1.
Nonprofit organization
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A nonprofit organization is an organization whose purpose is something other than making a profit. A nonprofit organization is dedicated to furthering a particular social cause or advocating for a particular point of view. This is known as the non-distribution constraint, the decision to adopt a nonprofit legal structure is one that will often have taxation implications, particularly where the nonprofit seeks income tax exemption, charitable status and so on. The terms nonprofit and not-for-profit are not consistently differentiated across jurisdictions, in laymans terms they are usually equivalent in concept, although in various jurisdictions there are accounting and legal differences. The nonprofit landscape is varied, although many people have come to associate NPOs with charitable organizations. Although charities do make up an often high-profile or visible aspect of the sector, overall, they tend to be either member-serving or community-serving. e. It could be argued many nonprofits sit across both camps, at least in terms of the impact they make. For example, the support group that provides a lifeline to those with a particular condition or disease could be deemed to be serving its members. Many NPOs use the model of a bottom line in that furthering their cause is more important than making a profit. Although NPOs are permitted to generate revenues, they must be retained by the organization for its self-preservation, expansion. NPOs have controlling members or a board of directors, many have paid staff including management, whereas others employ unpaid volunteers and executives who work with or without compensation. In some countries, where there is a fee, in general. The extent to which an NPO can generate surplus revenues may be constrained or use of surplus revenues may be restricted. Some NPOs may also be a charity or service organization, they may be organized as a corporation or as a trust. Their goal is not to be successful in terms of wealth, NPOs have a wide diversity of structures and purposes. Some of the above must be expressed in the charter of establishment or constitution. Others may be provided by the authority at each particular jurisdiction. While affiliations will not affect a legal status, they may be taken into consideration by legal proceedings as an indication of purpose, most countries have laws that regulate the establishment and management of NPOs and that require compliance with corporate governance regimes
2.
Washington, D.C.
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Washington, D. C. formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, the District, or simply D. C. is the capital of the United States. The signing of the Residence Act on July 16,1790, Constitution provided for a federal district under the exclusive jurisdiction of the Congress and the District is therefore not a part of any state. The states of Maryland and Virginia each donated land to form the federal district, named in honor of President George Washington, the City of Washington was founded in 1791 to serve as the new national capital. In 1846, Congress returned the land ceded by Virginia, in 1871. Washington had an population of 681,170 as of July 2016. Commuters from the surrounding Maryland and Virginia suburbs raise the population to more than one million during the workweek. The Washington metropolitan area, of which the District is a part, has a population of over 6 million, the centers of all three branches of the federal government of the United States are in the District, including the Congress, President, and Supreme Court. Washington is home to national monuments and museums, which are primarily situated on or around the National Mall. The city hosts 176 foreign embassies as well as the headquarters of international organizations, trade unions, non-profit organizations, lobbying groups. A locally elected mayor and a 13‑member council have governed the District since 1973, However, the Congress maintains supreme authority over the city and may overturn local laws. D. C. residents elect a non-voting, at-large congressional delegate to the House of Representatives, the District receives three electoral votes in presidential elections as permitted by the Twenty-third Amendment to the United States Constitution, ratified in 1961. Various tribes of the Algonquian-speaking Piscataway people inhabited the lands around the Potomac River when Europeans first visited the area in the early 17th century, One group known as the Nacotchtank maintained settlements around the Anacostia River within the present-day District of Columbia. Conflicts with European colonists and neighboring tribes forced the relocation of the Piscataway people, some of whom established a new settlement in 1699 near Point of Rocks, Maryland. 43, published January 23,1788, James Madison argued that the new government would need authority over a national capital to provide for its own maintenance. Five years earlier, a band of unpaid soldiers besieged Congress while its members were meeting in Philadelphia, known as the Pennsylvania Mutiny of 1783, the event emphasized the need for the national government not to rely on any state for its own security. However, the Constitution does not specify a location for the capital, on July 9,1790, Congress passed the Residence Act, which approved the creation of a national capital on the Potomac River. The exact location was to be selected by President George Washington, formed from land donated by the states of Maryland and Virginia, the initial shape of the federal district was a square measuring 10 miles on each side, totaling 100 square miles. Two pre-existing settlements were included in the territory, the port of Georgetown, Maryland, founded in 1751, many of the stones are still standing
3.
Chad Griffin
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Chad Hunter Griffin is an American political strategist best known for his work advocating for LGBT rights in the United States. Griffin got his start in politics volunteering for the Bill Clinton presidential campaign, AFERs challenge, Perry v. Brown was ultimately successful following a decision by the United States Supreme Court in June 2013. In 2012, Griffin was appointed president of the Human Rights Campaign, Griffin was born in Hope, Arkansas, and grew up 45 miles to the northeast in Arkadelphia. Griffin dropped out of college and became, at the age of 19 and he worked as a White House Press Office manager for two years. There, he acted as White House liaison to the 1995 film The American President. Griffin went on to lead Reiners charitable foundation and to work with Reiner on numerous political efforts, AFER is a nonprofit organization formed to challenge the federal constitutionality of Californias Proposition 8, which limited legal recognition of marriage in California to opposite-sex couples. After leaving the White House, Griffin entered the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, Griffin was also a part of Griffin Schein, a consulting firm that he founded with Kristina Schake, former communications director for Michelle Obama. Griffin, who is gay, is best known for his work advocating for LGBT rights. Griffin and Reiner founded AFER in 2008 to challenge the federal constitutionality of Californias Proposition 8, prior to AFERs founding, Griffin had raised funds and produced television ads for the No on 8 campaign. This was Griffins first professional work on LGBT rights, following Proposition 8s passage in 2008, Griffin and Reiner reflected on the No campaigns failure, and the possibility of mounting a federal legal challenge. An acquaintance of Reiners suggested speaking to conservative lawyer Theodore Olson, Griffin saw the case and Olsons support as an opportunity to frame the same-sex marriage debate in nonpartisan terms. It was Olson who later suggested recruiting the contrastingly liberal David Boies as co-counsel, Griffin approached Boies, who quickly accepted. Meanwhile, Griffin began discussing the case with other LGBT rights organizations. These same groups would later ask to intervene in the lawsuit, an attempt which Griffin fought, in a letter to the leaders of those organizations, Griffin wrote You have unrelentingly and unequivocally acted to undermine this case even before it was filed. In light of this, it is inconceivable that you would zealously and effectively litigate this case if you were successful in intervening, Griffin also expressed concern that intervention would complicate the trial, making it less efficient and would, as a result, ultimately weaken their case. In May 2009 AFER announced its creation after filing their lawsuit, now styled Hollingsworth v. Perry, the lawsuits plaintiffs are two same-sex couples, Kristin Perry and Sandra Stier, Paul Katami and Jeffrey Zarrillo. Governor of California Jerry Brown and other officials are listed as defendants in their official capacities. Perry was successful at district court and at the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, on June 28, California resumed marrying same-sex couples
4.
