Protection includes sexual orientation, gender identity, and disabilities.
Washington (CNN) -- President Obama on Wednesday signed a law that makes it a federal crime to assault an individual because of his or her sexual orientation or gender identity.
The expanded federal hate crimes law, hailed by supporters as the first major federal gay rights legislation, was added to a $680 billion defense authorization bill that Obama signed at a packed White House ceremony.
The hate crimes measure was named for Matthew Shepard, a gay Wyoming teenager who died after being kidnapped and severely beaten in October 1998, and James Byrd Jr., an African-American man dragged to death in Texas the same year.
Shepard's mother, Judy, was among those at the ceremony that also included Vice President Joe Biden, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Attorney General Eric Holder and leading members of Congress and the Pentagon, who were on hand for the appropriations bill signing.
To loud applause, Obama hailed the hate crimes measure in the bill as a step toward change to "help protect our citizens from violence based on what they look like, who they love, how they pray."
He cited the work of the late Sen. Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts and others "to make this day possible."
Later Wednesday, Obama stood with Shepard's parents and relatives of Byrd at a separate White House event honoring passage of the expanded hate crimes law.
Noting reports of 12,000 crimes based on sexual orientation over the past 10 years, Obama called the bill another step in the continuing struggle for protecting human rights.
"Because of the efforts of the folks in this room, particularly those family members standing behind me, the bell rings even louder now," Obama said. When he finished his remarks, he hugged the weeping relatives as the audience applauded.
Several religious groups have expressed concern that a hate crimes law could be used to criminalize conservative speech relating to subjects such as abortion or homosexuality. However, Holder has said that any federal hate-crimes law would be used only to prosecute violent acts based on bias, not to prosecute speech based on controversial racial or religious beliefs.
Former President George W. Bush had threatened to veto a similar measure, but Obama brought a reversal of that policy to the White House.
When the bill won final congressional approval last week, Human Rights Campaign president Joe Solmonese called the hate crimes measure "our nation's first major piece of civil rights legislation for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people."
Earlier this month, Obama told the Human Rights Campaign, the country's largest gay rights group, that the nation still needs to make significant changes to ensure equal rights for gays and lesbians.
"Despite the progress we've made, there are still laws to change and hearts to open," he said in an address at the group's annual dinner. "This fight continues now and I'm here with the simple message: I'm here with you in that fight."
Among other things, Obama has called for the repeal of the ban on gays serving openly in the military -- the "don't ask, don't tell" policy. He also has urged Congress to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act and pass the Domestic Partners Benefit and Obligations Act.
The Defense of Marriage Act defines marriage, for federal purposes, as a legal union between a man and a woman. It allows states to refuse to recognize same-sex marriages. The Domestic Partners Benefit and Obligations Act would extend family benefits now available to heterosexual federal employees to gay and lesbian federal workers.
However, some advocates for stronger rights for the lesbian-gay-bisexual-transgender community have complained that Obama's administration is moving too slowly on his legislative promises.
Opponents of the expanded hate crimes bill challenged the need to specify one particular community in federal legislation. They contended that existing federal hate crimes laws were sufficient to protect the rights of people based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
More than 77,000 hate-crime incidents were reported by the FBI between 1998 and 2007, or "nearly one
hate crime for every hour of every day over the span of a decade," Holder told the Senate Judiciary Committee in June.
At Wednesday's signing, Obama also praised what he called a bipartisan effort to start changing the culture of military spending through the annual appropriations bill. He noted that Gates had worked with congressional leaders to end what Obama called wasteful projects like the F-22 fighter bomber and a new presidential helicopter that would have cost "almost as much as Air Force One."
"I won't be flying on that," the president said.
Noting that cost overruns in military projects total tens of billions of dollars, Obama called for further "fundamental" reforms in how the government and Pentagon do business.
"We all know where this kind of waste comes from," he said, citing "indefensible" no-bid contracts and special interests pushing unneeded weapons systems.
