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Before leaving for home after the Group of 20 summit, President Barack Obama sat down with Russian civil society activists on Friday evening to assure them that he would keep pressing Moscow to respect human rights, some of the activists said. But Obama also explained to them why this wasn't always possible. The meeting was held several hours after two dozen of gay activists rallied in St. Petersburg to protest Russia's new law banning gay propaganda, which prompted some activists to call for the boycott of the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi. Igor Kochetkov, the head of LGBT Network, who...

The gifted “overcharge” reset button is going to need replacing soon.Last month, Obama infuriated Vladimir Putin by referring to him as a “bored kid in the back of the classroom.” and cancelled his bilateral meeting with Putin. To add to the tension, instead of meeting with Putin, on Thursday President Obama will meet with the LGBT activists in St. Petersburg while visiting the area during the G20 summit. Buzzfeed reported: Four Russian non-governmental organizations told BuzzFeed Monday they had been invited to the meeting, scheduled for this Thursday at St. Petersburg’s Crowne Plaza Hotel. The groups include veteran human rights activists Lev Ponomarev and...

President Obama will meet with several LGBT groups during his trip later this week to St. Petersburg, a move likely to ruffle Russian President Vladimir Putin after the recent passage of a series of anti-gay laws. The president will meet with human rights activists Lev Ponomarev and Lyudmila Alexeyeva, legal aid NGO director Pavel Chikov, and Coming Out, a St. Petersburg-based LGBT organization, according to a report in BuzzFeed. The decision to meet with the activists in not unprecedented — Obama also met with human rights leaders in 2009 — but comes amid a period of heightened tension with the...

We are only a month removed from the Supreme Court decision to strike down Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), and President Obama’s Office of Personnel Management is already pushing federal benefits for federal employees who have been legally married to their same-sex wife or husband. In addition, OPA is also extending these benefits to “annuitants” or retired federal employees. What this means is, if you are retired from your federal job and legally marry someone of the same-sex, you are now eligible to receive federal benefits.

The White House will hold a roundtable event on issues facing the bisexual community next month, according to a report in the Washington Blade. The closed-door meeting is likely the first of its kind in the Obama administration, the paper reported. According to the event's invitation, it will take place Sept. 23 in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building across the street from the West Wing. “Participants and administration officials will discuss a range of topics including health, HIV/AIDS, domestic and intimate partner violence, mental health, and bullying,” White House LGBT liaison Gautam Raghavan said.

Pennsylvania's attorney general Kathleen Kane said Thursday that she will not be defending the state in a recent lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union regarding the state's ban on same-sex marriage. Kane, a Democrat, has decided not to defend the state because she is a proponent of same-sex marriage, and therefore the responsibility to defend the state's same-sex marriage ban will now be passed to Republican Gov. Tom Corbett, who opposes same-sex marriage. Pennsylvania law states that the attorney general may pass her responsibility to defend the constitutionality of state laws to the governor's office or executive branches,...

Pennsylvania attorney general Kathleen Kane said Thursday that she will not defend the state in a federal lawsuit filed this week challenging the state’s ban on same-sex marriage, calling the prohibition “wholly unconstitutional.” Kane’s decision not to fight the lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of 23 Pennsylvania residents places the burden of defending the 1996 law on Republican Gov. Tom Corbett, who supports it. It also reignited a public debate over whether state officials have the right to opt out of legal battles involving same-sex marriage. In an interview, Kane — who endorsed the idea...

AG Kane refuses to represent the State in same-sex marriage case.

Pennsylvania's AG Might Not Even Defend Their Gay Marriage Ban in Court Facing a lawsuit from the ACLU, it looks like Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane is going to refuse to defend the state government's ban on gay marriage. Pennsylvania, the only state in the northeast without provisions for same-sex civil unions or marriages, was one of the first states with gay marriage bans targeted by a suit in the wake of the Supreme Court's partial striking of the Defense of Marriage Act. If it's true, the news, reported by the Philadelphia Daily News, based on multiple anonymous sources, isn't...

The American Civil Liberties Union today filed a landmark lawsuit in federal court in Harrisburg, demanding that Pennsylvania permit and recognize marriages between two women or two men. The plaintiffs include 10 couples, including three couples from Allegheny County. The nominal lead plaintiffs are Deb and Susan Whitewood, of Bridgeville, who are joined as litigants by their two daughters, Abbey, 16, and Katie, 14. The ACLU and the Philadelphia law firm of Hangley Aronchick Segal Pudlin & Schiller are filing the complaint in U.S. District Court in Harrisburg in an effort to have the state's Defense of Marriage Act declared...

