lgbt seniors grew up in a time of extreme discrimination and biases. in the 1950 and 60 thousands of gay and lesbian employees lost their jobs. [inaudible] thought to have severe mental illness. many people were forces into mental institutions or subjected to conversion therapy in a effect to cure cume. by the time the aids epidemic hit in the 1980's the u.s. government ignoreed the crisis forcing lgbt people to start their own support. [inaudible] particularly of lgbt seniors of color who live in poverty or marginalized fear disclosing their identity. the problems we have seen can be devastating chblt we had a client who was forcibly separated from his partner of 7 years when they were put in separate facilities. the partner died alone 13 months later and our client was prevented to be at his side. at another case a hospital facility admitted [inaudible] as a jane dough patient. once they found her scr reunited a couple and moved them to another facility it was clear well meaning staff would be a problem. we learned at one point the facility had been

myself and supervisor campos is the first item coming before us based on the representation of the lgbt aging task force colleagues our lgbt senior population is growing in san francisco this is a good thing for many years we had too many landlord/tenant people not making it to the senior years given the hiv and the aids emancipation proclamation he desk people are living longer and that's a very, very good thing it creates challenges many challenges around seniors in general in terms of making sure that people live in dignity and remain part of the community there are specific challenges that lgbt seniors face they are less likely to have adult children to care for them and likely to not be near their bio california family more likely to have gone through life with a stigma and isolation with the discrimination we need to make sure we are trooth the specific needs of our lgbt seniors and treating them with complete respect and embracing them in 2012, we passed legislation to create the lgbt aging task force that task force did terrific of e treveng work and produced a very, very good r

it's one piece of the broader issue and challenge we face around our aging lgbt population. yesterday, colleagues, and i want to thank you for this, we unanimously passed our legislation to address discrimination and other needs of lgbt seniors living in long-term care facilities. we have other legislation in the works to begin moving forward with implementation of the lgbt aging task force's recommendations, we will have several budget proposals around aspects of that report. and this issue is certainly an issue we need to grapple with. the good part about it, in addition to the fact that people are living longer and living healthier lives, the positive here is that this is not one of those issues that is perpetual and has no boundaries around it. this is a very discrete, defined population of long-term survivors who we need to address so we don't have large numbers of people with hiv losing their housing and either becoming homeless or housing to leave the city. i know we can address it working to the and i look forward to that work. with that, mr. chairman, if there are n

identity for the shelters so people who are lgbt are comfortable. i talked about facilities being preferable. i respect people have rights and i'm balancing these two things and we'll probably open within the 3-6 months with two-thirds of the bed and 1/3 of the bed go for a 3-1 and see how that works out. >> thank you. >> any other questions from the council at this time? >> okay. we'll move on. does the mod staff have any questions? >> through the chair, thank you. this actually isn't the question. it's more of a comment. i have known you through just about everyone of your city assignments been made to the supervisors and head of mons, i can't think of anybody better qualified to hold your position because of the incredible depth of knowledge and deposited of empathy and love that you bring to us and your competency is phenomenal. thank you. >> thank you. it great work and i know all of you support us and it's fun. we are in insurgents and to say that the status quo isn't good enough. we are comrades here. thank you. we'll open up for public comme

lgbt is not.n you have that discussion with a lot of people supporting these laws, charles, they say being black and being gay is nowhere near the same thing because black is a race. gay is a choice. in fact, a lot of them believe you can fix it, what do you think of that? >> first of all, that's asinine. nothing is wrong with being gay. if you're gay, you're gay. i don't believe you choose to be gay. i don't think anybody would want to go through the scrutiny that gay people go through in this country. you see what they go through right now. it's a perfect example. that's a great question. who wants this type of scrutiny? nobody say, let me be gay so i can't eat at certain restaurants, nobody is going to serve my wedding or my commitment ceremony, nobody would choose that. but listen, don't get -- this is about discrimination. i know you said blacks, first of all, can't act like racism doesn't exist now. but if you open this can of worms, just opens up, can say, i'm not going to serve black peopl

