National Gaze

A private university's new policy requiring that employees pledge to "reject as acceptable all sexual activity not in agreement with the Bible, including, but not limited to, premarital sex, adultery and homosexuality" is drawing comparisons to loyalty pledges of the McCarthy era.

Shorter University, a Christian-based school in Rome, Ga., recently adopted a new policy requiring employees to sign a "personal lifestyle" statement.

The ballot fight ended two years ago with a victory for LGBT civil rights advocates. By a 53 percent majority, voters in Washington defeated a 2009 ballot initiative seeking to repeal the state's domestic partnership law. 

But the dispute continues over whether the public has a right to know the names of the people who put the referendum on the ballot. 

Army Capt. Stephen Hill says he wasn’t trying to score political points when he asked the Republican presidential candidates if they would reinstate the ban on gays serving openly in the U.S. military.

He wasn’t worried that his debate question, posed via a YouTube video recorded in Iraq, would generate boos or reveal his sexual orientation to millions of people, including his superiors and fellow troops.

Congressional Democrats and gay servicemembers focused on disarming the 15-year-old law that bans federal recognition of same-sex marriages and allows states to refuse to recognize marriages performed in other states.

In the federal court system, the Servicemembers Legal Defense Unit filed a lawsuit seeking equal recognition of gay and lesbian servicemembers and veterans in benefits, compensation and family support services.

Are Christian extremists trying to take over government?

In the 1940s, an argument erupted among a group of American Christians far from the mainstream.

Republican presidential candidates are joining New Hampshire’s intensifying same-sex marriage debate – whether they like it or not.

State lawmakers plan to vote on a measure to repeal the law allowing same-sex couples to wed in January, the same month that New Hampshire holds the nation’s first Republican presidential primary contest. Already, candidates have been put on the spot over marriage equality when most, if not all, would rather be talking about the economy, voters’ No. 1 concern.

A bill to overhaul the No Child Left Behind Act is bound for the U.S. Senate floor with a provision requiring school districts receiving federal funding to prohibit bullying and harassment.

Left behind in the committee room, however, was a proposal from U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., that the legislation specifically prohibit bullying and harassment based on race, color, national origin, sex, disability, sexual orientation, gender identify or religion.

Civil rights activists are demanding a criminal investigation into an allegation that a Tennessee high school principal assaulted a student for wearing a T-shirt advocating a gay-straight alliance.

The incident allegedly occurred Sept. 30 at Sequoyah High School in Tennessee’s Monroe County School District.