Massachusetts

The Oregon chapter of Know Thy Neighbor announced plans to publicize the name of everyone who signs referendum petitions to overturn two gay-rights bills passed by the Legislature this year.

A Massachusetts man faces a court trial over a dispute involving the teaching of different types of families in his chid's school.

On April 27, 2005, David Parker, then a father of a kindergarten student, met with school officials at a Lexington elementary school. His child had described to him a classroom lesson in which the teacher read from a book about different types of families.

The Massachusetts Department of Public Health, mailed a notice to all city and town clerks authorizing them to allow same-sex couples from New Mexico to apply for marriage licenses in Massachusetts. Couples from New Mexico have been traveling to Canada and other countries to marry for some time because New Mexico law does not explicitly ban same-sex marriage.

Society will (slowly) realize gays and lesbians are more similar to straight people than not. But only after we live next to them, out of the shadows and in our front yards, sometimes with kids. As a result of our collective "coming out" so far, opinion polls show growing acceptance of gay rights. An editorial in The Washington Post helps vindicate our position.

Although President Bush maintains a conservative-Republican presence on every issue, Democrats now control both houses of Congress. They won majorities in 10 new state legislatures, and control a majority of America’s governorships.

Is homosexuality still viewed as a sin? A recent Gallup Poll found Americans nearly evenly split between those who saw homosexual relations as "morally acceptable" (47 percent) and those who saw them as "morally wrong" (49 percent).

According to polls, our community is gaining friends.

Family Pride is expanding its base of operations to Massachusetts.

The group will open a new office in Boston July 2, 2007 and its national policy work will continue in its D.C. office.