News & Commentary

Seth Walsh was a typical 13-year-old. He loved dogs and riding his bike, listening to music, and hanging out with friends. But he was also terrified of going to school. The gentle, free-spirited boy from rural Kern County, who listened to Mozart in the shower and aspired to be a doctor, endured relentless harassment from classmates because he was gay.

The ACLU of Southern California celebrates LGBT History Month by participating in several events that highlight the LGBT community's rich history and ongoing struggle for equality.

WHEN GULET MOHAMED FINALLY returned home on a chilly Virginia morning in January, the 19-year-old from Fairfax was wearing the same outfit he had on when he disappeared a month earlier in Kuwait. Clad in a fleece hat and a gray Real Madrid sweatshirt, the straggly-bearded, wide-eyed teenager stepped out of arrivals at Dulles Airport and into a phalanx of television cameras. He wore a bewildered smile—as if he was still unsure of what had happened to him but was just grateful it was over.

 

The voices have been there for years, if you were listening – horrific stories of abuse of inmates at Los Angeles County jails; not by other inmates, but by the deputies guarding them. The brutal conditions could only have persisted due to the willful ignorance or even tacit support of Sheriff Lee Baca – and that’s why we’re now calling on him to step down.