I am elated beyond words! President Obama has been re-elected. Marriage equality prevailed in ALL four states—Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, and Washington—that faced ballot measures. AND Tammy Baldwin is now Senator Baldwin, the first out LGBTQ person voted into the U.S. Senate. So many victories, including the Iowa Supreme Court justice who supported marriage keeping his seat and a host of openly LGBTQ folks being elected to public office. Mark this moment. We see a new future. Anything is...
Our Voices
“Relegated to the dustbin of quackery.” When I read those words from California Governor Jerry Brown after he signed Senate Bill 1172— the bill protecting LGBTQ minors from deceitful mental health professionals who falsely claim they can change sexual orientation or gender expression—into law, I thought “FINALLY!” With that powerful and apt description, Governor Brown has intervened to save current and future generations of young people from being subjected to a discredited, denounced,...
As was widely expected, the Supreme Court today declined to take any action on three important cases involving the rights of same-sex couples, including the challenge to California’ Proposition 8 and one of several challenges to the so-called Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). (See my Huffington Post blog post for a preview of the Court’s LGBTQ cases this term.) At this point, we still do not have any information about whether the Court will take any of these cases, or whether it will let the...
On Friday September 21, the National Center for Lesbian Rights attended a symposium at the Georgetown University Law Center on “Contraception and Conscience: A Symposium on Religious Liberty, Women’s Health, and the HHS Rule on Provision of Birth Control Coverage for Employees.” Anti-choice politicians and groups have tried to generate controversy around the contraception provisions in the preventative care regulations related to the Affordable Care Act. The regulations required that employers...
Last month, NCLR filed a federal lawsuit challenging Indianapolis Public Schools’ discriminatory treatment and failure to protect openly gay former student, Dynasty Young, who faced severe and relentless harassment at school throughout the 2011-2012 school year. By Chelisa Grimes No parent ever wants to hear that their child is being tormented at school, with classmates not only hurling derogatory words, but spitting on their child as they walk down the halls and throwing glass bottles. So...
This morning, the National Center for Lesbian Rights attended a national briefing sponsored by the National Black Justice Coalition and the Congressional LGBTQ Equality Caucus titled “Closets Are For Clothes: Being LGBTQ and POC in America.” The briefing included a presentation by Dr. Juan Battle, a professor at the City University of New York, regarding some of the key findings of the Social Justice Sexuality Project, a national study of the experiences of LGBTQ people of color in the United...
This Friday, LGBTQ folks across the country will be gathering outside Chick-Fil-A restaurants and kissing up a storm as part of National Same Sex Kiss Day, aimed at protesting recent anti-LGBTQ comments by a Chick-fil-A leader and the outpouring of support from restaurant chain-goers. And what better way to protest? Visibility is a powerful answer to oppression, and in order to show that our love is real and should be fully legal, we are proud to support National Same-Sex Kiss Day. But this...
Last week, the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) took a major step towards ensuring family equality for its federal employees. In the Administration’s continued efforts to provide equal benefits to LGBTQ federal employees, OPM proposed a rule that will extend important benefits to children of same-sex couples. OPM’s proposed rule will allow federal employees who receive health care insurance though the federal government to cover their partner’s children even if the partner is not a...
NCLR Asylum & Immigration Project Director For the first time since President Obama’s momentous announcement that undocumented youth will now be protected from deportation and granted work permits, the Department of Homeland Security has shed more light on the program’s implementation. This “deferred action” policy will take away some of the fear of deportation for many LGBTQ undocumented youth who are impacted by homophobic and unfair immigration laws. One of NCLR’s Immigration Project...
It’s hard to believe that many people think the law of the land already protects LGBTQ people from discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity. In reality, not only are there no federal protections regarding employment discrimination for the LGBTQ community, only 16 states and the District of Columbia have laws that explicitly prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. Without these crucial protections, the transgender community remains...
