My mother may continue to cringe at the word "queer," but I invite you to consider the idea that queerness can be a pretty good thing. In the broad sense of the word, every person who has ever gone against social norms and values in order to improve them is queer.
On Saturday, May 18, I had the pleasure of marrying my best friend. In front of a hundred or so dear friends and family on a beach in Provincetown, Mass., I did something I never, ever imagined I'd be able to do legally in this country.
I'm proud to be walking for marriage with Garden State Equality. A wise man once helped me understand that even after you've been fighting for 30 years for your rights, you still don't let people trample on you.
Why the rush to justify and defend those who demand that their anti-gay prejudice be accommodated? If you think there's a difference, then what you're saying is that homophobic bigotry is somehow nobler or more acceptable than racism and anti-Semitism. And that's appalling.
The politics of immigration reform are already messy, and they're just going to get messier. The hurdles are going to get a lot higher, and a lot harder to clear. Whether they can be cleared or not may depend on the final tally the bill gets in the Senate floor vote.
Marriage equality is on a winning streak, and it may not be over yet: Illinois may soon join Rhode Island, Delaware and Minnesota in passing marriage legislation before the start of summer. But time is running out: The Illinois legislature has just until the end of this month to pass its bill.
With a vote upcoming any day now in Springfield and a Supreme Court decision that is likely to be less than an all-out victory for equal marriage, the issue won't be going away as some have hoped.
At this rate, if I want to remain comfortably single without the pressures of a looming marriage proposal, I'll have to move to one of those states. Next time I'm on Craigslist, I'm going have to forego the "Men Seeking Men" section so that I can peruse apartments in Biloxi.
In 2007 and 2008, its first two years of existence, NOM never bothered to file any tax returns with the IRS. Each subsequent year, NOM has either been late or filed at least two extensions on its tax returns. This is illegal if you are a 501(c)(3) or a 501(c)(4) tax-exempt organization like NOM.
Let's say that a child is born to a same-sex married couple (or registered domestic partnership or civil union). What do you think happens if that same couple later moved to a jurisdiction that fails to recognize their relationship?
One doesn't often have the opportunity to make a quick remark that might affect the course of U.S. policy. I got that chance in an unexpected conversation with Barack Obama in 2007.
Over her french fries and diet Coke a 5-year-old girl saw me become a monster and learned what hate was. When my wife kisses me goodbye in front of my office in midtown, I feel that little girl's stare over and over, but aged 30 years.
Ten years ago, I was a 20-year-old Marine who was about to cause a world of trouble by becoming the first person in the military to publicly speak out against the Iraq War.
Eric Manriquez, a U.S. citizen, has been legally married to Juan Rivera, an undocumented immigrant, for five years in California, yet Rivera can't apply for a green card through marriage as heterosexual spouses can, because the federal government doesn't recognize their union.
When illness strikes or a child is born or adopted, workers should not have to worry about losing a job or critical income. The LGBT community must join the call for paid leave laws and ensure that all workers have the support and time to recover from illness and care for their loved ones.
I am not exactly sure that I can explain how it felt to be at the capitol in St. Paul, MN on the day Minnesota legislators cleared the final hurdle and the senators voted to legalize same-sex marriage.