Georgia House Democrats, including openly lesbian Reps. Simone Bell and Keisha Waites, held a public forum at the Capitol Feb. 11 to discuss six pieces of proposed legislation focused on education.
The proposed bills, four of which have already been filed during the current legislative session, included The Restore & Build HOPE Act, the Anti-Discrimination Act, the Education Transparency Act, the Parent Protection Act, the Drop-Out Deterrent Act and the End Cyber-Bullying Act.
Two of the bills, the Anti-Discrimination Act and the End Cyber-Bullying Act, specifically address concerns of LGBT voters.
Democrats in the Georgia General Assembly rolled out their legislative agenda for 2013 today which includes a bill “to prevent student scholarship organizations from funding private schools that discriminate against Georgia’s children.”
Dubbed the Anti-Discrimination Act, the bill is sponsored by Rep. Simone Bell (D-Atlanta) and Rep. Spencer Frye (D-Athens), according to Emily Oh, spokesperson for the House Democratic Caucus.
Bell is the first openly lesbian African-American state lawmaker in the country.
Even before news that President Barack Obama claimed a second term in the White House late last night, Republicans and conservatives had already begun searching for someone, or something, to blame for their candidate's defeat.
With Obama's victory, Democrats have won four of the last six presidential elections going back to 1992.
Early on election night, conservative Fox News pundit Bill O'Reilly blamed the eventual loss on Hurricane Sandy, suggesting the storm which ravaged the northeast just a week ago took all of the momentum out of the hands of former Mass. Gov. Mitt Romney.
The pressure is being put on President Barack Obama to evolve on his stance of supporting gay marriage as four former Democratic National Committee chairs made a public statement today calling for marriage equality to be included in the party's 2012 platform.
The former DNC chairs are Howard Dean, Donald Fowler, Steve Grossman and David Wilhelm. They are joining Freedom to Marry's campaign, "Democrats, Say I Do."
The Democratic National Convention takes place Sept. 3 in Charlotte, N.C., where the state is currently undergoing a war to fight off a ban on gay marriage.