Such actions are "inexcusable", "unconscionable" and an "affront to the American people" as the nation faces two wars and an economic recession,
Obama said.
"Today I'm pleased to say that we have proved that change is possible," he said.
Source: cnn.com
Gay Marriage hangs in the balance
(Hallowell, Maine) Tuesday. In a narrow, windowless office with dark walls in the basement of a building on the banks of Maine’s Kennebec River, about a dozen men and women –both chipper and observant— listen as Trina Olson reviews the morning lesson: “Don’t try to respond to everything…smile…tell your story…it’s your credentialing.”
Olson’s gestures conveyed a sense of urgency. She points, she underscores, she emphasizes what “you” have to do and what “we” have to do.
In just a few short days, the goal for this office, the Central Maine office of the “No on 1” campaign, will be to dial up 4,390 people and knock on 17,211 doors. They are specific numbers that somebody has calculated are necessary to get out the “No” vote in this area on November 3.
That’s when Maine will vote on Question 1: Do you want to reject the new law that lets same-sex couples marry and allows individuals and religious groups to refuse to perform these marriages?
After the review session is over and everyone disburses to other parts of the headquarters, a woman in her sixties comes to the door of one of the smaller offices –one with a window, but it’s a gray day.
She says she someone at the office called to recruit her as a volunteer. “I told him, ‘I don’t think I’m on your side,’” she tells the several volunteers gathered there. There’s a subtle but distinct drop to silence in the room.
Jacob McClain, a 28-year-old waiter from Cleveland, Ohio, looks up at her earnestly. He was due to go back to Ohio last weekend, but decided to stay to the end.
This is his first time working on a campaign but watching the loss of Proposition 8 hit him really hard. He doesn’t want to wake up November 4 this year and think “what else could I have done.”
“I’m doing all I can,” he says.
He’s been put in charge of making sure that the Central office has at least 900 volunteer shifts filled with real people during the course of the campaign. He stares at the woman in the doorway and puts his hand to his forehead. Then, he reaches in her direction.
“But then you realized you were on our side,” he said, apparently remembering her story from having been told it by the volunteer who initially recruited her. “That’s right,” she says, as chatter in the room resumes.
The ballot choice in Maine is confusing, as it often has been on this issue in other states: Vote YES if you’re against gay marriage; vote NO if you are for it. This woman is for it. She wants to keep the law that the legislature just passed this year, allowing same-sex couples to obtain marriage licenses the same as straight couples.
She and her husband, who live in a nearby conservative town, have relatives who are gay and believe people have a right to have their relationships respected and to have their privacy.
Another volunteer, Mary McKeen, a native of Maine of similar age, also married to a man and also from a small conservative town nearby, escorts her to a desk to give her a task. Mary is voting “No on 1,” too.
Her husband had written a letter to the editor of a paper, noting that the same arguments used against gay marriage now were arguments he heard in the 1960s when a friend of his, who was black, married to a white woman.
History, of course, is often prologue. And there’s some history to look to on gay-related ballot measures in Maine to underscore what the polls have been saying: Next Tuesday’s vote will be excruciatingly close.
On the past four gay-related ballot measures in Maine, the pro-gay side has won twice, and lost twice. Of the state’s 16 counties, five have consistently voted against gay equal rights and five have consistently voted for it. The remaining six counties have mixed records.
Those six counties with mixed records are next week’s wild cards, and they are likely to cast about 30 percent of the votes, either way.
Penobscot county, home of Bangor, the state’s third most populous city, is the largest. It has voted against gay equal rights in three out of four ballot measures.
But Franklin, Waldo, and Kennebec counties have voted against gay equal rights two out of four times–yet most recently, in 2005, they’ve voted for equal rights.
In fact, Kennebec, the largest of those three and the home of the state capital, might well be the best bellwether of voting in Maine, at least on gay civil rights measures.
As Kennebec County has voted, so has the state of Maine in the four gay-related ballot measures since 1995. It voted against blocking civil rights protections in 1995, for repealing sexual orientation protections in 1998, against a pro-active civil rights measure in 2000, and against repealing a gay civil rights protection law in 2005.
