Salon.com > Gay Rights http://www.salon.com Tue, 02 Jul 2013 19:01:38 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 Bizarre gay pride photobomb makes it to front page of local paper http://www.salon.com/2013/07/02/bizarre_gay_pride_photobomb_makes_it_to_front_page_of_local_paper/ http://www.salon.com/2013/07/02/bizarre_gay_pride_photobomb_makes_it_to_front_page_of_local_paper/#comments Tue, 02 Jul 2013 17:02:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13349680 Gay pride revelers around the country had two major Supreme Court victories to add a little extra oomph to their weekend festivities, with many people coming out to local events with signs celebrating the death of the Defense of Marriage Act and the reversal of California's Proposition 8.

Delaware's News Journal captured one such moment, when, on Monday, state Sen. Karen Peterson and Vikki Bandy became the first same-sex couple to be married in Delaware.

Except the photo features one apparent interloper.

Among a group of people holding poster boards donned with messages like "I love my 2 moms," stands a smiling man holding a pink sign declaring "I'm here for the gang bang."

It's hard to say what motivated the photobomb. Was the sign-holder part of the small anti-gay rights contingent protesting outside of the courthouse? Did he use Apple Maps to get directions to a group sex rally and simply wind up in the wrong place? Is he a clueless young guy trying to insert petty homophobia into an otherwise happy event?

Significantly, no one in the photo seems to much notice him or care that he's there. They're too busy celebrating to be bothered by one man's stupidity.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/07/02/bizarre_gay_pride_photobomb_makes_it_to_front_page_of_local_paper/feed/ 18 BET apologizes to blogger for asking him to tone down feminine look http://www.salon.com/2013/07/02/bet_apologizes_to_blogger_for_asking_him_to_tone_down_feminine_look/ http://www.salon.com/2013/07/02/bet_apologizes_to_blogger_for_asking_him_to_tone_down_feminine_look/#comments Tue, 02 Jul 2013 13:33:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13349538 BET has issued a formal apology to openly gay fashion blogger B. Scott for asking him to adjust his feminine appearance when interviewing celebrities at the BET pre-awards show, reports the AP.

On his blog, Scott wrote that "I was literally yanked backstage and told that my look from head to toe 'wasn’t acceptable'":

It’s not just about the fact that BET forced me to pull my hair back, asked me to take off my makeup, made me changed my clothes and prevented me from wearing a heel. It’s more so that from the mentality and environment created by BET made me feel less than and that something was wrong with who I am as a person.

In a statement released to the AP, BET has apologized:

"BET Networks embraces global diversity in all its forms and seeks to maintain an inclusive workforce and a culture that values all perspectives and backgrounds," the statement read. "The incident with B. Scott was a singular one with a series of unfortunate miscommunications from both parties. We regret any unintentional offense to B. Scott and anyone within the LGBT community and we seek to continue embracing all gender expressions."

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/07/02/bet_apologizes_to_blogger_for_asking_him_to_tone_down_feminine_look/feed/ 8 DOMA isn’t dead yet http://www.salon.com/2013/06/30/doma_sort_of_died_but_my_political_pessimism_didnt_partner/ http://www.salon.com/2013/06/30/doma_sort_of_died_but_my_political_pessimism_didnt_partner/#comments Sun, 30 Jun 2013 15:00:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13340209 The WeeklingsHEADLINES AND FACEBOOK statuses have been declaring “DOMA is dead!” and other such hyperbole since Wednesday’s two U.S. Supreme Court rulings on marriage equality. Naturally, the LGBT community was overjoyed at the news with a rally outside The Stonewall Inn bringing gays and politicos together. An historic moment in LGBT rights warrants some celebration, even if the decisions are less than what gays hoped and less than the Supreme Court decision in Loving v. Virginia, the case most resembling the Prop 8 battle.

I went to the rally, camera in hand, expecting to see the joyous faces of those who had been so worried while the SCOTUS decisions were being awaited. What I saw and heard was not a photo op: men and women, cautiously joyful, wandering through occasional bursts of enthusiasm. There was introspection, wonder, maybe even shell-shock. I went to the rally with a need for solidarity, feeling relief more than anything but the mood at the New York “victory” rally was like the tenuous ripples of a child stepping into a still lake. The water feels good, but what lies beneath? Was it trepidation or the cynicism often attributed to New Yorkers? Realism or pessimism?

