Apparently, denying Californians equal rights was insufficient for many conservative religious. Indeed, messing with politics in another state (much of the Prop H8 money came from out-of-state conservatives) left them wanting. And so conservative hatemongers have moved on to East Africa—to the country to Uganda—where it is currently a crime punishable by life in prison [...]

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This is a shorter list than it should be, because there are so many, some of them mentioned quite recently. But here are two young women who remind me that kids can do whatever they want and that women can do whatever they want: Emily Yeung, hostess of a TV show in which she learns [...]

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Many people have already posted about the greening of our twitter icons (which shows visible solidarity, but has no other effect), but here is something you can do that will make a difference. Change your Twitter location to a city in Iran and change your time zone to GMT +3:30, making “it harder for the [...]

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Nationwide, Christians who refuse to provide services on the basis of gender orientation are losing legal battles.

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Just started rape in criminal law and the stats at the beginning of the chapter are interesting: Only 32% of rapes are reported. The most common reason they were reported was to prevent further crimes by the same offender against the same victim. The most common reason they were not reported was that it was [...]

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This is how our president defined our country yesterday. Explicitly denying that it was a “Christian nation” and explicitly stating that this fact is one of our “great strengths”. It’s nice to be reminded of this—and by someone so high in the administration! It is vogue for politicians to exclaim “God bless America!” Whether or [...]

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April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month and, to kick things off, I’d like to take issue with the growing prevalence of the word “rape” as a slang synonym for “dominated”, “rocked’, or “killed”. Both I and a friend have recently had Facebook “friends” (which of course could be anyone from a mere acquaintance to a [...]

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The Vermont Senate, finding (correctly) that Civil Unions for gay couples fall short of providing equal rights, voted overwhelmingly to approve Civil Marriage for gay couples. The matter still has to go before the Vermont House (and since I’m late to this, may already have gone), where it is expected to pass. The margin by [...]

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Texas is reviewing its science standards, specifically with the desire to remove them altogether. Skepchick has a great discussion of exactly what this means, but here’s the short version: Texas and California’s choices for scientific textbooks drives the availability of textbooks nationwide because of their massive marketshare the Texas State Board of Education (TSBE) has [...]

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A kid in a South Pasadena high school has declared this week “no cussing week”. He started the No Cussing Club in seventh grade when he realized that his peers were beginning to cuss, a word I find entertaining, something that his parents did not allow. I respect this kid for standing up to what [...]

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