juan: critics note the fixes to the anti-lgbt laws will not expand lgbt rights.any republicans who supported the changes said they were concerned about potential economic damage from boycotts and lost jobs due to protests. but advocates welcomed the changes and vowed to continue pushing for equal rights. this is human rights campaign president chad griffin. amy: we will go to that clip in a moment. right now, we are joined from philadelphia by george takei legendary actor and gay rights activist. he is perhaps best known for his role as hikaru sulu on the television series "star trek." last week, he called for a boycott of indiana to condemn its anti-lgbt law saying he wanted to -- "not only send a clear message to indiana, but also to help stop the further erosion of our core civil values in other parts of this country." welcome back to democracy now! george takei, it is great to have you with this. your response to the so-called fixes to the arkansas and indiana laws? >> well, it seems to be going in the right direction, and i hope they continue to move in that

there are no lgbt civil rights protections in indiana. the cities that have lgbt protections pointed to this law to justify discrimination. everywhere else, they don't need to point to this law. they can still just did it criminate at will against lgbt people all over indiana. they just can't point to this law when they do it. >> certainly, yes. i think the legal status quo in those states is not very advanced. but the notion that you have these conservative states, confined to this new law, we need to treat this as a protected class, do you view that as progress? >> it is a tiny step forward. they backed these laws because they wanted to legalize did it crime, then claimed that the laws didn't legalize discrimination. they wanted every which way. the situation arkansas however is worse because the governor of arkansas just a allowed a bill to become law without his signature that basically trumps at the state level all local, municipal civil rights protections for lgbt people. so the status quo in arkansas is bad has gotten worse and the

. >> straight ahead for "eyewitness news" find out the steps he is taking to span the lgbt community kate. >> we have one more night of cloudy, cold conditions before showers and storms start to make their way in we have an eye on a storm that could bring the threat for severe weather in our area tomorrow, i'll have details coming up, leslie. >>> eagles preseason opponent are all set and phils and red sox in south philadelphia, phillies looking for win number two on the season but everyone is still talking about closer jonathan papelbon had to say following the game last n okay buddy what's your favorite kind of cheerios? honey nut. but... chocolate is my other favorite... but apple cinnamon is my favorite too... and fruity... oh yeah, and frosted! okay, but...what's you're most favorite of all? hmm... the kind i have with you. me too. >>> philadelphia is a lesbian, gay, trand gender friendly city. recent states up is as indiana and a arkansas passed religious freedom laws which critics say invite discrimination based on sexual orientation. >> councilman mark and other city officials

lgbt. this is the first project in the history of the united states that recognized there were lgbt owned businesses that could provide value to a public works project, so two years ago on september 26 2013 thanks to the leadership of maria ayerdi-kaplan and it was so successful and one year later that governor brown signed a new letter into order that recognized that lgbt businesses shall be in the procurement process of the 41 public utilities company throughout california so what started here is creating jobs across california in a new and innovative way. and as the director said we are proud to be recognized by president obama's cabinet member maria contierra sweet and worked with the department of transportation and housing under the gray davis administration and a key part of making this project happen. she has been in washington, d.c. and tracking the project and wanted to know what is going on and how we're so successful with small business in regards to this project and it was fant

of groups to establish in that process one that looked at hiv and aid and needs of people who were lgbt and we participated in both of those work groups. it was through that effort that we were helpful in bringing forward the issue of people at risk of losing their long-term disability insurance policies. i don't think that we can take credit for the issue around the treatment that people will have experience and may experience in some of these skilled nursing facilities and assisted living programs. i do think though, that there is an increase need for a conversation between folks from the hiv community, senior services community and the lgbt community. there is an organization in san francisco called open house which has been working to address the housing needs of the lgbt community as they age. there are some organizations from outside the city that have been coming into provide some technical assistance to help facilitate some training between, so there are some cross training between the hiv community and the senior provider community and i think there is a great opportunity for c

as they claim a problem with the service for lgbt people this is essentially harmful in indiana while the board of supervisors and we all respect the free speech of religion that free speech can't be invoked as an excuse to discriminate against people's sex call overwhelmingly orientation with a less deserving of services and as a result of the signing of sb 101 we've seen an out pouring of condemnation across the industry mayor ed lee directed all city departments to refrain from any travel to indiana and salesforce has band all employee travel to indiana and indicated that salesforce will not be expanding in indiana and list as an $18.5 million add a thousand jobs over 5 years in indiana the nap napkin president harassed issued a statement over serious concern indicating the naacp will review previous events and forego consistency with the values of the naacp and could stop future sports events in the state and in the washington post announced the bill eli you thought of indiana health services some of the largest employers in i said i understand have condemned the law and schooled

