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EQUAL RIGHTS FOR ALL
Please sign this petition and forward it to everyone you know.
It's 2008, time for true equal rights.
I'd equate the gay rights issue to that of the civil rights era.
It's time for change, true equal rights for ALL.
Please sign this petition and forward it to everyone you know. It's 2008, time for true equal rights. ... more -
Getting Along (Homo/Hetrosexual Students in College)
I created a ten minute video about Homo/Heterosexual students here at my college University of Maryland Eastern Shore, and how they interact with each other. In the video you will see students opinions about the homosexual students at my college and how over time their opinion has changed due to the personal interaction here at UMES.
I created a ten minute video about Homo/Heterosexual students here at my college University of Maryland Eastern Shore, and how they in... more -
Rally for Equal Funding
A short new piece i created about students from Howard University, Morgan State, University of Maryland Eastern Shore and Coppin State and how we all gathered in Annapolis Maryland to protest for equal funding for Black Colleges. A short new piece i created about students from Howard University, Morgan State, University of Maryland Eastern Shore and Coppin State... more
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Diversity in College
The video is a short documentary about what brought student to my college University of Maryland Eastern Shore and their opinions about campus life,racism, homophobia and other major issues affecting students. I wanted to give students at my college a voice and this is what I created, please feel free to comment. The video is a short documentary about what brought student to my college University of Maryland Eastern Shore and their opinions abou... more
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Women make gains on Arab corporate boards
Public companies listed in Oman and Kuwait have more women on their boards than in Italy and Japan, highlighting rare gains made by businesswomen in one of the most restrictive parts of the world.
Women make up 2.7 per cent of boards in Kuwait, compared with Italy, where they represent 2 per cent and Japan, where the number falls to only 0.4 per cent.
The findings come from a survey into boards in the six-nation Gulf Co-operation Council, due to be published on Monday by TNI, an Abu Dhabi investment bank, and Hawkamah, the Dubai-based institute for corporate governance.
The representation on boards in the two Gulf countries masks a bleaker overall picture: across the region women represent only 1.5 per cent of board seats, compared with 13.6 per cent in the US and 22 per cent in Norway.
“While the region appears as a global diversity laggard, Oman and Kuwait buck the trend to come out as regional diversity leaders – ahead of Italy and just a notch below Spain,” the report said.
Only 30 per cent of women participate in the economy in the Arab world, compared with a world average of 55 per cent.
The profile of Arab businesswomen has been rising and their impact on the private sector in particular has been increasing.
Although the most prominent businesswomen still tend to come from privileged backgrounds, many young women are now pursuing higher education, including women in Saudi Arabia, a very conservative state.
And they are determined to use their knowledge to start new businesses, particularly at a time when economies are booming.
Amer Halawi, a director at TNI, said there was “globally a significant lack of data when it comes to the economic representation of women” and that it was difficult to pinpoint a single factor that would explain numbers across the Gulf.
However, he said: “We have gathered anecdotal evidence that more economic, social and political freedom may yield a higher rate of female board participation.”
The report said a material change in the proportion of women directors in the six nations of the GCC was likely to take time.
Public companies listed in Oman and Kuwait have more women on their boards than in Italy and Japan, highlighting rare gains made by bu... more -
Landmark disability treaty set by the UN
All disabled people now reserve the right to say No to being placed in an institution and decline medical or psychological treatment.
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Mildred Loving, matriarch of interacial marraige, dies
RICHMOND, Va. - Mildred Loving, a black woman whose challenge to Virginia's ban on interracial marriage led to a landmark Supreme Court ruling striking down such laws nationwide, has died, her daughter said Monday.
Peggy Fortune said Loving, 68, died Friday at her home in rural Milford. She did not disclose the cause of death.
Loving and her white husband, Richard, changed history in 1967 when the U.S. Supreme Court upheld their right to marry. The ruling struck down laws banning racially mixed marriages in at least 17 states.
Her husband died in 1975. Shy and soft-spoken, Loving shunned publicity and in a rare interview with The Associated Press last June, insisted she never wanted to be a hero — just a bride.
"It wasn't my doing," Loving said. "It was God's work."
Mildred Jeter was 11 when she and 17-year-old Richard began courting, according to Phyl Newbeck, a Vermont author who detailed the case in the 2004 book, "Virginia Hasn't Always Been for Lovers."
She became pregnant a few years later, she and Loving got married in Washington in 1958, when she was 18. Mildred told the AP she didn't realize it was illegal.
"I think my husband knew," Mildred said. "I think he thought (if) we were married, they couldn't bother us."
