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Posts Tagged ‘Human rights’

Idaho Legislators: We Will NOT Protect LGBTQ Citizens from Discrimination

January 11, 2012 Comments off

Stop LGBTQ Discrimination

 

 

Post-it(r) notes are a sticky subject at the Idaho capital.  Members of a group called “Add the Words” was halted by state troopers while placing post-it notes on the glass state capital doors.  Their message?  Add the words “sexual orientation and gender identity” to the Idaho Human Rights Bill.  Since October Idahoans have been mailing and emailing messages asking lawmakers to give legislation protecting the   LGBTQIA population from discrimination a hearing and pass the legislation.

While efforts have been going on since October to have a Human Rights Bill be heard by the House State Affairs Committee legislators were stunned and shocked when the “Add the Words” campaign showed up on their marble door step.  In Idaho, the House State Affairs Committee refused to give the Human Rights Bill a hearing for the fifth year in a row.  Sounds like they’re taking a page out of the Utah LDS Legislator handbook.

[Cody Hafner]  invites the public to post their own sticky notes or if you can’t make it to Boise you can send your request to your lawmakers to amend the Human Rights Bill by submitting it to the Add The Words, Idaho website at www.addthewords.org.There will be an Add the Words, Idaho fundraising party this Thursday, January 12th, from 5:30-8:30 PM at the Beside Bardenay on the Basque Block in Downtown Boise. It will be hosted by more than 30 human rights leaders from across the state. Cost is a $10.00 to $100.00 donation at the door. CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION. If you can not attend, you can send a donation to: Add the Words PAC Box 2661 Boise, ID 83701.

via Idaho State Police Attempt to Halt Sticky Note Campaign « The Idaho Agenda.

‪Nadine Smith from Equality Florida on DOMA

July 18, 2011 Comments off

Nadine Smith has been executive director of Equality Florida since its

inception in 1997, and was executive director of its predecessor, the Human

Rights Task Force of Florida prior to that. She joined the organization in

1993 after serving as one of four national co-chairs on the 1993 March on

Washington and taking part in the historic, first-ever meeting between LGBT

leaders and a sitting U.S. president (Clinton) in the White House.

Nadine’s talk highlighted legal inequalities concerning same sex couples in the U.S.

via ‪TEDxTampaBay Nadine Smith Equality‬‏ – YouTube.

Utah’s Closeted Workers…Turning the Gay Rights Clock back 20 Years

July 9, 2011 6 comments
The Human Rights Campaign

Image by julesreyes via Flickr

 

 

 

Although Salt Lake City has developed a more bohemian reputation than the rest of the state, coming out at work still seems completely unapproachable for some residents. Despite the admonition from Harvey Milk, Sarah Jackson (name has been changed), a 35-year-old Salt Lake City resident, said she would lose her job and her livelihood if she were to tell her coworkers that she is a lesbian, and so would her girlfriend of nearly five years.

“We work together at an accounting firm,” Jackson said. “We met at work, developed a friendship and that eventually morphed into a romantic relationship.”

…..

The firm is a small company and is owned by two business partners who are members of the Mormon Church.

“I just know that we would run into problems if we come out,” Jackson said. “They might not say we were being fired for being gay, but they would find other ways to let us go.”

via Closet workers in Utah | QSaltLake – Utah’s Gay and Lesbian News and Entertainment Magazine.

Wow… I feel sorry for these people.  Not only are their lives more difficult because they ‘have’ to be in the closet, but they’ve made the lives of every LGBT Utah citizen and every LGBT child who is bullied that much more difficult!  Thank you for setting the LGBT movement back 20 years!

These people should be ashamed of themselves.  Putting the risk of losing their jobs above their self esteem, above who they are and what they SHOULD stand for is appalling.  As adult LGBT people it’s our responsibility to speak through our actions!

How can you be a model for younger people that it’s OK to be LGBT, to be who you are, and that you should stay in the fight to be first class citizens if you can’t even tell your employer.

How can you sit back and let others do the work of advancing our rights while hiding in the closet.  If you want to one day be able to marry your partner in Utah, to have equal employment and housing opportunities and equal civil rights it’s up to EVERY individual LGBT citizen to pick up that torch and carry it, regardless of the personal burden you endure.  We will NEVER gain equality if we hide in the closet and hope that someone ELSE works in our best interests.

