Kathy Griffin Tweeted and told Radar Online that she'll be traveling to D.C. on behalf of the Human Rights Campaign to headline a rally for the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" with her D-List cameras in tow. ...

Site: DC Agenda  Article:  ‘Today was like a dream’ and others Author: Lou Chibbaro Jr, Joshua Lynsen DC residents Angelisa Young, 47, and Sinjoyla Townsend, 41, who have been a couple for 12 years, celebrated their wedding Tuesday, March 9 at Human Rights Campaign headquarters. DC Agenda video capture by Steve Fox Lesbian and gay couples have been getting married in the District of Columbia since March 9. Over 100 gay and lesbian couples waited for hours on March 3 to sign up for marriage licenses at a DC courthouse. The city’s LGBTQ newspaper, ...

The Human Rights Campaign requests the honor of your presence at the marriage of Washington D.C. same-sex couples Tuesday, the ninth of March Two thousand and ten at ten o'clock in the morning Send a congratulatory message to the first couples married in Washington, DC [HRC] Now if they could only livestream an open bar. ...

I don't know how I got on the mailing list of the "Human Rights Campaign," but I suppose somebody sold or traded my address to them. I make a point of having nothing to do with the HRC. So, I wrote the following on the slip asking me for money and returned it in the Business Reply Mail envelope.Take me off your mailing list. You are too corrupt, too homophobic, and too bigoted against atheists.Perhaps an explanation to those of you who don't follow queer issues is in order.Corruption and Homophobia at the HRC:The HRC may pretend to support the ...

What a very ... INteresting day it's been. Senators: Lift lifetime ban on gay men donating blood - chicagotribune.com 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 and independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont in writing Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Margaret Hamburg. The lawmakers stressed that the science has changed dramatically since the ban was established in 1983 at ...

The Human Rights Campaign is holding a virtual lobby day to repeal Don't Ask Don't Tell that is coinciding with the hearings of the issue on Capitol Hill. Today is the day to put pressure on the congress to demand a full repeal of the policy barring openly gay, lesbian, and bisexual people from serving their country.Take action to enable free and open service:

• First, go to the special action page where you can email your elected officials.

• Follow-up with a phone call. The Capitol switchboard is 202-224-3121. Tell them where you live, and they’ll connect you to any

...

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Is this the "clear path to repeal" the Human Rights Campaign keeps assuring us is there?  Senator Carl Levin is putting the focus on a moratorium on gay troop discharges while expressing doubts that a repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" will happen this year. Chris Geidner at Metro Weekly reports: When asked about equality advocates' concern that a moratorium on enforcement of the military's ''Don't Ask, Don't Tell'' policy would put off a vote on repealing policy this year, Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) said on Thursday, ''That's not my concern. My concern would be that the vote on ...

Pop singer Clay Aiken speaks with The News & Observer about his upcoming appearance at the Human Rights Campaign Carolinas Gala [...] ...

Photo: Talk Radio News*Now that extreme right presidential candidate Ron Paul is won the straw poll at the fascist CPAC convention, it's time for people to consider who is really is and what he really stands for. His cultish supporters have engaged in a campaign of disinformation on liberal and progressive websites for some time now. Back in 2007, I investigated Paul's actual views and agenda and reported the results. This information looks to be even more relevant now than it was then.Ron Paul has a swarm of zealots on the Internet, spewing pro-Paul propaganda ...

The Human Rights Campaign gets some positive spin this week (for a change) as it's the backdrop for a breakthrough between a mother and her gay/bi son on MTV's The Real World: D.C. Mike Manning, one of the show's housemates, worked at HRC and his tour of their headquarters gives him an opportunity to discuss his sexuality with his mom.Watch, AFTER THE JUMP...Real World XXIII: Washington DC - MTV ShowsReal World XXIII: Washington DC - MTV Shows ...

In a new post over at HRC, which for all intents and purposes includes nothing that we haven't heard before regarding their strategy on "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" and certainly nothing that addresses the confusion and lack of leadership from the top on the issue, the group lays out some "key principles" that will be guiding their work over the next few months. How about, as Michelangelo Signorile has suggested on his radio show, an open letter to Obama outlining the LGBT community's concern over the lack of a clear path to repeal? Or, as the Palm Center's ...

After promises of greater transparency, the Human Rights Campaign responded in part to the blog swarm from earlier this week by releasing its roadmap to repeal Don't Ask Don't Tell. While it's fine as far as it goes, the roadmap... ...

Since moving back to Washington a few weeks back, I've had the pleasure of reconnecting with Phil Attey, a friend I know from his days on the Human Rights Campaign communication staff. (Yes, I have friends at HRC; I even... ...

Yesterday I joined those who sponsored a blog swarm of the Human Rights Campaign, albeit focusing Solmonese, Smith & Co. on Congress, not exclusively on the White House. As one reader points out, it was not particular efficient to ask... ...

In a new Huffington Post piece that makes note of yesterday's blog swarm, Nathaniel Frank, Palm Center Senior Research Fellow and author of Unfriendly Fire: How the Gay Ban Undermines the Military and Weakens America, discusses why "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" repeal is in "grave peril" because of a vacuum of leadership, lingering Democratic fears of a culture war, and the complacency of the Human Rights Campaign. Frank argues that Obama is making the same leadership mistakes with this measure as he did with health care: So why on earth would the President take the same failed tack with reforming the gay ...

Mayor Kasim Reed on Monday added two more longtime community activists and lesbians to a handful of committees aiding his transition and search for key officials in his six-week-old administration. The two appointees bring to a total of five the number of LGBT members of either Reed’s transition committee or the five search committees working to help the mayor hire police and fire chiefs, city attorney, public works commissioner and chief financial officer. Reed announced that Cathy Woolard (top photo), a former City Council president and longtime LGBT activist, will chair the search for a public works commissioner. Joan Garner ...

Apparently I'm not the only one to notice that for an inside-the-Beltway organization, the Human Rights Campaign appears out of the loop when it comes to pushing for repeal this year of Don't Ask Don't Tell. The Advocate's Kerry Eleveld... ...

    ::: New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand told an activists group’s dinner Saturday that she will “introduce an amendment to the budget that will bar the use of funds for the enforcement” of the military’s ‘don’t ask, don’t tell policy’, which prevents gay and lesbian soldiers from serving openly, Gay City News reports. Gillibrand called the policy a “a hole in the integrity of the United States military” and told the audience attending Human Rights Campaign’s annual dinner in New York that she does not believe repeal should be delayed for a year-long study that Secretary ...

April of 2007: A Wyoming couple was barred from taking communion because of their marriage equality advocacy. This prompted the Human Rights Campaign's Harry Knox to say: “In this holy Lenten season, it is immoral and insulting to Jesus to use the body and blood of Christ the reconciler as a weapon to silence free speech and demean the love of a committed, legally married couple. The Human Rights Campaign grieves with the couple, Leah Vader and Lynne Huskinson, over this act of spiritual and emotional violence perpetrated against them.” Human Rights Campaign Responds To Catholic Church Barring Same-Sex Couple ...