But they were arrested a few weeks after they returned to Central Point, their hometown in rural Caroline County north of Richmond. They pleaded guilty to charges of "cohabiting as man and wife, against the peace and dignity of the Commonwealth," according to their indictments.
They avoided jail time by agreeing to leave Virginia — the only home they'd known — for 25 years. They moved to Washington for several years, then launched a legal challenge by writing to Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, who referred the case to the American Civil Liberties Union.
- This is a truly amazing woman who didn't let anything stand between her and her love. As somebody who is in an interracial relationship I owe her a great debt of gratitude, and while she is gone from this world she will never be forgotten. RICHMOND, Va. - Mildred Loving, a black woman whose challenge to Virginia's ban on interracial marriage led to a landmark Supreme Cour... more -
STOP DISCRIMINATING AGAINST PEOPLE!!!
The United States has to stop discriminating against people.
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Pol wants cigs out if kids in Car
The Brooklyn lawmaker who crafted the nation's first cell-phone driving ban is now taking aim at smoking in cars when kids are in tow.
"When you expose children to secondhand smoke in cars, you are exposing them to enormous risks to their health," Assemblyman Felix Ortiz (D-Sunset Park) told the Daily News.
Under his legislation, motorists caught puffing cigarettes or cigars while accompanied by passengers under 16 years old would face fines of $100.
Arkansas, California, Louisiana and Maine, along with Puerto Rico, have all banned smoking with kids in the car, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Health care advocates have backed the drive for such restrictions, noting studies show children typically spend about an hour a day in cars and can be exposed to dangerously high levels of secondhand smoke in a vehicle.
Ortiz said cops will be able to enforce his proposed law the same way they handle seat-belt and cell-phone violations: with simple observation.
The head of the state Association of Police Chiefs, John Grebert, was skeptical. "You can't expect police officers to regulate smokers in their cars," he said. "I think it's overregulation." The Brooklyn lawmaker who crafted the nation's first cell-phone driving ban is now taking aim at smoking in cars when kids are in tow.... more -
Gays having trouble obtaining divorces
Gay couples had to struggle mightily to win the right to marry or form civil unions. Now, some are finding that breaking up is hard to do, too.
In Rhode Island, for example, the state's top court ruled in December that gays married in neighboring Massachusetts can't get divorced here because lawmakers have never defined marriage as anything but a union between a man and woman. In Missouri, a judge is deciding whether a lesbian married in Massachusetts can get an annulment.
"We all know people who have gone through divorces. At the end of that long and unhappy period, they have been able to breathe a sigh of relief," said Cassandra Ormiston of Rhode Island, who is splitting from her wife, Margaret Chambers. But "I do not see that on my horizon, that sigh of relief that it's over."
Over the past four years, Massachusetts has been the only state where gay marriage is legal, while nine other states allow gay couples to enter into civil unions or domestic partnerships that offer many of the rights and privileges of marriage. The vast majority of these unions require court action to dissolve.
Gay couples who still live in the state where they got hitched can split up with little difficulty; the laws in those states include divorce or dissolution procedures for same-sex couples. But gay couples who have moved to another state are running into trouble.
Massachusetts, at least early on, let out-of-state gay couples get married there practically for the asking. But the rules governing divorce are stricter. Out-of-state couples could go back to Massachusetts to get divorced, but they would have to live there for a year to establish residency first.
"I find that an unbelievably unfair burden. I own a home here, my friends are here, my life is here," said Ormiston, who is resigned to moving to Massachusetts for a year.
It's not clear how many gay couples have sought a divorce. Gay couples had to struggle mightily to win the right to marry or form civil unions. Now, some are finding that breaking up is hard to... more -
Oil giant calls eco-award winners 'con men'
Chevron Corp. is sharpening its attacks against two opponents in a 15-year legal battle over whether the oil company should foot a multibillion-dollar bill to clean up a toxic stew in the Amazon rainforests.
The San Ramon-based company intensified its criticism Monday while two Ecuadoreans, Pablo Fajardo and Luis Yanza, were in San Francisco to pick up the Goldman Prize, a prestigious honor and $150,000 award given to individuals for their environmental achievements.
Fajardo and Yanza won the award for spearheading a class-action lawsuit alleging that a company acquired by Chevron poisoned a 1,700-square-mile expanse of the Ecuadorean jungle — an area the size of Rhode Island. Chevron Corp. is sharpening its attacks against two opponents in a 15-year legal battle over whether the oil company should foot a mul... more -
Pink ceiling limits careers
A UK survey of LGBT workers has found that most believe coming out will hurt their careers.
The 'Out Now 2008 Millivres Gay Market Study' is described as the most comprehensive market research study ever undertaken of the UK gay and lesbian community.
