On all continents individuals and their families are forced to flee their homes on account of their sexual orientation or gender identity. While all refugees are vulnerable, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) refugees face particular challenges in accessing assistance and asylum procedures. They also experience instances of violence as a cause of flight or while in countries of first asylum. Human Rights First (HRF) highlighted many of these challenges earlier this month in a policy paper presented at a Roundtable discussion convened by the UN Refugee Agency – UNHCR – on Asylum Seekers and Refugees Seeking Protection on Account of their Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity. HRF’s paper includes a comprehensive set of recommendations directed at UNHCR and States.

A story of enduring love, illness and discrimination.

Attorney Coakely has shown a fundamental inability to understand basic Constitutional principles like Due Process and Equal Protection under the laws, not to mention CORI violations that have resulted in a huge Defamation lawsuit against the Boston Herald, Reporter Jessica Van Sack and and Boston NBC affiliate WDHD Channel 7: They falsely reported that Joanna Marinova, an award-winning (video) prison reform activist had sex with an inmate, in order to shut her down.

Under Obama nothing has changed for minorities a personal look at the problems minorities have with Racism on the job and government failure to address the issue.

Other Religions are Dumb, Wrong, Bad, and Strange: YouTube Inspires Reinstatement of Spanish Inquisition — by NormanB (“Deviations from the Norm”)

Those of Us Who Study History are Condemned to Watch the Rest of the World Repeat It — By Norman B

The national conversation on the Park 51 Islamic Community Center has taken a turn for the worst. Fear, ignorance, prejudice, Islamophobia, xenophobia, and racism have reared their ugly heads and meaningful conversation is no where to be found. Where do people turn to put the Park 51 controversy into context?

Jack Shaheen is the author of the groundbreaking work “Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a People,” and the author of “Guilty: Hollywood’s Verdict on Arabs after 9/11,” the winner of the 2009 Forward Magazine social sciences book of the year. He is a professor emeritus of Mass Communication at Southern Illinois University and a winner of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee’s “Lifetime Achievement Award.”

Shaheen has been following the recent developments on Park 51 and I caught up with him to see what he had to say.

The “I have a Dream” speech and its meaning today.

When President George W. Bush said those words to mark 2002’s Eid al-Fitr, I agreed with him. I still do. But as the controversy surrounding the plan to build a mosque in Lower Manhattan continues to intensify along political and religious lines, our national discussion increasingly points the way to a much dimmer future.

Jaime Nabozny suffered years of physical abuse and harassment in school just because he was gay. He’s now pushing for passage of the Student Nondiscrimination Act.