Civil and political rights
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Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure ones ability to participate in the civil and political life of the society, Civil and political rights form the original and main part of international human rights. They comprise the first portion of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the phrase civil rights is a translation of Latin ius civis. Roman citizens could be either free or servile, but they all had rights in law. After the Edict of Milan in 313, these included the freedom of religion. Roman legal doctrine was lost during the Middle Ages, but claims of rights could still be made based on religious doctrine. According to the leaders of Ketts Rebellion, all men may be made free. In the 17th century, English common law judge Sir Edward Coke revived the idea of rights based on citizenship by arguing that Englishmen had historically enjoyed such rights, the Parliament of England adopted the English Bill of Rights in 1689. The Virginia Declaration of Rights, by George Mason and James Madison, was adopted in 1776, the Virginia declaration is the direct ancestor and model for the U. S. Bill of Rights. The removal by legislation of a civil right constitutes a civil disability, in early 19th century Britain, the phrase civil rights most commonly referred to the issue of such legal discrimination against Catholics. In the House of Commons support for civil rights was divided, the Roman Catholic Relief Act 1829 restored their civil rights. In the 1860s, Americans adapted this usage to newly freed blacks, congress enacted civil rights acts in 1866,1871,1875,1957,1960,1964,1968, and 1991. Marshall notes that civil rights were among the first to be recognized and codified, followed later by political rights, in many countries, they are constitutional rights and are included in a bill of rights or similar document. They are also defined in human rights instruments, such as the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Civil and political rights need not be codified to be protected, although most democracies worldwide do have formal written guarantees of civil, Civil rights are considered to be natural rights. Thomas Jefferson wrote in his A Summary View of the Rights of British America that a free people their rights as derived from the laws of nature, the question of to whom civil and political rights apply is a subject of controversy. According to political scientist Salvador Santino F. Regilme Jr. Custom also plays a role, the United States Declaration of Independence states that people have unalienable rights including Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. It is considered by some that the purpose of government is the protection of life. Ideas of self-ownership and cognitive liberty affirm rights to choose the food one eats, the one takes
5.
Advocacy group
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Advocacy groups use various forms of advocacy in order to influence public opinion and/or policy. They have played and continue to play an important part in the development of political and social systems. Groups vary considerably in size, influence, and motive, some have wide-ranging long term social purposes, motives for action may be based on a shared political, religious, moral, health or commercial position. Groups use varied methods to try to achieve their aims including lobbying, media campaigns, publicity stunts, polls, research, and policy briefings. Some groups are supported or backed by business or political interests and exert considerable influence on the political process. Some have developed into important social, political institutions or social movements, Some groups, generally ones with less financial resources, may use direct action and civil disobedience and in some cases are accused of being a threat to the social order or domestic extremists. Research is beginning to explore how advocacy groups use media to facilitate civic engagement. An advocacy group is a group or an organization tries to influence the government. The first mass social movement catalyzed around the political figure. Charged with seditious libel, Wilkes was arrested after the issue of a general warrant, as a result of this episode, Wilkes became a figurehead to the growing movement for popular sovereignty among the middle classes – people began chanting, Wilkes and Liberty in the streets. After a later period of exile, brought about by further charges of libel and obscenity, Wilkes stood for the Parliamentary seat at Middlesex, where most of his support was located. When Wilkes was imprisoned in the Kings Bench Prison on 10 May 1768 and this was the first ever sustained social advocacy group, —it involved public meetings, demonstrations, the distribution of pamphlets on an unprecedented scale and the mass petition march. The force and influence of this social movement on the streets of London compelled the authorities to concede to the movements demands. Wilkes was returned to Parliament, general warrants were declared as unconstitutional, another important advocacy group that emerged in the late 18th century was the British abolitionist movement against slavery. Starting with an organised sugar boycott in 1791, it led the great petition drive of 1806. In the opinion of Eugene Black. association made possible the extension of the politically effective public, modern extra parliamentary political organization is a product of the late eighteenth century the history of the age of reform cannot be written without it. From 1815, Britain after victory in the Napoleonic Wars entered a period of social upheaval characterised by the maturity of the use of social movements. Chartism was the first mass movement of the growing working-class in the world and they led, among other things, to the formation of green parties and organisations influenced by the new left
6.
Lobbying
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Lobbying is the act of attempting to influence the actions, policies, or decisions of officials in their daily life, most often legislators or members of regulatory agencies. Lobbying is done by many types of people, associations and organized groups, including individuals in the sector, corporations, fellow legislators or government officials. Lobbyists may be among a legislators constituencies, meaning a voter or bloc of voters within their district, or not, they may engage in lobbying as a business. Professional lobbyists are people whose business is trying to influence legislation, regulation, or other government decisions, actions, individuals and nonprofit organizations can also lobby as an act of volunteering or as a small part of their normal job. Governments often define and regulate organized group lobbying that has become influential, the ethics and morality of lobbying are dual-edged. Lobbying is often spoken of with contempt, when the implication is that people with inordinate socioeconomic power are corrupting the law in order to serve their own interests. The failure of government officials to serve the public interest as a consequence of lobbying by special interests who provide benefits to the official is an example of agent misdirection. One story held that the term originated at the Willard Hotel in Washington, DC, a lobbyist is a person who tries to influence legislation on behalf of a special interest or a member of a lobby. Governments often define and regulate organized group lobbying as part of laws to prevent political corruption, Lobby groups may concentrate their efforts on the legislatures, where laws are created, but may also use the judicial branch to advance their causes. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, for example, filed suits in state and their efforts resulted in the Supreme Court declaring such laws unconstitutional. They may use a device known as amicus curiae, literally friend of the court. Briefs are written documents filed with a court, typically by parties to a lawsuit, amici curiae briefs are briefs filed by people or groups who are not parties to a suit. These briefs are entered into the records, and give additional background on the matter being decided upon. Advocacy groups use these briefs both to share their expertise and to promote their positions, over the past twenty years lobbying in Australia has grown from a small industry of a few hundred employees to a multibillion-dollar per year industry. Lobbying has become a fact of life and is now endemic in local, state. It is not just the local councillors and state and federal politicians being lobbied, in Australia, lobbyists are expected to organise a pass to obtain access to the federal parliament. The Parliamentary Pass must be signed by two parliamentarians and it is administered by the Department of Parliamentary Services and has the enforcement of the Criminal Code Act 1995. The Pass is valid for two years, however, the Parliamentary Pass is not absolutely necessary, as some lobbyists are simply signed in on the day of their visit as guests of Senators or Members
7.
United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
8.
