FlaglerLive | May 31, 2017
The bill, which easily cleared the Senate and House in early May, makes Florida the first state in the nation to issue birth certificates for miscarriages. The implications of the bill are unclear.
FlaglerLive | January 29, 2017
President Trump signed an executive order on Jan. 27 titled “Protecting the Nation From Foreign Terrorist Entry Into the United States,” banning certrain Muslims, refugees and immigrants from entry in the United States and cutting refugee admissions in half this year. Here’s the full text.
Pierre Tristam | January 7, 2017
Israel’s right-wing government never seriously considered the two-state solution, which it has now abandoned as it imposes a de-facto annexation of the Palestinian West Bank, enshrining apartheid.
FlaglerLive | July 16, 2016
Cops are owed all the appreciation and respect their profession commands. Blacks are owed their right to life. The two are not mutually exclusive, but certain differences matter, especially when they falsely paint cops as the victims and blacks as the aggressors.
Pierre Tristam | May 24, 2016
There were pragmatic ways to ensure access to bathrooms for transgender people until lawmakers hijacked the process with predatory bans that dehumanize people and make a mockery of decency.
FlaglerLive | May 15, 2016
The revelation that a 20-something woman chose to die from PTSD related so 10 years of sexual abuse tests the boundaries of assisted suicide, but not if context and compassion replace armchair judgments.
FlaglerLive | March 23, 2016
Barbara Revels, who chairs the county commission, is proposing an amendment to a housing ordinance to extend non-discrimination protection to individuals for sexual orientation.
FlaglerLive | June 17, 2015
Like Americans’ ancestors, migrants are fleeing poverty, war, or oppression, or are searching for a better life in a new land. Blocking that flow, argues Kofi Anann, is bound to fail, with disastrous consequences for human lives.
FlaglerLive | December 30, 2014
Stephen Schlairet and Ozzie Russ are a typical couple in many ways. They finish each other’s sentences, and reminisce over a photo album of their commitment ceremony nearly 15 years ago.
FlaglerLive | December 4, 2014
A federal appeals court Wednesday rejected Attorney General Pam Bondi’s request to at least temporarily extend Florida’s ban on gay marriage — possibly setting the stage for same-sex marriages to start in January.
FlaglerLive | October 10, 2014
Malala Yousafzai is the 17-year-old Pakistani girl and activist for girls’ education who in 2012 was shot in the head by a shaking, demented terrorist whose allegiance to the Taliban tells us all we need to know about the lethality of religious fundamentalism. Any kind of fundamentalism, really.
FlaglerLive | October 6, 2014
With the U.S. Supreme Court clearing the way for same-sex marriages in 11 other states, gay-rights supporters said Monday they will ask a federal judge to follow suit in Florida.
FlaglerLive | July 25, 2014
Eight days after a Monroe County judge declared a ban on same-sex marriage illegal, a Miami-Dade circuit court judge late today struck down the ban in Florida on behalf of six gay couples, but stayed her decision until the results of an appeal.
FlaglerLive | July 20, 2014
Israel’s latest attack on Gaza reflects yet again that peculiar blend of arrogance and bigotry that has characterized Israeli policy toward Arabs since 1982: the arrogance that Israel is infallible, and the bigotry that sees Arabs either as inferior creatures to be walled off or as terrorists to be killed. It shouldn’t be surprised when the beasts rebel.
FlaglerLive | June 27, 2014
Between fiscal year 2010-11 and fiscal year 2012-13, juvenile arrests in Florida declined 23 percent and felony juvenile arrests declined 17 percent, while transfers to adult court declined 36 percent.
FlaglerLive | May 22, 2014
Florida is nearing what could be a major step forward on marriage equality. But with awmakers like Charles Van Zant, we have some ugly reminders that the ignorance, prejudice and downright stupidity that plagued us in a dark past, are still alive and unwell today, writes Daniel Tilson.
FlaglerLive | March 20, 2014
The measure allows undocumented immigrants to pay cheaper, in-state tuition rates if they attend Florida middle and high schools for at least four straight years before going to college.
