Rainbows Over Texas

Love Conquers All . . .

:) Love Wins... Ya'll ! ! !

To All The LGBT Soldiers & Veterans Out There. Thank You For All Your Service So That We May All Celebrate Our Freedom For Equality with Pride. We Salute You...

Celebrate Houston Gay Pride 2014 with more than a week's worth of events, parties, celebrations and activities lasting until Sunday, June 29, 2014. https://www.pridehouston.org/

The Rainbow Flag's colors reflect the diversity of the LGBT community, and make a statement that sexual orientation, like the rainbow, is both beautiful and natural. Happy LGBT Pride Month.

Happy LGBT Pride Month . . .

"When all Americans are treated as equal, no matter who they are or whom they love, we are all more free." - Barack Obama

LE***AN, GAY, BISEXUAL, AND TRANSGENDER PRIDE MONTH, 2014

BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
A PROCLAMATION

As progress spreads from State to State, as justice is delivered in the courtroom, and as more of our fellow Americans are treated with dignity and respect — our Nation becomes not only more accepting, but more equal as well. During Le***an, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) Pride Month, we celebrate victories that have affirmed freedom and fairness, and we recommit ourselves to completing the work that remains.

Last year, supporters of equality celebrated the Supreme Court’s decision to strike down a key provision of the Defense of Marriage Act, a ruling which, at long last, gave loving, committed families the respect and legal protections they deserve. In keeping with this decision, my Administration is extending family and spousal benefits — from immigration benefits to military family benefits — to legally married same-sex couples.

My Administration proudly stands alongside all those who fight for LGBT rights. Here at home, we have strengthened laws against violence toward LGBT Americans, taken action to prevent bullying and harassment, and prohibited discrimination in housing and hospitals. Despite this progress, LGBT workers in too many States can be fired just because of their sexual orientation or gender identity; I continue to call on the Congress to correct this injustice by passing the Employment Non-Discrimination Act. And in the years ahead, we will remain dedicated to addressing health disparities within the LGBT community by implementing the Affordable Care Act and the National HIV/AIDS Strategy — which focuses on improving care while decreasing HIV transmission rates among communities most at risk.

Our commitment to advancing equality for the LGBT community extends far beyond our borders. In many places around the globe, LGBT people face persecution, arrest, or even state-sponsored ex*****on. This is unacceptable. The United States calls on every nation to join us in defending the universal human rights of our LGBT brothers and sisters.

This month, as we mark 45 years since the patrons of the Stonewall Inn defied an unjust policy and awakened a nascent movement, let us honor every brave leader who stood up, sat in, and came out, as well as the allies who supported them along the way. Following their example, let each of us speak for tolerance, justice, and dignity — because if hearts and minds continue to change over time, laws will too.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim June 2014 as Le***an, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month. I call upon the people of the United States to eliminate prejudice everywhere it exists, and to celebrate the great diversity of the American people.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this thirtieth day of May, in the year of our Lord two thousand fourteen, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-eighth.

BARACK OBAMA

"Gay Rights Are Human Rights." Hillary Clinton

U.S. JUDGE STRIKES DOWN TEXAS BAN ON SAME-SEX MARRIAGE : : : A federal judge in Texas struck down the state’s ban on same-sex marriage on Wednesday, ruling that the laws restricting marriage to a man and a woman violated the United States Constitution, handing gay-rights advocates a major legal victory in one of the nation’s biggest and most conservative states.

The judge wrote that the amendment to the state Constitution that Texas voters approved in 2005 defining marriage as between a man and a woman — and two similar laws passed in 1997 and 2003 — denied gay couples the right to marry and demeaned their dignity “for no legitimate reason.”

“Without a rational relation to a legitimate governmental purpose, state-imposed inequality can find no refuge in our United States Constitution,” wrote Judge Orlando L. Garcia of United States District Court for the Western District of Texas, in San Antonio.

The ruling by Judge Garcia, who was appointed by President Bill Clinton in 1994, was the latest in a series of legal reversals that have overturned bans or lifted restrictions on same-sex marriage in several states, some in the South and the Bible Belt. A federal judge overturned Virginia’s ban early this month, a day after Kentucky was ordered to honor same-sex marriages performed in other states. In Oklahoma, the state’s amendment barring same-sex marriage was recently ruled unconstitutional, while a federal judge in Utah reached the same conclusion about that state’s amendment.

In the Texas case, lawyers for two gay and le***an couples who sued the state had argued that the ban on same-sex marriage perpetuated discrimination and put a financial, legal and emotional burden on homosexual couples.

An Awesome Day For Texans... And A Big Step Toward Equality... Rainbows Over Texas ! ! ! TEXAS PROUD ! ! !

EQUALITY :: NO OTHER OPTION