U.S. campaign takes on anti-gay bullying in school

Recently, the hate crime against homosexuality has been the hottest topic; Many suicide cases caused by discrimination of homosexuality has been featured to the public, causing many attention to the issue. Obama administration is now launching a new campaign in order to prevent many discrimination and bullying at school, including gay bullying. The administration have advised the many educators that students are protected by the federal law from discrimination

The advisory from the Education Department's Office for Civil Rights, to be made public Tuesday, does not break new legal ground, officials said. But the officials described it as the federal government's most comprehensive guidance to date on how civil rights law applies to the sort of campus situations that in some cases have led persecuted students to commit suicide. President Obama is expected to help promote the initiative.
"We've got to dispel this myth that bullying is just a normal rite of passage," Obama said in a video posted last week on the White House Web site.
"Our goal here is to provide school districts, colleges and universities with details about when harassment can rise to the level of a civil rights violation and what they should be doing about it," Russlynn H. Ali, assistant education secretary for civil rights, said Monday. Ali wrote the advisory. As an example, Ali noted in the advisory that a gay student might withdraw from school activities after being subjected to anti-gay slurs and other intimidation. If the school reprimands the perpetrators to stop the bullying, her advisory said, that would not necessarily be enough to ensure that students are free from harassment based on gender stereotypes. "The school had an obligation to take immediate and effective action to eliminate the hostile environment," Ali wrote. 

It is good to see the federal taking a step to promote discrimination free zone, especially for the school. Considering public school as a miniature version of the society, this is a big win for not only the gay people, but everyone in the society. Every single students deserves a fair environment for their education and the minorities do not deserve any hate crimes or harassment. This made discrimination and bullying an illegal act against the federal power, and I hope this takes a positive influence on the education and the society as a whole.

Judge halts 'Don't ask don't tell' policy

     Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell is a military policies that enforces the military not to ask any service members to ask their sexualities. This article is about the latest change in that policy. The policy has been halted.

The ruling by U.S. District Judge Virginia A. Phillips in California marks the first time that the controversial policy - which forbids the military to ask about a service member's sexual orientation but retains a ban on gays serving openly - has been halted.
Leaders of the group that brought the suit celebrated the injunction, the latest in a series of recent court rulings that expand the rights of gay Americans to marry and serve in uniform.
"This decision is also a victory for all who support a strong national defense," said Christian Berle, acting executive director of the Log Cabin Republicans. "No longer will our military be compelled to discharge service members with valuable skills and experience because of an archaic policy mandating irrational discrimination."

This original policy originated from homophobia among the soldiers. Homophobia is caused by fear and ignorance that highly relies on conception that only women and men belong together. Homosexuality is natural, just rare. In the wild, homosexual animals are often found.
This is a good step for stronger gay rights. We are making progress.

NAACP leaders reach out to gay rights groups

This article from the Washington Post, shows an interesting new partnership. Gay rights issue is probably one of the most boiling topic in the nation. Now, the NAACP, one of the largest ethnicity organization in the world stepped in to support the gay rights.

The outreach has been steered by former chairman Julian Bond and the group's president, Benjamin Jealous. Both men are supporters of same-sex marriage rights, though the NAACP's national board has taken no stance on the issue. 

Jealous, who is helping to lead a march for jobs and justice in Washington next month, will be in New York on Wednesday night to encourage members of the city's Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center to attend the rally. 

"The NAACP is opposed to discrimination in all its forms," Jealous said in an e-mail, adding, "We recognize that many of our members are also members of the LGBT community, and just as the LGBT community counts on us to stand with it for basic civil rights protections, so we count on the LGBT community to stand with us in our unified struggle for the broader civil rights agenda."

 NAACP's support is a great benefit for the gay community and NAACP themselves. They are both promoting opposition to discrimination and their partnership will help both of them as organizations. Different group, same goal. The gay community is earning more and more support as time goes. NAACP's support also shows how far the gay community has come so far fighting for their rights.