On November 27th, 1978 Harvey Milk, the first gay city supervisor of San Francisco, and mayor Moscone were shot to death by Dan White, who only received seven years for the  heinous murders. Milks death helped to push gay and lesbians to take action against discrimination. Milk is considered an icon in the fight for GLBT visibility and equal consideration under the law.

November 29th, 2006
This past Tuesday a Virginia appellate court found in favor of upholding custody rights established through the civil union of two women in Vermont.  Gay and Lesbians around the country celebrated the ruling, due to the fact that the lesbian relationship was treated by the VA court as equal to a heterosexual relationship. The biological mother was ordered to allow her ex-partner visitation rights. Conservatives who are pushing for the ban of gay marriage national, vowed to fight the ruling.  Many people on both sides of the gay marriage issue are interested to see what debate this action may incur. The issue of recognizing civil-unions or gay marriages in states that have ban the practices is still a heated topic.
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-na-lesbian29nov29,1,1630715.story

On November 18th, 2006 in Huston, Texas Howard Dean, chairman of the national Democratic party, spoke to a formidable group of Gay and Lesbian leaders on issues such as education and minimum wage. He noted that it was important to support the Democrats in separating the party from that of the Republicans. He also encouraged the queer community to be patient and expect policy change over time in relation to LGBT issues.
It seems fairly easy for a heterosexual politician to expect a community that has been discriminated against for years to be willing to wait for policy change. However, LGBT people have been “waiting” for centuries to be recognized and accepted as an equal people. While GLBT people “wait” for politicians to be ready to enact large social change, LGBT civil rights continue to be violated. While Howard Dean and the Democrats fight for better education and welfare reform, there appears to be no party left in the political arena to fight for civil marriage rights, property rights, domestic partnership rights, hospital visitation rights, and child custody rights. How long would Mr. Dean like the gay community to wait before they fight for equal rights?

For More Go To:
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/4345691.html