“Are there any White women here for Humira?” Can you imagine? You’ve applied for a job, and the interviewer asks if any of the many applicants waiting in the lobby are of a specific race and gender. It sounds like something from the Jim Crow era ... but it’s not. I heard these very words auditioning for a commercial advertisement in early 2013, the client reportedly not wanting to pair interracial couples on camera. Unfortunately, this Humira casting was not unique. This type of discrimination is prevalent in the entertainment industry, so much so that non-discriminatory castings feel unique (watch, for example, a panel discussion about Hollywood's preference for hiring White males - "The Last Negro On Earth ... starring Johnny Depp: How the Business of Hollywood Shapes the Business of Every Day" - hosted by the San Francisco Public Library ). The reactions to a recent Cheerios ad (FN 1) demonstrate the breadth of the entertainment industry's discriminatory net. The interracial family depicted in the ad caused such a stir that General Mills - the maker of Cheerios - had to close the comments section on the video sharing site (FN 2), and the airwaves were flooded with media coverage of the story. Donny Deutsch, chairman of advertising agency Deutsch Inc., said he understands why some companies shy away from similar casting. “Advertisers have really one objective – to make money for their shareholders,” he said. “Your responsibility is to do what’s right for your brand.” (FN 3) Yet making money is not where business responsibilities end. Anti-discrimination laws require compliance. “Casting discrimination is illegal,” says Kent Mannis, Managing Editor of LawRoom.com, “identifying race or ethnicity or gender in job ads is illegal, but they continue to get away with the aw-shucks-that’s-how-we’ve-always-done-it defense.” (FN 4) I graduated from Harvard Law School, practiced law in California, served in the legal Peace Corps (FN 5), and have been a professional Actor for over a decade. The failures of state and federal courts and legislatures to protect entertainment workers from illegal discrimination are unacceptable. No other business is entitled to client preference and profits as defenses to employment discrimination. It’s time Congress and state legislatures take the stand that equal employment opportunity applies equally to all workers. FOOTNOTES 1 “Just Checking”. Advertising agency, Saatchi & Saatchi (New York). 2 Rivas, Jorge. “Cheerios Ad Starring Interracial Family Ignites Racist Hate Storm”, Colorlines: News for Action (May 31, 2013); Stump, Scott. “Cheerios ad with mixed-race family draws racist responses”, Today (June 3, 2013). 3 Stump, Scott. “Cheerios ad with mixed-race family draws racist responses”, Today (June 3, 2013). 4 Email to the editor. "Lawyer: No legal exception for showbiz hiring discrimination", Puget Sound Business Journal (September 2, 2009). See also “Hollywood's Race/Ethnicity and Gender-Based Casting: Prospects for a Title VII Lawsuit”, Latino Policy & Issues Brief (December 2006) (a study of entertainment industry casting calls finding that Hollywood regularly violates Title VII by intentionally discriminating based on race, color, and sex); Compare Claybrooks v. American Broadcasting Companies, Inc. --- F.Supp.2d ----, 2012 WL 4890686 (M.D.Tenn., October 15, 2012); Lyle v. Warner Brothers, 117 Cal.App.4th 1164 (2004); “Casting a Wider Net: Achieving the Legal Mandate for Diversity in Entertainment” Oversight Hearing, California State Assembly, Committee on Arts, Entertainment, Sports, Tourism, and Internet Media (October 19, 2011); Equal Opportunity in (Entertainment) Employment RESOURCE LIST, http://gettingplayed.homestead.com/Resources.html. 5 The Skadden Fellowship as described by The Los Angeles Times.

A distressing incident occurred at Meadowlawn Middle School yesterday, when Principal Claud Effiom chose to interpret policy through the lens of his own ignorance, missing an opportunity to teach tolerance by example. My son was penalized for wearing makeup at school by Principal Effiom, who expressed his own belief that boys wearing makeup is ridiculous, unnecessary, and distracting. My son has endured vicious bullying for the last several years, and unfortunately, he is not the only one. These attacks are terribly damaging to young people, who are already struggling to find their identity. Incidents like the one yesterday only serve to further isolate these kids, who feel abandoned by the educators that are charged with their safety and well-being. It is unacceptable that these things should be allowed to occur anywhere, but most especially in a community as diverse and accepting as Pinellas County.

BREAKING: The Guardian's Glenn Greenwald reports that the government is monitoring millions of Americans' phone calls "indiscriminately and in bulk – regardless of whether they are suspected of any wrongdoing."

