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NY LGBT Network Blasts U.S. Attorney General Decision Against Protecting Transgender Workers From Discrimination Under 1964 Civil Rights Law
The New York LGBT Network today blasted U.S. Attorney Jeff Sessions for reversing a federal government policy that said transgender workers were protected from discrimination under Title VII of the 1964 civil rights law.
WASHINGTON
The New York LGBT Network today blasted U.S. Attorney Jeff Sessions for reversing a federal government policy that said transgender workers were protected from discrimination under Title VII of the 1964 civil rights law.
"This despicable action of reversing protections for transgender people in the workplace is just another example of attempts by the Trump administration to deny tens of thousands of Americans equal rights. While scores of Americans are dying from natural disasters and gun violence, the Trump Administration instead of helping our nation come together is continuing to try and tear it apart. Throughout the campaign and in his 9 months in office, Trump has attacked immigrants, people of color, women and LGBT people; his un-American methods to conquer and divide rather than unite is a grave danger to our country and the values we stand for," said Dr. David Kilmnick, President and CEO of the New York LGBT Network. "We condemn in the strongest possible terms the decision by the attorney general, which fails to live up to the law and the standards of the American people and the American judicial system."
"The action by Sessions comes only a few weeks after the disgraceful decision by President Trump to bar transgender people from serving in the U.S. military, where many are already in uniform overseas defending American democracy," Kilmnick said.
The LGBT Network is an association of non-profit organizations working to serve the LGBT community of Long Island and Queens throughout the lifespan: Long Island Gay and Lesbian Youth (LIGALY), The Long Island LGBT Community Center (The Center), Services and Advocacy for LGBT Elders - Long Island (SAGE-LI), and the Queens LGBT Community Center (Q Center).
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'Up in Arms': Ben & Jerry's Co-Founder Launches New Campaign Against Bloated Pentagon Budget
"If we take half the money budgeted for the Pentagon and invested in the things people need and want," said Ben Cohen, "the American Dream can become a reality again."
Jun 14, 2025
Joined by retired military officers and national security experts, Ben & Jerry's co-founder Ben Cohen on Thursday launched a campaign targeting the nearly $900 billion Pentagon budget and the $100 billion spent on nuclear weapons and "to get our country to start funding the American Dream instead of the death of millions of people."
Standing near Union Station in Washington, D.C. beside a towering sculpture showing what $100 billion looks like, supporters of the Up in Arms campaign—a planned four-year public education and advocacy project "to bring common sense to the Department of Defense and the country's budgetary bottom line"—chanted, "Money for the poor, not nuclear war!"
"There will be no peace, there will be no security, until we start using our resources to provide for the needs of our people at home and around the world," Cohen said at the event. "And we have the money to do it, at no additional taxpayer expense. If we take half the money budgeted for the Pentagon and invested in the things people need and want, the American Dream can become a reality again."
The peace group Ploughshares, which moderated a press conference for the launch of Up in Arms, said that the faux-$100 billion installation could be the tallest protest structure ever erected in Washington, D.C.
"This is a structure that represents the $100 billion that our country spends each year on nuclear weapons," Cohen said while standing in front of the tower and embracing Medea Benjamin, the co-founder of the peace group CodePink. "Fifty percent of that is for a whole new generation of nuclear weapons."
"Ice cream not bombs!" Benjamin said next. "Ice cream not nuclear weapons!"
The $100 billion figure includes spending on modernizing the nuclear arsenal, supporting its infrastructure, and addressing legacy issues like nuclear waste.
"Congress could make it easier for Americans to buy homes and save on gas or they could tackle the opioid epidemic–but those are clearly NOT their priorities," Up in Arms says on its website. "We have all the money we need to create a good life for all Americans. For half the money we spend on nuclear bombs, we could stop poisoning kids with lead, provide funding for public schools, and make childcare affordable."
Former U.S. military officers-turned-peace defenders Dennis Laich, Lawrence Wilkerson, Ann Wright, Karen Kwiatkowski, William Astore, and Dennis Fritz, as well as FBI whistleblower Coleen Rowley and former CIA officer Ray McGovern, are taking part in the Up in Arms campaign.
