Connect with us

News

Lawmakers in Australian capital approve same-sex marriage bill

Prime Minister Tony Abbott to challenge measure in court

Published

on

Gay News, Washington Blade, Australia
Gay News, Washington Blade, Australia

Lawmakers in the Australian capital on Tuesday approved a same-sex marriage bill. (Photo by Roke; courtesy Wikimedia)

Lawmakers who represent Australiaā€™s capital city on Tuesday approved a bill that would for the first time extend marriage rights to same-sex couples in the country.

Legislators in the Australian Capital Territory in which Canberra is located passed the measure by a 9-8 vote margin. The Canberra Times reported gays and lesbians from across the country would be able to marry in the territory by the end of the year.

ā€œTodayā€™s vote in the ACT is a day many Australians have waited for,ā€ Ivan Hinton, deputy director of Australian Marriage Equality, said after the vote. ā€œHistorically, the ACT has said loving and committed same-sex couples deserve and will now have the right to get married.ā€

New Zealand and 13 other countries currently allow same-sex marriage.

Gays and lesbians in England and Wales will be able to exchange vows in the spring.

Brazilā€™s National Council of Justice in May ruled registrars in the South American country cannot deny marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Lawmakers and courts in other nations that include Mexico and Colombia continue to consider the issue.

New Jersey on Monday joined 13 other U.S. states and D.C. that allow gays and lesbians to exchange vows.

The New Mexico Supreme Court on Wednesday is scheduled to hear oral arguments in a case that is expected to determine whether same-sex couples can legally marry throughout the state. Lawmakers in Illinois and Hawaii are expected to consider the issue in the coming days.

Legislators in the Australian states of Tasmania and New South Wales are expected to consider same-sex marriage bills in the coming weeks.

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported that Prime Minister Tony Abbott, who took office last month, has confirmed his administration will challenge the Australian Capital Territory’s measure to the countryā€™s High Court.

Abbottā€™s sister, Christine Forster, recently announced her engagement to her long-time partner.

Advertisement
FUND LGBTQ JOURNALISM
SIGN UP FOR E-BLAST

The White House

Karine Jean-Pierre becomes Biden’s fourth openly LGBTQ senior adviser

Press secretary’s promotion was reported on Monday

Published

on

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre (Washington Blade photo by Christopher Kane)

Following White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre’s promotion to a top role on Monday, four of the 10 officials serving as senior advisers to President Joe Biden are openly LGBTQ.

The other LGBTQ members of the president’s innermost circle are White House Communications Director Ben LaBolt, senior adviser to first lady Jill Biden Anthony Bernal, and White House Director of Political Strategy and Outreach Emmy Ruiz.

Jean-Pierre became the first Black and the first LGBTQ White House press secretary in May 2022. She spoke with the Washington Blade for an exclusive interview last spring, shortly before the two-year anniversary of her appointment to that position.

“Jill and I have known and respected Karine a long time and she will be a strong voice speaking for me and this Administration,” Biden said in 2022 when announcing her as press secretary.

Breaking the news of Jean-Pierre’s promotion on Monday, ABC noted the power and influence of the White House communications and press office, given that LaBolt was appointed in August to succeed Anita Dunn when she left her role as senior adviser to the president.

As press secretary, Jean-Pierre has consistently advocated for the LGBTQ community ā€” pushing back forcefully on anti-LGBTQ legislation and reaffirming the president and vice president’s commitments to expanding rights and protections.

Continue Reading

Israel

Sounds of war

Life in Tel Aviv goes on despite escalating conflict

Published

on

Hilton Beach in Tel Aviv, Israel, on Oct. 5, 2024. (Washington Blade photo by Michael K. Lavers)

TEL AVIV, Israel ā€” I was sound asleep at 11 p.m. (4 p.m. ET) on Monday when Tzofar, an app that notifies users of incoming rockets, started to go off. The blaring alarm woke me up. It indicated a “red alert” for “incoming (missiles and rocket fire.)”

I sat up in bed, opened the app to see whether I was under “red alert.” I was just south of it, so I did not need to seek refuge in the stairwell, which is the building’s designated safe room. Less than a minute later I heard a series of loud booms that shook the building.

Hezbollah launched five ballistic missiles from Lebanon towards an Israel Defense Forces base north of Tel Aviv. The explosions that I heard were Israel’s Iron Dome air defense system intercepting them.

The whole situation was over in less than two minutes ā€” it was the third “red alert” for “incoming (missiles and rocket fire)” that I received on my phone on Monday, which was a year since Hamas launched its surprise attack against southern Israel.

ā€˜Red alertsā€™ for ballistic missiles that Hezbollah launched from Lebanon on Oct. 7, 2024. The missiles targeted an Israel Defense Forces base north of Tel Aviv. (Washington Blade screenshot by Michael K. Lavers)

Hamas at around 11 a.m. (4 a.m. ET) launched five rockets that triggered alerts in southern Tel Aviv. Iron Dome intercepted four of them. Shrapnel from the rocket that hit the ground left two women slightly injured. I heard the interceptions in the distance. I walked onto my balcony a couple of minutes later, and saw a man hugging a young woman who was standing on her balcony across the street. She was clearly upset.

I walked to a nearby coffee shop about half an hour later, and ordered an iced coffee. I walked back to my building and started working again. I called my mother a short time later to let her know that everything was fine. I also sent several text messages to my husband and other loved ones and friends that reiterated that point.

