UN Gives US Flunking Grades on Privacy and Surveillance Rights

NSA protest. (photo: Allison Shelley/Getty Images)

 

Jenna McLaughlin | The Intercept | Reader Supported News | July 29, 2015

he United States scores very low when it comes to protecting its citizens’ privacy, according to a new United Nations Human Rights Committee review.

The committee issued mid-term report cards for several countries on Tuesday based on how well they have adhered to and implemented its recommendations related to the International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights, an international treaty outlining the civil and political rights of all individuals. The U.S. performance in several aspects of protecting privacy was graded “not satisfactory.”

In particular, the committee noted that the U.S. government failed to establish an adequate oversight system to make sure privacy rights are being upheld, and failed to make sure that any breaches of privacy were regulated and authorized by strict law, such as requiring a warrant. The lowest grade reflected the U.S.’s failure to “Ensure affected persons have access to effective remedies in cases of abuse.”

Read more

ACLU sues state of Montana over benefits for gay couples

American Civil Liberties Union (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Associated Press | Missoulian | July 16, 2013

HELENA – A civil rights organization filed a new lawsuit against the state Monday on behalf of seven gay couples in an attempt to win for them the same benefits that married couples receive in Montana.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Montana filed its amended complaint after the state Supreme Court rejected its first lawsuit in December for being too broad and not identifying specific laws that are discriminatory.

In the amended lawsuit, attorney James Goetz identifies numerous statutes, including laws he says prevent gay couples from receiving financial protections given to police officers and spouses and from designating their partners as beneficiaries for worker’s compensation.

Read more

What Black People Can Learn From the LGBT Community

Gil Robertson | Huffington Post | May 15, 2013

When a group organizes, they can move mountains. This can certainly be said of the recent actions of America’s LGBT community and the success that it has achieved in changing American attitudes toward marriage equality. As we watch the aggressive and highly organized efforts brought forth by the LGBT community, I hope that African Americans have been paying close attention to their success and will be more motivated to adopt new attitudes and strategies to bring about change in our beleaguered communities.

Go into any major city in America and there is evidence for you to see. With an unemployment rate that is almost double the national average, rising health disparities and falling academic achievement, the African American community is severely crippled and in sorely need of a reboot and retooling to its agenda.

Of course the LGBT community’s campaign to push forward its mandate could not have been achieved without the example put forth by African Americans to achieve Civil Rights over half a century ago. However, as of late, the black community has fallen backward in realizing the full potential of that promise. In a way very similar to African Americans, the LGBT community has had to overcome many perceived deficits flanked by deeply rooted stereotype and prejudice. But the success of this community’s current efforts clearly demonstrates the results that come with a  consistent willingness to run the “extra mile.”

Read more

Nine Democratic Senators Are Wrong-Headed Bigots

Julie Driscoll | LA Progressive | March 28, 2013

Doesn’t matter how Florida Democratic Senator Bill Nelson “messages” his opposition to same-sex marriage – “Sen. Nelson strongly supports civil rights for same-sex couples, while believing marriage should be between a man and a woman . . . ” – if you oppose marriage for a segment of the population, it ain’t civil rights you’re supporting.

Isn’t this what we libs require of Republicans, that regardless of their “messaging,” it’s about what they do?  What ten Democratic Senators are doing is discriminatory, bigoted, and completely wrong-headed.

Let’s remember these Democrats’ names, shall we?

Read more

FL: Gay rights issues come up again in the city

Marci Shatzman | Sun Sentinel | March 27, 2013

The subject of protecting the rights of the city’s gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender employees came up again, when civil rights activist Rand Hoch went before a city advisory board.

No documents that staff gave City Council, “informed them by enacting the ordinance [5161], they were completely eliminating the civil rights of municipal employees who believed they had been discriminated against because they were gay, lesbian or gender nonconforming,” Hoch told members of the Community Relations Board at the March 18 meeting.

The board has been considering but hasn’t voted on a recommendation to the city on the matter, and Hoch was there as part of their fact finding. As president and founder of the Palm Beach County Human Rights Council, Hoch has taken a position on the city action, and has made 13 public records requests since the issue came before council in October, November and December. Since then, it has not been back on the agenda.

Read more

Brendon Ayanbadejo Sees Gay Marriage As A Civil Right

On Top Magazine | March 24, 2013

Baltimore Ravens linebacker Brendon Ayanbadejo on Sunday said he saw gay marriage as a civil rights issue.