Hate crime
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A hate crime is a prejudice-motivated crime, which occurs when a perpetrator targets a victim because of his or her membership in a certain social group. Examples of such groups can include and are almost exclusively limited to, sex, ethnicity, disability, language, nationality, physical appearance, religion, non-criminal actions that are motivated by these reasons are often called bias incidents. Hate crime generally refers to acts which are seen to have been motivated by bias against one or more of the types above. Incidents may involve physical assault, damage to property, bullying, harassment, verbal abuse or insults, a hate crime law is a law intended to deter bias-motivated violence. Hate speech laws exist in many countries, the term hate crime came into common usage in the United States during the 1980s, but the term is often used retrospectively in order to describe events which occurred prior to that era. From the Roman persecution of Christians to the Nazi slaughter of Jews, during the past two centuries, typical examples of hate crimes in the U. S. The verb to lynch is attributed to the actions of Charles Lynch, originally the term referred to extrajudicial organized but unauthorized punishment of criminals. It later evolved to describe execution outside of ordinary justice and it is highly associated with white suppression of African Americans in the South, and periods of weak or nonexistent police authority, as in certain frontier areas of the Old West. The murders of Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom and the Wichita Massacre were not classified as crimes by U. S. investigative officials or the media. In the early 21st century, conservative commentators David Horowitz, Michelle Malkin and this is believed to be based on the history of African slavery in this country. One of the largest waves of hate crimes took place during the Civil Rights Movement, during the 1950s and 1960s, both violence and threats were common against African Americans, and hundreds of lives were taken due to such acts. Members of this social class faced violence from groups such as the Ku Klux Klan as well as violence from individuals who were committed to segregation. African Americans have been the target of hate crimes since the Civil War, other frequently reported bias motivations were bias against a religion, against a particular sexual orientation, and against an ethnicity/national origin. At times, these bias motivations overlap, as violence can be both anti-gay and anti-black, for example, analysts have compared groups in terms of the per capita rate of hate crimes committed against them, to allow for differing populations. Overall, the number of hate crimes committed since the first hate crime bill was passed in 1997 is 86,582. Among the groups mentioned in the Hate Crimes Statistics Act. During the Civil Rights Movement, some of the most notorious hate crimes included the 1968 assassination of Martin Luther King Jr, such acts began to take place more frequently after the racial integration of many schools and public facilities. High-profile murders targeting victims based on their sexual orientation have prompted the passage of hate crimes legislation, notably the cases of Sean W. Kennedy, kennedys murder was mentioned by Senator Gordon Smith in a speech on the floor of the US Senate while he advocated such legislation
9.
Vic Basile
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Victor Basile is an LGBT rights activist who was the first executive director of the Human Rights Campaign, serving in that position from June 1983 to June 1989. Prior to HRC, Basile had been president of an American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees local union based in Washington, Basile has been, at least in the past, a supporter of outing gay politicians who work against LGBT rights. In 1989, the Washington Post quoted him as saying Those who participate in the community and they are like Jews who put other Jews into the ovens. Their duplicitous, devious, harmful behavior ought to be exposed, Basile remained on the board of HRC and has been involved in recruiting efforts for later heads of the HRC, such as the efforts which selected Joe Solmonese and Cheryl Jacques. Basile was a producer of the 1989 documentary After Stonewall. Basile was, along with William Waybourn, was a co-founder of the Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund, Basile was later executive director of the Baltimore-area charity, Movable Feast, which delivers meals to HIV and AIDS patients who cant leave their homes. Basile now works as a Counselor to the Director of the United States Office of Personnel Management
10.
Tim McFeeley
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Tim McFeeley is a lawyer and gay activist. Formerly the Executive Director of the Center for Policy Alternatives, a progressive political non profit, he is currently a Vice President of national executive search firm Isaacson, Miller. He joined Isaacson, Miller in 2008 where his practice mainly focuses on the legal, advocacy, McFeeley received his bachelors degree from Princeton University and his J. D. from Harvard Law School. In Boston, McFeeley was active in civic and political activities and served on the boards of directors of Gay & Lesbian Advocates and Defenders, McFeeley was a founder of both the Boston Lesbian and Gay Political Alliance and Bay State Stonewall Democrats. From 1989-95, McFeeley served as Executive Director of the Human Rights Campaign, in 1993 McFeeley directed HRCFs endeavors to lift the ban against gay and lesbian members of the Armed Services, an unsuccessful effort that led to the dont ask, dont tell policy. During that spring, McFeeley was part of the first delegation of gay and lesbian leaders to meet with the President, Bill Clinton, since January 2001, McFeeley has served as Political Director for the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. McFeeley authored The Price of Access, a book that describes and analyzes the federal end-stage renal disease program, McFeeley resides in Washington, D. C. and Provincetown, Massachusetts with his spouse, Robert J. Mondzak
11.
Harvard Law School
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Harvard Law School is one of the professional graduate schools of Harvard University, located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest continually-operating law school in the United States and is considered to be one of the most prestigious in the world. The school is ranked third by the U. S. News & World and its acceptance rate was 15. 4% in the 2013–14 admissions cycle, and its yield rate of 66. 2% was the second-highest of any law school in the United States. It is ranked first in the 2016 QS World University Rankings, Harvard Law admitted 16. 5% of applicants in its most recent class, compared to 9. 2% at Yale and 11. 2% at Stanford. With a current enrollment of 1,990, HLS has about as many students as its three closest-ranked peer institutions, first-ranked Yale, second-ranked Stanford, and fourth-ranked Chicago, combined. The first-year class is broken into seven sections of approximately 80 students, Harvards uniquely large class size and its prestige have led the law school to graduate a great many distinguished alumni in the judiciary, government, and the business world. According to Harvard Laws 2015 ABA-required disclosures,95. 33% of the Class of 2014 passed the Bar exam. Harvard Law Schools founding is linked to the funding of Harvards first professorship in law, paid for from a bequest from the estate of Isaac Royall. Today, it is home to the largest academic law library in the world, the current dean of Harvard Law School is Martha Minow, who assumed the role on July 1,2009. The law school has 328 faculty members, Harvard Law Schools founding is traced to the establishment of a law department at Harvard in 1817. Dating the founding to the year of the creation of the law department makes Harvard Law the oldest continuously-operating law school in the nation, William & Mary Law School opened first in 1779, but closed due to the American Civil War, reopening in 1920. The University of Maryland School of Law was chartered in 1816, but did not begin classes until 1824, and also closed during the Civil War. Or a Professor of Physick and Anatomy, whichever the said overseers and Corporation shall judge to be best. ”The value of the land, when fully liquidated in 1809, was $2,938, the Harvard Corporation allocated $400 from the income generated by those funds to create the Royall Professorship of Law in 1815. The dean of the law school traditionally held the Royall chair, deans Elena Kagan, royalls Medford estate, the Isaac Royall House, is now a museum which features the only remaining slave quarters in the northeast United States. The Royall family coat-of-arms, which shows three stacked wheat sheaves, was adopted as the school crest in 1936, topped with the university motto, in March 2016, following requests by students, the school decided to remove the emblem because of its association with slavery. By 1827, the school, with one faculty member, was struggling, nathan Dane, a prominent alumnus of the college, then endowed the Dane Professorship of Law, insisting that it be given to then Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story. For a while, the school was called Dane Law School, in 1829, John H. Ashmun, son of Eli Porter Ashmun and brother of George Ashmun, accepted a professorship and closed his Northampton Law School, with many of his students following him to Harvard. Enrollment remained low through the 19th century as university legal education was considered to be of little added benefit to apprenticeships in legal practice, at Harvard, Langdell also developed the case method of teaching law, now the dominant pedagogical model at U. S. law schools
12.
