The Human Rights Campaign – the nation’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) civil rights organization – today responded to the U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee markup of a Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) reauthorization bill (H.R. 4970), where three amendments to make the bill inclusive of LGBT people failed on party line votes.

A coalition of faith and humanist groups issued a letter this morning, calling on President Barack Obama to use his executive power to sign an Executive Order that would bar discrimination by federal contractors based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

Top executives, including CEOs, from some of Wall Street’s biggest banks, along with C-suite executives from other industries will meet to discuss LGBT equality at the second annual Out on the Street Leadership Summit on May 2, 2012. Bank of America Merrill Lynch will host the event at its New York headquarters. This represents the first time that so many senior executives will meet to discuss LGBT equality.

Forum For Equality Louisiana and the Human Rights Campaign are calling on Louisiana State Senator A.G. Crowe to withdraw SB 217, a discriminatory measure that would force state agencies and local governments to write discrimination into public contracts by setting limiting protected classes to just race, religion, national ancestry, age, sex, or disability.

Today, the San Diego City Planning Commission approved a proposal to rename a street after LGBT civil rights leader Harvey Milk. The proposal will now be sent to the full city council for approval. If approved, San Diego will become the first city in the nation to have a street named for the LGBT rights pioneer.

Countering popular assumptions that Hispanics are more anti-gay than other segments of society, a new report co-released today by NCLR (National Council of La Raza) and Social Science Research Solutions (SSRS) finds that Latinos are, in fact, as open and tolerant, if not more tolerant, than the general population in the U.S. toward gays and lesbians.

Mary Poppins was given the Disney Broadway treatment a few years ago and Disney is the best at Broadway.  The show opened on Broadway after a successful run in the West End and was recognized with seven Tony Award Nominations and Six Drama Desk Nominations.

The Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) civil rights organization, today released results of a poll that shows overwhelming support for an Executive Order to ban federal contractors from discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.  73 percent of 2012 likely voters favor such an order and support remains strong regardless of age, race, education, political ideology, and a number of other demographics.