>> reporter: lawmaker said they worked with leader odd of the lgbt and religious commute.s and think they have a measure that both sides can live with. it can prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and a business cannot refuse business to anyone including lgbt individuals but could avoid taking part in an event that violates their religious convictions. >> the message is clear today, coming from republicans, democrats, corporate leaders, the community of leaders of all stripes, that indiana is open for business. we welcome everybody and discriminate against no one. >> reporter: much of the trouble came because indiana does not ha a state law on the books specifically prohibiting discrimination against the lgbt community. some states do. >> everything seems to be partly about the 2016 presidential race. >> and a number of potential 2016 g.o.p. contendes rushed to back indiana's governor. so will it be an issue? that's a question. even as peps has tried to find his footing he has gone support from jeb bush and marco rubio and ted cruz. i talked to some po

. >> thank you very much lee i'm here on behalf of harvey milk club lgbt democrat club i'm thanking for the progress we're at the harvey milk club are unanimously in support of implementing clean air sf and commit to make sure that the significant resources you know from our club are spent on making sure that happened we believe that environmental health is not just a human right but, in fact, a lgbt community we have a vulnerable community with disproportion rates of employment and this is true both locally where the homeless population is accumulated of 31 percent of lgbt and definitely true global warming as well and when an vial catastrophe occurs and it will occur that vulnerable communities are hit the harder and the homeless lgbt brothers and sisters go for shelter in a crisis it is a chance to scale back the opportunity and navigation to equal access to a healthy environment rerecognize the equal assess to the thousands of jobs under clean power sf those jobs should be prioritized and formally incarcerated individuals and people that have roadblock after roadblock it transformed

as the corporate outcry grows against -- as the backlash grows against indiana for passing an anti-lgbtreligious freedom restoration law, lawmakers in arkansas pass a similar bill despite opposition from wal-mart. we will go to indianapolis and speak with indiana senate democratic leader tim lanane. senator lanane: we need to take clear, actionable steps to repair the image of our state. we cannot drive out a single job or an individual because there is no, my's it comes to dissemination. so, let's start with a full repeal of rfra, period. repeal repeal, repeal. amy: then "the nation" magazine, the country's oldest weekly news magazine turns 150 years old. we will speak the nation's editor and publisher katrina -- >> everybody wrote for the nation. pat buchanan. langston hughes. kurt vonnegut. gore vidal. amy: we will speak the nation's editor and publisher katrina vanden heuvel. we will speak about the hundred 50 year history, to politics today, from elizabeth warren, to ted cruz, to arming ukraine. all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now democracynow.org, the war and pe

so they can still just discriminate at will against lgbt people all over any. they can't point to this law within they do it. it's kind of a distinction without a difference. >> certainly, yes. i think the legal status quo there in those states is fought very advanced. the notion you have legislator says confine to this law, we need to treat this as a protected class. do you view that as progress? >> it's a teeny step forward. it's an exploding cigar in the relenl jut rite that backed these laws then claimed they didn't legalize discrimination and are now complaining the laws specifically disae lou the legalization of discrimination. they want it every which way. the situation in arkansas however, is worse because the governor of arkansas just allowed a bill to become law without his signature that basically trumps at the state level all local municipal civil rights protections for lgbt people. so the status quo in arkansas is bad, has gotten worse and the amendment of arkansas's religious freedom act did nothing to change that. arkansas has gone backwards in t

