Last Wednesday, Senator Mazie K. Hirono (D-HI) and Representative Doris Matsui (D-CA), reintroduced the Patsy T. Mink and Louise M. Slaughter Gender Equity in Education Act (GEEA) in Congress. The House and Senate versions of the bill, H.R.4097 and S.2186, would support the implementation of Title IX by providing resources, funding, and training to reduce […]
Friends of Afghanistan Urge NATO and EU to Continue Support for Afghanistan
In a letter signed by prominent leaders and individuals worldwide, friends and supporters of Afghanistan urged NATO and the European Union that as U.S. and NATO forces withdraw from Afghanistan, “we must not abandon the Afghan people and their democratic republic.” The letter signed by former foreign ministers, former ambassadors to Afghanistan, diplomats, along with […]
VP Harris Gives Remarks on Gender Equality at UN Women’s Summit
On Wednesday, Vice President Kamala Harris led the U.S. virtual delegation and gave remarks at the United Nation’s Generation Equality Forum, nearly a generation after former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton declared that “women’s rights are human rights” on an international stage. Harris, the first woman, first Black and first AAPI person to hold the […]
Rhode Island Passes Legislation to Make Period Products Free in Schools
The Rhode Island Senate on Tuesday unanimously passed a bill that will allow public school students to have access to menstrual products for free. The bill says that public schools who teach grades five through 12 must provide pads and tampons in gender-neutral and women’s bathrooms beginning in the 2022-2023 school year at no cost […]
Supreme Court Protects the CDC’s Eviction Moratorium
On Tuesday, the Supreme Court maintained the Center for Disease Control’s halt on eviction for tenants who could not pay rent due to hardships imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic. In the 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court denied a challenge on the eviction ban brought by a group of landlords. The moratorium will now be left […]
Supreme Court Dismisses Transgender Rights Case, Maintains Victory for Student Gavin Grimm
On Monday, the Supreme Court refused to hear a case over transgender students’ right to use school bathrooms, leaving intact a lower court decision that allows transgender students to use the restrooms that match their gender identity. While this does not mean that the Supreme Court agrees with the lower court’s decision, it does maintain […]
Biden Pledges Support to Afghanistan Despite the US Troop Withdrawal
On June 25th in a state visit by the president of Afghanistan, Ashraf Ghani, President Biden pledged to continue to support Afghanistan, assuring the Afghan delegation that the United States will “maintain their military, as well as economic and political support.” While vowing to continue the support to the Afghan people, President Biden also stressed […]
Black Voters Matter End Freedom Ride in DC
On Saturday, advocacy organization Black Voters Matter gathered in D.C. with other political advocacy organizations to demonstrate and garner support for voting rights. The goals of the rally, which was held in front of the Capitol building, included passing the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, passing the For the People Act, and granting Statehood to […]
Derek Chauvin Sentenced to 22.5 Years in Prison for Murdering George Floyd
Derek Chauvin, the Minneapolis police officer who murdered George Floyd in May of 2020, was sentenced to 22 and a half years in prison on Friday. The sentencing decision was delivered by Hennepin Country District Court Judge Peter A. Cahill. Chauvin, 45, will likely only serve 15 years of the 22-and-a-half-year sentence. After 15 years, […]
Iowa Law Mandating 24-Hour Waiting Period for Abortion is Blocked by Judge
On Monday, an Iowa district judge blocked a law that required patients to observe a 24-hour waiting period before they could get an abortion. The law, passed in 2020, was declared unconstitutional by Judge Mitchell Turner. He ruled that the law not only violated a 2018 decision made by the Iowa Supreme Court that protects […]
Union Organizers No Longer Able to Speak to Workers on Farm Property, Supreme Court Rules
On Wednesday, the Supreme Court decided that a California law allowing unions to talk to agricultural workers on farm property is unconstitutional. The ruling is a major blow to union organizers and migratory farmworkers. In 1975, the California Agricultural Labor Relations Act was passed to remedy the difficulty unions frequently faced reaching migrant workers, […]
Voting Rights Bill Blocked by Filibuster
Senate Republicans blocked an expansive voting rights bill with a filibuster on Tuesday despite Democrats’ efforts to move the bill forward. The For the People Act is one of the most comprehensive pieces of voting rights legislation to be introduced in years. It would expand and protect voting rights, create new campaign finance rules, and […]
Secretary of Defense Supports Major Change in Prosecution of Military Sexual Assault Cases
On Tuesday, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin endorsed a proposed change in the military justice system that would remove the authority to prosecute sexual assault cases from the chain of command and instead transfer that authority to independent military lawyers. Under the new recommendations, military commanders would no longer handle the prosecution of sexual assault cases. […]
V.A. Will Provide Gender Confirmation Surgery to Transgender Veterans
On Saturday, the Department of Veterans Affairs announced that they plan to add gender confirmation surgery to their existing healthcare services. V.A. Secretary Denis McDonough made this announcement at a Pride event in Orlando, Florida. The new directive will reverse a 2013 ban on gender confirmation surgery, in which the V.A. refused to provide the […]
Laurel Hubbard to Become the First Openly Transgender Olympian
Laurel Hubbard, a New Zealand weightlifter, will become the first ever openly transgender individual to compete at the Olympics. She has been selected as a member of the New Zealand women’s weightlifting team for this summer’s Tokyo 2021 Olympic Games. Hubbard will compete in the 87-kilogram women’s category. She suffered a potentially career-ending arm injury […]
North Carolina’s 20-Week Abortion Ban Ruled Unconstitutional by Federal Appeals Court
North Carolina’s ban on abortion past 20 weeks of pregnancy was unanimously declared unconstitutional on Wednesday by Richmond, Virginia’s 4th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals. The ban had been in effect since 1973 and was enacted as a response to the Supreme Court’s decision in the case of Roe v. Wade. It prohibited abortion after 20 weeks except […]
LGBTQ+ Students Protected Under Title IX, Says Education Department
On Wednesday, the U.S. Department of Education released a notice saying that Title IX’s protections against sex discrimination also forbid discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. This interpretation of the 1972 Title IX law, which prohibits sex discrimination in “any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance,” will protect gay […]
Supreme Court Rules to Uphold Affordable Care Act, Decides Catholic Adoption Agency has Right to Prevent LGBTQ+ Couples from Fostering Children
In a 7-2 decision Thursday, the Supreme Court ruled to leave Affordable Care Act intact, dismissing a challenge made against the ACA by several states led by Texas. The challenge claimed that the ACA’s individual mandate was unconstitutional. The plaintiffs had hoped that a ruling of the individual mandate as unconstitutional would declare every other provision of the ACA, and the entire law itself, unconstitutional as well. This is the third challenge to have been made against the ACA since the […]
Senate Approves Legislation to Make Juneteenth a Federal Holiday
Yesterday, the Senate unanimously passed a measure to make Juneteenth, the day that commemorates the end of slavery in the United States, a federal holiday. The bill will now be sent to the House of Representatives for approval. If passed by the House and subsequently signed into law by President Biden, June 19th will be […]
U.S. Bishops Meet to Discuss Biden’s Eligibility for Communion In Light of Pro-Choice Policy Support
This week, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops will convene to debate whether President Biden and other Catholic politicians who support access to abortion should be denied Communion for their beliefs on abortion rights. Biden, a devout Catholic, has been denied Communion before for his position on abortion rights. As the first Catholic president since […]