LGBT Amendment Stricken From Immigration Reform

Faced with what many believed was a deal breaker in the Immigration Reform Bill , Senator Leahy removed his same sex amendment to the bill. The amendment which would have recognized LGBT bi-national couples in the battle for immigration reform.

Several Democrats, including the President, agreed that it was better to see the bill succeed without the provision for LGBT couples, rather than see the  bill fail, as several on both sides of the aisle threatened, should the LGBT amendment be included. 

A little past 7 p.m., Leahy said, “It is with a heavy heart … I will withhold the Leahy Amendment 7 at this point.”

Leahy, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, offered the amendment a half-hour earlier, saying, “I don’t want to be the senator who asks Americans to choose between the love of their life and the love of their country.”

He added, “Discriminating against people based on who they love is a travesty,” noting that he wanted to hear from members of the bipartisan “Gang of Eight” senators about why they didn’t include protections for gay couples in the initial bill

Read more HERE

 

EVENT: Speaker Bill McKibben

Dear Friends of the Fresno Center for Nonviolence - SAVE THIS DATE!

Saturday, September 14 at 7 p.m. in the Auditorium of Fresno City College  (doors open 6:30)Bill McKibben Speaks!  Bill McKibben is the author of a dozen books about the environment, beginning with The End of Nature in 1989, which is regarded as the first book for a general audience on climate change. He is a founder of the grassroots climate campaign 350.org, which has coordinated 15,000 rallies in 189 countries since 2009. Time Magazine called him 'the planet's best green journalist' and the Boston Globe said in 2010 that he was 'probably the country's most important environmentalist.' Schumann Distinguished Scholar at Middlebury College, he holds honorary degrees from a dozen colleges, including the Universities of Massachusetts and Maine, the State University of New York, and Whittier and Colgate Colleges. In 2011 he was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Bill is a frequent contributor to various magazines including The New York Times, The Atlantic Monthly, Harper's, Orion Magazine, Mother Jones, The New York Review of Books, Granta, Rolling Stone, and Outside. Bill McKibben’s latest book “Oil and Honey” will be available to purchase both before and after the event.  The event is free and open to the public.  For more information call the Fresno Center for Nonviolence Mon-Fri 11-3 at 559-237-3223 or email Angela Price at angela.price41@comcast.net.

EVENT: "Dear Harvey" THIS WEDNESDAY!

EVENT: May POW mixHER

EVENT: Trans Film Series Starts TONIGHT at UU Church

EVENT: Fresno Pride is ALMOST HERE

Have you registered for the Fresno Pride Parade and Festival yet? Have you got your place in the parade? Have you got a booth for the Festival? Have you offered to volunteer? 

Time is flying and the Pride Parade and Festival is now only TWO WEEKS AWAY! Prices to participate go UP as time goes BY. 

The 23rd Annual Central Valley & Fresno's GLBT Pride Parade and Festival took place on SATURDAY, June 1st 2013 in the Tower District between 10am and 3pm.

Click on the following link to get all the information you need and to GET ON BOARD for Pride!

Fresno Rainbow Pride Parade and Festival

 

Want to march with us? March the Parade with Gay Central Valley! Just meet us at the corner of Palm and Olive no later than 9:30AM on Saturday June 1^st. Wear dark shorts or pants and a T-Shirt in one of the Rainbow Colors…We’ll provide you with a sign and a decoration for your shirt, rainbow flags and more! Then visit us at the festival where we’ll be tabling with THREE BOOTHS.

Don’t miss the Pride Parade and Festival. It’s the biggest LGBT event of the year, with about 3,000 people attending. 

Make sure to be there to see the Celebrity Grand Marshall…JUJU BEE from RuPaul’s Drag Race. JuJu left Fresno 13 years ago and is coming back for the first time!

Entertainment at the Pride Festival includes SAUCY MONKY, TOP SHELPH AND MY OWN GHOST, plus Local Entertainers, all hosted by the one and only DIVALICIOUS.

See you at Pride!

EVENT: Fresno Pride Fundraiser