Appearing on CBS’s Face the Nation, Ayanbadejo reiterated his support for giving gay men and lesbians the right to marry.

“This is something I’ve been speaking about since 2009,” Ayanbadejo said.  “In my opinion it’s just the evolution of civil rights and equal rights. Athletes do a lot to change society and this is something we can make a big difference.  It starts with bullying and kids in elementary school and goes all the way to the legislative, and treating everybody equally.”

Read more

Uganda: Tabloid publishes names of ‘gay recruiters’

Corinne Pinfold | Pink News | February 25, 2013

A Ugandan tabloid has continued its tradition of publishing lists of allegedly gay people, “naming and shaming” them and putting their welfare at risk, with photos of people it claims are “gay recruiters”.

According to The New Civil Rights Movement, the front page of Sunday’s edition of Red Pepper declared: “Top Uganda Gay Recruiters Busted”. Red Pepper asserts as fact the myth of the ”recruitment” of straight minors by gay people, and lists people it claims are perpetrators in Uganda.

Homosexual acts are already illegal in Uganda. The Ugandan Parliament is due to vote on a bill that would increase the penalties for homosexual acts, potentially enforcing the death penalty for “aggravated homosexuality”.

The criminalisation of gay sex and public attitudes towards homosexuality make the publication of a person’s name in Red Pepper’s list, whether they are actually gay or not, extremely dangerous.

Read more

Voting Rights Act Is Challenged as Cure the South Has Outgrown

Meggan Haller for The New York Times

Jerome Gray, a civil rights activist from Evergreen, Ala., was improperly removed from the city’s voter rolls last summer.

ADAM LIPTAK | New York Times | February 17, 2013

EVERGREEN, Ala. — Jerome Gray, a 74-year-old black man, has voted in every election since 1974 in this verdant little outpost of some 4,000 people halfway between Mobile and Montgomery. Casting a ballot, he said, is a way to honor the legacy of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, a civil rights landmark born from a bloody confrontation 70 miles north of here, in Selma.

The franchise remains fragile in Evergreen, Mr. Gray said. Last summer, he was kicked off the voting rolls by a clerk who had improperly culled the list based on utility records.

A three-judge federal court in Mobile barred the city from using the new voting list, invoking Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, which requires many state and local governments, mostly in the South, to obtain permission from the Justice Department or from a federal court in Washington before making changes that affect voting.

Read more

Anti-Gay Preacher Bradlee Dean’s Lawyer Demands Florida School Allow Him To Speak To Kids

David Badash | The New Civil Rights Movement | February 16, 2013

Bradlee Dean apparently has a new lawyer, the Liberty Counsel, and they’re demanding a Florida high school allow Dean and his anti-gay hate group be allowed to speak to a student club. Dean, and his “youth ministry group,” You Can Run But You Cannot Hide International — which has been deemed a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center — were invited by a conservative student group to speak but asked to leave by the school principal during their presentation.

Watch:

Christian Ministry Shows Aborted Fetus Photos To Kids In Iowa School

Christian Ministry Preaches Anti-Gay Hate To Iowa Public School Kids

“Principal William Latson said the American Club’s faculty sponsor failed to get prior permission from school administrators, which is required under school district policy. So he instructed Dean to leave. Latson said the sponsor realized the error and has resigned from the club,” Scott Travis at the Sun Sentinel reports:

Read more

GOP Lawmaker Who Calls Gays Not ‘Mentally Healthy’ Introduces New ‘Don’t Say Gay’ Bill

David Badash | The New Civil Rights Movement | February 16, 2013

A Republican lawmaker introduced a new “Don’t Say Gay” bill into the Tennessee House yesterday, as a companion to infamous state senator Stacey Campfield‘s updated and strengthen anti-gay legislation.

Rep. John Ragan filed House bill HB1332, the “Classroom Protection Act.”

Ragan is perhaps best known for email a constituent to tell her that a gay person is not a “mentally healthy adult human being” — exactly one day after the suicide death of fourteen-year old gay Tennessee teen Phillip Parker.

As The New Civil Rights Movement reported in January of last year, “Rep. John Ragan, a Southern Baptist, pro-life, anti-gay, anti-immigrant, anti-education Republican, responded to a constituent’s letter asking him to oppose a now-infamous Tennessee bill that essentially delivers a license to bully to anyone who claims religious or moral prerogative. Ragan used the phrase ‘mentally healthy adult human being,’ as in, gays and lesbians are not mentally healthy adult human beings, three times in his letter.”

Read more