civil rights

Why ENDA Matters to the Trans Community

Submitted by ONE Community on May 12, 2013 - 10:35pm

In the modern era of LGBT civil rights, transgender inclusion in employment nondiscrimination bills has been the proverbial elephant in the room. The subject drove a deep wedge between the transgender community and the LGB community in 2007, when the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) bill was stripped of gender identity language in order to get it to the floor for a vote. ENDA bills since then have been transgender-inclusive but have failed to muster enough votes in the House and Senate. Read more »

ONE Community

Firing gay teachers is an affront to civil rights

Submitted by ONE Community on May 12, 2013 - 10:26pm

Missouri teacher Rodney Wilson was fired in 1994 because he was gay. Ohio teacher Carla Hale was fired last month for the same reason.

All the debate about same-sex marriage might make the public believe gays and lesbians are protected from such discrimination, but only 21 states have such laws, and city ordinances do not consistently match these guidelines. Read more »

ONE Community

Judge rules in favor of lesbians suing Hawaii B&B

Submitted by ONE Community on April 18, 2013 - 3:43pm

HONOLULU (AP) -- A judge has ruled a Hawaii bed and breakfast violated the law when two women were denied a room because they're gay.

The Hawaii First Circuit Court judge ruled in favor of a Southern California couple who sued Aloha Bed & Breakfast for discrimination in 2011, Lambda Legal announced Monday. In 2007, Diane Cervelliand Taeko Bufford tried to book a room at the bed and breakfast because it's in Hawaii Kai, the same east Honolulu neighborhood where the friend they were visiting lived. Read more »

ONE Community

Obama invokes gay rights in inaugural address

Submitted by ONE Community on January 22, 2013 - 7:05am

President Obama on Monday became the first president to use the word “gay” as a reference to sexual orientation in an inaugural address, declaring the movement for equality to be part of the pantheon of America’s great civil rights struggles.

“Our journey is not complete until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else under the law,” the president said. “For if we are truly created equal, then surely the love we commit to one another must be equal, as well.” Read more »

ONE Community

Gay civil rights in Flagstaff on move

Submitted by ONE Community on November 16, 2012 - 12:17am

The city of Flagstaff is moving forward on an anti-discrimination ordinance that for the first time would cover sexual orientation, gender identity and veterans in employment and public accommodations

Exempted would be religious-based organizations, "expressive groups" like the Boy Scouts and, at least for the moment, businesses with fewer than 15 employees.

Kathryn Jim, president of Northern Arizona Pride Association, said she was happy with the Council action on Tuesday. Read more »

ONE Community

Biden says transgender discrimination 'civil rights issue of our time'

Submitted by ONE Community on October 31, 2012 - 6:10pm

Vice President Joe Biden, leaving an Obama campaign office in Sarasota, singled one woman out because she had beautiful eyes, the pool reporter noted:

She said something ...at first inaudible to pool, to which VP responded was the "civil rights issue of our time"

Pool later asked the woman, Linda Carragher Bourne of Sarasota about the exchange. She said her daughter was Miss Trans New England and asked if he would help them.

"A lot of my friends are being killed, and they don't have the civil rights yet. These guys are gonna make it happen," she told the pool.

Read more »

ONE Community

The secret gay agenda

Submitted by ONE Community on June 18, 2012 - 2:17pm

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Gays may have the fastest of all civil rights movements

Submitted by ONE Community on May 21, 2012 - 8:42pm

Public attitudes have shifted sharply in the last 10 years. Chalk it up to familiarity – among family, friends, co-workers and prime-time TV characters.

SAN FRANCISCO — In 1958, the Gallup Poll asked Americans whether they approved or disapproved of marriage between blacks and whites. The response was overwhelming: 94% were opposed, a sentiment that held for decades. It took nearly 40 years until a majority of those surveyed said marriage between people of different skin colors was acceptable. Read more »

NAACP backs "marriage equality"

Submitted by ONE Community on May 19, 2012 - 2:33pm

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) backed a resolution on Saturday in support of "marriage equality."

Although the civil-rights organization stopped short of coming out in support of same sex-marriage, it expressly opposes states' anti-same-sex laws.

"We have and will oppose efforts to codify discrimination into law," Roslyn M. Brock, chair of the NAACP board of directors said in a statement.

The resolution passed by the organization's board of directors says "the NAACP has opposed and will continue to oppose any national, state, local policy or legislative initiative that seeks to codify discrimination or hatred into the law or to remove the Constitutional rights of LGBT citizens." Read more »

Law experts challenge Virginia lawmaker Bob Marshall on 'sodomy is not a civil right' comment

Submitted by ONE Community on May 18, 2012 - 12:14pm

Law experts are taking issue with a Virginia legislator’s comment that “sodomy is not a civil right” in explaining why he opposed a gay prosecutor’s bid to become a judge.

Virginia GOP delegate Bob Marshall spearheaded the effort to block Tracy Thorne-Begland, an openly gay prosecutor in Richmond, from becoming a judge, saying the attorney’s past activism and outspokenness on gay rights could bias his decisions on the bench.

The Virginia House of Delegates this week voted to reject Thorne-Begland’s bid to become a general district court judge in Richmond.
Speaking Thursday on CNN’s “Starting Point,” Marshall expounded on his reasoning. Read more »