Want to help youth sustain their mental health, stay in school, and go to college? According to a new study by the Family Acceptance Project, you can do all of those things by starting a Gay-Straight Alliance at your high school! And here at the ACLU, we’ve prepared a guide to help you do it.
Gay-Straight Alliances (GSAs) are school clubs that work to create safe spaces for students to learn about and respond to homophobia, transphobia, and other types of oppression. They also promote camaraderie and understanding between lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and straight students. After surveying over 200 young adults, the Family Acceptance Project concluded that GSAs, and the solidarity they encourage, can provide mental health and educational benefits for the LGBT students involved. For a group with a high risk of bullying, depression, and suicide, those sorts of benefits are huge.
By Ian S. Thompson, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 3:24pm
On Wednesday morning, 13 members of the U.S. Senate delivered a video message of hope and encouragement to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) young people across the country as part of the It Gets Better Project. Just as importantly, the senators committed themselves to working every day to bring about positive changes for LGBT people that will actually make their lives better, and our country a fairer and more just society.
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Yesterday, World Series champions the San Francisco Giants became the first professional sports team to contribute to the "It Gets Better" video project.
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By Ian S. Thompson, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 2:42pm
On Tuesday, Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.) signed on as a co-sponsor to the Student Non-Discrimination Act. What’s the big deal you might be asking, particularly on a bill that already has the support of more than 160 House members?
What makes Rep. Clyburn’s co-sponsorship so significant is that, for the first time, every member of the House Democratic Leadership – Minority Leader Pelosi (D-Calif.), Minority Whip Hoyer (D-Md.), and Assistant Minority Leader Clyburn – are now SNDA co-sponsors.
By Ian S. Thompson, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 4:20pm
The ACLU has been invited to offer our civil liberties and civil rights recommendations to the Democratic National Committee’s “platform drafting committee,” which is currently meeting in Minneapolis to begin the process of putting together the 2012 Democratic National Platform. While the ACLU is a nonpartisan organization, we welcome opportunities to infuse a respect for and commitment to civil liberties in the political process. We would also be pleased to offer our views to the Republican National Committee’s platform drafters.
By Ian S. Thompson, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 12:35pm
Many people may have been too preoccupied with holiday travel and tasty food to notice, but last week Major League Baseball (MLB) and the Players’ Association reached a new, five-year collective bargaining agreement (CBA), which ensures that America’s pastime will continue uninterrupted through the 2016 season. So what, you ask? What has this got to do with civil liberties? Well, included in the new CBA are important sexual orientation nondiscrimination protections.
By Ian S. Thompson, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 1:44pm
And here football fans thought, at least from our perspective, that one of the most important things the new NFL collective bargaining agreement (CBA) between team owners and players did was end the lockout and remove the ominous cloud of a possible lost season. It turns out, the agreement included an important civil rights advancement.
Over the weekend, it was reported that the new CBA that was finalized this summer includes non-discrimination language that protects on the basis of sexual orientation. As first reported by Pete Olson at Wide Rights, the language (found in Article 49) reads as follows:
