I am trying to run for Prom King at my school, but am unable to due to my school's resistance and insistent discrimination against my transgender identity (FtM). In addition to this, I am unable to use the male restroom or receive respectful identification from said administration. Update: I am allowed to run for prom king, as well as other trans students being allowed to run as what they identify as! This is most definitely a victory, but the battle is only half completed. My school still refuses to respect and acknowledge my gender identity in respect to restroom usage. Please sign this petition and help support my cause!

It is heartbreaking seeing my trans friends parent's come into schools demanding that they address their son as their dead names and their dead pronouns. Something that can be so easily avoided. Once fourteen we have rights to our mental health and using our correct names in schools is essential to our mental health. We the youth are American citizens in public federally funded schools whose jobs are to make schools inclusive and welcoming safe places. How are students supposed to respect transgender students if the authority figures don't. Teachers need to set the example and pronouns are that. Schools are all about education. How does this not correlate? The constitution is supposed to protect all of us- our age does not exclude us from the protection of the constitution. Our rights are valid. 1 of 3 of transgender youth have attempted suicide.

We believe that no one should be financially destroyed if they, or a family member, were to contract a terminal disease, and so we believe it is our responsibility to collectively support our citizens in such dire times, as we recognize the objective truth that humans have always lived and thrived in communities, and never as "lone wolves." The main ethics problem with universal healthcare is that doctors are not a commonly shared resource. They have sacrificed thousands of hours of their lives to learn the healing sciences, and they should not be penalized when we seek to provide universal healthcare for all citizens. To prevent penalizing doctors, a logical and fair proposal is hereby submitted: Tax Churches, Not Doctors. In order to provide universal healthcare, without effectively penalizing our #truehealers, does anyone have a problem with doctors not paying federal income taxes? We hope that churches will also contribute their fair share of taxes in order to live up to verses like, "But whoever has the world's goods, and sees his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him?" We believe the solution is simple: Tax Churches, Not Doctors.

Donald Trump revealed what we have known for a long time: Anti-abortion zealots in the GOP want to punish women. Many PA State Representatives are jumping on Trump’s “Women Must be Punished” bandwagon. This ban is part of the plan by anti-choice zealots to punish women and criminalize doctors who perform abortions. Here is what you need to know about 20-week bans: 20-Week Bans Are Part of an Agenda to Ban All Abortion: The introduction of these bans doesn’t come in isolation. They’re part of a dangerous, out-of-touch, and coordinated effort to chip away at abortion access. Anti-abortion politicians in the General Assembly are pushing their agenda, bit by bit, to ultimately outlaw abortion completely. 20-Week Bans Criminalize Doctors: Politicians shouldn’t have the right to take options away from doctors in dangerous medical situations or prevent them from informing patients about all their health care options — and politicians certainly shouldn’t be allowed to force a woman to carry a pregnancy to term with no chance of survival. 20-Week Bans Are Unpopular: These bills — and the extreme agenda they are part of — are deeply unpopular with the public. When Americans understand the real-world impact of 20-week bans, a solid 60 percent of voters oppose them. In fact, 78 percent of Democrats, 62 percent of Republicans, and 71 percent of Independents — say this is the wrong issue for legislators to be spending time on. 20-Week Bans Are Unconstitutional: 20-week bans are unconstitutional and a clear attempt to erode Roe v. Wade at the expense of women’s health. In fact, 20-week ban proponents are outspoken about their goal to challenge the 1973 Supreme Court decision protecting a woman’s right to safe and legal abortion.

Too many people including children are suffering & dying while the People of this country have spoken in favor of ending the prohibition of particularly Medical Cannabis. Authorities such as the corrupt, broken system in Georgia are ignoring the clear will of the people, relying on over 75 years of superstitions & harsh, unjust laws while taking money from big-Pharma & Tobacco to deny access, and put people like Negron & Mazurek in prison for simply supplying their own medicine. What is wrong is wrong.

