In response to the United Farm Workers of America ( UFW ) and its announcement to support marriage equality, Equality California executive director Geoffrey Kors and UFW California Political Director Christine Chavez issued statements jointly. Chavez declared that ' [ t ] he United Farm Workers stand together with Equality California for economic justice and equality for all families.'
The U.S. Department of Justice and the adult entertainment industry reached an agreement Thursday that gives many Internet sites more time to comply with strict federal guidelines over record-keeping on adult images, according to PlanetOut Network. According to the Free Speech Coalition, which represents many adult sites, the broad record-keeping law, known as 18 U.S.C. 2257, will not be fully enforced until Sept. 7. According to the expanded 2257 statute, every Web site with explicit adult content—including sites that allow for member-generated content—must keep records proving the people portrayed in photos or videos are over the age of 18.
President Bush is nominating an openly gay man as assistant secretary of commerce, the New York Daily News reported. Bush has tapped 35-year-old Israel Hernandez for the post, which also carries the title of director general of the United States and Foreign Commercial Service.
In a statement, the Gay and Lesbian Medical Association urged the California Medical Association to withdraw its friend-of-the-court brief from a case involving two obstetricians who denied fertility care to a San Diego woman because she is a lesbian. In the lawsuit, Guadalupe Benitez, represented by Lambda Legal, charged that her doctors refused to inseminate her after she had received 11 months of preparatory treatment from the clinic. The doctors claimed that because of their personal religious beliefs about gay people, they would not administer the treatment.
A panel appointed to investigate whether embattled Spokane mayor James West violated city policies in a computer gay sex scandal has bowed to public pressure and will hold its meetings in public. The five-member panel had originally planned to meet behind closed doors, 365Gay.com reported.
A California appeals court ruled that a lesbian co-parent is entitled to seek visitation with the child that she jointly brought into the world and co-parented with her former partner, the Associated Press reported. The woman, identified only as Angela G., and her former partner were in a committed relationship and decided to have a child together through artificial insemination, using an anonymous sperm donor.
Eighty-five U.S. representatives asked President Bush to preserve the ban against sexual orientation discrimination in the federal civil service, according to a press release from the office of Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., one of the participants. In a letter, members of Congress urged Bush to ensure that Scott Bloch, director of the Office of the Special Counsel, enforces the policy.
One transgender woman is near death and another is critically ill after an unlicensed practitioner injected them with silicone at a private meeting in San Diego, PlanetOut Network reported. Police have appealed to the public for help in finding the Los Angeles-area woman who allegedly provided the injections.
In Georgia, Riverdale City Council member Michelle Bruce, the state's first openly transgender elected official, claims she is the target of a campaign by fellow council members to remove her from office over her gender identity, the Southern Voice reported. Bruce said the effort came after she proposed expanding the city's non-discrimination policy to include sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression earlier this year.
Upholding a 1996 federal law that allows states to deny recognition to same-sex marriages, a federal court judge in Santa Ana ( Calif. ) ruled that a gay Mission Viejo couple did not have the right to marry, said the L.A. Times. U.S. District Judge Gary Taylor, however, decided against ruling on whether a state law that defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman violates the Constitution.
