The New Hampshire state Senate voted 13 to 11 in favor of a bill that would legalize same sex marriage in the state yesterday. The state House approved a similar version of the bill in March on a 186 to 179 vote, but will need to approve changes to the bill made by the Senate […]
Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius is the final member of President Obama’s Cabinet to be confirmed in a close Senate roll call vote yesterday. The vote was largely along party lines, with Senators Kit Bond (R-MO), Sam Brownback (R-KS), Susan Collins (R-ME), Judd Gregg (R-NH), Richard Lugar (R-NH), Pat Roberts (R-KS), Olympia Snowe (R-ME), and Arlen […]
The Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act was reintroduced in the US Senate yesterday by a bi-partisan coalition. The bill would amend existing federal hate crimes laws to include crimes where the victims were targeted on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity, gender, and disability. It also would eliminate a requirement that the victim […]
Michelle Obama unveiled a bust of Sojourner Truth, known for her abolitionist and women’s rights work, at the US Capitol yesterday. Truth’s statue is the first of an African-American woman in the Capitol. The unveiling ceremony was also led by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. In her remarks, […]
Afghan President Hamid Karzai announced in a press conference yesterday that a controversial Shia Family law whose implementation would severely restrict women’s rights by legalizing rape within marriage, will be amended and that the human rights of women and girls will be respected by the law. Karzai told reporters “the law is under review and […]
Today is Equal Pay Day, the day when women’s wages equal their male colleagues’ earnings of the previous year. American women make 78 cents for every dollar their male counterparts earn and the pay gap is significantly wider for women of color. This year, feminists celebrated the passage of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, […]
Iranian-American Journalist Roxana Saberi is continuing a hunger strike she initiated last week while imprisoned in Iran. Saberi’s father told CNN “She was supposed to see her lawyer on Thursday but the lawyer could not get permission from the courts to go see her…She says she will continue the strike until she is free from […]
California Attorney General Jerry Brown said in a letter to the California state Supreme Court that Proposition 209, an amendment to the California constitution passed in 1996 that prohibits affirmative action in public employment, education, and contracting, is unconstitutional. The so-called California Civil Rights Initiative effectively ended affirmative action policies in the state and gutted […]
A bill that would ban all abortion in the Dominican Republic was approved by the country’s Revisory Assembly last week. According to the Dominican Today, the constitutional revision in question states: “The right to the life is inviolable from conception until death.” The article was passed without including exceptions in the case of rape, incest, […]
Iceland formally elected Johanna Sigurdardottir, who is both the first woman and openly gay Prime Minister in the nation’s history in general elections Saturday. She is currently the only openly gay national leader in the world. Sigurdardottir became interim prime minister when Former Icelandic Prime Minister Geir Haarde resigned in January as a result of […]
A 25-year-old women’s rights organization in Singapore, the Association of Women And Research (AWARE), is in turmoil after being overtaken by new leadership. There is evidence that indicates the takeover was a planned coup according to several media reports . According to We are AWARE “On March 28, AWARE was taken over by a group […]
Connecticut Governor M Jodi Rell signed legislation Thursday that codified same sex marriage in accordance with a 2008 court ruling. The bill removes all gender references from the state’s marriage laws, allows for recognition of same sex marriages performed in other states, and will transform all civil unions in the state into marriages unless the […]
Three pro-choice appointments were approved for the University of Wisconsin Hospitals and Clinics Authority Board and the state Medical Examining Board by the Wisconsin state Senate yesterday despite opposition from Republicans and anti-choice activists. A spokeswoman for state Senator Russ Drucker told The Daily Cardinal that “[Senate Democrats] approved all of them because their views […]
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced yesterday that it will not appeal a court order directing the FDA to make emergency contraception available over-the-counter to women as young as 17. Edward Korman, a New York District Court Judge, ruled in March that the FDA must reconsider its 2006 ruling that allowed emergency contraception, […]
A jury found a Colorado man guilty yesterday of first-degree murder and perpetrated a hate crime in the death of Angie Zapata, a transgender woman. This decision is the first in which hate crime laws were applied to a murder where the victim was transgender. Zapata was brutally murdered in 2008 by Allen Andrade, whom […]
The Maine state Legislature Judiciary Committee is holding hearings today on two gay rights bills before several thousand people in the Augusta Convention Center. According to the Bangor Daily News, the crowd gave a standing ovation to state Senator Dennis Damon, who sponsored a bill that would legalize same sex marriage in the state. Damon’s […]
Iran’s Nobel Laureate Dr Shirin Ebadi will defend Iranian-American journalist Roxana Saberi during her appeal of an espionage conviction in Iran. Saberi was initially arrested in February, purportedly for working without press credentials. In March, she was charged with espionage and being an American spy. She was sentenced to 8 years in prison after a […]
The Arizona Department of Health Services announced Friday that they will apply for a $1 million federal abstinence only grant. According to a Department of Health Services press release, the funds would be used for programs that emphasize abstinence and are aimed at 12-18 year olds. A spokesman for Arizona Governor Jan Brewer told The […]
Several groups in Washington state have announced plans to gather signatures for a state-wide ballot measure that would overturn recently passed legislation expanding the rights of domestic partners under Washington state law. According to The Herald, the Faith and Freedom Network and the Washington Values Alliance are among the groups who are seeking to overturn […]
A pilot contraceptives program under development in England has already drawn criticism from the Catholic Church. Under the proposed program, students at six schools in Oxfordshire, a county in southern England, would be able to use text messaging to access general medical advice and contraceptives, including emergency contraception, from a school nurse. According to the […]
