MetaFilter posts tagged with Discrimination and civilrights

Dawn

23 — Thu, 10 May 2012 07:44:34 -0800

When the Supreme Court decision Loving v. Virginia in 1967 declared laws against interracial marriage unconstitutional, the last affected state in which a legal interracial marriage occurred was South Carolina in January, 1969, in the city where the Civil War started. What most people don't know is the bride was a transsexual. In Sussex, England, 1937, Gordon Langley Hall was born out of wedlock to two servants of Vita Sacksville-West, lover of Virginia Woolf and inspiration for Woolf's Orlando. Gordon moved to Canada at age sixteen and taught on a reservation; his experiences there formed the basis of his first published book. Later he moved to New York, where he met an artist from whom he would inherit two million dollars and a historic home in Charleston, South Carolina. In 1968 Gordon underwent sexual reassignment surgery, changed her name to Dawn Pepita Langley Hall, and got engaged to a young black car mechanic named John-Paul Simmons. Despite the abundance of churches in Charleston, the marriage was held in her house due to threats of firebombs (which were carried out later). The marriage produced one child but did not end happily, and Dawn divorced in 1982, and passed away in 2000 in Charleston. Dawn has been the subject of at least one book, as well as a few autobiographies, an episode of This American Life, and a New York Times obituary.

Still voting on other people's rights

klangklangston — Tue, 08 May 2012 12:40:48 -0800

A preacher rebukes North Carolina media over asking the wrong questions about marriage. North Carolina votes today on Amendment 1, which states that, "Constitutional amendment to provide that marriage between one man and one woman is the only domestic legal union that shall be valid or recognized in this State." Here are some of the people who would be affected.

Profiled By The TSA? There's An App For That.

mattdidthat — Wed, 02 May 2012 14:36:56 -0800

FlyRights is a smartphone app designed to provide a quick and easy way to report complaints of air travel harassment, profiling, and discrimination. Within the first ten hours of its launch, FlyRights had fielded two complaints of harassment and profiling. By contrast, the DHS's report to Congress on civil rights and civil liberties listed only 11 complaints in the first six months of 2011. FlyRights was designed by the Sikh Coalition, the nation's largest Sikh civil rights organization.

Victor Victoria...Victorious?

zombieflanders — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 13:54:55 -0800

"[T]he Commission hereby clarifies that claims of discrimination based on transgender status, also referred to as claims of discrimination based on gender identity, are cognizable under Title VII's sex discrimination prohibition"
On April 20, the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) issued a unanimous ruling for the plaintiffs in a lawsuit brought up by the Transgender Law Center on behalf of Mia Macy, who claimed she was denied a job as at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives after she announced she was transitioning from male to female. The decision allows for people who have been fired or prohibited from applying for a job based on their gender identity to bring federal lawsuits against their employers under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The culmination of several civil lawsuits stretching back to 1974, the ruling is expected to be "a real sea change" for protecting transgender employees against workplace discrimination. However, supporters say that this is just the beginning. Apart from the inevitable Supreme Court challenge, where the precedent from Price Waterhouse v. Hopkins and Oncale v. Sundowner Offshore Services, Inc. at least seems to be on the side of continued protections, there are 34 states where it is legal to fire someone solely for being transgender. In addition, the proposed Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), first introduced in 1994 and sponsored in all but one session since then, has yet to be passed despite having the support of 73% of Americans as of 2011. The current incarnation of ENDA, sponsored by Rep. Barney Frank and Sen. Jeff Merkley and supported by the Obama Administration, has 161 cosponsors in the House and 41 in the Senate, but has not yet passed out of committee.

"Jews and Christians should be allies; and allies are equals."

zarq — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 21:44:08 -0800

In October 1870, as American Jews were observing the High Holidays, The Atlantic Magazine published an article called "Our Israelitish Bretheren." 'At the time, it served as a sort of crash course about a tiny, mystifying minority. Today, it survives as something quite different: a snapshot of a transitional moment in Jewish history.' Written by American biographer, James Parton -- the founder of American Heritage magazine.

