Public Information

SOPA would “criminalize” the Internet

News of Note: Google chairman says online piracy bill would ‘criminalize’ the Internet

An online piracy bill in the House [US House of Representatives H.R.3261] would “criminalize linking and the fundamental structure of the Internet itself,” according to Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt.

Schmidt said the controversial Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) would punish Web firms, including search engines, that link to foreign websites dedicated to online piracy. He said implementing the bill as written would effectively break the Internet.

“By criminalizing links, what these bills do is they force you to take content off the Internet,” Schmidt said, calling it a form of censorship.

I firmly believe that the Internet is mankind’s greatest tool for exposing truth and eliminating corruption. Recent revolutions in other countries like Egypt and Libya and even our own Occupy movement are fueled by the Internet, and in a way not possible for previous generations, and in ways not permitted by foreign repressive regimes. Right now we are facing both SOPA and the similar US Senate proposed bill (Bill S.968), PROTECT IP Act, two bills that will utterly destroy YouTube, Twitter, Wikileaks, and other valuable websites that we need for communication.

What do you think is going to happen? Will Americans eventually submit to this loss of freedom or will we reject this sort of treatment by any means necessary?

in News of Note / Public Information  by 15 Dec 2011 0 comments

Occupy Foreclosed Homes

Looking for another way to fight back against big banks? OccupyOurHomes.org is calling for a national day of action on December 6, 2011.

“Everyone deserves to have a roof over their head and a place to call home. Millions of Americans have worked hard for years for the opportunity to own their own home; for others, it remains a distant goal. For all of us, having a decent place to live for ourselves and our families is the most fundamental part of the American dream, a source of security and pride.

In 2008, we discovered bankers and speculators had been gambling with our most valuable asset, our homes–betting against us and destroying trillions of dollars of our wealth. Now, because of the foreclosure crisis Wall Street banks created with their lies and greed, millions of Americans have lost their homes, and one in four homeowners are currently underwater on their mortgage.

Not only do we have thousands of people without homes, we have thousands of homes without people. Boarded-up houses are sitting empty–increasing crime, lowering the value of other homes in the neighborhood, erasing the wealth that lifts families into the middle class.

The Occupy Wall Street movement and brave homeowners around the country are coming together to say, “Enough is enough.” We, the 99%, are standing up to Wall Street banks and demanding they negotiate with homeowners instead of fraudulently foreclosing on them.

Occupy Our Homes is a movement that supports Americans who stand up to their banks. We believe everyone has a right to decent, affordable housing. We stand in solidarity with the Occupy Wall Street movement and with community organizations who help the 99% fight for their homes.”

I think this is a fantastic idea. Whether or not someone supports the Occupy movement, home foreclosures are happening all over America at an increasing rate and no one wants to let the bank take their home away. The Occupy movement is getting creative and I can’t wait to see what happens next.

Image source: Cartographer/Flickr Creative Commons

in Campaigns / Events / Grassroots / News of Note / Public Information  by 01 Dec 2011 0 comments

The Sexual Freedom Project: Human Trafficking

Today’s video comes to us from the Demi & Ashton Foundation (DNA Foundation) and is about human trafficking: the illegal trade of human beings for the purposes of reproductive slavery, commercial sexual exploitation, forced labor, or a modern-day form of slavery. Some important facts from their website:

Today, more than twelve million people worldwide are enslaved.[1] An estimated two million children are bought and sold in the global commercial sex trade.[2] The sex slavery industry has become an increasingly important revenue source for organized crime because each young girl can earn hundreds of thousands of dollars each year for her pimp.

While this is a problem in many countries, many Americans don’t realize that it happens here at home as well. Thousands of children are forced into domestic sex slavery each year and that the average age of entry is 13 years old.[3] The majority of American victims of commercial sexual exploitation tend to be runaway youth who live on the street, often who have left homes where they were abused or abandoned. Pimps prey on their vulnerability. These girls are our neighbors, our friends, our sisters and our daughters. [Footnotes on their site.]

The DNA Foundation website includes a comprehensive list of important organizations that are working on this issue. How much have you heard about this important subject? Has it personally affected anyone you know, a neighbor, a friend, a relative? Do you think the topic is getting the public discussion and the media attention that it needs and deserves? Do you think people may be uncomfortable talking about it? What can we do to make it okay to talk about this subject, and what can we as individuals do to stop this practice?

