Focusing on adoption, teaching, military and marriage, all but one issue – teaching – showed growth in Texas’ largest city.

Adoption rose to just above the halfway point, 52 percent, up nine percent from two years before. Support for gays serving openly in the military increased from 64 to 73 percent as did attitudes towards gay marriage from 32 to 43 percent.

The issue of gay and lesbian teachers, one that has had a volatile few years, declined in support dropping from 66 to 59 percent.

Another statistic presented is the belief that homosexuality is primarily “a matter of personal choice,” rather than an inborn trait or something caused by the social environment which declined from 41 percent in 2008 to 34 percent in 2010.

A metropolis of industries and home to over 4 million people, Houston remains at the forefront of gay and lesbian rights for Texas and the southwest.

The overall struggles facing the Houston LGBTQ community has lessened throughout the years. The general trend, however slow, is a positive one. In recent years more and more members of the community have been given rights they didn’t have before and this evolution of politics has transcended into attitudes with the general public.

All the results concerning gays and lesbians along with other social trends in Houston can be found on the Houston Area Survey

Houston Area Survey

Courtesy of the New Yorker

One such issue is LGBT immigration rights, which has taken a backseat to the more popularized issues like Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell and same-sex marriage. LGBT immigration blends the divisive issue of immigration reform with the evolving laws affecting gays and lesbians.

The ”binational couple,” a term indicating both partners are from another country. Unlike straight couples who go through the immigration process, the steps towards legalization (however burdened with forms, tests, rules and waiting) offers a legitimate legal recourse to foreigners looking to make American their permanent home. Same-sex couples, even those legally married in the six municipalities with laws for it, still don’t extend immigration rights to their partners.

One way in particular allow for same-sex partners to be recognized. If a foreign national obtains a non immigrant work visa, his or her partner can apply for a B-2 visitor visa to come to the US for with the foreign worker.

Lawmakers are doing their part in making a binational couples a priority. A bill making its way through Congress is the Uniting American Families Act, this will allow a U.S. citizen or permanent resident to sponsor their same-sex partner for immigration to the U.S.

Lambda Legal offers up some basic facts about LGBT immigration

Check out the video from KHOU

The move makes Houston the fifth municipality to approve such a measure, following Austin, El Paso and the Dallas/Forth Worth area.

The order goes even further by prohibiting city contractors and venders from discriminatory behavior as well. Protection also includes transgendered individuals as well as those with gender identity issues.

“The purpose of this Executive Order is to prohibit discrimination and/or retaliation on the basis of sexual orientation and/or gender identity at every level of municipal government, including hiring, contracting and/or access to City facilities and programs/activities.”

In greater detail the order includes racial, ethnic and gender slurs that occur in new media, such as screen savers, posters, emails and cartoons.

Employees in violation of the order are subject to disciplinary action.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/24/AR2010032401543.html?hpid%3Dtopnews

The case which began in January has focused on the constitutionality of same-sex marriage after a 2008 ban was voter approved. The unlikely players in this courtroom drama are the defense attorneys Ted Olson and David Boies, the two opposing counsels for Bush v. Gore in 2000.

A 294 page summary was filed on March 1 for closing arguements

“Californians voted for Proposition 8 because they thought it would strengthen the institution of marriage (and) … because they thought it would benefit children,” sponsors of Prop. 8 said Friday night in papers filed in federal court in San Francisco.

Their opponents, representing two same-sex couples and the city of San Francisco, said those purported goals of Prop. 8 were contradicted by overwhelming evidence at a 12-day trial in January that allowing same-sex couples to wed would benefit their children and the institution of marriage. Regardless of the intentions of individual voters, they argued, the Prop. 8 campaign was designed to appeal to fear and deep-seated prejudice.

“The evidence demonstrates that Proposition 8′s actual motivation was moral disapproval of gay and lesbian individuals,” said the measure’s opponents, plaintiffs in the federal court case. They said the ballot measure “sends a message to gay and lesbian individuals that they are not welcome in California.”

As the U.S Supreme Court has refused to block Washington D.C law for same-sex, it will go into effect as scheduled, but what does this mean for California?

Some proponents say that it will be a matter of time before the country moves toward a more progressive direction. People on the opposing side believe a reversal of a voter approved ban would undermine the will of California residents.

Either way the battle for gay rights is heating up in California and both sides are ready to appeal the decision.

A 2009 Pew opinion research poll found that 54% of Americans oppose same-sex marriage, while 36% supported it.

The Houston area survey in cooperation with Rice University found that amongst those polled, 43% believed “marriages between homosexuals should be given the same legal status as heterosexual marriages,” an increase of 11% from two years earlier

Now that our nation’s capitol has paved the way for greater civil rights, what does the mean for rest of the country? The California initiative to ban same-sex marriage and it’s ultimate state amendment are still on trial. According the San Francisco Chronicle, closing arguments could be broadcast after a requests to broadcast the entire trial were denied. The trial which will determine the fate of same-sex marriage in the world’s seventh largest economy, is scheduled to have closing arguments as soon as next week.

So far only the changes have only been isolated to the New England are, with the exception of Iowa. A win in California will do one of thew things. Either push the country toward the a more modern approach to marriage rights, or create a dichotomy on gay issues, further separating people.

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