It’s time these people take responsibility and stand up, stand proud and stand out!  Stop hiding among your straight peers, within your families and among your coworkers.

Being a part of a silent majority of LGBT is no longer acceptable.  Use your voice, your words, your economic power and take ACTION!

  • Don’t shop at businesses who further the anti-gay discriminatory agenda
  • Vote against politicians who continue to stifle equality legislation- LGBT Rights are Human Rights!
  • Attend rallies & protests to further the LGBT community causes-Speak Out!
  • Come OUT to your family, your friends, your coworkers and your employers.  Visibility is political power!
  • Volunteer and donate locally!

Take personal action for those who fought and died for who they were, do it for those children who took their own lives because of bullying or being ashamed of who they are.  Take action for future generations so that they will not endure what we’ve endured. Take action for yourself… be a better person, server a higher human cause!

“Our invisibility is the essence of our oppression. And until we eliminate that invisibility, people are going to be able to perpetuate the lies and myths about gay people.” – Jean O’Leary

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Neo-Christian Right Wing Extremists New Tactic to Victory Over the Gay- Change the Words!

April 11, 2011 4 comments
Turkish homosexuals and human rights activits ...

Image via Wikipedia

As the tide in America continually shifts to recognizing the human rights of the LGBT community, the anti-modern American neo-Christian extremists are forming new battle plans.  Their latest and greatest ideas?  Don’t use the word GAY!!  As the battle for LGBT human rights have heated up, and conservatives and heterosexuals have gained an unprecedented exposure and realization that the ‘Gay’ are their friends, neighbors, peers, relatives, children and parents; Gay has taken on a positive connotation.

To thwart the acceptance of Gay as a positive label for the LGBT community, extremists are strategizing ways to change how they address the LGBT community in ways that creates a negative connotation.  I’m sure they’d love to use the stereotypical slurs, but that’s not going to sit well with the sheepish flocks they seem to attract.  So, they’re using words like same-sex attraction, same-sex intercourse, sodomy (now that one is original) etc.  You simply have to watch the video to understand the desperation these folks have in perpetuating the myth that the world will end if LGBT get equal human rights.  Even more importantly, in this time of growing acceptance, how do they keep the donations rolling in, when fewer people care if someone is LGBT.

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China to US- Get Your House In Order BEFORE Lecturing Others on Human Rights

April 10, 2011 Comments off

 

China Flag

 

 

 

Brothers and Sista’s… can I get an AMEN!

China over the weekend told the U.S. to stop lecturing it on human rights, and instead concentrate on getting its own house in order. The comments came after a State Department report criticizing China for arbitrary arrests of activists, and a lack of due process for detainees, and suppressing protests against the Communist regime.

We advise the US side to reflect on its own human rights issues and not to position itself as a preacher of human rights,” said China Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei. “[The US should] stop using the issue of human rights reports to interfere in other countries’ internal affairs.”

via News Briefs – Israel National News.

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US State Department on LGBT Human Rights

April 10, 2011 3 comments

Seal of the US State Department

Oh the irony.

My mamma always said “don’t be pointing out the dirt in other peoples corners if your house ain’t clean.”  Which is EXACTLY what the US State Department is doing when Hillary says it’s “extremely concerned about state-sanctioned homophobia” yet, in the US:

  • The federal government doesn’t recognize same-sex marriage
  • The government doesn’t extend marriage benefits to same sex married couples
  • The federal government doesn’t afford domestic partner benefits to members of the military
  • Individual states have yet to repeal unconstitutional sodomy laws
  • There are no federal employment or housing non-discrimination laws.

As admirable as Hillary’s statements are, perhaps she and her party need to open up the door of the White House and look outside at what they’re doing to over 9 million LGBT (according to a recent Williams Institute study)  in their OWN country!

The 35th annual human rights report of the US State Department has picked up on “significant disadvantages” experienced by LGBT asylum seekers in the UK.

In launching the report April 8 Secretary of State Hillary Clinton drew particular attention to the report’s identification of abuses against LGBT people internationally:

“Because I believe, and our government believes, that gay rights are human rights, we remain extremely concerned about state-sanctioned homophobia,” Clinton said.

