Washington, D.C. – Nevada Senator Harry Reid released the following statement about the election of Donald Trump as the 45th president of the United States:
“I have personally been on the ballot in Nevada for 26 elections and I have never seen anything like the reaction to the election completed last Tuesday. The election of Donald Trump has emboldened the forces of hate and bigotry in America.
“White nationalists, Vladimir Putin and ISIS are celebrating Donald Trump’s victory, while innocent, law-abiding Americans are wracked with fear – especially African Americans, Hispanic Americans, Muslim Americans, LGBT Americans and Asian Americans. Watching white nationalists celebrate while innocent Americans cry tears of fear does not feel like America.
“I have heard more stories in the past 48 hours of Americans living in fear of their own government and their fellow Americans than I can remember hearing in five decades in politics. Hispanic Americans who fear their families will be torn apart, African Americans being heckled on the street, Muslim Americans afraid to wear a headscarf, gay and lesbian couples having slurs hurled at them and feeling afraid to walk down the street holding hands. American children waking up in the middle of the night crying, terrified that Trump will take their parents away. Young girls unable to understand why a man who brags about sexually assaulting women has been elected president.
“I have a large family. I have one daughter and twelve granddaughters. The texts, emails and phone calls I have received from them have been filled with fear – fear for themselves, fear for their Hispanic and African American friends, for their Muslim and Jewish friends, for their LBGT friends, for their Asian friends. I’ve felt their tears and I’ve felt their fear.
“We as a nation must find a way to move forward without consigning those who Trump has threatened to the shadows. Their fear is entirely rational, because Donald Trump has talked openly about doing terrible things to them. Every news piece that breathlessly obsesses over inauguration preparations compounds their fear by normalizing a man who has threatened to tear families apart, who has bragged about sexually assaulting women and who has directed crowds of thousands to intimidate reporters and assault African Americans. Their fear is legitimate and we must refuse to let it fall through the cracks between the fluff pieces.
“If this is going to be a time of healing, we must first put the responsibility for healing where it belongs: at the feet of Donald Trump, a sexual predator who lost the popular vote and fueled his campaign with bigotry and hate. Winning the electoral college does not absolve Trump of the grave sins he committed against millions of Americans. Donald Trump may not possess the capacity to assuage those fears, but he owes it to this nation to try.
“If Trump wants to roll back the tide of hate he unleashed, he has a tremendous amount of work to do and he must begin immediately.”Kellyanne Conway via a CNN article written by Eric Bradner:
"I find Harry Reid's public comments and insults about Donald Trump and other Republicans to be beyond the pale. They're incredibly disappointing. Talk about not wanting my children to listen to somebody," Conway, Trump's campaign manager, said on "Fox News Sunday."
Then, she added: "He should be very careful about characterizing somebody in a legal sense. He thinks -- he thinks he's just being some kind of political pundit there, but I would say be very careful about the way you characterize it."
Conway's reference to "a legal sense" led host Chris Wallace to follow up, pressing Conway on whether she was suggesting Trump might sue Reid.
Washington, D.C. – Adam Jentleson, Deputy Chief of Staff for Senator Harry Reid, released the following statement after Kellyanne Conway, senior adviser to President-elect Donald Trump, threatened legal action in response to Senator Reid’s comments on Trump’s election:
“It only took five days for President-elect Trump to try to silence his critics with the threat of legal action. This should shock and concern all Americans.
“Trump has always used threats and intimidation to silence his critics. Now he wants to silence a discussion of the acts of hate and threats of violence being committed in his name across the country. Silencing this discussion normalizes hate and intimidates the victims.
“The facts are stark and shocking. Since Trump was elected, acts of hate against Muslims, Jews, women and people of color have spiked dramatically. The KKK is planning a parade to celebrate Trump’s victory because the KKK sees Trump as their champion. Today, a headline in one newspaper reads, ‘Popular neo-Nazi site urges readers to troll liberals into suicide,’ while another reads, ‘Post-election spate of hate crimes worse than 9-11.’
“But instead of rising to the responsibility of his office, Trump is hiding behind his Twitter account and sending his staff on TV to threaten his critics.
“If this is going to be a time of healing, Trump must take action immediately to stop the acts of hate and threats of violence that are being committed in his name across the country. Trump owes the nation leadership, not petty attempts to silence his critics.”
