Senators: Lift ban on gays donating blood

(Washington) The time has come to change a policy that imposes a lifetime ban on donating blood for any man who has had gay sex since 1977, 18 senators said Thursday.

“Not a single piece of scientific evidence supports the ban,” said Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., who joined 16 other Democrats …

Lawmakers urge end to gay immigration discrimination

A group of 60 senators and representatives, led by U.S. Rep. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wisc., signed a letter urging President Barack Obama and members of Congress to end discrimination against LGBT immigrant families.

The letter states, “tens of thousands of binational families are either already living separately, face imminent separation, or have …

NJ marriage vote delayed to gain time

(Trenton, NJ) New Jersey’s Senate presidentagreed to postpone Thursday’s scheduled vote on a bill to legalize same-sex marriages, and some senators have acknowledged the bill does not have the votes it needs to pass the Senate.

Senate President Richard Codey said he’ll honor a request from the bill’s Senate sponsors to …

Gay rights advocate questions pick for state civil rights chief in NJ

TRENTON — One of New Jersey’s leading gay rights advocates is raising questions about Attorney General Anne Milgram’s pick for state civil rights chief, a day after two state senators also criticized the choice.

Garden State Equality Chairman Steven Goldstein said Milgram’s nominee to lead the Division on Civil Rights, Chinh Le, is “someone completely unknown” to the state’s gay community, unlike former director Frank Vespa-Papaleo.

“The burden is on the attorney general to further demonstrate that her nominee will continue Frank Vespa-Papaleo’s record of outstanding advocacy for every community, including ours,” Goldstein said.

The state Commission on Civil Rights is expected to vote on Le’s nomination today.

“Chinh Le has an extraordinary background and commitment to justice and civil rights,” Milgram said in a statement. “His experience and involvement in the important social and civil issues facing our state make him well-qualified to lead the division.”

See Gay rights advocate questions pick for state civil rights chief NJ.com

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Effort To Ban Gay Unions Falling Short In Wash. State

The effort to place a gay-inclusive domestic partnership law up for a vote in Washington State appears to be falling short.

With a looming deadline of Saturday at 2PM, opponents of the law dubbed by the media as the “everything but marriage law” have only 4 full days left to gather thousands of valid signatures.

Opponents – a coalition of mostly religious groups – announced their attempt to repeal the bill in November, even before it became law in May. Gary Randall, president of the Faith and Freedom Network, says his group filed Referendum 71 because the law is too close to marriage and violates the law.

“The bill … elevates homosexual relationships to that of traditional marriage, thus eliminating any legal difference between domestic partnerships and marriage,” Randall wrote in a blog entry posted on the group’s website before the bill became law.

“I do not believe a majority [of] Washingtonians believe in homosexual marriage, nor do they want to become a national attraction for homosexuals from other states and countries,” he added.

Organizers, however, admit that they have fallen desperately behind in collecting the 120,577 valid signatures needed to qualify the measure. Randall told the conservative group Concerned Women for America that only 75,000 signatures had been collected as of Friday. Leaving the group at least 45,577 signatures short. But in order to ensure there are sufficient valid signatures, the group estimates it needs to collect 75,000 signatures. In other words, opponents need to collect as many signatures in one week as they did in the previous seven to eight weeks.

The Democratic-controlled House passed the bill in April along a mostly party-line vote of 62 to 35. Senators approved the bill in March with a 30 to 18 vote, and Governor Chris Gregoire signed the bill into law on May 18. See Effort To Ban Gay Unions Falling Short In Wash. State

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NY Sen. to introduce bill to stop gay military discharges?

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) may introduce a bill in the Senate later this week to put an 18-month moratorium on discharges under Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.

It would be the first time since the vote on the military ban in 1993 that Senators would be forced to publicly state their stand …

NY Gay Marriage Bill Faces New Challenges

With what some are describing as a “circus” in Albany, many gay marriage supporters fear that proposed legislation recognizing same sex marriage in New York will not come up for a vote in a state Senate in flux.

And now, one group is also trying harder to keep that from happening. The National Organization for Marriage announced Tuesday that they have set up a Political Action Committee for New York to fight the measure.

With the announcement, Executive Director Brian Brown also said that the first $500,000 raised will be used to back a primary challenger to GOP Senators who vote for gay marriage.

“The first half million dollars will be used in GOP primaries,” Brown said. “But we are also looking to aid Democratic candidates who want to buck the establishment on the marriage issue, and to help in general election contests.”

Brown said politicians were ignoring “the wishes of their own constituents.” See NY Gay Marriage Bill Faces New Challenges

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Two Anti-Gay Marriage Dems Cut Deal With Republicans to shift NY Senate to GOP control

ALBANY, N.Y. — Republicans and two dissident Democrats took control of New York’s Senate on Monday after the two New York City renegades voted with the GOP to throw the fledgling Democratic majority out of power.

The decision by senators Pedro Espada Jr. of the Bronx and Hiram Monserrate of Queens to join the coalition gave Republicans a 32-30 voting edge on hastily introduced measures that changed the leadership structure. Neither Espada nor Monserrate changed party affiliation.

Democrats held the Senate for barely five months after being out of power for four decades.

Shortly after the coup, Republicans named Espada temporary president of the Senate and Republican Dean Skelos of Nassau County vice president and majority leader. Skelos was majority leader in 2008.

Those are the most powerful positions in the chamber. With them, the bipartisan coalition can direct legislation and reassign committee and leadership posts.

Democrats tried to leave the chamber, even turning off the lights briefly, and are expected to challenge Monday’s action in court.

The coup throws into doubt the movement to legalize same-sex marriage, one of the major policy issues still pending for the last two weeks of the regular session. Although passed in the Democrat-led Assembly, it is stalled in the Senate. Several Republicans and Sen. Ruben Diaz, a Bronx Democrat oppose the measure.

See Two Anti-Gay Marriage Dems Cut Deal With Republicans

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Sotomayor makes rounds on Capitol Hill

(Washington) Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor is racing through a crucial set of meetings with senators on Capitol Hill, working to reassure Republicans who worry she’d bring ethnic and gender bias to her decisions.

Sotomayor, who would be the high court’s first Hispanic and third woman, is telling senators in both …

Celebrities Champion State’s Same-Sex Marriage Bill

State Senator Shirley L. Huntley, a brassy, big-haired Democrat from Queens who opposes same-sex marriage, received a call on Wednesday that left her momentarily stunned.

Maya Angelou was on the line, and she wanted to know if the senator might reconsider her position. Ms. Huntley, hardly the type to be played for a fool, at first thought her staff might be pulling a fast one.

“I said, ‘What?’ ” Ms. Huntley recalled on Thursday, adding that she was not convinced that it was Ms. Angelou until she heard her deep timbre. “I heard the voice, and I said: ‘My God. It is her.’ And that was that.”

Ms. Angelou’s call — one of three the poet and author placed to state senators this week — was part of an effort by prominent supporters of gay rights to persuade reluctant senators to vote for the same-sex marriage bill before the Legislature. Cynthia Nixon, co-star of HBO‘s “Sex and the City,” who is a lesbian, and Paul Tagliabue, the former commissioner of the National Football League, who has a gay son, are among the other high-profile people who have lent their celebrity to the cause.

The Assembly passed the bill, promoted by Gov. David A. Paterson, on May 12, but gay rights groups remain short of the support they need in the Senate. With just four weeks left before the Legislature adjourns, those groups have been increasing their efforts to reach out to senators.

See Celebrities Champion State’s Same-Sex Marriage Bill
New York Times