The question now –with a record of two and two— is which way will Kennebec and the state of Maine go in 2009.
As head of the No on 1 campaign’s Central field office in Hallowell, Olson, a senior field organizer from the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, is single-mindedly determined to improve that record. She’s fresh off the battle over Proposition 8 in California, and she’s got a staff of 15 –“some paid, some not”—and “hundreds” of volunteers.
She doesn’t promise what the outcome will be; she promises her team will fight the good fight until the last vote is cast.
“We’re going to go and talk to voters in the rain all weekend,” she says. “Our volunteers care that much.” And they have 17,211 doors to knock on.
The “No on 1” campaign’s main headquarters, about an hour south, in Portland, lacks the river view of Hallowell. It’s in a relatively non-descript brick office building that hardly stands out from the “Great Lost Bear” beer bar and the Social Security office. It is a maze of offices within other offices all with bare white walls –save for one Lady Gaga poster—and volunteers staring intently at computer screens.
Somewhere in this maze is a large, open room abuzz with people coming and going, talking, laughing, studying pieces of paper and computer screens.
Jesse Connolly, the 31-year-old native Maine married heterosexual who heads up the statewide No on 1 campaign, enters and says hello to Pam Perkins, who is sitting at a very small café-like table in the center of the room.
Perkins is a 50-year-old professional gardener from Hendersonville, North Carolina. Like Jacob McClain in Hallowell, Perkins is a “vacation volunteer.” They took the campaign’s suggestion to spend “vacations” in Maine during the campaign in order to help with the effort.
Perkins and her spouse got married in Vermont and had a honeymoon in Maine. But what prompted her to volunteer was seeing the testimony –via webstream— of the public hearing at the Augusta Civic Center.
Someone donated frequent flier miles to get her a ticket to Portland and she’s staying in the home of a supportive state representative. Connolly says the vacation volunteer idea has been an especially powerful tool because it’s people the campaign really needs more than anything right now. People to canvas, people to make phone calls, people to knock on doors.
Meanwhile, money continues to pour into the state, too, on both sides. As of the latest regular report, filed Oct. 23, the No on 1 campaign organization had taken in $4 million and spent $3.5 million, compared to the Stand for Marriage Maine Yes campaign group, which had taken in $2.5 million and spent $2 million. More than half of Stand for Marriage’s cash has come from the National Organization for Marriage.
For Connolly and others, it’s a haunting reminder of Proposition 8. And there’s one week to go.
Source: 365gay.com
Queer the Census
The U.S. Census Bureau will make an official count of same-sex couples next spring while LGBT activists will attempt to “queer the census” with a grassroots write-in campaign.
Statistics on same-sex couples have been available through analyzing Census data since 1990, but the 2010 count brings a new — out and open — approach in counting gay couples and reporting the statistics.
“This is a real change from the way we’ve been treated in the past,” said Molly McKay of Marriage Equality USA.
In 1990, the Census Bureau added “unmarried partner” to its Census questionnaire, and thus independent researchers, by looking at gender, could count same-sex unmarried couples.
Couples could do the same in 2000.
And, with the legalization of same-sex marriage in Massachusetts, a new opportunity opened for the head of a household, when listing others in the residence, to check “husband or wife” and be counted as same-sex married household.
But the Bush administration determined that the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act prohibited federal agencies from tabulating and reporting data on same-sex marriages. Thus, the administration directed the bureau to recategorize same-sex couples who identified as “married” in the Census to “unmarried.”
For the past two years, activists, lawmakers and government employees have advocated changing that policy before Census forms go out in March 2010.
“We have followed with great concern news reports that the U.S. Census Bureau intends to continue ‘scrubbing’ data on same-sex married couples in its 2010 Census public reports,” a coalition of lawmakers wrote Peter Orszag, director of the Office of Management and Budget, in May 2009.
“We are very concerned with this planned data modification and request your leadership in ensuring the Census Bureau adopt acceptable methods for identifying same-sex married couples in its publicly released data.”
