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SD public defense duties shift from counties to state; SCOTUS appears skeptical of restricting government communications with social media companies; Trump lawyers say he can't make bond; new scholarships aim to connect class of 2024 to high-demand jobs.

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The SCOTUS weighs government influence on social media, and who groups like the NRA can do business with. Biden signs an executive order to advance women's health research and the White House tells Israel it's responsible for the Gaza humanitarian crisis.

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Midwest regenerative farmers are rethinking chicken production, Medicare Advantage is squeezing the finances of rural hospitals and California's extreme swing from floods to drought has some thinking it's time to turn rural farm parcels into floodplains.

Report: Preemption Laws May Undermine LGBT Equality

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Monday, May 14, 2018   

ANNAPOLIS, Md. — While cities and counties are trying to pass their own nondiscrimination ordinances, a new report shows how some states use preemption laws to block local governments from putting in place their own protections.

Naomi Goldberg, director of policy and research at the Movement Advancement Project, said they've found that local governments have been taking steps to pass policies that reflect their communities. But preemption laws from state legislatures are threatening LGBT equality and progress on several fronts.

"It is a threat to cities and counties that are trying to pass nondiscrimination ordinances, that are trying to ban harmful conversion therapy,” Goldberg said; “but also more broadly than that, in terms of efforts to make it impossible for cities to increase the minimum wage."

The report called "The Power of State Preemption," focuses on LGBT issues, but also shows that since 2017, at least 46 states have considered more than 100 preemption bills, ranging from immigration to environmental policy matters.

While preemption laws are on the rise across the country, Goldberg said Maryland is not considered a state that has dangerous preemption laws negatively impacting the LGBT community.

"On LGBT issues, Maryland is at the forefront,” she said. “Maryland has nondiscrimination ordinances or laws at the state levels for both sexual orientation and gender identity, and the governor is expected to sign a ban on harmful conversion therapy for minors."

If the governor does sign the bill banning conversion therapy, which is a practice of trying to change an individual's sexual orientation, Maryland will become the 11th state to do so. The District of Columbia has also banned conversion therapy.


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