Controversial anti-gay preacher Bradlee Dean is sick of the "left-wing" media's attacks against him, so he's decided to do something about it.
Dean and his ministry, You Can Run But You Cannot Hide, are suing Rachel Maddow and MSNBC for slander and false light, seeking damages in excess of $50 million.
Dean's lawyer, Larry Klayman, founder of Judicial Watch and Freedom Watch, announced the lawsuit at a press conference Wednesday in midtown Manhattan.
Twenty four hours after New York's landmark same sex marriage law went into effect, the anti-gay-marriage group New Yorkers for Constitutional Freedoms today has filed a lawsuit seeking to overturn it.
The group, led by the Rev. Jason J. McGuire, claims that the state Senate, in adopting the legislation, violated the state’s Open Meetings Law by closing off Senate hallways and lobby; and by holding closed door meetings with Mayor Bloomberg and others who backed the law.
The group also claims, among other things, that Gov. Cuomo and the Senate ignored the constitutionally mandated three-day waiting period before a bill can be acted upon and that lawmakers approved the legislation in exchange for campaign contributions from Bloomberg and other high profile "Wall Street financiers."
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court upheld a lower court decision striking down amendments that added sexual orientation, gender identity, ancestry, gender, and mental and physical disability to the state hate crime law.
The law, known as the Ethnic Intimidation and Institutional Vandalism Act, was amended in 2002 to include protections for these groups by a two-thirds majority of the state legislature. Then-governor Mark Schweiker signed it into law.
The lower court ruled last November that the law was invalid because it had been tacked onto another, nonrelated bill. The ruling did not criticize the content of the law, only the way in which it had been passed.
The Texas Supreme Court ruled Friday that Houston City Council must repeal the city's equal rights ordinance or place it on the November ballot.
The ruling comes three months after a state district judge ruled that opponents of Houston's contentious non-discrimination ordinance passed last year failed to gather enough valid signatures to force a repeal referendum.
"We agree with the Relators that the City Secretary certified their petition and thereby invoked the City Council's ministerial duty to reconsider and repeal the ordinance or submit it to popular vote," the Texas Supreme Court wrote in a per curiam opinion. "The legislative power reserved to the people of Houston is not being honored." Montenegro First Pride March- July 24, 2013
Police clashed with anti-gay protesters in Montenegro on Wednesday as they tried to disrupt the first gay pride parade to be held in the staunchly conservative Balkan country that is in talks to join the European Union.
Around 200 demonstrators hurled stones, bottles and flares at policemen in the coastal town of Budva who were keeping them separate from around 40 marchers wearing shirts bearing the colors of the rainbow, the symbol of the gay rights movement.
At least ten demonstrators were arrested and several marchers were slightly injured, according to police.
Protesters chanted "Kill the gays" and carried banners that read "Only healthy Montenegro", a Reuters reporter on the scene said.
Hundreds of gay and lesbian couples, from retirees in Woodstock to college students in Manhattan, rushed to tiny town halls and big city clerks’ offices across New York to wed in the first hours of legal same-sex marriage on Sunday, turning a slumbering summer day into an emotional celebration.
They arrived by subway cars and stretch limousines, with children and with grandparents, in matching sequined ties and pinstriped suits, to utter words that once seemed unimaginable: I do.
Even those who had been together for decades, watching same-sex marriage become legal in surrounding states but suffer rejection in New York, said there was something unexpectedly moving and affirming about having their unions recognized by the state in which they live.
Sally Ride was very good at keeping secrets. As the first American woman in space, she protected countless confidences during a lifetime of public appearances. During her post-NASA years, she regularly wrote and reviewed classified government material on high-profile commissions. When she died in 2012 of pancreatic cancer, a diagnosis hidden from all but a tiny handful of family and close friends, I started unraveling the mysteries for her biography. She was a brilliant, mischievous enigma.
But the most surprising revelation was the one that came at the end of her obituary: that for 27 years, she’d been in a loving relationship with another woman, Tam O’Shaughnessy. The collective gasp from an admiring public reverberated for days. A small minority complained that she’d squandered an opportunity to speak out for their rights. A few spouted homophobic hatred. Selfishly, as her pal of more than three decades, I was stunned; hurt, that I did not know Sally fully, that I could not celebrate her happiness with Tam. Then I thought, why does her sexual orientation matter? Finally, I got it.
Supporters of Wisconsin's ban on same-sex marriage and civil unions Thursday asked the state Supreme Court to declare a system of recognizing domestic partnerships unconstitutional.
