strongandequal.com

Congratulations to Amanda Simpson for being the first ever Presidentially appointed transgendered individual to work for the White House. Is this just a carrot being waved in the communities faces?

First of all, it should not matter what you are, as long as you are good at what you do.  Obama is desperate for gay support, however he has yet to do much to help legalize gay marriage and rights. It makes no sense to me.

I still am so proud of Simpson, for following her lifes path and standing in the way of adversity (which shouldn’t even exist in the first place…oh, a wish for a perfect world). Here is what she had to say…

“I’m truly honored to have received this appointment and am eager and excited about this opportunity that is before me,” Simpson said in a statement released by the National Center for Transgender Equality. “And at the same time, as one of the first transgender presidential appointees to the federal government, I hope that I will soon be one of hundreds, and that this appointment opens future opportunities for many others.”

Source: Jezebel via CNN

The first gay couple to marry in Malawi face a humiliating medical examination aimed at proving they have had sexual relations, it emerged today.

Tiwonge Chimbalanga and Steven Monjeza could be sentenced to 14 years in prison if found guilty of “unnatural practices between males”.

Gay rights campaigners reacted angrily to the men’s treatment and warned that a renewed trend of homophobia was sweeping Africa.

Chimbalanga, 20, and 26-year-old Monjeza made history when they committed to marriage at a symbolic ceremony last weekend – the first same-sex couple to do so in the southern African state, in which homosexual acts are illegal.

Two days later, they were arrested at their home. Chimbalanga, wearing a women’s blouse, and Monjeza appeared in court in the city of Blantyre to answer three charges of unnatural practices between males and gross indecency.  Read more………

www.ontopmag.com Reports:

Unlike the House version of a health care reform bill, a Senate version approved by lawmakers on Christmas Eve does not recognize gay unions. Senators approved the bill on a narrow 60 to 40 vote.

Lawmakers in each house have approved vastly different bills, but both would subsidize moderate-income people who otherwise could not afford quality health insurance. Those differences will need to be ironed out in a conference committee.

One deviation between the bills is the way gay families are recognized.

The House version approved in November includes Representative Jim McDermott’s Tax Equity for Health Plan Beneficiaries Act of 2009, which alters the tax status of health benefits granted to the spouses of gay employees. Under the bill, such benefits would no longer be considered taxable income for the employee. McDermott, a Democrat from Washington, introduced the bill along with Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a ranking Republican in the House Foreign Affairs Committee, in May.

McDermott told the New York Times that the bill would “correct a longstanding injustice, end a blatant inequity in the tax code and help make health care coverage more affordable for more Americans.” Read more…….