Last night, Waveland, Mississippi unanimously passed an anti-discrimination resolution recognizing the dignity and worth of all city residents – including those who are lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT). Waveland becomes the seventh Mississippi city to pass such a resolution and joins Starkville, Hattiesburg, Greenville, Magnolia, Bay St. Louis and Oxford. “This is another important…
WASHINGTON – The day after a federal court struck down Pennsylvania’s ban on marriage equality, Gov. Tom Corbett announced the state would not appeal the ruling, officially making Pennsylvania the nineteenth state, plus the District of Columbia, where gay and lesbian couples can legally marry. As of today, 44 percent of Americans live in a…
WASHINGTON – Last week saw historic movement forward on the issue of marriage equality in America. Over the last seven days, a state circuit judge in Arkansas struck down that state’s ban on same-sex marriages, prompting hundreds of couples across the Natural State to wed; a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for…
WASHINGTON – The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) Foundation has released the inaugural edition of Equality Rising—a brief overview of many of the successes and setbacks of LGBT activists, advocates, and allies around the world in 2013. Released in advance of the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia on May 17th, this report aims to educate the…
WASHINGTON – Over the weekend on ABC’s This Week with George Stephanopoulos, Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, in response to a question about military health regulations which effectively bar military service by transgender persons, said he believes that regulations should be reviewed. Hagel said: I do think it continually should be reviewed. I’m open to that….
WASHINGTON – Friday, Pulaski County Circuit Judge Chris Piazza ruled in Wright v. Arkansas, striking down Arkansas’ ban on same-sex marriages. Following Judge Piazza’s ruling, Human Rights Campaign president and Arkansas native Chad Griffin issued the following statement: “I want to congratulate the plaintiffs in this case, as well as lead attorney Cheryl Maples and co-counsel…
WASHINGTON – Today the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) called on lawmakers, activists and allies of the LGBT community to speak out against the planned expansion to New York of a hotel chain owned by the anti-LGBT Sultan of Brunei. The Sultan recently announced that he will soon introduce flogging, amputation, and stoning as possible punishments…
WASHINGTON – A newly released study by the Human Rights Campaign Foundation, the educational arm of the nation’s largest LGBT civil right organization, The Cost of the Closet and the Rewards of Inclusion, identifies that most LGBT employees (53 percent) nationwide are closeted on the job. The report, released today, comes on the heels of a report by…
WASHINGTON – Human Rights Campaign (HRC) president Chad Griffin has written to Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki urging him to apply a broad interpretation of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in United States v. Windsor, to ensure recognition of veterans’ same-sex spouses regardless of where they live. After last year’s Windsor ruling invalidating Section 3 of…
WASHINGTON — Following Brunei’s decision this week to advance a series of penal code reforms that will include stoning as a possible punishment for relations between its LGBT citizens, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) sent letters today to the leadership of several organizations that currently plan to host events at American hotels owned by the…
