The life-saving Affordable Care Act (ACA) has made a world of difference to LGBTQ Coloradans. The ACA has provided access to care and strengthened protections for millions of Americans, including transgender people and the broader LGBTQ community. Before the passage of the ACA, being transgender was considered a pre-existing condition, and LGBTQ folks could be charged more for the same service as non-LGBTQ adults. The ACA extended health insurance coverage to more than 600,000 Coloradans through the public health exchange and Medicaid expansion, eliminated pre-existing conditions and transgender-specific exclusions, established cost parity, clarified that spousal benefits must apply to same sex couples, and removed limits on annual and lifetime spending for people with chronic conditions. Colorado’s uninsured rate dropped significantly as a result of the ACA. A survey by One Colorado found that the uninsured rate for LGBTQ Coloradans was cut in half between 2011 and 2018. Insurers in the individual market could no longer drop, deny, or charge more for coverage because of a pre-existing condition. That’s particularly important for the nearly 2.4 million Coloradans living with a pre-existing health condition. An estimated 65% of LGBTQ adults have a pre-existing condition. Despite the successes of the ACA, it is still at risk— and we need our leaders, like Senator Cory Gardner, who has voted seven times in his career to repeal the ACA, to start defending it. Sign this petition and tell Senator Cory Gardner to protect the ACA for LGBTQ Coloradans.

Timing is critical to reduce the rate of infection in Orange County. We should not allow the opinions of a minority of the people acting out with their emotions and threatening officials to drive public policy. Decisions should be made from research conducted by doctors, scientists and investigators. Next steps We are requesting that you and the Orange County governing administration launch an aggressive campaign to inform and educate the community that the Covid-19 Pandemic is not over and why it is strongly recommended that we continue to wear face masks publicly and in places of business. The communication campaign can be broadly diversified via informative TV commercials, targeted advertisements on social media (Facebook, YouTube), blog posts, educational materials mailed to each household, celebrity endorsements, local businesses displaying signs in their buildings, articles in local newspapers with bold headlines that include the words, "strongly suggest wearing face masks," and appearances on local TV news broadcasts and radio stations as well.

American couples are not solely white. American families with only white children are not representative of reality....it’s about time to include the diversity we see in everyday American households reflected in these emojis. They are the only emojis where skin color cannot be chosen and this deserves to be changed.

Because as U.S. citizens we have a right to peaceful protests which can be seen in the wearing of our face masks. In a time of civil unrest, with thousands of people and hundreds of companies speaking out against the racial inequality imposed on African Americans, we as a people should be able to wear what ever kind of mask we so choose as long as it doesn’t go against someone’s religion, ethnic background, and doesn’t have obscene graphics or language.

It’s Important because a lot of us don’t know our history or what Juneteenth is about. I want this to educate my community because I didn’t really know what Juneteenth was about until I was an adult. I want my community to be celebrated because we built this country.

The July 3rd fireworks event at Mount Rushmore, hosted by President Donald Trump and Governor Kristi Noem, is using tax payer dollars to needlessly put lives at risk. On July 3, 7,500 people will attend a tax payer funded fireworks event at the Mount Rushmore National Memorial. Despite the rising COVID-19 cases in the state, Governor Noem said state officials "do not anticipate doing any social distancing activities during the celebration." David Bernhardt, the secretary of the United States Department of the Interior, has the authority and responsibility to close national monuments, like Mount Rushmore, over concerns for public safety. According to the CDC, the highest risk events for spreading COVID-19 are "large in-person gatherings where it is difficult for individuals to remain spaced at least 6 feet apart and attendees travel from outside the local area." Because of the spread of COVID-19, the National Park Service must cancel President Donald Trump's July 3rd fireworks event at Mount Rushmore.

It's important to let the management of WFMU know that it is not ok to exploit it's volunteer DJs. We should be able to keep our show title and all content that we provided to the station, should we decide to leave. Please let me keep my name, Rock 'n' Soul Ichiban

Our request to the City: As citizens of West Linn, we believe that our City should be a place where all people feel welcome to live, work, and visit. Michael Fesser and his community in North and Northeast Portland have expressed a genuine desire to have an open and honest dialogue with West Linn to build trust and relationships. The present circumstances provide a leadership opportunity to advance this goal, but the window of opportunity is closing. We believe it is important that this dialogue is spearheaded by the City leadership. Demonstrating a willingness to engage in conversation is the starting point for meaningful understanding and change. We strongly support engagement with Michael Fesser and his community, and we urge the City to take the following actions: 1) Invite Michael and community members to engage in an ongoing dialogue, with the first meeting by or before July 20th 2) Commit to active listening in order to build trust and understand the goals, aspirations, and barriers that impede connections between our communities. 3) Take the initiative in coordinating and hosting the conversations. We look forward to the City acting quickly on this opportunity to build bridges between our communities for a more inclusive and equitable future. We understand that there are other issues on the City leadership’s agenda, but we feel this dialogue should have a top priority on your list. The conversations we are advocating for are not dependent on the outcome of any ongoing investigations, the current City equity audit, the task force for proposing a police oversight body, or any other initiatives by the city. Rather, we have an opportunity to gain an understanding that will inform us and help with ongoing decision making. We invite you to join us in this effort to create an open and welcoming place for all to live, work, play, and engage with businesses.

