News & Commentary

In a wide-ranging interview with Salon’s Josh Eidelson, Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), the first openly LGBT member of the U.S. Senate, was asked several questions about efforts to protect LGBT people from workplace discrimination, including the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA).  Sen. Baldwin was also asked for her views on the scope of ENDA’s sweeping religious exemption. Her answer:

I'm often asked why the gay rights movement is so focused on marriage, and it's a good question.  Part of the answer is that our society has made marriage the gateway to many protections and obligations – from health care to retirement protections to green cards – and committed same-sex couples are harmed in serious ways when they are excluded from marriage and the protections and social status that comes with it.

This piece was originally published on JustSecurity.org on October 7, 2013.

Last week, we filed a friend-of-the court brief in support of Aimee Greene, a firefighter who faced discrimination and harassment while working in the Buckeye Valley Fire District in Arizona. Despite having college degrees in firefighting, thousands of hours of firefighting experience, and consistently positive job evaluations, Aimee was denied a promotion to captain. In fact, when it became known within the firehouse that a woman wanted to be a captain, Aimee's male coworkers turned on her, calling her abusive names, telling her she had no "right" to seek promotion, and making her do training drills alone while the others watched and mocked her. Aimee was told that her place was in the kitchen, not on a fire truck.

The frenzy over "Operation Fast and Furious" has been hard to avoid. It's been the subject of a massive DOJ report, Congressional hearings, contempt votes, subpoena fights in federal court, and relentless media scrutiny. But if there's one telling the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) would love to rectify, it's the "thoughtcrime" account of Agent John Dodson, one of the ATF insiders who helped bring the operation to public light.

I recently came across the following quote from Albert Einstein which, if you just sub out “Communism” and replace it with “terrorism,” pretty much nails our current situation:

Imagine yourself at 13. Maybe you'd just started 8th grade. Maybe you'd just seen your first PG-13 movie. Now watch this:

Frustration continues to reign in Washington as the federal government shutdown (or slimdown, as Fox News is calling it) enters its second week.

What justification did the employer of an Ohio woman use when it fired her after learning she was pregnant?