Legislators honored
In celebration of Black History Month, Equality Illinois and other gay and lesbian social service groups honored members of the Black Caucus of the Illinois General Assembly Monday at the DuSable Museum. Members of the Caucus have consistently been the strongest supporters of gay civil-rights in the General Assembly.
Affinity, Horizons, Greater Chicago Committee, Cook County State's Attorney Richard Devine, and the Chicago Dept. of Public Health Office of Lesbian and Gay Health co-sponsored the event.
Among those honored: Senators Barack Obama, Emil Jones, James Clayborne, Margaret Smith, Donne Trotter and Rickey Hendon; and Representatives Lovana Jones, Shirley Jones, Constance Howard, Wyvetter Young, Calvin Giles, Howard Kenner, Todd Stroger, Monique Davis, Mary Flowers, Charles Morrow, Harold Murphy and Art Turner.
HRC applauds DEM civil-rights bill
The Human Rights Campaign is applauding the Democratic leadership in Congress for introducing the Protecting Civil Rights for All Americans Act.
The Act, part of a larger package, includes six human-rights provisions: federal hate-crimes legislation that includes sexual orientation; a study on racial profiling; increased funding for the Legal Services Corp., which provides legal representation to low-income individuals and families; legislation to outlaw discrimination based on genetics; legislation that outlaws employment discrimination based on sexual orientation; and increased funding for law enforcement agencies that deal with enforcing civil-rights laws.
"This is a landmark bill that will pave the way for the introduction of important bipartisan legislation that will protect lesbian and gay Americans from hate crimes and job discrimination," says HRC Political Director Winnie Stachelberg. "The Democratic leadership, particularly Sen. Tom Daschle, deserve special thanks for sending the message that gay and lesbian equality is an important priority. We will now shift our attention to lining up support on both sides of the aisle so we can pass this legislation that is supported by the vast majority of Americans."
NGLTF gives Bush education plan an 'F'
National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Executive Director Elizabeth Toledo is criticizing the education proposal of President George W. Bush, saying it threatens GLBT students and teachers.
"It is laudable that George W. Bush wants to make education issues a priority in his administration," Toledo said. "But we should put the focus on improving public schools. We cannot improve public schools by taking away funding and shifting it to private religious institutions. Such a move, in addition to being bad public policy and violating the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, also threatens the safety of GLBT students and children of GLBT parents as well as the job security of GLBT teachers."
Toledo said voucher programs do not typically require that religious schools receiving public money have bans on bias based on sexual orientation, and she questioned whether the curriculums of the schools would include tolerance of GLBT people and issues.