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/06/30/doma_sort_of_died_but_my_political_pessimism_didnt_partner/feed/ 13 Russian police arrest gay rights activists under new “gay propaganda” law http://www.salon.com/2013/06/29/russian_police_arrest_gay_rights_activists_under_new_gay_propaganda_law_ap/ http://www.salon.com/2013/06/29/russian_police_arrest_gay_rights_activists_under_new_gay_propaganda_law_ap/#comments Sat, 29 Jun 2013 16:13:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13346216 MOSCOW (AP) — Russian police have arrested several gay rights activists and Russian nationalists who confronted them at a rally declared illegal under a new law against "gay propaganda."

Officials in St. Petersburg deemed that Saturday's rally, which took place in a space designated for public demonstrations, violated the law.

The statute prohibits public displays of homosexuality.

About 200 nationalists also gathered at the rally, chanted slogans such as "Sodomy will not pass," and threw eggs and rocks at the gay-rights activists, who numbered about 40.

The state-run Itar-TASS news agency quoted an unnamed police official as saying police arrested dozens of people, including eight nationalists.

Russia's parliament passed a law banning "gay propaganda" earlier this month. St. Petersburg was one of several cities to pass similar laws at local level before that.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/06/29/russian_police_arrest_gay_rights_activists_under_new_gay_propaganda_law_ap/feed/ 16 Gay marriage is back in California http://www.salon.com/2013/06/29/gay_marriage_is_back_in_california_ap/ http://www.salon.com/2013/06/29/gay_marriage_is_back_in_california_ap/#comments Sat, 29 Jun 2013 12:55:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13346133 SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Same-sex marriages that were outlawed in California 4 1/2 years ago resumed in a rush after a federal appeals court took the "unusual, but not unprecedented," step of freeing couples to obtain marriage licenses, before the U.S. Supreme Court had issued its final judgment in a challenge of the state's voter-approved gay marriage ban.

Within hours of the appeals court's action Friday, the four plaintiffs who in 2009 sued to overturn the ban had exchanged vows during hastily arranged ceremonies that drew crowds of well-wishers as the news spread that the weddings were back on.

"I was at work," lead plaintiff Kristen Perry said, adding that she rushed home to Berkeley to change into a gray suit so she could marry her now-wife Sandra Stier at San Francisco City Hall.

California Attorney General Kamala Harris declared Perry and Stier "spouses for life" as hundreds of supporters looked on and cheered from the balconies ringing the couple's perch under City Hall's rotunda. The other couple in the Supreme Court case, Paul Katami and Jeff Zarrillo, was married at Los Angeles City Hall 90 minutes later wearing matching white rose boutonnières and with Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa presiding.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/06/29/gay_marriage_is_back_in_california_ap/feed/ 3 Bill banning gay “conversion therapy” sent to Chris Christie http://www.salon.com/2013/06/28/bill_banning_gay_conversion_therapy_sent_to_chris_christie/ http://www.salon.com/2013/06/28/bill_banning_gay_conversion_therapy_sent_to_chris_christie/#comments Fri, 28 Jun 2013 20:20:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13340259 A New Jersey bill that would ban therapists from providing gay "conversion therapy" to minors has passed out of both chambers of the state legislature, and will now head to Gov. Chris Christie's desk for signing.

The Star-Ledger reports:

The Senate approved the bill (A3371), 28-9; the Assembly passed it Monday. It now heads to the governor's desk for consideration.

Gov. Chris Christie has publicly stated his opposition to conversion therapy, so supporters are hopeful he will sign it into law. Opponents say the bill violates the rights of parents to make decisions for their children.

If Christie signs the bill into law, New Jersey will become the second state to ban the practice, after California.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/06/28/bill_banning_gay_conversion_therapy_sent_to_chris_christie/feed/ 2 Family Research Council delights gays http://www.salon.com/2013/06/28/what_is_the_family_research_council_telling_us/ http://www.salon.com/2013/06/28/what_is_the_family_research_council_telling_us/#comments Fri, 28 Jun 2013 14:55:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13339768 The Southern Poverty Law Center considers the Family Research Council a hate group for its venomous homophobia. But after the Supreme Court struck down the Defense of Marriage Act and California's Proposition 8, the Council has initiated a prayer campaign that just might be intended to thaw relations with the LGBT community.

The campaign, which is now all over the LGBT blogosphere, encourages the faithful to get "on our knees for America" and the logo, as AmericaBlog puts it "appears to be a man performing oral sex."

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/06/28/what_is_the_family_research_council_telling_us/feed/ 28 Obama, African leaders clash on gay rights http://www.salon.com/2013/06/27/obama_african_leaders_clash_on_gay_rights_ap/ http://www.salon.com/2013/06/27/obama_african_leaders_clash_on_gay_rights_ap/#comments Thu, 27 Jun 2013 20:48:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13339233 DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — Laying bare a clash of cultures, President Barack Obama on Thursday urged African leaders to extend equal rights to gays and lesbians but was bluntly rebuked by Senegal's president, who said his country "still isn't ready" to decriminalize homosexuality.

