News & Commentary

The ACLU of Southern California applauds the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors for today's vote in opposition to Proposition 22, known as the Knight Initiative. The measure, which will come before California voters in March of 2000, would require the state of California to discriminate against same gender couples legally married in other states, should such marriages ever become legal. The ACLU, which has long opposed the measure as 'mean-spirited, divisive and unfair,' was represented before the board by Reverend James M. Lawson.

The ACLU of Southern California today condemned the Board of Education of the Orange Unified School District for refusing to allow the creation of a Gay-Straight Alliance Club at El Modena High School.

The ACLU of Southern California today announced that it would pursue legal action against the Board of Education of the Orange Unified School District if it refuses to allow a Gay-Straight Alliance Club at El Modena High School.

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Medical care shouldn't be hazardous to your health. Yet that's exactly what it is for the majority of lesbians and gay men. Studies have consistently shown that as with people of color and other minority groups gay men and lesbians are frequently discriminated against in healthcare.

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The American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, in cooperation with the National Center for Lesbian Rights, is filing an amicus brief on behalf of a 17-year-old gay man who fled to the United States from Mexico after being subjected to repeated beatings and harassment by Mexican police and others.

The ACLU of Southern California sent a letter to the Kern County Board of Supervisors on June 25 urging that body to terminate County Human Relations Commissioner Douglas Hearn for making anti-gay remarks at commission meetings that the ACLU says make it impossible for the Human Relations Commission to fulfill its stated purpose to, "promote and safeguard the equal rights of and respect for all people within Kern County."

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