Karen Ocamb

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AG Becerra Adds Idaho to Restricted State Travel List after Anti-trans laws

Effective July 1, California will restrict state-funded travel to Idaho as a result of two anti-trans bills signed into law despite “significant concerns” from that state’s attorney general, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra’s office said in a press release.  Idaho Governor Brad Little signed House Bills 500 and 509 into law on March 30, 2020. The Washington Blade reported Saturday, June 20, that President Trump and his Administration support the anti-trans laws. Chris Johnson wrote: “U.S. Attorney General William Barr announced in a statement Friday the Trump administration would intercede in the lawsuit against the Idaho law, known as House Bill 500 and the Fairness in […]

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HRC’s New Leader Alphonso David Recruiting more Troops

There is something reminiscent of black gay author James Baldwin in Alphonso David’s intense bearing, though the new president of the Human Rights Campaign is considerably more down-to-earth and welcoming than the defiant intellect who scorched racist America in “The Fire Next Time.”  For David, it is the fire this time that is fueling his drive for full equality and his fight against the dark amoral forces demolishing democracy through the rapacious black hole that is President Donald Trump.  David may be uniquely qualified to meet the LGBTQ leadership challenge of this historic moment. Born in Silver Spring, Md., in […]

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Hollywood’s A-list Gays Welcome Buttigieg

South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg has surprisingly charmed so many in America with his smart, calm liberal morality that some polls of Democratic presidential contenders show him third behind Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders—a once impossible feat for an openly gay politician.  Buttigieg is no cookie-cutter candidate. Shortly after his breakthrough CNN Town Hall and his West Hollywood appearance last March, Buttigieg appeared on Fox News for an interview with Chris Wallace.   “I think coming from the industrial Midwest, the place where, unfortunately, my party really lost touch with a lot of voters, especially in 2016—it’s a combination of […]

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California AG Becerra: Trump is Dangerous

Photo of Attorney General Xavier Becerra from his Facebook page California Attorney General Xavier Becerra has been an LGBT ally since he first ran for the California Assembly in 1990 representing the 59th District in downtown Los Angeles. Now he is wielding the sword of constitutional righteousness defending all of California from the erratic, irrational and harmful machinations of former New York developer and reality TV producer/star Donald Trump, who is apparently trying to apply his questionable business tactics to running the U.S. government. Trump, Becerra says, is a serious danger to American democracy. Becerra, who has been prolific in […]

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Sen. Kamala Harris Calls Out Judicial Nominees for Anti-LGBT Bias

  Last November, a year and change after Donald Trump’s surprise election, respected New York Times reporter Linda Greenhouse wrote a column about the “conservative plan to weaponize the federal courts.” While progressives generally expected Trump to payback his conservative supporters with at least one Supreme Court justice, a 37-page plan written by Northwestern University law professor Steven G. Calabresi, founder and board chair of the conservative Federalist Society, declared their intention: “undoing the judicial legacy of President Barack Obama.” “There is something bracing about the naked activism of a leader of a movement that has spent the past generation […]

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NCLR’s Kate Kendell Steps Down and Into LGBT History

  NCLR Executive Director Kate Kendell (courtesy NCLR) LGBT politicos nationwide were struck by the March 15 announcement that National Center for Lesbian Rights executive director Kate Kendell was stepping down after more than 22 years of service advancing social and economic justice through the lens of LGBT civil rights. “Kate literally changed the world. Her leadership in advancing the rights of LGBT people from being criminals to being able to marry has transformed the lives of millions of people. She always pushed the envelope and was a constant voice for our movement to embrace our communities’ diversity, partner with […]