Carl Matthes: June 2013 may well become one of the most remembered Gay Pride months in the amazingly rapid march by the LGBT community towards equal rights under the law.
LA Police Department’s 2013 LGBT Community Police Academy
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The Los Angeles Police Department presents the 2013 LGBT Community Police Academy every Thursday night, beginning on April 4th, thru May 30, 2013.
Nothing New in GOP’s Anti-Woman, Anti-Gay Platform
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Rev. Irene Monroe: the GOP is also signaling that it neither wants nor cares about the safety and full rights and protections of its citizens—especially their female, LGBTQ Republicans and Republican families.
Gays Unite with Blacks to Fight ‘Stop-and-Frisk’
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David Love: Meanwhile, a coalition of groups including the Human Rights Campaign and Empire State Pride Agenda are joining forces with NAACP’s Ben Jealous and Rev. Al Sharpton for a June 17 march to protest stop and frisk.
LAPD’s LGBT Community Police Academy Graduation — Thursday, June 14th
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With Assistant Chief Sandy Jo MacArthur, Deputy Chief Terry Hara, Dr. Luann Pannell, and Captian Michelle Veenstra
Friday Feedback: LAPD’s Changing Culture
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Steve Lamb comments on Dick & Sharon’s “Changing Culture at the LAPD,” which discusses the department’s ground-breaking work with the city’s LGBY community.
Historic Roots of Homophobia in Black America
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David Love: Another reason for the rift between blacks and the LGBT community has been the historic lack of synergy and inclusion regarding blacks and the gay rights movement.
A Changing Culture at the LAPD
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Dick Price & Sharon Kyle: Officer Sandra Moura credits the Department’s leadership — from Chief Beck on down — with instilling and enforcing a more community-oriented policing approach.
LAPD 2012 LGBT Community Police Academy Starts in April
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The Los Angeles Police Department’s 2012 LGBT Community Police Academy every Thursday night, beginning April 19 thru June 14, 2012.
What Good Is Black History Month?
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Sharon Kyle: I have this gnawing sense that with the exception of official national holidays, the only time our nation honors people with a special day or month is when they are members of an exploited group.
Pride Celebrations? Haven’t We Assimilated?
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Rev. Irene Monroe: Cultural acceptance is just one of a few things LGBTQ communities of color still do not experience from larger Pride events, instead at times experiencing social exclusion and invisibility.
LGBT Murders in Uganda and “Corrective Rape” in South Africa Buried in Mid East News Cycle
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Georgianne Nienaber: The facts surrounding Kato’s murder are straightforward, but there are devious machinations by so-called American “Christian groups” that have led to this inevitable tragedy, and it is imperative that the influence of evangelicals in Africa result in accountability.
Latinos and Gays Face Same Foe on November 2nd
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Luis Lopez and Dolores Huerta: Few groups in California have felt the sting of contradiction more sharply than Latinos and the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community. The statewide election on November 2 is a perfect chance for both populations to send a message that picking on us will be punished.
Will California Kill State Research into Homosexuality “Cure”?
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Carl Matthes: Lowenthal’s bill would add to California’s law books present-day science and values which were absent in 1950. The State has not conducted research into homosexuality for decades. “This (present) code simply mischaracterizes and institutes bigotry against the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community,” echoed Mario Guerrero, a director of Equality California.
Friday Feedback: Martin Luther King Jr. Belongs to All of Us
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Friday Feedback: Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream doesn’t just belong to any one particular group. It belongs to all of us. The civil rights struggle is a human rights struggle, and the LGBT community should be a part of it.
Bumpy Legal Road Ahead for Marriage Equality
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Paul Hogarth: For years, civil rights groups had carefully kept the federal courts out of gay marriage fights – and the prominent lawyers in Perry filed the suit without consulting them. But with most of marriage’s legal benefits coming under federal law, it was only a matter of time before the federal courts weighed in on this issue.
Homophobic Music and Hate Crimes Still a Big Problem
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Musical lyrics promoting the killing of people should never be the chorus of any tune. That, however, is not the case for Buju Banton, a reggae singer whose music promotes the violent murder of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people.
Schwarzenegger Could Veto California Out-of-State Couples Bill Any Moment
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Anti-LGBT organizations like Ron Prentice’s ProtectMarriage.com are trying to convince Schwarzenegger to veto SB 54, the Marriage Recognition and Family Protection Act (Leno, D-San Francisco).
Let Obama be Obama
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President Obama was the one that was most in tuned to both the welfare of the Gay citizenry and the liberal views I hold near and dear. I campaigned for him, he won, and now it seems my role, and that of all his supporters is to support him.
No Nonsense Census
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There’s been another informed and intelligent decision by the Obama administration. In August 2008, in an LA Progressive article entitled “Census Nonsense,” which decried the Bush administration’s move to exclude legally married same-sex couples from being counted as married couples during upcoming the 2010 census, I wrote, “…to capsulize the situation, as it stands now, [...]
Equality: Obama vs Truman
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July 26, 2009 marks the 60th anniversary of President Harry S. Truman signing Executive Order #9981 ending racial segregation of the United States military. 2009 also marks the 16th anniversary of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” the law passed by Congress mandating the discharge of openly gay, lesbian or bisexual military servicemembers. According to Servicemembers Legal [...]
Civil Rats Are Human Rats!
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I watched the movie Gettysburg again the other day. It is one of my favorites because the producer was a Mexican American and it is about the real reasons why democracy exists. In the movie, there is a scene where a New Hampshire officer is talking to two rebel soldiers. He asks them why they [...]
Gay Pride Speaks to Equality
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In the Oxford English Dictionary “equality” means, “Identical in amount; neither less nor greater…having the same measure, number, value, intensity.” How did three Democratic presidents, Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, and Lyndon Johnson, speak to equality? President Barack Obama on Monday, June 1, named June as “Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Pride Month” issuing a proclamation: [...]
Lieutenant Dan Choi Takes “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” Directly To Obama
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Wednesday evening, in an act of daring befitting a West Point graduate and veteran of Iraq, recently discharged New York National Guard Lieutenant Daniel Choi defied the orders of dozens of crowd control police and stepped into the ‘no protest zone’ street to ceremoniously salute his Commander in Chief, Barack Obama, out of site at [...]
Marriage Equality, Beyond the Lying
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My first essay for the L.A. Progressive was about Proposition 8 and the lies that self proclaimed Christian activists were telling in order to promote their bigotry. It seems almost ridiculous to catalog the number of violations of the Commandment against bearing false witness that these “Christians” embraced in order to sell their ballot measure. [...]
Proposition Hate Redux
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The California Supreme Court ruled again on same-sex marriage. This time it did to uphold Proposition 8, restricting marriage to one man and one woman. In a 6-to-1 decision, the justices decided that Proposition 8 would remain part of the state constitution. And the 18,000 same- sex couples that ran to the altar to legally [...]
Who Celebrates Our Queer Servicemembers on Memorial Day?
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There will be parades all across the country this Memorial Day commemorating our U.S. servicemembers who died while in the military. But not all of our servicemembers will be honored for their acts of bravery and patriotism. Back in the day, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer servicemembers who served our country were either closeted [...]
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LGBT Issues for Breakfast
Carl Matthes: Aren’t we all tired of looking to the Bible for condemnation of the human condition? Aren’t we ready to be adults and accept, that with all aspects of life, there is diversity?