Gay Rights

Tolerance Wave? Multiple Polls In Red and Purple States Show Support For Gay Rights

Kyle Leighton | August 23, 2011, 6:25AM

Pro Same-Sex Marriage Parade, Maplewood, NJ

As gay rights advocates have made gains over the last few years, the public seems to be moving in the same direction. Friday saw the release of a new poll sponsored by the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) and Citizens for Equal Protection showing citizens deep in the middle of conservative America - in Nebraska - are solidly for non-discrimination protections for members of the gay, lesbian bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community, even if the current state laws are not. 73 percent of Nebraskans surveyed support protecting LGBT people from discrimination in employment, protections which currently don't exist there.

The survey comes as Public Policy Polling (D) has been polling a diversity of states on the question of gay marriage and civil unions. Those polls have shown that some version of recognition for same sex couples is popular: even in the most Republican state in the union, Utah, 60 percent supported either gay marriage or civil unions, a trend also reflected in a separate HRC polling of the state.

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New York

So You've Passed Gay Marriage In New York -- Now What?

Jillian Rayfield | June 29, 2011, 5:50AM

Gay rights supporters in New York are riding high after the success of the marriage equality law, and are optimistically talking up efforts to advance gay rights in other states. But it might not be so easy.

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Andrew Cuomo

Behind Scenes, NY Advocacy Groups Fight For Same-Sex Marriage

Michael R. Corjulo | June 17, 2011, 1:37PM

The fate of a much-anticipated bill legalizing same-sex marriage in New York remains uncertain, with the state Senate having yet to act on the measure as of early Friday afternoon.

No matter the result, a vote will mark the end of months of political positioning by Governor Andrew Cuomo (D) and legislative leaders, who have been working to secure enough support to pass the legislation.

The marriage-equality bill has considerably more momentum on its side than it did in 2009, when it passed the Assembly but fell in the Senate by a vote of 38 to 24.

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MN-GOV

Human Rights Campaign Slams Target And Best Buy For Supporting Anti-Gay Tom Emmer

Eric Kleefeld | August 2, 2010, 10:13AM

The political fallout from the post-Citizens United spending by Target and other Minnesota companies on the state's gubernatorial race continues, with gay-rights activists attacking business interests for supporting the anti-gay Republican Tom Emmer.

As we noted last week, Target's donation of $150,000 to MN Forward, a business group supporting Emmer, has been causing a backlash among gay rights activists in the state, due to Emmer's support for a proposed state constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage, and his close associations with the religious right.

Target and other companies supporting MN Forward and Emmer have made it clear that their support is based on Emmer's position on economic issues, and that the companies remain committed to their own pro-LGBT business policies. Still, that hasn't stopped pro-gay rights Minnesotans from boycotting Target and returning already purchased goods.

Now the Human Rights Campaign has entered the fray, taking out a full-page ad in the Star Tribune -- directed at both Target and Best Buy, which contributed another $100,000 to MN Forward, and signaling that the companies' support for Emmer could be a "horribly short-sighted business decision." See the ad here.

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