Posts with the tag civil rights

Lesbian Couple Banned From Mississippi Prom

Erin Rosa — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 14:45:31 EST

Everything was going swimmingly for prom organizers at Itawamba Agricultural High School in rural Mississippi, that is until one student—who happened to be a lesbian—dared ask for permission to bring a date to the shindig.

Every couple deserves the right to have an embarasing prom picture! (Flickr/ckroberts61)

Never mind the fact that said date was another student at the school, or the fact that one member of the duo offered to dress up in a tuxedo. No, both acts—the same-sex couple and the tux—were simply unacceptable to school officials, who reportedly told the couple that they might be banned from the prom if they arrived together or made anybody else “uncomfortable.”

But the funny thing about this case, and all similar cases like it that inevitably get reported around prom season, is that it’s the school administrators who are always found to be in the wrong. You would think after numerous legal threats and subsequent cases won by LGBT students on this very issue, school officials would be more nuanced with their bigotry, but apparently in this Mississippi town they haven’t gotten the memo yet.

And now, the American Civil Liberties Union is flexing its muscle via a national press release and threatening to get involved if the students’ rights are not respected:

In today’s letter to Itawamba County School District officials, the ACLU cited federal court cases guaranteeing students’ First Amendment right to bring same-sex dates to school dances, and also pointed out that treating McMillen and other lesbian, gay, and bisexual students differently from other students violates the Constitution’s equal protection guarantees. In addition to illegally barring McMillen and her girlfriend from attending the prom together, the ACLU said that the school further violated McMillen’s free expression rights by telling her that she can’t wear a tuxedo to the prom.

Your move, Itawamba Agricultural High. Your move.

“Quite Frankly,” We Prefer Rose-Colored Glasses.

pdelatorre — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 14:44:59 EST

On January 28, 2009, We had the honor of speaking on a panel with Stephen A. Smith, of ESPN’s “Quite Frankly,” Warren A. Ballentine, an attorney, activist and radio talk show host, and Inga Willis, a student leader and songwriter for LaFace Records. Unfortunately, Smith decided to disparage young people, rather than provide support and encouragement. “When you are a young man,” Smith said, “and you have just these rose-colored glasses in front of you, you at some point in time have to be practical about the way you go about things.”

Rose-colored glasses. A symbol of a young imagination. These are the glasses that you slide on when you view the world as it should be, rather than see it as it is.

Who Placed Whose Hands?

Josh Eidelson — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 02:19:36 EDT

Hillary Clinton got some deserved criticism for her lecture about how "it took a President" to pass the Civil Rights Act (didn't Obama prove he values the role of the President when he started running to be the next one?). But Robert Caro's op-ed today reminds us she could have said something worse:

"Abraham Lincoln struck off the chains of black Americans," I have written, "but it was Lyndon Johnson who led them into voting booths, closed democracy's sacred curtain behind them, placed their hands upon the lever that gave them a hold on their own destiny, made them, at last and forever, a true part of American political life."

This isn't poetic - it's just offensive. Did LBJ tie African-Americans' shoes before they left the house to vote? It should go without saying that African-Americans have been a "true part of American political life" since before the birth of the United States. Among other things, they led a movement which seized the franchise by shifting public opinion and transforming the political landscape. That movement made the difference between the days when LBJ was strategizing against Civil Rights legislation to the days when Jesse Helms must claim to support it.

Caro seems smug towards Civil Rights activists who didn't trust Johnson's support until they got it. No doubt which bills Johnson supported, and when he came around to support them, is indeed, as Caro says, some combination of "ambition and compassion." It's short-sighted for historians to lionize Johnson's choices while disparaging the people whose vision, tactics, and courage made it possible for him to wed the two. Of course it makes a huge difference who the President is. But the Great Man Theory that tells us Lincoln freed the slaves and then Johnson gave their descendants the vote is a theory that should be in the dustbin of history by now.

Let's remember that as we consider the progress Barack Obama's nomination represents as well as the struggles ahead should there be an Obama presidency.

Berwyn Heights Mayor, 32 lbs of Marijuana, 2 Labs Shot, Nobody Arrested

Irina Alexander — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 02:16:17 EDT

Mayor of the Berwyn Heights community in Maryland, Cheye Calvo, found himself Tuesday evening on the floor of his house with his hands behind his back, wearing nothing but boxers and socks, with his two beloved dogs’ bloody carcasses lying lifeless next to him for hours. The first question that pops into my mind after hearing a description like this is what kind of an evil criminally minded lunatic would go to such disgustingly brutal lengths to torture someone? And what could have Mayor Calvo possibly done that inspired such an attack?

