social justice

Jane Lynch summarized the theme of the annual awards dinner of Family Equality Council when she stated that we are all in this fight together. At the event, held last Saturday at the House of Blues in West Hollywood, Lynch presented an award to the plaintiffs in the Perry v. Schwarzenegger trial challenging Proposition 8. The recipients echoed Lynch’s remarks that marriage equality rights are intimately tied to the rights of LGBT families.

Today's MLK Day. I am proud to count myself among the many people working for social justice today who stand on the shoulders of Martin Luther King, Jr.

After Catholic leaders at The Vatican have condemned American nuns for caring too much about poverty and social justice, and not fighting against abortion or marriage equality rights, a group representing thousands of religious women are considering how to strike back.

A 26-year-old gay youth activist who worked with HIV/AIDS charities in New York and graduated from the Harvey Milk High School committed suicide over the weekend. Rod 2.0 spoke with friends and colleagues of gay youth activist and HIV peer educator Joseph Jefferson. "Joseph was truly a sweetheart," a friend who asked to remain nameless said. "Extremely bright and impassioned about social justice causes... It's such a loss."

Two and A Half Men actress Holland Taylor will be honored for her long-standing support for social justice and HIV/AIDS at A Faire of the Heart, the annual fund raising gala of the Serra Project. Taylor, who famously played Peggy Peabody on The L Word, will receive the Aid for AIDS (AFA) Celebrity Trailblazer award for having shown a strong desire to make a difference and has given time, talent, and financial support for events such as Best in Drag Show, and as a celebrity judge to raise money for Aid for AIDS.

Villiage Voice newspaper maven Jill Johnston has died from a stroke at the age of 81.  During her lifetime, Johnston was a pioneer for the lesbian and feminist communities. Authoring what many considered the lesbian bible Lesbian Nation: The Feminist Solution in 1974, Johnston was a lead figure in the movement towards equality and social justice in the LGBT community. The accomplished writer regularly wrote artistic columns for the Village Voice as well as other poignant feminist pieces that shaped the world we currently see before us today as lesbians in America and around the world.

The Women’s Conference, now the nation’s premiere conference for women, is by all accounts one of the most powerful and exciting Conferences ever to be created in the United States. Maria Shriver had powerhouses such as Oprah Winfrey, Michelle Obama, Dr. Jill Biden, Laura Bush, Dianne Sawyer, Sandra Day O’Connor, Judge Ginsburg, Meg Whitman, Eve Ensler, Deepak Chopra, Tony Robbins, Matt Lauer, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Martha Beck (to name a few) present an array of workshops, panels, and speeches inspiring empowerment, passion for social justice, and development of self-esteem for all women.

King's vision of inclusion and community is far wider that we might have once imagined. And his vision always included lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.

SheWired is thrilled to announce that The Gay and Lesbian Advocates & Defenders (GLAD) is awarding Boston-based lesbian activist, scholar, columnist and public theologian Rev. Irene Monroe with its Spirit of Justice Award for 2012. Monroe has been contributing her thoughtful columns that often get at the intersection of LGBT issues, race, religion, politics and pop culture to SheWired since its inception in 2008.

A lesbian couple in Austin say the relationship between being gay and Christian should be “both-and,” not “either-or,” and toward that end they’re both seeking to be ordained as ministers — something that may be a problem in one’s denomination. Annanda Barclay is seeking to become a minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA), which allows openly gay, partnered clergy, and Mary Ann Kaiser in the United Methodist Church, which does not as of yet, but she’s determined to forge ahead just the same.

The Republican presidential candidate also blasts military service by transgender people.

At a time when lesbian and gay marriage activists are fighting for equal rights, writer and button pusher Stephanie Schroeder dares argue against the institution for a myriad of reasons including feminist and economic factors. 'There's nothing equal (or gay) about marriage. It's an outdated concept, an antiquarian vestige, a ghost of social mores past,' writes Schroeder.