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Lesbian, Gay, Bi & Trans

A significant legal victory for trans and gender nonconforming workers was recently won in a case brought by Vandy Beth Glenn. A three-judge panel of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled unanimously on Dec. 6 that Georgia Legislative Services had discriminated against Glenn when it fired her in 2007. Glenn went back to work on Dec. 9....
African-American lesbian activist, poet and writer Audre Lorde wrote that “the master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house.” Published in 1984, her statement is a perfect response to U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s Dec. 6 announcement that the U.S. will supposedly be championing the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people around the world. Clinton gave her outrageously hypocritical remarks at an event recognizing International Human Rights Day in Geneva, Switzerland....
The scene was a perfect storm of organized chaos. Here were the young and old, students and workers, immigrants and oppressed, all addressing the failures of capitalism’s current worldwide crisis, outlining the destructive forces of global banking systems and highlighting the lack of communal values in a place that loves to cry patriotism....
These are hard times. There doesn’t appear to be any respite coming soon. The political atmosphere has shifted in response to the greatest economic calamity since the Great Depression. This crisis, because of how the changes in technology, communication and production have made the world smaller, is global in its impact....
The North Carolina House of Representatives voted 75-42 on Sept. 12 to place a constitutional ban on gay marriage on the ballot for the 2012 state elections. If Amendment One is ratified, it would permanently ban all same-sex marriages in North Carolina, prevent private employers from providing health insurance benefits to same-sex couples, and render null and void in this state all same-sex marriages made in other states....
Nearly 300 people rallied April 25 in front of a Rosedale, Md., McDonald’s restaurant, which was the site of a vicious attack on a transgender woman several days before. The rally numbers made it the largest event to date in Baltimore County, Md., in support of the lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender/queer community....
In Michigan there is currently a struggle over whether or not to pass “anti-bullying” legislation. To define its opponents as “bigoted extremists” would be an understatement. Who could possibly stand in the way of protecting a child from assault, harassment and intimidation?...
Today marks the one year anniversary of the assassination of Walter Trochez, a human rights, LGBTQ and democracy activist in Honduras. His death, like those of many other activists, LGBTQ leaders, journalists, unionists and teachers has been nominally investigated by a police force that itself has been implicated in violence against civilians since the coup on June 28, 2009. Despite the efforts of the U.S. State Department, multinational corporations, the Government of Honduras and their lobbyists to portray the current situation as sporadic violence, attributable to generic 'crime' within a post-election return to normalcy, it is clear that targeted bloodshed and a culture of impunity has taken hold....
A United Nations Human Rights Council gathering in Switzerland heard testimony from oppressed groups inside the United States who exposed Washington’s official state policy of gross violations against peoples of color and workers in general....
The recent spate of suicides by young people who are lesbian, gay, bi or trans or perceived as such by their peers is heartbreaking. It is also a call to action. We stand with all those stepping forward in solidarity with LGBT youth against the bashers, the bullies. We add our voices to the chorus telling our beautiful, precious children and teens: “Hang in there. It will get better.” But we say something else, too. Our message to the youth, LGBT and straight allies alike, is: Join us in the struggle....
Rutgers University held a silent vigil the night of Oct. 3 for 18-year-old Tyler Clementi, a first-year student and serious violinist, who jumped off the George Washington Bridge after he and a male friend’s encounter in his dorm room was secretly streamed online. Clementi’s death is but one in a growing number of teen suicides....
Racism and ageism were themes for the keynote speakers at the Old Lesbians Organizing for Change national gathering here in July, and for the speakout sessions done in a format known as “fishbowls.” The 150 participants ranged in age from 59 to 87....
Hate crimes against the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities are far from rare in the United States. In many cases, it is not just hate-filled bigots who commit these crimes, but the government itself....
On April 17, the openly Nazi group NSM held a rally at Los Angeles City Hall. Many groups, including socialist, anti-war and anti-racist organizations, mobilized to challenge their so-called right to free speech that motivates violence, racism and genocide against non-European peoples and the LGBTQ community....
Constance McMillen, an 18-year-old senior at Itawamba Agricultural High School in the small town of Fulton, Miss., just wanted to do what millions of high school students around the country look forward to every spring: get dressed up, go to prom and have a great time. But McMillen is a lesbian. She wanted to take her girlfriend to the prom. She wanted to wear a tuxedo....
A visit of the “Tea Party Express” to cities in the Midwest — a region of the country that has been most devastated by the economic crisis of capitalism — did not go unchallenged. Rather, activists and community members confronted them at several stops to denounce the right-wing attempt to divide working and oppressed people and to show that the racist, sexist, anti-lesbian-gay-bi-trans, anti-immigrant, corporate-funded Tea Party does not speak for working people....
The corporate media may give it a different spin, but for Palin and Wall Street’s Tea Party, Boston was a bust....
Abortion provider’s murderer convicted