The answer, surprisingly enough, is that it was no criminal at all, at least not according to the government. In fact, it was the Prince George's County Police Department who broke into Mayor Calvo’s house during a no-knock drug raid, shot his two Labrador Retrievers, and interrogated Mayor Calvo and his mother-in-law for hours about a package that had been intercepted in Arizona addressed to the mayor’s wife containing 32 pounds of marijuana. After raiding the house with a SWAT team, and finding absolutely nothing, police released the Calvos, coming out with no arrests. The Calvo family did nothing wrong, and denies knowing anything about the drugs.

The “War on Drugs” has killed yet another two innocent victims. Every day, people’s lives are wrongfully lost to this unnecessary and counterproductive battle.

University of Maryland’s Students for Sensible Drug Policy chapter will be holding a memorial service for the dogs, Chase and Payton, on Saturday at 5pm at Lake Artemesia. We will be inviting the community and surrounding areas to bring their dogs to the event, where we will be giving out ribbons to the dogs and owners to show our solidarity with the Calvos, have a moment of silence for the dogs, and take some time to speak about other incidents in which innocent dogs’ lives have been lost to the “War on Drugs”. More information about the event can be found here.

UMD-SSDP sends our most sincere and heartfelt condolences to the Calvo family for their loss, and pledges to do their part in preventing such violent police tactics in the future.

TBA: Lessons from Dr. King

Kay Steiger — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 09:35:54 EDT

The morning opened today with a panel on learning lessons from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Civil Rights Movement. The panel included former presidential candidate and Rev. Jesse Jackson, Pulitzer Prize winner Roger Wilkins, and King biographer Taylor Branch.

Remembering a Divided Past, Celebrating a Unified Future

Stacey B. — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 15:47:54 EST

The Robert Russa Moton Museum, situated on the apex of Longwood's campus, was opened to celebrate and remember the people in Farmville and Prince Edward County who stood up in opposition of inequality and segregation in public schools. More than half a century after the historic student-led protests of 1951, the building that was once the home of R.R. Moton High School was converted into a museum that now stands as a memorial to the struggle for civil rights in education.

Today is Dr. King's bday, remember?

Erica W — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 14:14:29 EST

So today is Dr. King’s bday. <silence and crickets chirping> Not hearing much about it this year? Sure, there are prayer breakfasts and other events taking place on Monday throughout the country, and many folks are donating their obligatory $5 to the national monument fund (me included), but it seems like some folks have run out of things to say. Is it weird that in a post- Jena six, Don Imus world, we’ve gotten so sick of talking about race that we’re also sick of discussing the solution-oriented leaders whose lives offer clear, simple, and so often forgotten remedies to the problem of the color line (and the class line)?

Moving Back to Segregation

Cara Boekeloo — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 11:29:22 EDT

Today the New York Times highlights a disturbing case of rezoning in Alabama. In a move that is the first of its kind, parents of children which have been shifted into low-performing schools are using the No Child Left Behind law (which has been harshly critiqued, even in my home city of Kalamazoo) to argue that such practices are illegal.

Yo Connerly, Listen Up

singhm — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 11:10:48 EDT

Today's the anniversary of Dr. King's "I Have a Dream" speech. If you've gone through life without ever having heard or read the entire speech (which is very possible, since we usually only hear 2 lines in most public school systems), I recommend you check it out.

Ward Connerly and his minions often try to appropriate Dr. King's words to criticize affirmative action, citing the famous line, "I have a dream my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."

But, if Dr. King were alive today, he'd likely be horrified at the continued attacks on affirmative action, through premeditated state-by-state ballot initiatives and conservative activism on college campuses, such as the infamous "affirmative action bake sales" across the nation. Connerly continues the fight in a number of new states, and in the next year, your state could be next. Campus Progress is working with college students to make sure that you're prepared to fight back, and through action grants, events, and trainings. If you're interested in learning more on how Campus Progress can work with you to keep Dr. King's dream alive, email campus@campusprogress.org

BUSH TO VICTIMS OF PAY DISCRIMINATION: DROP DEAD.

Ben Adler — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 17:21:50 EDT

Many progressives were shocked by the Supreme Court's 5-4 decision in Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co to interpret workplace discrimination laws so narrowly as to throw out all cases that aren't brought within 180 days of a discriminatory pay decision. This is obviously unfair because one often does not realize for some time that their raise was inadequate. Rep. George Miller (D- CA) and 31 cosponsors have introduced legislation to reverse this unjust decision. Under the Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, workers could instead bring suit within 180 days of receiving any paycheck affected by the discriminatory decision.