Additionally, activists representing about 25 organizations met with administration and Census officials.
“We drew a line in the sand,” said Jaime Grant, director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Policy Institute in Washington, D.C.
And they won, securing more than a reversal of policy. The bureau committed to counting same-sex couples — married and unmarried — next year, as well as officially releasing the statistics.
“The data set is going to be rich,” said Timothy Olson, an assistant division chief with the U.S. Census Bureau. “This will be a powerful data set and it will play a significant role in all of the issues on the political side, the social side, healthcare, housing, public transportation.”
“We really see it as the door opener on changing the way the feds think about LGBT questions,” “The Census is our Trojan horse.”
Earlier this month, the bureau announced the launch of its first-ever Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Complete Count Committees in California in preparation for the 2010 Census.
The committees are locally driven efforts to educate and engage people to complete the Census, and they exist to reach into a variety of communities, especially traditionally under-counted communities.
“Our goal is to sign up and engage 120,000 [community representatives] to spread the word about the Census — that it is safe, easy and simple,” Olson said. “We are really focused on the partnership program.”
The outreach dates back to 1990, when the bureau sought to reverse a decline in mail-in responses to the Census.
“We are really fortunate in 2010 to have a community outreach program that is about five times larger than 2000,” Olson said. And, he said, 2000 was substantially larger than 1990.
The outreach is important because the bureau’s task is to make an accurate assessment of the U.S. population. The U.S. Constitution mandates the count: “Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers.… The actual Enumeration shall be made within three Years after the first Meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent Term of ten Years, in such Manner as they shall by Law direct.”
“People don’t understand the real impact of the Census in our society,” Olson said. “Redistricting. Reapportionment. Legislation. Funding. It really has a huge impact as to how we are represented in our democracy and on the level of funding. $300 billion a year is based on Census data.”
Researchers — most prominently those associated with the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law — have analyzed Census data and surveys in the past to document discrimination based on sexual orientation, to estimate the number of same-sex couples and to learn about the make-up of their families, their incomes and their healthcare situations.
“In 1990, we said, ‘Check the box,’” Grant said. “And in 2000, we said, ‘Check the box.’ Couples did. And we’ve been able to use that data to tell the story of our community.”
But there is more to the story, she said.
In addition to releasing official data about same-sex couples in the 2010 Census, the bureau plans to incorporate questions about same-sex couples in the American Community Survey, a bureau project that replaced the long-form questionnaire in the decennial Census.
The bureau has no plans to ask about sexual orientation or gender identity in 2010, but a nationwide “Queer the Census” campaign may provide the bureau with some numbers anyhow.
“We’re thrilled we’re going to see LGBT marriage in the Census,” Grant said. “But many of us are unpartnered and we should be just as visible. So we are very excited about this campaign.”
Through the campaign at www.queerthecensus.org, people can get a pink and purple “Queer the Census” sticker to affix to the back of their Census mailer.
On the sticker, people can check a box for all that apply — lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and straight ally. The sticker proclaims, “Everyone deserves to be counted. It’s time to queerthecensus.org.”
“But they are going to see a million pink and purple stickers,” Grant said. “We’re really hoping ‘Queer the Census’ is going to catch fire.”
Source: 365gay.com
Brent Childers marched in D.C.
Brent Childers used to call himself a “Jesse Helms Republican” who justified his homophobic beliefs through biblical interpretation. But last weekend, as he marched in the Equality March in Washington, D.C., he stood alongside his lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender friends in support of their full human rights.
As executive director of Faith in America, Childers works full time to incorporate an inclusive message of LGBT human equality into the Christian dialogue. His organization’s mission is to educate the public about the emotional and physical harm cased by “religion-based bigotry.”
Childers’s change of heart isn’t unique, either.
It represents a growing shift in support of LGBT rights among evangelicals in the United States. The work of Faith in America also shows that progressive people of faith are developing LGBT supportive organizations to question and ultimately undermine the Religious Right’s ideological monopoly on biblical interpretation.