New England
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New England is a geographical region comprising six states of the northeast United States, Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and south, the Atlantic Ocean is to the east and southeast, and Long Island Sound is to the south. Its largest metropolitan area is Greater Boston, which also includes Worcester, Manchester, ten years later, more Puritans settled north of Plymouth Colony in Boston, thus forming Massachusetts Bay Colony. Over the next 126 years, people in the region fought in four French and Indian Wars, until the British and their Iroquois allies defeated the French and their Algonquin allies in North America. In 1692, the town of Salem, Massachusetts and surrounding areas experienced one of the most infamous cases of hysteria in the history of the Western Hemisphere. The Boston Tea Party was a protest to which Britain responded with a series of punitive laws stripping Massachusetts of self-government, the confrontation led to the first battles of the American Revolutionary War in 1775, and the expulsion of the British authorities from the region in spring 1776. Each state is subdivided into small incorporated municipalities known as towns. The only unincorporated areas in the region exist in the populated northern regions of Vermont, New Hampshire. The region is one of the U. S. Census Bureaus nine regional divisions, the earliest known inhabitants of New England were American Indians who spoke a variety of the Eastern Algonquian languages. Prominent tribes included the Abenaki, Mikmaq, Penobscot, Pequot, Mohegans, Narragansett Indians, Pocumtuck, prior to the arrival of Europeans, the Western Abenakis inhabited New Hampshire, New York, and Vermont, as well as parts of Quebec and western Maine. Their principal town was Norridgewock in present-day Maine, the Penobscot lived along the Penobscot River in Maine. The Narragansett and smaller tribes under Narragansett sovereignty lived in most of modern-day Rhode Island, west of Narragansett Bay, the Wampanoag occupied southeastern Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and the islands of Marthas Vineyard and Nantucket. The Pocumtucks lived in Western Massachusetts, and the Mohegan and Pequot tribes in the Connecticut region, the Connecticut River Valley includes parts of Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Connecticut, and linked different indigenous communities culturally, linguistically, and politically. As early as 1600, French, Dutch, and English traders began exploring the New World, trading metal, glass, on April 10,1606, King James I of England issued a charter for each of the Virginia Companies, London and Plymouth. These were privately funded ventures, intended to land for England, conduct trade. In 1620, Plymouth in present-day Massachusetts was settled by Pilgrims from the Mayflower, in 1616, English explorer John Smith named the region New England. As the first colonists arrived in Plymouth, they wrote and signed the Mayflower Compact, the Massachusetts Bay Colony came to dominate the area and was established by royal charter in 1629 with its major town and port of Boston established in 1630. Massachusetts Puritans began to settle in Connecticut as early as 1633, roger Williams was banished from Massachusetts for heresy, led a group south, and founded Providence Plantation in the area that became the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations in 1636
13.
Bill Clinton
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William Jefferson Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Prior to the Presidency he was the 40th Governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981, before that, he served as Arkansas Attorney General from 1977 to 1979. A member of the Democratic Party, Clinton was ideogically a New Democrat, Clinton is married to Hillary Clinton, who served as United States Secretary of State from 2009 to 2013 and U. S. Senator from New York from 2001 to 2009, and served the Democratic nominee for President in 2016, Bill Clinton and Hillary Rodham both earned degrees from Yale Law School, where they met and began dating. As Governor of Arkansas, Clinton overhauled the states education system, Clinton was elected President of the United States in 1992, defeating incumbent George H. W. Bush. At age 46, he was the third-youngest president and the first from the Baby Boomer generation, Clinton presided over the longest period of peacetime economic expansion in American history and signed into law the North American Free Trade Agreement. After failing to pass health care reform, the Democratic House was ousted when the Republican Party won control of the Congress in 1994. Two years later, in 1996, Clinton became the first Democrat since Franklin D. Roosevelt to be elected to a second term, Clinton passed welfare reform and the State Childrens Health Insurance Program, providing health coverage for millions of children. Clinton was acquitted by the U. S. Senate in 1999, the Congressional Budget Office reported a budget surplus between the years 1998 and 2000, the last three years of Clintons presidency. In foreign policy, Clinton ordered U. S. Clinton left office with the highest end-of-office approval rating of any U. S. President since World War II, since then, Clinton has been involved in public speaking and humanitarian work. He created the William J. Clinton Foundation to address international causes, such as the prevention of AIDS, in 2004, Clinton published his autobiography, My Life. In 2009, Clinton was named the United Nations Special Envoy to Haiti, since leaving office, Clinton has been rated highly in public opinion polls of U. S. Presidents. Clinton was born on August 19,1946, at Julia Chester Hospital in Hope, Arkansas and he was the son of William Jefferson Blythe Jr. a traveling salesman who had died in an automobile accident three months before his birth, and Virginia Dell Cassidy. His parents had married on September 4,1943, but this later proved to be bigamous. Soon after their son was born, his mother traveled to New Orleans to study nursing, leaving her son in Hope with her parents Eldridge and Edith Cassidy, who owned and ran a small grocery store. At a time when the Southern United States was segregated racially, in 1950, Bills mother returned from nursing school and married Roger Clinton Sr. who owned an automobile dealership in Hot Springs, Arkansas, with his brother and Earl T. Ricks. The family moved to Hot Springs in 1950, although he immediately assumed use of his stepfathers surname, it was not until Clinton turned fifteen that he formally adopted the surname Clinton as a gesture toward his stepfather. In Hot Springs, Clinton attended St. Johns Catholic Elementary School, Ramble Elementary School, and Hot Springs High School—where he was a student leader, avid reader
14.
National Coming Out Day
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National Coming Out Day is an annual LGBTQ awareness day observed on October 11. NCOD was founded in 1988 by Robert Eichberg and Jean OLeary, Eichberg, who died in 1995 of complications from AIDS, was a psychologist from New Mexico and founder of the personal growth workshop, The Experience. OLeary was an openly lesbian political leader and long-time activist from New York, queer activists, including Eichberg and OLeary, did not want to respond defensively to anti-LGBT action because they believed it would be predictable. This caused them to found NCOD in order to maintain positivity, the date of October 11 was chosen because it is the anniversary of the 1987 National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights. Most people think they dont know anyone gay or lesbian, and it is imperative that we come out and let people know who we are and disabuse them of their fears and stereotypes. In its second year, NCOD headquarters moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico, after a media push in 1990 NCOD was observed in all 50 states and seven other countries. Participation continued to grow and in 1990 NCOD merged their efforts with the Human Rights Campaign, National Coming Out Day is observed annually to celebrate coming out and to raise awareness of the LGBT community and civil rights movement. In more recent years, when coming out as a lesbian or gay man is now far less risky in most Western countries, participants often wear pride symbols such as pink triangles and rainbow flags. National Coming Out Day is also observed in Switzerland and the United Kingdom, candace Gingrich became the spokesperson for NCOD in April 1995. Over the past fifteen years, the Human Rights Campaign has announced a theme to go with every NCOD, the following is a list of most of the themes from 1999-2014,2014 - Coming Out Still Matters 2013 - Coming Out Still Matters 2012 - Come Out. 2011 - Coming Out for Equality 2010 - Coming Out for Equality 2009 - Conversations from the Heart 2007 - Talk About It 2006 - Talk About It 2005 - Talk About It 2004 - Come Out,2003 - Its a Family Affair 2002 - Being Out Rocks. Preston Mitchum, a Black queer writer, wrote an article called On National Coming Out Day, Dont Disparage the Closet, published in The Atlantic in 2013 that discusses the assumptions that NCOD makes
15.