That might sound reasonable to you but apparently it's an outrage to the White House, which announced today a statement of administration policy strongly opposing the bill. Surely they must have some serious grounds for wanting to prevent potential victims of discrimination from having their day in court right? Wrong. They just hide behind the canard that the bill's "vastly expanded statute of limitations would exacerbate the existing heavy burden on the courts by encouraging the filing of stale claims." That's a pretty weak excuse. Am I crazy to suggest could we call the rightwing's bluff by introducing a bill to simply create more courts and hire more judges since that would presumably solve this problem they hide behind?

cross-posted on TAPPED

THE DEBATE AND FRIVOLOUS ISSUES

Ben Adler — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 10:57:21 EDT

Although I found the questions and answers on marriage equality last night to be very interesting (particularly Bill Richardson's shrewd answer that he'd get the lesbian couple from Brooklyn "everything I think is politically feasible" thus hinting that he has no problem with full marriage equality but avoiding taking the political risk of saying so outright), I thought all the time spent on it was sort of a waste. Of all the important issues facing the next president, gay marriage simply isn't one of them. That's not to say it isn't an important issue. I think full marriage equality is a crucial civil right that no one should be denied. But since I've been following its progression I'm well aware of the fact that marriage laws are set by the states, and the conflicts between state laws will mostly be adjudicated in the courts. The one major national proposal on gay marriage is a constitutional amendment to ban it which stands no chance of passing, wouldn't be supported by any of the Democrats running for president, and the president has no power to vote for or against anyway.

So why is it that so many debates in the last couple elections, both in the primaries and the general have featured questions about this? My best answer is that it fits broadly into the characterological preference of the mainstream media. They ask about gay marriage for the same reason they ask Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama how they respond to inane allegations that they aren't feminine enough or black enough, respectively. It's because they're more fun to ask, and because it allows the media to create supposedly non-ideological narratives about the candidates. I'd rather see more questions on how the candidates would actually govern the massive federal bureaucracy, but maybe I'm not the typical voter.

Also on TAPPED.

A Vote for Withdrawal

SoCapZach — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 00:40:00 EDT

I thought the lesson of this free-food-a-thon would be that there is indeed such a thing as a free lunch if you're an intern in D.C. and that if you were into saving money, you could eat a free lunch every day. The real lesson is that regardless of your budget, you should eat a free lunch every day.

Michigan Dems: Defenders of the Prison Industrial Complex

ashwini — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 11:54:47 EDT

As Michigan is in a full-blown budget crisis, the Department of Corrections and Governor Granholm proposed yesterday that Camp Manistique, a prison labor camp in the Upper Peninsula, be shut down. Closing Camp Manistique, which is a minimum-security facility, would save the state $4.5 million per year. It would also cost 45 prison employees their jobs (although according to The Mining Journal, both prisoners and employees would be transferred to other facilities).

The prison employees are unionized, and they tend to vote Democrat, therefore the Dems have undertaken a full-blown campaign to keep the prison open. Prisoners currently incarcerated in Michigan, of course, cannot vote. Although shutting down Camp Manistique would not actually reduce the number of prisoners in the state, Michigan, like other states, has a detention and corrections budget spiraling out of control. Michigan’s annual prison budget is $1.9 billion, a fifth of the state’s general fund. Tom Clay from Citizens Research Council of Michigan says that if Michigan didn’t have such high rates of incarceration compared to other Great Lakes states, the prison budget would be closer to $1.4 billion. According to Families Against Mandatory Minimums, “States such as Illinois, Ohio and Pennsylvania have more residents than Michigan but incarcerate fewer inmates. Michigan's per-capita incarceration rate is the country's 11th-highest, ranks higher than seven other Great Lakes states and is fourth-highest among the 11 most populous states.”

NAACP holds funeral for N-word

ashwini — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 16:19:40 EDT

The NAACP's Detroit chapter held a symbolic funeral for the N-word yesterday. Participants in the mock funeral, including chapter president Reverend Wendell Anthony, Michigan governor Jennifer Granholm, and Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick marched through downtown Detroit in an attempt to "put [the word] to rest."

Organizers of the funeral stated that the goal of the funeral was to raise awareness among communities about the use of destructive and hurtful language of all kinds. As Derek Blackman of the Detroit Fellowship Church said, "It's about self-respect. We need to throw all of this language in the garbage can -- all of this racist, sexist and misogynistic language."

