News

UK lawmakers took a big step Tuesday toward legalizing same-sex marriage, an issue that has prompted widespread rebellion within Prime Minister David Cameron’s Conservative Party. In a 400-175 vote, MPs approved the second reading of a bill legalizing such marriage, indicating a significant majority of members support the measure. However, it must go through several…

Question: How do you know when the fight for marriage equality for gays and lesbians is about to be won? Answer: When one of your former foes invites you to the table to discuss the future of marriage. That’s what David Blankenhorn is doing. You remember Blankenhorn—he was one of the star witnesses defending Proposition 8 in…

A gay Baptist minister arrested after trying to apply for a marriage license in Kentucky says he is optimistic that people opposed to same-sex marriage will change their minds over time, even in conservative places like the Bible belt. “I’m an optimist, so, yes, I think it’s likely,” the Rev. Maurice Blanchard said Jan. 29…

President Barack Obama unveiled his plan for immigration reform today in Las Vegas, Nevada. In his speech, he stressed the need to “bring our legal immigration system into the 21st century” through smarter enforcement and pathways to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. While President Obama stopped short of commenting on the fate of same-sex binational couples…

With social justice as their spiritual journey focus, the interfaith public advocacy group Standing on the Side of Love has started their 2013 Thirty Days of Love campaign. Standing on the Side of Love calls for religious people to harness love’s power to stop oppression by standing for respect, inclusion, and compassion in public debates…

Even though an increasing number of states are legalizing gay marriage, same-sex married couples still won’t be able to file joint federal tax returns this year. The federal Defense of Marriage Act defines marriage as “a legal union between one man and one woman,” and that’s what the Internal Revenue Service follows when it comes…

Reverend Adam Hamilton, pastor of a United Methodist mega-church in Leawood, Kansas, has been chosen to deliver the sermon at the Inaugural National Prayer Service. Reverend Hamilton is the author of Seeing Gray in a World of Black and White, and his views on full LGBT inclusion in the church also currently fall into a…

It’s clear that President Obama believes that states should grant gay people the right to marry. The question has now become whether he and his Administration believe that gay people have the constitutional right to marry, whether or not state legislators grant it to them. The answer will become clear as the Supreme Court hears…

Representative Keith Gingery, a Republican from Jackson, Wyoming, has co-sponsored a dual approach legislation that would allow the state’s gay couples to form civil unions or get married. Gingery has been in Wyoming’s Legislature for eight years and has seen lawmakers consider and reject measures on gay unions in 2007, 2009, and 2011. He believes…