She hoped that the reports which cover every country bar the US itself would “give comfort to the activists, will shine a spotlight on the abuses, and convince those in government that there are other and better ways.” They may also be used to bar aid to certain countries if the US Congress passes recently introduced legislation.

via LGBT Asylum News: US State Dept human rights report picks up LGBT asylum issues in UK.

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PRIDE in Utah » Breaking News: Transgender Woman Mocked At Utah DMV, Forced To Scrub Off Makeup

March 26, 2011 1 comment

Folks, I had to read this article three times.  With each read, I felt a wave of different emotion.  First came the shock, then empathy for this transgendered woman who endured this vile behavior , and then the anger.  I don’t know if anger can even really sum it up.  Anger, outrage, disgust well maybe it’s more fury!  How DARE an employee of the State of Utah (or anyone for that matter) treat someone with such behavior as to objectify and dehumanize them. 

It’s sad that this woman has been so humiliated after this incident that she remains anonymous.  I say, don’t give these DMV workers what they want, which is to humiliate you and shame you into not being proud of who you are.  Your human rights have been violated by bigots.  Stand-up, tell your story, better yet- SHOUT out your story and FIGHT for your dignity and humanity.  You are not alone in this state.  There are plenty of us who are here to help you and help you fight for the respect you deserve!

I also want to call out Amber Anderton- you ARE a local hero!  Thank you for standing up and defending this woman.  We need more local heros like you who act on what they see when they see it and call it out for what it is.  Thank you for defending this woman’s human rights!

Pride In Utah

 

Salt Lake City, Utah – Not a highlight of our state. On Thursday this week, a transgender woman entered a local DMV to renew her license only to find half the staff mocking and ridiculing her, including security forcing her to scrub off her makeup and pull her hair back before she could take her photo.

Local hero Amber Anderton

Local resident Amber Anderton watched a horrifying scene play out in front of her this past Thursday at the DMV located at 1095 Motor Ave. (approx. 200 N 1000 W) in Salt Lake City, as a transgender woman sat down at the photo station to renew her license. “When the DMV worker looked at her,” says Amber, “he immediately left and got another employee, whispered in their ear and they both began laughing as they looked back at the woman. They both then went and got security who escorted the woman back to a supervisor’s office. When they came back out the woman was taken to the restroom where she had to scrub off her makeup and pull her hair back before they would let her take her license photo.”

Read the rest of the story at  PRIDE in Utah » Transgender Woman Mocked At Utah DMV, Forced To Scrub Off Makeup.

Contact the National Center for Trans Equality at: 202 903 0112

By the way- The DMV where this happened is at 1095 Motor Ave. (approx. 200 N 1000 W) in Salt Lake City

Office: 801-965-4437
Fax: 801-363-2977
Hours: Monday – Thursday
7:00am to 6:00pm

Also- Contact your government officials and demand they do something about this!

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True LGBTQ Stories- I’m From Easley South Carolina

March 21, 2011 Comments off

MONTANA: House Committee Kills Bill Decriminalizing Homosexuality<<Joe.My.God

March 21, 2011 Comments off

Not only is this an issue in Montana, but Kansas as well.  Kansas doesn’t want to remove the law because they feel it’s a flash point, and the law is unenforcable.  The reality is both Kansas and Montana’s law is nothing more than a f*ck you to the federal government and LGBT Human Rights.  So much for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness..

JMG Reports:

It’s still technically illegal to be gay in Montana, thanks to their GOP-led House Judiciary Committee which today voted down a bill which would have brought the state in line with the Supreme Court’s landmark 2003 ruling in Lawrence Vs. Texas. Somebody needs to orchestrate an arrest by a gay-friendly cop and then sue the fuck out of Montana, pronto.

via Joe. My. God.: MONTANA: House Committee Kills Bill Decriminalizing Homosexuality.

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Montana’s Anti-Human Rights Pro-Discrimination Bill Passes Senate

March 20, 2011 1 comment

A bill designed  to strip away the ability of local governments to protect minority LGBT citizens of basic Human Rights has passed the Montana Senate.  The bill, authored by bigot Kris Hansen (Republican) is designed to repeal an anti-discrimination ordinance in Helena.  So much for the Old West’s mentality of Live and Let Live (let alone the women’s suffrage movement)… Now it’s live my way or get the Hell out!

