rich anderson

An Iowa house committee voted Monday to advance a resolution that calls for a constitutional amendment to repeal marriage equality in the state and ban other same-sex partnership recognition. house Joint Resolution 6 passed the judiciary committee 13-8 and headed to the full Republican-controlled house, where passage is expected as soon as next week. Senate majority leader Mike Gronstal has vowed to block consideration of the resolution in his chamber. House and senate passage of the measure would be required in two consecutive sessions before an amendment could be presented to voters on the ballot.

Two advertisers have dropped their campaigns from the ABC Family hit Pretty Little Liars because of the lesbian character played by Shay Mitchell. Diane Anderson-Minshall, Executive Editor of The Advocate, said she is deeply disappointed by the mounting backlash on the fan-favorite teen series. "I hope Pretty Little Liars can continue to tell LGBT teens and young adults watching that it’s okay to exist and demand to love and date and get your heart broken over whomever you want."

President Obama’s speech for his second inauguration broke new ground in inclusiveness, with the first use of the word “gay” in reference to sexual orientation and a call for LGBT equality.

Tina Fey, True Blood, Ricky Martin, and Russell Simmons took home awards from the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation Saturday night at the organization's New York awards ceremony. Scribe Tina Fey accepted the GLAAD Award for Best Individual Episode for 30 Rock for the episode in her character Liz Lemon accidentally outs her cousin. HBO's True Blood landed the award for Outstanding Drama Series for it's depicition of gay and lesbian characters, who are both human and vampire, like the human Lafayette and Evan Rachel Wood's lesbian vampire queen.

In death, Michael Jackson is proving just as enigmatic as he was alive. His death seems to have raised more questions than answers: What caused his death? Who will get custody of his children?  Would the fifty-year-old Jackson have made it through the 50 concerts of his This is It tour? For the queer community, one of the biggest questions remains, was he one of us?  Was Jackson gay?  Was he transgender?

The least lesbian Oscar nominations ever were announced this morning (caveat-‘least lesbian’ may be an exaggeration, but not by much). There was a dearth of lesbian and bisexual characters on the big screen in 2012, the likes of which have not been seen since Wings won the first Academy Award ever in 1927. Just last year Glenn Close and Janet McTeer were nominated for gender bending roles while Rooney Mara landed a nod for her incarnation of bisexual super hacker Lisbeth Salander in David Fincher’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. 2011 saw a nomination for Annette Bening for her annoying lesbian character in The Kids are All Right (but at least it was something). And in 2009 Penelope Cruz won Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal of a fiery bisexual artist in Vicki Cristina Barcelona.

Real life lesbian Heather Matarazzo talks L Word fans hating her character, realizing she was gay at the age of 11, and her new movie with Jennifer Coolidge in this awesome Advocate interview.