President Obama signed the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act into law yesterday, October 28.

The following slide show features photographs of President Obama and the families of Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr., at the White House signing ceremony and a reception at the Human Rights Campaign headquarters in Washington, D.C., for activists who worked more than a decade to pass this landmark legislation.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) recently proposed new regulations to ensure that its housing programs are open to all people, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity.

The regulations clarify that the term "family" as HUD uses it includes LGBT individuals and couples and requires HUD grantees and participants in HUD programs to comply with local and state non-discrimination laws that include sexual orientation and gender identity. The regulations specify that any mortgage loan insured by the Federal Housing Administration must be based only on credit-worthiness and not on unrelated identity factors.

The department also plans to authorize the first national study of discrimination of the LGBT community in the rental and sale of housing.  Although there have been no national studies of housing discrimination against LGBT people, state and local studies show significant evidence of discrimination.

"The evidence is clear that some are denied the opportunity to make housing choices in our nation based on who they are and that must end. President Obama and I are determined that a qualified individual and family will not be denied housing choice based on sexual orientation or gender identity," HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan said.

The Senate Judiciary Committee is considering a bill introduced by Sen. Jim Webb, D. Va., that would establish a bipartisan commission to examine the nation's criminal justice system and figure out how to make it more effective and fair.

The commission would be tasked with identifying the system's strengths and weaknesses and making recommendations to Congress about reducing the incarceration rate, lowering crime rates, restructuring our approach to drug policy, improving the treatment of mental illnesses, and other reforms.

UPDATE: On October 28, President Obama signed the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act into law.

Today, the Senate gave final congressional approval 68-29 to the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, which expands the definition of federal hate crimes and removes unnecessary obstacles to federal prosecution.

With President Obama likely to sign the Act into law soon, civil rights groups are celebrating a historic achievement following more than a decade of advocacy.

"We applaud lawmakers for recognizing the fundamental right of all Americans to be protected from violence because of their race, the way they worship, their sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability status. Congress' decision to pass this bill sends a clear message to these victims of violence and their families – individuals like Stephen Tyrone Johns of Washington, D.C., Sean Kennedy of South Carolina, Angie Zapata of Colorado, Luis Ramirez of Pennsylvania, and Matthew Shepard of Wyoming – that we value every American's basic civil and human right to be safe and free from physical harm," Wade Henderson, president and CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, said.

A new report by Maria Shriver and the Center for American Progress is calling attention to changing gender dynamics of the American family and workplace and this shift's potential to affect public policy and policies that businesses adopt. 

"The Shriver Report: A Woman's Nation Changes Everything" found that half of all American workers are women, that mothers are the primary breadwinner or co-breadwinner in two-thirds of American families, and that women are now more likely than men to graduate from college. 

However, the report also explains that in spite of these changes, women are still earning only 77 cents for each dollar men earn and are still difficult to find in leading positions of America's most successful companies.  In addition, the rise of women in the workplace has sparked serious debate about how children are affected growing up without a stay-at-home parent. 

Based upon these findings, the report argues that all American institutions must adapt to the new dynamic of the workforce and family by embracing policies that help working American families and businesses, like flexible work hours, paid medical leave, child care, and elderly care.

Civil rights groups are supporting an amendment to the Defense Appropriations Act for 2010 by Sen. Al Franken, D. Minn., which would deny taxpayer funding to defense contractors who force arbitration upon their employees in cases of sexual abuse and harassment and other egregious forms of unlawful job discrimination.

Forced arbitration clauses require a consumer or employee to agree to settle any disputes in arbitration before a private third party hired to review and settle disputes. They also forbid an individual from suing, participating in class action lawsuits, or appealing the arbiter's decision.  These clauses often surprise consumers and employees who are unaware of forced arbitration policies in the fine print of many types of contracts.

Franken's amendment comes as a response to the case of Jamie Leigh Jones, who was viciously assaulted and raped by co-workers while working for Halliburton/Kellogg Brown & Root (KBR) in Iraq.  Under the forced arbitration clause of her employment agreement, Jones (whose case is still in court) may be prevented from suing Halliburton and instead forced to go through secret, binding arbitration. 

In a letter to Sen. Daniel Inouye, D. Hawaii, and Rep. John Murtha, D. Pa., signed by 24 civil rights groups, the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights said that the amendment must be passed in its current form to cover all Title VII employment discrimination claims.

"Unless Title VII claims are included, other forms of discrimination – not connected to sexual violence but nevertheless egregious and intolerable – would continue to be swept under the rug of forced arbitration," the letter states.

Civil rights leaders recently testified in the House Committee on Financial Services about the role that the proposed Consumer Financial Protection Agency will play in protecting minority and low-income Americans.

The new agency would be tasked with prohibiting abusive, deceptive, and discriminatory lending practices.  Advocates hope that the agency will ensure that the consumer financial services market operates fairly and that traditionally underserved communities have access to mainstream financial services.

Hilary Shelton, Washington Bureau director of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said in his testimony that the new agency could make it easier for the federal government to adequately monitor abusive practices.  "Current laws and enforcement allow a range of institutions to escape supervision because responsibility for consumer protection is fragmented across too many regulators. Too many finance companies are not regulated at all at the federal level," Shelton said.

A new report by the Pew Charitable Trusts' Philadelphia Research Initiative investigating the 2010 census preparations of 11 major U.S. cities and found that six of these cities – Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Philadelphia, and Pittsburgh - have less money and fewer staffers for census outreach than they did in 2000.

The 66 percent national mail response rate for the 2000 census reversed a three-decade decline in public cooperation, an achievement believed  to be due in large part to community-focused outreach and education activities in which state and local governments played a significant role. But the recession has hit many communities hard and state and local budgets are tight.

An inaccurate count can skew the allocation of vital program funds and political representation for the next decade.  The stakes are particularly high in many of the cities that Pew studied because they have high numbers of hard-to-count populations, including low-income renters, immigrants and minorities. 

Recognizing the importance of an accurate 2010 census and the limited funds of many cities, the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights Education Fund, the Asian American Justice Center, the NAACP, the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials, and the National Congress of American Indians have launched the national "Make Yourself Count" campaign to educate Americans about the importance of an accurate count.  In addition, the campaign is working with local organizations and activists to increase census participation in 13 of the hardest-to-count cities, which includes seven of the cities Pew studied.

Categories: LGBT Rights