Tag: Nondiscrimination

Posted inCivil Liberties, Holidays, Policy Topics

Martin Luther King, Jr.: “Justice too long delayed is justice denied”

by Andrew Villeneuve

Today is Mar­tin Luther King Jr. Day, and we do every year in hon­or of Dr. King’s mem­o­ry, I’m post­ing an excerpt from his Let­ter From Birm­ing­ham Jail. In these pas­sages, he is explain­ing why he has reject­ed calls to wait on advanc­ing civ­il rights. King makes the point that peo­ple who wish to expand […]

Posted inBreaking News, Civil Liberties, Policy Topics

Marriage equality is now the law of the land in the great state of Oregon, at long last!

by Andrew Villeneuve

Hur­rah for equal­i­ty! Moments ago, U.S. Dis­trict Judge Michael McShane hand­ed down a rul­ing declar­ing that Ore­gon’s pro­hi­bi­tion on mar­riages between LGBT cou­ples vio­lates the equal pro­tec­tion clause of the Unit­ed States Con­sti­tu­tion. He also refused to stay his deci­sion and allow a nation­al right wing orga­ni­za­tion to inter­vene in the case. That means couples […]

Posted inBreaking News, Civil Liberties, Policy Topics

Idaho’s ban on marriage equality struck down as unconstitutional by federal judge

by Andrew Villeneuve

Mar­riage equal­i­ty appears well on its way to becom­ing the law of the land through­out our entire region with the joy­ous news tonight that the chief U.S. Mag­is­trate Judge for the Dis­trict of Ida­ho, Can­dy W. Dale, has struck down Ida­ho’s ban on mar­riage between LGBT cou­ples as uncon­sti­tu­tion­al. “Idaho’s mar­riage laws with­hold from them […]

Posted inBreaking News, Civil Liberties, Policy Topics

Clippers owner Donald Sterling banned “for life” from the NBA, commissioner announces

by Andrew Villeneuve

Good­bye and good rid­dance, Don­ald Ster­ling: NBA Com­mis­sion­er Adam Sil­ver has banned Don­ald Ster­ling for life from any asso­ci­a­tion with the Clip­pers or the NBA, it was announced today at a press con­fer­ence in Man­hat­tan. Com­mis­sion­er Sil­ver has also fined Mr. Ster­ling $2.5 mil­lion, the max­i­mum amount allowed under the NBA Con­sti­tu­tion. The fine money […]

Posted inBreaking News, Civil Liberties, Policy Topics

Arizona’s Jan Brewer vetoes anti-LGBT bill in landmark defeat for fundamentalist right wing

by Andrew Villeneuve

Ari­zona Gov­er­nor Jan Brew­er has vetoed a bill that would have legal­ized dis­crim­i­na­tion in the 48th State on the basis of sex­u­al ori­en­ta­tion, after pro­gres­sives and busi­ness groups mobi­lized against the bill fol­low­ing its pas­sage out of the Grand Canyon State’s Leg­is­la­ture, which is con­trolled by Repub­li­cans. The Ari­zona Repub­lic reports that Brew­er revealed her […]

Posted inCivil Liberties, Education, Legislative Advocacy, Policy Topics

Bring the DREAM Act up for a vote, Senator! An open letter to Majority Leader Rodney Tom

by Andrew Villeneuve

Edi­tor’s note: Ear­li­er today, fol­low­ing the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives’ light­ning fast pas­sage of the DREAM Act, NPI founder and exec­u­tive direc­tor Andrew Vil­leneuve sent this mes­sage to Sen­a­tor Rod­ney Tom, who rep­re­sents the 48th Dis­trict (Belle­vue, Red­mond, Kirk­land, Med­i­na, Clyde Hill) and is — at least in name — the Major­i­ty Leader of the Washington […]

Posted inCivil Liberties, Economic Security, Policy Topics

U.S. Senate passes ENDA, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, in historic vote

by Andrew Villeneuve

It took longer than it should have, but today, the Unit­ed States Sen­ate made his­to­ry by pass­ing the Employ­ment Non-Dis­­crim­i­­na­­tion Act (ENDA) which out­laws dis­crim­i­na­tion in the work­place based on sex­u­al ori­en­ta­tion. The vote was six­­ty-four to thir­­ty-two, with four sen­a­tors not vot­ing. As is increas­ing­ly the case, Repub­li­cans sup­plied every sin­gle one of the […]