NEW YORK, – The United Nations Human Rights Office today called on the president of Uganda to refrain from signing the Anti-Homosexuality Bill into law, and urged the country to ensure the protection of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people from violence and discrimination. “LGBT individuals in Uganda are a vulnerable and marginalized minority,…
Massive global interest in the passing and memorializing of Nelson Mandela last week illustrated again that people of color were humanity’s conscience during the 20th century. My question is will LGBT people be the conscience of the 21st century? If the systematic oppression, torture and denial of the basic human rights of a minority class…
NEW DELHI — At a time when queer rights are being debated vociferously in the media, Shaleen Rakesh, a poet based in New Delhi, India is set to release his first collection of queer poetry The Lion and the Antler in January 2014. Rakesh lives with the memory of creation and destruction, as forces he has…
Pitting the old against the new, a group of young, impatient LGBT activists are challenging the status quo in Orange County by refusing to be marginalized any longer among the nation’s largest Vietnamese-American population. According to a report in the Los Angeles Times, a group of millennials, headed by Hieu Nguyen, have formed Viet Rainbow…
Below is a proclamation signed by President Obama regarding Human Rights Day and Human Rights Week, 2013. HUMAN RIGHTS DAY AND HUMAN RIGHTS WEEK, 2013 BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA A PROCLAMATION Six and a half decades ago, delegates from around the world convened to adopt the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, rejecting…
PORTLAND, Ore. – The Portland Business Alliance board of directors has announced its support for legalizing same-sex marriage in Oregon, and said it would support a business community-led effort on behalf of marriage equity. The Alliance board voted to support amending the Oregon Constitution to end the current prohibition against same-sex marriage, while still clearly…
SACRAMENTO – The full state Senate today approved a resolution urging CalPERS and CalSTRS not to invest future resources from their pension plans in Russia. SR 18, authored by Sen. Mark Leno, passed with a 29-1 bipartisan vote. SR 18 was introduced in response to Russia’s new laws that discriminate against lesbian, gay, bisexual and…
BALTIMORE – NAACP President and CEO Benjamin Todd Jealous has announced plans to transition out of his role as president and CEO Dec. 31. Roslyn M. Brock, chairman of the NAACP Board of Directors, accepted his formal letter of notice this week. “We thank President Jealous for his time leading the Association,” stated Brock. “Under…
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Sens. Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Christopher Murphy (D-CT), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), and John McCain (R-AZ), all members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, have sent a letter to President Obama urging him to use his upcoming trip to the G-20 Leaders’ Summit in St. Petersburg, Russia, as an opportunity to call attention to the…
Lee Daniels’ The Butler One of the problems with starting a movie with the words “Inspired by a true story” written on the screen is that most people will focus on “true story” and not on “inspired by.” That phrase opens Lee Daniels’ The Butler – which I will refer to as The Butler from…