The survey was taken of readers to Britain's three largest LGBT publications and involved 1231 respondents. It was conducted between September 2007 and January 2008.
The vast majority of respondents - 82-percent of lesbians and 75-percent of gay men - said that being completely open about being gay to everyone at work is not a good idea.
One in eight said that being out as gay at work would "definitely" hold back their job promotion prospects.
The survey also found that 14-percent of respondents were harassed at work in the UK last year because they were perceived to be lesbian or gay.
Two out of three respondents rate their own employer as less than perfect in how they treat their own lesbian and gay employees.
According to Out Now the results show workplace gay equality and diversity policies are not filtering down into actual day-to-day life at work.
Ian Johnson, the CEO of Out Now said that despite a Workplace Equality Index created by the LGBT rights group Stonewall to monitor equality policies at companies the Out Now survey found that workers in companies that attained a high index rating still reported harassment and discrimination on the job.
"Widespread mainstream media reporting on the top 100 employers can make it seem like the problem of being openly gay at work is no longer an issue. These figures show that just is not the case.," said Johnson. "The fact that two out of every three respondents think their own employer treats gay staff less than perfectly is - in 2008 - rather depressing."
"Concealing your sexuality at work takes a lot of energy - energy that could be far more productively used in building better workplace relations - based on mutual trust and respect - between everyone at work," he said. A UK survey of LGBT workers has found that most believe coming out will hurt their careers. ... more -
Bill O’Reilly’s anti-gay ways
Now, after years of documenting his bile, Media Matters has launched a crusade against the Fox News commodity O’Reilly:
"Fox News and O’Reilly use the topic of same-sex couples and their families to promote his show and incite fear of the LGBT community. Never was this practice more clear than when Fox used footage from Rosie O’Donnell’s cruise for gay and lesbian couples and their families to promote an upcoming edition of the Factor. The promo raised the question: “Is the media celebrating gay culture?” You can probably guess what the answer was.
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It’s time to tell O’Reilly and Fox News that enough is enough; if anyone should “relax on all this gay stuff,” it’s Bill O’Reilly. I hope you’ll take a moment to contact Fox News and The O’Reilly Factor today and make sure your voice is heard."
http://mediamatters.org/action_center/oreilly_lgbt/ Now, after years of documenting his bile, Media Matters has launched a crusade against the Fox News commodity O’Reilly: ... more -
Hanes offensive ads to sell underwear
Via Joe.My.God comes this image of a new ad from Hanes, promoting their tagless underwear with the tagline "Because the World Gives You Enough Labels". The ad features a man dragging a stereotype- and slur-laden character. Joe reports that the ad was created by the Bombay division of McCann Erickson, so it's unlikely to appear in American markets.
With a little digging I was able to find two other ads in the campaign, via Trendhunter. They write: "In Fagg*t, you see same-sex kissing, debauchery, toys, bottles of wine and references to beauty: lipstick, nail polish and makeup. In Nigg*r, you see drugs, guns, jail cells, low-life jobs like cleaning toilets, and text about being HIV positive. In Pak! (a demeaning name for people from Pakistan), you see tanks, bullets, bombs and pigs (an anti-Islamic reference)."
Check out the other two ads.....Effective, or just offensive?
http://towleroad.typepad.com/.shared/image.html?/photos...
http://towleroad.typepad.com/.shared/image.html?/photos... Via Joe.My.God comes this image of a new ad from Hanes, promoting their tagless underwear with the tagline "Because the World Gives Yo... more -
School suspends boy for answering Iraq call from Dad
A Texas sergeant and his son recently found themselves separated not only by an eight-hour time difference, several bodies of water, hundreds of miles and a war, but by a high school official who suspended the boy for answering his dad's call during class.
Cove High School in Texas, where half the students have at least one parent deployed, justified the punishment against Brandon Hill by saying he had violated the no-cell-phone policy when he took the call from his father, who is serving in Iraq.
"I have been going through a lot of stress lately and my dad’s like my best friend, so I go to him for everything," the sophomore told FOX News on Saturday.
"I needed to talk to him, so my mom got a hold of him on Yahoo and told him to call me, so I answered the phone call in class." A Texas sergeant and his son recently found themselves separated not only by an eight-hour time difference, several bodies of water, ... more -
Lesbian Couple Gets Prison, 20 Lashes
Two women in Kaduna, Nigeria have been sentenced to six months in prison and 20 lashes each for having a lesbian relationship.
The Sharia court said that Malama Hauwa and Hajiya Ai'sha were violating the tenets of Islam and the teachings of Sharia law.
The women claimed in court to have been married for five years. Ai'sha said she had paid a dowry of 5,000 Nigerian naira (£21) to her 'wife' at the start of their relationship.
