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Dispatches from America's War Of Equality
A Religious Right to be Anti-Gay? Kansas Advances It
A religious right to fire someone because they’re gay? Kansas House lawmakers, both Republican and Democratic, just advanced a bill that says yes, it is a matter of religious freedom.
Reports LJ World.com:
The bill was approved 89-27.
The measure is supported by Gov. Sam Brownback’s administration, the Kansas Catholic Conference and Concerned Women for America of Kansas. It was opposed by Lawrence officials, the Kansas Equality Coalition and the state chapter of the National Organization for Women.
Right before advancing the Kansas Preservation of Freedom Act, the House gave preliminary approval to putting a chapel for prayer and meditation in the Statehouse.
Both proposals will require a final vote before going to the Senate. Those votes will probably be taken Thursday.
The “Kansas Preservation of Religious Freedom Act,” as it is known, apparently comes as a reaction to the college town of Lawrence passing an anti-discrimination ordinance that includes sexual orientation.
Read more: http://www.care2.com/causes/a-religious-right-to-be-anti-gay-kansas-advances-it.html#ixzz1rB0ztMe9
A religious right to fire someone because they’re gay? Kansas House lawmakers, both Republican and Democratic, just advanced a bill that says yes, it is a matter of religious freedom.
Reports LJ World.com:
The bill was approved 89-27.
The measure is supported by Gov. Sam Brownback’s administration, the Kansas Catholic Conference and Concerned Women for America of Kansas. It was opposed by Lawrence officials, the Kansas Equality Coalition and the state chapter of the National Organization for Women.
Right before advancing the Kansas Preservation of Freedom Act, the House gave preliminary approval to putting a chapel for prayer and meditation in the Statehouse.
Both proposals will require a final vote before going to the Senate. Those votes will probably be taken Thursday.
The “Kansas Preservation of Religious Freedom Act,” as it is known, apparently comes as a reaction to the college town of Lawrence passing an anti-discrimination ordinance that includes sexual orientation.
Read more: http://www.care2.com/causes/a-religious-right-to-be-anti-gay-kansas-advances-it.html#ixzz1rB0ztMe9
Tennessee About To Dump Darwin
The anti-science, anti-evolution bill passed in Tennessee is all but certain to become law as Gov. Bill Haslam (R) announced that he’d likely sign the bill.
The bill attacks the teaching of “biological evolution, the chemical origins of life, global warming, and human cloning” by shielding teachers who question evolution and other widely accepted scientific theories.
On it’s face the bill doesn’t specifically authorize the teaching of creationism nor does it permit teachers to do more than criticize scientific theories in an “objective” manner. Instead, it makes it nearly impossible to discipline teachers who push junk science.
And its another disturbing example of the insistent march against science coming from the right and in every direction. When science is no longer science then legislation based on science is at best special interest pandering and at worst just a theological imperative.
Read more: http://www.care2.com/causes/tennessee-about-to-dump-darwin.html#ixzz1rB1VfTXS
The anti-science, anti-evolution bill passed in Tennessee is all but certain to become law as Gov. Bill Haslam (R) announced that he’d likely sign the bill.
The bill attacks the teaching of “biological evolution, the chemical origins of life, global warming, and human cloning” by shielding teachers who question evolution and other widely accepted scientific theories.
On it’s face the bill doesn’t specifically authorize the teaching of creationism nor does it permit teachers to do more than criticize scientific theories in an “objective” manner. Instead, it makes it nearly impossible to discipline teachers who push junk science.
And its another disturbing example of the insistent march against science coming from the right and in every direction. When science is no longer science then legislation based on science is at best special interest pandering and at worst just a theological imperative.
Read more: http://www.care2.com/causes/tennessee-about-to-dump-darwin.html#ixzz1rB1VfTXS
Dispatches From The War On Women: Rape Culture Thriving On Campus
Welcome to Dispatches, your round-up of the latest news from the frontlines of the War on Women. Have a story from your state or an idea on how to push back? Share them here and fight back against the War on Women.
Mississippi can’t ban abortions outright so they’ll try and close the state’s only clinic instead through passing restrictive TRAP laws. Welcome to the expanding front in the war on choice.
