SACRAMENTO – A resolution introduced by Sen. Mark Leno that urges the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) and California State Teachers’ Retirement System (CalSTRS) not to invest future resources from their pension plans in Russia passed the Senate Public Employment and Retirement Committee today with a 4-1 bipartisan vote. Senate Resolution 18 was introduced in…
At last night’s MTV Video Music Awards, Macklemore, Ryan Lewis and Mary Lambert accepted the Moonman for Best Video with a Social Message for their LGBT equality anthem “Same Love.” Macklemore and Ryan Lewis performed the song with Mary Lambert and special guest Jennifer Hudson at last nights awards. During his aceptance speech Macklemore used the…
BOSTON — ONE®, the leading specialty brand of premium condoms in North America, has announced the ONE Pride Design Contest. Amidst all the exciting progress in marriage equality and other gay rights this year, ONE wants to give its community the opportunity to express their feelings creatively by updating its popular crowd-sourced wrapper design mix….
Military judge Col. Denise Lind today sentenced Bradley Manning to 35 years in military prison – out of a possible 90 – for leaking reams of classified information to Wikileaks. He has already served more than three years in pre-trial detention, including 11 months in conditions described by the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Torture as…
NEW YORK — In response to a new national law in Russia prohibiting “propaganda of nontraditional sexual relations,” and fallout from the law’s passage that has brought about an upsurge in violence targeting gays and lesbians, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) called on the United States to impose penalties if the Russian government does not “step backward on this issue…
It’s hard to believe that less than two months have passed since the Supreme Court struck down the Defense of Marriage Act and effectively ended Proposition 8. It’s even harder to believe that we already need to be watching the courts again. There are of course the various marriage equality cases that are peppering the…
WASHINGTON – The White House has announced Bayard Rustin, the late civil and human rights advocate will be posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award in the United States. An aide and confidant to Dr. Martin Luther King, Rustin was the main organizer of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs…
WASHINGTON – In an interview Tuesday with Jay Leno on NBC’s The Tonight Show, President Obama condemned a new Russian law that criminalizes even the most modest gestures of support for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people. The president stated that such laws violate “the basic morality that I think should transcend every country, and…
I was raised Catholic: First Communion, altar boy, confirmation – the whole 9 yards. My parents ran a group called “Pro-lifers For Survival,” though they were against the death penalty and for a preferential option for the poor, making them a bit more consistent on sanctity of life than many of today’s anti-abortion crusaders. Needless…
CAPE TOWN, – The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) on Friday launched Free & Equal, an unprecedented global public education campaign for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) equality. At a press conference held in Cape Town, South Africa, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay was joined by Archbishop…