Under a provision that was part of the budget Gov. Jim Doyle signed in June, couples will be able to apply for a declaration of domestic partnership with their county of residence starting next month.
The lawsuit filed against the state says that allowing such domestic partnerships establishes a legal status that resembles marriage - which the suit calls a violation of the state constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage and any identical or substantially similar legal status.
A federal judge in Ohio ordered state officials Monday to recognize the marriage of two men that was performed in Maryland on the death certificate of an Ohio resident in hospice care who the judge says “is certain to die soon.”
“The end result here and now is that the local Ohio Registrar of death certificates is hereby ORDERED not to accept for recording a death certificate for John Arthur that does not record Mr. Arthur’s status at death as ‘married’ and James Obergefell as his ‘surviving spouse,’” Judge Timothy Black wrote in granting the couple a temporary restraining order Monday. The order is in effect until 5 p.m. Aug. 5, unless the court extends the order at a later date.
“By treating lawful same sex marriages differently than it treats lawful opposite sex marriages,” the judge concluded, Ohio’s 2004 constitutional amendment banning recognition of same-sex couples’ marriages and Ohio’s statute addressing the same issue “likely violate[] the United States Constitution.”
Backed by the Alliance Defense Fund, Jennifer Keeton has filed suit against Augusta State University after, she said, school officials threatened to dismiss her from its counseling program when she refused to participate in a "remediation" plan to increase her tolerance of gays and lesbians after she made it known that she believed homosexuality was a personal choice[...]
According to the lawsuit, which included several e-mails between Keeton and faculty, school officials said that they weren't trying to change her views or religious beliefs, but that it was "unethical" for her to apply her own personal viewpoints to other people "and not truly accepting that others can have different beliefs and values that are equally valid as your own."
W. Mark Hamilton, executive director of the American Mental Health Counselors Association, said he couldn't speak to the specific lawsuit against Augusta State University, but that's it's not unreasonable that a student be requested to take additional diversity training.From the ACLU:
Jennifer Keeton, a student at Augusta State University (ASU), sought a court order requiring ASU to reinstate her in a graduate-level counseling program even though she insisted on a right – rooted in her religious beliefs – to counsel lesbian, gay and bisexual clients that being gay is immoral. ASU's counseling program requires its graduate students to adhere to the American Counseling Association's Code of Ethics, which prohibits counselors from discriminating based on sexual orientation, among other characteristics, and requires them to avoid imposing their values on their clients.
Legislation giving same-sex couples the legal right to marry received royal assent on Wednesday and is now the law of the land.
In a late-night vote on Tuesday, the Senate approved the Liberal government's controversial Bill C-38 by a 46-22 vote. Three senators abstained.
The historic vote comes after gay and lesbian couples launched lawsuits in different provinces demanding the right to marry.
On July 24, the first day New York's recently passed marriage law goes into effect, the city will conduct a public lottery to allow 764 couples to marry, according to a state press statement Tuesday.
Bloomberg, Council Speaker Christine Quinn and City Clerk Michael McSweeney made the announcement due to the high demand for services, they said in the announcement. The lottery, which started at noon Tuesday, will remain open until noon Thursday on the City Clerk's website.
The ban on same-sex marriage in Oklahoma violates the constitutional rights of same-sex couples living in the state, a federal appeals court ruled Friday.
In a 2-1 decision, a three-judge panel on the U.S. Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in the case of Bishop v. Smith that Oklahoma’s ban on same-sex marriage is unconstitutional on the basis of a similar decision the court reached against Utah’s marriage ban.
Writing for the majority in a 46-page decision, U.S. Circuit Judge Carlos Lucero, a Clinton appointee, said the court’s ruling in the Oklahoma case “is governed by our ruling” in the Utah lawsuit, Kitchen v. Herbert.
The U.S. Senate made history on Monday by confirming for the first time ever an openly gay male to serve as a federal judge.
By a vote of 80-13, the Senate confirmed J. Paul Oetken, whom President Obama nominated in January to sit on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. A simple majority was required to confirm Oetken.
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ruled that existing federal protections against workplace discrimination based on sex also apply to sexual orientation.
In its opinion, following a 3-2 vote, the EEOC said " 'sexual orientation' as a concept cannot be defined or understood without reference to sex," The Washington Post reported.