In Montana voters will get a chance to say whether teen mothers should have access to abortions on their own despite the fact that those impacted most by the initiative–teen moms–can’t yet vote.
Tennessee will likely enact a bill that paves the way for junk science in classrooms, which is bad news for a country looking to compete globally and especially bad for women as junk science infects nearly every anti-abortion bill working through a state legislature.
South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley (R) believes women don’t care about contraception, despite every indication otherwise. Just ask Rush Limbaugh who continues to shed advertisers long after his repulsive attack on Sandra Fluke.
What exactly is all the media interest in Nikki Haley anyways?
The budget Republicans have embraced as their own would place the greatest burden on women. Of course it does. The question is, will voters see it that way?
Read more: http://www.care2.com/causes/dispatches-from-the-war-on-women-rape-culture-thriving-on-campus.html#ixzz1rB1lfMcT
Welcome to Dispatches, your round-up of the latest news from the frontlines of the War on Women. Have a story from your state or an idea on how to push back? Share them here and fight back against the War on Women.
Mississippi can’t ban abortions outright so they’ll try and close the state’s only clinic instead through passing restrictive TRAP laws. Welcome to the expanding front in the war on choice.
In Montana voters will get a chance to say whether teen mothers should have access to abortions on their own despite the fact that those impacted most by the initiative–teen moms–can’t yet vote.
Tennessee will likely enact a bill that paves the way for junk science in classrooms, which is bad news for a country looking to compete globally and especially bad for women as junk science infects nearly every anti-abortion bill working through a state legislature.
South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley (R) believes women don’t care about contraception, despite every indication otherwise. Just ask Rush Limbaugh who continues to shed advertisers long after his repulsive attack on Sandra Fluke.
What exactly is all the media interest in Nikki Haley anyways?
The budget Republicans have embraced as their own would place the greatest burden on women. Of course it does. The question is, will voters see it that way?
Read more: http://www.care2.com/causes/dispatches-from-the-war-on-women-rape-culture-thriving-on-campus.html#ixzz1rB1lfMcT
Planned Parenthood Bomber’s Arson Attempt As Bad As His Facts
The man accused of bombing a Planned Parenthood clinic in Wisconsin admitted to “lighting it up” on Wednesday “because they’re killing babies there.”
Francis Grady, 50, spoke to reporters covering his first appearance in federal court. The Green Bay Press-Gazette has a video of him walking through the courthouse followed by a short clip of him speaking to reporters outside.
Inside the courtroom Grady reportedly interrupted the judge to ask “Do you even care at all about the 1000 babies that died screaming?”
Read more: http://www.care2.com/causes/planned-parenthood-bomber-arson-attempt-as-bad-as-his-facts.html#ixzz1rB2CbVRK
The man accused of bombing a Planned Parenthood clinic in Wisconsin admitted to “lighting it up” on Wednesday “because they’re killing babies there.”
Francis Grady, 50, spoke to reporters covering his first appearance in federal court. The Green Bay Press-Gazette has a video of him walking through the courthouse followed by a short clip of him speaking to reporters outside.
Inside the courtroom Grady reportedly interrupted the judge to ask “Do you even care at all about the 1000 babies that died screaming?”
Read more: http://www.care2.com/causes/planned-parenthood-bomber-arson-attempt-as-bad-as-his-facts.html#ixzz1rB2CbVRK
Anchorage Rejects LGBT Rights Protections
Anchorage voters on Tuesday rejected a measure that would have extended existing nondiscrimination provisions to include sexual orientation and gender identity.
Reports Anchorage Daily News:
Anchorage voters rejected a proposed ordinance to add legal protections for gay, lesbian and transgender people in a chaotic municipal election fraught with ballot shortages and high voter turnout in many precincts.
With more than 90 percent of the precincts reporting late Tuesday, 58 percent of voters had voted against Proposition 5, the equal rights ordinance that was far and away the most controversial and emotional component of this spring’s election.
The vote was expected to be close with Prop 5 originally polling ahead at 50 percent, so this substantial margin of defeat comes as quite a shock for advocates. A combination of reasons for the defeat have been floated.