Others questioned the effectiveness of the demonstration, asserting that the funeral would do nothing to actually stop the use of the word, among Black Americans and those outside the community alike: "You can eliminate the use of this word, but that's not going to stop the problem of the word. The problem comes from a racist mind-set, and you can't stop a racist mind-set,” said Detroit rapper Trick Trick.

Gay Pride Parades - Celebration or Embarassment?

Eugene Resnick — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 11:52:01 EDT

As an openly gay man, I feel compelled to express my views on gay pride parades specifically after attending the Washington DC Capital Pride Parade last Saturday with a few friends. You may hear a lot of criticism from older LGBT people of these events but its rare to find it coming from a young, politically active college student. Before I proceed, dont get me wrong, I will point out the faults of gay pride parades but the actual presence of a parade is necessary for visibility and eventual absorbance into the mainstream of society, which I for one believe the gay community has pretty much reached more or less (as Time magazine famously stated recently with their title "Yup, She's Mainstream" in reference to Ellen DeGeneres.)

I will also point out that my sheer disappointment in DC Pride may have been related to the relatively underwhelming performance of the parade itself in comparison to New York City extravagent Pride which is where I am from. But this isnt the heart of the matter. The frustration and disgust that I feel as a person who constantly hopes for LGBT Equality and Marriage is perpetuated by these images within "the gay community."

Gay Pride Parades are probably the only time in your life that you will find on public display LGBT senior citizens walking in front of a Big Bear float with hairy and practically naked older men who are in front of a delegation of PFLAG members (Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays), behind a cotingency of "marriage equality" holding 5 year olds with their two moms behind a transsexual with her large, fake, plastic breasts literally out in the open. I am a die-hard liberal with a little L, and a Progressive meaning I do believe in free expression, however, I just feel there is a line between freedom of expression and indecency. Call me conservative, but I just dont find it appropriate for transsexuals with their breasts hanging and men with their penises practically in the air next to small children holding sings that say " I love my two daddies." Its just revolting.

That isnt even that worst aspect of these events. Are we not trying to stop discrimination, prejudice, hatred, ignorance and bigotry? Arent we all on the same team? How is it that such events aimed at visibility are supposed to increase acceptance when stereotypes of gays being ultraeffeminate and sexual deviants are strongly perpetuated by such public displays? Yes, we can exhibit free expression of the variations of genders, sexes and sexual orientations. That is completely fine. But how is it OK to have children as young as toddlers in the same parade as such revolting images? I just dont see how a hairy, 50 year old man in his leather hat and strap ons is beneficial to the greater struggle of acceptance, awareness, and equality under the law.

I have no problem with drag queens and kings. It displays the open expression of femininity and masculinity. However, since when does being LGBT have anything to do with open expression of one's distorted overweight body? Since when does being LGBT have anything to do with women showing their bare breasts to hoardes of crowds some of which look on at the parade as if it were a circus act (one example being my moderately conservative Soviet immigrant parents.) Do you see Puerto Rican women showing their bare breasts during the Puerto Rican Day Parade? Or do you see Vietnam Veterans waving their penises in the air during Memorial Day celebrations? I just dont see the correlation between being part of the LGBT community and sexual perversion. That is exactly what our opponents attack us and label us as and we cannot move forward at a greater pace until gay pride becomes a celebration of our families, our friends, our neighbors, our accomplishments, our identity, and our culture.

If we continue to focus on the sexual aspects of sexual orientation, which I find to be irrelevant when it comes to LGBT Equality since Privacy Rights should be guaranteed and the government should have no role in your personal sex life, then we face the risk of creating a backlash against all the work that we have worked tirelessly to achieve.

Not all stereotypes are true. But some are perpetuated and directly influenced by the afflicted community and it is our duty as LGBT individuals to stand up and demand decency in celebration of who we are as a people. We dont need to have these gut-wrenching images of obese men and women running naked in the streets to show our pride in ourselves. Im not saying we need to conform to "mainstream heterosexual society" and lose a lot of the features that make LGBT individuals different. All I hope for is that we showcase our determination and will to move forward with pride in a universally clean and beneficial way not through bare breasts but through words, actions, and love.

I would love for some input.