The final ruling, which stems from a complaint filed in 2012 by a man who claimed he was denied a job because he is gay, constitutes the EEOC’s official interpretations of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the primary statute governing employment discrimination claims against both public and private employers that will guide future EEOC enforcement of federal nondiscrimination laws.
Same-sex couples will be able to get married in England and Wales after new measures became law.
The government's controversial legislation on the issue received Royal Assent on Wednesday.
The Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrat leaderships all backed the proposals, which were finally approved by MPs and peers earlier this week.
It is expected that the first gay and lesbian wedding ceremonies will take place by summer next year.
Dan Cathy, the chief operating officer of Chick-fil-A, said there is no denying that his company opposes marriage equality.
Cathy said that he does not feel right billing Chick-fil-A as a Christian business because, as Christian business mentor Fred Roach once said, "There is no such thing as a Christian business ... Christ never died for a corporation."
However, Cathy told the Baptist Press he aims to operate the restaurant chain "on biblical principles." When asked whether his company had an established position against marriage equality, Cathy said, "guilty as charged."
Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Truvada (emtricitabine/tenofovir disoproxil fumarate), the first drug approved to reduce the risk of HIV infection in uninfected individuals who are at high risk of HIV infection and who may engage in sexual activity with HIV-infected partners. Truvada, taken daily, is to be used for pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) in combination with safer sex practices to reduce the risk of sexually-acquired HIV infection in adults at high risk[...]
"Today’s approval marks an important milestone in our fight against HIV," said FDA Commissioner Margaret A. Hamburg, M.D. "Every year, about 50,000 U.S. adults and adolescents are diagnosed with HIV infection, despite the availability of prevention methods and strategies to educate, test, and care for people living with the disease. New treatments as well as prevention methods are needed to fight the HIV epidemic in this country." [...]
The Partners PrEP trial was conducted in 4,758 heterosexual couples where one partner was HIV-infected and the other was not (serodiscordant couples). The trial evaluated the efficacy and safety of Truvada and tenofovir versus placebo in preventing HIV infection in the uninfected male or female partner. Results showed Truvada reduced the risk of becoming infected by 75 percent compared with placebo.
A group of U.S. service members marched in a San Diego gay pride parade on Saturday, in a demonstration organizers touted as an unprecedented step for gay and lesbian military personnel under the Pentagon's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy.
The military contingent in the parade numbered about 250 people, and the former Navy operations specialist who brought the group together said many are currently in the military, while the rest are veterans. They dressed in civilian clothes.
Utah Democrats made history Saturday afternoon, electing Jim Dabakis as state party chairman by a wide margin. He is believed to be the state's first openly gay major party leader[...]
Dabakis, who is an art dealer and co-founder of both the Utah Pride Center and Equality Utah, said his election shows how fair-minded the people of Utah are.
"I visited all 29 counties during the last five months, and people were very interested in what kind of a job I would do and what my experience was," Dabakis said. "The whole gay thing just simply did not surface as an issue. People are broad-minded in Utah, and they want to know if you can do the job or not."
Openly lesbian Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) has received so many death threats from God’s Gentle People™ that since 1998 the state has allowed her to list her campaign office address rather than her home address when filing to run for office. So now the Young Republicans of Wisconsin have filed a challenge to Baldwin’s eligibility to run for not using her voting address, claiming that she doesn’t live in the district she represents. They’d rather see her murdered.Below is the official Complaint.