A transphobic ad campaign run by opponents of the measure may have contributed, and misinformation that voters could register on the day they cast their ballot may not have helped, but some commentators are placing most of the blame on how the measure may have got caught in the cross-fire between mayoral candidates.
Read more: http://www.care2.com/causes/anchorage-rejects-lgbt-rights-protections.html#ixzz1rB2WIbxx
Anchorage voters on Tuesday rejected a measure that would have extended existing nondiscrimination provisions to include sexual orientation and gender identity.
Reports Anchorage Daily News:
Anchorage voters rejected a proposed ordinance to add legal protections for gay, lesbian and transgender people in a chaotic municipal election fraught with ballot shortages and high voter turnout in many precincts.
With more than 90 percent of the precincts reporting late Tuesday, 58 percent of voters had voted against Proposition 5, the equal rights ordinance that was far and away the most controversial and emotional component of this spring’s election.
The vote was expected to be close with Prop 5 originally polling ahead at 50 percent, so this substantial margin of defeat comes as quite a shock for advocates. A combination of reasons for the defeat have been floated.
A transphobic ad campaign run by opponents of the measure may have contributed, and misinformation that voters could register on the day they cast their ballot may not have helped, but some commentators are placing most of the blame on how the measure may have got caught in the cross-fire between mayoral candidates.
Read more: http://www.care2.com/causes/anchorage-rejects-lgbt-rights-protections.html#ixzz1rB2WIbxx
From Emmett Till to Trayvon Martin: How Black Women Turn Grief Into Action
We cannot get the anguished face of Sybrina Fulton, the mother of unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin–who was gunned down by a self-appointed neighborhood watch volunteer in Sanford, Fla., in late February–out of our minds. Her suffering and indignation–along with that of Trayvon’s father, Tracy Martin–has galvanized citizens of diverse races, classes, religions and generations to organize rallies, petitions, hoodie marches and social media campaigns raising awareness of violence and bias against African Americans.
There are resonances here to another grieving, anguished mother, Mamie Till. In the summer of 1955, her son Emmett was lynched while visiting relatives in the Mississippi Delta. Till persuaded national and international print publications to run photographs of her son’s bloated, battered corpse before a shocked and outraged public. Concurrent with such mourning, writes Duke University professor Karla F. C. Holloway, has been a longstanding understanding of “the nexus between a black family’s grief and African America’s national experience.” In her 2002 book Passed On: African American Mourning Stories:A Memorial, she describes “African Americans’ particular vulnerability to an untimely death in the United States” and “how we die a color-coded death—the residue of riots, executions, suicides and targeted medical neglect.” Holloway’s theme is personal: She mourns her own black son’s death by homicide.
Read more: http://www.care2.com/causes/from-emmett-till-to-trayvon-martin-how-black-women-turn-grief-into-action.html#ixzz1rB318w1o
We cannot get the anguished face of Sybrina Fulton, the mother of unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin–who was gunned down by a self-appointed neighborhood watch volunteer in Sanford, Fla., in late February–out of our minds. Her suffering and indignation–along with that of Trayvon’s father, Tracy Martin–has galvanized citizens of diverse races, classes, religions and generations to organize rallies, petitions, hoodie marches and social media campaigns raising awareness of violence and bias against African Americans.
There are resonances here to another grieving, anguished mother, Mamie Till. In the summer of 1955, her son Emmett was lynched while visiting relatives in the Mississippi Delta. Till persuaded national and international print publications to run photographs of her son’s bloated, battered corpse before a shocked and outraged public. Concurrent with such mourning, writes Duke University professor Karla F. C. Holloway, has been a longstanding understanding of “the nexus between a black family’s grief and African America’s national experience.” In her 2002 book Passed On: African American Mourning Stories:A Memorial, she describes “African Americans’ particular vulnerability to an untimely death in the United States” and “how we die a color-coded death—the residue of riots, executions, suicides and targeted medical neglect.” Holloway’s theme is personal: She mourns her own black son’s death by homicide.
Read more: http://www.care2.com/causes/from-emmett-till-to-trayvon-martin-how-black-women-turn-grief-into-action.html#ixzz1rB318w1o