Tag Archives: civil rights

The Associated Press reports: Kansas voters on Tuesday sent a resounding message about their desire to protect abortion rights, rejecting a ballot measure in a conservative state with deep ties to the anti-abortion movement that would have allowed the Republican-controlled Legislature to tighten restrictions or ban the procedure outright. It was the first test of voter sentiment after the U.S. …

The New York Times reports: A federal judge on Friday temporarily blocked the Biden administration from enforcing directives that extended civil rights protections to L.G.B.T.Q. students and workers. The ruling comes roughly one year after a group of 20 conservative state attorneys general filed a lawsuit against two federal agencies for their interpretation of the 1972 landmark civil rights statute …

USA Today reports: A federal judge sentenced former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin to 21 years in prison for violating George Floyd’s civil rights when he killed Floyd by pinning the unarmed Black man to the pavement with his knee for more than nine minutes. Chauvin was convicted in a separate case on state charges of murder and manslaughter and …

CBS News reports: The Supreme Court on Friday overturned its landmark decision in Roe v. Wade that established the right to an abortion, with a ruling that marks a seismic shift in abortion law and will usher in new rules limiting or banning access to the procedure half of the states, in some places immediately. The decision to undo nearly …

CNN reports: The Supreme Court limited the ability to enforce Miranda rights in a ruling Thursday that said that suspects who are not warned about their right to remain silent cannot sue a police officer for damages under federal civil rights law even if the evidence was ultimately used against them in their criminal trial. The court’s ruling will cut …

Religion News Service reports: Americans’ support for LGBTQ rights is higher than ever, according to a new report by Public Religion Research Institute, though two groups have “consistently lagged” in their support for key policies: Republicans and white evangelical Protestants. Those findings, released Thursday (March 17), are part of PRRI’s 2021 American Values Atlas project, a seven-year survey measuring Americans’ …

Gallup reports: The percentage of U.S. adults who self-identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or something other than heterosexual has increased to a new high of 7.1%, which is double the percentage from 2012, when Gallup first measured it. Gallup asks Americans whether they personally identify as straight or heterosexual, lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender as part of the demographic …

USA Today reports: The percentage of Americans who say they are satisfied with the acceptance of gay and lesbian people in the country has reached a new peak at 62%, according to a poll released Wednesday. Gallup’s annual Mood of the Nation poll asks people about their satisfaction with aspects of U.S. life and policy areas, ranging from the overall …

Vanity Fair reports: “As I see myself, I’m just the average Joe Blow Negro,” Sidney Poitier told The New York Times in 1959. “But as the cats say in my area, I’m out there wailing for us all.” That tension, between trying to be an ordinary man and having to serve as a racial exemplar, defined the life of Poitier, …

The Guardian reports: Any conviction that was imposed on someone purely due to consensual homosexual activity under now-abolished laws will be included in a scheme aimed at “righting the wrongs of the past”, the UK home secretary is set to announce. Priti Patel [photo] said more people would have convictions for same-sex sexual activity wiped from their records, as she …

Changing America reports: At least 20 million adults in the U.S. identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender, according to a new analysis of government data, representing nearly 8 percent of the nation’s total adult population. Millions more may identify as something “more expansive” like pansexual or asexual, the Human Rights Campaign Foundation said in a recent report. Using data …

Reuters reports: Botswana’s Court of Appeal on Monday upheld a 2019 ruling that decriminalised gay sex, a decision hailed by gay community as establishing the southern African country as a “true democracy”. Monday’s decision in effect struck off two sections of the penal code that had outlawed homosexuality. Before the 2019 High Court ruling, which was praised by international organisations …

The South China Morning Post reports: A Chinese LGBT advocacy group has suspended operations indefinitely and closed its social media accounts amid a nationwide tightening of social controls. LGBT Rights Advocacy China, a non-profit providing legal support for the LGBT community, announced the move early on Friday. Its final message on WeChat, one of the country’s leading social media platforms, …

The Washington Post reports: The Rev. Jesse Jackson was hospitalized Monday after falling during a visit to Howard University, in support of students protesting living conditions on the Washington campus, according to a spokesman. The 80-year-old civil rights leader was meeting with Howard President Wayne A.I. Frederick and other administrators when he “sustained an injury upon entering” a campus building, …

The Moscow Times reports: Russia’s LGBT, radical feminist and child-free groups should be recognized as “extremist,” the chairman of an influential government commission said Wednesday. “LGBT ideology, radical feminism and child-free movements should be recognized as extremism — an extremist ideology,” the state-run TASS news agency cited Andrei Tsyganov, chairman of a commission for the protection of children at the …

The Winston-Salem Journal reports: The Winston-Salem City Council on Monday approved public accommodation and employment protections for LGBTQ people and members of other protected classes, extending rules to the private sector that apply now only to city government. Most of the new protections go into effect on Jan. 1, although some enforcement provisions don’t take effect until next March. “It …

The Charlotte Observer reports: Five years after the state blocked Charlotte’s expansion to its nondiscrimination ordinance with House Bill 2, the City Council on Monday unanimously approved expansive protections for LGBTQ+ people and some of the city’s most vulnerable residents. While Charlotte has had the authority to enact new protections for gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation and natural hairstyles …

The Associated Press reports: The Michigan elections bureau has determined that organizers of a ballot drive to prohibit discrimination against LGBTQ people failed to collect enough valid voter signatures. Fair and Equal Michigan gathered nearly 299,000 signatures, short of the roughly 340,000 needed, according to a report released Thursday. “The Bureau of Elections threw out thousands of signatures that are …

Deutsche Welle reports: Riot police in Istanbul fired tear gas and blocked streets during a march in support of LGBT+ rights, detaining 25 people including prominent AFP photographer Bulent Kilic. The march participants comprised several civil society groups that gathered under the motto “the street is ours.” Footage and photos of demonstrators showed some being pushed and dragged by riot …

The New York Times reports: Texas lawmakers on Saturday finished drafting a bill that would impose a raft of new voting restrictions, setting up the likely passage of what would be among the most far-reaching laws in Republicans’ nationwide drive to overhaul elections systems and limit voting. The bill would tighten what are already some of the country’s strictest voting …