HRC

San Antonio, TX and its largest utilities - the city's Water System and CPS Energy - may extend benefits to domestic partners of employees. Mayor Julián Castro said the benefits will help the city as a governmental entity and as a community. “For the city as an employer, it means we can be more competitive for great talent,” Castro said. “For the San Antonio community, it means there are no second-class citizens.

President Bush signed the Worker, Retiree and Employer Recovery Act of 2008 (WRERA) two days before Christmas. The new law makes it mandatory for businesses to roll over retirement benefits to a same-sex partner in the event of the employee’s death.

Previously, employers could decline and surviving same-sex partners would have to pay tax on the inheritance of the deceased partner’s retirement savings. Legally married heterosexual couples automatically avoid that tax penalty.

Nine out of ten lesbian, gay, and bisexual U.S. citizens will vote in the Democratic primaries - and 63% of them will vote for Hillary Clinton. Only twenty-one percent say that lesbian and gay rights will be the most important issue influencing their vote in 2008.

If you haven't yet, it's time to stick your big toe out of the closet. Take a deep breath - center yourself - and tell someone close to you that you're lesbian or gay.

It helped in San Diego - and NCOD is an opportunity to take that first big step.

The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) is calling for action against Leslie Southwick, current nominee for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.

In what CBS News called "a milestone" for gay rights, major Presidential Candidates appeared in a forum to provide their views of gay rights.

The candidates faced aggressive questioning on their reluctance to embrace marriage for same-sex couples.

All of the Democratic candidates support a federal ban on anti-gay job discrimination, want to repeal the "don't ask, don't tell" policy barring gays from serving openly in the military and support civil unions that would extend marriage-like rights to same-sex couples.