After the late June Supreme Court decision allowing same-sex couples to wed in California, marriage equality had a quiet late summer and early fall. That ended Monday, with the enforcement of a state court decision making New Jersey the 14th state with marriage equality. Gov. Chris Christie’s decision to stop his appeal promises that this…
“We treat our transgender students – our boys, our transgender boys and girls – simply like any other boys and girls with the same rights and responsibilities, rules and obligations,” stated Judy Chiasson, Ph.D. and program coordinator for Human Relations, Diversity and Equity, Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) at the June 12 California State…
This commentary first appeared in Huff Post Sports The current controversy over the NFL Washington Redskins’ name draws an inevitable comparison to the identical issue with the former restaurant chain Sambo’s. The unfortunate choice of name by Sambo’s owners, Sam Battistone, Sr. and Newell Bohnett, to name their restaurant based upon a melding of their…
In one of my past columns I personally took my own responsibility as a longtime friend and supporter of Bob Filner for not speaking out to him about his conduct. The facts are that almost all of us heard, talked, gossiped about Bob and his hitting on women, not for years, but decades. We laughed…
I was disappointed that Interim Mayor Todd Gloria didn’t run to keep the job. I thought he (along with Assembly Majority Leader Toni Atkins) had the best chance of defeating more conservative candidates to keep working on the progressive promises of former Mayor Filner. As one of his District 3 constituents, I also thought he…
In April of 2011 the Williams Center, released a brief entitled “How many people are lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender?” It was a brief that, compiling, weighting and aggregating data from several studies estimated the size of the LGBT population in the United States. Among the key findings was that “an estimated 3.5 percent of…
October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month and as I’ve said before, “The pink ribbon should be as important to the GLBT community as is the red.” During those dark, early and lonely years of AIDS in the 1980s lesbian women were the unsung heroes who many times took care of their then dying gay male…
Gloria Johnson, who died recently at the age of 76, devoted her entire life to the cause of equality for all Americans. She was not just an LGBT activist, but a human rights activist who spoke out and worked for the causes of any people or community who were discriminated against. Gloria was born in…
My parents bought my brother and me a video game system, allegedly to improve our hand-eye coordination and thus our poor penmanship. They quickly realized that we would play video games at the expense of all else, and set up some rules. The first hour was free. The second hour had to be paid back…
I work mostly on trans civil rights issues. I work on issues involving trans youth and trans military service. In past years I’ve worked on trans antiviolence issues, especially issues involving hate crimes and trans media coverage. I haven’t worked on other issues that I care about, such as a woman’s right to choose and…
