Wednesday, April 3, 2013
Civil rights group leader Troy Stevenson said Wednesday that Rutgers can "do better" in terms of discouraging bullying in the wake of the firing of Mike Rice.
LGBTQ advocates are calling for an investigation into the administration of Rutgers University following the firing of head basketball coach Mike Rice. The university announced on Wednesday morning that Rice had been terminated following the surfacing of a video that showed him kicking, shoving and hurling basketballs at players during practice, as well as using obscene language, including anti-gay slurs. Garden State Equality Executive Director Troy Stevenson told a gaggle of news reporters on Wednesday afternoon that university administration needs to answer more questions as to what kind of message the university wants to put out about its stance on bullying, and that the bigger issue at play is harassment and intimidation of student …
Tuesday, March 26, 2013
The Supreme Court is considering both the 1996 federal Defense of Marriage Act and the 2008 Proposition 8 case.
The U.S. Supreme Court is in the midst of a landmark time in Washington, D.C.: On Tuesday, the nation's highest court heard testimony on Proposition 8, the California law that stripped legal equality from gay couples in that state. On Wednesday, the justices are hearing testimony on former President Bill Clinton's 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, a bill LGBT people and allies call discriminatory—and a law Clinton now says he regrets signing and promoting. Just last week, Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri and Republican Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio hit the Sunday talk-show circuit to talk of the need for an end to the national stigmatization against gays and lesbians and their families. Meanwhile, anti-gay churches and groups such as …
Monday, March 18, 2013
Teen's testimony supporting bill to ban ex-gay therapy for minors precedes Senate committee's 7-1 vote to recommend the measure.
Parsippany High School senior Jacob Rudolph took his mission to protect LGBT youth from ex-gay therapy to the state capital Monday. The 18-year-old testified before the New Jersey Senate Health Committee in support of S2278, a bill that would ban the use of controversial gay “conversion” therapy on minors. His testimony may have had an effect: The committee voted 7-1 with two abstentions to recommend S2278. The bill now heads to the full state Senate for consideration. Rudolph's recent Change.org petition campaign garnered more than 110,000 signatures. The petition calls on Gov. Christie to support S2278. The teenager captured the attention of the nation when he came out as LGBT during a school assembly and earned a standing ovation …
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
Par High student hopes a petition he is circulating will protect kids from "ex-gay" therapy.
Newly out and proud, a Parsippany LGBT teen is taking a stand to protect the dignity of all lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender New Jerseyans. After coming out in front of his classmates at Parsippany High School last month, a videotaped moment that went viral on YouTube, 18-year-old Jacob Rudolph is taking action to protect others. The teenager recently launched a new petition on Change.org urging Gov. Christie to support pending legislation in Trenton that would ban the use of controversial gay “conversion” therapy on minors. This controversial practice is employed by some churches and conservative Christian groups in hopes of changing sexual orientation—despite the fact that so-called "ex-gay" therapies have been repudiated …
Tuesday, January 29, 2013
Patch wants to know what you think on this timely issue.
On Monday, the Boy Scouts of America took a dramatic step. Just seven months after reaffirming its long-standing policy to exclude gay men and boys from participation in the organization, the group is re-thinking the rule. Fox News reported that the organization is considering giving individual Scout groups, many of them backed by churches and civic organizations, the power to decide whether to continue to ban gays or to allow them to become members. The move comes in the face of an increasingly tolerant society: A growing number of U.S. parents are keeping or pulling their sons out of a group they see as discriminatory. Public schools and entities with nondiscrimination policies have pulled support for the 113-year-old organization. There…
Thursday, January 24, 2013
High school senior named 'class actor' admits he's been acting for a long time.
As the equality march moves forward across the United States, a person deciding to come out as gay or lesbian is not news the way it was 10 or 20 years ago. It is, however, eye-opening when such a revelation is made by a high school student in front of her or his classmates. That's exactly what happened at Parsippany High School this week, according to NJ.com. With the support of his family, a teacher and a few close friends, Jacob Rudolph, an 18-year-old senior, put aside his fears of discrimination and harassment and made a speech in front of 300 of his fellow students after he was proclaimed "class actor." And his father, Jonathan, was so proud of his son's courage that he put a video of the speech on YouTube. An excerpt from the speech…
Tuesday, December 18, 2012
The national Human Rights Campaign gives Parsippany company a perfect score on its Corporate Equality Index.
Parsippany-based Wyndham Worldwide, one of the world’s largest hospitality companies, is being recognized as one of the nation's Best Places to Work for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Equality. That's according to the Human Rights Campaign, a Washington, D.C., civil rights organization. HRC gave Wyndham a perfect score of 100 on the group’s Campaign’s annual Corporate Equality Index. The CEI is considered the premiere national benchmark for LGBT workplace inclusion and provides an in-depth analysis and rating of large U.S. employers and their policies and practices pertinent to LGBT employees. Wyndham, which operates out of 22 Sylvan Way, was one of 252 firms achieving the top rating, according to HRC, which rated 889 U.S. …
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Patch wants to know how you feel about having gay couples treated just like heterosexual couples under law.
Gov. Chris Christie on Tuesday announced that he wants New Jersey voters to take up the issue of same-sex marriage. Specifically, he wants the issue of marriage equality put on the November ballot so that residents can decide whether their LGBT neighbors should, for the first time ever, be treated equally under state civil law. Christie said it would take a three-fifths vote in the state legislature to get the issue onto the general election ballot. The governor, a well-known foe of marriage equality, added that if the General Assembly and Senate send him a pro-equality bill, he will veto it. If the voters approve equality, however, he said he will uphold their choice. The governor made his wish known just days after NJ.com reported that a…
Thursday, October 27, 2011
Both Democrats and Republicans contribute a video to a site that sends encouragement to bullied teenagers.
New Jersey Republicans and Democrats recently contributed an "It Gets Better" video as part of a worldwide movement reminding LGBT teenagers they are not alone. The It Gets Better Project was founded last year by author and journalist Dan Savage and his husband Terry Miller in response to the story of a 15-year-old Indiana high school student who committed suicide after being taunted by his classmates for being gay. Savage and Miller started the group by releasing a video targeted to LGBT teens and all young people harassed, intimidated or bullied for being perceived as "different" by their peers. Since then, more than 25,000 videos have been submitted to the website by celebrities, organizations, activists, private citizens and now, New …
Thursday, August 25, 2011
Somers Point bridal-salon owner facing the brunt over flap with lesbian customer.
Inside the walls of the bridal store Here Comes the Bride in Somers Point, it is impossible to sense the swirling uproar an exchange between the owner and a would-be customer has set off around the world through the Internet and the media—unless you pay attention to the phone. The phone rings incessantly. As the unanswered phone rings and rings, walk-in customers pass by a wall of notes, pictures and thank-yous, including a 2003 certificate fromThe Press of Atlantic City newspaper proclaiming Here Comes the Bride as one of the best bridal stores in the region. Over the nonstop din of the phone, the shop’s owner helps a bride with a Disney-inspired dress, greets a window-shopping female minister intent on marrying (though no one has asked) …
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9:22 am on Sunday, March 31, 2013
I see that the atheist are still trying to defend the indefensible. When atheists hear that a fellow atheist now believes or acknowledges the existence of God they become frenetic. We have Michael and Kermit who are so discombobulated by the truth they attempt to obliterate all historical facts. Michael and Kermit try to defend their argument by using nugatory lies fabricated by atheists How do I… more ›