In the most recent national survey done by the Pew Research Center, more Americans than ever recorded (57 percent) support civil unions.
Thirty-nine percent of this support comes from white evangelicals, and even though that’s not a majority, it shows there are definite inroads being made into that community. Given increasingly divergent opinions in the white evangelical community, a “biblical” opposition to gay marriage is becoming less tenable among them and simply a matter of their interpretation and personal opinion.
There is additional hopeful news. Young evangelicals are measurably diverging from the condemning views of their church elders on LGBT rights.
In a recent survey during the 2008 presidential election cycle, 58 percent of young white evangelicals supported some form of legal recognition of gay partnerships, whether in the form of civil unions or marriage. Twenty-six percent supported full marriage rights.
The promise of this rising evangelical support of LGBT human rights cannot be overstated. If trends continue, evangelicals can no longer be counted on as a solid unwavering base of the Religious Right. And without the support of young evangelicals the Religious Right will become even more of a reservoir of aging bigots than a dynamic and growing grassroots movement.
But LGBT supporters should engage evangelicals and seek to expand their numbers instead of patiently waiting for the younger generation to outnumber the old. It is critical to work with young evangelicals, who can serve as effective messengers within their faith communities and age groups—and can broaden the language of LGBT advocacy to include faith messages that resonate with evangelical congregations.
Faith in America is one organization dedicated to working with faith communities, but there are others. For instance, Evangelicals Concerned and the Global Alliance of Affirming Apostolic Pentecostals are developing in once predominately socially conservative evangelical and charismatic denominations.
Organizations like these know the spiritual motivation and language needed to mobilize younger evangelicals who may feel unsure or even guilty about their belief that all people should have the right to marry.
“Every person coming to Washington—whether they are religious or not,” Childers wrote in a Newsweek article, “does share one faith, and that is faith in America.”
With his organization and personal leadership, Childers is helping to create a public space that more and more evangelicals can inhabit in good conscience and in good faith
. And along with many others he is demonstrating to the larger LGBT movement that there is indeed a commonality among LGBT rights advocates and the large evangelical population in America—a commonality that may even form the foundation for a broad-based winning coalition.
Source: 365gay.com
Expression Goes Against Dress Code at Cobb County, Georgia
16-year-old Jonathan Escobar left his home in Miami to live with his sister in Cobb County, GA, because his parents were unable to accept that he wears women’s clothing.
Shockingly, Georgia was less accepting of Escobar’s transvestitism. His older sister Veronica, with whom he lives, is surprised that her little brother lasted a mere three days in school before withdrawing due to administrative pressure. And how fierce does one have to be to out-crossdress Miami?
Anyone who has attended high school probably recalls the catch all “disruptive” rule for attire. I myself fell afoul of rules for disruptive clothing, once for wearing a souvenir t-shirt from Intercourse, PA. But Escobar’s situation is much broader and more serious in scope and raises the question of reasonable accommodation for LGBT teens. Escobar simply states that he doesn’t consider himself a cross-dresser, but rather that dressing the way he does is “who he is.” And at 16, it stands to reason that he may not know exactly where he lies on that spectrum.
Officials who had not witnessed Escobar’s attire believed he attended school in a dress and heels, but Escobar says that wasn’t the case:
Escobar said the assistant principal told him his style of dress had caused a fight between students at the school. Two days later, he withdrew himself from the Kennesaw school.
“You can’t wear clothing that causes a disruption,” said Jay Dillon, spokesman for Cobb County schools.
Dillon said he believed Escobar arrived at school in a dress and heels. But Escobar said he never wore a dress. He says he opted for “skinny” jeans all three days with flats.
Escobar was given the option of wearing “manly” clothes, or homeschooling. And he says that students harassed him, surrounding him in the cafeteria during his few days on campus. But a Facebook group called simply “Support Jonathan” had drawn 900 members, some planning on wearing pink shirts emblazoned with those words. Escobar wishes to return to school, but won’t compromise who he is:
“If I can’t express myself, I won’t go to school,” he said. “I want to get the message out there that because this is who I am, I can’t get an education.”
