This is an issue worth dying for.
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#lgbtThe San Antonio City Council voted this week to add sexual orientation and gender identity to its existing non-discrimination policy, effective immediately. This means LGBT people will be protected against discrimination in matters of public accommodations, housing, employment and contracting.
San Antonio is the seventh largest city in the country, and it’s now one of the nearly 180 cities with an LGBT-inclusive anti-discrimination law in place.
San Antonio mayor Julian Castro, a Democrat who was an outspoken supporter of the LGBT-inclusive ordinance, called today’s vote a victory for fairness.
"This ordinance is about saying there are no second-class citizens in San Antonio," Castro told the AP.
Woohoo! Yeah, San Antonio!
The City Council of Fayetteville, Arkansas this week passed an ordinance protecting LGBT people from discrimination.
Passed with a vote of 6-2, the ordinance bans discrimination motivated by sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression. It applies to matters of housing, employment and public accommodations.
Oh, and fun fact: 19 Kids and Counting’s Michelle Duggar has already made this ordinance famous.
The ordinance became the subject of national news after TLC’s 19 Kids and Counting matriarch Michelle Duggar recorded a robocall in opposition to the ordinance, using a number of debunked talking points about transgender individuals generally used as scare tactics.
Duggar’s call played on the “bathroom predator” line of argument, equating transgender people to sex offenders and pedophiles, and suggesting that men will simply pretend to be trans as a means to assault women and children in private facilities. These talking points play on the public’s fears, and ignore the fact that transgender individuals are far more likely to be the victim of physical or sexual assault in a place of public accommodation than they are to be the aggressor.
Sorry not sorry, Michelle! Congrats, Fayetteville. This is probably much needed and a huge, huge step for Arkansas.
Today we honor those who’ve been lost to violence and discrimination with the international Transgender Day of Remembrance. Lucas McCahill of the LGBTQ Humanist Council of Baltimore shares the history of this day and explains why all humanists should participate in supporting Trans rights.
Lawmakers in Kansas are moving forward with a bill that would legalize anti-LGBT discrimination under the guise of religious liberty.
House Bill 2453 would allow individuals, businesses or state employees to deny LGBT people anything from wedding services to unemployment benefits if doing so “involves a strong religious objection to homosexuality.” The state House of Representatives approved it on Wednesday, and now it moves on to the upper chamber.
Supporters say it’s a necessary precaution designed to protect religious liberty in the increasingly likely event that a judge overturns the state’s 2005 voter-approved amendment banning same-sex marriage. But opponents fear the bill’s language invites broad discrimination and gives state employees license to ignore legally valid same-sex marriages.
“Kansans across the state are rightly appalled that legislators are spending their efforts to pass yet another piece of legislation that seeks to enshrine discrimination against gay and lesbian people into law,” state chair of Equality Kansas Sandra Meade said in a statement. “HB 2453 is a blatant attempt to maintain second class citizen status for tax paying gay and lesbian Kansans.”
Ugh ugh ugh. This is grossly unnecessary. Kansas, you’re not even trying to hide your blatant homophobia.
Yesterday, Maryland joined the handful of states whose anti-discrimination laws protect transgender people.
Gov. Martin O’Malley yesterday signed the legislation, which prohibits anti-trans discrimination in housing and employment. Conservative opponents are pushing to place the law on the November ballot for referendum, but right now, there’s a whole lot of momentum to keep it around.
The governor handed the pen he used to sign the transgender protection law to Sen. Richard S. Madaleno, a Montgomery County Democrat who fought for eight years to persuade his colleagues to pass it.
"It provides important protections for people who are just trying to live their lives," Madaleno said afterward. "They won’t get thrown out of their homes, out of their jobs, out of a restaurant, just for being who they are."
Thank you, Maryland. We’re getting there.
The Salvation Army has a history of active discrimination against gays and lesbians. While you might think you’re helping the hungry and homeless by dropping a few dollars in the bright red buckets, not everyone can share in the donations. Many LGBT people are rejected by the evangelical church charity because they’re “sexually impure.”
The church claims it holds “a positive view of human sexuality,” but then clarifies that “sexual intimacy is understood as a gift of God to be enjoyed within the context of heterosexual marriage.” The Salvation Army doesn’t believe that gays and lesbians should ever know the intimacy of any loving relationship, instead teaching that “Christians whose sexual orientation is primarily or exclusively same-sex are called upon to embrace celibacy as a way of life.”
I’ve seen the discrimination the Salvation Army preaches first hand. When a former boyfriend and I were homeless, the Salvation Army insisted we break up before they’d offer assistance. We slept on the street instead and declined to break up as they demanded.
Why You Shouldn’t Donate to the Salvation Army Bell Ringers | Bil Browning via The Bilerico Project
It’s Salvation Army bell-ringing season again, so here’s your friendly reminder NOT to drop your dollars in their red buckets this year. Check The Week and Chicago Pride for information about the charity’s history of anti-gay behavior, including its most recent offenses. The Bilerico Project has suggestions for organizations you can give to instead, or you can track down a local secular charity in your area.
(via gaywrites)
PLEASE REBLOG
Welcome to Kids In The House, an online parenting resource with a channel specifically for LGBT parents and children. Here’s the "must-see" LGBTQ video playlist, addressing topics like kids coming out, talking to a child about having two moms or two dads, and supporting a transgender child. Pretty cool resource. (via The Advocate)
The city of Topeka, Kansas, home base of the virulently homophobic Westboro Baptist Church, has passed an ordinance extending anti-discrimination protections to LGBT people.
This includes opening a domestic partner registry to same-sex couples, increasing opportunities for said couples to receive healthcare coverage, and banning workplace discrimination based on gender identity. In Kansas. For real.
Manspeaker said the votes send the rest of the world a message “that Topeka is an open, inclusive community and that we welcome all people here and we look forward to grow in that direction.”
The council heard at-times emotional testimony — in which both advocates and opponents claimed the moral high ground — before voting 5-3 to establish a city domestic partnership registry, which will be open to both same-sex and opposite-sex couples.
Justice is best served rainbow-colored. Booyah.
The LGBTQ student empowerment organizations Campus Pride and Point Foundation have partnered up to create an online resource for LGBTQ students looking for financial aid for school.
The National LGBTQ Scholarship Database is a catalog of scholarships, grants and fellowships available to LGBTQ undergraduates and graduate students alike. The creators’ goal is to show LGBTQ students that there are ways to fund a college education, even if you think it’s outside your means.
“Everyone has a fundamental right to education,” Shane Windmeyer said in a statement. “For our LGBT youth, especially those who are first generation college students and those from low to middle income backgrounds, the dream of going to college is still a dream. This national database is another step toward creating greater accessibility to higher education for LGBT youth. There is much more work to be done.”
Jorge Valencia, the executive director of Point Foundation, which provides many LGBT and ally students with financial assistance, believes this initiative will raise awareness of options these students may have otherwise not knew existed.
“Every year we receive thousands of applications for our Point Foundation scholarships. These are young people hungry to invest in their future and help society by getting a college degree, but are in great need of financial assistance,” Valencia stated. “While Point is able to help some individuals, we are eager to raise awareness of other diverse higher education scholarships.”
Man, I wish this had existed when I was still in school. Spread the word!
sixpenceee