By Huong T. Nguyen NCLR Guest Columnist Year: 1992 It’s my senior year of high school, and this Army recruiter comes on campus. He’s targeting jocks, so he says, and tells me that he could make my dreams come true. Yeah, right. But I was curious. That’s how I found myself sitting in his office, listening to his pitch. “You could explore the world. Meet new people. Do exciting, honorable work. Develop discipline and confidence while you’re at it. And, we’d pay for your education.” Unreal....
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Obama administration
By Huong T. Nguyen NCLR Guest Columnist Year: 1992 They’re taking forever to arrive—acceptance or rejection letters from colleges. Small envelopes = bad. Big = good. Or at least that’s what I’m told, because none of my family members have made it that far in their schooling yet. Mom and dad only finished high school, same with my two older sisters. And at the rate my two younger brothers are going, they, too, will suffer the same fate. So it’s up to me. No pressure. ~ ~ ~ Mom and dad aren’t...
The Employment Non-Discrimination Act Necessary and Overdue for Workers (San Francisco, CA, May 17, 2010) — A coalition of national, state and local lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights groups are calling on Congress to vote on the Employment Non-Discrimination Act of 2009 (ENDA), H.R. 3017 without further delay. This essential legislation would provide clear federal protection against workplace discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. “We thank Speaker...
A Statement from NCLR Executive Director Kate Kendell (San Francisco, CA, January 29, 2010) —Today, the Department of Justice once again filed a brief defending the so called “Defense of Marriage Act” (DOMA) in Gill v. Office of Personnel Development, a federal lawsuit challenging Section 3 of DOMA, which excludes same-sex couples from all federal benefits and protections given to heterosexual married couples. A statement from Kate Kendell, Executive Director of the National Center for Lesbian...
A Statement from NCLR Executive Director Kate Kendell (San Francisco, CA, January 28, 2010) — Last night, in his first State of the Union address, President Barack Obama promised to work with Congress to repeal Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, the discriminatory policy banning gays, lesbians, and bisexuals from serving openly in the military. The National Center for Lesbian Rights issued the following statement. A statement from Kate Kendell, Executive Director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights:...
(San Francisco, CA, June 12, 2009)—We are very surprised and deeply disappointed in the manner in which the Obama administration has defended the so-called Defense of Marriage Act against Smelt v. United States, a lawsuit brought in federal court in California by a married same-sex couple asking the federal government to treat them equally with respect to federal protections and benefits. The administration is using many of the same flawed legal arguments that the Bush administration used....
(San Francisco, CA, February 24, 2009)— Today, the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR) announced that Kate Kendell is a featured author in the American Bar Association special edition of Human Rights Magazine, Shaping the Future: An Agenda for the New President. In her article “Ending Discrimination Based on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity,” Kendell details the need for existing federal legislation that protects individual rights, including those rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual,...
Dear Community, We are on the cusp of a new era as our country has elected its first African-American president, Barack Obama. We hope this unprecedented event will usher in a new chapter in our nation’s history. This past week has been a difficult time. With the passage of Proposition 8 in California to change the state constitution to eliminate the right to marry, our community has experienced a difficult defeat. We are angry and upset by the passage of Proposition 8 and the betrayal of the...