Let us know what you think. Make a video, write a poem, song, or an essay — or even create an original work of art — and express your thoughts on these topics. If we feature your contribution on the site, we will send you a free VenusPlusX t-shirt to thank you.


in Campaigns / Global Sexual Freedom Watch / Public Information / The Sexual Freedom Project / Videos  by 30 Nov 2011 0 comments

A Mission Accomplished

We are pleased to report the DC TLGB Watch’s Transgender Day of Action in Washington, DC, was, and continues to be, a notable success by any standard.

Even a few days ago, when elected/appointed officials became a little nervous on rumors that street demonstrations and set of demands with deadlines were coming to their doorsteps, the Trans community leaders were offered some coordinated face-time with the Office of Mayor Vincent Gray together with the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) and the US Attorney for Washington, DC (USAO), a fresh approach to replace their usual divide and conquer strategy to make these problems magically disappear. (Because we still do not have statehood in Washington, DC, our justice system is federally administered by the USAO, and this causes obstacles of its own that interfere with bringing justice and equality to the Trans community.)

So, even before the first boot hit the ground or the first demand leapt from our bullhorn, we saw a new willingness among these officials to start responding proactively on a level this crisis of anti-Trans violence and police bias warrants. But that was just the beginning.

After marching in front of the MPD with 40+ Trans victims, activists, and allies, with chants like “Hey, Hey, Ho Ho, Transphobia has got to go,” and delivering our demands in writing directly to MPD Police Chief Cathy Lanier, we read each demand out loud from the sidewalk as a media scrum pressed in to interview spokespeople in the Trans community. Minutes later, while headed over to the federal building a few blocks away that houses the USAO, to rally again and deliver our demands to the US Attorney, we were chased down in the street by a press aide from Police Chief Lanier’s office with a an official statement.

Lanier’s incredible “rebuttal” of our demands was an insult and misrepresentation of the countless hours and years community leaders have spent in meetings with her and her predecessor with little to show for it except for increasing anti-Trans violence and murder. With just a few sentences, she tried to blame the Trans community for its failure to send representatives to an unannounced, hastily organized MPD meet-and-greet last week, a sign, in her mind at least, that we were the ones not being serious about working in partnership with them to bring about change. This was at once ironic, ludicrous, and infuriating because this defensive statement was so obviously hastily prepared a few floors up simultaneous with our street demonstration, and at the same time, indisputably and so sadly demonstrates to everyone who can read how unserious and off the page she and her department have been.

We’re talking about a spike in anti-Trans murders, two in the last 4 months, rampant anti-trans violence, including attempted murders at the hands of police, and police bias and police profiling especially within DC’s highly questionable and indeed unconstitutional “Prostitution Free Zones.” What are they focused on? They want to argue with us about who came out for a coffee, a completely cynical deflection carried out in the most petty, amateurish, and self-disclosing way. The Chief cannot help but fail each time she approaches these important issues because she first must change her own very bad attitudes, and then be in a position to get serious about the gravity and urgency this shame in the nation’s capital deserves.

Today, the emails to our community are buzzing back and forth from Chief Lanier and her commanders. They are scrambling to reach out now that we have taken to direct action to bring this crisis to the attention of every American and established what their priorities must be. Maybe now they can begin to change the situation by changing themselves and understanding just how they discriminate against Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and, especially, Trans people by offering public relations tricks in place of honest dialogue. At least now, they are on notice that they must turn that corner and rise to their responsibilities.

We have come together in coalition with a set of demands we all agree on and we have set dates for completion. Now it is up to the Trans community leaders to press them in high level meetings with our elected/appointed officials, telling these decision-makers that they can keep the street activists at bay only if and when real progress starts and continues. We are a strong coalition representing a dozen prominent organizations dedicated to improving life for DC Trans residents. Now, at a moment’s notice, we can put boots on the ground, again and again, until real, systemic, and sustainable change comes to Washington, DC. We will do this until the anti-Trans violence and police bias in DC comes to an end, including the harmful Prostitution Free Zones.

 

in Campaigns / Events / Grassroots / Public Information / Transunity & Transleadership  by 18 Nov 2011 0 comments

Call to action this Thursday, November 17, Washington, DC

This urgent Call to Action for Thursday, November 17 starts at 1 PM in front of the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD, 300 Indiana Avenue NW). Local activists have mobilized on behalf of Trans people in the District who have unfairly suffered police profiling, police bias, police harassment, undertrained police, and, indeed, violence at the hands of police. The disproportionate statistics in our nation’s capital reportedly tower over any other city or state.

