Today, Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders (GLAD) filed the first concerted, multi-plaintiff legal challenge to Section 3 of the 1996 federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). GLAD is representing a group of LGBT plaintiffs who have been harmed by the federal refusal to recognize their marital rig...

Earlier today, Rep. Ellen Tauscher (D-CA) proposed repealing the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, which prohibits gay men and women from serving openly. Speaking at the Center for American Progress Action Fund, Tauscher said that “there is one last, final ba...

In his speech before a joint session of Congress tonight, President Obama took a jab at Bush’s disastrous economic policies: [W]e have lived through an era where too often, short-term gains were prized over long-term prosperity; where we failed to look beyond the next payment, the next quarter...

This morning, President Obama addressed members of the National Governors Association, focusing his remarks on the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. During the speech, Obama specifically took aim at the GOP governors who have said that they will reject some of the package’s funding, hint...

“The delusion of power also appears to provide an escape for middle-class Negroes from the world of reality which pierces through the world of make-believe of the black bourgeoisie. The positions of power which they occupy in the Negro world often enable them to act autocratically towards other Ne...

At tonight’s White House press conference, NPR’s Mara Liasson asked President Obama what lessons he has learned through the process of negotiating with Republicans over the economic recovery package. Obama explained there’s a lot of people who “sort of want to test the limits...

Today on MSNBC, the Morning Joe team — many of whom have been having a tough time with the facts of the economic recovery plan — hosted Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman to discuss the bill. Krugman began by emphasizing the severity of the current economic crisis. “This is...

A master strategist and tireless activist, Bayard Rustin is best remembered as the organizer of the 1963 March on Washington, one of the largest nonviolent protests ever held in the United States. He brought Gandhi’s protest techniques to the American civil rights movement, and helped mold Martin ...

In October 2006, Leslie Hagen, who was working as the liaison between the Justice Department and the U.S. attorneys’ committee on Native American issues, was informed that despite her “outstanding” job performance reviews, her contract would not be renewed. In April 2008, NPR repor...

The group GetToKnowUsFirst.org has been running 30-second public service announcements around the state of California to get the word out about marriage equality in the wake of the passage of Prop. 8. The ads typically feature a gay or lesbian couple and their children, emphasizing the commonalities...