equality

Participants in a Pride parage in Los Angeles in 2019.

In scrapping its LGBTQ-related travel ban, California pivots to ‘hearts and minds’

BY: - October 3, 2023

In September, Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom officially repealed California’s 2016 ban on state-funded travel to states with laws targeting LGBTQ+ people. The idea behind the ban — which applied to bureaucrats, lawmakers, academics and even college athletes — was to use California’s economic heft to dissuade other states from enacting such laws. By that metric, […]

COMMENTARY

U.S. Supreme Court poised to dismantle a key part of LBJ’s Great Society – affirmative action

BY: - June 7, 2023

Of all the civil rights policies enacted by U.S President Lyndon Johnson, affirmative action is arguably one of the most enduring — and most challenged. Johnson made it clear during a commencement address at Howard University on June 4, 1965, where he stood. In his speech, “To Fulfill These Rights,” Johnson argued that civil rights […]

Rep. David N. Cicilline (D-Rhode Island) speaks during a House Judiciary Committee hearing on June 02, 2022.

A Rhode Island Democrat exits Congress, in search of an impact no longer found in D.C.

BY: - March 24, 2023

WASHINGTON — Rhode Island’s longtime U.S. Rep. David Cicilline — a leader on the second impeachment of former President Donald Trump, an advocate for breaking up big tech and a champion for LGBTQ+ rights — will step down from Congress in late May to lead his state’s largest community foundation. The Democrat, elected in 2010 […]

COMMENTARY
The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. delivers a speech to a crowd of approximately 7,000 people on May 17, 1967, at UC Berkeley’s Sproul Plaza in Berkeley, California. (Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)

Martin Luther King ‘reigns as a man who saw tomorrow’ on ‘relentless tokenism’

BY: - January 16, 2023

Republished from the Kansas Reflector — which, through its opinion section, works to amplify the voices of people who are affected by public policies or excluded from public debate. Some historians mark the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s murder as the end of the civil rights movement. Over an arc of 14 years — from […]

COMMENTARY

Senate same-sex marriage vote still a step on long road toward full justice | John L. Micek

BY: - December 1, 2022

It’s difficult to overstate the importance of this week’s U.S. Senate vote codifying protections for same-sex and interracial marriage as both a triumph of bipartisanship and fundamental decency. It’s also difficult to overstate, sadly, how much further we have to go to ensure full equality for LGBTQ Americans. First, the good news. On Tuesday, 61 […]

The U.S. Senate passed a bill Tuesday, Nov. 29, 2022, that codifies court-ordered protections for same-sex and interracial marriages. Here Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) is seen left the Senate floor after a procedural vote the legislation Nov. 16. Baldwin, the first openly gay woman to be elected to the House and the Senate, has led Senate negotiations on the bill. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Same-sex marriage protected under bill passed by U.S. Senate with GOP support

BY: - November 29, 2022

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate approved legislation Tuesday that would enshrine protections for same-sex and interracial marriages, codifying many of the rights that would disappear if the U.S. Supreme Court were to overturn those landmark decisions the way it overturned the nationwide right to an abortion this summer.  The 61-36 bipartisan vote sends the bill […]

The U.S. Senate passed a bill Tuesday, Nov. 29, 2022, that codifies court-ordered protections for same-sex and interracial marriages. Here Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) is seen left the Senate floor after a procedural vote the legislation Nov. 16. Baldwin, the first openly gay woman to be elected to the House and the Senate, has led Senate negotiations on the bill. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Bill protecting same-sex marriage gains bipartisan support in U.S. Senate

BY: - November 16, 2022

WASHINGTON —  The U.S. Senate cleared a key hurdle to passing a marriage equality bill Wednesday, garnering even more than the 60 senators from both political parties needed to move past a legislative filibuster.  The bill, which could win final passage in the Senate as soon as this week, would ensure same-sex and interracial couples […]

Negotiators: At least 10 GOP senators support codifying same-sex marriage

BY: - September 7, 2022

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate is on track to vote on a bill codifying marriage equality as soon as next week with negotiators increasingly confident it could become law.  Wisconsin Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin and Maine GOP Sen. Susan Collins said Wednesday they’re close to getting at least 10 Republicans to back the same-sex marriage […]