A quarter century of professional experience and personal observation prove the potential for tragedy from unintended consequences of ill-considered bureaucratic decisions and actions. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration administrator, Mark R. Rosekind, has recently joined activists elevating the call to mandate student safety belts on full-sized school buses. Oprah advocated this measure many years ago on her show. Her logic was that if seat belts were required on cars for passenger safety, it was only common sense that they should be required on school buses for the safety of students, also. To the average person, it would seem obvious that this idea should be a no brainer. It is doubtful that many of those calling for this measure have ridden in a modern school bus, and that even fewer have had the responsibility of driving one. For decades these vehicles have been designed and redesigned to improve the safety of our students. Despite recent high-profile accidents drawing attention to this issue, school buses are the safest vehicles on the road. Their greatest dangers are collisions with trains or semi-trailer trucks and rollovers. Absent such occurrences, injuries are extremely rare, and major injuries and life-threatening conditions are nearly nonexistent. The recent CBS News report addressing this issue stated that there were 4 deaths in 1 year, and a study estimated that safety belts could reduce that to 2 deaths. While even those 2 deaths are 2 too many, failure to consider the unintended consequence of mandating seat belts on full sized school buses could make that statistic far preferable to the alternative. In 25 years driving small and full-sized school buses, I have no personal knowledge of anyone suffering any injury from the lack of safety belts. Though I do fully support the benefits of seat belts on the small buses with fewer passengers or special education students that are at greater risk in any collision, the worst injury a passenger on my bus has suffered in a quarter century was inflicted by a 3 year old on another 3 year old preschooler with a seat belt. That head injury, though superficial, clearly indicated the potentially lethal consequences of placing seat belts in the hands of teenagers with such poor judgment that their driving privileges are wisely restricted with graduated drivers licenses. From first-hand experience, the lack of seat belts would have prevented the worst injury any of my passengers have suffered. But, the potential for tragedies from incidents over the last couple decades clearly demonstrates the need to take unintended consequences seriously. Both personally and professionally I use a seat belt whenever I get into a vehicle. Professionally, drivers are always required to wear a seat belt, not for their safety, but to keep them close to the steering and braking controls. 25 years experience indicates that if manufacturers are required to equip full size school buses with seat belts, that added expense will influence them to install the minimum standard to save on costs. Those seat belts frequently contain plastic components that are subject to sticking, jamming, and breaking, which makes them difficult to fasten and more importantly difficult or nearly impossible for young students to release. Every year, emergency evacuation drills are required for students to know those procedures in case of an emergency. With a capacity of around 70 students, it is critically important that those procedures can be executed as smoothly and quickly as possible in order to save lives and avoid injuries. The Cary Grove High School bus hit by a commuter train in Fox River Grove, Illinois on October 25, 1995, tragically demonstrates an incident where the ability to evacuate quickly might have reduced the 7 deaths. On August 23, 2011, a Southeast Polk School District bus in Iowa burst into flames on the first day of school. But, 16 students were safely evacuated, despite a sticking rear exit door, demonstrating how lives can be saved and injuries avoided with a smooth and rapid evacuation. Anyone who has stopped behind a loaded full sized school bus unloading knows that is not necessarily a very quick process with the narrow aisle requiring single file movement. Anything that could slow this process or create panic in an emergency would become a matter of life and death. Having had to go back and release students from seat belts that they were unable to release, I can guarantee that it is not a matter of if, but only when, dozens of lives will be lost by the addition of student safety belts to full sized school buses in order to potentially save the 2 lives that the study estimated those belts could save. If this measure is implemented, those lost lives are on those that insisted it be mandated, despite being made clearly aware of the lethal danger of the unintended consequences. If the bureaucrats insist on risking the lives of every school bus passenger in the country, at the very least, they need to require the highest aircraft quality easy fastening positive engagement lift latch release buckles available, such as those manufactured for luxury automobiles by Hickok decades ago. Of the three most dangerous occurrences only the rollover, which could be expected to cause bruises and broken bones but rarely life threatening injuries, could be measurably helped by the use of seat belts. But, the rarity of that occurrence compared to the tragic loss of life caused by delayed evacuation from the use of seat belts in a collision with a train or semi trailer truck fire negates the benefits of using seat belts to prevent less serious injuries. Even the suggestion of regulations to require student seat belts on full sized buses is already beginning to endanger students, because school districts are ordering buses with seat belts in order to meet potential future rules. It is the mandate of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to im...

Our children are the future.

Super-delegates are a continuing cause for disenfranchisement in the Democratic Party, and they substantially affect the primary because they make Hillary's lead appear insurmountable. Enough is enough. The Super-delegates need to represent their voters or they need to find another job.

The United States has a very low voter turnout compared to other countries. It's important that as many citizens as possible be given the opportunity to participate in our democracy by voting. Making election day a federal holiday will give significantly more people the opportunity to vote. Since it will replace Columbus Day, it won't generate any additional costs.

Laws that target regulation of abortion providers, or TRAP laws, have been sweeping across the county, including here in North Carolina. Just last year, Governor McCrory signed into effect some of the most restrictive abortion laws in the nation, directly contradicting his own campaign promise to never do so. McCrory has already said that he’ll vote for Trump if he gets the Republican nomination for president – does McCrory also agree with Trump on his position on abortion? While the nation rightly ridicules the Governor for his misguided and destructive support of HB 2, let’s not forget the other promises he’s broken to women of North Carolina. Tell McCrory to stand with women and let him know that we won’t tolerate his Trump-esque attitudes and actions toward abortion in our state. Women deserve elected leaders who don’t TRAP them in petty partisan games.

I am asking everyone to sign this petition to request that Alexander Graham Bell Assocation cease their campaign against American Sign Language and our proud Deaf culture. AGBAD has been plotting with their lies and distorted truth against us since September 11, 1880. "It is our hope to dispel the myths about deafness and spread the word that deaf children can hear and talk. What it means to be “deaf” has changed." commented in her post by M. Sugar, President, AGBAD. The recent post by AGBAD was a final straw in the camel's back. They need to cease and desist their oppression and audism. It is time for them to fold as they do not represent the truth about the Deaf community. American Sign Language is here to stay! It is time for AGBAD to end its 136 years of lies!

The overwhelming majority of the 4,400 colleges and universities in the United States prohibit the carrying of firearms on their campuses. These gun-free policies have helped to make our post-secondary education institutions some of the safest places in the country. Tennessee is a state that specifically prohibits people from carrying concealed guns on public college campuses. This legislation will force Tennessee’s public colleges and universities to allow the carrying of loaded, concealed handguns on public college and university campuses. We believe that Tennessee’s college and university administrators and campus security experts are best equipped to evaluate and make policy decisions that affect their campus communities, not opportunistically motivated lawmakers. Please sign this petition that says No to guns on campus in Tennessee and be sure to share it with a friend, too. We will make sure to deliver all petition signatures to Governor Haslam and the Legislature. Thank you.