WHAT: Transgender Day of Action

WHEN: Thursday, November 17, 2011, starting at 1 PM

WHERE: MPD Headquarters (300 Indiana Avenue NW) to the US Attorney’s Office (555 4th Street NW) and City Hall.

WHY: Because you don’t want to miss joining the trans community and its allies coming together to demand change.

HOW: Activists deliver a set of written goals and demands with date certain expectations and consequences.

WITH: Transgender Day of Remembrance, Sunday, November 20, 5 PM, at Metropolitan Community Church (474 Ridge Street NW)

MEDIA: Miguel, glaatuasmig@gmail.com, 571-218-7505; Alison, alison@venusplusx.org, 202-290-7077

The grim media reports trumpet the District’s rise in violent crime against Trans people, including two murders this summer, LaShai McClean, 23, on July 20, and Gaurav Gopalan, 35, on September 10, while experts content that crimes against Trans people are generally under reported or misrepresented by the police. And MPD’s clearance rate for assaults and murders involving trans victims is just a quarter of the average rate, 20% versus 80% of crimes solved, respectively, according to Police Chief Lanier.

The coalition called DC TLGB Police Watch organized this summer to support our community leaders who have tried for years to bring about systemic and sustainable change and instead have seen violent crimes and the Trans murder rate skyrocket. TLGB conveys our assertion of Trans issues when advocating on behalf of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Trans (LGBT) rights.

On November 17, working in concert with our community leaders and the upcoming DC Transgender Day of Remembrance (Sunday, November 20, DC’s Metropolitan Community Church, 474 Ridge Street NW), we will take to the sidewalks and street to expose publicly this national shame to every American, and in this way also participate in remembering and honoring the many trans folk who have laid down their lives in the struggle for dignity and equality. On their behalf, we will hand-deliver to our city and federal officials, including MPD, a set of specific, written demands with date certain expectations signaling unrelenting public pressure until they take the serious, emergency measures this urgent crisis warrants.

Help us end the culture of transphobia and homophobia that exists within the MPD, city government, and DC’s federally administered justice system.

Volunteer to participate at Facebook/Transgender Day of Action or TLGBpolicewatch.tumblr.com. Download the Poster for your homepage or blog, listen to TransFM’s Ethan St. Pierre’s interview with Ruby Corado and Alison Gardner, and catch up with last Wednesday’s recent Hearing on Hate Crimes before members of the DC City Council. (Media contact 202-290-7077.)

We are counting on your boots on the ground at the November 17 Transgender Day of Action, and your welcomed presence a few days later at the November 20 Transgender Day of Remembrance.

Work with us to demand systemic and sustainable change in Washington, DC.

DC TLGB Police Watch (to date): DC Trans Coalition (DCTC), Helping Individual Prostitutes Survive (HIPS), Gay & Lesbian Activists Alliance (GLAA), GetEQUAL DC,International Socialist Organization (ISO), Woodhull Sexual Freedom Alliance, Cedar Lane UU Church LGBT Task Force, Rainbow Response, Transgender Health Empowerment, Gender Rights Maryland, and VenusPlusX.

in Campaigns / Events / Grassroots / Public Information / Transunity & Transleadership  by 15 Nov 2011 0 comments

What’s Hot Right Now (11/7/11)

Williams Institute, DC Hate Crimes Hearing, Think Progress/lgbt, OLB Research, The Trans Women’s Anti-Violence Project, plus 

We have long been grateful to the Williams Institute, a University of California Los Angeles think tank advancing sexual orientation and gender identity law and public policy. In DC we are particularly indebted to the Institute for its involvement and financial support of the current Needs Assessment for our trans community, since the last one was done over 10 years ago. This study is organized and administered by the DC Trans Coalition (DCTC), and more info on it can be found on the DCTC homepage. Those of you familiar with the shameful epidemic of violence against trans folks in your nation’s capital, including two murders this year, can recognize how vital this new Needs Assessment will be, the research and data it will reveal to judges, legislators, policymakers, media, and the public, in bringing about systemic and sustainable change.

On that subject, since we have been involved and are tracking grassroots actions to affect that change, we want to commend a few of DC TLGB Police Watch and November 17 Transgender Day of Action coalition partners for their riveting testimony before the DC City Council Judiciary Committee’s Hearing on Hate Crimes this past Wednesday.