A MINOR VICTORY

Ben Adler — Wed, 23 May 2007 18:48:29 EDT

An important, but oft-neglected, frontier in the fight for civil rights is disability issues. But as the New York Times reported yesterday, Monday's Supreme Court decision to allow the families of students with disabilities to represent themselves when challenging their school district's plan for educating their child is a major step forward. In the past courts have often held that parents cannot challenge a school district's plan without a lawyer. Naturally this has the effect of preventing poor families, or sometimes families in remote rural areas, from being able to mount a challenge at all, since they cannot access legal representation. The Court, by a 7-2 margin, interpreted the Individuals with Disabilities in Education Act as allowing parents to attempt to ensure that their child's education meets his or her needs. Who could possibly oppose that? Scalia and Thomas, natch. At least "Scalito" isn't proving to be as bad as his namesake thus far.

cross-posted on TAPPED.

Jerry Falwell--denouncer of Tinky Winky--dies at 73

ashwini — Tue, 15 May 2007 15:08:08 EDT

“The ACLU’s got to take a lot of blame for this. ... And I know that I’ll hear from them for this. But, throwing God out successfully with the help of the federal court system, throwing God out of the public square, out of the schools. The abortionists have got to bear some burden for this because God will not be mocked. And when we destroy 40 million little innocent babies, we make God mad. I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People For the American Way - all of them who have tried to secularize America - I point the finger in their face and say: “You helped this happen.”

--Jerry Fallwell, 700 Club, 9/13/2001

The founder of Moral Majority, the evangelist who made hate speech profitable and established fundamentalists as a viable political force, Jerry Falwell has died at age 73.

Huge day for hate crimes

singhm — Thu, 03 May 2007 14:34:55 EDT

Since 1991, more than 100,000 hate crimes have been committed, and in 2005, there were over 1,000 committed based on victims' sexual orientation.

But, as this excerpt from the HRC states, we still have a long way to go:

However, under current law, the federal government is not able to help in cases where women, gay, transgender or disabled Americans are victims of bias-motivated crimes for who they are. [emphasis added] For example, in Texas, in July 2005, four men brutally assaulted a gay man. While punching and kicking him, whipping him with a vacuum chord and assaulting him with daggers, the offenders told the victim that they attacked him because he was gay. Two of the men were sentenced to six years in prison under a plea bargain that dropped the charges that could have sent them to prison for life. Under this bill, federal authorities would have had the jurisdiction to prosecute the crime or could have provided local authorities resources that might have assisted them in pursuing a longer sentence.

There's no better way to let you know about the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crime Prevention Act (H.R. 1592) than to redirect you to LCCR's quick rundown about this key legislation that is being decided *today.*

So, pull out that cell phone and call: 202-224-3121 and let your Representative know that you want to protect the civil rights of all Americans.

(And if you need something to get you riled up enough to take action... check out this infuriating page from the Traditional Values Coalition)

The Integrated Prom of Southern Georgia

ashwini — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 12:44:30 EDT

"The white people have theirs, and the black people have theirs. It's nothing racial at all."

Mindy Bryan; Ashburn, Georgia

Segregation is often seen as a default, a natural order, the way things just sort of fall into place when people with differences exist near to one another. Ms Bryan’s sentiments are often echoed in defenses of segregation—it doesn’t come from racism or any maliciousness, but it’s just sort of the way things are, because they’re the way things have been for so long. But this ignores inequity and inequality, the main reason that “separate but equal” was found to be a myth in Brown v. Board of Education.

Turner County High School, in southern Georgia, just held its first-ever school-sponsored integrated prom. For decades, parents had been organizing their own proms for the kids, one which Black students attended, and one which white students attended. From the article, it seems that the impetus behind the integrated prom came from the student government, which is encouraging—the change came from the students themselves, rather than being thrust upon the student body by adults. The prom was generally regarded as a positive step, but there were some who were skeptical or downright hostile to the idea. A parent, Valerie McKellar, said "'That's just like you're cooking a half-baked cake, putting the icing on it, and when you cut the cake, the cake ain't no good. That's how this prom is.'” Additionally, one student said that some of her friends’ parents “didn’t agree with” the idea of an integrated prom.

The Black man in modern America, a student-run conference mines the depths

umaduka — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 02:17:53 EDT

PRINCETON, NJ--Princeton University greeted 400 men and women on Saturday, March 3, all attendees of the second annual State of Black Men in America Conference. It was an unusually warm day in Princeton, New Jersey and the mood matched the weather. Chris Chaney, president of the Black Men's Awareness Group (BMAG) and a central organizer of the conference charcterized the day's energy as "inspiring and empowering". "It was a 'we-can-do-it' atmosphere, " Chaney recalled. The conference was sponsored through the efforts of BMAG, a a Princeton University organization committed to issues concerning African-American men on campus and in the world at-large. Chaney is a member of the class of 2007 and will be graduating this May. He collaborated with five of his undergraduate colleagues to coordinate the event.