skip to main content
skip to newscasts

Friday, April 19, 2024

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

Tribal advocates keep up legal pressure for fair political maps; 12-member jury sworn in for Trump's historic criminal trial; the importance of healthcare decision planning; and a debt dilemma: poll shows how many people wrestle with college costs.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Civil rights activists say a court ruling could end the right to protest in three southern states, a federal judge lets January 6th lawsuits proceed against former President Trump, and police arrest dozens at a Columbia University Gaza protest.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Rural Wyoming needs more vocational teachers to sustain its workforce pipeline, Ohio environmental advocates fear harm from a proposal to open 40-thousand forest acres to fracking and rural communities build bike trail systems to promote nature, boost the economy.

LGBTQ Leaders Gather in L.A. to Resist Trump Administration Policies

play audio
Play

Tuesday, April 3, 2018   

SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Hundreds of leaders in the LGBTQ community are gathering for a conference in Los Angeles this Friday - to continue the fight against discriminatory policies coming from the Trump administration and improve state laws on equality.

The fourth annual conference put on by Equality California Institute will promote a new bill to declare conversion therapy for adults a form of consumer fraud.

Samuel Garrett-Pate, communications director for Equality California, notes that therapy to attempt to change a person's sexual orientation already is illegal for anyone younger than 18 in the Golden State, and is considered by many experts to be outright abusive.

"It is harmful, it causes incredible psychological abuse on the people that those practices are used against, and there's no place for that here in the state of California," he says.

The conference will push for funding to train teachers on how to support LGBTQ youths. The group also will celebrate California's move to protect people from losing their health insurance after the GOP Congress slashed funding for Medicaid.

Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom will speak at the event, which is free and open to the public.

Garrett-Pate says the community will be closely watching the Trump administration's recent executive order banning most transgender people from serving in the military - a move that has been blocked in the courts so far, thanks to a lawsuit brought in part by Equality California.

"There's no reason that we should be excluding anyone who is willing to serve their country from doing so, and everyone ought to be held to the exact same standards, and anyone who can meet those standards should be able to serve in uniform," he explains.

Trump has said that having transgender people in the military would reduce military effectiveness and lethality and has complained about the government footing the cost of gender-reassignment surgery.


get more stories like this via email

more stories
The Bureau of Land Management's newly issued Public Lands Rule is designed to safeguard cultural resources such as New Mexico's Chaco Culture National Park. (Photo courtesy SallyPaez)

Environment

play sound

Balancing the needs of the many with those who have traditionally reaped benefits from public lands is behind a new rule issued Thursday by the Bureau…


Health and Wellness

play sound

Alzheimer's disease is the eighth-leading cause of death in Pennsylvania. A documentary on the topic debuts Saturday in Pittsburgh. "Remember Me: …

Social Issues

play sound

April is Financial Literacy Month, when the focus is on learning smart money habits but also how to protect yourself from fraud. One problem on the …


Outdoor recreation added $11.7 million to the Arizona economy in 2022, according to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. (Adobe Stock)

Environment

play sound

Arizona conservation groups and sportsmen alike say they're pleased the Bureau of Land Management will now recognize conservation as an integral part …

play sound

Across the U.S., most political boundaries tied to the 2020 Census have been in place for a while, but a national project on map fairness for …

The 2023 Annie E. Casey Foundation Data Book ranked Arkansas 37th in the nation for education, and said 56% of young children were not in preschool programs to help get them ready for school. (Adobe Stock)

Social Issues

play sound

The need for child care and early learning is critical, especially in rural Arkansas. One nonprofit is working to fill those gaps by giving providers …

Environment

play sound

An annual march for farmworkers' rights is being held Sunday in northwest Washington. This year, marchers are focusing on the conditions for local …

Social Issues

play sound

A new Gallup and Lumina Foundation poll unveils a concerning reality: Hoosiers may lack clarity about the true cost of higher education. The survey …

 

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