TresSugar

Flashback: What If You Had to Ask Permission to Get Married?

TresSugar — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 02:00:00 -0700

Sometimes empathy is the most powerful way of moving civil rights forward, which is why this PSA from 2005 is so effective. It depicts what it must feel like for gay people who are barred from legally marrying by showing a man walking from house to house asking strangers if can have his girlfriend's hand in marriage. Wow. (As of today, five states - New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Iowa - have made gay marriage legal.)

Hugh Hefner Documentary - Would You Watch It?

TresSugar — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 03:00:00 -0700

What's the first thing that pops into your mind when you hear the name Hugh Hefner? Sex, I'm sure. A new documentary wants to add "civil rights activist" to the list of things the Playboy icon is known for. Hugh Hefner: Playboy, Activist and Rebel presents Hugh as a champion of gay rights, women's liberation, and racial integration.

Here's Hugh describing his legacy:

"One of the things I find really curious is when people say I've lived an amoral life. From my perspective, it's quite the contrary. I feel I've lived a very moral life. I've been on the side of angels from the beginning.”

One such angelic anecdote: when two of his Playboy nightclubs in the South were racially segregated, Hugh bought them back and integrated them. As for women, the man who tells his current twin girlfriends apart by a birthmark says: "I was a feminist before there was such a thing as feminism." Hugh's Playboy Foundation has funded legal battles for birth control and abortion access. Of course one could argue that Hugh has this influential role only because he made a fortune objectifying women for the entertainment of men.

Would you be interested in learning more about Hugh's life as a so-called activist?

Court to Take on Reverse Discrimination, Voting Rights

LibertySugar — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 08:00:48 -0800

Change may come to America in the form of new standards in civil rights. On Friday, the US Supreme Court decided that it would hear two cases, one dealing with work discrimination and the other with voting discrimination. Depending on how the court rules later this year, these cases could change the landscape of US civil rights law.

The first case involves Connecticut firefighters who say that even though they scored highest on the exam, they were not given promotions because they were white. Instead, the test was scrapped after no minorities qualified, and the promotions were given to African Americans. The white firefighters have lost their legal battles so far, as lower courts ruled that federal law forbids exams that have a disproportional impact on minorities.

The other law in question, a provision of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, requires 16 mostly southern states to get federal clearance before making a change to their local voting rules. A lower court ruled last Spring that Congress was reasonable to determine that voting discrimination still persists, thus upholding the clearance requirement.

The election of the first African American president has sent a strong signal that national race relations have changed in the US, but organizations like the NAACP point out that a lot of work remains. Do you think it's time for the Supreme Court to strike down laws that help promote minority working and voting rights?

Source

Answer to Crime? Keep People Off the Streets With Curfews?

CitizenSugar — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 08:00:30 -0700

It's just like being a teenager, except your parents are the police! And instead of grounding, they can put you in jail! Curfews are popping up in tons of places, aimed at controlling crime. With goals similar to the police checkpoints in Washington DC, the newest towns getting an early bedtime: Helena, Arkansas and Hartford, Connecticut.

Sparked by violence, Helena, AR has implemented a 24-hour curfew in a troubled neighborhood, questioning all passers by. The city council voted unanimously to allow police to expand the program to any area of the city, despite ACLU claims that the police action is unconstitutional. The patrols have resulted in 32 arrests since they locked down the 10-block radius. The council acknowledges the hardship of the curfew but says those living in the city want the random and drug-fueled shootings to stop, regardless of what it takes.

To see what's happening in Hartford, and whether it actually works, read more.

Hartford, CT has a youth curfew scheduled to begin today, aimed at stopping gang violence. For one month, all juveniles have to be in by 9 p.m. After a parade Saturday left one dead, a 7-year-old shot in the head, and a 15-month-old shot in the leg, Hartford's mayor says, "we must do this because we cannot and will not tolerate innocent people, especially children, to be victims." The ACLU says the curfew blatantly violates the civil rights of minors.

With similar youth rules in Rochester, NY, and the rule's efficacy being questioned in Philadelphia, PA, (more crime happens right after school) is a curfew a good way to combat crime - or a crime against civil rights?

Source

Latino Civil Rights Group La Raza: In Malkin's Words & Theirs

CitizenSugar — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 12:15:35 -0700

The National Council of La Raza (which they translate as "the people," aka NCLR) is holding its annual conference in San Diego starting July 12. In the quest to connect with Hispanic voters, both Barack Obama and John McCain are speaking before the conference on July 13 and 14 respectively.

La Raza calls itself "the largest Latino civil rights and advocacy organization in the United States." The organization has been around since 1968, and given that the number of Hispanic citizens who voted in 2006 (about 5.6 million) rose 18 percent from the voter turnout in 2002, I reckoned it was worth a look.

Conservative blogger Michelle Malkin has compiled a list of 15 things to know about La Raza (which she translates as "The Race." For comparison, the links I've included within her bullet points, are the NCLR viewpoint on the topics. To see them, read more.

