Gay and lesbian rights

Today 145 evangelical, Roman Catholic and Orthodox Christian leaders released the “Manhattan Declaration” — a document indicating that they will not cooperate with laws that conflict with their beliefs, including those recognizing same-sex couples. The document also references the federal Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) as a threat to religious liberty. Yet ENDA – which prohibits workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity – broadly exempts religious organizations. The declaration also argues that religious groups that receive public funds to perform social services are unfairly burdened by state and local laws on marriage equality and non-discrimination. HRC Religion & Faith Program Director Harry ... Read Full Story

This post is submitted by Meghan Stabler, a member of HRC’s board of directors and also a member of HRC’s Business Council. On November 5 we saw the first ever Senate hearing on an inclusive Employment Non-Discrimination Act (S. 1584). In the coming weeks, we understand that the House Education & Labor Committee will mark up the House version of the bill, H.R. 3017. I have deep hope and belief that we will see passage from committee to the House very soon. Meanwhile we have work to do ourselves, we have the ability to ensure corporate America actions and voices their belief in workplace ... Read Full Story

Photo from Google Images. Nov. 16 – 20 marks Transgender Awareness Week, culminating in Transgender Day of Remembrance on Friday. Cincinnati and Columbus have planned candle light vigils for the victims of transgender hate crimes and GenderBloc, a radical queer organization on the University of Cincinnati campus, will be placing flags on the commons to represent the amount of transgender people killed annually. Posted in activism, cincinnati, columbus, Events, ftm, gender, GenderBloc, mtf, Ohio, trans, transohio, University of Cincinnati Tagged: asexual, bisexual, cincinnati, columbus, ftm, gay, gender, GenderBloc, genderqueer, GLBT, GLBTQ, glbtqia, Intersex, lesbian, LGBT, LGBTQ, lgbtqia, mtf, Ohio, pansexual, queer, trans, transgender, transgender ... Read Full Story

Wouldn’t it be great to have an online source for all kinds of practical and politically insightful information highlighting the critical issues facing lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities of color? Now we have one with the recent launch of LGBTRacialEquity.org by the Funders for LGBT Issues . The new site serves as a virtual toolkit chock-full of thoughtful and timely resources, including: • A broad range of perspectives on dozens of issues and topics, from building effective alliances and addressing multiple identities and barriers, to challenging media myths and building power for LGBT youth of color • A state-by-state mapping of where LGBTQ ... Read Full Story

The Human Rights Campaign can now confirm the House Education and Labor Committee will vote on Wednesday, November 18, 2009, at 10:00 a.m. on legislation to end the widespread practice of employment discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. The vote was noticed moments ago. The Employment Non-Discrimination Act (H.R. 3017), introduced by Reps. Barney Frank (D-MA) and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), would prohibit employment discrimination, preferential treatment, and retaliation on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity by employers with 15 or more employees. Currently, it is legal to discriminate in the workplace based on sexual orientation in 29 states and to ... Read Full Story

This post is from Tom Sullivan, HRC’s family project deputy director: Yesterday marked the official launch of the OurFamiliesCount.org website which will promote LGBT visibility and participation in next year’s U.S. Census. This online public education campaign is a collaboration of LGBT community and allied groups that will motivate LGBT Americans to take part in the 2010 U.S. Census. HRC is a proud member of this coalition. The website has both English and Spanish language versions. Although the 2010 Census does not include questions on sexual orientation or gender identity, the Census does count same-sex partners and their families, which in turn, provides vital ... Read Full Story

In a somewhat of a surprise move, the Mormon Church supported the passage of a non-discrimination by the Salt Lake City city council that extends housing and employment protections to gays and lesbians in Salt Lake City. In delivering the Mormon Church's comments to city council, the Church representative credited the city council with balancing the rights of citizens to housing and employment with freedom of religion issues. Personally, I suspect what really motivated the Mormon Church was all the bad press that it has received in the wake of the largely Mormon financed passage of Proposition 8. Of course, it's also possible that ... Read Full Story