 |
| 2014 Hilton Worldwide PAC FEC ID (C00213074) Contributions to Republican Candidates | |||
Name |
Amount* | Rank | 112th HRC Score |
| Comstock, Barbara (R-VA) | $7,600 | 1 | NA |
| Camp, Dave (R-MI) | $5,000 | 3 | 0 |
| Upton, Fred (R-MI) | $5,000 | 3 | 0 |
| Grimm, Michael (R-NY) | $4,500 | 7 | 0 |
| Cantor, Eric (R-VA) | $4,494 | 9 | 0 |
| Goodlatte, Bob (R-VA) | $3,500 | 11 | 0 |
| Love, Mia (R-UT) | $3,500 | 11 | NA |
| Bilirakis, Gus (R-FL) | $2,500 | 15 | 0 |
| Diaz-Balart, Mario (R-FL) | $2,500 | 15 | 45 |
| Heck, Joe (R-NV) | $2,500 | 15 | 0 |
| McCarthy, Kevin (R-CA) | $2,500 | 15 | 0 |
| McMorris Rodgers, Cathy (R-WA) | $2,500 | 15 | 0 |
| Ryan, Paul (R-WI) | $2,500 | 15 | 0 |
| Scalise, Steve (R-LA) | $2,500 | 15 | 0 |
| Noem, Kristi (R-SD) | $2,000 | 24 | 0 |
| Ribble, Reid (R-WI) | $2,000 | 24 | 0 |
| Terry, Lee (R-NE) | $2,000 | 24 | 15 |
| Katko, John (R-NY) | $1,500 | 27 | NA |
| Duffy, Sean P (R-WI) | $1,000 | 29 | 0 |
| Griffin, Taylor (R-NC) | $1,000 | 29 | NA |
| Issa, Darrell (R-CA) | $1,000 | 29 | 0 |
| Moll, Thomas (R-AR) | $1,000 | 29 | NA |
| Reed, Tom (R-NY) | $1,000 | 29 | 0 |
| Shuster, Bill (R-PA) | $1,000 | 29 | 0 |
| Total | $64,594 | Average | 3.16 |
| 2014
Marriott International, Inc PAC FEC ID (C00284810) Contributions to Republican
Candidates |
|||
| Name | Amount* | Rank | 112th HRC Score |
| Diaz-Balart, Mario (R-FL) | $7,500 | 2 | 45 |
| Heck, Joe (R-NV) | $7,500 | 2 | 0 |
| McCarthy, Kevin (R-CA) | $7,500 | 2 | 0 |
| Bilirakis, Gus (R-FL) | $5,000 | 6 | 0 |
| Boehner, John (R-OH) | $5,000 | 6 | NA |
| Camp, Dave (R-MI) | $5,000 | 6 | 0 |
| Cantor, Eric (R-VA) | $5,000 | 6 | 0 |
| Grimm, Michael (R-NY) | $5,000 | 6 | 0 |
| Ryan, Paul (R-WI) | $5,000 | 6 | 0 |
| Ellmers, Renee (R-NC) | $2,500 | 20 | 0 |
| Goodlatte, Bob (R-VA) | $2,500 | 20 | 0 |
| Hanna, Richard (R-NY) | $2,500 | 20 | 97 |
| Hensarling, Jeb (R-TX) | $2,500 | 20 | 0 |
| Issa, Darrell (R-CA) | $2,500 | 20 | 0 |
| Kline, John (R-MN) | $2,500 | 20 | 0 |
| McCaul, Michael (R-TX) | $2,500 | 20 | 0 |
| McMorris Rodgers, Cathy (R-WA) | $2,500 | 20 | 0 |
| Scalise, Steve (R-LA) | $2,500 | 20 | 0 |
| DeSantis, Ron (R-FL) | $2,000 | 31 | NA |
| Gowdy, Trey (R-SC) | $2,000 | 31 | 0 |
| Pompeo, Mike (R-KS) | $2,000 | 31 | 0 |
| Ros-Lehtinen, Ileana (R-FL) | $2,000 | 31 | 98 |
| Terry, Lee (R-NE) | $2,000 | 31 | 15 |
| Harris, Andy (R-MD) | $1,000 | 39 | 0 |
| Labrador, Raul (R-ID) | $1,000 | 39 | 0 |
| Poe, Ted (R-TX) | $1,000 | 39 | 15 |
| Posey, Bill (R-FL) | $1,000 | 39 | 0 |
| Rigell, Scott (R-VA) | $1,000 | 39 | 0 |
| Roskam, Peter (R-IL) | $1,000 | 39 | 0 |
| Smith, Lamar (R-TX) | $1,000 | 39 | NA |
| Total | $92,000 | Average | 10 |
| * Figure does not Include Contributions to Leadership PACs While I do not think the community should automatically cut ties with these sponsor, I do believe some very important questions need to be answered by both the community and the sponsors. Can we use our purchasing power to sway companies into pressuring anti-LGBT law makers into making better choices? If we can, is it worth temporarily slowing progress in exchange for long term gains? If can't should the community be in business with companies that give money to our opponents, even if they are great to us? Are gay people just walking money sacks with a high disposable income to be exploited? I don't think these will be answered anytime soon. Not that they are easy to answer nor would necessarily be of benefit. To reiterate, I'm all for inclusion, but should that come at a cost of our rights, privileges and benefits? | ||