To see the video, go to http://www.inquisitr.com/41391/teen-jonathan-escobar-told-to-dress-more-manly-or-leave-school/
Source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A group of EMU students will be going. If you were already planning on going to D.C., contact Shannon Tubb at stubb@emich.edu
Lawmakers, celebrities and well-known LGBT activists are lining up to support the National Equality March, a weekend gathering set to begin Oct. 10.
Judy Shepard, the mother Matthew Shepard, who was murdered in an anti-gay attack in Wyoming in October 1998, is joining lesbian Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), bisexual actor Alan Cumming and about 140 others in endorsing the march.
Other supporters include radio host Michelangelo Signorile, actress Charlize Theron, New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and Daniel Choi, a U.S. Army lieutenant who was ordered out of the military after he revealed he is gay.
Kip Williams, one of the lead march organizers, said the endorsements come as the preparations continue at a fevered pitch for the October event.
“I’ve been having conversations with folks,” he said, “and people are seeing the bigger pictures and the hopes and dreams of what this march is about for us.”
Williams said event permits have been secured for the Capitol’s west lawn and organizers are working with authorities to finalize the route for the Oct. 11 march. He noted that Equality Across America is only planning the march and rally; an Oct. 10 training and networking event is being planned collaboratively with the Courage Campaign.
“There are going to be a lot of other events, but we’re not organizing those,” he said. “We’re going to start sharing the lineup of events that other people are scheduling soon, like a media training that [the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation] is organizing.”
Williams said his planning work would next entail him reaching out to student organizations and working on social networking.
“We’re going to reach out to student organizations on college campuses that are within a five-to-six-hour drive of D.C. and see if they’ll send a bus or cars of students,” he said. “We’re working on our social networking strategy, and we have two contests to find speakers and performers.”
Stacey Simmons, one of three volunteers assisting with the National Equality March’s social media campaign, said the event has about 27,000 Facebook fans and 4,100 Twitter followers.
“We link to articles and put up inspirational messages,” she said. “We also figure out what buses are coming in, and get them on the web site and Facebook page, so people can look and see, ‘Oh, there’s a Chicago bus, good.’”
Derek Washington, director of diversity outreach for the National Equality March, praised the support that national LGBT organizations have given the event. He noted that the Human Rights Campaign is loaning march planners and space in its D.C. headquarters for the weekend of the march.
“Everyone worries about resources being taken from Maine, but it’s not like we’re renting some big building — it’s being given to us,” he said.
“If anything, people from Maine should send reps here to spread the word about what they’re doing. Everyone around the country should send people there to spread the word. You can sit on the Internet all day, but when you meet someone and shake their hand, you can say, ‘This is what I’ve got going on in Bangor, Maine.’”
Washington said that the National Equality March would demand equal protection under the law.
“We’re trying to come to D.C. with a new message, because we feel like for a generation we’re been forced into prioritizing a laundry list of legislative or state-by-state issues.” he said. “We feel like this is a time for us to act like we are free and equal people and come to D.C. and demand full equality. We’re not coming to D.C. with a list of items we want to get worked through in the next legislative session, but we’re coming to D.C. with one demand: equal protection in all matters governed by civil law in all 50 states.”
Source: Washblade.com
7 years in a row!
YPSILANTI — The Princeton Review has named Eastern Michigan University a “Best Midwestern College” for 2010. It marks the seventh consecutive year that EMU has received the designation.
“We are thrilled to receive this designation because it is driven by how our students feel about Eastern,” said Susan Martin, president of EMU. “It is a good yardstick for where we are and where we need to go. We pride ourselves on our accessibility, affordability, diversity and strong educational experience and all of those characteristics are evident in the student comments about EMU.”
The education services company selected EMU as one of 158 institutions it profiles in its "Best in the Midwest" section of its website feature “2010 Best Colleges: Region-by-Region,” that posted July 27, 2009.
