American Presidents are famous for stretching the letter of the law: Nixon's attempt to sabotage the Democratic Party, Reagan's Iran-Contra scandal, George Bush's extraordinary rendition. When the political climate demands, the Executive is often willing to push the edges of legal behavior in order to achieve a political end.

If you're a health insurer in the United States right now, your worst nightmare is a 50-year-old woman with a slowly progressing terminal illness. Throw in some expensive cancer treatments or a long-term course of drug therapy and you've got the insurer's boogieman.

But never fear, the Senate has...

A couple in Brooklyn is looking to challenge the legitimacy of straight marriages in light of the recent New York Senate vote against gay marriage rights. Their strategy: apply for an annulment.

An annulment is usually reserved for marriages where there is no consummation of the marriage (yep, that...

The International Association of Athletics Federation has decided that Caster Semenya, the South African runner whose gender identity stirred up huge controversy after her decisive win in the 800m race at the world championships, will be permitted to keep her title and prize money.

It is, without a...

There is a gay boycott of the Democratic Party afoot, and it has the potential to turn into something that leads to real change in American politics. I'm not selling hope here, but I can't help but feel it when I see the momentum gathering behind AMERICAblog's "Don't Ask, Don't...

I was not expecting the news to look like that this morning!

Yes, it was not surprising to learn that New Jersey and Virginia both elected Republican Governors - though it is deeply saddening. But I could not have predicted a loss in the tiny, liberal, free state of...

Almost exactly a year ago, I was standing in a small house in Bloomington, Indiana receiving volunteers for Obama's get out the vote effort on election day. By the evening, I would be in Grant Park in Chicago, listening to a Presidential acceptance speech...

Celebrity gossip is not the first place I go for news, but sometimes the human experience is necessary to help us understand political reality. And what better group of people to watch than those circling the exciting world of Hollywood?

So when the news hit yesterday that Rosie O'Donnell and...

This Saturday, President Obama will be the keynote speaker at the Human Rights Campaign's big DC fundraiser. As the largest gay rights fundraiser in the U.S., it's a big deal to score a personality like the President. But his presence has many members of the LGBT community worried. Here's a...

Today, I'm ashamed to be Canadian.

This evening, Canada will be walking out of the United Nations in protest of Ahmadinejad's address to the General Assembly. Their reasons: he is a Holocaust denier. It is a label that is given to the Iranian President fairly. He is also well-known for...

As the debate rages on about health care, issues of basic rights and essential services are the focus of much discussion. Just what should our government provide for us? If services are provided, how much should each citizen get?

In South Africa today and tomorrow, the Constitutional Court will...

Yesterday, the Obama administration filed a follow-up brief in the Smelt case -- the couple in California challenging DOMA who were the recipients of an imprudently written reply brief back in June. This time, it looks like some liberals in the Justice Department got...

[photo by Kimberly Bednarski, KB Image Photography]

In the marriage debate, the focus is always on rights, those granted federally and by each state: immigration, taxation, hospital visitation. It's a way to talk about inequality concretely so that those around us can understand...

Bruno has received some pretty scathing reviews. The Los Angeles Times wrote that it "pile[s] even more stereotypes and discomfort onto an already hostile climate." GLAAD released a statement arguing that the movie "decreases the public's comfort with gay people." And even...

We've been in a kind of legal blitz on the Defense of Marriage Act recently. But, in the three lawsuits filed, yesterday's challenge might have the highest chance of success.

The first of these challenges, Gill et al. v. Office of Personnel Management et al., filed in March...

Fort Worth, Texas is not some hick town in the middle of nowhere. It's a city with almost a million people -- the seventeenth largest city in the entire country. It's population is only a little over 60% white and it is ranked an extremely safe city for its size....

It's satisfying to lambast a staunch social conservative for an extramarital affair on another continent. Governor Sanford voted to impeach Bill Clinton, has been a solid opponent of gay marriage and often invokes the "word of God" to support his conservative policies. I understand,...

My mother gave me Dreams From My Father after I started volunteering for the Obama campaign. I didn't read it, I now regretfully admit, until a month ago. By then I had bought into the "hope," had my heart broken by the Rick Warren choice and...

Obama didn't have to defend DOMA.

Howard Dean protested on The Rachel Maddow Show that he doubts Obama himself was aware of the recently filed brief in defense of the Defense of Marriage Act. But weeks ago, many new outlets, including

A campaign is underway to encourage the Department of Justice to refuse to defend the Defense of Marriage Act in the legal challenge launched by the Massachusetts based Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders.

On a grassroots level, individuals are sending bright pink...