Tag Archives: civil rights

Reuters reports: Iowa’s “fetal heartbeat” law, the most restrictive abortion ban in the United States, was declared unconstitutional Tuesday, as it violates the Iowa state constitution, a state judge ruled. Iowa’s Republican-controlled legislature passed the restriction in May 2018, outlawing the procedure after a fetal heartbeat is detected, often at six weeks and before a woman realizes she is pregnant. …

NBC News reports: A federal court on Wednesday ruled against a lesbian couple who brought a lawsuit against a Missouri retirement home that rejected the women’s apartment application because their marriage is not “understood in the Bible.” Bev Nance, 68, and Mary Walsh, 72, married a decade ago in Massachusetts and have been in a committed relationship for roughly 40 …

FINALLY now that Democrats control the state Senate! From the LGBT Bar Association of Greater New York: Today we made history in New York! In an historic vote, both chambers of the New York’s Legislature finally passed GENDA—a measure to protect transgender and gender non-conforming people from discrimination statewide. This turning point is a victory some 17 years in the …

The Associated Press reports: Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on Monday signed a new directive to prohibit LGBT-based discrimination in state services or by state contractors, replacing a narrower order that her Republican predecessor issued days before he left office. Whitmer’s directive, like one signed by Gov. Rick Snyder in late December, says state contracts, grants and loans must include a …

The Washington Post reports: The Trump administration is considering a far-reaching rollback of civil rights law that would dilute federal rules against discrimination in education, housing and other aspects of American life, people familiar with the discussions said. A recent internal Justice Department memo directed senior civil rights officials to examine how decades-old “disparate impact” regulations might be changed or …

The Associated Press reports: Newly installed President Jair Bolsonaro targeted Brazil’s indigenous groups, descendants of slaves and the LGBT community with executive orders in the first hours of his administration, moving quickly after a campaign in which the far-right leader said he would radically overhaul many aspects of life in Latin America’s largest nation. In removing LGBT concerns from the …

The New York City Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings has upheld a ruling by the Taxi & Limousine Commission against cabbie Martin Morrison for ejecting a gay passenger. The New York Post reports: The male and female complainants said they got into Morrison’s cab at the corner of Fifth Avenue and East 43rd Street in Manhattan just before 1 …

Reuters reports: An Indonesian city has approved a bylaw to fine gay or transgender people up to 1 million rupiah ($70) for behaviour that could “disturb public order” or be considered immoral, the city’s deputy mayor said on Friday. The regulation is the latest example of a rise in government and public hostility toward the LGBT community in the world’s …

NBC News reports: Cities across the world will glitter with candlelight on Tuesday in honor of Transgender Day of Remembrance. From New York to Sydney, vigils will pay tribute to the many transgender people who have lost their lives to violence. Violence against the trans community has risen steadily in recent years, according to a grim report released Monday by …

The BBC reports: A Chinese writer has been given a 10 year sentence for writing and selling a novel which featured gay sex scenes. The writer, identified as Liu, was jailed by a court in Anhui province last month for producing and selling “obscene material”. Her novel, titled “Occupation”, featured “male homosexual behaviour including perverted sexual acts like violation and …

The right wing Washington Examiner reports: A group of 45 House Republican lawmakers wrote President Trump Friday stating that they were “deeply concerned” by the inclusion of “sexual orientation and and gender identity language” in the U.S.-Mexico-Canada-Agreement on trade. The representatives said the inclusion was “inappropriate and insulting to our national sovereignty” and urged Trump to remove the language. The …

Via press release from the ACLU: “By winning the first statewide popular vote on transgender rights, Massachusetts voters reaffirmed our Commonwealth as a place that fiercely defends our basic values of dignity and respect for everyone. When Massachusetts leads on equality, the nation watches – and often, it follows. Tonight, we sent a message not just to transgender people and …

The Boston Globe reports: If the word Masshole is good enough for the dictionary, it’s surely good enough for a political ad. But this still appears to be a first. A local group is using the colloquialism in an attempt to persuade Massachusetts residents to vote yes on Question 3, the referendum on the state’s transgender anti-discrimination law. “We’re Massholes, …

From the site Business For Trans Equality: We, the undersigned businesses, stand with the millions of people in America who identify as transgender, gender non-binary, or intersex, and call for all such people to be treated with the respect and dignity everyone deserves. We oppose any administrative and legislative efforts to erase transgender protections through reinterpretation of existing laws and …

Bloomberg Law reports: The Justice Department today told the U.S. Supreme Court that businesses can discriminate against workers based on their gender identity without violating federal law. Solicitor General Noel Francisco told the high court that a civil rights law banning sex discrimination on the job doesn’t cover transgender bias. That approach already has created a rift within the Trump …

Teen Vogue reports: In a bizarre and objectively hypocritical turn of events, Trump’s official website is still selling a pro-LGBTQ T-shirt in its online store. The “Trump Pride Tee” is a basic white crewneck shirt emblazoned with watercolor stripes of the colors of the rainbow, over which the words “LGBTQ for TRUMP” are printed. “Show your pride and your support …

I don’t often post these kinds of press releases in full, but reminders of all these past and ongoing actions are worth your attention. From the Democratic National Committee:  This weekend, the New York Times reported that the Trump administration has developed a proposal that would legally define gender as based solely on a person’s genitalia at birth, a significant …

Peter Montgomery reports at Right Wing Watch: The push by the Department of Health and Human Services to impose a trans-denying definition of “sex” onto federal civil rights law “would essentially eradicate federal recognition” of an estimated 1.4 million transgender Americans, according to the Times story. The effort is being led by Roger Severino, who has taken the anti-LGBT agenda …

The New York Times reports: Activists in the L.G.B.T. community mobilized a fast and fierce campaign on Sunday to say transgender people cannot be expunged from society, in response to an unreleased Trump administration memo that proposes a strict definition of gender based on a person’s genitalia at birth. The existence of the memo, the administration’s latest effort to roll …

Reuters reports: Puma is launching a campaign to mark the 50th anniversary of U.S. sprinter Tommie Smith’s black-gloved salute at the 1968 Olympics, shortly after rival Nike scored a hit with an ad featuring a modern-day activist for racial equality. Nike saw a jump in sales after its advertisement with American footballer Colin Kaepernick, who began kneeling during the U.S. …