Obama opened his weeklong trip to Africa one day after the U.S. Supreme Court expanded federal benefits for married gay couples. In his first in-person comments on the ruling, Obama said the court's decision marked a "proud day for America." He pressed for similar recognition for gays in Africa, wading into a sensitive area in a region where dozens of countries outlaw homosexuality and a few punish violations with death.

"When it comes to how the state treats people, how the law treats people, I believe that everybody has to be treated equally," Obama said during a news conference with Senegalese President Macky Sall at the grand presidential palace in Dakar.

But Sall gave no ground. Senegal is "very tolerant," he assured Obama, but is "still not ready to decriminalize homosexuality." Sall said countries make decisions on complex issues in their own time, noting that Senegal has outlawed capital punishment while other countries have not — a pointed jab at the U.S., where the death penalty is legal in many states.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/06/27/obama_african_leaders_clash_on_gay_rights_ap/feed/ 5 Alex Jones: Gay marriage truther? http://www.salon.com/2013/06/27/that_time_alex_jones_said_the_government_is_turning_people_gay/ http://www.salon.com/2013/06/27/that_time_alex_jones_said_the_government_is_turning_people_gay/#comments Thu, 27 Jun 2013 16:35:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13338728 Long before the Supreme Court overturned the Defense of Marriage Act, conspiracy broadcaster Alex Jones was warning his viewers that the government was turning people gay by putting chemicals in their juice boxes, water bottles and potato chip bags that feminized men.

"The reason there are so many gay people now is because it's a chemical warfare operation," Jones said in a June 2010 clip that has gained renewed attention since the DOMA ruling. "I have the government documents where they said they're going to encourage homosexuality with chemicals so people don't have children."

Cutting open a juice box to reveal the nefarious plastic lining laced with "estrogen mimickers," Jones continued, "After you're done drinking your little juices, you're ready to go out and have a baby. You're ready to put makeup on, you're ready to wear a short skirt." While there is some research that suggests plastics leach hormone-like chemicals, there's no evidence that they're harmful to one's health or that the government is involved in a secret plot to turn the country gay.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/06/27/that_time_alex_jones_said_the_government_is_turning_people_gay/feed/ 88 Putin: Law restricting gay rights in Russia is about “protecting children” http://www.salon.com/2013/06/27/putin_law_restricting_gay_rights_in_russia_is_about_protecting_children/ http://www.salon.com/2013/06/27/putin_law_restricting_gay_rights_in_russia_is_about_protecting_children/#comments Thu, 27 Jun 2013 16:26:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13338818 Russian President Vladimir Putin defended a proposed ban to place severe restrictions on the rights of gays and lesbians this week, saying that the measure to limit the speech and free assembly of LGBT individuals in Russia is about "protecting children."

The "gay propaganda" ban would impose fines of up to 100,000 roubles (more than $3,000) on individuals found guilty of "promoting non-traditional relations to minors," a provision that is so broadly defined that it effectively turns being gay and out in Russia into a serious legal liability. (To say nothing of jeopardizing the safety of gays and lesbians in the country.)

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/06/27/putin_law_restricting_gay_rights_in_russia_is_about_protecting_children/feed/ 18 From Stonewall to the death of DOMA: A look back at gay rights in the U.S. http://www.salon.com/2013/06/27/from_stonewall_to_the_death_of_doma_a_look_back_at_gay_rights_in_the_u_s/ http://www.salon.com/2013/06/27/from_stonewall_to_the_death_of_doma_a_look_back_at_gay_rights_in_the_u_s/#comments Thu, 27 Jun 2013 13:14:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13338705 WASHINGTON (AP) — From Stonewall in New York in 1969 to the marble walls of the Supreme Court, the push to advance gay rights has moved forward, often glacially but recently at a quickening pace. A look at episodes in the modern history of that movement and how attitudes have changed along the way in the larger culture:

FLASH BACK

Fifty years ago, gay sex was a crime in almost every state, homosexuality was designated a mental disorder, federal workers could easily lose their jobs for being gay and only the outliers were out of the closet, a risky if not dangerous place to be.

FLASH FORWARD

Gay marriage is legal in a dozen states and the District of Columbia, and could soon be again in California after the court's ruling Wednesday.

Gays can serve openly in the armed forces and do so in high office, including Congress. Eight people who have served as a U.S. ambassador or been nominated for that post are openly gay. Openly gay entertainers are commonplace, athletes less so.

