Official News Outlet for the Rainbow Round Table of the American Library Association
By John Mack Freeman Indiana is one vote away from approving a “religious freedom” bill that would allow businesses to refuse service to GLBT individuals. In response, a coalition of businesses has begun a grassroots campaign to show that they will not discriminate against anyone. Open For Service provides stickers and a listing for Indiana businesses […]
By John Mack Freeman The world’s largest social media platform has begun to crack down more on hate speech on the site. Facebook released new community guidelines that continue to explicitly forbid hate speech while making it easier to report violations. Hate speech can now be flagged directly from the reporting bar instead of being […]
By John Mack Freeman The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has approved same sex marriage in the church’s constitution. The organization has approximately 1.8 million members in 10,000 congregations, making it the largest Christian Protestant denomination to officially support same sex marriage. Though the organization had approved same sex marriage at its legislative assembly last year, it […]
By John Mack Freeman A new map published by the HRC highlights the wave of anti-LGBT bills that are under consideration in state houses across the country. 85 separate bills have been filed in 26 states. Texas currently leads the pack with 8 under consideration. You can view the full report here.
By GLBTRT Resources Committee This Gay-Straight Alliance resource guide is intended for middle and high school students, parents, or Gay-Straight Alliance leaders. It contains links concerning starting a GSA in a school or community environment and resources that will help students maintain their GSA attendance. Resources include links such as a free printable GSA jump-start […]
Via press release CHICAGO — Applications are now open for the 2015 Gordon M. Conable Conference Scholarship, sponsored by the Freedom to Read Foundation (FTRF). The Conable Conference Scholarship provides funding for an LIS student or recent graduate to attend the American Library Association’s Annual Conference. The 2015 ALA Annual Conference will be held June 25-30 […]
By John Mack Freeman This week, Switzerland has voted for a law that would protect GLBT people from discrimination. By a vote of 103-73, the parliament approved a measure that would ban discrimination and hate speech based on gender identity and sexual orientation. Further, progress is being made on same sex unions with 54% of Swiss people […]
By John Mack Freeman It seems like every week I read a new handful of stories about how ill-informed and short-sighted legislators around the country are trying to make it harder for trans people to use the restroom. In response to this, a long-running hashtag #WeJustNeedToPee blew up on social media this week as trans […]
By John Mack Freeman This week, the European Parliament declared that same sex marriage was a “civil and human right.” Via Gazetta del Sud: The European Parliament on Thursday called on EU member states to recognise civil unions and same-sex marriage as a civil and human right and urged governments and EU institutions to contribute […]
By John Mack Freeman Two new GLBT-related laws were proposed in Oklahoma this week. The first proposed to remove Oklahoma from the marriage business altogether. Clerks would no longer issue marriage licenses. Instead, those performing marriages would register the union with a clerk of court after the fact. The goal of the law is to […]