In particular, DC’s GLOV (Gays & Lesbians Opposing Violence) which works vigorously to reduce violence against against Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) individuals through community outreach, education, and monitoring cases to ensure that the rights and dignity of LGBT victims are respected and protected. Three representatives from GLOV testified, include a young man who was the victim of a horrible example of LGBT violence. Jason Terry well represented  DCTC, and his full written testimony (which he ably summarized in 5 minutes of live testimony), now on the DCTC homepage, is worth study as a sort of manifesto of what we are all talking about. We urge everyone to review the tape to see also the testimony from the Metropolitan Police Department and the counsel to the Office of the US Attorney (since DC doesn’t have statehood that’s the best we’ve got for now) telling those assembled they have no answers for the current spike in crimes against trans or don’t know why these crimes get under-charged (simple assault for rape, for example) and unsolved at a rate less than half in comparison for other crimes, 20% and 50%, respectively.

Special thanks go to Ethan St. Pierre and TransFM for the live interview this week with Ruby Corado, well-known DC trans activist and leader, and me, on the upcoming Transgender Day of Action happening in conjunction with the DC Transgender Day of Remembrance. It will really help us get the word out. Also, the poster for this joint event is available now and we hope more people would lift it, print it, distribute it, or put it on their homepage.

Ethan is a great activist and the curator for the International Transgender Day of Remembrance Registry, a special resource, a place to put things in perspective whenever you think you are too tired or discouraged to do one more thing.are too tired to do one more thing.

New and related information sources on tumblr.com are getting a lot of attention and deserve highlighting, too, including of course DC TLGB Police Watch along with The Trans Women’s Anti-Violent Project .

It’s not too early to point your attention to the upcoming Second Annual Momentum Conference across the river from DC in Arlington, Virginia. We attended last year and found it to be unique in terms of the scope of the program matched by the breadth of interests represented by the diverse attendees. It quickly sold out last year so we encourage you to get tickets early. Its mission is to bridge the baffling dichotomies our culture creates around sexuality by providing a safe place to listen, discuss, and learn about sexualities and gender without the fear of reprisal or shaming, a space for acceptance and appreciation of diversity, including for those in the LGBTQ, sex-work, BDSM, and non-monogamous communities.

And, what about Bank Transfer Day? We’ve been tracking this and are impressed with the results. This week it was reported that 650,000 people have moved their money from the large corporate banks back to community banks and non-profit credit unions. This is a form of civil disobedience that slams corporate greed and eliminates our paying for it. Although explicitly separate from the Occupy movement, it clearly was born from the same point of view.

We appreciate Think Progress‘s thriving LGBT reporting, which recently brought to our attention the work of OLB Research Institute and its recent report done with George Mason University and Indiana University on the health advocacy implications gay and bi men’s sexual behavior. They have further dispelled the myth that all gay and bi men have (and should have) anal sex, and showed that the ratings for pleasure were higher among older men and frequency of orgasm was higher when with a relationship partner. Equally interesting to us is the fact that OLB Research Institute is an arm of On Line Buddies network including Manhunt, an online service matching male partners for fun and games. The vertical integration of this enterprise represents a nascent model proving once again that those who love sex can become credible and respected sources or research.

Recently, Dan and Alison were in New York City meeting with colleagues and friends. Alison traveled from Zucotti Park with Occupy Wall Street to Washington Square Park to the amazing culminating occupation of Times Square on October 15. Saturday night while all the theater and party goers were trying to get to their destinations, we stood immovable. The peaceful crush of people itself conveyed the quality and bearing of the 99%, their collective goodness and good intentions alive in the very air. I’ve never spooned standing up with so many people I didn’t know than that night.

While in NYC, Dan attended the Singularity Summit 2011, a mixed bag but with at least a few transhumanists who are focusing on improving the here and now as much as speculating on potential outcomes of someday technologies and policies. “The ideals of social justice were served by an outstanding presentation from Jaan Tallinn, a founder of Skype and Kazaa,” Dan reported. Background on “singularity” and “transhumanism” is readily available, if you are not put off by its ivory tower.

