The U.S. Supreme Court's decision Monday that employers cannot discriminate in hiring due to a candidate's sexual or gender preference was a surprising revelation for many Americans, including Sarah Kate Ellis, the president and CEO of GLAAD.
"It was groundbreaking. It was historic today," she told Cheddar.
Still, Ellis said this is just a small part of the rights challenges members of the LGBTQ community face.
"We're debating whether or not I can be fired from my job at the Supreme Court simply because I'm gay. It shouldn't even be a discussion," she said.
The historic decision came just days after the Trump administration rolled back healthcare protections for transgender people under the Affordable Care Act -- a move which Ellis said is in line with the president's broader dismissal of LGBTQ people throughout his term.
"This administration has attacked the LGBTQ community 150 times with both policy rollbacks and rhetoric since he's come into power," she said.
As demonstrators across the nation call for social justice and equality this June, Ellis said that it is important for Pride month supporters to remember where it started.
"Pride is a protest, and we need to be on the streets," she stated. "We have to go back to our roots this one. This Pride especially."
She noted that 14 members of the trans community have been violently killed so far this year.
In 2020, a year unlike any other with a pandemic canceling Pride celebrations and calls for social justice amplified throughout the nation, Ellis tasked people to come together now to force real change.
"Our community is our power. Our identity is our power," she said. "We need to be fighting for Black Lives Matter, for our trans community. We have to be standing up for each other right now, and we need to be locking arms as marginalized communities."
In a news conference, NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo said he has ordered the state's hospitals to increase their capacity for intake at least by half, if not doubling it., and also revealed that New York had procured more medical supplies in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic.
While the spread of the coronavirus has caused millions of layoffs across the country, select businesses are on a hiring spree to meet increased demand related to the outbreak.
Stocks are down nearly 5 percent in volatile trading on Wall Street as investors wait for Democrats and Republicans to settle their differences and pass a nearly $2 trillion rescue package for the economy.
Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky has tested positive for the novel coronavirus, becoming the first case of COVID-19 in the Senate and raising fears about the further transmission of the virus among Republicans at the Capitol.
In its boldest effort to protect the U.S. economy from the coronavirus, the Federal Reserve says it will buy as much government debt as it deems necessary and will also begin lending to small and large businesses and local governments to help them weather the crisis.
Malls, movie theaters, and retailers across the U.S. have been forced to close down to stem the spread of coronavirus, but cannabis dispensaries and retailers will stay open for business after a number of local governments deemed them “essential.”
Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio 13th District) said on Friday that the $1 trillion stimulus package currently being negotiated by lawmakers won't be nearly enough to make Americans whole again.
During the Friday Coronavirus Task Force briefing, President Donald Trump said that the U.S. borders will be closed to nonessential travel with Mexico and Canada, beginning at midnight on Saturday.
The move underscores the pain being inflicted on U.S. oil producers by the abrupt crash in oil prices earlier this month, sparked by the outbreak of a price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia and exacerbated by the global response to the coronavirus.
New York is joining California in seriously altering daily operations after Governor Andrew Cuomo announced he will sign an executive order mandating that 100 percent of the non-essential workforce stay home. The order will go into effect Sunday night.