BREAKING: The Guardian's Glenn Greenwald reports that the government is monitoring millions of Americans' phone calls "indiscriminately and in bulk – regardless of whether they are suspected of any wrongdoing."

BREAKING: The Guardian's Glenn Greenwald reports that the government is monitoring millions of Americans' phone calls "indiscriminately and in bulk – regardless of whether they are suspected of any wrongdoing."

It's time to stop discriminating against those who have made mistakes 5 years in their past. People change, and once your debt is paid to society, one shouldn't have to continue paying that debt for the rest of their life! With out good equal paying jobs, and equal opportunity to get those jobs, then we're just pushing them back into a life of crime.

On May 22, seven brave women - six of them grandmothers and all victims of the foreclosure crisis - conducted a peaceful sit-in at the entrance to the office of the Covington & Burling law firm, one of the major representatives of Wall Street banks in Washington, DC. The Covington law firm represents mega-banks like JP Morgan Chase and Bank of America and maintains a “revolving door” with the government officials who are supposed to hold Wall Street accountable. U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, who testified before Congress that the banks’ huge wealth made them too difficult to prosecute--is a former partner of the Covington law firm. And, after years of failing to bring charges against a single executive at the big banks that crashed the economy and threw millions into foreclosure, Lanny Breuer, the top prosecutor at the Department of Justice Criminal Division, returned to his former employer, Covington, where he will make $4 million a year representing these very same banks. The big bank executives who wrecked the economy and stole millions of homes through illegal foreclosures continue to walk free. Hard hit homeowners and communities still wait for relief. But this coming Tuesday, June 11th, the U.S. Justice Department is set to press charges against the grandmothers and home defenders who momentarily blocked the revolving door between their government and the Wall Street’s favorite DC law firm. Please tell the Justice Department to prosecute Wall Street, not the Covington Seven Home Defenders.

On May 22, seven brave women - six of them grandmothers and all victims of the foreclosure crisis - conducted a peaceful sit-in at the entrance to the office of the Covington & Burling law firm, one of the major representatives of Wall Street banks in Washington, DC. The Covington law firm represents mega-banks like JP Morgan Chase and Bank of America and maintains a “revolving door” with the government officials who are supposed to hold Wall Street accountable. U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, who testified before Congress that the banks’ huge wealth made them too difficult to prosecute--is a former partner of the Covington law firm. And, after years of failing to bring charges against a single executive at the big banks that crashed the economy and threw millions into foreclosure, Lanny Breuer, the top prosecutor at the Department of Justice Criminal Division, returned to his former employer, Covington, where he will make $4 million a year representing these very same banks. The big bank executives who wrecked the economy and stole millions of homes through illegal foreclosures continue to walk free. Hard hit homeowners and communities still wait for relief. But this coming Tuesday, June 11th, the U.S. Justice Department is set to press charges against the grandmothers and home defenders who momentarily blocked the revolving door between their government and the Wall Street’s favorite DC law firm. Please tell the Justice Department to prosecute Wall Street, not the Covington Seven Home Defenders.

This petition is to stop religious practices in state funded shelters in Albuquerque, NM. The First Amendment-Freedom of Religion is violated when homeless and day shelters force the Christian religion onto shelter residents. Some shelter residents are of other religions which do have different practices. Even if only $1 is donated from a government entity, the shelters should recognize the religious freedoms of its habitants.

When Exxon merged with Mobil in 1999, the newly merged company ended Mobil's domestic partner benefits program for gay employees. Today, Exxon Mobil denies spousal benefits to all legally married gay employees. The Human Rights Campaign has given Exxon Mobil a score of negative 25 in its Corporate Equality Index -- a scorecard that rates 1000 companies on criteria ranging from diversity training, transgender-inclusive medical coverage to non-discrimination policies. It's the first time they've ever awarded a negative score to a company. It's 2013 and as the Supreme Court prepares to rule on whether the federal government will recognize legal marriages, it's time for Exxon and other employers do the same. Let's tell Exxon Mobil to stop discriminating against gay employees.

The constant, crippling fear of being killed by a sky robot.

Under current law, personal emails, contacts and chats can be shared by the provider without your knowledge. This means every email you send could make it to a government office, and you could never know about it. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want anyone, let alone the government, reading through every email I send without even notifying me. In many states, employers go as far as demanding access to email and social media accounts of candidates applying for jobs. Current laws are outdated and don't protect the online content that we all use daily. Sign the petition to the Senate now and urge them to support S. 607 and protect Internet privacy for all.