the sky, for some explanation. Mercy maybe. For peace of mind to rain like manna somehow. 4 summer ago, I met somebody. I was 19 years old. He was too. We spent that summer, and the summer after, together. Everyday almost… Sleep I would often share with him. By the time I realized I was in love, it was malignant. It was hopeless. There was no escaping.”
Ocean continues, “”I don’t know what happens now, and that’s alrite. I don’t have any secrets I need kept anymore… Thanks to my first love, I’m grateful for you. Grateful that even though it wasn’t what I hoped for and even though it was never enough, it was… I feel like a free man. If I listen closely… I can hear the sky falling too.”
——————————————————————————————————-
Ireland’s Deputy Prime Minster and head of the Irish Labour Party Eamon Gilmore, told a crowd at Dublin Pride that he believes in marriage equality.
“I believe in gay marriage,” Gilmore said. “The right of gay couples to marry is, quite simply, the civil rights issue of this generation, and, in my opinion, it’s time has come.”
“As leader of Labour, a party for whom the politics of personal freedom is so central, I acknowledge that when it comes to promoting understanding and respect, progress has been made in recent years. However, there are some outstanding matters, and if we as a party are serious about building a new progressive society, these are matters that we will have to resolve.
“I believe that in certain key areas, our laws are out of step with public opinion. I don’t believe for example, that it should ever be the role of the State to pass judgment on whom a person falls in love with, or whom they want to spend their life with.”
——————————————————————————————————-
This week, Anderson Cooper finally admitted publicly that he is gay.
Cooper made the announcement in an email to Andrew Sullivan, a writer for The Daily Beast.
“The fact is, I’m gay, always have been, always will be, and I couldn’t be any more happy, comfortable with myself, and proud,” he wrote.
——————————————————————————————————-
