Progressive News Feeds

Boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr. is led away in handcuffs at the Clark County Regional Justice Center in June 2012 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Mayweather was released from a Las Vegas prison early Friday after serving two months of a three-month sentence for domesticUS boxer Floyd Mayweather was released from a Las Vegas prison early Friday after serving two months of a three-month sentence for domestic battery, police said

Tags: activism, alternet, army, boxer, education, feeds, health, pennsylvania

Mississippi Rep. Andy Gipson (R) Last week, Mississippi state Rep. Andy Gipson (R) condemned the gay community on his Facebook wall, citing Leviticus 20:13, which opponents of LGBT equality interpret as calling for gay men to be  put to death . Responding to a Change.org petition calling for his apology, Gipson stated on Friday , “I do not, cannot, and will not apologize for the inspired truth of God’s Word.” Yesterday, he has offered an official statement attempting to distance himself from those remarks: Since that time, a well-known radical liberal blog (The Huffington Post) ran an article falsely claiming that this Facebook post was a call “to kill gay people.” Nothing could be further from the truth. I have never publicly or privately called for the killing of any people. I believe all people are created in the image of God and I stand firmly for the sanctity of all human life. All people are entitled to the protection of the laws of our nation and state protecting human life. Any reasonable person who reads the actual post can see that both scriptures were cited only for the proposition that same-sex marriage is morally objectionable — sin . I believe this reflects the values of the vast majority of Mississippians and the people of District 77 whom I represent. Many Biblical scholars counter the notion that this Leviticus verse actually translates to modern-day understandings of homosexuality. But any reasonable person who reads the scripture he cited for the purposes he cited it can see that if it condemns homosexuality as a sin, then it also calls for gays to be put to death. As long as Gipson stands by his interpretation of Leviticus 20:13 as the “inspired truth of God’s Word,” it is reasonable to conclude that he endorses its message. If he does not actually believe the words on the page as they are written, he should specifically qualify that he makes exceptions for which of God’s Words are inspired truth or admit that he has misinterpreted the scripture.

Tags: bible, boxer, contestant, economy, health, legal, lgbt, slate, thinkprogress

The board of the NAACP, the “nation’s oldest and largest civil rights organization,” endorsed marriage equality at a meeting this afternoon. The move comes 10 days after President Obama announced his support of same-sex marriage . The NAACP’s move comes as attitudes about gays and lesbians in the African American community are changing rapidly. A recent poll found that 54% of African Americans supported President Obama’s recent decision. Maxim Thorne, formerly of the NAACP, broke the news over Twitter: The NAACP Board of Directors has just endorsed marriage equality unequivocally. Only two opposed! An historic moment. — Maxim Thorne (@Maximthorne) May 19, 2012 Since Obama’s announcement, numerous influential political figures — including Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid and House Assistant Minority Leader James Clyburn — have joined him in supporting marriage equality. Update The NAACP confirms their decision with the New York Times: “ We have and will oppose efforts to codify discrimination into law .”

Tags: africa, boxer, economy, election, feeds, mitt-romney, naacp, security, thinkprogress, yahoo

