San Diego Gay and Lesbian News

SkyWest employee Gilbert Caldwell works at Palm Springs International Airport and married his partner of 34 years last year. SkyWest maintains a discriminatory travel benefits policy for gay and lesbian employees on SkyWest-operated Delta Connection flights that forces Caldwell to pay a fare for his spouse under a "companion" program designed for friends.

Today’s actions signal both to Americans and to the world that the United States is a nation that will care for those most in need at home and will no longer close the door to HIV-positive people abroad.

Equality Across America has called for a Week of Initiative (WOI), Nov. 1-8, 2009. The aim of the WOI is for each local chapter to take whatever kind of action that week that would amount to a step forward toward developing a cohesive team of grassroots activists and new leaders.

There was a strong wind of optimism last night as a crowd of about 50 SLDN supporters — old and new — heeded the call to honor some of our fiercest advocates in the fight to repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” These friends came because they know that now, at this political juncture, their resolute support is needed.

Consider the California experience. The last published poll before the election, conducted by The Field Poll, showed Prop 8 going down to defeat with just 44 percent in favor to 47 percent opposed. And yet when Californians voted, marriage won! A majority of Californians (52% to 48%) voted to protect the traditional understanding of marriage and oppose gay marriage.

Today President Obama made history by signing into law a bill that will extend existing hate crimes laws to include “gender identity and sexual orientation,” mandate FBI tracking of anti-LGBT hate crimes and allow the Justice Department to assist in hate crime investigations at the local level when local law enforcement is unable or unwilling to fully address these crimes.

Reeling from last year's Proposition 8 loss in California, organizers are focusing on Maine’s election, stating a victory is crucial and vital to the marriage equality movement nationwide.

The campaigns to protect marriage rights in Maine and domestic partnership rights in Washington State are heating up as the two states enter the final crunch period before Election Day on November 4. We’re doing all we can to help out from here, holding weekly phone banks across California, Along with our amazing local coalition partners, we’re calling voters in Maine and Washington.

As we complete the annual independent audit from last fiscal year and the review the reports for the beginning quarter of this year, some of the overall facts are startling...

Maine is facing a Proposition 8-style”ballot measure that could strip same-sex marriage rights away by “a vote the people” on November 3.