social issues

"There's a lot of mistrust between police and transgender women," 60-year-old activist Monica Yorkman said Monday to Baltimore Police Commissioner Anthony W. Batts, during a police forum held specifically for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community.

Equality Maryland has endorsed Sen. Brian Frosh, a Montgomery County Democrat, for attorney general, calling him a "firm ally" of the state's lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community.

Johns Hopkins' efforts to improve public health can begin with decent employee pay

As staunch advocates of patient rights, Planned Parenthood of Maryland led the successful campaign for passage of Senate bill 790, which closes a wide gap in confidentiality laws to help protect the privacy of health care information for all Maryland women and families.

Who bears the burden of America's social ills?

Interview with Deborah Eisenberg, U.Md. associate professor of law and equal pay advocate

Service workers fighting for higher wages remained at loggerheads with The Johns Hopkins Hospital Friday as they ended a three-day strike over higher wages – and said they could walk off the job again.

Paul Ryan is quick to identify laziness in "inner city" but not of rural and white poor

While not setting a definitive precedent, those rulings did put a massive amount of momentum behind court and legislative efforts to legalize same-sex marriage in states across the country, and a couple of those cases have now progressed so rapidly that they could land the issue before the Supreme Court once more.

It seems that many minorities do not give back to their communities to help develop the next generation pursue STEM fields, or that many minority kids are turned away from STEM fields because they do not believe it is possible to be successful in these fields. If our society wants to see more minorities in STEM fields then we as a whole have to contribute and not put the entire burden on the education system to train the next generation of minorities in STEM fields.

Brown campaign releases 4th TV ad

A recap of the April 8 episode of 'Glee,' as life in NYC takes some tough turns

Six regional and national advocacy organizations have filed arguments in federal court on behalf of a transgender retired police sergeant who brought a discrimination suit against Howard County after she was not chosen for a volunteer police mounted patrol.

A new group called Reform Baltimore County Animal Services organized the rally. The group says conditions at the facility must be improved, pointing to a euthanasia rate of more than 60 percent last year.

Maryland's minimum wage will rise to $10.10 by July 2018 under a bill granted final passage by state lawmakers Monday. The measure goes to Democratic Gov. Martin O'Malley for his promised signature.

Maryland lawmakers are poised to raise the minimum wage and decriminalize marijuana Monday as this year's General Assembly's session cruises to a close at midnight.

Baltimore County animal shelter

On Scandal: After all of the messiness that went on with the Grant family last week, Liv is taking a much-needed vacation from Fitz, while sending Abby to the White House as her "proxy."

Albany men's lacrosse's Thompson trio opening eyes and doors with their play and presence

While it is encouraging that Maryland legislators are working to raise the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour, the recent decision by the House of Delegates (if left to stand) to freeze the tipped minimum wage would represent a significant step backward for thousands of workers, particularly women.

Don't say, "I told you so," but... British diver Tom Daley is gay.

In a world replete with human rights abuses affecting vast numbers of people, the curious and awkward misfortunes of those with mismatched bodies — transgender folk — may seem insignificant. But people have a fundamental right to be themselves, even if that means transgressing a barrier between the sexes that some think should be impassable. When we recognize that, we make a powerful statement that human dignity matters.

Baltimore County discriminated against older employees by requiring them to contribute more to their pensions than younger employees, a federal appeals court ruled this week.

Police desperately searching for 8-year-old Relisha Rudd in a Northeast Washington park on Monday instead found a body they believe is that of the man suspected of abducting the girl weeks ago.

A long wait for Laurel residents came to an end on Friday, March 28 with the opening of the first retailer at the Towne Centre at Laurel, a new retail area still under construction. The grand opening of Burlington Coat Factory Friday is a major milestone in the $130 million development at the site of the former Laurel Mall on Route 1.

Newly-approved legislation won't protect transgender population but puts general public at risk

The calls to remove Charles Stanley's name from the Laurel public library are narrow-minded and reflect the shallow, simplistic understanding the vast majority of Americans have about the Civil War. If asked to identify the cause of the Civil War, most Americans would reflexively respond, "slavery." This is simply not true.

That's why nearly three in four Americans support raising the minimum wage. But Republicans in Congress stand in lock-step opposition. Some even want to scrap the minimum wage entirely. One Republican Congressman said he would vote to repeal it if he had the chance. These arguments aren't new. Opponents of the minimum wage have been using them for years. And time and again, they have been proven wrong. Raising the minimum wage is good for businesses, good for workers, and good for our entire

Employer should have the right not to finance an employee's abortion

The day after the state legislature extended civil rights protections to transgender people, the group that successfully petitioned same-sex marriage to the ballot in 2012 threatened to petition the transgender protections too

Legislation barring discrimination against trans-gender people passed the General Assembly Thursday, after the House of Delegates approved it following an impassioned debate. The bill cleared the Senate earlier this month. After the House voted 82-57 to pass the bill, Gov. Martin O'Malley said he would sign the measure.

Republican opponents stoop to misguided fears of bathroom invasions to oppose anti-discrimination protections that most Marylanders support

A lesbian couple married in Massachusetts filed a lawsuit this week looking for recognition of their marriage in Puerto Rico.

Now, Smith is honoring his late brother, Tevin Jones, by announcing a scholarship fund in his name Saturday during halftime of a Battle of the Beltway charity basketball game at Comcast Center on the University of Maryland campus.

One year ago, local activist group Housing Our Neighbors stood with the 14 residents of a tent city in the heart of downtown Baltimore and watched as a city bulldozer demolished tents that had housed people for years. This approach to homelessness and tent cities is both misguided and ineffective. We know what works to end this crisis: a model called "housing first," coupled with policies that increase the supply of affordable housing, health care, jobs and livable wages.

Even though the Baltimore City school system is making progress at keeping students in school, in each of the last three years one quarter of all city school students and nearly one third of its special education students have been chronically absent. That's far too many.

Should Supreme Court rule religious 'rights' of corporations hold sway, discrimination likely to extend beyond access to contraception

The founder of the Westboro Baptist Church, which has staged several anti-LGBT protests in the Baltimore area, died Thursday.

Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan said Wednesday he expects Baltimore to be a model for a new program, which will turn over thousands of units of public housing to private and nonprofit developers.

A new poll found that Maryland residents overwhelmingly support a proposed bill that would ban discrimination based against transgender individuals.

Sixth-graders at Glenwood Middle School donated $975 and 20 boxes of supplies and gift cards to Grassroots Crisis Intervention Center last month.

Wedding etiquette doesn't just involve knowing which fork to use when eating your starter salad -- it's way more than that.

Six Maryland lawmakers signed a letter asking President Barack Obama to sign an executive order protecting LGBT employees from discrimination.

Last March, Maxine and Robert Pineda began storing and distributing food from a walk-in pantry in the church basement. In August, Boggs gave up his Pastor's Conference Room to move the Food Pantry into a larger space. As it continues to grow, Robert Pineda wants to expand the pantry into an offsite location, ideally on Main Street.

Federal program won't begin to make up for the loss of affordable housing

If Baltimore's law prohibiting unfair discrimination against people with criminal records helps boost employment and grow the city's population everyone stands to gain