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Lakeland Eye Clinic, a Lakeland, Fla.-based organization of health care professionals, discriminated based on sex in violation of federal law by firing an employee because she is transgender, because she was transitioning from male to female, and/or because she did not conform to the employer's gender-based expectations, preferences, or stereotypes, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) charged in a lawsuit filed today. This is one of the first two lawsuits ever filed by the agency alleging sex discrimination against transgender individuals. The other case, EEOC v. R.G. & G.R. Harris Funeral Homes, Inc. was filed today by the EEOC's...

Sen. Ben Cardin said Tuesday that his legislation to prohibit law enforcement agencies from racial profiling had received renewed national attention after the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., last month. Speaking at a briefing on Capitol Hill, the Maryland Democrat said the bill had "gotten new life" and that he hoped the proposal could forward this year. "How many more Michael Browns will we have?" Cardin asked. "We all know that profiling is un-American and wrong. We know it turns communities against law enforcement, where they need to work together."

Denial of reasonable accommodation, Right to Free Speech The world has witnessed a lot of bizarre creativity on the part of Obama administration. One of the novelties imposed on us is the emergence of a brand new form of inequity: discrimination on the basis of sacrifice. Neglectful and unfair treatment of American veterans is not only a disgrace, but a blatant abuse of their civil and human rights. Labelling The first rule of labelling strategy is “I don’t label, I care!” In everyday life a manipulator will combine “crazy making” with negative stereotyping to make you look bad and to...

Two women were arrested after they robbed and then intimidated three tenants out of their Brooklyn apartment — and the crime was partly motivated by race and class resentment, law enforcement sources said. Precious Parker, 30, and Sabrina James, 23, knocked on the door of an apartment building on Ocean Ave. near Newkirk Ave. in Flatbush at 9:30 p.m. on Thursday and held a 34-year-old man, a 37-year-old man, and a 25-year-old woman at gunpoint demanding they move out or be killed, police said. The women then stole $800, an iPhone and personal information

Environmentalist groups accuse hog farms of violating civil rights. Environmental groups have filed a civil-rights complaint against hog farmers in North Carolina, claiming that by maintaining farms near neighborhoods where minorities live, the pork producers are engaged in illegal discrimination against minorities. The 48-page complaint explains that the farms create problems for surrounding neighborhoods such as foul smells and runoff in the water. The crux of the complaint, which was filed by Washington-based EarthJustice and three other environmental groups in the Tar Heel State, is not these problems themselves, however. The four environmental groups object to seeing these problems occur...

Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich), chairman of the Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations is preparing a report that will absolve the IRS and Lois Lerner of any wrongdoing in the campaign to target and harass conservative political organizations. “Those who have alleged that Lerner and the IRS took it upon themselves to conduct a vendetta against conservative organizations have it all wrong,” Levin alleged. “Evidence has emerged that the IRS was acting upon urgent requests from highly placed members of the government. Bureaucrats being responsive to the needs of the government is behavior we should be encouraging not punishing.” The highly...

A Texas catering business will pay the United States $26,400 for engaging in “citizenship-discrimination,” as part of a settlement with the Justice Department announced Tuesday. Culinaire International unlawfully discriminated against employees based on their citizenship status, the Justice Department claimed, because it required non-citizen employees to provide extra proof of their right to work in the United States. Culinaire has agreed to pay the United States $20,460 in civil penalties, receive training in anti-discrimination rules of the Immigration and Nationality Act, revise its work eligibility verification process, and create a $40,000 back pay fund for “potential economic victims.”

If organizers are insistent in holding the event they could always agree to march in the nude or carry “Death to Israel!” signs. That should do it for the city once known as 'Toronto the Good'. With less than a month to go before the parade expected to draw thousands of participants, Toronto bureaucrats told the organizers of the annual event that it could not be held. Although excuses were given, there is no other logical explanation other than the cancellation of the event, held without incident for the past 14 years, was nothing more than Christian-bashing. According to Canada...

Edelman global CEO Richard Edelman said in a conversation with an editor of Vice’s Motherboard blog that former US CEO Mark Hass was fired from the agency in part because of the way he responded to an investigation into PR agencies’ work with climate-change deniers. Quoted by Motherboard senior editor Brian Merchant, the chief executive of the world’s largest PR agency said, "We fired the head of our US [division] in part because of that stupid note he wrote, about, you know, how we don’t answer these kinds of things." In response to inquiries from the Climate Investigations Center that...

