NCLR supports “Sanctuary Cities”

Over the past few days, cities across the country have come to the support of the unaccompanied minors who have fled Central America to immigrate into the United States. Today, the City and County of San Francisco joins these cities. In a unanimous decision, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors passed a resolution sponsored by Supervisor David Campos to assist in the humanitarian relief effort. As part of the resolution, the City and County of San Francisco will advocate for “the need for...

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Billy Bean Becomes First Ambassador of Inclusion for Major League Baseball

Major League Baseball (MLB) Commissioner Bud Selig today announced a set of actions that will alter the lives of baseball players and the trajectory of MLB teams for future generations. The league has welcomed openly-gay former MLB player Billy Bean back into their fold with a position to work with the league to implement a program of greater inclusion for LGBTQ players in baseball. Billy, a hero to me and to all of us, has been appointed as MLB’s first Ambassador for Inclusion. Billy is...

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An Anniversary and a Promise Unfulfilled

In 1964, I was 4 years old. My biological father had died the year prior and my mom had married the only father I would ever remember, Max Kendell. We had just relocated to Ogden, Utah from Portland, Oregon with my little sister, Sharon, who is 18 months my junior. We had left the comfort and embrace of my grandparents’ home, who we moved in with after our father’s death. My first memories are of the move to Utah. I was anxious and uneasy. My world was very small and already traumatic. I...

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Dispatch from Kate

Julian, Sandy, and I were lucky enough yesterday to attend the LGBTQ Pride Month Commemoration event at the White House. President Obama and First Lady Michelle were there, along with some of NCLR’s closest colleagues and so many who have fought tirelessly for this moment. The Advocate asked me to write about my thoughts on the day. A link to that piece is below. We know we are far from finished. Yesterday’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling in the Hobby Lobby case will make it more difficult to...

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High Court Strikes Massachusetts Abortion “Buffer Zone”

Today, the Supreme Court held that a Massachusetts law creating a 35-foot buffer zone for patients at clinics that provide abortions was too broad, but affirmed that laws in line with the Federal Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act are valid, and implied that smaller anti-harassment zones could be valid. Buffer zones are important protectors of patient safety and clinic access, and the National Center for LGBTQ Rights joined the National Women’s Law Center and several other...

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A Landmark Decision and an Incredible Year for Marriage

A year ago today, we celebrated a major tipping point in the movement for LGBTQ equality—a watershed United States Supreme Court decision that continues to impact the lives of same-sex couples across the country. The Supreme Court’s decision on June 26, 2013 striking down the discriminatory Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which barred the federal government from recognizing the marriages of same-sex couples, set off a legal tidal wave unlike anything we have seen before. Inspired by Justice...

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All LGBTQ Kids Are #BornPerfect

Even as the LGBTQ community enjoys huge gains in understanding and acceptance. Even as we have key leaders from every sector and across every spectrum supporting our full equality and rejecting rank bigotry. Even as we seem closer than ever to winning the freedom to marry nationwide, a persistent and longstanding threat has reemerged. You have likely heard or read a chorus of anti-LGBTQ voices in the last few weeks supporting so-called “conversion therapy,” the vile practice used by some...

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The Next Chapter in the Sports Equality Movement

Last week, I was in a room of about 100 LGBTQ sports advocates and stakeholders at the 3rd annual LGBTQ Sports Coalition Summit hosted by Nike. Formalized in 2013, the LGBTQ Sports Coalition consists of nonprofit members, engaged individuals, and affiliates dedicated to ending homophobia, biphobia, and transphobia in sports by 2016. We held our first informal convening in 2012. The summit only had about 30 participants that first year. Now, our summit is over 100 strong, representing advocates...

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A Year Like None Other: NCLR’s Litigation Work

Ever since NCLR’s founding, we have been at the forefront of some of the most important legal cases in the history of the LGBTQ movement, from winning the freedom to marry in California, to securing critical protections for LGBTQ parents in courts around the country, and all the way to the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court. But no year in our history has ever been quite like this one. The Supreme Court’s decision last summer striking down the discriminatory Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which...

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The Loss of Family

I was sad all day yesterday. It was only in the moment of hearing the news of Dr. Maya Angelou’s death that I realized how much her living had meant to me. I never met Dr. Angelou, but like so many of us, when we heard this news, I felt like I had lost a beloved sister, aunt, neighbor, or mentor. I was 13 when I read “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.” I was in 8th grade in Ogden, Utah. I was white and Mormon in my overwhelmingly white and Mormon public school. I had nothing in...

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