 HELENA- A bill which could repeal Missoula’s anti discrimination ordinance passed its first hurdle in the Montana Senate on Friday.

Representative Kris Hansen’s bill would prevent local governments from protecting certain classes of people who are not protected under state law. Legislators amended the bill to apply only to local ordinances and not to resolutions or policies.

“There was not one member of the Missoula delegation who supported this bill. Not one. I find it very disheartening, that a member from a very far and away across the mountains, a member of the legislature would impose such a thought on a city.” said State Senator Shannon Augare (D-Browning).

via Bill to repeal Missoula anti-discrimination ordinance progresses | KAJ18.com | Kalispell, Montana.

Kris Hansen

Contact Kris and tell her what you think about her intolerance and bigotry:

E-Mail

krishansen33@gmail.com

Phone

My phone number is (406) 265-4754. Call me if you have issues you’d like to discuss. If you call during business hours, please leave me a message and I’ll call back as soon as I can.

Mail

My address is 519 First Avenue, Havre, MT 59501. Good, old fashioned, stamped envelopes are welcome!

via Contact « Kris Hansen For Montana House.

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Bigotry and Intolerance at the Top of Iowa’s NAACP

March 19, 2011 4 comments

Rev. Keith Ratliff

 

The Rev. Keith Ratliff who is the State Conference President of the Iowa/Nebraska NAACP, spoke recently about his opposition to LGBT Human Rights in Iowa.  He hides his bigotry and intolerance as his interpretation of the Word of God.    He calls marriage equality a battleground and bases his need to vote that marriage being between a man and a woman is a social issue for pro-creation.   He further claims that LGBT are hijacking the Civil Rights Movement and that LGBT Human Rights have no parallel and are an insult to the Civil Rights movement.

He claims that “just because we have a different viewpoint based on how we interpret the word of God, doesn’t make us bad people, doesn’t make us haters”.  In fact, this is the same argument that Southern Baptists used to propagate slavery in the 1800′s.  Southern Baptists cited the Bible and it’s use of slaves to JUSTIFY their right to be a slave holder.   It’s an ironic twist the NAACP in Iowa is using the same argument to suppress the Human Rights of others.  Institutionalizing hate in a legislative act is NOT an opposition;  it’s oppression.

Rev. Keith Ratliff, state conference president of the NAACP for Iowa and Nebraska, accused LGBT people of hijacking the Civil Rights Movement. Ratliff also said that, because of his belief in the Bible, if Rev. Martin Luther King were alive today, he would not have supported marriage equality.

But Rev. Ratliff does not speak for all faith leaders, nor does he speak for other NAACP leaders.

In fact, many of the men and women closest to Rev. King have voiced their strong support for marriage equality, including his beloved wife, Mrs. Coretta Scott King, an amazing activist in her own right. 



“Gay and lesbian people have families, and their families should have legal protection, whether by marriage or civil union,” she said in an address in 2004. “A constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriages is a form of gay bashing, and it would do nothing at all to protect traditional marriages.”

via EXTREME RIGHT WATCH: Rev. Keith Ratliff | One Iowa: Protecting Marriage Equality and Gay Rights.

The ‘Reverend’ is the spiritual leader of the Maple Street Missionary Baptist Church.  I urge you to contact him and share your disagreement that LGBT Human Rights aren’t Civil Rights.

Maple Street Missionary Baptist Church
1552 Maple Street
Des Moines, Iowa, 50316

Phone: (515)-262-1931

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Montana House Committee Advances Bill to Prevent LGBT Protections

February 21, 2011 2 comments
The state Capitol building, Helena, Montana

Image via Wikipedia

The Montana state legislature has introduced legislation which effectively bans municipalities from exceeding protected classes as defined by the Montana Human Rights Act.  The effect is it would nullify Missoula’s ordinance protecting LGBT citizens from housing and employment discrimination.  It’s interesting to see a state which historically shun’s federal intervention doing the same thing they argue against to their own cities. 

HELENA, Mont. — The Montana State House Judiciary Committee on Monday approved a bill that would prohibit local municipalities from enacting ordinances that include, as a protected class from discrimination, any groups not included under the Montana Human Rights Act.