Elizabeth Birch
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Elizabeth A. Birch is an American attorney and former corporate executive who chaired the board of directors of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force from 1992-1994. She served as the Executive Director of the Human Rights Campaign, Birch was born at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio, in 1956. Her father was a Canadian Air Force officer and she lived on numerous Canadian Air Force bases in her youth, during high school, she joined Up With People, a student performance group, and toured Europe and North Africa for a year. Birch graduated from the University of Hawaii in 1980 and earned a law degree at the Santa Clara University School of Law and she was an associate attorney with the law firm of McCutchen, Doyle, Brown & Enersen until joining Apple in 1989. Birch was worldwide director of litigation for Apple Computer and general counsel for its Claris subsidiary until 1995, Birch began her LGBT political activity as a member of the Bay Area Municipal Elections Committee, an LGBT political action committee based in a San Jose, California. She was co-chairwoman of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force from 1992 to 1994, Birch joined the Human Rights Campaign as Executive Director in January 1995. Over the next years she dramatically increased its size in both membership and budget. Her marketing approach to political organization provoked criticism that HRC was setting an agenda through its influence on sources of funding to the exclusion of local initiatives, in 2003, the organization opened its national headquarters building in Washington, D. C. During her tenure, a problem arose when the HRC endorsed New York Senator Al DAmato for re-election in 1998 when he was opposed by Chuck Schumer. Birch was executive director of the HRC until January 2004 when she left to more time with her partner, Hilary Rosen. She joined the Howard Dean presidential campaign as a senior advisor and she then became a professional public speaker. Under the tenure of Elizabeth Birch, the HRC strongly opposed the inclusion of transgender rights as an HRC policy priority, Elizabeth Birch was quoted as saying that the HRC would only support inclusion of transgender rights in the Employment Non-Discrimination Act over her dead body. In 2000, Birch became the first leader of an LGBT organization to address a political convention when she gave a prime-time speech at the Democratic National Convention. In 2004, Birch launched Birch & Company, a firm, with offices in Washington, D. C. Birch ran Rosie ODonnells production company, KidRo Productions, Inc. and oversaw ODonnells Foundation, Birch also hosts a talk show on here. Her guests have included Howard Dean, Pat Buchanan, Rosie ODonnell and she had a relationship with Hilary Rosen, former chief executive of the Recording Industry Association of America. They adopted twins, a boy and a girl, in Texas, black Tie Dinner, the largest LGBT fund-raising dinner in the Nation, presents an annual award in Birchs honor called the Elizabeth Birch Equality Award. The award is given annually to an individual, organization, or company that has made a significant contribution of national scope to the LGBT community
16.
Logo
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A logo is a graphic mark, emblem, or symbol commonly used by commercial enterprises, organizations, and even individuals to aid and promote instant public recognition. There are purely graphic emblems, symbols, icons and logos, in the days of hot metal typesetting, a logotype was one word cast as a single piece of type. By extension, the term was used for a uniquely set. At the level of communication and in common usage, a companys logo is today often synonymous with its trademark or brand. The arts were expanding in purpose—from expression and decoration of an artistic, storytelling nature, to a differentiation of brands, consultancies and trades-groups in the commercial arts were growing and organizing, by 1890, the US had 700 lithographic printing firms employing more than 8,000 people. Artistic credit tended to be assigned to the company, as opposed to the individual artists who usually performed less important jobs. Playful children’s books, authoritative newspapers, and conversational periodicals developed their own visual and editorial styles for unique, as printing costs decreased, literacy rates increased, and visual styles changed, the Victorian decorative arts led to an expansion of typographic styles and methods of representing businesses. A renewal of interest in craftsmanship and quality also provided the artists and companies with a greater interest in credit, leading to the creation of unique logos and marks. By the 1950s, Modernism had shed its roots as an artistic movement in Europe to become an international, commercialized movement with adherents in the United States. Modernist-inspired logos proved successful in the era of mass visual communication ushered in by television, improvements in printing technology, the current era of logo design began in the 1870s with the first abstract logo, the Bass red triangle. As of 2014, many corporations, products, brands, services, agencies, as a result, only a few of the thousands of ideograms in circulation are recognizable without a name. Ideograms and symbols may be effective than written names, especially for logos translated into many alphabets in increasingly globalized markets. For instance, a written in Arabic script might have little resonance in most European markets. By contrast, ideograms keep the general nature of a product in both markets. In non-profit areas, the Red Cross exemplifies a well-known emblem that does not need an accompanying name, the red cross and red crescent are among the best-recognized symbols in the world. National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies and their Federation as well as the International Committee of the Red Cross include these symbols in their logos, branding can aim to facilitate cross-language marketing. Consumers and potential consumers can identify the Coca-Cola name written in different alphabets because of the standard color, the text was written in Spencerian Script, which was a popular writing style when the Coca Cola Logo was being designed. Since a logo is the visual entity signifying an organization, logo design is an important area of graphic design, a logo is the central element of a complex identification system that must be functionally extended to all communications of an organization
17.
Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium
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Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium, commonly known as RFK Stadium, is a multi-purpose stadium in Washington, D. C. located about two miles due east of the U. S. Capitol building. It is the current home of D. C, United of Major League Soccer and the AT&T Nations Football Classic. The U. S. mens national team has played 22 matches there from 1977 to 2013. The stadium opened 56 years ago as District of Columbia Stadium in October 1961, armory Board and the U. S. Department of the Interior. It is now owned and operated by Events DC, an organization affiliated with the city government under a long-term lease from the National Park Service. The previous venue for baseball and football in Washington was Griffith Stadium and it has hosted international soccer matches in the 1994 World Cup,1996 Summer Olympics, and 2003 Womens World Cup. It also hosted a college bowl game, the Military Bowl, before its move in 2013 to Navy–Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in Annapolis. The stadium was renamed in January 1969 for U. S, Senator and presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, who had been assassinated in Los Angeles the previous June. The announcement was made by Secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall on January 18, RFK was one of the first major stadiums designed specifically as a multi-sport facility for both football and baseball. As a professional venue, RFK Stadium was home to the NFLs Redskins for 36 seasons. The teams return to prominence as a football power began the year that the original baseball Senators played their final season. The Redskins first game in D. C, Stadium was a 24–21 loss to the New York Giants on October 1,1961. The Beatles performed their last concert in Washington, D. C. on August 15,1966, the teams first win in the stadium was over its future archrival, the Dallas Cowboys, on December 17. This was the win in a 1–12–1 season, and it came on the final weekend of the regular season. The Redskins last win at RFK was a 37–10 victory over the Cowboys on December 22,1996, in its twelfth season, RFK saw its first pro football playoff game on Christmas Eve 1972, a 16–3 win over the Green Bay Packers. The stadium hosted the NFC Championship Game five times and the Redskins won them all, in the Super Bowls that followed, Washington won three of the five. The expansion Washington Senators of the American League played at RFK Stadium from 1962 through 1971 and they played their first season in 1961 at Griffith Stadium, now the site of the medical center for Howard University. In its ten seasons as the Senators home field, RFK Stadium was known as a hitters park
18.
