Congratulations to Cheri and Norm from The Bay Area, California!

Congratulations to Cheri and Norm from The Bay Area, California!

You deserve the kind of love that will make you believe in love. Cheri is glad she found it. She writes: “I reached out to Norm first, ignoring the 50 year or older request he had on his Zoosk profile. Hehe. We talked on the phone the following day and met in person a week

The post Congratulations to Cheri and Norm from The Bay Area, California! appeared first on Zoosk.

about.zoosk.com/en/blog/success-stories/congratulations-cheri-norm-bay-area-california/

20180609 1840 – DC Pride – parade – big pride flag – 22401889

20180609 1840 – DC Pride – parade – big pride flag – 22401889

Clio CJS posted a photo:

20180609 1840 - DC Pride - parade - big pride flag - 22401889

Walking with a big Pride flag.

highfive, marching, standing, walking, waving.
Whole Foods business, gay pride parade, pride flag, pride ribbon, rainbow, rainbow ribbon.
LGBT. LGBTQ. Pride. people.

P Street NW, street, Washington D.C.

June 9, 2018.

… Read my blog at clintjcl at wordpress dot com

BACKSTORY: Out first Pride parade!

20180609 1840 - DC Pride - parade - big pride flag - 22401889

HRC: Congress Takes Historic Action ‘For the People’

HRC: Congress Takes Historic Action ‘For the People’

HRC praised the passage of H.R. 1, the “For the People Act of 2019,” sweeping voting rights legislation that, among other things, would create a new national automatic voter registration that allows participants to opt-out rather than opt-in and make Election Day a holiday for federal workers.

“The American people are entitled to an electoral system that works for them, not against them,” said HRC Government Affairs Director David Stacy. “The ‘For the People Act of 2019’ will expand voter access for everyone and address the real obstacles to full political participation faced by vulnerable communities. We praise congressional leadership for securing passage of this bill in the House and call upon Sen. Mitch McConnell to immediately bring it to a floor vote on the Senate and let the people decide through their representatives.”

H.R. 1 was the first piece of legislation introduced in this session of Congress to make a number of key reforms protecting voters and making voting easier:

  • Create a new national automatic voter registration that would allow citizens to opt-out of access to the voting booth rather than opting-in
  • Increase promotion of early voting, same-day voter registration, and online voter registration
  • Make Election Day a federal holiday for federal employees and encourage businesses and other employers in the private sector to give the day off for their employees to vote
  • Make postsecondary institutions voter registration agencies with the same capability to process registrations as the DMV
  • Prohibit the purging of voters from registration rolls and prevent arcane mailing regulations from being used to remove voters’ registration
  • Increase security for elections, particularly against foreign threats
  • Recruit and train more poll workers to reduce wait times to vote and require them to provide at least a week’s notice if poll sites are changed

HRC has long called for action to protect and expand voting rights, and has included related legislation on its Congressional Scorecard. In addition to supporting this legislation, HRC and allied civil rights organizations continue to call for passage of the Voting Rights Advancement Act (H.R. 4), critically important civil rights legislation that would ensure fair access to the ballot for all Americans is protected. In November, HRC President Chad Griffin joined NAACP President Derrick Johnson in a CNN op-ed on the relentless attacks against the voting rights of vulnerable communities.

www.hrc.org/blog/hrc-house-passes-for-the-people-act?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss-feed

Queer DACA Recipient Testifies Before House Judiciary Committee; Advocates for 36,000 LGBTQ DREAMers

Queer DACA Recipient Testifies Before House Judiciary Committee; Advocates for 36,000 LGBTQ DREAMers

Photo Credit: C-Span

On Wednesday, Yazmín Irazoqui-Ruiz – a queer recipient of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program – spoke before the House Judiciary Committee to advocate for the importance and value of immigrants in America. This was the first time that Congress has addressed Trump’s proposal to terminate DACA, which was created by the Obama Administration in 2012.

As one of the nearly 700,000 active recipients of DACA, Irazoqui-Ruiz is a third year medical student studying obstetrics at the University of New Mexico. However, based on Trump’s plan to terminate DACA, Irazoqui-Ruiz expressed in her testimony that she faces “the reality of [her] future as a physician being pulled out from under [her].”

As a volunteer for both the United We Dream and the New Mexico Dream Team, Irazoqui-Ruiz has worked to help immigrants cross the border. Additionally, she has witnessed the devastating living conditions in Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention centers, which she testified “shakes [her] to [her] core”. The Advocate reports that the New Mexico Dream team has specifically investigated mistreatment of trans women and queer men who reported being abused by guards.

In her testimony, Irazoqui-Ruiz not only outlined her own experiences, but also highlighted the dangers facing LGBTQ DACA recipients. According to the Williams Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles, Irazoqui-Ruiz represents one of approximately 36,000 LGBTQ undocumented immigrants that DACA prevents from being deported.

In response to the discourse surrounding the continuation of DACA in exchange for more vigorous deportation standards, Irazoqui-Ruiz argued that “protecting me in exchange for increased danger for my community is no protection at all.”

You can watch Yazmín Irazoqui-Ruiz’s testimony here.

March 7, 2019

www.glaad.org/blog/queer-daca-recipient-testifies-house-judiciary-committee-advocates-36000-lgbtq-dreamers