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In the News:
Senate hate crimes bill vote scheduled for tomorrow:
Please act today!
Focus on faith: ENDA and Episcopal Church controversy
San Diego mayor a ‘profile in courage and conviction’
‘Can they really do this to me?’ Adults’ neglect
of racial conflict dooms children
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Senate hate crimes bill vote scheduled for tomorrow: Please act today
The U.S. Senate will vote tomorrow on a cloture motion on the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act (also known as the hate crimes bill). A cloture motion ends debate on an issue, and brings it up for a vote on the floor of the Senate. This hate crimes bill will authorize federal investigations and prosecutions of crimes based on a victim’s sexual orientation, gender, disability and gender identity.
Your continued support and efforts have already paid off in the House of Representatives, where the measure passed May 3 by a 237–180 vote. Now, we need your help more than ever to tell your senator how important it is that this piece of legislation pass and finally help protect LGBT people from hate crime violence.
[ Send an e-mail to your senator ]
[ Learn more about our groundbreaking and longtime work to secure hate crimes protections for LGBT people ]
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Focus on faith: ENDA and Episcopal Church controversy
National Religious Leadership Roundtable (NRLR) members today expressed deep disappointment at the Episcopal Church House of Bishops’ response to the directive issued by the leaders of the Anglican Communion to stop consecrating openly gay and lesbian bishops and to ban blessings of same-sex unions. The House of Bishops agreed to “exercise constraint by not consenting to the consecration” of gay bishops and they also pledged not to authorize public rites for same-sex blessings. Read the statement.
NRLR members met with their own representatives and key leaders of Congress this week to urge the passage of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA). The NRLR issued a statement in strong support of ENDA, which was distributed in Congress during members’ visits to Capitol Hill. Most importantly, they stressed the inclusion of transgender people and the existing religious exemption as key parts of the act that they support. Learn more.
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San Diego mayor a ‘profile in courage and conviction’
“I want for them the same thing that we all want for our loved ones — for each of them to find a mate whom they love deeply and who loves them back; someone with whom they can grow old together and share life’s wondrous adventures. And I want their relationships to be protected equally under the law. In the end, I could not look any of them in the face and tell them that their relationships — their very lives — were any less meaningful than the marriage that I share with my wife Rana.”
— San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders, referring to his lesbian and gay loved ones, including his daughter
In a tearful change of heart, San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders (pictured) announced last week that he would sign a City Council resolution directing the city attorney to join in an amicus brief in support of same-sex marriage. Task Force board member Nicole Murray-Ramirez played a leading role in convincing the mayor to support the freedom to marry. “Mayor Sanders will go into the history books as a profile in courage and conviction,” said Task Force Executive Director Matt Foreman.
In other California news, please make sure to join us this Sunday for our Los Angeles Leadership Awards (LALA) at the Beverly Hills Hotel, as we honor LGBT rights advocates Christine Chávez and Dr. Judy Chu.
[ Get details and purchase LALA tickets ]
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‘Can they really do this to me?’ Adults’ neglect of racial conflict dooms children
“The behavior of the adults toward these young people amounts to willful neglect of children. How many academic lessons were being learned while the racial rage burned?” — Sue Hyde, Creating Change Director, National Gay and Lesbian Task Force
Because all of the actors in the Jena 6 drama are high school students, we must ask what the adults at the school and in the town had done to address and calm the burgeoning racial tensions at the high school.
[ Read and respond to the full blog entry ]
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