Last week, Rep. James Lankford (R-OK) told ThinkProgress that he opposes LGBT nondiscrimination protections, like those that would be afforded by the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, because he believes it should be legal to fire people for their sexual orientation. He explained that he believes being gay is a choice that is simply “behavior-related and preference-related.” Since then, Lankford has embarked on a press tour attacking ThinkProgress for misrepresenting him, choosing to ignore video that confirms his position was quoted and described accurately. He continued that effort today in two radio interviews with anti-gay hate group leaders, the Family Research Council’s Tony Perkins and American Family Association’s Tim Wildmon. Perkins described provisions like ENDA as “special protections” and Lankford maintained that employers should have the legal right to fire someone for their “sexual behavior”: PERKINS: The idea there is they’re looking for special protections; your point is that everybody should be treated equally. No one should be fired or denied employment based upon their sexual orientation — in the ideal world we won’t even know about it, why would we even ask that question? LANKFORD: Right. But neither should you have a situation where no one can fire you because of your behavior outside of the workplace. We also should not be in a situation where there are special protections extended to say ‘if I have a certain sexual behavior then you can no longer fire me, I’m a protected class and I can do whatever I want in the workplace.’ That’s not true either. So we are trying to be able to keep that balance. When you say you create special rights you also create special privileges and protections to say that they are untouchable in the workplace and they can have any kind of work conduct they choose to on that, that’s not correct. Listen to it ( via RightWingWatch ): Lankford seems to believe that policies like ENDA would create an invulnerability, preventing people who are gay or trans from ever being fired for any reason, as opposed to merely protecting them from anti-gay and anti-trans discrimination in the same way race, sex, and other dimensions of identity are already protected. But it’s also clear that despite Perkins’ claim that “everybody should be treated equally,” both he and Lankford are building a misleading pro-gay narrative around their distorted understanding of sexual orientation. Lankford and Perkins both believe that sexual orientation is a choice, but more precisely, that it’s defined only by behavioral choices. Neither comprehends (or acknowledges) that sexual orientation is an innate identity that individuals experience regardless of how or if they act upon it. From this discussion, they make clear that they don’t have any problem with somebody saying they’re gay, but if they “act” on their identity — whether it’s starting a family with a same-sex partner, campaigning for marriage equality, or even attending a drag show at a gay club — then they’re in violation of moral principles and shouldn’t be protected. What they are essentially promoting is a “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” mentality for the workplace, which they believe would be the same as being “treated equally,” not unlike what Rep. Steve King (R-IA) recently proposed . Groups like FRC and AFA defend ex-gay therapy for a reason: it’s part of the foundation for all their anti-gay positions. Only if sexual orientation is voluntary can they justify the discrimination they promote, and they ignore over 35 years of science to believe just that.

Tags: action, adoption, archives, barack-obama, boxer, economy, family research council, hate-groups, health

Two more lesbian couples were denied marriage licenses in North Carolina on Tuesday. The requests came as part of the week-long “We Do” campaign, organized by the Campaign for Southern Equality. The first couple to request a marriage license, Alice Phelan and Sally Young, have been together for 29 years. The other women, Laurel and Amy Rose, were legally married in Washington, DC in 2010 and wanted their marriage to be recognized in North Carolina. Both couples knew their requests would be rejected, since North Carolina previously had a law banning same-sex marriage. That ban was recently written into the state constitution with the passage of Amendment One. Despite this, LGBT rights supporters say they will continue fighting for equal rights in the state: – Zachary Bernstein

Tags: archives, author, boxer, climate, economy, election, marriage, news, obama

Fox News has been attacking Senator Barbara Boxer non-stop for saying that a provision delaying an EPA rule will “kill 8,100 more people than otherwise would have been killed from pollution.” On Fox Business, radio host Michael Reagan suggested Boxer’s comments were over the top before calling Boxer a “job killer in America” and saying “every time she votes, it kills jobs.” No one on Fox found time to note the basis for Boxer’s reference to 8,100 lives. Fox’s Steve Doocy said , “I don’t know where she comes up with that” number and Sean Hannity incorrectly suggested Boxer was referring to Keystone XL on his radio show. A minimal amount of research would reveal that Boxer was referring to an EPA rule that regulates hazardous air pollution, including known carcinogens , from industrial boilers under the Clean Air Act, which the EPA estimates would prevent as many as 8,100 premature deaths a year, among other health benefits. Conservative media are once again ignoring these benefits of EPA’s pollution regulations, and exaggerating the costs to industry for complying with the rule. Fox & Friends ‘ Brian Kilmeade said on that the boiler rule would be “another economy killer” and Michael Reagan said that the rule would “kill 230,000 jobs,” apparently referencing an industry-funded study. That study, prepared for the Council of Industrial Boiler Owners (CIBO) in 2010, estimated that the Boiler MACT (Maximum Available Control Technology) rule would put anywhere from 152,553 to 798,250 jobs “at risk.” However, the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service concluded that “little credence can be placed” in the study.  One of the several problems with the study is that it failed to estimate jobs that would be created by the regulation — for instance, the boiler rule benefits companies that build boilers. Fox regularly cites industry-funded estimates of the jobs impact of EPA rules, even though retrospective studies find them to be unreliable.

Tags: boxer, clean air act, cnn, economy, friends, taxes, technology, university, war