Blog of Rights
Ian S.
Thompson

Ian Thompson is a Legislative Representative in the ACLU’s Washington Legislative Office. In this capacity, Thompson works to advance the organization’s civil liberties and civil rights agenda in Congress and the executive branch by focusing on LGBT rights, HIV/AIDS and sex education. Prior to joining the ACLU in January 2006, Thompson interned in the Washington, D.C., office of Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio). A 2005 graduate of Penn State University, Thompson holds a degree in International Politics.

02/14/2013
LGBT Discrimination in the Workplace

37 Senators to President Obama – The Time to Ban LGBT Discrimination by Federal Contractors Is NOW

By Ian S. Thompson, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 5:31pm

Today, 37 members of the U.S. Senate – led by Senator Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) – sent a letter to the White House urging President Obama to issue an executive order to prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity by federal contractors. The senators, all of whom are supporters of the long sought Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), rightly describe the executive order as a "critical step that you can take today toward ending discrimination in the workplace."

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10/02/2012
Marriage for Same-Sex Couples

Important Breakthrough for LGBT Immigrant Families

By Ian S. Thompson, ACLU Washington Legislative Office & Joanne Lin, Washington Legislative Office at 1:57pm

In August, over 80 members of Congress, led by House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), wrote to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) requesting recognition, explicitly and in writing, of the ties of a same-sex partner or spouse as a positive factor for determining discretionary relief in immigration cases.  On Friday, it was reported that DHS had announced it would be issuing new, written guidance providing that relief to LGBT immigrant families. 

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04/27/2012
Marriage for Same-Sex Couples

Racial Justice and LGBT Equality – Moving Beyond the Politics of "Divide and Conquer"

By Ian S. Thompson, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 4:53pm

It was recently revealed in internal strategy memos from the anti-gay National Organization for Marriage that the organization hoped to pit racial and ethnic minorities against the LGBT community as a way to defeat and rollback gay rights advances, specifically marriage for same-sex couples. The memos included the following: The strategic goal of this project is to drive a wedge between gays and blacks — two key Democratic constituencies. Another expressed goal was to make opposition to marriage for same-sex couples a "key badge of Latino identity."

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03/26/2012
Student Rights in School

Does the Obama Administration Support SNDA?

By Ian S. Thompson, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 4:53pm

During the White House Conference on Safe Schools and Communities held at the University of Texas at Arlington on Tuesday, Atty. Gen. Eric Holder and White House senior adviser Valerie Jarrett both walked up to the line of an endorsement for the Student Non-Discrimination Act.  Holder, echoing the remarks of Jarrett, said that the Obama administration “strongly supports the goals” of SNDA, characterizing it as a critical next step that needs to be taken to ensure the continued progress of the LGBT community, and, in this case, students who are or are presumed to be lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender  in our nation’s public K-12 schools.

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09/23/2011
Respect for Marriage Act

Effort to Repeal DOMA in Congress Gains Bipartisan Support

By Ian S. Thompson, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 2:43pm

Early on Friday morning, it was announced that the legislative effort in Congress to repeal the discriminatory and unconstitutional Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) is now a bipartisan affair.

Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.) became the first Republican cosponsor of the Respect for Marriage Act (H.R. 1116/S. 598), legislation pending in both the House and Senate that would repeal DOMA in its entirety, as well as provide all married couples certainty that regardless of where they travel or move in the country, they will not be treated as strangers under federal law.

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08/12/2011
Respect for Marriage Act

The Congressional Evolution on DOMA

By Ian S. Thompson, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 11:19am

There is an intriguing story behind the recent Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) headlines, one that mirrors trends in public opinion surveys, but involves a group you might not expect — members of Congress who voted for the law in 1996, but now favor its repeal.

Back in July, the Senate Judiciary Committee held a landmark hearing on DOMA, exploring how it impacts married gay and lesbian couples and their families across the country. The hearing got me thinking about the now infamous '96 congressional vote in favor of DOMA. Defenders of the law, exemplified by Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) at the July hearing, often like to tout the original congressional vote totals in support of DOMA (342 in the House and 85 in the Senate) as the end of the story. In essence, they say, why change a law that garnered so many bipartisan votes when it was passed?

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06/15/2011

Department of Education — Students Have a Legal Right to Form GSAs

By Ian S. Thompson, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 2:27pm

On Tuesday morning, the U.S. Department of Education issued a "Dear Colleague" letter to school districts across the country reminding them that students have the right under the federal Equal Access Act to form Gay-Straight Alliances (GSAs). GSAs are student-run extracurricular clubs that bring together lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) and straight students to support each other and promote tolerance, and are common in public school districts throughout the nation. The announcement of the letter came on the closing day of the first-ever Federal LGBT Youth Summit last week.

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12/21/2010
DADT

Republicans — The Final Nail in DADT’s Coffin

By Ian S. Thompson, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 4:15pm

Following Saturday’s historic Senate vote to repeal the discriminatory and unconstitutional “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, I was struck by the undeniable fact that it was Republican support in Congress that ultimately helped to put the final nail in the coffin of this outdated law.

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10/01/2010
LGBT Bullying

Giving 'Em Hope: The It Gets Better Project

By Ian S. Thompson, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 3:10pm

September was a hard month for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community, especially for some of its youngest and most vulnerable members.

In Greensburg, Indiana, 15-year-old Billy Lucas was found by his mother in the family's barn after he had taken his own life. Late last week, Asher Brown, of Houston, Texas, died after shooting himself. On Tuesday, 13-year-old Seth Walsh of Tehachapi, California, passed away after spending nine days on life support after he hanged himself from a tree in his backyard. On Wednesday, the body of 18-year-old Rutgers University freshman Tyler Clementi was pulled from the Hudson River in New York, days after he was allegedly humiliated and outed to other students by his roommate. And just this morning we learned that on the same day, 19-year-old college student Raymond Chase hanged himself in his dorm room in Rhode Island.

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06/10/2010

Blood Donation Ban for Gay and Bisexual Men Under Review

By Ian S. Thompson, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 5:27pm

Current FDA policy permanently bars any man who has ever, even once, had sex with another man since 1977 from donating blood in the United States.

That's all gay and bisexual men regardless of their individual sexual histories or HIV risk. For example, the fact that an individual gay man is in a committed, monogamous relationship would not matter under the blanket ban.

Other individuals who are also at increased risk for HIV disease, however, including people who have heterosexual sex with someone who they know to be HIV-positive, or people who have had sex with a commercial sex worker, are prevented from donating blood for only a year.

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