FlaglerLive | March 14, 2014
The lawsuit lists numerous examples of alleged disparate treatment, such as the state retirement system providing benefits to the surviving spouses of dead public employees who were in heterosexual marriages. Such benefits are not available to surviving spouses in same-sex marriages.
FlaglerLive | February 28, 2014
Bills in four states that would let businesses deny service to gays and lesbians on religious-freedom grounds are based on the same faulty justification of Stand Your Ground laws on self-defense grounds. In both cases, the 1st and 2nd Amendments are perverted into defenses of vigilantism rather than protection of rights.
Pierre Tristam | January 4, 2014
The irony should not be lost on us that our congressional district is represented by Ron DeSantis, the sort of fanatic who had no trouble advertising his brief service in Guantanamo’s kangaroo courts as a badge of honor while leaving silent his employment with a more legitimate Florida corporate law firm. With political charlatans like that in Congress, it’s no wonder Guantanamo endures.
FlaglerLive | December 5, 2013
Nelson Mandela, one of the towering figures of the 20th century and the liberator of South Africa from apartheid, died today–Dec. 5–at 8:50 p.m. in Johannesburg. He was 95. Here are exts from his own pen, which speak more eloquently than obituaries about his vision for a world of equality, human rights and dignity unobscured by illusions.
FlaglerLive | October 19, 2013
The United States is loosening controls over military exports, in a shift that former U.S. officials and human rights advocates say could increase the flow of American-made military parts to the world’s conflicts and make it harder to enforce arms sanctions. In 2011, the U.S. concluded $66 billion in arms sales agreements, nearly 80 percent of the global market.
FlaglerLive | September 6, 2013
Whether the Syrian regime used chemical weapons or not, Obama would be wrong to attack, even if Congress approves. It’s not America’s war to fight, it’s not Obama’s judgment to make, and his red line is an absurd marker when contrasted with two and a half years of atrocities, and 100,000 deaths, that never got a peep.
FlaglerLive | July 2, 2013
Equality Florida, the state’s the largest civil rights organization dedicated to securing full equality for Florida’s LGBT community, is looking for potential plaintiffs for a lawsuit to challenge Florida’s ban on gay marriage. Voters approved a ban on marriage equality in 2008, by a 62 percent margin.
FlaglerLive | June 26, 2013
Though Floridians rejected gay marriage in a 2008 vote, Florida LGBT activists, fired up by Wednesday’s Supreme Court rulings favoring same-sex unions, said they have no intention of leaving matters as they stand.
FlaglerLive | May 9, 2013
Amid speculation he will run as a Democrat for his old job, former Republican Gov. Charlie Crist on Wednesday said he supports allowing same-sex marriage, joining other politicians who recently have changed stances to support gay marriage, including Florida’s Bill nelson and Ohio Republican Rob Portman.
FlaglerLive | April 23, 2013
The National Assembly voted today (April 23) 331-225, with 10 abstentions, to legalize gay marriage and gay adoption in France, making it the 14th nation in the world to legalize same-sex marriage, which remains prohibited in all but nine American states.
Pierre Tristam | March 31, 2013
Several years ago around Christmas I was standing at a Walmart checkout counter with my son when a stranger behind me felt compelled to make me his homophobia’s bosom buddy. “What’s wrong with that?” I told him. “My son is gay.” My son was 2 at the time.
FlaglerLive | February 17, 2013
Zero Dark Thirty is a movie the CIA wants you to see. Torture is illegal under U.S. and international law and it is utterly immoral. It doesn’t “work,” but that’s beside the point to the movie-makers, argues Chris Toensing. The result is disturbing for all the wrong reasons.
FlaglerLive | February 9, 2013
A group of students at Carver Middle School in Lake County, Fla. have tried to establish a GSA, saying the student-led club is needed to address name-calling, bullying and harassment in school. In response to the students request, the Lake County School Board has begun the process of banning every non-curricular club at every school in the district rather than follow their legal obligation to recognize the GSA at Carver Middle School.
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