EMU students’ responses included:
“The curriculum is designed to serve ‘real people learning through discussion and interaction’ and taking advantage of ‘opportunities for education beyond the classroom, whether it's through involvement in a student organization, attending diversity programming or volunteering. There is always an opportunity to make a difference, and it is truly an empowering experience.”
“EMU has ‘a Student Center that is a great place to hang out with friends, eat, study, play video games, curl up with a good book, meet new people, and get homework done.’”
The 158 colleges The Princeton Review chose for this year’s "Best in the Midwest" designations are located in twelve states: Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Michigan, Missouri, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota and Wisconsin.
The Princeton Review also designated 218 colleges in the Northeast, 123 in the West, and 141 in the Southeast as best in their locales on the company’s 2010 Best Colleges: Region by Region section. The 640 colleges named "regional best(s)" represent only about 25% of the nation's 2,500 four-year colleges.
The Princeton Review does not rank the colleges in its 2010 Best Colleges Region by Region website section. The Princeton Review survey for this project asks students to rate their own schools on several issues -- from the accessibility of their professors to quality of the campus food -- and answer questions about themselves, their fellow students, and their campus life.
Students are surveyed with more than 80 questions in categories such as “About Yourself,” “Your Schools Academics/Administration,” “Students,” and “Life at Your School.”
For the complete EMU profile go to: http://www.princetonreview.com
Source: Princeton Review
A Proclamation
Forty years ago, patrons and supporters of the Stonewall Inn in New York City resisted police harassment that had become all too common for members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community. Out of this resistance, the LGBT rights movement in America was born. During LGBT Pride Month, we commemorate the events of June 1969 and commit to achieving equal justice under law for LGBT Americans.
LGBT Americans have made, and continue to make, great and lasting contributions that continue to strengthen the fabric of American society. There are many well-respected LGBT leaders in all professional fields, including the arts and business communities. LGBT Americans also mobilized the Nation to respond to the domestic HIV/AIDS epidemic and have played a vital role in broadening this country's response to the HIV pandemic.
Due in no small part to the determination and dedication of the LGBT rights movement, more LGBT Americans are living their lives openly today than ever before. I am proud to be the first President to appoint openly LGBT candidates to Senate-confirmed positions in the first 100 days of an Administration. These individuals embody the best qualities we seek in public servants, and across my Administration -- in both the White House and the Federal agencies -- openly LGBT employees are doing their jobs with distinction and professionalism.
The LGBT rights movement has achieved great progress, but there is more work to be done. LGBT youth should feel safe to learn without the fear of harassment, and LGBT families and seniors should be allowed to live their lives with dignity and respect.
My Administration has partnered with the LGBT community to advance a wide range of initiatives. At the international level, I have joined efforts at the United Nations to decriminalize homosexuality around the world. Here at home, I continue to support measures to bring the full spectrum of equal rights to LGBT Americans. These measures include enhancing hate crimes laws, supporting civil unions and Federal rights for LGBT couples, outlawing discrimination in the workplace, ensuring adoption rights, and ending the existing "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy in a way that strengthens our Armed Forces and our national security. We must also commit ourselves to fighting the HIV/AIDS epidemic by both reducing the number of HIV infections and providing care and support services to people living with HIV/AIDS across the United States.
These issues affect not only the LGBT community, but also our entire Nation. As long as the promise of equality for all remains unfulfilled, all Americans are affected. If we can work together to advance the principles upon which our Nation was founded, every American will benefit. During LGBT Pride Month, I call upon the LGBT community, the Congress, and the American people to work together to promote equal rights for all, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim June 2009 as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month. I call upon the people of the United States to turn back discrimination and prejudice everywhere it exists.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this first day of June, in the year of our Lord two thousand nine, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-third.
BARACK OBAMA
Source: http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Presidential-Proclamation-LGBT-Pride-Month/
Click on a state or choose one from our drop-down menu to find the latest developments, state organizations, and action alerts on a local level.
Source: http://www.freedomtomarry.org/states.php
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