Constance McMillen Last week’s cancellation of the high school prom by Itawamba County (MS) Board of Education was “shortsighted”, said the editorial board for the regional newspaper that serves the area in northwestern Mississippi. The cancellation was illegal and should be overturned quickly by a federal court, American Civil Liberties Union argued in a motion filed Tuesday with the Federal District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi in Aberdeen. ACLU asks the court to issue a preliminary injunction stopping the school district from canceling the April 2 prom and from prohibiting Constance McMillen from bringing ...

By a vote of 8-6, Pennsylvania’s Senate Judiciary tabled crazy Sen. John Eichelberger’s attempt to add a constitutional amendment to ban same sex marriage.Three Republicans joined the Democrats in voting the Senate Bill 707 down, down, down. Andy Hoover, legislative director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania, says, “It’s hard to imagine this coming up again after what just happened. This is the third time this has gone down … in four years. It’s pretty clear the Legislature has other more important things to deal with right now.”Yeah, like it’s anti-gay senators! As of this writing ...

Rapid City, SD and Ellsworth AFB Staff Sgt. Jene Newsome followed the bizarre rules of the military’s ‘don’t ask, don’t tell, don’t pursue’ policy during her nine-year career with the Air Force. She didn’t tell anyone that mattered in the military that she is lesbian. The Air Force didn’t ask. But the service did pursue an investigation of Newsome after Rapid City, SD police officers sent a report to officials at Ellsworth Air Force Base, where Newsome was based. In the report, the officers revealed that they’d discovered in Newsome’s home an Iowa marriage license showing that she was ...

Despite what you may have heard the Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy continues in full effect. There are reports of several soldiers recently being removed from military service.  Jene Newsome was discharged from the Air Force in January after police officers notified military officials of an Iowa marriage certificate they discovered when they entered her home with a warrant for the arrest of her wife on theft charges. The American Civil Liberties Union have since filed suit against the western South Dakota police department, claiming the disclosure to military officials was a violation of Newsome's privacy. And Chaplain and ...

Constance McMillen a lesbian high school student in the Itawamba County School District of Fulton Mississippi is forbidden from wearing a tux and attending prom with her girlfriend. After the American Civil Liberties Union threatened to sue the school for discrimination on the students behalf, the school canceled the prom completely.Below is a cute video from Lizzy the Lezzy describing the situation:This story has gained national attention and prompted discussion on LGBT youth rights. Please contact the superintendent and school board members and demand they hold the prom for all students regardless of sexual orientation and gender ...

The one who is causing this shit storm, The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit today against a Mississippi High School that has canceled prom rather than let a lesbian high school student attend the prom with her girlfriend and wear a tuxedo to the event. In papers filed with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi, the ACLU asks the court to reinstate the prom for all students at the school and charges Itawamba County School District officials are violating Constance McMillen's First Amendment right to freedom of expression. "All I wanted was the same ...

Constance McMillen Clarion Ledger photo by Matthew Sharpe Itawamba Agricultural High School in Fulton, Mississippi cancelled the school prom Wednesday after officials learned that an 18-year-old senior, Constance McMillen, planned to attend the dance with her girlfriend and to wear a tuxedo to the annual event, which had been scheduled for April 2. In a message to students announcing the cancellation, the school board suggested that a private group should host an independent prom instead, Jacksonville Clarion Ledger reports. “We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this causes anyone,” the message concluded. McMillen told the Clarion Ledger ...

Or, I should say, the marriage rights you haven't even been given yet.Between 125 and 150 people rallied at West Virginia's state capitol, demanding a constitutional referendum to define marriage as between a man and a woman:  "The Family Policy Council of West Virginia, which organized the rally, says the Legislature is bottling up measures that would allow the vote. The crowd was addressed by speakers from national groups and by House Minority Leader Tim Armstead, R-Kanawha, who has tried to force a House vote on the referendum. The state chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union says ...

ACLU Sues To Obtain Information About Taxpayer-Funded Religion In Abstinence-Only Programs Overseas. NEW YORK, NY — The American Civil Liberties Union has filed a lawsuit this week against the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to obtain public documents detailing its overseas abstinence-only-until-marriage programs, which a recent Inspector General’s report says unconstitutionally promote religiously infused [...] ...

Brad Lopez, seen here addressing a Christian “fellowship for men”, is a professor as Fresno City University A health-sciences professor at Fresno City College used his health classes at the school to proselytize students with religiously-based and anti-gay views that he presented “science” or “fact”, American Civil Liberties Union charges in an official demand letter sent to the school yesterday. The letter was sent to the school’s president by ACLU’s LGBT Project and the ACLU of Northern California. In his introductory health class last semester, Dr. Bradley Lopez repeatedly referenced the Bible in the ...