It can still be dangerous to be out of the closet, which is why Congress expanded federal hate-crimes legislation in 2009 to cover crimes motivated by bias against gays, lesbians and transgender people. The law is named after Matthew Shepard, a gay college student tied to a fence, beaten and left to die in a 1998 case that sparked hate-crimes laws around the country.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/06/27/from_stonewall_to_the_death_of_doma_a_look_back_at_gay_rights_in_the_u_s/feed/ 0 “I’m So Excited!”: An air disaster, made fabulous http://www.salon.com/2013/06/26/im_so_excited_an_air_disaster_made_fabulous/ http://www.salon.com/2013/06/26/im_so_excited_an_air_disaster_made_fabulous/#comments Wed, 26 Jun 2013 19:53:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13338023 There’s close to zero explicit political content in Pedro Almodóvar’s “I’m So Excited!”, but in its own way the veteran Spanish filmmaker’s latest work is the perfect way to celebrate a landmark week for the cause of freedom and equality. A romantic and erotic fantasy largely set among the passengers and crew of a possibly doomed airplane (the Spanish title is simply “Los amantes pasajeros”), “I’m So Excited!” deliberately recalls the exuberant and outrageous cinema that first put Almodóvar, and the hedonistic cultural scene of post-Franco Spain, on the global map in the early ‘80s.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/06/26/im_so_excited_an_air_disaster_made_fabulous/feed/ 2 Louie Gohmert on DOMA: SCOTUS has defied “laws of nature and nature’s God” http://www.salon.com/2013/06/26/louie_gohmert_on_doma_scotus_has_defied_laws_of_nature_and_natures_god/ http://www.salon.com/2013/06/26/louie_gohmert_on_doma_scotus_has_defied_laws_of_nature_and_natures_god/#comments Wed, 26 Jun 2013 19:46:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13338067 Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, was unusually restrained (well, restrained for Gohmert) during a Wednesday press conference on the Supreme Court decisions on the Defense of Marriage Act and Proposition 8.

Gohmert steered clear of his old standbys of anti-gay rights panic while talking to the press, instead saying, rather somberly, that gay marriage in the United States signals the "end of a great civilization" and scolding the high court for going against "the laws of nature and nature's God."

Embedding on the video has been disabled, but you can watch the full thing here.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/06/26/louie_gohmert_on_doma_scotus_has_defied_laws_of_nature_and_natures_god/feed/ 21 Rush is unhappy with the Supreme Court http://www.salon.com/2013/06/26/rush_is_unhappy_with_the_supreme_court/ http://www.salon.com/2013/06/26/rush_is_unhappy_with_the_supreme_court/#comments Wed, 26 Jun 2013 18:24:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13337983 Talk radio host Rush Limbaugh is amazed by how out of touch he is with the Supreme Court's decisions on gay marriage:

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/06/26/rush_is_unhappy_with_the_supreme_court/feed/ 30 Marriage equality fight continues in New Jersey, advocates say http://www.salon.com/2013/06/26/marriage_equality_fight_continues_in_new_jersey_advocates_say/ http://www.salon.com/2013/06/26/marriage_equality_fight_continues_in_new_jersey_advocates_say/#comments Wed, 26 Jun 2013 18:05:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13337913 New Jersey Assemblyman Reed Gusciora celebrated Wednesday decisions from the U.S. Supreme Court on the Defense of Marriage Act and California's Proposition 8 by urging his colleagues in the legislature to make equal marriage a reality in his home state:

"Now that DOMA has been declared invalid by the U.S. Supreme Court, New Jersey should no longer discriminate by upholding civil unions and instead, grant full marriage which is now confirmed by our federal government," Gusciora told the Express-Times.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/06/26/marriage_equality_fight_continues_in_new_jersey_advocates_say/feed/ 3 Anthony Kennedy: “The first gay justice” http://www.salon.com/2013/06/26/anthony_kennedy_the_first_gay_justice/ http://www.salon.com/2013/06/26/anthony_kennedy_the_first_gay_justice/#comments Wed, 26 Jun 2013 17:39:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13337542 Justice Anthony Kennedy has long relished his role as the swing vote on the Supreme Court -- and perhaps no more so than today, when, with his decision to make a 5-4 majority to strike down the Defense of Marriage Act, he single-handedy helped extend legal and economic benefits to millions of Americans, change the course of American history and crystallize his legacy in the pantheon of civil rights agents.

“If Bill Clinton was ‘the first black president,’ Anthony Kennedy has now firmly secured his place in history as ‘the first gay justice,'" said former Kennedy clerk Michael Dorf, who now teaches law at Cornell.

