skip to main content
skip to newscasts

Friday, March 29, 2024

Public News Service Logo
facebook instagram linkedin reddit youtube twitter
view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Pride Month in Ohio: Times Have Changed, Inequalities Persist

play audio
Play

Friday, June 20, 2014   

COLUMBUS, Ohio - While acceptance of the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community has grown in Ohio over the years, local activists observing "Pride Month" say their fight continues for equal rights.

Bringing marriage equality to the state is an important issue, said Karla Rothan, executive director of Stonewall Columbus, but she added that it's just one concern that needs attention. She said people in the LGBT community face many other inequities in their daily lives - issues that others face as well.

"There's really more that binds us together than tears us apart," she said. "We have more in common than people would think with a lot of other minorities. It's not just our civil rights that we worry about, but it's about poverty and racism that are the same with our community as they are with the rest of the world."

Rothan said hate-crime laws in Ohio do not cover sexual orientation or gender identification, and Ohio still lacks protections for sexual orientation and gender identity in housing and in employment at jobs other than with the state.

Pride Month is held in June around the globe to mark the 1969 Stonewall riots in New York City. regarded as the impetus for the LGBT rights movement in the United States.

Rothan said she remembers the first pride march in Columbus in 1981, which drew only about 100 marchers. She said times are much different now, and acceptance of the LGBT community and support for equal rights continues to grow.

"Allies have changed the whole game," she said, "especially with our politicians, of course, our civic leaders, church leaders - all of them saying we need to stick together and we need to make sure that no one has discrimination as part of their life, and we need to free the world of hate."

The Stonewall Columbus pride march will be held Saturday. Pride events have been held throughout the state this month, including a march in Cleveland next week and a first annual 5-kilometer Pride Fun Run and Walk today at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton.


get more stories like this via email

more stories
The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments this week about the popular abortion pill Mifepristone and will weigh in on whether the U.S. Food and Drug Administration was correct in how it can be dosed and prescribed. (Ascannio/Adobe Stock)

Health and Wellness

play sound

Missouri residents are worried about future access to birth control. The latest survey from The Right Time, an initiative based in Missouri…


Social Issues

play sound

Wisconsin children from low-income families are now on track to get nutritious foods over the summer. Federal officials have approved the Badger …

Social Issues

play sound

Almost 2,900 people are unsheltered on any given night in the Beehive State. Gov. Spencer Cox is celebrating signing nine bills he says are geared …


The U.S. teaching workforce remains primarily white while the percentage of Black teachers has declined. However, the percentage of Asian and Latinx teachers is rising.(WavebreakMediaMicro/Adobestock)

Social Issues

play sound

Education advocates are calling on lawmakers to increase funding for programs to combat the teacher shortage. Around 37% of schools nationwide …

Environment

play sound

New York's Legislature is considering a bill to get clean-energy projects connected to the grid faster. It's called the RAPID Act, for "Renewable …

Social Issues

play sound

Earlier this month, a new Arizona Public Service rate hike went into effect and one senior advocacy group said those on a fixed income may struggle …

Social Issues

play sound

Michigan recently implemented a significant juvenile justice reform package following recommendations from a task force made up of prosecutors…

 

Phone: 303.448.9105 Toll Free: 888.891.9416 Fax: 208.247.1830 Your trusted member- and audience-supported news source since 1996 Copyright © 2021