what will the potential outcomes mean for lb -- lgbt writes? ? dear to lead the discussion is amy howe, a partner with goldstein and russell in d.c., where she serves as cocounsel at the supreme court. she is editor of scotus blog, covering the supreme court, and the author of a regular column about the court. she is a good friend to acs. please join me in welcoming amy. [applause] ms. howe: i am going to start by introducing our panel. we will spend about an hour talking with them. then we will try to leave time for questions. i'm going to keep my introductions short. they are very accomplished, but i want to give us plenty of time to bask in their wisdom. they are conveniently arranged in alphabetical order. steve sanders on my left, a professor at indiana university school of law. she teaches constitutional law. he spent four years in private practice before becoming a professor. during those four years, he managed to sneak in arguments of his own at the supreme court. in this round of cases, he was among the councils on a brief on behalf of h

this was all about legalizing discrimination against lgbt people?ting specifically lgbt people. and it's bad for corporate america. it's bad for the creative economic. it's bad for apple and angie's list. and somehow mike pence didn't get the home moe about the cultural shift going on in the last 20 years in this country. and he has egg all over his face. >> let's talk about the coalition. the group of organizations opposing the bills o formidable. and walmart, coke the gap, huge major american corporations. and my question to you is can the same group of people be summoned to fight the broader civil rights issues? not just the these sort of stand-alone bills in arkansas and indiana and ones being proposed in north carolina and georgia. but the broader fight for equality. do you think these are new partners? i do i think they're new partners. but corporations act in their own interests. and what you're seeing is this patch work. the difference in laws from state to state around marriage around employment protections is a bureaucratic nightmare for t

we shouldn't discriminate against people because of who they love #lgbt.n o'malley calls the law reprehensible saying i think it's shameful that presidential candidates in this day and age would try to give cover to a law that attempts to give license to discrimination of gay and lesbian people and goes on to say, this is just wrong. as far as those, thomas who have kept quiet, kentucky senator rand paul new jersey governor chris christie. we haven't heard from them. you look at the pattern there with the exception of paul and christie, every gop hopeful out there for 2016 they are basically backing pence. you throw in bobby jindal as well rick santorum mike huckabee. >> you would think with the libertarian bend we would know where rand paul came down on this. we haven't heard from him. chris christie i think we have a good idea. we'll wait to see where it goes. frances, thanks. we have a lot more to get to in the next hour. i'm going to speak to the journalist from the paris match who broke the story about this alleged cell phone video that was taken on b

that as we get marriage equality in more and more states that we remember many many members of the lgbt community have no employment and housing protections and in fact we continue to see legislatures pass laws that say we are going to empower people to discriminate against lgbt people. it is good the state of indiana was forced to step back and monday the law. there are other states that tine to pursue this type of legislation have other forms of legislation discriminating. it is important to go on record and think this amended resolution does this well >> thank you supervisor campose >> i want to thank supervisor wiener for the amendments and i think one thing this will require is our department or all of us to become-be mindful of the fact that there may be additional pieces of legislation in different parts of the country that are introduced and i'm afraid with prez dense election coming up this is probably going to be more ofa curns, but i think it is important for us to be on record and to the extent that departments do not sponsor any state that actually does that. thank you >> t

. >> welcome back the democrat from long island and co-chair of the lgbt equality caucus.good morning, thank you very much for being with us. you're putting forth legislation to really go at discrimination against gays and lesbians, outline the parameters of what you want to do and how easy or difficult it's going to be to achieve in congress. >> well, earlier this week, we ifficu actually first introduced a t resolution which is really -- expresses the sense of congress a statement of our values. a discrimination against members of the lgbt community in e lgb housing, credit education e public accommodation, jury service should not be permitted. it's being led by andre carson and the equality caucus is've obviously working d harded to support that. we had in the first fay days over 100 members signed on. that's really a statement of our values. in addition, i'm working on legislation with senator merkley on the senate side that will approach this in aompr more tion comprehensive way, this issue of discrimination against the lgbt community. and really say that you can't di

look, there are more than 100 anti-lgbt bills in state legislatures across the country. some are died. some have been defeated. they're under attack in this country by a small political faction that thought they could sneak in these state legislatures without anyone noticing, without business noticing, without constituents noticing, and without the media noticing. guess what? the world was watching, we're paying attention, and we're holding folks accountable. >> i think one of the things that was most surprising was the business world responding to this. companies like walmart people do not necessarily associate has having the most presentationogressive policies came out in force. how did -- how were they brought on board? >> look here's what happened. these bills attack the citizens of state from which these companies do business but these bills also attack the employees of these very companies. it's bad business. companies have a self-interest to step up and do the right thing and to make sure they're defeated. you have a governor like governor hutchinson he wants to b

