I just got off the phone with HRC Board Member Bruce Bastian. He’s challenged HRC supporters to raise $100,000 – and he’ll match every dollar with one of his own.

He’s doing it because big things are happening here at HRC and all across the country – thanks to you. You’ve helped run ads and mobilize thousands of volunteers in an all-out blitz to win marriage equality in New York. You helped bring 250 pro-equality clergy members to Capitol Hill this week. And together we’ve sparked a new, national conversation about homophobia in sports.

But make no mistake. We could win in New York – or right-wing hatred could prevail. More sports stars could support equality – or more slurs could air on national TV. Speaker Boehner could stop spending tax dollars to defend discrimination in the DOMA case – or we could see a resurgence of discriminatory efforts in Congress.

It all depends on how quickly we can react to a crisis, on how skillfully we can fight when it counts – and on you.

www.hrc.org

Don’t miss this chance to double your impact – all gifts will be matched up to $100,000.

Look around. From TV sitcoms to professional sports, to new polls showing unprecedented support for equality – we’ve reached a tipping point in our culture.

After years of discrimination, when a single victory for LGBT equality was cause for hope, we are now in a place where it’s hate that’s out of place. And you’ve been at the center of that change. In just the past few months, look what you’ve accomplished:

•After an outcry from HRC supporters, a major law firm dropped its defense of the discriminatory Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).

•After HRC’s rapid-response campaign in major media outlets and on Twitter, all-star Kobe Bryant personally called me to apologize for calling a referee a “f***ing f***ot” in front of millions of young viewers – and the commissioner of the NBA fined him an unprecedented $100,000.

•Star athletes such as the NBA’s Steve Nash and the NHL’s Sean Avery have joined our “New Yorkers for Marriage Equality” campaign – the videos are everywhere from cable TV to New York City cabs right now – and when Avery was attacked for his brave stand, thousands of you spoke out in his defense.

•Mayors, governors, actors, past presidents and even George W. Bush’s daughter Barbara have all joined HRC’s campaign for marriage equality in New York.

And, for the first time ever, polls show a majority of Americans support marriage equality – not just civil unions.

These aren’t unconnected events. But this moment is only what we make of it. People like you generously funded ads, fueled outreach to prominent figures, and gave us the strength to respond to attacks without delay – and to seize this opportunity, we’ll need you again.

www.hrc.org

Don’t miss out: have your gift MATCHED in the next seven days.

We can create a sea change in our society – but we may still slip backward. I know that HRC supporters like you will be the deciding factor, and that we can count on you to fight.

Let’s tip the scales,

Joe Solmonese

President

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Psychology Today asks “Why Are Black Women Less Physically Attractive?” …from Change.org

05/26/2011 Nativegrl77

A week ago, the magazine Psychology Today published an article titled “Why Are Black Women Less Physically Attractive Than Other Women?” on its website. Within hours, following widespread outrage and criticism, the post disappeared.

Colleagues and peers of Satoshi Kanazawa, the article’s author, have since analyzed his same data and unanimously (and unsurprisingly) found his conclusions in error.

Yet Psychology Today has remained silent. They have refused to apologize or even explain why they published the article.

Articles like Kanazawa’s are more than offensive or spurious—they’re deeply harmful because they promote racist and sexist stereotypes as science.

That’s why documentary filmmaker Aishah Simmons and academic Alisa Bierria are leading a petition on Change.org to call on Psychology Today to apologize and take transparent steps to prevent the publication of racist and sexist material in the future. Click here to sign Aishah and Alisa’s petition.

http://www.change.org/petitions/psychology-today-stop-publishing-racist-sexist-articles?utm_medium=email&alert_id=mRVloIAZvg_mWBTSGXHfX&utm_source=action_alert

Kanazawa’s article never would have survived a thorough and responsible editorial process. In fact, the author himself doesn’t stand up to review.

Kanazawa has a history of pushing discredited research and is particularly notorious for making meritless claims about race and gender. (He is also known as the mind behind the much-mocked book Why Beautiful People Have More Daughters.)

In an attempt to defend previous publications, Kanazawa wrote, “If what I say is wrong (because it is illogical or lacks credible scientific evidence), then it is my problem. If what I say offends you, it is your problem.”

