Lgbt

UPDATE | When the U.S. Supreme Court gathers this October to discuss the future of gay civil rights, voter roll purging and political gerrymandering, they are set for a history-making session. The Court sidestepped most controversial issues in 2016 after the sudden death of Justice Antonin Scalia left a vacancy on the nine-person bench. Senate Republicans blocked President Barack Obama's appointment of Merrick Garland until after the presidential election, at which point Trump appointed Justice Neil Gorsuch. Gorsuch is heralded as a conservative ideological replacement of Scalia. Now, with a ninth judge confirmed, this session will be "significant to say the least," said Michele Jawando from the liberal-leaning Center for American Progress. "We are continuing to pray there are no resignations or sudden changes." Elizabeth Slattery, a legal fellow at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, added: "It's already shaping up to be one for the history books." Here are the … [Read more...] about What the Supreme Court is Doing This Year Under Trump

Sens. Bill CassidyWilliam (Bill) Morgan CassidyObstacles remain for deal on surprise medical bills Key House and Senate health leaders reach deal to stop surprise medical bills GOP senators unveil bill to expand 'opportunity zone' reporting requirements MORE (R-La.) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) just introduced the first bipartisan bill for a federal program supporting paid parental leave. Their plan would offer new parents an advance of up to $5,000 against their future Child Tax Credits, the cost of which would be offset by partially reduced tax credits over the next 10 to 15 years.This proposal is a promising step forward in the effort to enact federal paid leave legislation. Many paid leave proponents, however, were quick to criticize. Sen. Kirsten GillibrandKirsten GillibrandBombshell Afghanistan report bolsters calls for end to 'forever wars' Gabbard calls for congressional inquiry over Afghanistan war report Overnight Defense: Bombshell report reveals officials misled public … [Read more...] about This bipartisan plan is the most progressive approach to paid parental leave

LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - The use of “they” to describe someone who does not identify as male or female gained ground on Tuesday, when U.S. dictionary Merriam-Webster picked it as the word of 2019. Merriam-Webster said searches for that use of the word, which was added to its dictionary in September, had increased by more than 300% this year as more and more people identify as nonbinary - neither a man nor a woman. The Oxford English Dictionary and Dictionary.com both published articles online in 2018 saying the singular “they” was grammatically correct and had been used since at least the late 14th century. “More recently, though, they has also been used to refer to one person whose gender identity is nonbinary,” Merriam-Webster said on its website. “There’s no doubt that its use is established in the English language, which is why it was added to the Merriam-Webster.com dictionary this past September.” The … [Read more...] about Dictionary chooses gender-neutral ‘they’ as word of 2019

Forty-seven Nigerian men went on trial on Wednesday for public displays of affection with members of the same sex, an offence that carries a 10-year jail term in the country. The men were among 57 arrested in a police raid on a hotel in the impoverished Egbeda district of the commercial capital Lagos in 2018. They pleaded innocent at a hearing last month. Campaigners say the case is an important test of a law banning gay marriage and same-sex “amorous relationships” which came into force five years ago. Xeenarh Mohammed, the executive director of the Lagos-based Initiative for Equal Rights (TIERS), said the law had historically been used to harass and blackmail gay people but there had not previously been any convictions. “People have been detained, men and women, at different gatherings but no cases had ever gone before a judge. We have to establish that people have a right to meet that shouldn’t be a crime under any law in any country,” said Mohammed. … [Read more...] about First men go on trial under Nigeria’s anti-homosexuality laws

“Go away! We know who you are. We don’t want you in our country. If we see you, we’ll burn you to death.” Melanie Kiwagama reads out the text messages she received last year, after Uganda’s notorious anti-homosexuality bill came into effect. Since then, she says the flow of threats towards her and her partner have been constant. Despite being annulled by the country’s constitutional court on a technicality last summer, MPs haven’t given up on attempts to further criminalise homosexuality. According to a leaked draft, a new law is in the making. “We had no clue what was happening,” says Kiwagama’s girlfriend Rachael Kungu, referring to the heightened prejudice they face. The couple have been together for 12 years and are raising a five-year-old son. “Of course there was gossip before, and we’d receive threats. Sometimes we would hear stories of a guy being beaten up because he was trying to hit on some man or … [Read more...] about Gay Ugandans face new threat from anti-homosexuality law