especially for the lgbt community. nothing could have been futter from the truth, but it was clear that the perception had to be addressed. hoosier hospitality had to be restored the inclusion, the welcoming attitude of every hoosier had to be buttressed. we're pleased to tell you today that at 9:30 we'll be presenting what we believe is a very strong statement to assure that every hoosier's rights are protected, and won't be infringed upon by the enactment of rifra. oesh the over last week we spent a great deal of time with the people you see behind us. not just indianapolis but the state of indiana making sure we could land on the same page to let every hoosier know that we value you, gay, straight black, white, religious, non-religious. we valley value each and every hoosier. senator? >> appreciate that. again, thank you all for being here today. if there's one takeaway from all of the calamity that's happened i think in the past week it would be this -- that is that religious rights and individual rights can co-exi

the local tie to the lgbt athlete speaking out about discrimination in indiana. be right back. . >>> lgbt athletes took a stand today at the ncaa tournament. athletes including a former stanford basketball player spoke out about discrimination. will has the story. >> reporter: indianapolis is in the spotlight as the ncaa tournament gets underway. but for some, a cloud hangs over the festivities as the debate over the religious freedom law continues. on saturday a group of lgbt athletes calling for the sports community to lead the way against discrimination. >> today the threat of the religious discrimination law is lessened because of the voices of the sports community. the lgbt community and community leaders. >> reporter: jason collins the first active professional sports player to come out also speaking. >> athletes, coaches athletic institutions and sports sponsors from across the country took a historic stand on the right side of history. and a great time of need. >> reporter: controversy erupted after mike pin signed the restoration act into law which oppon

this issue was identified by the lgbt aging task force which, colleagues, as you know issued a report last year after we formed the task force in order to explore the challenges and opportunities around our growing lgbt senior population. the task force identified this as a looming problem for our community and the purpose of this hearing is to learn more about it and to really begin a process to determine how best to address it. in the 1980's and early 1990's, in particular, before there was any effective treatment for hiv, many people particularly gay men with hiv who were employed and who became sick during the height of the crisis became disabled and left the work force, frequently accessing their private disability benefits. for many of these people they did not necessarily think that they were going to make it, given the lack of effective treatment and they remained on private disability policies. , out of the work force for many years. starting the mid-1990's we began to see more and more effective treatments, not to cure hiv but to allow people to stabilize their health and to

this is about this committee against the lgbt community.f course they support religious freedom, but i think from the perspective of the lgbt community and a lot of advocates that this law was not there and they did not want to endorse it by doing business with indiana. host: "the associated press" talks about this new language saying that the amendment to the act for of its service providers from using the lot of legal defense on refusing to provide goods, services, and -- that seems wide range, give your take. -- that seems like a wide range, give your take. guest: you are really what i am reading and i think when you talk to the advocates for the lgbt community, they are saying it won't be enough and the conservative right is saying it will go to far. at the end of the day, no one will really be happy, but that is legislating. host: robert from tennessee. democrats line. caller: hello? host: go ahead. guest: hi. host: robert, go ahead, please. guest: i can hear you. caller: suppose i am a christian and i decide i am only going to serve c

as they tell us lgbt athletes spoke out today against that measure. >> indianapolis is in the spotlight this weekend as the ncaa final 4 tournament gets underway. but for some, a cloud hangs over the festivities as the debate over indianas religious freedom laws continues. lgbt athletes and their supporters gathering before the game and calling for indiana's sports community to lead the way against discrimination. >> today the threat of the religious discrimination law has been lessened because of the voice of lgbt community and sports community and community leaders, but the fight is not over. >> jason collins, the first activity professional sports player to come up out as gay also speak. >> athletes, coaches, athletic institutions and sports sponsors from across the country took an historic stand on the right side of history, unin a great time of made it kneed. >> controversial erupted after indianan governor pence signed the law into law, and he fine an amendment barring discrimination based on religious, and sexual orientation. >> a church was given pastoral candidate and say one i