However, she also said she also has sex with men, and denied she is a member of any "group or association of lesbians, saying although there could be many others who practised same-sex love, she had no knowledge of the existence of any near her," reports Nigerian newspaper Punch.
Their relationship came to the attention of the police when Ai'sha became concerned that Hauwa may be about to leave her and demanded the return of the dowry.
Nigeria, like many African countries, is notoriously conservative on issues such as homosexuality.
It is currently banned in the Nigerian penal code and in Muslim law.
Predominantly Muslim states in Nigeria introduced Sharia law, a legal system based on Islamic theory and philosophy of justice, in 2000.
The governor in a Muslim state must give his approval for some of the harsher penalties handed down by Sharia courts, such as execution or amputation.
In reality the re-introduction of harsh punishments apart from the death penalty has been the main feature of Islamic courts.
In Bauchi state alone there are 40 people awaiting amputation of one or both hands for theft. Two women in Kaduna, Nigeria have been sentenced to six months in prison and 20 lashes each for having a lesbian relationship. ... more -
Kids' Cross-Dressing Event Draws Ire
Wisconsin Grade School's Costume Tradition Enrages Christian Radio Network.
An elementary-school event in which kids were encouraged to dress as members of the opposite gender drew the ire of a Christian radio group, whose angry broadcast prompted outraged calls to the district office.
Students at Pineview Elementary had been dressing in costume all last week as part of an annual school tradition called Wacky Week. On Friday, students were encouraged to dress either as senior citizens or as members of the opposite sex.
A local resident informed the Voice of Christian Youth America on Friday. The Milwaukee-based radio network responded by interrupting its morning programming for a special broadcast that aired on nine radio stations throughout Wisconsin. The broadcast criticized the dress-up day and accused the district of promoting alternative lifestyles.
The response surprised Principal Tammy Hayes, who said no one had raised any objections beforehand. She said a flier detailing Wacky Week had been sent home with children the prior week, and an announcement was also included in teacher newsletters.
"Nobody contacted me," Hayes said.
The dress-up day was not an attempt to promote cross-dressing, homosexuality or alternative gender roles, district administrator Tom Benson said.
"The promotion of transgenderism - that was not our purpose," Benson said. "Our purpose was to have a Wacky Week, mixing in a bit of silliness with our reading, writing and arithmetic."
The theme for Friday's dress-up day came from students, Hayes said. The Wacky Week schedule was created by Pineview's Student Senate with the guidance of secretary Shari Miller.
"It's different every year. They basically present the ideas, and they vote on what they would like from Monday through Friday," Hayes said. "I feel awful for the kids and Shari. They did not mean anything by this day. They were trying to have fun and come up with a fun dress-up day."
About 40 percent of the student body dressed up Friday, Hayes estimated, with half portraying senior citizens and half dressing as the opposite sex.
"I can assure you we will not be having this day (again)," Hayes said.
Wisconsin Grade School's Costume Tradition Enrages Christian Radio Network. ... more -
Women face bias worldwide
Women are discriminated against in almost every country around the world, a UN-commissioned report says.
It says that this is despite the fact that 185 UN member states pledged to outlaw laws favouring men by 2005.
It adds that 70% of the world's poor are women and they own just 1% of the world's titled land.
The report, which was prepared for UN Human Right Commissioner Louise Arbour, says rape within marriage has still not been made a crime in 53 nations.
"Many states still have different ages of marriage for young women than they have for young men, and the age for girls is always lower then the age for boys.
"This leads to violations, for example of a girls' right education, if she has to leave school at 14 to get married, and this impacts upon her life chances.
"It ends up being a life-long violation of her rights in terms of forfeiting education, having children too early, possibly being damaged herself." Women are discriminated against in almost every country around the world, a UN-commissioned report says. ... more -
Japan's concrete ceiling
You thought the glass ceiling was bad in America? Take a look at Japan.
I'm glad they're make strides towards improvement, but I was still frustrated reading this. You thought the glass ceiling was bad in America? Take a look at Japan. ... more -
Childcare keeping women out of the top jobs.
A Europe-wide Research initiative by Cambridge University today reports that a 'lifestyle divide' is stopping women from achieving career goals as they focus more work hours on childcare and domestic duties http://education.guardian.co.uk/gendergap/story/0,,2222....
The implication is that women have to deal not only with a glass ceiling in promotion, but also with cultural barriers which allow men to shirk domestic duties, providing a very un-level playing field. With all the talk of improving equality in the workplace, are things really all that better than 30 years ago for ambitious modern women? A Europe-wide Research initiative by Cambridge University today reports that a 'lifestyle divide' is stopping women from achieving car... more
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Equal Rights
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Equal Rights
