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The counter counterculture uprising social conservatives promised us after the Supreme Court's neutering of the Defense of Marriage Act never quite manifested.... But in the days before the high court delivered its rulings on DOMA and California's Proposition 8, Tony Perkins, the president of the Christian conservative Family Research Council, was desperately admonitory that the country's top jurists not invite ruin on America by accurately interpreting the Constitution. "If the Supreme Court steps in and says, 'We're redefining marriage, same-sex marriage will be the law across the land,' it will create a firestorm of opposition," Perkins' Magic 8-Ball warned. "This...

National Security Advisor Susan Rice said on June 24 that “America’s support for LGBT rights is not just a national cause but it’s also a global enterprise.” “President Obama has specifically directed that American diplomacy and American assistance promote and protect the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender men and women, all around the world,” she said in an address to the first White House Forum on Global LGBT Human Rights. “Universal human rights are not bestowed by governments or powerful majorities, they are God’s gift and the birth right of all people,” she added. “They belong to lesbian,...

On Thursday, Kirtland Air Force Base will host an event that just three years ago could have cost many airmen their careers – the first-ever Team Kirtland LGBT Pride Picnic. “The significance of this event is, for me, the normalization of us (the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community) as part of the Air Force community,” said David Hardy, the civilian director of the Air Force Research Laboratory’s Directed Energy Directorate at Kirtland and head of the event’s coordinating committee. “I like seeing that, finally, openly, it is recognized that the LGBT community is part of the Air Force family.”...

Obama to sign executive order protecting job rights for gay employees Order would ban federal contractors from discriminating against employees on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity Suren Gambino 16 June 2014 After years of pressure from gay rights groups, President Obama is set to sign an executive order that would ban federal contractors from discriminating against employees on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity, a White House official has told the Associated Press. The Obama administration has said it would prefer Congress to pass legislation that broadly extends workplace protections to all US employees. Such...

President Barack Obama will sign an order banning federal government contractors from discriminating against gay and transgender workers, officials have said. The executive order follows years of pressure from gay rights groups. Mr Obama cannot extend the protection to all American workers, however. The order comes after far broader anti-discrimination legislation stalled in the Republican-led House of Representatives. The executive order will apply only to federal contractors, which employ nearly one-quarter of the US workforce.

The Attorney General of the United States told a homosexual advocacy group on Tuesday night that the Boy Scouts of America "preserves and perpetuates the worst kind of stereotypes" by refusing to allow homosexuals to serve as Boy Scout troop leaders. "Today, courageous lesbian, gay, and bisexual individuals routinely put their lives on the line as members of America's armed services," Holder told Lambda Legal Tuesday night. "And if these men and women are fit for military service, then surely they are fit to mentor, to teach, and to serve as role models for the leaders of future generations." In...

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LGBT rights just got another big push from the president himself. The White House on Friday issued a proclamation by President Barack Obama calling on Americans to eliminate prejudice “everywhere it exists,” declaring June as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month.

(VIDEO-AT-LINK) President Barack Obama congratulated Michael Sam on Saturday for being the first openly gay football player taken in the National Football League draft, the White House said in a statement. "From the playing field to the corporate boardroom, LGBT Americans prove everyday that you should be judged by what you do and not who you are," Obama said. He also congratulated the NFL and the St. Louis Rams, the team that drafted Sam. Sam, an All-American defensive end who played for the University of Missouri, made history when he was picked by the Rams in the seventh and final...

Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Robert Papp said that in 2010 Obama told U.S. military leaders to accept his push for gays in the military, and that if they didn't, they could take the "opportunity to resign [their] commissions." Papp said these things in a video BuzzFeed obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request. The video shows a speech Papp delivered to Coast Guard Academy cadets during which he was asked how he would deal with enforcing an order with which he didn't agree. He used the story of his 2010 meeting with Obama as an example of how service...

