Georgia court tells gay dad he cannnot “expose” kids to homosexuals - from Pink News - all the latest gay news from the gay community - Pink News

Good old Georgia... Georgia court tells gay dad he cannnot “expose” kids to homosexuals

Thats sad... hopefully it will be corrected by a higher court...

I see the homophobia in this area all the time. Its pretty rabid at times speaking to a lot of below the surface fear, intolerance, and flat out rage from people.

step in the right direction for equality..

Georgia Equality Commends Clarkston City Council
for Supporting Non Discrimination

February 4, 2009 (Atlanta) - Georgia Equality applauds the Clarkston City Council for voting unanimously to include sexual orientation and gender identity in the city’s nondiscrimination policy. Clarkston joins a growing number of municipalities in Georgia to extend such protections to current and prospective city employees.

“I’m proud of my hometown for taking a stand to support equality,” said openly gay State Representative Karla Drenner, who worked with city leaders on passing the ordinance. Drenner, who represents Clarkston in the Georgia General Assembly, added, “Clearly the leadership of Clarkston understands the importance of respecting diversity. This truly is the small city with a big heart. Hopefully this action will serve as an example for other municipalities around the state.”

Georgia Equality executive director, Jeff Graham also commended city leaders. “While we may have a way to go before employment nondiscrimination is protected by federal or state statute, actions such as that taken by the City of Clarkston prove that these protections have become a standard part of operating any municipality or business. Discrimination in any form is simply unacceptable in the workplace.” Graham went on to add, “Although the vote was unanimous and all council members should be recognized for their leadership and vision, we’re especially pleased with Councilwoman Rosemarie Nelson for introducing the ordinance and Councilman Warren Hadlock for ensuring that gender identity was included in the final ordinance.”

Noting that employment protections against discrimination based on gender identity are still relatively rare among Georgia’s municipalities, Graham went on to say, “I am especially proud of city leaders for choosing to create a policy that is as inclusive of transgender individuals. Study after study has shown that this group is especially vulnerable to employment discrimination. Standing up for full-equality is clearly the right thing to do.”

Georgia Equality is a statewide organization whose mission is to advance fairness, safety and opportunity for Georgia’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender communities.

new movie... on torture

democracy in action?

Israel bans Arab parties from running in upcoming elections

from UN on the ground...

At least 30 killed in IDF strike on Gaza school; IDF: Troops fired in self-defense

"There's nowhere safe in Gaza. Everyone here is terrorized and traumatized," said John Ging, the top UN official in Gaza, blaming the international community for allowing the violence to continue.

"I am appealing to political leaders here and in the region and the world to get their act together and stop this," he said, speaking at Gaza's largest hospital. "They are responsible for these deaths."

the humanitarian crisis continues to grow worse...

Gaza civilians tell 'Post' their city has 'gone backward 50 years'

Meanwhile, United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) officials said on Sunday that contrary to statements made by Israeli officials, there is a humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip.

"Bread and wheat are going to run out extremely rapidly, and people are going to start getting extremely hungry," said UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunness. "Medical supplies are in critically short supply. When you have a situation where houses are being blown up and women and children are being maimed, I would say that's a humanitarian crisis."

Israel is still blocking humanitarian convoys.

More Than 100 Experts Question Human Rights Watch's Venezuela Report

What does Blagojevich have to do with making it easier for workers to form a union?

Nothing

spreading our good name...

More from the Bush legacy our children will still be dealing with...

Guantanamo 'worst place on Earth'

AN Algerian-born man who has just been freed from Guantanamo Bay has described the US "war on terror" camp as the worst place on Earth, in an interview published in a Bosnian newspaper.
"For almost seven years, I was at the end of the world, at the worst place in the world,'' Mustafa Ait Idir told the Dnevni Avaz a day after arriving back in his adopted homeland of Bosnia.

Darfur

'Thousands made slaves' in Darfur

Strong evidence has emerged of children and adults being used as slaves in Sudan's Darfur region, a study says.

Why the shoe?

Could it be...

One shoe the living?
4 million Iraqis displaced since war began: Oxfam

The report by Oxfam and NCCI, a network of aid organizations working in Iraq, also highlighted other dire statistics:

Four million Iraqis regularly cannot buy enough food.
70 per cent are without adequate water supplies, compared to 50 per cent in 2003.
28 per cent of children are malnourished, compared to 19 per cent before the 2003 invasion.
92 per cent of Iraqi children suffer learning problems, mostly due to the climate of fear.

One shoe for the 151,000 dead?

The authors of the WHO/Iraqi study, published last night in the New England Journal of Medicine, say that the new number, which could be anywhere between 104,000 and 223,000 allowing for misreporting, "points to a massive death toll in the wake of the 2003 invasion and represents only one of the many health and human consequences of an ongoing humanitarian crisis".

I dunno...

but some folks are baffled...

Juan Williams: we destroyed your country, how dare you disrespect our leader!

Because Bush has been such a defender of the views of governments who were being responsive to public opinion

sigh....

listening to old Philosophy talk as we speak...(or I type... you read)

Topic: Justice Across Boundaries

Guest: Martha Nussbaum, Ernst Freund Distinguished Service Professor of Law and Ethics, University of Chicago

What is it? Philosophical conceptions of justice have most often been directed at the nature of a just state. But many contemporary issues of justice reach across boundaries. Are our immigration policies fair and just? Can a just state invade another state in order to outfit it with a more just government? Can we defend economic policies that improve the lot of our citizens, while having an adverse impact on economies around the world?

Darfur

Hundreds dead in Darfur battles

Up to 250 people were killed in clashes in Sudan's Darfur region in the last week, says the United Nations-African Union peacekeeping mission (Unamid).

Unamid says 150 people died as hundreds of members of the Fallata and Salamat ethnic groups attacked the Habaniya in South Darfur.

About 100 more died in clashes between two groups from the Gimir group.

STATEMENT BY STACY DEAN,
DIRECTOR OF FOOD ASSISTANCE POLICY,
ON THE NEW USDA REPORT ON HUNGER

Even before the current economic downturn, some 13 million households, containing 36.2 million people, lacked access to adequate food at some point in 2007 because they didn’t have enough money for groceries, according to today’s release. These figures are a slight increase over the findings for 2006, but given the dramatic weakening of the economy in recent months, the number of “food insecure” households has likely grown considerably in 2008.

Food stamp caseloads — an indicator of those struggling to afford a basic diet — grew by nearly 2 million people between January and August 2008 (the most recent month for which we have data). The economic downturn also has coincided with a sharp increase in food prices, both of which have undoubtedly exacerbated hardship for many low-income families.

The report included three noteworthy findings.

About 4.7 million of the 13 million food insecure households in 2007 had very low food security, with household members skipping meals or taking other steps to reduce the amount they ate because of a lack of resources. The size of this group and its share of the overall population have risen steadily over the past decade.
The number of children with very low food security rose by over 60 percent, to 691,000.
The number of food insecure seniors living alone rose by 26 percent, to 783,000.
Over the 2005-2007 period, food insecurity was greatest in Mississippi, New Mexico, Texas, Arkansas, and Maine. In addition, the new data likely understate food insecurity because they don’t include homeless individuals or families.

Congress can take action to help struggling families by increasing food stamp benefits temporarily as part of a new round of economic stimulus. Not only would this help hard-pressed families put nutritious food on the table, it would also boost the overall economy by providing added business for food retailers and their suppliers. Each $1 spent on food stamps generates $1.84 in economic activity, according to USDA.

Life gets worse for Haiti's hungry children