Wayne Besen’s Truth Wins Out continues be front burner for us. In the last couple of weeks, we applauded its campaign partnership with the Southern Poverty Law Center to target destructive ex-gay “conversion therapy.” Since then, Truth Wins Out called out Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum for promoting “Christian Sharia,” and asking the only question that matters, “Is Rick Santorum flirting with tyranny and treason?” Most notably, Truth Wins Out led the fierce blowback against Catholic extremist Daniel Avila for a radical article he wrote in Roman Catholic Church’s publication, The Boston Pilot, that suggested that the devil may be responsible for making people gay. Avila’s resignation from his job as an advisor with with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops quickly followed. So we urge you all to sign up for Truth Wins Out updates and donate if you can.

In closing . . . “Gay is good,” said octogenerian Frank Kameny who left us on October 11, which happened to be National Coming Out Day and the second anniversary of the National Equality March. Late last week, his bodily remains laid in state at DC’s Carnegie Library so elected officials, veterans, and his hundreds of close friends and admirers could pay their final respects. “Gay is good” is not only true, it is the essence of an entire movement determined to show the world that Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender people make wonderful, creative, and priceless contributions to the world. Thanks, Frank, for setting our sail, see you later.

in News of Note / Public Information  by 07 Nov 2011 0 comments

Nov 17 Transgender Day of Action Poster Available

We hope you will lift this poster and put it up on your website or blog, where you work, play, and live. The direct action planned for November 17 is in conjunction with the DC Transgender Day of Remembrance to follow on November 20. We are getting the word out and hope that anyone in the DC, Maryland, and Virginia area will come to speak in unison with transgender activists and allies who want to stem the explosive rate of violence and unsolved murders in our nation’s capital.

The Day of Action is being organized by DC TLGB Police Watch, which (to date) includes VenusPlusX as well as DC Trans Coalition (DCTC), Helping Individual Prostitutes Survive (HIPS), Gay & Lesbian Activists Alliance (GLAA), GetEQUAL DC, The DC Center for the LGBT Community, Gays & Lesbians Opposing Violence (GLOV), Woodhull Sexual Freedom Alliance, Cedar Lane UU Church LGBT Task Force, Rainbow Response, Transgender Health Empowerment, and Gender Rights Maryland.

Thanks for your interest and participation.

in Campaigns / Events / Grassroots / Public Information  by 02 Nov 2011 1 comments

HPV Alert! Stop! Breathe.

Recently people have been alerted to new facts about the Human Papilloma Virus, known as HPV, a sexually transmitted virus known to cause cervical cancer in women and other cancers, predominately in women but also in men. HPV really represents a cluster of over 100 viruses, most of which are not cancer causing. But now we know HPV can cause heart disease in women, also, and that both men and women are facing HPV strains that cause oral cancer (mouth, throat, tongue, tonsils). More information can be accessed at websites such as the Center for Disease Control, the National Cancer Institute, and the UK-based Mouth Cancer Foundation.

Increasingly, pre-sexual girls are accessing one of the proven preventative inoculations, such as Gardasil, parents protecting their children much like they would from from measles and mumps. There is now a new urgency for all pre-sexual adolescents, not just girls anymore but all boys as well, to get the anti-cancer vaccine.

Much like the onset of the AIDS epidemic, HPV seemed to arrive on our doorstep, incognito and caused by behaviors people enjoy, even crave.

The  era of AIDS started with people losing their lives thinking they were bewitched, the etiology hidden, and its spread seemingly chaotic. Eventually researchers drilled down adequately to identify the risks involved in certain behaviors: engaging in unprotected sex with an infected partner, sharing intravenous needles with an infected partner, or receiving a transfusion of infected blood. Researchers are desperately seeking a vaccine and recently have made encouraging progress toward that goal.

HPV infects the epithelial cells of skin and mucosa, such as the vagina, penis, and anus, and now its transmission orally has been proven indisputably. We are at the stage now where researchers are identifying risky behaviors, and a public health campaign has begun to ensure every pre-sexual boy and girl has access to preventive vaccination. Everyone who engages in oral sex, gay and straight, must consider oral sex a potential danger zone, and we have to learn to protect ourselves and others, again.

All I am saying is this cancer causing virus shouldn’t take us by surprise like HIV did. Let us be vigilant, and do our part to make sure pre-sexual girls/women and boys/men receive their life-saving HPV inoculations. Let’s talk about it wherever we are. Thank heaven, we now have advanced research and technology. We will survive.

 

 


in Global Sexual Freedom Watch / Public Information  by 27 Oct 2011 0 comments

VenusPlusX Job Openings (10/24/11)

Join us in our mission aimed at ushering in “The New Age of Sexual Freedom” – a world free from the global culture of racial, sexual, and gender oppression and violence driven by governments, religions, corporations, and social customs.

