All week the ACLU of Puerto Rico has been closely following the brutal murder of 19 year-old gay man Jorge Steven Lopez Mercado. After learning the details of what happened to Mercado, the affiliate is now urging commonwealth prosecutors to investigate the murder as a hate crime.

I’m not going to try to spin it: Our loss in Maine yesterday, where voters rejected a law that would have given same-sex couples the right to marry, was deeply disappointing and discouraging. All of us here at the LGBT Project started yesterday hopeful and were further encouraged by reports that turnout was well above what was expected. But as the early returns showing No on 1 with a slight lead turned into a 30,000 vote lead for the Yes side, I had to concede that we’d lost (though I did keep hitting refresh on the Bangor Daily News results page until the wee hours of morning).

Now I’m here, dejected, eating consolation donuts provided to us by our friends in the Reproductive Freedom Project and wondering when and where we will finally get that first victory for marriage at the ballot box. But part of me can’t help but be excited about the many victories we had yesterday, in races big and small, that prove we’re making progress toward LGBT equality.

Diane and Marge live in Spokane, Washington in a home with two dogs and a lovely garden. They have been together for thirty years and raised two children together. When their son was five, he fell off his bike and injured his hand. Marge rushed him to the hospital, but because he was Diane’s biological son and they lacked legal recognition of their partnership, the doctors refused to treat him until Diane could get off work.

To illustrate why Congress must pass the Employment Non Discrimination Act (ENDA), a federal law that would ban discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people in the workplace, we will be posting the firsthand accounts of people from across the nation who have been fired, refused a job, or harassed in the workplace because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. This summer the ACLU put out a call for stories, and these are just a fraction of stories we received.

Earlier this week, the House Education and Labor Committee held a hearing on the recently introduced Employment Non-Discrimination Act (H.R. 3017). This legislation, which now has the bipartisan support of 178 members of the House of Representatives, would prohibit employment discrimination against people based on their sexual orientation (which remains legal in 29 states) and gender identity (which remains legal in 38 states). This patchwork quilt of protections simply will not suffice when it comes to protecting peoples’ basic civil rights. There is a clear and compelling need for a federal ENDA.

The Employment Non-Discrimination Act is coming, but we need your help to make sure that state and local government employees are covered...

The American Psychological Association's recent report on so-called "ex-gay" ministries and how it impacts gay Christians

When five men were kicked out of a Chico's Restaurant in El Paso because two of them kissed, they asked the police for help.  Help was not what they got...

40 years after the birth of the gay rights movement, YOU can make a difference in stopping discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans.  Take action TODAY!