ACLU Tells Fresno City College That Anti-Gay Preaching By Health Professor Doesn’t Fly SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. — The American Civil Liberties Union sent a letter to Fresno City College this week demanding that the school ensure that all its health science classes teach unbiased and medically accurate information. According to students at the college, lectures by [...] ...

Jacob via Utica Observer Dispatch     ::: Citing “important issues” the case raises in enforcing federal civil rights laws, the US Department of Justice has asked a judge to allow it to intervene in a lawsuit against an upstate New York school district that is alleged to have ignored vicious bullying of a gay student, Associated Press reports in a feature story that offers details of the case. In the lawsuit, the student, identified as “Jacob”, says the school’s teachers and administrators at the school in Mohawk, NY did nothing to stop relentless harassment, physical abuse, ...

NPR reports on the case of a gay Mohawk, NY teen and his father, who with the New York Civil Liberties Union sued the teen's high school after it refused to take action following repeated bullying from classmates. In "a novel interpretation of the Title IX statute, which prohibits discrimination against students on the basis of gender", the Obama administration has gotten involved:Now the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division has asked a judge for permission to intervene on Jacob's behalf."We haven't seen this kind of involvement in quite some time," says Hayley Gorenberg of Lambda Legal, a national gay rights legal ...

As Florida’s LGBT activists continue to await a court decision that could eventually negate the state’s gay adoption ban, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Florida has turned up the heat on the debate as it is set to launch a three-year campaign in coalition with a number of national, state and local organizations. Actress Cynthia Nixon will be among the many activists scheduled to attend the campaign’s official kick-off at the Shore Club in Miami Beach on Saturday. Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, state Sen. Nan Rich [D-Sunrise] and state Rep. Mary Brandenburg [D-West Palm Beach] will also be among ...

In light of continuing delays in the House of Representatives, we must state clearly and unequivocally: Passing basic job protections for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people must happen now. At a time when our government is deeply focused on the critical issue of employment, it is inexcusable to delay action on the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA). Each and every job lost to prejudice based on sexual orientation and gender identity needlessly compounds the unemployment challenges facing our nation. We call on Congress for the immediate passage of ENDA. For decades now, we have called upon Congress to pass ...

An quick update on the brutal murder of 19 year old Jorge Steven López Mercado in Puerto Rico:After the multiple vigils and rallies in the United States over the weekend demanding that the murder of the young gay man be investigated as a hate crime, and a meeting Tuesday with the Puerto Rican branch of the American Civil Liberties Union, authorities in the island have announced that, for the first time ever in Puerto Rico, a little known 2002 statute will be used to go ahead and investigate the murder as a hate crime.Myriam Mercado and Jorge López, ...

Mississippi school officials have told a 17 year old student who wanted to appear in her yearbook photo wearing a tuxedo that she cannot. When her female classmates turned up to have their yearbook picture taken they wore ‘drapes’ (as is tradition in the States) but Ceara Sturgis wore a tuxedo. Sturgis is out and proud and has the support of her mother who said : “The tux is who she is. She wears boys’ clothes. She’s athletic. She’s gay. She’s not feminine.” Her mother received a letter following the photoshoot for the yearbook pics saying that only boys could wear tuxedo’s! ...

Morehouse isn’t alone in attempting to enforce gender-specific clothing for its students. You all have heard that Ceara Sturgis’ photo was banned from Wesson Attendance Center’s yearbook because she was wearing a tuxedo in the photo. Surely that decision could be appealed to, say, the Copiah County School District superintendent, right? Well, yes, but the superintendent stood behind the school’s decision has decided to support bigotry: In a statement released Friday to the Copiah County Courier, school Superintendent Ricky Clopton said the district has no intention of reversing its decision. “We have had our legal counsel research the validity of the ...

Earlier this year, a Wisconsin Christian group sued the American Library Association for the right to burn a library book entitled Baby Be-Bop. The book is a charming young adult novel about a gay boy struggling to come to terms with his sexual orientation after being attacked by a homophobic gang. Totally unacceptable, according to the religious extremist group who—backed by legal aid from the Christian Civil Liberties Union—demanded not only the rights to burn the book publicly, but also sought $120,000 in compensatory damages because the elderly plaintiffs’ “mental and emotional well-being was damaged by this book at the ...

A Louisiana justice of the peace said he refused to issue a marriage license to an interracial couple out of concern for any children the couple might have. Keith Bardwell, justice of the peace in Tangipahoa Parish, says it is his experience that most interracial marriages do not last long.Neither Bardwell nor the couple immediately returned phone calls from The Associated Press. But Bardwell told the Daily Star of Hammond that he was not a racist."I do ceremonies for black couples right here in my house," Bardwell said. "My main concern is for the children."Bardwell said he has discussed the ...