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."
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The explosive device sent to CNN in New York was an "effort to terrorize," said New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio. Investigators described the device as an apparent "live" pipe bomb at a press conference outside the Time Warner Center, which houses CNN's New York studios and was partially evacuated Wednesday morning when the mailroom discovered the suspicious package.
Markets may have closed off their lows of the day, but Jack Kramer, co-founder and co-CEO of MarketSnacks, said there's still plenty that could weigh on investors over the next year.
The midterm "wave" may be neither blue nor red ー but green. In two weeks, North Dakota and Michigan ー which both already allow cannabis for medicinal use ー will vote for legalized recreational marijuana. On the non-recreational side of the issue, Missouri and Utah will potentially make a push toward medicinal cannabis. Depending on the outcome, these states may send a message to the nation ーwhich is slowly getting greener.
When the anti-substance abuse platform "Truth Initiative" began in 2000, the smoking rate for teens was 23 percent ー almost two decades later, it stands at 5 percent. And now, after major inroads with young smokers, the organization is shifting its efforts to another pressing danger facing teens, according to its managing director Mary Dominguez.
The Trump administration has declared it may change the legal definition of gender, but GLAAD President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis thinks that whatever the White House decides, the damage has already been done.
Women on both sides of the aisle may be enraged, but that anger is still sharply divided. Women are running for office in record numbers this year ー yet the outcome hasn't been the same for Republicans and Democrats, said author and political columnist Rebecca Traister.
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President Erdogan of Turkey demanded action from Saudi Arabia on Tuesday for the "premeditated" and "savage" murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, as SoftBank's CEO became the latest top executive to pull back from Saudi Arabia's investor summit.
Billionaire activist Tom Steyer is not apologizing for his campaign to impeach Donald Trump. In an interview with Cheddar Monday, he dismissed criticism from certain Democrats that focusing on impeachment will energize the Republican base. "Standing up for the Constitution and the American people" should be more important than campaign tactics, he said.
