In an op-ed for The Advocate, Ana Ma, COO and chief of staff of HRC, and Matthew McClellan, the executive director of the National Council of La Raza Action Fund, urge President Obama to take action on immigration reform. Ma and McClellan write, “Two of the most pressing civil rights issues facing our nation today…
A judge Tuesday ordered a 29-year-old gay man who is charged with a lone misdemeanor count of spreading HIV to stop using online dating Web sites. Thomas Miguel Guerra, aka Ashton Chavez, agreed to do so after San Diego Superior Court Judge Dan Link called it “a reasonable request” from Deputy City Attorney Taylor Garrott….
A spray painting vandal tagged Metropolitan Community Church in San Diego Aug. 29 at night in four places, writing the words “fags,” “queers,” and X marks over two church banners. The hate crime was reported to San Diego Police Saturday, Aug. 30 after the vandalism was discovered. An officer took photographs, and the graffiti was…
An ex-convict who set three fires at a Spring Valley Catholic church in a hate crime against religion was sentenced Aug. 27 to 28 years and eight months in prison. Eugene William Volk, 46, of Spring Valley, will have to serve 80 percent of the sentence before he can be paroled, said Deputy District Attorney…
A 19-year-old man who tagged the downtown courthouse with graffiti has been sentenced to 180 days in jail and ordered to pay $16,071 in damages. Because Francisco Canseco received credit for 109 days already spent in jail, Canseco was released from jail Aug. 23. Canseco was placed on three years probation by San Diego Superior…
MALAYSIA — Malaysian religious police arrested a lesbian couple after raiding a hotel room in Johor Baru where they were staying, reports GayAsiaNews.com. The two young women had been arrested by officers of the Johor Islamic Religious Department, according to outinperth.com citing a Sinar Harian newspaper report. The newspaper reported nine officers searching the hotel…
HRC President Chad Griffin and litigator Roberta Kaplan are featured on the annual Politico 50 list out today. Griffin and Kaplan were both major players in the fight for marriage equality at the Supreme Court last year: Kaplan was Edith Windsor’s lawyer and Griffin was one of the key architects behind the case challenging Prop…
Stating that Crimea “does not need [gay] people,” the newly installed government of the illegally established breakaway region of Ukraine, has alarmed Russian LGBT activists and sent shockwaves through the region. Speaking to a public crowd Tuesday, Sergey Aksyonov, the de facto Prime Minister, added that, “If activists try to demonstrate in the region our…
Today U.S. District Judge Martin Feldman ruled to uphold Louisiana’s ban on marriage equality. Until today, no state marriage ban had survived a federal court ruling since the U.S. Supreme Court handed down its historic marriage decision in United States v. Windsor last summer. In response to today’s rulings, Human Rights Campaign (HRC) Legal Director…
SAN DIEGO — Rep. Scott Peters announced a blockbuster endorsement today from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the world’s largest business group. The U.S. Chamber, which rarely endorses Democrats, praised Peters for his work to “return the U.S. to its full growth potential.” “We believe that your re-election to the U.S. House of Representatives will…
