Gay Rights

Charleston, W.Va. (Informed Comment) – Across America, right-wing politicians pass “religious freedom” laws that have a single purpose: to let narrow-minded believers discriminate against gays — an intolerance that is illegal for other people under human rights laws. In other words, only born-again Christians are allowed to express prejudice and hostility, while other Americans live […]

Democracy

‘Rainbow wave’ of LGBTQ candidates run and win in 2020 election

The Conversation

By Timothy R. Bussey | – More LGBTQ candidates ran for office in the United States in 2020 than ever before – at least 1,006. That’s a 41% increase over the 2018 midterms, according to the LGBTQ Victory Fund. While an estimated 5% of the U.S. population identifies as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or queer, […]

Far Right

How a GOP 6-3 Court will Set Individual and Privacy Rights back 50 Years

The Conversation

By Morgan Marietta | – If the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is replaced this year, the Supreme Court will become something the country has not seen since the justices became a dominant force in American cultural life after World War II: a decidedly conservative court. A court with a 6-3 conservative majority would be […]

Featured

Sarah Sanders complains about not being served in Restaurant after Urging same Treatment of Gays, Immigrants

Juan Cole

Sara Sanders complained on Twitter about not being served at the Red Hen restaurant in Lexington, Virginia. WaPo reports that the owner, Stephanie Wilkinson, insisted that patrons uphold standards of honesty and compassion, and that Sanders flacks for an “inhumane and unethical” administration, defending Trump’s “cruelest policies.” Wilkinson’s grounds for not serving the White House […]

Donald Trump

Trump “Religious Freedom” Order Opens Way for LGBT Bias

contributors

Human Rights Watch | – – License for Actions Harmful to Women, LGBT People (Washington, DC) – An executive order issued by President Donald Trump on May 4, 2017, opens the way to overriding regulations that protect women’s health, Human Rights Watch said today. While media attention has largely focused on the order’s efforts to […]

FBI

Did the FBI Tell Orlando Shooter’s ex-Wife Not to reveal He Was Gay to Media?

contributors

TeleSur | – – In an interview with Brazilian TV, the ex-wife of Omar Mateen claimed the U.S. agency told her to keep quiet about his homosexuality. The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation told the former wife of the Orlando shooter Omar Mateen, Sitora Yusufiy, not to speak of his homosexuality or the fact that […]

Gay Rights

Three LGBTQ Muslims offer their thoughts on the Orlando shooting and dismiss right-wing attempts to Appropriate their cause.

contributors

AJ+ | (Video News Report) | – – “Three LGBTQ Muslims offer their thoughts on the Orlando shooting and dismiss right-wing attempts to pay lip service to their cause.” AJ+: “Gay And Queer Muslims Dismiss GOP Attempts To Woo Them After #Orlando”

Featured

Top 7 ways to tell if Someone is lying about being a ‘Salafi Jihadi’

contributors

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Regulars at Pulse Nightclub are saying that Omar Mateen, the alleged shooter in the early Sunday morning massacre there, was himself a regular! The Orlando Sentinel writes, “‘Sometimes he would go over in the corner and sit and drink by himself, and other times he would […]

Domestic Terrorism

Omar Mateen and Rightwing Homophobia: Hate Crime or Domestic Terrorism?

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – US law enforcement is at least initially categorizing the horrific Orlando shootings as “domestic terrorism.” I don’t think it probably was terrorism in any useful sense of the term. I used to know what domestic terrorism was, before the term became politicized in the past decade. […]