The nine suspects accused of hate crimes against three men in New York City are currently in police custody, with the last suspect, 22-year-old Ruddy Vargas-Perez, arrested earlier this week. According to CNN, six of the suspects are being held without bail. Bail for the remaining two suspects is set at $100,000. New York Police […]
Yesterday, US District Court Judge Virginia Phillips issued an order that bans the Department of Defense and the US military from enforcing their so-called “don’t ask don’t tell” policy, which bars gays from openly serving in the military. Phillips wrote that DADT “infringes the fundamental rights of United States service members and prospective service members” […]
New York City Council speaker Christine Quinn and Councilwoman Jessica Lappin are pushing for legislation in the state that would mandate that crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs) clearly indicate their position on abortion to patients. This would include displaying information both at the entrance and in waiting rooms to notify women that the centers do not […]
Congressional candidate Rich Iott, a Republican running in Ohio’s ninth district, has recently faced criticism after photographs surfaced of him dressed in a Nazi uniform sometime in the mid-2000s. According to the Atlantic, Iott is a former member of a group called Wiking that participates in Nazi re-enactments. The group’s website states that it is […]
Last week, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe passed a watered down version of a resolution that originally called for restrictions on European doctors’ right to withhold referral information from patients seeking abortions. According to a Center for Reproductive Rights press release, the version of the resolution that was approved includes anti-abortion amendments […]
Last week, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights issued separate rulings that the Mexican government must pay damages to two indigenous women who were raped by military soldiers in 2002. The court stated that Mexico failed to uphold “the rights to personal integrity, dignity and legal protection of Ines Fernandez and Valentina Rosendo,” according to […]
Prominent jailed Iranian human rights lawyer, Nasrin Sotoudeh, confirmed in a short telephone conversation with her husband, that she is on the twelfth day of a hunger strike. Sotoudeh, who defended many political activists and campaigners in Iran’s presidential elections last year, has been held in Tehran’s Evin Prison since September 4, 2010, after police […]
France’s Constitutional Council endorsed a law that bans burqas and the niqab, full body and face coverings, in public spaces. This was the last legal obstacle before this law could go into effect, reports CNN. The Council has however added an amendment to this law stating that it will not apply to places of worship, […]
A Christian organization, Exodus International, is pulling their support of an annual event that was established to “counter the promotion of homosexual behavior.” The group’s president, Alan Chambers, told CNN that the event has become too divisive and confrontational. “All the recent attention to bullying helped us realize that we need to equip kids to […]
Last week US Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC) told an audience at the Greater Freedom Rally, held in a church in Spartanburg, South Carolina, that openly gay people and women engaging in premarital sex should not be allowed to teach in schools. According to the Spartanburg Herald-Journal, he neglected to comment regarding whether or not unwed […]
Self-proclaimed Lieutenant Colonel Mayele was arrested by the United Nations (UN) mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) for his leadership of an armed group that allegedly raped up to 500 people in late July. Mayele was taken into custody yesterday in a military operation carried out by the Congolese military and the […]
A comprehensive new study released yesterday by the Center for Sexual Health Promotion at Indiana University reports that condom use is more prevalent among teenagers than adults. According to the New York Times, the study found that 80 percent of sexually active males and 69 percent of sexually active females between the ages of 14 […]
Senators Jim DeMint (R-SC) and Tom Coburn (R-OK) have placed a hold on a bill that would allow for the purchase of federal land for a National Women’s History Museum. The Washington Post reports that the bill, which passed the House in 2009, will need to be reintroduced in the new Congress next year unless […]
Last Saturday, over 175,000 people gathered in Washington, DC, for the “One Nation Working Together” rally, a progressive event endorsed by over 400 groups. The rally was organized with the intention of displaying the diversity of its supporters, who organizers claim are representative of the majority of Americans, and energizing voters for the midterm elections, […]
Last week, the US Department of State released a statement condemning the alleged stoning of a woman by members of the Taliban in northwest Pakistan. “The vicious attack…violates all terms of human decency and is a chilling example of the cowardly disregard violent extremists have for human life,” US Department of State spokesman Philip J. […]
Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) and Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D-CA) introduced legislation this week that would end federal funding for abstinence-only programs. The bill would strike a provision of the Social Security Act that has enabled funding for abstinence-only programs since the mid-1990s. It would redistribute $50 million annually to sex education programs through the Personal […]
Yesterday, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) published their 2010 report about the current education situation for girls in Iraq. The report PDF analyzes the education system in Iraq and makes recommendations to both the Iraqi government and UNICEF Iraq to improve girls’ access to high quality instruction. The overall number of children receiving primary […]
A report released by the Government Accountability Office on Tuesday indicates that women have not made substantial progress in obtaining management positions in the past decade. The study also found that a substantial pay gap still exists and has only barely decreased since 2000, according to the New York Times. The report compares 2007 statistics, […]
United Nations Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict Margot Wallstroem arrived in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) Tuesday to investigate the mass rape of civilians that occurred there in June and July of this year. The UN News Center reports the objective is to coordinate an appropriate response to the mass rape […]
On Tuesday, a District Court judge granted class-action status to a lawsuit filed by 32 plaintiffs alleging that they were denied state jobs or promotions in Iowa because of their race. The lawsuit, which was originally filed in 2007, can now move forward and may cover more Iowans who may have experienced employment discrimination, according […]
