The Equal Rights Center

Last year, the Equal Rights Center released a shocking report documenting that survivors of domestic violence in D.C. were discriminated against 65% of the time when looking for new housing. The report is currently being used nationwide in an effort to offer domestic violence survivors better protections, and Wisconsi...n is close to adopting a new bill which will protect survivors.

Check out our full report here, http://www.equalrightscenter.org/publications/documents/DVReport_FINALCOPY_001.pdf.Read More

The inclusion and passage of Rep. Bart Stupak's restrictive abortion amendment in the health care bill this past Saturday by the House has prompted pro-choice groups, bloggers, and activists to react.

"This amendment takes away... freedom of conscience from
America's women. It prohibits them from access to an abortion ev...en if
they pay for it with their own money. It invades women's personal
decisions," states Rep. Rosa DeLauro.Read More

Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling has agreed to pay $2.73 million, the largest monetary payment ever obtained for this sort of case, to settle a federal case alleging he targeted and discriminated against blacks, Latinos, and families with children in the rental of apartments he owns.

What has been most startli...ng however, has been the lack of reaction from the NBA. "If there was ever an issue that should strike a chord of protest, this is it," says sportswriter Dan Wetzel.Read More

"No matter how much education you get and how much success you achieve, if you grew up in the barrio, if you grew up in the 'hood, you will always have a little ghetto in you," joked comedian Ernie G. His message however is not meant to discourage, but to show that college and the ghetto can coexist.

With one in five La...tino teens dropping out of high school, Ernie was asked to be the spokesperson for the Hispanic College Fund. He currently tours offering laughs and encouragement to high school students considering college.Read More

“If we want to be a global leader in combating H.I.V./AIDS, we need to act like it,” President Obama said. “We talk about reducing the stigma of this disease, yet we’ve treated a visitor living with it as a threat.” Obama made these statements last Friday after announcing the end of a 22-year ban on travel to the Unit...ed States by both visiting tourists and immigrants who had tested positive for the virus that causes AIDS.Read More

This past Wednesday, Rody Alvarado Peña was granted political asylum in the U.S., after fleeing her abusive husband in Guatemala. With this decision, the Obama administration has taken a major step toward clarifying a murky area of asylum law and defining the legal grounds on which battered and sexually abused women i...n foreign countries can seek protection here.

Peña, whose case has been open for 14 years, since 1995, says she hopes the outcome means that other abused women will receive quicker decisions from the courts.Read More

"The civil rights division of the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) is open for business," declared newly confirmed Thomas Perez, the U.S. assistant attorney general for civil rights. A report earlier this year had documented the replacement of career civil rights lawyers in the DoJ with conservative Republicans during... the Bush administration, but Perez has promised to end that.

In line with Perez' affirmation, DoJ filed two complaints and reached two positive resolutions this past month in regards to housing discrimination. The cases addressed discrimination based on disability, familial status, and race.Read More

This Monday, November 2nd, Sharon Moore, the ERC’s Senior Project Coordinator, will be testifying as a public witness before the D.C. City Council’s Committee on Public Safety and the Judiciary in a hearing on Bill 18-482, the “Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Equality Amendment Act of 2009.”

The hearing continues... at 9:30am in the 5th Floor Council Chambers of the John A. Wilson Building located at 1350 Pennsylvania Ave NW. Make sure to support Sharon and the ERC by tuning in to watch the hearing at http://www.dccouncil.us/watchhearinglive!Read More

What is your responsibility when witnessing an act of discrimination, a hate crime, or any individual being victimized by another?

This is the question that has been asked after the alleged gang rape and beating of a 15 year old girl in Richmond, California this past Saturday. Investigators say there were as many as 10 ...participants in her raping, and up to 20 onlookers who watched or took pictures - none of whom reported the crime to police.Read More