Archive for the ‘Opinion & Editorial’ Category
See’s Candies: Letters Show Noncompliance with Equal Benefits Ordinance
Posted by CubanJon in Opinion & Editorial, Related News on July 9th, 2009
CONFIRMED: See’s Candies is closing it’s Union Square location in San Francisco because they are not in compliance with SF’s requirement to offer equal benefits to domestic partners & legal spouses. They state that they won’t renegotiate union contracts for a single city, which highlights the fact that they have no plans to offer employees equal benefits universally.
Although increasingly less common in CA, it is standard practice to not offer any more benefits than State and Federal law requires for domestic partners and other protected groups. This I understand from a purely economical standpoint, but to point out that their tactic would be to renegotiate for a single city rather than ensure that ALL their employees get equal treatment is something I do not understand and choose to stand against.
See’s was my favorite. I send See’s as gifts often, and bring 1 pound into the office on almost a weekly occasion. I will no longer spend my money at See’s unless they change their ways. I am writing a letter to them personally expressing my feelings and quantifying their loss in sales due to their decision.
I strongly encourage everyone else to follow suit. Wouldn’t it be nice if they listen?
Huffington Post: What’s there to “Get” about Marriage Equality?
Posted by CubanJon in Opinion & Editorial on June 10th, 2009
The current Ohio Secretary of State, and candidate for US Senate, Jennifer Brunner wrote this editorial for the Huffington Post…
EXCERPT:
I just finished viewing the Human Rights Campaign’s website on “Marriage and Relationship Recognition,” and I have trouble getting past the fact that it has to be so complicated for people in same-sex couples. Questions such as “Can we file our taxes as married?” and “Should we register as domestic partners in multiple jurisdictions?” and “How do survivor benefits for domestic partnership benefits work?” to “Marriage for Same-sex Couples: Considerations for Employers,” leave my head spinning. And this is all about who you decide to love and commit yourself to. Why is it different for some people when civil rights and the protection of individual freedoms are the bedrock of the most special democracy in the history of the world?
KRXQ Sacramento Radio Hosts Encourage Violence Against Transgender Children
Posted by olloverlb in Opinion & Editorial on June 4th, 2009
Even by the flexible moral, ethical, and professional standards of American talk radio, the May 28th segment of KRXQ 98.5 FM Sacramento’s Rob, Arnie, & Dawn in the Morning radio talk show makes for a sickening half-hour of ugliness and cruelty. For once, the focus was not LGBT adults, but minors. The hosts, Rob Williams and Arnie States, devoted the segment in question to a vicious diatribe against transgender children, some as young as five, focusing in particular on the case of one Omaha family raising a gender dysphoric child, and their decision to support her transition from male to female.
The answer: Vote Republican (?!?)
Posted by tommy in Opinion & Editorial on June 2nd, 2009
It is important to have politicians in office who openly support the equality campaigns of the GLBT community — not just folks who “feel” for our rights, or folks who tell us what we want to hear in closed-door fundraising sessions, but people who will publicly declare our rights as human beings, regardless of the political fallout. We’re blessed to have several prominent politicians in California politics who do just that; Senators Barbara Boxer (D) and Dianne Feinstein (D), San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom (I), Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa (D), San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders (R), among a multitude of others.
Mayors, Senators, and Congresspeople from across the great State of California support our equality. What we need is a Governor who does the same. Governor Arnold Schwartzenegger (R) has long been a proponent of GLBT rights… except when it comes time to doing something about it. He vetoed a marriage equality bill sent through the legislature, insisting it go to the public for vote instead – thanks, Prop 8! – and then only campaigned against it (half-heartedly, at that) in the waning days of the campaign. Fortunately for us, 2010 provides an opportunity to fix that.