SACRAMENTO – Saturday, Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law a bill authored by California State Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez (D-San Diego) to prohibit law enforcement officers of the opposite sex to be in sight of a strip search being conducted at any juvenile detention center in California. After a local media outlet reported the practice had occurred…
SAN DIEGO – Today, Assembly Speaker Toni G. Atkins (D-San Diego) credited Assemblymembers Rob Bonta (D-Oakland) and Jim Wood (D-Healdsburg) for negotiating legislation with Gov. Brown and bringing the state to the verge of finally having medical marijuana regulations in place. Bonta and Wood, two of the lead authors of the legislation, joined Atkins, along…
Gov. Jerry Brown has appointed openly gay civil rights attorney Kevin Kish to lead the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing, filling a vacancy atop an agency under scrutiny for its own employment record, the Sacramento Bee. An adjunct law professor at Loyola Law School, Los Angeles and director of Bet Tzedek Legal Services’…
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…
SAN FRANCISCO — Gov. Edmund G. Brown Jr. has announced that he has appointed San Francisco Chief Deputy City Attorney Therese M. Stewart to serve as a justice on the California Court of Appeal, on the First District Court’s Division Two. The appointment, made during San Francisco’s LGBT Pride weekend, marks an appropriately historic milestone for California’s judiciary as well as its LGBT community: Stewart will…
Tuesday, June 3, is the California gubernatorial primary election. If you hadn’t heard, it’s in large part because the marque state races involve lesser known Republicans running in primaries, all for the chance to fight a decidedly uphill November battle against incumbent Gov. Jerry Brown and Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom. In San Diego’s highest profile…
Midterms don’t have the cachet of presidential years, but 2014 looks to be an important election year, particularly for San Diego and the LGBT community. Mayor of San Diego. Both candidates have history on their side. Special elections typically bring out a more conservative electorate, which would help Councilmember Kevin Faulconer. Councilmember David Alvarez benefits…
Today the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit upheld California SB 1172 which prohibits dangerous and disproved efforts designed to change a young person’s sexual orientation or gender expression that have proven to inflict great emotional harm. Gov. Jerry Brown signed the bill into law last year. A similar bill in New Jersey…
Following the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling that the Proposition 8 case did not have standing, California Gov. Jerry Brown has told county officials the ruling applies statewide, reports the Sacramento Bee. In a prepared statement Brown said, “After years of struggle, the U.S. Supreme Court today has made same-sex marriage a reality in California. In…
Following the controversy surrounding the Dr. Oz Show for airing an episode debating the merits of reparative therapy and the subsequent call from three LGBT organizations for Dr. Oz to distance himself from the practice, he has now written a blog post agreeing with the established medical opinion that the practice is dangerous. Dr. Oz…