The Obama administration has done little to calm racial tensions as they spread from Manhattan to St. Louis to Los Angeles. Quite the opposite, some top officials have fueled African-American fears of racism with false accusations of anti-black discrimination. Attorney General Eric Holder’s race-baiting is no secret. Justice Department documents show the nation’s top cop gave thousands of dollars to help the Rev. Al Sharpton organize marches protesting the death of Trayvon Martin. Now he’s sent the civil-rights unit to St. Louis to do the same thing in the fatal shooting of Michael Brown. Less known, however, is the role...

One of the major causes of the financial crash of 2008 was the insularity of the “good old boys” network on Wall Street, says Sallie Krawcheck. The former Citigroup CFO has started a socially responsibly stock mutual fund that promotes the world’s 400 most female-focused firms. Economics correspondent Paul Solman reports.

A few weeks ago the Dublin Girls had gathered inside the local mall for an evening power walk. They formed a small circle and as they had done many times before, they bowed their heads to petition the Almighty. But before one of the runners could say, “Lord Jesus,” she was interrupted by a mall cop barreling down a corridor. “The security guard came running toward us and said, ‘You are not allowed to pray at the mall. That’s against the policy,’” Tammy told me. The ladies were aghast. “I told him we’ve been praying since last November and no...

Colorado regulators say a Denver gay bar discriminated against a man when a bouncer denied him entry last year because he was dressed in drag. The civil rights division of the state's Department of Regulatory Agencies has ordered the Denver Wrangler to resolve the dispute with Vito Marzano, a gay man who was wearing a dress, wig and light make-up when he went to the bar August 31, 2013. The order obtained Monday says the bouncer turned Marzano away because his appearance didn't match the one on his driver's license. But regulators determined that the bar wrongly favors those with...

Some of the world’s top PR companies have for the first time publicly ruled out working with climate change deniers, marking a fundamental shift in the multi-billion dollar industry that has grown up around the issue of global warming. Public relations firms have played a critical role over the years in framing the debate on climate change and its solutions – as well as the extensive disinformation campaigns launched to block those initiatives. Now a number of the top 25 global PR firms have told the Guardian they will not represent clients who deny man-made climate change, or take campaigns...

The organizer of a yearly conference for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender students pursuing MBAs is in a huff because entirely too many straight students are attending the event, which includes a recruitment fair. Matt Kidd, executive director of Reaching Out MBA, has also charged that a few attendees made comments that he says some gay people did not appreciate, reports Campus Reform. For example, in addition to having the temerity to show up while failing to be gay, one straight attendee allegedly said “Dude, I’m not gay.” Another allegedly said: “There needs to be less focus on gay stuff...

A born-again Christian who was fired from South Tipperary County Council has been awarded €70,000 compensation after the Equality Tribunal found he was discriminated against over his religion. According to the council, John McAteer was dismissed after repeatedly failing to comply with senior staff members who told him to stop speaking about his faith to workers and members of the public during office hours. Mr McAteer said the tenets of his religion require him to speak to people about Jesus and share the Gospel with them. The complainant had been working as a civil engineer in the Clonmel Borough Council...

The business community in an Irish village has hit back at a cafe owner who has refused to serve "loud Americans". Peter Fitzgerald of Waterville, County Kerry, annoyed villagers when he posted a notice in his cafe banning coach parties and loud Americans. The story went viral on social media and was picked up by dozens of newspapers around the world. The village, however, has assured all, loud or not, of a warm welcome. Business people and residents took to the streets on Tuesday to send out a strong message to visitors. Albert Walsh, chairman of Waterville Business Association, said:...

The European Court of Justice has pointed the finger at unequal retirement plans between men and women in the French civil service. EurActiv France reports. According to a judgment by the ECJ (17 July), the French retirement system for civil servants is discriminating against men. “French rules on certain pension-related advantages granted to civil servants give rise to indirect discrimination on grounds of sex,” the court decided. […] French law states that if a civil servant has raised at least three children, he or she can benefit from early retirement. It also outlines “service credit advantages” to parents working in...

President Barack Obama's LGBT workplace discrimination order has revealed a rift among Democrats over whether religious freedom trumps gay rights. The Republican-controlled House of Representatives could exploit that rift by bringing the Senate-passed Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which has a religious exemption, to the floor for a vote. ENDA, which would ban workplace discrimination based upon sexual orientation and gender identity, was passed by the Senate in November with the support of 54 Democrats and 10 Republicans. The bill likely would not have passed if it had not contained a religious exemption. The exemption was a major point of contention during...

President Barack Obama issued an executive order Monday prohibiting workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity for federal contractors. What does this mean for Christian organizations that remain faithful to the biblical teaching on homosexual behavior? Here are two main points that those groups need to be aware of: First, the order only applies to government contractors and sub-contractors, it does not apply to groups that receive government grants. Most religious non-profits that provide services for the government do so through a government grant. They would not be affected. A grant recipient is awarded money for general purpose,...