Kennedy has often confounded liberals and conservatives alike with his unpredictable decision-making. "On most cases of great moment, the intellectual battlefield of the Supreme Court has shrunk to the space between this one man's ears," Time magazine's Massimo Calabresi and David Von Drehle wrote in their 2010 profile of the justice.

But on gay rights, Kennedy is atypically consistent. "As the author of Romer v. Evans, Lawrence v. Texas and now United States v. Windsor, Justice Kennedy makes clear that he not only accepts, but welcomes the task of writing majestic opinions affirming the dignity of gay persons and couples," Dorf added.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/06/26/anthony_kennedy_the_first_gay_justice/feed/ 30 America rejoices over gay marriage win http://www.salon.com/2013/06/26/america_rejoices_gay_marriage_win/ http://www.salon.com/2013/06/26/america_rejoices_gay_marriage_win/#comments Wed, 26 Jun 2013 16:15:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13337464 San Francisco's City Hall is lit up with gay pride. The crowd outside the Supreme Court chants "DOMA is dead!" Storefronts across the nation are decorated with messages of marriage equality.

This morning, Americans are celebrating the SCOTUS ruling against the Defense of Marriage Act, a huge win for marriage equality.

[slide_show id=13337443]

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/06/26/america_rejoices_gay_marriage_win/feed/ 10 Late June has a deep pro-LGBT history http://www.salon.com/2013/06/26/the_supreme_courts_auspicious_timing/ http://www.salon.com/2013/06/26/the_supreme_courts_auspicious_timing/#comments Wed, 26 Jun 2013 16:00:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13337453 With two landmark Supreme Court rulings, today's date will undoubtedly be added to the canonical dates of the struggle for LGBT equality, made all the more meaningful by its close proximity to the anniversary of the Stonewall riots, which gave birth to the gay rights movement in America almost exactly 44 years ago, and the Supreme Court's first major pro-equality decision 10 years ago today.

Shortly after midnight on June 28, 1969, police in New York raided the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village, arresting and harassing the gay clientele. It was like countless previous police raids on gay clubs until a series of escalating events led to open rebellion in the Village, and sparked the beginning of the gay equality movement. A year later, June 28 marked the first Gay Pride protests in a handful of major cities. To this day, most Pride rallies, including those in other countries, are still held at the end of June in honor of Stonewall, and this weekend's festivities in San Francisco, New York and other cities promise to be all the more buoyant, given the Supreme Court's rulings.

Coincidentally, today also marks the 10-year anniversary of the day the Supreme Court handed down its landmark ruling in Lawrence v. Texas, which struck down anti-sodomy laws. It was an early victory in a string of legal advances for LGBT equality, leading to today's.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/06/26/the_supreme_courts_auspicious_timing/feed/ 1 Twitter is feeling really, really good about the DOMA and Prop 8 rulings http://www.salon.com/2013/06/26/twitter_is_feeling_really_really_good_about_the_doma_and_prop_8_rulings/ http://www.salon.com/2013/06/26/twitter_is_feeling_really_really_good_about_the_doma_and_prop_8_rulings/#comments Wed, 26 Jun 2013 15:19:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13337412 The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled that the Defense of Marriage Act is unconstitutional, extending more than 1,000 federal benefits to gay married couples, paving the way to treat gay bi-national couples equally under immigration law and clearing a path for a host of other victories for same-sex couples in the United States.

The news made Twitter users feel pretty, pretty good.

A roundup:

[embedtweet id="349894675253051393"]

[embedtweet id="349890477002199041"]

[embedtweet id="349904591564972032"]

[embedtweet id="349896232514228226"]

[embedtweet id="349898590715514880"]

[embedtweet id="349893700446457856"]

[embedtweet id="349892735228067840"]

[embedtweet id="349900976964112384"]

[embedtweet id="349901791997067265"]

[embedtweet id="349900254566555651"]

 

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/06/26/twitter_is_feeling_really_really_good_about_the_doma_and_prop_8_rulings/feed/ 0 Google celebrates gay rights http://www.salon.com/2013/06/26/google_celebrates_gay_rights_win/ http://www.salon.com/2013/06/26/google_celebrates_gay_rights_win/#comments Wed, 26 Jun 2013 14:53:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13337413 Google gets behind gay rights with a fun easter egg. Search "gay," "gay rights," and related terms like "LBGT," "gay marriage," "homosexuality" and "domestic partnership," and you'll see the Google search bar light up with gay pride.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/06/26/google_celebrates_gay_rights_win/feed/ 3