Pennsylvania attorney general refuses to defend state in same-sex lawsuit Reuters By Dave Warner PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane refused on Thursday to fight a lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union challenging the state's ban on same-sex marriage. The lawsuit is believed to be the first federal case since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on June 26 that the U.S. government must recognize same-sex marriages in states where it is legal. Kane, a Democrat who supports same-sex marriage, announced her decision at a press conference in the National Constitution Center in historic Philadelphia. By declining...

(CNN) -- North Carolina's House of Representatives passed a restrictive abortion bill Thursday with a 74-41 vote. The bill now heads to the state Senate for approval.

WASHINGTON — Today the White House announced the nominations of James Costos, an accomplished businessman and current executive at HBO, as the United States Ambassador to Spain, and Rufus Gifford, a former finance official for the Presidential Inaugural Committee, Obama for America, and the Democratic National Committee, as the United States Ambassador to Denmark. Last week, President Obama also nominated Daniel Baer, the openly-gay Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, to be Ambassador to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

Opposition to President Obama's nominee for U.S. ambassador to the Dominican Republic reached a fever pitch this week as religious organizers stage a "Lunes Negros" or Black Monday protest against James "Wally" Brewster. If confirmed, Brewster will be the first openly gay ambassador to the country, a prospect that is not going over well with some segments of this conservative Christian country of 9 million people. Local reports indicate that church leaders are pressuring the government to reject Brewster's nomination and calling on the faithful to dress in black on Monday in solidarity against him. Praise Christian Church Pastor Sauford...

The obvious response to Matt Nosanchuk being appointed as the White House’s new Associate Director for Jewish Outreach is Huh. Matt Nosanchuk has a long history of gay advocacy. And that’s about it. Matt Nosanchuk’s entire career consists of shrilly pushing gay rights through every organ of government. If he was ever involved in Jewish causes or the Jewish community, it’s not obvious. He worked on gay rights at the Justice Department, under radical extremist Tom Perez and he was a leader of the LGBT Policy Committee for the Obama campaign.

Embassy Row: Gay diplomat an ‘insult’ Church leaders in culturally conservative Dominican Republic are outraged that President Obama nominated an openly homosexual activist to serve as ambassador to the Caribbean nation. Cardinal Nicolas de Jesus Lopez, the Roman Catholic archbishop of the Dominican capital of Santo Domingo, Bishop Pablo Cedano and the Rev. Cristobal Cardozo, leader of the Dominican Evangelical Fraternity, are urging President Danilo Medino to reject the nominee, Chicago lawyer James Brewster. “It’s an insult to good Dominican customs,” Father Cardozo said last week. Bishop Cedano denounced the nomination for showing “a lack of respect,” and added cryptically:...

President Obama, in his statement hailing the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn the Defense of Marriage Act, promised that he wouldn’t try to force religious institutions to conduct gay marriages. “On an issue as sensitive as this, knowing that Americans hold a wide range of views based on deeply held beliefs, maintaining our nation’s commitment to religious freedom is also vital,” Obama said. “How religious institutions define and consecrate marriage has always been up to those institutions. Nothing about this decision — which applies only to civil marriages — changes that.”

The moral decline of America is never more evident than watching politicians exploit our children for political gain. But is it any wonder that in a society that condones disgusting television shows like, “Toddlers and Tiaras,” “Honey Boo-Boo,” and “Dance Moms,” we allow politicians to use kids to promote the propaganda of the liberal left? Breitbart News reported on adorable third-grade twins Zea and Luna who introduced President Obama at a Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender celebration event on Thursday at the White House.The nine-year old twins explained that they wrote a letter to Obama in December asking him “to...

To mark the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia (IDAHO), the U.S. Embassy in Tallinn on May 17 will display the rainbow flag on the Embassy building at Kentmanni 20, Tallinn. IDAHO is an annual event celebrated internationally to counter homophobia and raise awareness of the human rights discrimination faced by Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) individuals. “Flying the flag,” Ambassador Levine said, “is a simple statement of our support for the LGBT community and its struggle for equal rights.” Noting the substantial progress being made, Ambassador Levine added that much of the world has come to understand that...

Today at his press conference, Barack Obama told reporters he didn’t know anything about the reported Benghazi whistle-blowers who were being threatened by the State Department. But he rushed back to the microphone to talk about the gay NBA play Jason Collins who came out of the closet yesterday....