President Obama worked successfully to end discrimination against gays in the military and moved swiftly to implement a Supreme Court ruling protecting married gay couples from federal discrimination. But gay rights advocates are upset about something he has not done that they say he could accomplish with a pen stroke: an executive order banning federal contractors from discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity. Advocates say an order would provide employment protections for about 11 million workers who currently have none. Many of the nation's largest companies and 21 states, including California, already have policies or laws against sexual-orientation...

Troops based at the Kadena Air Base in Japan know how to party. On Saturday, six gay and straight service members applied some of their finest makeup and lip synced to "I Wanna Dance with Somebody" in what is believed to be first drag queen and king show on an American military base. The show was thrown in support for the base's recently formed OutServe-SLDN chapter, a nonprofit advocacy group for the army's LGBT community.

Uganda's president signed a law imposing harsh penalties for homosexuality on Monday, defying protests from rights groups, criticism from Western donors and a U.S. warning that it will complicate relations. The new bill strengthened existing punishments for anyone caught having gay sex, imposing jail terms of up to life for "aggravated homosexuality" - including sex with a minor or while HIV-positive. It criminalized lesbianism for the first time and made it a crime to help individuals engage in homosexual acts. Gay rights activists in Uganda said they planned a legal challenge. Ugandan officials broke into loud applause as President Yoweri...

Secretary of State Kerry: promoting gay rights abroad ‘at the very heart’ of U.S. policy by Kirsten Andersen WASHINGTON, D.C., June 10, 2013 (LifeSiteNews) – Secretary of State John Kerry wishes homosexuals around the world a “Happy Pride Month.”  That was the message conveyed in a recorded message released Friday to employees of the U.S. State Department, in which he outlined the bureaucracy’s robust approach to promoting homosexual advocacy throughout the world.“I wanted to take a moment to join people around the world in celebrating Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride month,” Kerry said in the message.“This month is about...

The Senate passed historic gay rights legislation Thursday to bar discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity in the workplace, another victory for the gay rights movement that has been gaining favor in the courts and electoral politics. Senators voted 64 to 32 to approve the Employment Non-Discrimination Act. The vote marked the first time lawmakers had approved legislation to advance gay rights since repealing the military’s ban on gay men and lesbians in uniform in late 2010 and came two days after Illinois became the 15th state to legalize same-sex marriage. Just four months ago the U.S. Supreme...

President Obama turned blogger on Sunday night, making an impassioned plea in the Huffington Post for Congress to pass a long-delayed measure to ban workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation. The bill, called the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, or ENDA, is set for a Senate vote on Monday, and proponents are upbeat about its prospects for passage.

Updated at 5 p.m.: The Georgia National Guard this afternoon indicated it intends to ignore a directive from Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and will continue to send same-sex spouses of National Guard personnel elsewhere for benefits guaranteed by the Pentagon. “The State of Georgia does not recognize same sex marriages and is not authorizing the Georgia National Guard to process the applications for same-sex married benefits at state facilities. Any personnel seeking to apply for same-sex married benefits will be referred to federal facilities.” The statement was in response to this piece by the Associated Press: Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel...

In an almost unnoticed development, the Labor Department this week ordered all employers in the United States, whether they operate in a state that recognizes gay marriage or not, to give health benefits, pension benefits, and 401(k) privileges to the "spouses" of homosexuals. Tom Perez, the labor secretary, made it clear that this ruling applies in all 50 states, not just the 13 which have foolishly recognized marriage based on the infamous crime against nature. Thus same-sex marriage has now been imposed by bureaucratic fiat on the 37 states who have refused to recognize it. This is tyranny of the...

On September 18, the Obama Labor Department announced that married same-sex couples must receive the same pensions, 401(k)s, health plans, and employee benefits as heterosexual married couples, regardless of whether they live in one of the 37 states where same-sex marriage is illegal. "This decision represents a historic step forward toward equality for all American families," said Labor Secretary Thomas Perez. "I have directed the department's agency heads to ensure that they are implementing the decision in a way that provides maximum protection for workers and their families." The Labor Department said its interpretation "provides a uniform rule of recognition...

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...