Judy Shepard
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She and her husband, Dennis, are co-founders of the Matthew Shepard Foundation, and advocates for LGBT rights. Judy and her husband, Dennis Shepard, have lived in Casper, Judy is the mother of two sons, Matthew Wayne Shepard and Logan Shepard. On October 6,1998, Judys older son Matthew was beaten and pistol whipped in Laramie, Matthew Shepard died six days later at Poudre Valley Hospital in Fort Collins, Colorado on October 12,1998 at age 21. It was widely reported by media that it was due to him being gay. The incident became one of the cases of hate-crimes and was cited for passing hate-crime legislation. In response, Judy Shepard created the Matthew Shepard Foundation, the foundations purpose is to advance social justice, diversity awareness and education, and equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. She is the president of the Foundations Board of Directors. Judy and her husband Dennis were present at the introduction ceremony and that bill did not pass however, after then-President George W. Bush threatened to veto the bill if it passed. As of 2009, she is still president of the foundation. In May 2009, Shepard met with President Barack Obama, where he promised her he would pass the Matthew Shepard Act. On October 11,2009, she addressed a rally for LGBT rights in the United States Capitol, at the National Equality March, no one has the right to tell my son whether or not he can work anywhere. Whether or not he can live wherever he wants to live, in 2009, she authored the book The Meaning of Matthew, My Sons Murder in Laramie, and a World Transformed about the incident and its repercussions. On October 22,2009, the United States Congress passed the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, in 2009, Judy Shepard received the Black Tie Dinner Elizabeth Birch Equality Award. The award was presented to Ms. Shepard by Elizabeth Birch, herself, Shepard, Judy, The Meaning of Matthew, My Sons Murder in Laramie, and a World Transformed, Hudson Street Press. ISBN 1-59463-057-7 List of civil rights leaders
19.
Matthew Shepard
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Matthew Wayne Matt Shepard was an American student at the University of Wyoming who was beaten, tortured, and left to die near Laramie on the night of October 6,1998. Six days later, he died from head injuries at Poudre Valley Hospital in Fort Collins. Perpetrators Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson were arrested shortly after the attack, significant media coverage was given to the killing and what role Shepards sexual orientation might have played as a motive in the perpetration of the crime. The prosecutor argued that McKinneys murder of Shepard was premeditated and driven by greed, McKinneys defense counsel countered that he had only intended to rob Shepard, but had killed him in a rage when Shepard made a sexual advance towards him. McKinneys girlfriend told police that he had been motivated by anti-gay sentiment, both McKinney and Henderson were convicted of the murder and each sentenced to two consecutive life sentences. Shepards murder brought national and international attention to hate crime legislation at the state and federal levels. In October 2009, the United States Congress passed the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, following her sons murder, Judy Shepard became a prominent LGBT rights activist and established the Matthew Shepard Foundation. Shepards death inspired notable films, novels, plays, songs, Shepard was born in 1976 in Casper, Wyoming, the first of two sons born to Judy and Dennis Shepard. His younger brother, Logan, was born in 1981, the two siblings had a close relationship. Matthew attended Crest Hill Elementary School, Dean Morgan Junior High School, as a child, he was friendly with all his classmates, but targeted for teasing due to his small stature and lack of athleticism. He developed an early interest in politics, Saudi Aramco hired his father in the summer of 1994, and Shepards parents subsequently resided at the Saudi Aramco Residential Camp in Dhahran. During that time, Shepard attended the American School in Switzerland, there, he participated in theater and took German and Italian courses. He then attended Catawba College in North Carolina and Casper College in Wyoming, before settling in Denver and he was described by his father as an optimistic and accepting young man who had a special gift of relating to almost everyone. He was the type of person who was very approachable and always looked to new challenges, Matthew had a great passion for equality and always stood up for the acceptance of peoples differences. Michele Josue, who had been Shepards friend and later created a documentary about him, Matt Shepard is A Friend of Mine, described him as a tenderhearted, in February 1995, Shepard was beaten and raped during a high school trip to Morocco. This caused him to depression and panic attacks, according to his mother. One of Shepards friends feared that his depression had driven him to become involved with drugs during his time in college, multiple times, Shepard was hospitalized due to his clinical depression and suicidal ideation. On the night of October 6,1998, Shepard met Aaron McKinney, McKinney and Henderson decided to give Shepard a ride home
20.
Melissa Etheridge
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Melissa Lou Etheridge is an American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and activist. Her self-titled debut album Melissa Etheridge was released in 1988 and became an underground success. The album peaked at No.22 on the Billboard 200, in 1993, Etheridge won her first Grammy award for her single Aint It Heavy from her third album, Never Enough. Later that year, she released what would become her breakthrough album. Its tracks Im the Only One and Come to My Window both reached the top 30 in the United States, and the latter earned Etheridge her second Grammy award. Yes I Am peaked at No.15 on the Billboard 200, in October 2004, Etheridge was diagnosed with breast cancer, and underwent surgery and chemotherapy. At the 2005 Grammy Awards, she made a return to the stage and, although bald from chemotherapy, Etheridges performance was widely lauded, with India. Arie writing I Am Not My Hair about Etheridge. Later that year, Etheridge released her first compilation album, Greatest Hits, the album was a success, peaking at No.14 on the Billboard 200, and going Gold almost immediately. Her latest studio album is This Is M. E. Etheridge is known for her mixture of confessional lyrics, pop-based folk-rock and she has also been a gay and lesbian activist since her public coming out in January 1993. She has received fifteen Grammy Award nominations throughout her career, winning two, in 1993 and 1995, respectively, in 2007, she won an Academy Award for Best Original Song for I Need to Wake Up from the film An Inconvenient Truth. In September 2011, Etheridge received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, Etheridge was born in Leavenworth, Kansas, the younger of two girls of Elizabeth, a computer consultant, and John Etheridge, an American Constitution teacher at Leavenworth High School. She attended David Brewer School, which is located at 17th. She graduated in 1979 from Leavenworth High School at 10th Avenue, Etheridge was a member of the first Power and Life musical/dance group at LHS. Her childhood home was at 1902 Miami Street, Etheridges interest in music began early, she picked up her first guitar at 8. She began to play in all-men country music throughout her teenage years. While at Berklee, Etheridge played the club circuit around Boston, after three semesters, Etheridge decided to drop out of Berklee and head to Los Angeles to attempt a career in music. Etheridge was discovered in a bar called Vermies in Pasadena, CA and she had made some friends on a womens soccer team and those new friends came to see her play. One of the women was Karla Leopold, whose husband, Bill Leopold, was a manager in the music business, Karla convinced Bill to see her perform live
21.
Garth Brooks
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Troyal Garth Brooks is an American country singer and songwriter. His integration of rock and roll elements into the genre has earned him immense popularity in the United States. Brooks has had success in the country single and album charts, with multi-platinum recordings and record-breaking live performances. He is also one of the worlds best-selling artists of all time, since 1989, Brooks has released 21 records in all, which include,12 studio albums,1 live album,3 compilation albums,3 Christmas albums and 4 box sets, along with 77 singles. He won several awards in his career, including 2 Grammy Awards,17 American Music Awards, troubled by conflicts between career and family, Brooks retired from recording and performing from 2001 until 2009. During this time, he sold millions of albums through a distribution deal with Walmart. In 2005, Brooks started a comeback, giving select performances. In 2009, he began Garth at Wynn, a periodic weekend residency show at Las Vegas Encore Theatre from December 2009 to January 2014, following the conclusion of the residency, Brooks announced his signing with Sony Music Nashville in July 2014. In September 2014, he began his tour, The Garth Brooks World Tour, with wife. His most recent album, Gunslinger, was released in November 2016, Brooks was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame on October 21,2012. Troyal Garth Brooks was born on February 7,1962, in Tulsa and this was the second marriage for each of his parents, giving Brooks four older half-siblings. The couple had two children together, Kelly and Garth, at their home in Yukon, Oklahoma, the family hosted weekly talent nights. All of the children were required to participate, either by singing or doing skits, Brooks learned to play both the guitar and banjo. As a child, Brooks often sang in casual family settings, in high school, he played football and baseball and ran track and field. He received a scholarship to Oklahoma State University in Stillwater. Brooks graduated in 1984 with a degree in advertising and his roommate, Ty England, later played guitar in his road band until going solo in 1995. In 1985, Brooks began his music career, singing and playing guitar in Oklahoma clubs and bars. Through his elder siblings, Brooks was exposed to a range of music
22.
