Results tagged “gayrights”

Without giving any specifics,,President Barack Obama pledged to end the U.S. military's dated and bizarre ban on openly queer homosexuals serving in the military. During a speech at the annual Human Rights Campaign dinner on Saturday, Obama said, "I will end 'don't ask-don't tell."

The City of San Francisco has moved to intervene on behalf of the gay Burbank couple and the Berkeley lesbian couple who are the mascots in a huge federal lawsuit to overturn Prop 8 which is awaiting trial at the 9th Circuit. A trial date has still not been set, but the drama over who is best equipped to argue the case has been underway for several weeks, and won't be decided until mid-August.

SFist reported yesterday that Gay Pride Grand Marshall National Guard Lt. Dan Choi faced being discharged from the service, and a military review panel later confirmed this recommendation. The recommendation must be approved by the First Army commander and the chief of the National Guard Bureau, which could take weeks or up to a year. Choi, who is an Arabic translator, will continue to drill with the National Guard until then.

Natalie Jones, a sixth-grader in Ramona, California, created a Powerpoint presentation about Harvey Milk's life and activism, for which she received a near-perfect score. The day before the presentation, Jones' principal said that although her project was as good as a high school student's, because of the "sensitive material," she might be unable to show it.

This morning the California state Supreme Court ruled that doctors "must treat gays and lesbians the same as any other patient." What a novel idea, right? It all started back in 2000 when Guadalupe Benitez, a Southern Californian queer with baby fever, sued North Coast Women's Care Medical Group and two of its doctors in Vista for refusing to inseminated her because of their (alleged) Christian beliefs. Today's ruling, S142892, now means that California quacks can no longer use whatever mystical religious spell they're under as an excuse not to treat queer patients or as a defense in court. (SFGate)