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Our Own Chris Hampton on the Savage Lovecast!

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April 7, 2011

Our LGBT Project is so busy, sometimes it’s hard for even us to keep up with all the progress they’re making. In fact, just today, we got a big win in Arkansas, when the state supreme court struck down Act 1, a law that prohibited unmarried couples from adopting or fostering children. You’ll recall we celebrated a similar win in Florida a few months ago.

A few days ago, Dan Savage, who runs the Savage Love advice column and podcast and is the founder of the wildly successful It Gets Better Project, interviewed the LGBT Project’s Youth and Program Strategist Chris Hampton about the LGBT Project’s most recent work on behalf of students and youth. Chris’s segment starts at the 18-minute mark, and the interview lasts for about 9 minutes.

Chris talks about our successful advocacy on behalf of Monique Verdin, a high school student in Houma, Louisiana, whose principal threatened to turn her away at the door if she showed up at the school prom wearing a tux instead of a prom dress. The LGBT Project and the ACLU of Louisiana sent a letter to the school board and principal informing them that his kind of discrimination is illegal, citing a previous ACLU lawsuit on behalf of a Mississippi teen Constance McMillen. Hours after receiving the letter, Monique’s school changed its policy.

Justice: done and done!

Chris also talks about our new Don’t Filter Me campaign, which asks public high school students to check to see if there are web filters that are blocking LGBT websites while still allowing access to anti-gay websites. (That’s called viewpoint discrimination, and it’s illegal, boys and girls!)

So check out the podcast. But use headphones. We love Chris and Dan, but this is a sex advice podcast, after all, and there’s some pretty salty language that’s NSFW.

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