Pet Shop Boys
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Pet Shop Boys are an English electronic pop duo, formed in London in 1981 and consisting of Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe. Pet Shop Boys have sold more than 50 million records worldwide, Other hit songs include a cover of Go West, Opportunities and What Have I Done to Deserve This. in a duet with Dusty Springfield. At the 2009 Brit Awards in London, Pet Shop Boys received an award for Outstanding Contribution to Music, in 2016, Billboard magazine named Pet Shop Boys the No.1 Billboard Dance duo/group over the 40 years since the charts inception in 1976. In 2017 the duo received NMEs Godlike Genius Award, Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe met in an electronics shop on Kings Road in Chelsea, London, in August 1981. Recognising a mutual interest in music, they began to work together on material, first in Tennants flat in Chelsea and from 1982. It was during early years that several future hit songs were created, including Its a Sin, West End Girls, Rent. Their big break came in August 1983, when Tennant was assigned by Smash Hits to interview The Police in New York, the duo were obsessed with a stream of Hi-NRG records made by New York producer Bobby Orlando, simply known as Bobby O. According to Tennant, I thought, well, if Ive got to go and see The Police play, in April 1984, the Orlando-produced West End Girls was released, becoming a club hit in Los Angeles and San Francisco. On 2 November, it was voted Screamer of the Week by listeners of Long Island and it was a minor dance hit in Belgium and France, but was only available in the United Kingdom as a 12 import. In March 1985, after negotiations, Pet Shop Boys cut their contractual ties with Bobby O. Hiring manager Tom Watkins, they signed with the London-based Parlophone label, in April, Tennant left Smash Hits and in July, a new single, Opportunities, was released, reaching number 116 in the UK. The B-side to this single, In the Night, later resurfaced, in a remixed version, as the opening track to the duos first remix album, Disco. This version was used as the theme for the UK television series The Clothes Show. Unperturbed by the low position, the band returned to the studio in August to re-record West End Girls with producer Stephen Hague. Released in October 1985, this new version entered the charts at a similarly low position. It was subsequently number one in the United States, Canada, Finland, Hong Kong, Lebanon, Israel, New Zealand and Norway and it remains the most-heard Pet Shop Boys song to date. After the success of West End Girls, Pet Shop Boys released a single, Love Comes Quickly. The single reached number 19 in the UK Singles Chart and was followed by their album, Please
23.
K.d. lang
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Lang, OC, known by her stage name k. d. lang, is a Canadian pop and country singer-songwriter and occasional actress. Lang has won both Juno Awards and Grammy Awards for her performances, hits include Constant Craving and Miss Chatelaine. She has contributed songs to soundtracks and has collaborated with musicians such as Roy Orbison, Tony Bennett, Elton John, Anne Murray, Ann Wilson. Lang is also known for being an animal rights, gay rights and she is a tantric practitioner of the old school of Tibetan Buddhism. She performed Leonard Cohens Hallelujah live at the ceremony of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. Previously, she had performed at the ceremony of the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary. Lang possesses the range of a mezzo-soprano. Lang was born in Edmonton, Alberta, the daughter of Audrey and she is of English, Irish, Scottish, German, Russian Jewish, Icelandic, and Sioux ancestry. When Lang was nine months old, her moved to Consort, Alberta. Her father, an owner, left the family when she was twelve. After secondary school, Lang attended Red Deer College, where she became fascinated with the life and music of Patsy Cline and she formed a Patsy Cline tribute band called the Reclines in 1983, and they recorded a debut album, Friday Dance Promenade, at Sundown Recorders. Label owner Larry Wanagas became her personal manager, the first band featured Stu Macdougal on keys, Dave Bjarnson on drums, Gary Koligar on guitar and bassist Farley Scott. The Reclines regularly played the legendary Sidetrack Cafe, a venue that featured live bands six nights a week. In 1983, Lang presented a piece, a seven-hour re-enactment of the transplantation of an artificial heart for Barney Clark. A Truly Western Experience was released in 1984 and received strong reviews, in August 1984, Lang was one of three Canadian artists to be selected to perform at the World Science Fair in Tsukuba, Japan. I was broke at the time, so Id find things at Value Village or get my mom to make me a skirt from the curtains she was about to throw out, I loved playing with the clothes as much as the music. Lang made several recordings that received positive reviews and earned a 1985 Juno Award for Most Promising Female Vocalist. She accepted the award wearing a wedding dress borrowed from her roommate at the time
24.
Nathan Lane
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Nathan Lane is an American stage, film and television actor and writer. O. J. Simpson as F. Lee Bailey, in 2006, Lane received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and in 2008, he was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame. Lane was born Joseph Lane in Jersey City, New Jersey on February 3,1956 and his father, Daniel, was a truck driver and an aspiring tenor who died in 1967 from alcoholism when Lane was eleven. His mother, Nora, was a housewife and secretary who suffered from manic depression and he has two older brothers, Daniel Jr. and Robert. Lanes parents were Catholics of Irish descent and he was named after his uncle, a Jesuit priest. Accepted to Saint Josephs University in Philadelphia on a drama scholarship, discovering that the scholarship would not cover enough of his expenses, he decided to leave, and work for a year to earn some money. I remember him saying to me, College is for people who dont know what they want to do, because there already was a Joseph Lane registered with Actors Equity, he changed his name to Nathan after the character Nathan Detroit from the musical Guys and Dolls. He made his Broadway debut in a 1982 revival of Noël Cowards Present Laughter as Roland Maule with George C, Scott, Kate Burton, Dana Ivey, and Christine Lahti. His second Broadway appearance was in the 1983 musical Merlin, starring Chita Rivera and this was followed by Wind in the Willows as Mr. Toad, Some Americans Abroad at Lincoln Center, and the national tour of Neil Simons Broadway Bound. He also appeared at the Williamstown Theatre Festival in The School for Scandal, in 1991, Lane appeared with George C. Scott again in a revival of Paul Osbornes On Borrowed Time at the Circle in the Square Theatre on Broadway. In 1992, he starred in the hit revival of Guys and Dolls, playing the character who lent him his name, opposite Peter Gallagher, for this performance, he received his first Tony nomination, as well as Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards. In 1992, he won an Obie Award for Sustained Excellence of Performance and his professional association with his close friend the playwright Terrence McNally, whom he met in 1987, includes roles in The Lisbon Traviata, Bad Habits, Lips Together, Teeth Apart, Love. Dedication or the Stuff of Dreams, which opened in 2005, The Last Mile on PBS Great Performances, the early 1990s began a stretch of successful Broadway shows for Lane. In 1993, he portrayed Sid Caesar-like Max Prince in Neil Simons Laughter on the 23rd Floor, inspired by Simons early career writing sketches for Your Show of Shows. In 1996, he starred in the hit revival of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, for which he won the Tony, Drama Desk, in 1998, he appeared Off-Broadway in Jon Robin Baitzs revised 1984 comedy, Mizlansky/Zilinsky or Schmucks. His association with Sondheim began with the workshop of Assassins, in 1999, he appeared with Victor Garber in the workshop of Wise Guys. His collaboration with Sondheim continued when Lane revised the book for. The Sondheim song, Little Dream, in the film The Birdcage, in 1994, Lane voiced Timon, the meerkat, in Disneys blockbuster animated film The Lion King and reprised the role in its sequels
25.