Anti-abortion zealot Scott Roeder was convicted in Wichita, Kan., on Jan. 29 of the cold-blooded murder of Dr. George R. Tiller, a fearless, caring physician who performed abortions for women in desperate circumstances, while enduring great personal risk and paying the ultimate sacrifice. Roeder testified that after he had stalked Dr. Tiller for months, Roeder walked into the church where Dr. Tiller served as an usher and shot him in the face at close range on May 31....

The discussion of this legal project, named Organic Law of Gender Equality, represents a further advance of your Revolution and demonstrates the wish to correct these inequalities and discriminations which for decades have plagued our societies. We understand that it is not possible to have a society with justice and equality when some of the members of that society suffer discrimination, whether it is because of their age, the color of their skin, their ethnic origins, their sex or their sexual orientation....
For the better part of the last 75 years, revolutionary peoples’ artist Irving Fierstein used his immense talent to depict the many struggles of working and oppressed people for social and economic justice and against imperialism. In the early 1980s Fierstein created a unique genre of art—striking full-color revolutionary banners thoughtfully composed and painstakingly painted by hand....
The plight and suffering of children and teenagers who are subjected to sexual and other forms of abuse cannot be relieved by a reactionary campaign to foment racism, anti-gay bigotry and hatred of gender and sex variance....
The People’s Summit and Tent City in Detroit was by far one of the most amazing experiences I’ve ever had. It was like going to Cuba, or Venezuela, and seeing the level of solidarity that exists among the people in those countries—solidarity that is borne of the struggle to build, in the case of Venezuela, or retain, in the case of Cuba, socialism....
Type the words “Cuba Day against Homophobia” into Google’s search engine and you will find video clips and news stories about a festival on May 16 of this year in Havana and many other Cuban cities that raised public consciousness about the rights and contributions of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people....
On June 26, 2009, Trans and Gender Non Conforming People of Color and allies will take to the streets of NYC once again and demand justice to let the world know, that on the 40th anniversary of Stonewall, the rebellion is not over and we will continue fighting for justice, raising our voices until we are heard....
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Several thousand protesters gathered in front of San Francisco City Hall March 5 as the marriage rights struggle made its way to the California Supreme Court....
When there is no longer any need for a Harvey Milk School, when LGBT youths don't have to fear for their physical safety, when repression and hiding and discrimination are bad old memories, the work of Milk and the countless, nameless others who battled for full rights will be complete....
The lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community of Cleveland won a major victory with City Council’s passage of a domestic partner registry on Dec. 8....
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As part of its effort to forge new ties, Rainbow Solidarity for the Cuban Five held a meeting at the Lesbian Gay Bisexual & Transgender Community Center in New York City June 2. Leaders from various organizations voiced their commitment to work on behalf of the Cuban heroes,...
From June 27 to July 1, Atlanta will host the first-ever Social Forum held in the United States. The U.S. Social Forum will gather thousands of grassroots and community activists from across the country who will engage each other in political discussion and strategy planning. The operating slogan for the five-day event is "For another world to be possible, another U.S. is necessary."...
The Women's Fightback Network is a grassroots alliance of poor and working women, immigrants, disabled activists, students, elders and youth, lesbian, bisexual, transsexual and transgender women--all standing together to protest budget cuts, racism, sexism and war. As women, we have a special place in the fight for equality and human needs....
We the undersigned--lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, gender-nonconforming, and other activists fighting oppression based on sexuality, gender and sex--express our support for the right of the Black community in Brooklyn to decide to rename an avenue for the late Black community activist Sonny Abubadika Carson, who some called the "Mayor of Bed-Sty" for his long-time community activism....
Aug. 26, "Women's Equality Day," marks the day, 87 years ago, that women legally got the right to vote in the U.S. There was no equality for all women back then and today there is still no "equality" to celebrate....

UPDATED Dec 17, 2011 10:25 AM
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