The measure, House Bill 516, would effectively nullify the city of Missoula’s 2010 ordinance that protects its LGBT citizens from employment, housing and other forms of discrimination because of their sexual orientation or gender identity.

via Montana House committee advances bill to prevent LGBT protections – LGBTQ Nation.

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Anti-Gay Bully Teacher Sues State of MN

January 3, 2011 Comments off

 

While Filson denies harassing Merritt it’s interesting that the school district obviously had enough doubt to award Merritt a 25k settlement.. Oh, and what does it say about not one, but two teachers whose actions make a STUDENT feel threatened enough to go public with such accusations?  Maybe the district needs to evaluate their hiring practices?

An Anoka-Hennepin School District teacher who was accused of harassing a student he thought was gay is suing the state because the Department of Human Rights disclosed his name in a report about the investigation. Walter Filson filed suit against the state of Minnesota late last week. Filson was one of two teachers accused of harassing Alex Merritt, who is not gay. Merritt got a $25,000 settlement from the school district in 2009. Filson’s suit comes after a similar one filed by Diane Cleveland, whom the Department of Human Rights claimed conspired with Filson to harass Merritt. Earlier this year Cleveland won her lawsuit against the state. A judge ruled that the department should not have disclosed her name because she was not a defendant or plaintiff in the complaint; the department did not actually lodge any penalty against Cleveland or Filson but simply reported the accusations and the department’s conclusions.

Filson and Cleveland have denied repeatedly that they harassed Merritt.

via Teacher accused of anti-gay bullying sues the state | Minnesota Independent: News. Politics. Media..

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LGBT Asylum News: Big victory for USA in fresh United Nations ‘gay killings’ vote

December 23, 2010 Comments off
United Nations Human Rights Council logo.

Image via Wikipedia

The United Nations General Assembly voted 93 for, 55 against with 27 abstaining to reinsert ‘sexual orientation’ into a resolution condemning extrajudicial killings. The vote followed the United States insistence on bringing the resolution back for another vote.

It was removed last month in a move led by African and Islamic countries.

This means that 23 nations changed their vote to yes, 15 didn’t vote no and nine more abstained – 47 in total went in a positive direction. This is a quarter of the UN membership.

One third of African countries changed their vote positively, including Rwanda and Angola voting yes.

Almost the whole of the Caribbean changed their vote positively, including Jamaica.

In the debate at the UN the most moving contribution was from the Rwandan delegate who said that a group does not need to be “legally defined” to be targeted for massacres and referenced his countries experience. “We can’t continue to hide our heads in the sand” he said.”These people have a right to life.”

The reference to ‘legal definition’ was a pointed reference to the argument of other African countries, led by Benin, as well as the Islamic countries, led by Tajikistan and Arab countries, led by UAE, that ‘sexual orientation’ wasn’t defined and wasn’t covered by international human rights agreements.

via LGBT Asylum News: Big victory for USA in fresh United Nations ‘gay killings’ vote.

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Human Rights Report: Iran harassing gays

December 17, 2010 Comments off

Iranian President

Iranians convicted for same-sex activities are on death row and awaiting hanging, including several who were minors when arrested, Human Rights Watch said Wednesday.

Thousands of people are believed to have been condemned to death for homosexual activity since the 1979 Iranian revolution, and the public hanging of two men – one of them a minor – in 2005 for having consensual sex drew international attention.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was jeered when he said in a speech at Colombia University that homosexuality did not exist in Iran.

Iranian law criminalizes all sex outside traditional marriage. But the report said the government “appears to officially sanction harassment and abuse” of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Iranians, who are often seen as “diseased, criminals or corrupt agents of Western culture.”

Under Iran’s Islamic law, same-sex intercourse between two men is punishable by death, but the penalty is more lenient for lesbians – 100 lashes for the first three offenses and the death penalty for the fourth. Often convictions are based on forced confessions, Sanei told reporters.

The New York-based group released the report in Amsterdam, where it recently opened an office, to underscore the threat to asylum seekers facing deportation back to Iran, as European countries toughen their asylum regulations and turn away more applicants.

via Human Rights report slams Iran for harassing gays.

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