Newswire

How the Family Foundation of Va. kept a gay prosecutor off the bench

| 05.18.12 | 10:33 am | View Article

The Virginia House of Delegates voted against the appointment of an openly gay prosecutor for a Richmond judgeship early Tuesday after a conservative lobbying group questioned whether he would pursue an activist agenda from the bench.
Prosecutor Tracy Thorne-Begland, a former Navy pilot and deputy Commonwealth’s attorney, received only 33 More…

Mich. HIV contractor violated privacy policy, investigation finds

| 05.17.12 | 11:52 am | View Article
LANSING — A government contractor in Michigan violated the state’s data security policies in its handling of thousands of pages of information relating to people living with HIV, a state investigation has found. More…

Is NOM acting right?

| 05.17.12 | 10:51 am | View Article
“NOM is not a partisan organization or a stalking horse for either party,” wrote National Organization for Marriage President Brian Brown in March. “We are a movement of people of every race, creed, color — and party — willing to stand up for marriage.” More…

How the private detention industry courted Crete

| 05.16.12 | 10:32 am | View Article

The fight over a proposed privately run federal immigration detention center in Illinois is raising thorny questions about the benefits and drawbacks of these facilities. More…

NYPD pot arrests target minorities, critics charge

| 05.11.12 | 11:36 am | View Article

Every morning, several sheets of paper are posted to the walls outside the arraignment rooms of New York City’s Borough Courts. They list the names of the accused scheduled to appear before the judge and the legal codes of their offenses. On most days and across the city’s five boroughs, More…

Violence Against Women Act funding critical to Texas organizations serving victims

| 05.10.12 | 1:58 pm | View Article

While partisan politics has hijacked the debate over the Violence Against Women Act, victims rights advocates in Texas say it has been an invaluable resource for victims of domestic violence and sexual assault.
The reauthorization of VAWA, which was originally passed in 1994 and reauthorized in 2000 and then again More…

Anti-bullying group barred from Catholic school ceremony

| 05.08.12 | 2:24 pm | View Article

The Diocese of Davenport, Iowa, said Monday that a foundation supportive of LGBT students cannot present a scholarship to a student at one of the Diocese’s schools because the foundation’s mission is “contrary to the teachings of the Catholic Church.”
The Eychaner Foundation, an anti-bullying group, awarded high school senior More…

How one GOP lawmaker became a civil unions supporter

John Tomasic | 05.08.12 | 10:56 am | The Colorado Independent | View Article

Conservative state Rep. B.J. Nikkel of Loveland, Colo., voted last week to advance a civil unions bill that would recognize same-sex partnerships in large part because she had come to believe the legislature, not the ballot box, was the best place to weigh civil rights questions. More…