civil rights

Homophobic Comments From Jeff Flake’s Son Reflect GOP’s Isolation

Submitted by ONE Community on June 17, 2013 - 12:00pm

In general, the children of public figures are off-limits. But with the recent remarks from Tanner Flake, son of Sen. Jeff Flake (R–Arizona), it’s worth relaxing that rule for a moment.

First, the details. On Wednesday, BuzzFeed’s John Stanton uncovered the Twitter feed of Senator Flake’s 15-year-old, Tanner, who used the social-networking service to threaten the “faggot” who stole his bike and broadcast his scores in an online game, where he went by the moniker of “n1ggerkiller.” His comments on YouTube contained similar language, calling Mexicans the “scum of the earth.” Read more »

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Tom Carper Signs On As 51st ENDA Cosponsor

Submitted by ONE Community on June 17, 2013 - 11:56am

WASHINGTON -- The Employment Non-Discrimination Act now has majority support in the Senate.

On Monday, Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.) signed on as the bill's 51st cosponsor. The legislation would outlaw workplace discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.

"Senator Carper believes it is important for federal law to explicitly prohibit workplace discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation -- in the same way that current law addresses race, sex or religion -- in order to ensure that all Americans are protected equally under the law," said Carper spokesman Ian Sams. Read more »

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Over 135 LGBT Groups Take the Full Equality Pledge Demanding a National One-Bill Strategy

Submitted by ONE Community on June 17, 2013 - 11:51am

Over 135 LGBT organizations from 35 states have joined in taking the Pledge for Full LGBT Equality calling upon the Congressional LGBT Equality Caucus to file a national bill for full LGBT equality immediately, and to fight for its passage by 2014, the 50th anniversary of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. The idea is simple: to combine all our separate legislative initiatives and community groups into one mass appeal for justice, big enough to manifest our dream of full equality in America and proud enough to reclaim our dignity. Read more »

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Supreme Court Rulings Loom On Affirmative Action, Gay Marriage, Voting Rights

Submitted by ONE Community on June 17, 2013 - 11:38am

UPDATE: June 17 -- The Supreme Court did not issue any major decisions on Monday morning. The justices are scheduled to hand down more rulings on Thursday.

Previously: With approximately two weeks remaining in its current term, the Supreme Court is set to hand down several high-stakes rulings in coming days.

The high court is first expected to rule in Fisher v. University of Texas, the case challenging the college's use of race in its admissions criteria. The court heard oral arguments in the case last October, during which several justices sharply questionedaffirmative action's constitutionality. Read more »

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Citizens Initiative For Equal Marriage Amendment Filed!

Submitted by ONE Community on June 17, 2013 - 11:07am

A Phoenix businessman and a Tucson attorney have filed with the Arizona Secretary of State's office today as an initiative to place an "equal marriage" constitutional amendment before Arizona voters.

Warren Meyer, a business owner, libertarian blogger and author, and Erin Ogletree Simpson, a retired Tucson lawyer and chair of the Arizona Log Cabin Republicans caucus, will chair and co-chair Equal Marriage Arizona, the newly formed campaign committee that filed the citizens initiative today.

The language of the proposed initiatives strikes the words "a man and a woman" from Article XXX, Section 1 of Arizona's Constitution and inters the words "two persons". Read more »

LGBT Americans Feel Growing Acceptance, Lingering Discrimination, Survey Finds

Submitted by ONE Community on June 14, 2013 - 12:09pm

The vast majority of LGBT Americans feel that society has become more accepting of them in the last decade, yet many still feel stigmatized, according to a survey released Thursday from the non-partisan Pew Research Center.

In the survey, conducted online among 1,197 self-identified gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender adults, 92 percent of respondents said they feel society has become more accepting in the past decade, and the same percent said society will be more accepting in another 10 years. Read more »

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Is Pope Francis Waving a White Flag on Gay Marriage?

Submitted by ONE Community on June 14, 2013 - 12:06pm

This week we saw reports about Pope Francis cryptically acknowledging the existence of a "gay lobby" in the Vatican, about which he supposedly believes something has to be done. But if I were on a crusade against gay marriage, like Maggie Gallagher or Brian Brown of the National Organization for Marriage (both devout Catholics), I don't think I'd be very happy with this pope so far. In fact, I'd say he stinks. Read more »

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Same-Sex Marriage Doesn't Affect Opposite-Sex Marriage Rates, Study Finds

Submitted by ONE Community on June 14, 2013 - 12:04pm

The data sets are in, and marriage equality isn't the harbinger of death for "traditional" marriage between men and women, according to a study from the School of Community Health at Portland State University published this week in PLOS ONE.

The study took the number of opposite-sex marriages from all 50 states and the District of Columbia from 1989 to 2009, as a percentage of the adult population in each state (somewhat poetically referred to as "those ‘at risk’ of marriage"), and compared it to opposite-sex marriage rates from the 13 states (and D.C.) where either same-sex marriage or same-sex unions became legal before 2009. Read more »

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Caterpillar Drops Boy Scout Funding Over Gay Ban

Submitted by ONE Community on June 14, 2013 - 11:21am

The Boy Scouts of America's halfway ban on openly gay members — permitting gay youth, but forbidding openly gay or lesbian adults from serving as scouts or volunteers — wasn't enough to keep former corporate supporter Caterpillar, Inc. on board.

A spokeswoman for the equipment manufacturer confirmed to the Associated Press on Thursday that Caterpillar has ended its financial giving to the Boy Scouts because of its discriminatory policy. Read more »

Supreme Court Does Not Announce Rulings On Affirmative Action, Voting Rights, Gay Marriage

Submitted by ONE Community on June 14, 2013 - 9:13am

The Supreme Court did not announce decisions Thursday in hotly anticipated cases on affirmative action, the Voting Rights Act and gay marriage.

The court is first expected to make a decision on Fisher v. University of Texas, challenging the university's affirmative action policy in college admissions. The justices then will likely rule on the constitutionality of Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act along with decisions on the Defense of Marriage Act and California's gay marriage ban, Proposition 8.

The court did rule Thursday that companies cannot patent human genes in a unanimous opinion, a decision that could have vast implications for medical science and the pharmaceutical industry. Read more »

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