HRC Blog

After a great weekend of conversations, events, and fun, our bus rolled out of Salt Lake City last night. There is no doubt that we achieved our goals of raising awareness of LGBT equality in Utah and empowering Utah’s LGBT community to be advocates for themselves and their families. It was touching to see the number of people who came out to join us in support of fairness and equality.

A new study by the Center for Work-Life Policy called “The Power of Out”, featured in the July/August issue of the Harvard Business Review, discusses the loss to companies and to their bottom line when they don’t create a safe and hospitable workplace for their lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) employees. The study details the consequences when LGBT employees are forced to keep their lives and loved ones a secret from colleagues. Click here to read the article from the Harvard Business Review.

At the stroke of midnight, members of Team Long Island departed for Albany, driving tirelessly through the night to make it to the Capitol this morning before the daily legislative session began. With tired eyes and bodies and short disco naps, we headed out for the Capitol Building.

Cyndi Lauper today joins the chorus of celebrity and every day New Yorker voices in a video for HRC's New Yorkers for Marriage Equality campaign. In the video, the icon says, “It's time for our state to be a leader in the fight for fairness." The campaign, which raises the public profile of marriage equality in New York, can be viewed online at http://www.hrc.org/NY4marriage

This afternoon, the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on the nomination of Paul Oetken to be a United States District Judge for the Southern District of New York. President Obama nominated Oetken in late January, making Oetken this Administration’s third openly LGBT judicial nominee. The Senate previously confirmed Marissa Demeo to the D.C. Superior Court and Ed DuMont currently awaits a hearing before the committee.