Lesbian Jumps into S.F. School Board Race

Citing her work with immigrant Latino parents, out Latina lesbian Barbara “Bobbi” Lopez jumped into the race for San Francisco school board last week, filing her candidate papers on Wednesday, August 13.

The elections department extended the candidate filing period until 5 p.m. Wednesday as incumbents Mark Sanchez and Eric Mar opted not to seek re-election. Both men are running for supervisor.

Lopez, 30, made an appearance at last week’s Democratic County Central Committee meeting to introduce herself. Because Lopez and another candidate – Jaynry Mak – filed on the last day, the DCCC decided to hold off on endorsing in the Board of Education race until its August 27 meeting.

Get the rest of the story from ebar.com.

Rudd Forges Ahead with Aussie Equity Plan

The term “marital relationship” could remain in federal superannuation law as the Rudd Government looks to get Coalition support for the first of its same-sex equality bills before Parliament resumes later this month.

The compromise, unopposed by GLBT lobbyists, is one of a number of minor terminology changes that would allow the Coalition to save face with its conservative members, while keeping its principled support for removing same-sex discrimination.

The issue of interdependency and recognizing non-couple and carer relationships will also not further delay the equality bills, with consensus now that the issue is more appropriately dealt with by a separate House of Representatives committee inquiry.

But the way the Government wants to protect superannuation inheritance rights of children in same-sex families is a much larger concern for the Coalition and no easy solution has appeared.

Read more at starobserver.com.au.

Don’t Cry for Me Argentina - Give Me Rights

Argentina has announced its first nationwide gay-rights measure which will grant same-sex couples the right to claim their partners’ pensions once deceased. Prior to the new law, any deceased partners’ pensions were paid directly to the government.

According to Argentina’s executive directory of social security, Amado Boudo, couples wishing to qualify for the benefit must be able to prove they have lived together for at least five years.

Boudo said the national decree will “put the rights of all cohabitants on a level playing field.”

Gay activists were elated by Monday’s announcement as the years of efforts in campaigning for the government to grant the same rights finally became paid off becoming a reality.

Gay civil unions already are legal in five Argentine cities, including Buenos Aires.

Gay activist Pedro Paradiso said, the measure is “historic” and marks a “step forward” for human rights because it is the first nationwide gay-rights measure approved by the Argentinian government.

The organization who lobbied for the new law will now focus efforts on nationalizing civil unions, which will give additional rights to gay couples, such as adoption and inheritance.

Read more about gay friendly parts of South America here.

Despite 377 - India Comes Out of the Closet

In a swirl of rainbow flags and feathered masks, India’s most populated city came out of the closet yesterday.

Technically, it happened when the city’s first-ever gay pride parade began amid a frenzy of camera flashes.

But if we’re going on pure emotion, the real moment might have been after the parade, when It’s Raining Men came on a jukebox in a south Mumbai café and men in rainbow cowboy hats jumped up and sang in the restaurant’s busy aisles. The diners clapped, cheered and raised their glasses in salute.

Read more at canada.com.

Olympic Fencer Speaks “OUT” on Human Rights

German fencing champion Imke Duplitzer is one of the 10 out athletes in Beijing,  She may have missed a gold medal yesterday in women’s individual épée, but she should get a diamond-studded platinum medal for speaking out on human rights. Gorgeous gutsy Imke is right in the middle of that firestorm in China, around the PRC’s human-rights policy. As far as I know, she is the only one of our 10 who has spoken up.

Read the rest at bilerico.com.