AUSTIN, Texas — Today, the Texas Senate advanced SB 6 — titled the “Privacy Protection Act” — a bill expressly intended to discriminate against and block facility access for transgender Texans. The full Senate voted to advance the legislation by a vote of 21-10. The bill would overturn non-discrimination ordinances currently providing critical protections in…
The Arkansas Senate has passed a measure calling for a convention to amend the U.S. Constitution to define marriage as the “union of one man and one woman.” Senate Joint Resolution 7 will now go to the state House of Representatives. The Arkansas legislature has no authority to force Congress to begin the process of…
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Congressional LGBT Equality Caucus called on the Senate today to reject Sen. Jeff Sessions’s nomination for Attorney General. “The Senate cannot confirm an Attorney General nominee who doesn’t believe in civil rights to oversee our country’s civil rights protections – it’s worse than letting a fox guard the henhouse,” said LGBT…
Executives from Time Warner Cable, T-Mobile US, Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Etsy, Zynga, and others have signed onto an open letter now including over 60 major CEOs and business leaders urging Missouri lawmakers to stop the discriminatory Senate Joint Resolution (SJR) 39 from moving forward. SJR 39 would lead to a ballot measure that proposes to…
WASHINGTON — The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) has announced that HRC’s Board of Directors, comprised of community leaders from across the nation, voted Friday to issue the following Congressional endorsements focusing on incumbent members of Congress. “From supporting nationwide marriage equality, to co-sponsoring the Equality Act, these members of Congress have demonstrated a strong commitment…
Late last night by the Washington Senate Committee on Law and Justice voted four to three in favor of legislation that would specifically prohibit the state’s non-discrimination laws from protecting transgender people against discrimination in the use of sex-segregated facilities. The vote to advance SB 6548 comes shortly after a different Senate committee voted last week to…
WASHINGTON, D.C. – In an historic first for the Pentagon, President Obama has chosen to nominate Eric Fanning to lead the Army, a move that would make him the first openly gay civilian secretary of one of the military services. Fanning, who must still be confirmed by the Senate, has been a specialist on defense…
The 24/7 coverage of Trump-a-palooza and Clinton-mail makes it hard to remember there are other presidential candidates, much less other races. The 2016 Senate contests are worth keeping an eye on, though, as control of the upper chamber is once again up for grabs. Republicans regained control of the Senate in 2014, when Democrats elected…
SACRAMENTO – The Senate today, as part of the Legislature’s extraordinary session on health, passed legislation calling for new statewide regulations on electronic cigarettes. SB X2-5, authored by Sen. Mark Leno, protects the public against exposure to e-cigarettes by ensuring they are accurately defined as tobacco products and fall under the state’s existing smoke-free laws….
WASHINGTON – Today, in the first major vote on lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) equality since the Supreme Court’s Obergefell decision, the Senate failed to pass the Student Non-Discrimination Act (SNDA) – a bill that would prohibit public schools from discriminating against any student on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. The…