America's Next Great Civil Rights Struggle

zarq — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 10:14:30 -0800

The New Republic examines what they're calling "America's Next Great Civil Rights Struggle" and asks, "What will it take for America to accept transgender people for who they really are?" A gallery of images and interview excerpts related to the main article can be seen at the TNR special feature Breaking Boundaries. This project began five months ago as a simple reporting assignment: investigate how people who were making the transition from one gender to another learned to alter their voices. That relatively simple inquiry, however, opened a vast array of issues and questions, and introduced me to a number of people whose lives—despite any proclamations of banality—were utterly inspiring. The scope and length of the article grew, and eventually it turned into a broad look at the state of the transgender rights movement.

"Discrimination generates hatred"

jaduncan — Sun, 08 May 2011 01:41:26 -0800

Brazil's supreme court recognises same sex unions. The Brazilian Supreme Court voted 10-0 (one abstention) yesterday to recognise same-sex civil unions as of equal legal validity to marriage/ with "stable" same-sex couples now able to gain certificates that allow access to equal legal rights. "Discrimination generates hatred," said Justice Carlos Ayres Britto, who wrote the ruling. These unions enable all marriage related rights - retirement benefits, inheritance, health benefits, the adoption of children etc. This has been achieved in the world's most populous Catholic country, and against the background of intense Catholic Church lobbying and legal argument against recognising the unions with the Brazilian National Bishops Conference's lawyer even stating in court that "Plurality has its limits". Ultimately, this view lost, and the ruling is probably best summed up by Justice Britto: "Equality is complete.[...]All rights of heterosexual people are valid for homosexuals." NB: For those who are interested, Wikipedia has an excellent contextual article on the recent history of LGBT rights in Brazil.

Eye of the storm

Afroblanco — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 16:57:31 -0800

Many of us have seen or read The Wave, but how many of us have seen A Class Divided? It depicts one third-grade teacher's attempts to teach Midwestern children about the civil rights movement, many of whom had never met a black person before. As part of a daring experiment, she split the class between brown-eyed children and blue-eyed children, and gave the "browneyes" special privileges. The children were told, in no uncertain terms, that the "blueyes" were inferior. What followed was a lesson in discrimination that the kids would remember for the rest of their lives.

Taking the Long View

Sidhedevil — Thu, 04 Nov 2004 11:42:36 -0800

Only in 1967 did Loving v. Virginia overturn vigorously-enforced laws against interracial marriage in these 15 states--Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia. Only in 1964 did the Civil Rights Act overturn laws against equal access to voting, public accommodation, and public education. Only in 1963 did the Equal Pay Act mandate that men and women be paid the same wage for the same work at the same job. History isn't a superhighway, leading us in straight lines toward utopia. We fall back and we move forward, but over the past fifty years, the United States has become considerably more inclusive and equality of access to opportunity has widened. Take a look at this article from the Atlantic Monthly in 1956--1956!--if you don't believe me.

U.S. to defend Muslim girl wearing scarf in school

poopy — Wed, 31 Mar 2004 05:09:59 -0800

U.S. to defend Muslim girl wearing scarf in school. In its complaint, the government said the school district violated the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment, which it said bars states from applying dress codes in a discriminatory manner.

Post hoc, ergo propter hoc

the fire you left me — Fri, 28 Nov 2003 16:48:47 -0800

Welcome to the Relativist Fallacy. Conservative blacks in the United States are objecting to recent comparisons between the gay marriage and the 1960s civil rights movement, which fought segregation against blacks, arguing that sexual orientation is a choice.

shoplifters of the world

the fire you left me — Thu, 13 Nov 2003 12:00:15 -0800

Jeb Bush, comedian. "It looks like the people of San Francisco are an endangered species, which may not be a bad thing. That's probably good news for the country."

The Army Is Dumb

adrober — Wed, 13 Nov 2002 13:47:47 -0800

Don't Ask, Don't Tell, Don't Matter If You Are Fluent In Arabic, Despite Our Serious Need For That.... This story hits very close to home. This is a friend from college (Emory) who was just thrown out of the army when they discovered he had a boyfriend. Particularly ridiculous is the fact that he had just achieved fluency in Arabic and would have been (among other gay soldiers) extremely useful to the cause at present. Apparently, heterosexual couples discovered coupled in their rooms at the same inspection were given 10 days restriction and extra duty.