The list includes:

"'The Race' supports driver's licenses for illegal aliens."
"'The Race' opposes a secure fence on the southern border.'
"'The Race' bitterly protested commonsense voter ID provisions as an 'absolute disgrace.'"
"'The Race' has consistently opposed post-9/11 national security measures at every turn."

What do you think? Is Michelle Malkin's list too extreme? Honest, or just the opposite?

Source

Sexy Shop Protesters Put "Secrets" Customers on YouTube

CitizenSugar — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 08:00:56 -0700

Shoppers looking to snap up a pair of lacy panties (not unlike those the thong bandits arrested over the weekend used) in Vacaville, CA better be prepared to have their shopping habits shown on YouTube.

Protesters have been gathering outside of Secrets Lingerie Boutique to film shoppers heading into the store because they say Secrets "is a shop that is profiting from pornography and other materials that we feel are degrading to people and exploitative."

The store sells lingerie and gifts in front and adult movies in the back. A local business owner defends the honor of the underduds store saying, "from what I've seen so far, it's no worse than Victoria's Secret, or worse than Hanes Underwear store across the way in the factory stores."

Are the panty-vigilantes, justified? To find out, read more.

The Vacaville City Council just passed a law that bans adult businesses. One resident said the store is bad for the town's reputation saying, "I believe Vacaville is a wonderful place to live and to raise a family, but shops like this are going to bring in negative attention." But according to a city representative, Secrets is not breaking any laws.

Protesters haven't followed through and uploaded videos of slinky-goods shoppers, but they're fixing to. Protesting a business you don't agree with is one thing - but does using the internet to expose those who support it, crossing the line of privacy rights?

Source

Can a Business Choose To Be "English-Only"?

CitizenSugar — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 09:00:00 -0700

According to a new ruling by the Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations, businesses are allowed to post signs insisting that customers speak English. They ruled that Geno's Steaks restaurant that placed a sign informing customers, "This is America. When ordering speak English," had done nothing to violate discrimination rules.

The sign inspired a larger debate about immigration and freedom of speech. The owner of the restaurant said his right to free speech had been violated by the complaint. The commission ruled that since the sign did not say that non-English speaking diners would be refused service, the restaurant owner was within his rights.

Geno's Steaks is one of Philly's most famous cheese steak shops - and apparently even if you're ordering in English, there's a protocol:

Be prepared and know how to order, because the service is fast and the line keeps moving. For example, on a cheese steak with onions specify which kind of cheese you'd like (Provolone, American or Cheese [sic] Whiz.)

I don't know, I'm a little skeptical that "Cheez Whiz" counts as an English word.

Do you agree with the commission's ruling? Is posting this sign within the rights of a business owner?

Martin Luther King Day

LibertySugar — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 14:08:20 -0800

I remember learning about Martin Luther King Jr. when I was a kid. But MLK did not become more than the name of a three-day weekend until I read his Letter from a Birmingham Jail. As I read the letter, I could feel the urgency of his cause and the pain of the injustice. In celebration of his life, go ahead and read the open letter that Dr. King wrote from city jail in order to defend peaceful demonstrations and insist that "injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."

And while you're at it, watch the full version of his "I Have a Dream" (above). We all know at least one famous line from the remarkable speech, but there is something extremely powerful about watching Dr. King deliver his dream of racial harmony.

Rhode Island Governor Vetoes Same-Sex Funeral Rights

TresSugar — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 13:00:00 -0800

Rhode Island's state legislature thought it would be a good idea to give same-sex partners the right to plan each other's funerals when one partner passes away. It's a right married couples have, of course. But Gov. Don Carcieri said: not so fast! The socially conservative leader vetoed the bill because it's part of a "disturbing trend" threatening heterosexual marriage. I'm confused. How does a gay person planning a loved one's funeral have anything to do with someone else's marriage?

Those who support the veto point out that Rhode Island recognizes neither gay marriage nor civil unions. Still, many people are shocked that the governor would intervene to deny same-sex partners some comfort during a hard time. The state's attorney general has called the veto "cruel and heartless," and lawmakers in the Democratically-controlled legislature said they would work to override the veto. Hopefully they will succeed!

A Generation of Male Commitmentphobes?

TresSugar — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 15:30:00 -0800

A recent Marie Claire trend piece takes on a certain species of man: the commitment-phobe. Lest you think this is but one unavoidable type of man, the writer suggests that there's a whole generation of 30-something men having early midlife crises:

These guys are part of a cause-less generation. They didn't grow up burning their draft cards or fighting the Nazis. They weren't part of the Civil Rights Movement, the Women's Movement, or any other movement. They were spoiled as kids and now they want to spoil themselves as adults. The old cliché was that a man would wake up one morning and realize that he wanted his youth back. The new version is that he never reached adulthood in the first place.

This type tends to be drawn to Type-A women who can bring home the bacon, fry it up in a pan, and never let him forget he's a man . . . but the writer wonders if part of what the male commitmentphobe is thinking is that this type of woman doesn't need him at all. (Hmmm. So it's her fault?)

I don't think many would argue for a return to old-school gender roles and the suffocation that went with them, but do you think there's a whole generation of young-ish men who don't know how to commit?