Chick-Fil-A has agreed to stop funding of anti-LGBT organizations such as Focus on the Family and the National Organization for Marriage according to a statement issued Wednesday. Earlier in the day, the Illinois-based LGBT advocacy group The Civil Rights Agenda (TCRA) had announced that Chicago Alderman Joe Moreno had received a letter from the organization […]
The District of Columbia’s Office of Human Rights launched a Transgender and Gender Identity Respect Campaign last week with the aim of “promoting respect for the District’s transgender and gender non-conforming communities.” This is the first government funded campaign of its kind. The campaign includes a series of print PSAs featuring transgender and gender-non-conforming Washingtonians. Each […]
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court decided on Tuesday that if voting IDs will not be readily available in time for the November 2012 election, the state’s new voter ID law cannot go into effect. The law, enacted in March, requires that every person must have a Department of Transportation (PennDOT) photo ID in order to vote […]
On Tuesday, the Chicago Teacher Union voted to end their week and a half long strike and return to the classroom Wednesday morning. For the first time since 1987, Chicago’s public school teachers went on strike on September 10th. A vast majority of the teacher’s unions’ 800 delegates voted to end the strike and return […]
A new poll released today by NBC/Wall Street Journal shows that female voters nationally favor President Obama by ten points. While the poll (see PDF) showed that President Obama was ahead of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney by five points overall, the gender gap between the two candidates increased to ten points. In individual states […]
Yesterday the United Nations released “Born Free and Equal,” a 60-page booklet detailing the basic legal rights States must provide LGBT individuals. In the pamphlet[PDF], the U.N. details five strategic areas to improve the condition of LGBT individuals: Protect LGBT people from violence, Prevent torture and inhumane treatment of detained LGBT individuals, Repeal laws criminalizing […]
Many women in Bangladesh face poverty after a failed marriage as the result of discriminatory family laws according to a new Human Rights Watch report released on Monday. According to the report, outdated family laws that do not recognize the rights of women in cases of divorce and abandonment drive women to stay in abusive […]
Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) Stephen Woodworth has proposed a private-member bill calling for the study of when a baby becomes a human being. MP Woodworth’s motion (motion 312) would review part of the Canadian homicide Criminal Code which states that a fetus becomes a human being at the moment of birth. Woodworth told reporters […]
In Iowa, Judge Mary Pat Gunderson issued a temporary injunction on Friday to stay the implementation of the swing state’s new voter suppression rules. The rules, which included regulations to verify citizenship, were pushed through by Secretary of State Matt Schultz and passed earlier this summer through an emergency rulemaking process. Gunderson’s ruling does not […]
Judge Juan B Colas of Dane County Circuit Court ruled late Friday on a 2011 anti-public-employee-union Wisconsin law, ruling most of it unconstitutional. The law was pushed through by Republican Governor Scott Walker. Known as Act 10, the law severely restricted union rights for public workers, nullifying most of the protections contained in Wisconsin’s fifty-year-old […]
A Cook County Circuit Court judge has prevented an attempt by Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Chicago Public Schools to forcibly end the teachers’ strike by refusing to schedule a hearing for today. Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Chicago Public Schools filed a suit against the Chicago Teacher’s Union for their continued strike after Sunday negotiations […]
Today the Virginia Board of Health met and voted 13-2 to reverse their June decision to grandfather in existing clinics, exempting them from new, hospital-like restrictions for the state’s abortion clinics, commonly called TRAP laws or Targeted Regulations of Abortion Providers. Instead, the board has allowed existing clinics to come into compliance with regulations within […]
Almost a month after three members of the Russian feminist punk band Pussy Riot were found guilty of “hooliganism” and sentenced to two years in prison, Prime Minister Dmitri A. Medvedev said Wednesday that they should be released. Although Medvedev said he finds them ‘nauseating,’ he also said further imprisonment would be “unproductive.” Musicians, activists […]
Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli sent the new rules for women’s health centers back to the Board of Health. Make your voice heard at the September 14 meeting! On June 15, the Virginia Board of Health voted to amend a key provision of the proposed permanent regulations for women’s health centers– the amendment means that existing […]
Craft store and evangelical-based Hobby Lobby filed a federal lawsuit on Wednesday against the Obama Administration over the mandate requiring employers to provide coverage for the morning-after pill and other medications. Under the new mandate, companies who do not provide coverage that includes medication such as the morning after pill can face fines of up […]
The Missouri state legislature voted to override Governor Jay Nixon’s veto of a law that would exempt religious institutions from providing contraception coverage to employees yesterday. In addition the legislature gave a public rebuttal to the Obama Administration for the Affordable Care Act, the first in the nation. The veto override and rebuttal came as […]
One million young minority voters could be affected by new voter suppression laws enacted in 17 states, according to a study released by the Black Youth Project. The study [PDF], co-authored by Cathy Cohen and Jon Rogowski from the University of Chicago and Washington University in St. Louis respectively, found that an estimated 700,000 minority […]
Colorado Secretary of State Scott Gessler announced today that the Colorado Personhood Coalition has missed the Monday deadline for ballot certification for the “Personhood” Amendment to appear on the November 2012 ballot. On August 29, Gessler determined that the amendment did not have enough valid signatures to qualify for the November 2012 election. While the […]
UPDATE – Wednesday, September 19: The Chicago Teachers Union voted yesterday to end their strike and agreed today to a tentative offer put forward by the city of Chicago. The agreement includes, among other things, an increase in pay for teachers, shorter school days, increased funding for music, art, and physical education classes as well […]
Televagelist and host of The 700 Club Pat Robertson told viewers Monday to become Muslim so they can beat their disrespectful wives. In response to a question sent into the program by a man who feels his wife does not respect him, Pat Robertson advised viewers “Well, you could become a Muslim and you could […]