"We're here today to say we don't want our money spent this way, we want our money spent… on things that keep people alive, not on things that kill people," said Wright, a former U.S. Army colonel and current member of the Eisenhower Media Network and Veterans Against Genocide.
"We're up in arms and down on these damn nuclear weapons," she added, "and We the People have to be able to go to each one of these congresspeople and say, 'We don't care how much money you're getting from all of these companies that make a killing out if killing with these nuclear weapons.'"
Laich, a former U.S. Army general also with the Eisenhower Media Network, noted that the U.S. military budget "is larger than the next 10 countries combined, and what do we get for it?"
"Since World War II, we tied in Korea, we lost in Vietnam, we won the first Gulf War, we lost in Iraq, and we lost in Afghanistan," he said. "They always say we have the greatest military on earth; I don't buy it."
President Donald Trump is proposing a record $1 trillion Pentagon budget for fiscal year 2026 while backing legislation that would dramatically slash spending on vital social programs in order to fund a massive tax break that would overwhelmingly benefit the rich and corporations.
On Friday, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons—which earned the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize for spearheading the landmark Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons—published an analysis showing the world's nine nuclear powers spent a combined baseline $100 billion on their arsenals last year, an 11% increase from 2023. The United States alone accounted for well over half of that amount.
Cohen is a longtime anti-war activist. Last month, he was arrested after disrupting a Senate hearing, shouting, "Congress kills poor kids in Gaza by buying bombs and pays for it by kicking kids off Medicaid in the U.S." as he was hauled off by police.
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Democratic State Rep. Assassinated in Minnesota
Police found a manifesto in the suspects car that identified the lawmakers as the intended targets
Jun 14, 2025
DEVELOPING STORY...
A gunman pretending to be a police officer assassinated a Democratic state legislator in Minnesota and killed the lawmaker’s husband in “an act of targeted political violence,” Gov. Tim Walz said Saturday. The assailant also shot and injured another Democratic lawmaker and his wife, officials said.
Current State Representative and former Speaker of the House Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, died in the attack at their home in the Minneapolis suburbs. Democratic State Senator John A. Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, were shot multiple times at their house in a nearby suburb, but remained alive as of Saturday morning.
“When we did a search of the vehicle, there was a manifesto that identified many lawmakers and other officials. We immediately made alerts to the state, who took action on alerting them and providing security where necessary,” Brooklyn Park Police Chief Mark Bruley said.
“When we did a search of the vehicle there was a manifesto that identified many lawmakers and other officials, we immediately made alerts to the state, who took action on alerting them and providing security where necessary,” Brooklyn Park Police Chief Mark Bruley added.
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Bernie Sanders Says US Must Not Be 'Dragged Into Another Netanyahu War'
The independent U.S. senator condemned the "illegal unilateral attack on Iran" by Israel that "risks a full-blown regional war."
Jun 13, 2025
As Iranian missiles were being shot down over Israel on Friday following the IDF's unprovoked bombings of Iranian targets earlier in the day, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) condemned the government of "extremist" Prime Minister Benjamin Netanayahu for his "ongoing deviance of international law" that has made the "world more dangerous and unstable" and trying to drag the United States into dangerous new war in the Middle East.
"First, he uses the starvation of children in Gaza as a tool of war, a barbaric violation of the Geneva Conventions," declared Sanders in a statement. "Now, his illegal unilateral attack on Iran risks a full-blown regional war."
Sanders said Israel's Friday bombings and assassination attacks against Iranian targets, including nuclear program facilities, "directly contravened the express wishes of the United States, which was seeking a diplomatic resolution to the long-standing tensions around Iran's nuclear program."
While a new round of diplomatic talks between the U.S. and Iran were slated to begin Sunday, said Sanders, "Netanyahu chose instead to launch an attack"—a move seen by critics as an overt effort to sabotage a negotiated agreement.
"The U.S. must make it clear that we will not be dragged into another Netanyahu war," said Sanders. "Along with the international community, we should do everything possible to prevent an escalation of this conflict and bring the warring parties to the negotiating table."
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