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Hate Crimes Prevention Act - Topic of recent Sioux Falls Meeting
Monday, 03 October 2011 20:11
Prosecutors laud update to federal hate crimes act
Argus Leader - Beth Wischmeyer - Sept. 28, 2011
Federal prosecutors say hate crimes inflict great harm against society, and a recently passed act helps further ensure the safety and civil rights of Americans.
U.S. Attorney Brendan Johnson and Assistant U.S. Attorney Kevin Koliner held an information session Wednesday in Sioux Falls about the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, which was signed into law by President Obama in late 2009.
"It's a very important piece of federal legislation that, in my view, was kind of passed with a whisper in late 2009," Koliner said. "This was really an act that took 20 years of hard work of various, very brave legislators to get this passed."
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EqSD to Rapid City - End discrimination against LGBT employees
Wednesday, 21 April 2010 14:09
South Dakota’s largest LGBT organization calls for Rapid City to end legal discrimination against LGBT employees.
Contact Karen Mudd -- This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it -- 605.214.1299
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 21, 2010
Sioux Falls, SD- Equality South Dakota, the largest Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender rights group in South Dakota with over 4,000 members is calling upon the Rapid City Council and the Mayor to amend their employment discrimination policy to include sexual orientation and gender identity. In a letter dated April 8, 2010, Equality South Dakota renewed their request to the city after a similar request last year was denied by the Rapid City Council.
In the letter Equality South Dakota answered all of the concerns voiced by the attorney for the city, Jason Green, who spoke against amending the Rapid City code last year. “After a year of hard work and of gathering all of the data from South Dakota and across the country, we provided all of the information to the Mayor of Rapid City to show the city should not fear adding sexual orientation and gender identity to the city employment policy” said Karen Mudd a consultant for Equality South Dakota. In 2009, the Rapid City Council voted down a request by Equality South Dakota because of fears expressed by the attorney for the city that Rapid City would see an increase in litigation and discrimination claims and because the city might have to pay for sexual reassignment surgeries for transgender persons.
“We know that none of these fears are correct when we look at statistics across the country. Cities which include sexual orientation and gender identity do not open themselves up to excessive liability” said Karen Mudd. Recently, the Rapid City School District re-added sexual orientation to their non-discrimination policy after much public debate that included a threat by State Senator Gordon Howie to bring a bill in the legislative session to pull the school’s funding if it added sexual orientation to the policy.
“The time is ripe for the Rapid City Council and for the Mayor of Rapid City to show that fairness and equal treatment are South Dakota values and to adopt a non-discrimination policy that includes sexual orientation and gender identity,” according to Karen Mudd. The Legal and Finance Committee of the Rapid City Council have the request on their agenda for April 28th. Equality South Dakota is asking all of their members and supporters to contact Rapid City and to let the council members and the mayor know that they support the inclusion of sexual orientation and gender identity to the city’s non-discrimination policy.
DADT this week? Please call!
Tuesday, 25 May 2010 09:29
Friends of Equality,
We have some exciting and urgent news for all of you. Congress will have before it a bill this week to repeal the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy of the United States military. The vote could come as early as Thursday and we need to make sure that Rep. Herseth-Sandlin hears from South Dakotans who support ful equality for LGBT citizens that she should vote in favor of repealing DADT! Please contact Rep. Herseth-Sandlin today! Contact information for Rep. Herseth-Sandlin below!
The Honorable Stephanie Herseth Sandlin
331 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Phone: (202) 225-2801
Fax: (202) 225-5823
Office Hours:
M-F 9:00am - 6:00pm Eastern
Web contact form: forms.house.gov/hersethsandlin/IMA/contact.html
EqSD Poll released!
Thursday, 31 December 2009 18:51
Scientific poll: Daugaard enjoys slight lead over Heidepriem, and South Dakotans overwhelmingly support equal rights for gaysAs the new year approaches, the race for Governor is wide-open. That is the conclusion of a scientific survey commissioned by Equality South Dakota, a non partisan organization dedicated to equal rights for all South Dakotans, especially those who are gay or transgender.
“Our poll was conducted to see whether South Dakotans were receptive to our own efforts to achieve equality for gay South Dakotans, and we were pleased to discover that the answer is a resounding “yes” said Robert Doody, chair of EqSD. But as long as we were commissioning a scientific survey, we wanted to ask about the Governor’s race as well. As far as we know, these are the first results of a scientific survey to be publicly disclosed.
Equality South Dakota gets a side of Salsa today!
Tuesday, 18 May 2010 22:43
Something good is happening behind the scenes at Equality South Dakota!
We are moving to a new database system that keeps track of EqSD's volunteers and supporters. Our tight budget requires that we have a secure way to accept your financial support and communicate with EqSD's membership across South Dakota's wide-open spaces effectively. The new system is called "Salsa" and is provided to us through our membership in the Equality Federation -- a group of allied LGBT state organizations from all across the country.
We switch over from our previous system (GetActive) to Salsa mid-day on Tuesday, May 25. Donations will be unavailable for a couple of hours. Let me thank you for consideration of any downtime that may occur, and let us know ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ) if you see any problems from your end.
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