The Southern Poverty Law Center is following up on the group's July warning to the Falls Church-based Public Advocate of the United States and the group’s president, Eugene Delgaudio, a Loudon County Board supervisor, announcing that SPLC is moving forward with a lawsuit.

At issue is a same-sex couple’s engagement photo, appropriated by the anti-gay Public Advocate group for a Colorado campaign letter.

The photographed couple, Brian Edwards and Tom Privitere, of New York, and the photographer, Kristina Hill, contacted SPLC after finding their photo being altered to attack a Republican Colorado state senator who voted in favor of civil unions, according to The Colorado Independent.

"Public Advocate, a group identified as a hate group by the SPLC, used the couple's personal engagement photo without permission and altered the image to include anti-gay propaganda to attack Colorado state lawmakers including Sen. Jean White, who supported Colorado's civil union legislation," reads a statement from SPLC indicating that the suit will be filed tomorrow, Sept. 26, in U.S. District Court of Colorado. 

[Photos: SPLC posted these images of Brian Edwards and Tom Privitere's original image (top right) and the altered version.]

By Matt Comer/QNotes 

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Fresh off his trip to Tampa, Fla., for the Republican National Convention, Jimmy LaSalvia, co-founder and executive director of the Republican LGBT group GOProud, says he's come to the Democratic National Convention to refocus attention on the issues he says are most important to Americans, gay or straight.

"We're going to see three days of the Democrats talking about everything they can except the Obama Administration's failed record on jobs and the economy," LaSalvia said while visiting the Charlotte Convention Center on Tuesday. "They are going to be trying to make it seem like the Republicans hate everybody – they hate the gays, they hate the blacks, they hate immigrants. I'm here to really just tell the truth and to rebut some of the things that you'll hear from the podium the next few days."

The economy, LaSalvia said, outranks other concerns highlighted at the convention this week, including the much-talked-about marriage equality plank in Democrats' party platform.

"There's nothing that Democrats can put in their platform that will hide the failed record of the Obama Administration on jobs and the economy," he said. "They're talking about everything but what's important to the American people."

The LGBT community's concerns on the economic recession aren't any different from other Americans, said LaSalvia.

"We're talking about people's survival here," he said. "Obama has had four years and it's time to realize that he's a failed president and it's time to replace him."

LaSalvia declined to specifically address the contrast between the Democrats' platform and that of the Republican Party, which calls marriage rights for same-sex couples an "an assault on the foundations of our society."

Democratic National Convention coverage provided by Metro Weekly and QNotes, the leading LGBT community newspaper of North Carolina, based in Charlotte.

New York Sen. Chuck Schumer speaks with a blogger at Charlotte's Democratic National Convention

(Photo by Matt Comer/QNotes)

By Matt Comer/QNotes

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- New York Sen. Chuck Schumer said passage of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act was a "high priority" today during an impromptu question and answer session with independent media and bloggers attending the 2012 Democratic National Convention.

"I think [ENDA is] a high priority," Schumer remarked. 

He blamed partisan division for the hold-up in getting the act passed, which would protect employees from discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.

"In the old days, we had some Republican support when there was such a thing as a moderate Republican," he said.

"I think time is on our side," he added. "I believe in much shorter time than we imagine, we'll be able to pass ENDA."

Democratic National Convention coverage provided by Metro Weekly and QNotes, the leading LGBT community newspaper of North Carolina, based in Charlotte.

The State Department this morning released its 2011 Annual Report on Human Rights, the 36th such annual report.

Marking the release, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton mentioned LGBT people, saying, "Where LGBT people are mistreated and discriminated against, we're working to bring them into participation in their societies."

Michael Posner, assistant secretary with State's Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, wrote in the introduction to the report. He wrote, in part, "In many countries there was an uptick in discrimination against members of racial and ethnic minorities; people with disabilities; and lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender (LGBT) people, all of whom were frequent targets of abuse, discrimination, and violence."

Within the pages of the report, several countries were cited for mistreatment of LGBT people.

"The Honduran police force had deep-seated and unaddressed corruption problems, and police officers targeted vulnerable persons, including LGBT people," the report states, for example. "The Iranian government … continued to mistreat women, LGBT people, and members of ethnic and religious minorities."

Since 1976, the State Department has been responsible for drafting these reports and submitting them to Congress. By law, U.S. foreign and trade policy must consider countries' performance on issues of human rights.

READ the report here.