Did they dodge a bullet or did we? I’m not sure, but I’m a bit relieved when the Supreme Court refuses to rule on a gay adoptions case, thus letting stand a ruling that came down in our favor.
In a Washington state case, the U.S. Supreme Court refused today to block a gay woman from […]
OK. I wasn’t going to say anything about Mary Cheney’s recent full-court-press to promote her book in the media, but my bullshit meter just went so far in the red that I can’t stand it any more. I kept my mouth shut and just changed the channel when Mary did her face time with Diane […]
It just happens that several items in my news feeds this morning relate to a comment on a previous post.
Why should my insurance rates go up because the company now has to include a new group of people? If you care to explain to me why you and your partner can’t do a will? Why […]
A reader sent this to me yesterday, and it’s been blogged a few other places, but I wanted to post an update here about how the legacy Laurel Hester left behind is continuing to help others. Even before her death, her fight for the right to leave her pension benefits to her partner moved other […]
After a brave fight, well fought on behalf of justice, Laurel Hester lost her battle with cancer.
Lt. Laurel Hester died Saturday morning at her home only weeks after winning a long battle with Ocean County freeholders over who would get her benefits. She was 49.
Hester’s longtime partner Stacie Andree was at her bedside when she […]
Things just get curiouser and curiouser. I’ve posted before about how James Dobson and Jerry Falwell have both made strangely supportive statements about gay & lesbian equality in the past year or so. Now I come across this. Focus on the Family is suporting a Colorado gay rights measure that would give […]
It seems there are some advantages to not being an “A-list” blogger. One of them is that I can, from time to time, shoot off my mouth and suffer little to no consequences. Nobody — or very few, at least — hears a mouse that roars. It also means that when a tussle breaks […]
Wow, it looks like I got a Koufax award nomination for Most Deserving of Wider Recognition, along with a lot of other folks. And here’s a funny bit about who else some folks wanted to nominate.
Below are just under 300 urls for blog most deserving of wider recognition. There were many more, but I […]
Some good news, for a change. I came home this evening to find the following message from Garden State Equality in my inbox concerning the case of Laurel Hester.
Today, Saturday, January 21, 2006 — the day Ocean County freeholders said they would reverse their decision and grant death benefits to the partner […]
He must have sensed that something was coming. I got too busy to post about it yesterday, but Maryland’s Republican governor has tried to make good on his promise to present his own bill after he vetoed gay rights bills that would have given some rights and protections to same sex couples. Since the Equality […]
This is so unsurprising as to almost not qualify as news, but Laurel Hester — a lesbian dying of cancer, who spent 21 years of her life to serving the cause of justice as an investigator for the Ocean County NJ prosecutors office, and who simply wishes for her partner to receive her pension benefits […]
It’s typical to hear a lot of speeches on MLK Day; some eloquent, some less so. It’s rarer to hear one that speaks in a simple and powerful way to the principles that Dr. King stood for; so that anyone with ears can’t help but hear.
Few will do that today more effectively than […]
The amendments to New Jersey’s domestic partnership law, which I wrote about earlier, apparently passed.
New Jersey lawmakers voted to give same-sex couples the same rights as married couples regarding inheritance and funeral arrangements and to extend gay couples’ access to health benefits in the public sector.
The two bills were passed overwhelmingly in the state […]
Maybe. It looks like there might be a somewhat happy ending or a positive outcome to Laurel Hester’s story, if the New Jersey state legislature finally does right by gay and lesbian couples and families in a vote scheduled for Monday, which would extend a few rights and protections to same-sex couples in domestic […]
And they come down quietly, so that no one notices they’re gone. At least not until what was on the other side comes rushing in, or out. And then it’s too late. Last week a few bricks were taken out of the wall between church and state — even as a judge in Dover, […]