Anti-Prejudice Pledge: 101 ways to make your community a PREJUDICE FREE ZONE. A WORLD OF DIFFERENCE® Institute Pledge I pledge from this day onward to do my best to interrupt prejudice and to stop those who, because of hate, would hurt, harass or violate the civil rights of anyone. I will try at all times to be aware of my own biases against people who are different from myself. I will ask questions about cultures, religions and races that I don't understand. I will speak out against anyone who mocks, seeks to intimidate or actually hurts someone of a different race, religion, ethnic group or sexual orientation.
I will reach out to support those who are targets of harassment. By subscribing to this pledge, I recognize that respect for individual dignity, achieving equality, and opposing anti-Semitism, racism, ethnic bigotry, homophobia, or any other form of hatred is a non-negotiable responsibility of all people. UN votes against protecting gays from execution | Revel & Riot. In what can only be described as terrifying news, the United Nations has removed a reference to sexual orientation from a resolution condemning arbitrary and unjustified executions. The resolution contained a reference opposing the execution of gay people in its 2008 version. But this year, the new version was passed minus the reference to gay rights.
This was because a group of mostly African and Asian countries, voted to remove it. 79 countries that voted to remove the reference to sexual orientation from the resolution, including Uganda, Afghanistan, China, Cuba, North Korea, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. Most Western countries, including the US, voted in favor of keeping the reference to sexual orientation in place. The US abstained from the final vote to approve the resolution, with American diplomats telling the UN that the US was “dismayed” at the decision. Here is a full list of the 79 nations that would like the right to execute you if you are gay or have HIV: Smithsonian Museum Removes An LGBT Art Exhibit After GOP Threatens To Defund It. By Tanya Somanader on November 30, 2010 at 7:00 pm "Smithsonian Museum Removes An LGBT Art Exhibit After GOP Threatens To Defund It" Last month, the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery (NPG) unveiled “the first major museum exhibition” exploring gender and sexual identity in American culture.
With 105 major works by artists like Georgia O’Keeffe and Andy Warhol, “Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture,” the NPG pioneered a show that “celebrates gay and lesbian art and delineates its place in the history of American painting and photography.” But it appears that a celebration of anything LGBT-related cannot exist without inciting right-wing backlash. After the Catholic League deemed the exhibit an “assault on the sensibilities of Christians” and demanded the government defund the NPG, the Republicans were quick to pile-on.
In the face of such right-wing brow-beating, the NPG has decided to remove the video exhibit. BREAKING: Senate votes to repeal 'Don't Ask Don't Tell' Courthouse News Service. Obama says his views on same-sex marriage are 'evolving' Twice this week, President Obama suggested that he might become the first sitting U.S. president to support gay marriage.
He said his views on whether same-sex couples should be allowed to marry are "evolving" and added that, although he is a longtime supporter of civil unions, "I recognize that from their perspective, it is not enough. " But none of this means that the White House is about to launch a national legalize-gay-marriage campaign. First of all, marriage laws are largely written by individual states (Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont allow gay marriage, as does the District). Second, any attempt by the administration to repeal the federal Defense of Marriage Act - which Obama told the gay and lesbian magazine the Advocate he would like to do - would face strong opposition that will only intensify when Republicans take over the House of Representatives in January. "I struggle with this," Obama said. As President Obama ‘Wrestles’ With The Issue, Vice President Biden Says Gay Marriage Is Inevitable.
By Scott Keyes "As President Obama ‘Wrestles’ With The Issue, Vice President Biden Says Gay Marriage Is Inevitable" Christmas came early for gay rights advocates when Congress repealed the military’s Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy last week, and President Obama signed it into law on Wednesday. The administration’s comments since the bill-signing, however, are providing even more hopeful signs that full equality will continue to make progress in the United States. In a press conference on Wednesday, President Obama sounded a hopeful tone on LGBT rights. Though he has maintained that he favors civil unions but opposes same-sex marriage, Obama told reporters that his views on the subject “are constantly evolving” and it is an issue he will “continue to wrestle with going forward.”
In an interview with The Advocate, Obama said he “strongly supports” repealing the Defense of Marriage Act, which permits states not to recognize same-sex marriages performed in another state.