Op-Ed

Teens Thinking About Homophobia Must Dig Deeper

Note: the slurs in this video are not censored to enable a frank discussion. These teens were shown a video of a recent homophobic reaction on a public street by Jonah Hill, the actor, and another video showing his apology on a late night talk show where he was a guest. It is worth watching to the end because it takes a while for some of these teens to get close to the crux of the problem in both the slur and the apology. The teens were especially struck by Hill's apology that noted his long-standing support the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and ...

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in Key Issues / News of Note / Op-Ed / Public Information / Sex Education / Uncategorized / Videos  by Alison Gardner 0 comments

What? Science? Who Needs Science?

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On Monday, we wrote our analysis of the disastrous 5-4 Supreme Court decision in Burwell v Hobby Lobby, which gives greater religious freedom rights to closely held for-profit corporations and less religious freedom rights to natural persons (their words). We also urged you to express your dissent byRead More›

in Campaigns / Grassroots / Key Issues / News of Note / Op-Ed / Public Information  by Alison Gardner 0 comments

Express Your Dissent!

Photo by James Palinsad Flickr/creative commons

It is unbelievable that in 2014 we are still fighting about women's access to basic health care like birth control.

If you agree — say so. Just click here now to add your name to the dissent. -- Cecile Richards, Planned Parenthood

In a dramatic 5-4 decision along ideological lines, the Supreme Court today chose to side with corporations over people ...

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in Campaigns / Events / Grassroots / Key Issues / News of Note / Op-Ed / Public Information  by Alison Gardner 0 comments

Supreme Women Don’t Fail Us Now (again)

Photo by Paul Weaver Flickr/creative commons

It was painful last week to hear the unanimous decision of the Supreme Court in McCullen v Coakley, siding with abortion protesters' free speech right to engage women face-to face in the public square and against those advocating for clinics' privacy and public safety in consideration of the violence, bombings, and cold-blooded murder that beset them long before there was anything akin to a buffer zone. The case ended the a 35-foot buffer zone in Massachusetts, didn't rule on a handful of other states that had smaller buffer zones, and, the reasoning of each justice varied wildly. Abortion has ...

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in Events / Grassroots / Key Issues / News of Note / Op-Ed / Public Information  by Alison Gardner 0 comments

Profit from Pain is Inhuman

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I just finished reading a June 23 New Yorker magazine article, "Get Out of Jail, Inc.," exposing on the crushing problems created by the private probation services which are thriving along with the private prison industry. The article references an important but perhaps overlooked February report from Human Rights Watch, cataloguing the lack of transparency in these services, across the South in particular. This 72-page report describes how more than 1,000 courts in several US states delegate tremendous coercive power to companies that are often subject to little meaningful oversight or regulation. In many cases, the only ...

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in Campaigns / Grassroots / Key Issues / News of Note / Op-Ed / Public Information  by Alison Gardner 0 comments

United Nations Fails to Protect All Families

Photo by Elvert Barnes Flickr/Creative Commons

UN Human Rights Council Adopts Non-Inclusive Protection of the Family Resolution

“It should not be up to an accidental majority of states to define what does and what does not constitute a family. I urge all states to respect, protect and fulfil the human rights of all individual members belonging to all different types of families, including same-sex families.” -- Sirpa Pietikäinen, MEP (Member of the European Parliament (MEP), Vice-President of the LGBT Intergroup

  A few years ago the United States crossed a meaningful threshold with respect to untraditional families. For the first time, untraditional families surpassed the number of traditional families. ...

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in Global Sexual Freedom Watch / Key Issues / News of Note / Op-Ed  by Alison Gardner 0 comments

When Free Speech Becomes Sedition

Chelsea Nesvig

Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal: People are ready for a hostile takeover of Washington, D.C., warns of a coming rebellion.

Yeah, he really said that, hostile takeover, and I think he was speaking not only to those present (1000 evangelical leaders) but to all the trigger-happy militias and tea party folks who would savor the opportunity to do just that. Jindal's remarks foment unrest and civil war in America even though it would result in nothing less than a fundamentalist theocracy, one just as bad as the Sharia Law they rant against. As Jindal sees it, religious freedom and the American Dream are being threatened. ...

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in Campaigns / Grassroots / Key Issues / News of Note / Op-Ed / Public Information / Uncategorized  by Alison Gardner 0 comments

When will we move to impeach certain Supreme Court justices? (Part 2)

"In the Potemkin justice of the Roberts court, the right to vote is under attack, while the power to buy elections is sanctified by law. Corporations are called people under a faux doctrine of free speech, while women are denied standing to combat discrimination." - Brent Budowsky Editorial from The Hill, April 9, 2014.

    Most of us came of age with nearly blind trust in this once-austere body, this third branch of government charged with deciding the most challenging questions of our time. But times have changed, and so has the purpose and direction of the Supreme Court. It's literally gone off the rails, ...

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in Campaigns / Grassroots / Key Issues / News of Note / Op-Ed / Public Information / Uncategorized  by Alison Gardner 0 comments

When will we move to impeach certain Supreme Court justices? (Part 1)

"Five conservative Republican men serving on the Supreme Court, led by a chief justice who has violated 200 years of judicial precedent, despite pledging under oath during his confirmation hearings to respect judicial precedent, are waging a legal war of mass destruction against core principles of American democracy . . ." -- Brent Budowsky Editorial from The Hill, April 9, 2014.

  Every June, I get nervous about the Supreme Court, and the Roberts's court in particular. My knees have been shaking at the very idea that they may rule anyway now to give Hobby Lobby and all corporations/employers' the ...

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in Campaigns / Grassroots / Key Issues / News of Note / Op-Ed / Public Information  by Alison Gardner 0 comments

Right-wingnuts bless progressives

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"The Republican base is driving the party toward a political agenda that makes its candidates increasingly unelectable for national and statewide offices." -- Howard Dean, former Vermont Governor, the preceding Chair of the Democratic National Committee, and founder of Democracy in Action, speaking to Politico Magazine

We spent the entire year before the 2008 presidential election, we only realized later, in a state of distress as we contemplated the downfall of our country should it be taken over by right-wing extremists or nut jobs like PTSD-sufferer John McCain. On election night, with Obama victorious, the tears flowed ...

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in Campaigns / Grassroots / Key Issues / News of Note / Op-Ed / Public Information / Uncategorized  by Alison Gardner 0 comments