‘Red alerts’ for incoming rockets that Hamas launched towards Tel Aviv, Israel, on Oct. 7, 2024. (Washington Blade screenshot by Michael K. Lavers)

The Houthis in Yemen launched a ballistic missile towards Israel shortly after 5:30 p.m. (10:30 a.m. ET) that the IDF intercepted. I was in Hostage Square outside the Tel Aviv Museum of Art when I heard warning messages on people’s phones. I looked at the Tzofar app, and saw Hostage Square was outside of the “red alert” area. I then logged onto two Israeli media outlets’ ā€” the Times of Israel and Haaretz ā€” websites that I have bookmarked on my phone and read the IDF had intercepted the Houthi missile.

More than a thousand people were gathered in Hostage Square less than 90 minutes later, watching an Oct. 7 memorial concert on a large screen that had been set up. The IDF Home Front Command has limited the number of people who can gather in one place in Tel Aviv because of the continued threats of rocket and missile attacks from Gaza and Lebanon.

This limit is 2,000.

Two men in Hostage Square in Tel Aviv, Israel, embrace while watching a memorial service to the victims of Oct. 7 on Oct. 8, 2024. (Washington Blade photo by Michael K. Lavers)

The sounds of war have been a constant backdrop of this trip.

I begin every day with a swim in the Mediterranean Sea at Hilton Beach, which is Tel Aviv’s gay beach. These swims help me stay somewhat sane while I am here in Israel. 

Israeli fighter jets and helicopters with missiles strapped to them regularly fly north along the coast towards Lebanon. Drones can also be heard. This scene plays out against the context of people swimming, kayaking, and paddleboarding in the water, and others walking and jogging on the nearby beach promenade.

A lifeguard station at Hilton Beach in Tel Aviv, Israel, honors the hostages that Hamas captured on Oct. 7, 2024. (Washington Blade photo by Michael K. Lavers)

The Nova Music Festival site where Hamas militants killed 360 people and took 40 others hostage on Oct. 7 is located outside of Re’im, a kibbutz that is roughly two miles from the Gaza Strip. It is about an hour and 20 minutes south of Tel Aviv.

I visited the site on Oct. 5.

Large IDF Home Front Command banners warn visitors they had 15 seconds to reach makeshift shelters ā€” large concrete barriers placed together ā€” in case of incoming rockets. 

“If you receive an alert, lie on the ground and protect your head with your hands for 10 minutes,” the banner reads.

A makeshift shelter at the Nova Music Festival site in Re’im, Israel, on Oct. 5, 2024. (Washington Blade photo by Michael K. Lavers)

There were no alerts while I was at Nova. I did, however, hear several Israeli airstrikes in Gaza.

I stopped at a roadside restaurant in Yad Mordechai, a kibbutz that is roughly three miles north of the Erez crossing between Israel and Gaza, after I left Nova. I had a sandwich for lunch and ordered an ice coffee for the drive back to Tel Aviv. I was walking to my car and I heard two distant Israeli airstrikes in Gaza. The second one shook the ground beneath my feet.

I was back in Tel Aviv less than an hour later. It was the last day of Rosh Hashanah, and Shabbat. Hilton Beach, where I had taken my morning swim earlier in the day, was packed.

Life, at least for Israelis who live in Tel Aviv, goes on amid the sounds of war.

(washington blade video by michael k. lavers)

Continue Reading

Politics

Trump, GOP candidates spend $65 million on anti-trans ads

The strategy was unsuccessful for the GOP in key 2022, 2023 races

Published

on

Donald Trump at the 2024 Republican National Convention (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

With just four weeks until Election Day, Donald Trump and Republican candidates in key down-ballot races have spent more than $65 million on anti-trans television ads since the start of August, The New York Times reported on Tuesday.

The move signals that Republicans believe attacking the vice president and other Democratic candidates over their support for trans rights will be an effective strategy along with exploiting their opponents’ perceived weaknesses on issues of immigration and inflation.

However, as Human Rights Campaign President Kelley Robinson told the Times, conservatives had tried using the transgender community as a cudgel to attack Democrats during the 2022 midterms and in the off-year elections in 2023. In most cases, they were unsuccessful.

The GOP’s decision to, nevertheless, revive anti-trans messaging in this election cycle “shows that Republicans are desperate right now,ā€ she said. “Instead of articulating how theyā€™re going to make the economy better or our schools safer, theyā€™re focused on sowing fear and chaos.ā€

The Times said most Republican ads focus on issues where they believe their opponents are out of step with the views held by most Americans ā€” for example, on access to taxpayer funded transition-related healthcare interventions for minors and incarcerated people.

At the same time, there is hardly a clear distinction between ads focusing on divisive policy disagreements and those designed to foment and exploit rank anti-trans bigotry.

For example, the Trump campaign’s most-aired ad about Harris in recent weeks targets her support for providing gender affirming care to inmates (per an interview in 2019, when she was attorney general of California, and a questionnaire from the ACLU that she completed in 2020 when running for president).

The ad “plays on anti-trans prejudices, inviting viewers to recoil from images of Ms. Harris alongside those of people who plainly do not conform to traditional gender norms, to try to portray Ms. Harris herself as out of the ordinary,” the Times wrote in an article last month analyzing the 30-second spot, which had run on television stations in Arizona, Georgia, North Carolina and Wisconsin.

Continue Reading
Advertisement
Advertisement

Sign Up for Weekly E-Blast

Follow Us @washblade

Advertisement

Popular