You can view the job openings currently available at VenusPlusX here. Some are based in DC and others are not dependent on geography. Take a look for yourself or forward this on to friends who may be interested.

VenusPlusX is a great place to work, where self-starters are rewarded for innovation.

 

in Public Information  by 24 Oct 2011 0 comments

What’s Hot Right Now (10-11-11)

Arse Electronic Wrap-up, Occupy Everything, New National Campaigns, plus 

We’re back from 2 weeks on the road, participating in and filing blogs on Atlanta’s Southern Comfort Conference and then from San Francisco for Arse Elektronika.

Arse Elektronika is a production by Monochrom, an Austrian collective of futurist artists describing themselves as “an art-technology-philosophy group” and “an unpeculiar mixture of proto-aesthetic fringe work, pop attitude, subcultural science, context hacking and political activism.” They have been producing the European version of AE for many years and are now in their fifth year bringing this parallel one to the United States. This week’s list gives us a special chance to highlight some stuff that impressed us.

A converted church on Mission Street in San Francisco was one of the three venues over the four days of Arse Elektronika. It houses the Center for Sex and Culture run by the dynamic Carol Queen, a colleague of ours at Woodhull Sexual Freedom Alliance. Carol was in Berlin while we were there but her wonderful staff brought the important work of the Center to the attention of a crowd most eager for a  sex-positive future.

The last day of Arse Elektronika was held at one of the country’s biggest hackerspaces,  Noisebridge. If you are ever in San Francisco, it’s an experience not like any other. Here is Jack’s brief video walk-through to give you a taste.

Ned and Maggie Mayhem should be atop your list of things to Google. For one, their unveiling at Arse Elektronika of their PSIgasm (that’s Pounds per Square Inch, pronounced P-S-I-gasm, or sci-gasm for short) will not go unnoticed. It uses sensors on an engineered dildo to measure internal bodily reactions to orgasm, such as temperature, heart rate, and contractions. As one of the first legitimate, fully engineered entries into the nascent science of teledildonics, it deserved all the attention it received.

And, a shout out to author-rac0nteur Chicken John and his legendary warehouse for the opening night of Arse Elektronika. The same weekend, he launched his new book, (volume 1) Book of the IS, Essays by Chicken John on Engineered Disperfection. Congratulations, Chicken John.

Back home in DC this week we are participating in and have started writing about the new force of change — #occupy, #occupydc, #occupytogether, et al, and the long planned “October 2011” occupation of DC known as #stopthemachine and the October 15 International Mobilization trending #globaldemocracy. Working together we can reshape our world to serve all of humanity, not a few swindlers.

I’ve already attended several of the general assemblies and will soon be reporting out specific objectives being moved forward by numerous action committees that have formed on Freedom Plaza in Washington, DC, working hard to press their demands to the financial, governmental, and religious decision-makers to force a new inclusive way of conducting human affairs. One person articulating this movement especially well is highly acclaimed Sally Kohn through her her “Movement Vision Lab.”

This new movement started on Wall Street and appears to have to courage to do all it can to dispense with that which is old and bad/useless and join what is good to what is new and good to reshape the world. And, DC-based Code Pink is once again being saluted here for its masterful on-the-ground orchestration of this unfolding revolution; one that sooner or later will force American politicians to pay attention to the things important to the people, as the rest of the world looks to America to define liberty.

This represents a historic shift that taps into the long struggle for economic and social justice on the shoulders of all who have laid down their lives for universal freedom. Give thanks that we have now crested the first hill.

We’re tagging the Southern Poverty Law Center that sets the standard to identify and disclaim hate groups such as the Family Research Council and the Oath Keepers, two of hundreds across America. According to the Center, all hate groups have beliefs or practices that attack or malign an entire class of people, typically for their immutable characteristics. Because of this the Center is just as dedicated to teaching tolerance and other forward and positive programs. Please check out their website‘s resources, contact its local volunteers, and if you can contribute.

And we are so pleased today to see the joint announcement of the Southern Poverty Law Center’s partnership with one of our fave organizations, Truth Wins Out, coinciding with National Coming Out Day.

Finally, we have to give a big COLD thumb down to the Chicago Board of Trade, papered this week in big white sheets spelling out the words, We Are The 1%. That’s cold.

 

in Campaigns / Events / News of Note / Public Information  by 11 Oct 2011 0 comments