Congress has promised to begin the process of reforming America's broken immigration system later this year. There is widespread consensus that reform is urgently needed, and a growing insistence among lawmakers that any reform effort must adhere to our nation's long-standing commitment to family unification. Under current immigration law, millions...

On Sunday, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) Americans - and their allies - will travel from nearly every corner of the country to converge on Capitol Hill and call on lawmakers to support full equality for the LGBT community. The event, named the National Equality March, comes on...

Steve and Joe live in the shadow of the capital, both literally and figuratively.

The Washington, D.C. couple, who have been together for almost a decade, recently bought a new home in the city's Columbia Heights neighborhood. Two weeks ago, they were married in Connecticut. And in early August,...

In a move that closes the gap between two White House administrations, numerous government agencies and a year-old act of Congress, the Department of Health and Human Services has issued regulations that would end the United States' decades-old HIV travel and immigration ban. Originally authorized as part of President...

Shirley Tan and Jay Mercado are, by all accounts, a picture-perfect family. The two have been together - happily - for more than two decades. They have adorable 12-year-old twins. They married in 2004. And they are hard-working, productive members of their community in Pacifica, California, where they have built...

In recent months, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans have begun cautiously expressing hope that, in addition to recent, hard won victories here at home, we may be on the verge of a little bit of progress abroad, too.

Our community rightly cheered when the Obama administration recently reversed a...

Throughout their history, right-wing activists, when left with no facts to defend their case, have often turned to scare tactics to keep their crusades going. Whether it is "code red" terror alerts a few days before an election, or dire warnings about hurricanes seeking revenge for our pro-choice ways, the...

Lisa Larges recently found herself the latest person caught in the untenable Catch-22 of too many churches: How can openly lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people demonstrate their commitment to their chosen path - and be a positive example to parishioners who need them - when their own denomination labels...

During his campaign for the White House, President Obama was often fond of reminding Americans that "change doesn't come from Washington; it comes to Washington." Significant change, he told the country, doesn't usually originate in the halls of Congress, but rises up from the heartland of America, when voters demand...

It may be the latest sign of the growing divide between North and South, so to speak. Or, to find a more optimistic silver lining, a hopeful sign of things to come here at home.

Earlier this morning, the government of Argentina, an increasingly welcoming South American country when it...

If any two people can truly know each other's hearts, Caitlin Ryan and Mary Griffith surely do.

Griffith, a California mother who raised her son Bobby in a devoutly religious household, became a most unlikely crusader for gay rights after Bobby committed suicide in the 1980s. After praying for...

In Gus Van Sant's film Milk, Sean Penn, portraying the slain San Francisco Supervisor, asks a young Cleve Jones (played by Emile Hirsch in the film) what it was like being a young, gay man attending high school in red state Arizona.

"Did the jocks beat you up?"

"I...

It could have been a political earthquake that, in the end, was more of a subtle shift on the ground.

Yesterday afternoon, CNN's Situation Room began promoting an interview with General Colin Powell that promised the "strongest statement yet" from the retired Chairman of the Joint Chiefs about "Don't...

The federal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" law that prohibits lesbian, gay and bisexual Americans from serving openly in the armed forces has suffered another setback. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals refused, on Thursday, to reconsider a recent court decision calling the constitutionality of the law into question. Falling...

Whenever an American is missing abroad, the news cycle can sometimes seem overwhelming. The most notable case, of course, is that of Natalee Holloway, a young American woman who went missing in Aruba, and the search for whom saturated the U.S. and international media for months on end. From profiles...

General Colin Powell, once considered a prime GOP candidate for the presidency, has endorsed Democratic Senator Barack Obama in the 2008 race for the White House. Saying that he felt his party had moved too far to the right, and citing the appointment of far right Supreme Court justices...

Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) has learned that The Center for Military Readiness, a right-wing activist group based in Michigan, has invited leaders of prominent veterans services organizations to a Washington, D.C. briefing on Thursday that the organization has tried to keep secret. The...

As California voters get ready to weigh in, on November 4, on Proposition 8, some unlikely heroes are rising up in the Golden State and speaking out against this outrageous attempt to roll back marriage equality for same-sex couples. All across California, straight allies - and parents, in particular -...

Earlier this year, Senators John Kerry (D-MA) and Gordon Smith (R-OR), along with Congresswoman Barbara Lee of California, led a successful and historic effort in Congress to finally do away with the antiquated and unnecessary HIV-travel ban. The ban, which prevents HIV+ travelers and immigrants from entering the United...

Anyone who read the headlines this week about Senator Barack Obama's support for ending the federal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" ban on lesbian, gay and bisexual troops may have come away with an (inaccurate) impression that the Democratic presidential candidate has punted the ball back to the armed forces when...