Well, as Khadijah Britton of Scientific American put it, “Satoshi Kanazawa has a problem.” So does Psychology Today.

Prominent women’s rights advocates, including Gloria Steinem and Beverly Guy Sheftall, former President of the National Women’s Studies Association, have already declared their support for the campaign.

Please click here to add your name to theirs:

http://www.change.org/petitions/psychology-today-stop-publishing-racist-sexist-articles?utm_medium=email&alert_id=mRVloIAZvg_mWBTSGXHfX&utm_source=action_alert

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Yesterday, Republicans voted for the Ryan budget plan

05/26/2011 Nativegrl77

Wanted to make sure you saw that the big vote just happened. Republicans in the Senate just voted to END Medicare. They might as well have grabbed the social contract we’ve promised seniors and ripped it right down the middle. But fortunately Democrats had the votes to stop them (not to mention the half million activists backing them up).

We plan to make this a huge issue in the election. Every single Republican who voted to end Medicare should be out of a job. Period. And we plan to do our best to make that happen. But going after them is expensive. You’ve signed the petition, which helps, but can you help us make sure every voter in America knows whose side the GOP is on?

We have to raise $119,000 by 5/31 to meet next month’s budget, so we can stick it to them for this vote. Can you kick in $5?

www.dscc.org

Thanks again for your help. They’re not going to get out of this vote unscathed.

Jason Rosenbaum

DSCC Director of Online Communications

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Now is the time: Help UCS lock in protections for science

05/26/2011 Nativegrl77

The Union of Concerned Scientists has documented dozens of cases of corporations and politicians preventing government scientists from doing their jobs. This interference and manipulation of science has led to flawed policy decisions that put the public’s health and safety at risk.

www.ucsusa.org

Please help UCS lock in much-needed government reforms that will ensure independent science informs key decisions about our health, safety, air, and water.

www.ucsusa.org

You can help UCS stop special interests from spinning science at the expense of the American people by becoming a member today.

UCS blew the whistle on these widespread attacks on science during the Bush administration. Now, the administration has changed, but the system that allows politics to undermine science largely has not.

Fortunately, government agencies are working right now to develop forceful new policies that can protect scientists from political pressure. UCS is the only organization watchdogging the process and ensuring agencies follow through on their scientific integrity commitments. We’re meeting with agency officials and providing them with resources to ensure policies:

•Protect scientists who report political interference in agency work;

•Prevent conflicts of interest on science advisory committees;

•Allow scientists to share their research and scientific analysis with the public and the press; and

•Increase transparency so the public knows what science agencies consider when making policy decisions.

Please help UCS hold the administration and its agencies accountable for locking in much-needed reforms that will outlast their time in office, keep politics in its place, and allow government scientists to do their jobs. Become a member today.

www.ucsusa.org

Sincerely,

Kevin Knobloch

President

P.S. When you join UCS, you join more than 79,000 UCS members who also believe that decisions about our health, safety, air, and water should fully consider the best available science. Please join us today and help us keep politics out of science.

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

How to Quit Coal in 30 Seconds …Greenpeace

05/26/2011 Nativegrl77

Check out this amazing video of Greenpeace activists painting “Quit Coal” on the 450 ft. tall smokestack at the Fisk power plant in Chicago. They were up there for 26 hours getting the message out.

Watch the video and then help them spread the word even more by sharing it with your friends. Just click the image below…

All told, air pollution from coal-fired power plants kills tens of thousands of Americans every year. That human cost isn’t part of the bottom-line for giant utility companies like Edison International that operate plants like the ones in Chicago.

But local communities everywhere are fighting back. And Greenpeace has a campaign to support them.

Spread the word about the movement to quit coal by watching our video and sharing it with your friends right now.

The more views this video gets in its first 24 hours the more likely it is to become popular on YouTube! And the more popular it becomes the more people will hear about the amazing work activist all over are doing to get coal out of their communities.

Sincerely,

Kelly Mitchell

Greenpeace Coal Campaigner

P.S. Please forward this to everyone you know who likes amazing videos!