Argentine Congress considers same-sex marriage

(Buenos Aires, Argentina) Is Argentina ready to become Latin America’s first nation to legalize gay marriage?

Gay and lesbian activists think so – and they have a growing number of supporters in Congress, which opened debate Thursday on whether to change dozens of laws that define marriage as a union between …

Microsoft donates $100 k for gay partners effort

(Olympia, Wash.) Microsoft Corp. has donated $100,000 to the campaign supporting more partnership rights for Washington state gay couples.

That’s the largest single donation in favor of Referendum 71, which asks voters to approve or reject a new law that expands domestic partnerships for gay and lesbian couples. Microsoft is based …

Uruguay clears way for gay adoptions

(Montevideo, Uruguay) Uruguay is clearing the way for gay couples to adopt children.

The Senate’s final approval Wednesday makes Uruguay the first country in Latin America to allow gay and lesbian couples the opportunity to adopt.

The executive branch now will decide when the law takes effect. The change is supported by …

NGLTF endorses National Equality March

From NGLTF:

The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, a leader in building grassroots lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) political power, endorses the National Equality March, which will be held in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 10–11. Thousands of people from across the country will march and rally in front of …

Namibia city hosts first gay rights march

About 40 people are expected to march in Keetmanshoop’s first-ever march for gay and lesbian rights on Saturday.

Keetmanshoop, in the southern part of Namibia, near the gay-friendly South Africa, is marking the inauguration of Ada Ma/Hao (We stand together), a new project advocating for equal rights for gender minorities in …

Davis: Positive Steps in the Face of Tragedy

This weekend’s attack at the gay and lesbian center in Tel Aviv left me with a familiar feeling: helplessness. That awful moment of wanting to do something but knowing you’re half a world away.

I spent much of Saturday scouring the Internet for news and shaking my head. Fortunately there are …

House subcommittee approves benefits for same-sex partners

A House subcommittee today advanced a bill to provide health and retirement benefits to the same-sex domestic partners of gay and lesbian federal employees.

The bill, HR 2517, passed the House Oversight and Government Reform subcommittee on the federal workforce, Postal Service and the District of Columbia on a party-line vote.

Democrats said the bill is needed to eliminate an inequality that drives some talented employees away from the government. Gay and lesbian employees currently cannot cover their domestic partners under their health insurance or provide an annuity for their partners after they die, even if they are legally married in states that recognize gay marriage. Supporters of the new bill say the current policy places an undue financial burden on as many as 34,000 gay and lesbian federal employees in domestic partnerships, who have to maintain separate health plans to keep both partners covered.

Many states and Fortune 500 companies offer same-sex partners such benefits. See House subcommittee approves benefits for same-sex partners

Federal Times

Published by

Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/07/house-subcomm…

Chicago HIV report sparks reaction

The Chicago Public Health Department’s alarming report, released Friday, that suggests the HIV infection rate among gay men in Chicago is nearly 20% has drawn varied responses from Chicago’s gay and lesbian community.
ChicagoPride.com surveyed a number of gay men on a busy Saturday night in Boystown.
From Waveland to Buckingham, the responses were varied with one common undertone that gay men no longer think HIV is a death sentence. And despite extensive media coverage on the recently release report, many were unaware of the report and its contents.
“I’m not at all surprised by these statistics.” Said thirty-something Al joined by Jared and Jamie outside of the Center on Halsted. “The fact that a lot of our own community members are not aware of their status is probably because of their fear of knowing.”
“We are very closeted in the U.S. regarding educating our youth,” added Jaime.
Some do not believe the numbers and conclusions published in the report.
“You can work the numbers however you want,” said Matthew a bartender at Buck’s. See Chicago HIV report sparks reaction

ChicagoPride.com –

* Tags = gay men gay news lesbian news transgender bisexual

Published by

Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/07/chicago-hiv-r…

UN allows gay, lesbian group to join debates

(Geneva) The United Nations granted official status to a gay and lesbian organization from Brazil on Monday, allowing it to participate in U.N. meetings ranging from health to human rights.

The victory for the Brazilian Association of Gays, Lesbians and Transsexuals marks the third consecutive year the U.N. Economic and Social …

Homosexuals dispel myth of “progressive”

Each year in Germany, from the end of June through August, gay and lesbian rights’ activists celebrate the “Stonewall” uprising – named after a gay bar on Christopher Street in New York, where homosexuals fought back against police brutality in 1969.

Participants in the German parades known as “Christopher Street Day” join other activists around the world who take to the streets to demonstrate gay pride and demand greater freedoms.

Some of those freedoms would include expanded civil rights. In Germany, civil unions, for instance, have been permitted among same-sex couples since 2001, but full marriages are not. Homosexual couples therefore do not enjoy the same rights as married heterosexual couples when it comes to taxes, retirement, civil servant benefits, or adoption law.

For more on gay and lesbian rights and the community in Germany, click on the links below, or listen to this week’s “Living in Germany” program to hear a more personal account of a homosexual civil union.