Those of us with privilege must use our platforms to speak up and stand up for our black and brown siblings whose livelihoods are threatened by violent racism. This conversation desperately needs to happen everywhere -- including and especially in quiet, wealthy, predominantly white communities like Jamestown. We are fortunate to live in a kindhearted, close-knit island town, peaceful by design and by luck. But justice and peace depend on each other. Without true justice, there can be no true peace. And as long as black Americans continue to be systematically robbed of both, we must heed the moral obligation to disrupt our own uneasy peace and to speak out. This will require grappling with discomfort, fear, and shame. But the end result - justice - will be more than worth it. The commitments made here are deliberately broad, intended to herald the coming change we will pursue. Accordingly, Jamestown for Justice will follow up to support the development of a specific anti-racist agenda. By signing this statement, you call for Jamestown to come together as a unified front, not only against racism itself, but actively in pursuit of anti-racism. This is only the beginning. The road before us is long, and it will be challenging to navigate. But we are stronger as a unified community, and will be able to make more significant progress than any one of us could on our own. So let us be loud and clear as we say, as proud Jamestowners: Black Lives Matter.

FCPS claims that they have laid the groundwork as a county that prides themselves on fostering a safe education for students from all walk of life. However, they fail their students and faculty by not taking reports of racial discrimination seriously!

During this time of incredible upset, the Trump Administration has decided to finalize a rule rolling back protections for Transgender and Trans* people. President Trump has taken our outcries for equality and spat on them, dragging the LGBTQ community into the series of horrific events unfolding this 2020. The night of the four year anniversary of the Pulse Nightclub shooting, a shooting in Orlando Florida that ended with hundreds of members of the queer community dead, was the night the Trump Administration chose to tell the queer community that they are not worth health care. That if a doctor or hospital refuses to treat them based on their sexual or gender identity, that the law doesn't care about them. It feels as if he does not care about the marginalized, making it very clear to America that if we saw Black Lives Matter, he will say QUEER LIVES DON'T. The Trump Administration has been working tirelessly to narrow the definition of gender in order to LEGALLY deny health care to Transgender people and eventually the entire queer community. Queer people, especially QUEER PEOPLE OF COLOR are so much less likely to seek medical care when they need it, precisely because of the ignorance and disrespect with which the health care system sees them. We are already fighting the global pandemic of Covid-19, along with the national pandemic of POLICE BRUTALITY. The Trump Administration is shoving down our throats the reality that they would rather we all just die. We must not allow this message to be heard without a FIGHT. We must STAND UP TO INJUSTICE and not allow Trump's distracting disregard for queer life to end our fury and demand for change. This is only a stepping stone towards changing the way AMERICA SEES EQUALITY. If we don't stop this law, next it will be legal to not give health care to any queer person, or to a person based on their race, or religion. If a person has no protections based on their gender identity, what is to stop hospitals from turning away cis men or women based on their preference of gender identity. This erasure of gender related protections is DANGEROUS. This has the potential to affect every single person in America, regardless of your political standpoint. ALL PEOPLE DESERVE HEALTH CARE no matter how they identify. ALL HUMANS ARE CREATED EQUAL UNDER GOD, says the constitution. It is our job to uphold this precedent.

Brigham Young was many things, but he also taught racist ideas that the Church currently disclaims. In 1852, Brigham Young said to the Utah Legislature, "In as much as we believe in the Bible ... we must believe in slavery. This colored race have been subjected to severe curses ... which they have brought upon themselves. And until the curse is removed by Him who placed it upon them, they must suffer under its consequences." Further examples of the racist ideas the Church now disclaims are included in the Church-issued essay "Race and the Priesthood" https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics-essays/race-and-the-priesthood?lang=eng. BYU continues to symbolize The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints through its athletic programs and national and international relationships and academic programs. We feel that the time has come to choose a symbol that does not constantly remind Black Church members of painful parts of our history. In doing this, we are not seeking to "whitewash" Brigham Young from our history; rather, we feel that our emphasis as a church should be on unifying voices, especially those that the Church and its members have historically undervalued. We submit this petition humbly to those who have the responsibility to make such decisions, and recognize that the "voice of the people" will only be one factor in the process of considering this change. We ask all Church members and friends to consider signing this petition as a show of good faith that we are "looking to the future," a future beyond racism and discrimination and which embraces our brothers and sisters of all races throughout the world. #BlackLivesMatter #LetsTalkAboutUtah Photo by Francisco Kjolseth at the Salt Lake Tribune Thank you to Tasi Young's Special to the Tribune for the impetus to create this petition. https://www.sltrib.com/opinion/commentary/2020/06/12/tasi-young-time-change/?fbclid=IwAR28xHnnFcvrBr7DzknH5gB0FkOLGvVN2Rh88AL6Gsjdt3wz8_KTMq_lMJo