Rufus Wainwright
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Rufus McGarrigle Wainwright is an American-Canadian singer, songwriter and composer. He has recorded seven albums of music and numerous tracks on compilations. He has also written an opera and set Shakespeare sonnets to music for a theater piece by Robert Wilson. Wainwright was born in Rhinebeck, New York, to folk singers Kate McGarrigle and his parents divorced when he was three, and he lived with his mother in Montreal for most of his youth. His father is a descendant of Peter Stuyvesant, the 17th century Dutch governor of New Netherland, Wainwright has dual US and Canadian citizenship. He attended high school at the Millbrook School in New York and he began playing the piano at age six, and started touring at age 13 with The McGarrigle Sisters and Family, a folk group featuring Rufus, his sister Martha, his mother Kate, and aunt Anna. His song Im a-Runnin, which he performed in the film Tommy Tricker and he was nominated for a 1990 Juno Award for Most Promising Male Vocalist of the Year. Wainwright identified as gay while a teenager, in 1999, he told Rolling Stone that his father recognized his homosexuality early on. Wed drive around in the car, hed play Heart of Glass and Id sort of mouth the words, just a sign of many other things to come as well. Wainwright later said in interview that his mother and father could not even handle me being gay. We never talked about it really, Wainwright became interested in opera during his adolescent years, and the genre strongly influences his music. During this time, he interested in Édith Piaf, Al Jolson. At age 14, Wainwright was sexually assaulted in Londons Hyde Park after picking up a man at a bar, in an interview years later, he described the event, I said I wanted to go to the park and see where this big concert was going on. I thought it was going to be a walk in the park. Wainwright states that he survived only by pretending to be an epileptic and he has been reported to have stated that he remained celibate for five or seven years after the incident, and eventually became promiscuous. In 2009 the unofficial biography There Will Be Rainbows, A Biography of Rufus Wainwright, through weekly shows at Cafe Sarajevo, Wainwright was on the Montreal club circuit and eventually cut a series of demo tapes produced by Pierre Marchand, who later produced Wainwrights album Poses. The resulting tapes impressed his father Loudon, who passed them on to his friend Van Dyke Parks, Parks sent the recordings to Lenny Waronker, the DreamWorks executive who eventually signed Wainwright to his label. Then I put it on and I said, Oh, my God, the singer moved to New York City in 1996, performing regularly at Club Fez
26.
Chaka Khan
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Chaka Khan is an American recording artist whose career has spanned five decades, beginning in the 1970s as the frontwoman and focal point of the funk band Rufus. Widely known as the Queen of Funk, Khan has won ten Grammys and has sold an estimated 70 million records worldwide, Khan was ranked at number 17 in VH1s original list of the 100 Greatest Women of Rock & Roll. In 2015, she was nominated for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for the second time, Khan was the first R&B artist to have a crossover hit featuring a rapper, with I Feel for You in 1984. In the course of her career, Khan has achieved three gold singles, three gold albums and one platinum album with I Feel for You. With Rufus, she achieved four gold singles, four gold albums, in December 2016, Billboard magazine ranked her as the 65th most successful dance artist of all-time. Chaka Khan was born Yvette Marie Stevens on March 23,1953 into an artistic, bohemian household in Chicago, Illinois. She is the eldest of five born to Charles Stevens and Sandra Coleman. She was raised in the Hyde Park area, an island in the middle of the madness of Chicagos rough South Side housing projects and her sister Yvonne later became a successful musician in her own right under the name Taka Boom. Her only brother, Mark, who formed the funk group Aurra and she has two other sisters, Zaheva Stevens and Tammy McCrary. Chaka Khan was raised as a Catholic and she attributed her love of music to her grandmother, who introduced her to jazz as a child. Khan became a fan of rhythm and blues music as a pre-teen and at eleven formed a group, the Crystalettes. Though many think that she was given the name Chaka while in the Panthers she has made it clear that her name Chaka Adunne Aduffe Hodarhi Karifi was given to her at age 13 by a Yoruba Baba. In 1969, she left the Panthers and dropped out of school, having attended Calumet High School. She began to perform in groups around the Chicago area, first performing with Cash McCalls group Lyfe, which included her then boyfriend Hassan Khan. She was asked to replace Baby Huey of Baby Huey & the Babysitters after Hueys death in 1970, the group disbanded a year later. While performing in bands in 1972, she was spotted by two members of a new group called Rufus and soon won her position in the group. They later signed with ABC Records in 1973, prior to signing with the label, she married on-and-off boyfriend Hassan Khan, changing her stage name to Chaka Khan. In 1973, Rufus released their eponymous debut album and that changed when Wonder himself collaborated with the group on a song he had written for Khan
27.
Cheryl Jacques
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Jacques graduated from Boston College in 1984 and received her J. D. from Suffolk University Law School in 1987. Jacques was Assistant District Attorney in Middlesex County and Assistant Attorney General of the state and she ran for U. S. Congress, but lost in the Democratic primary to Stephen Lynch. She was succeeded in the state Senate by Scott Brown, Jacques became president of HRC in 2004, succeeding Elizabeth Birch. She addressed the 2004 Democratic National Convention in this post, after leaving HRC, she was of counsel to the law firm of Brody, Hardoon, Perkins and Kesten and was a consultant on diversity issues to corporations and non-profit organizations. In 2008 Jacques was named a Department of Industrial Accidents Administrative Judge by Governor Deval Patrick, Jacques contended that she never intended to introduce her position, but did so inadvertently. The ethics commission found in favor of Jacques on the grounds that the enforcement division failed to prove that Jacques used her position to intervene in the dispute. In 2014, Governor Patrick chose not to re-appointment Jacques, which she alleged was in retaliation for the discrimination lawsuit. In 2004, Jacques married Jennifer Chrisler, HRC biography Interview in The Advocate magazine Metro Weekly interview series
28.
Joe Solmonese
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Joe Solmonese was the president of the Human Rights Campaign of the United States and its affiliate the Human Rights Campaign Foundation. He was appointed to position on March 9,2005. A native of Attleboro, Massachusetts, Solmonese lives in Washington and he graduated from Boston University in 1987 with a Bachelor of Science degree in communications. Solmonese has worked for numerous campaigns and in government positions and he held top fundraising positions at the 1992 Senate campaign of Les AuCoin and Barney Franks 1990 Congressional campaign. Solmonese began his career as an aide in the office of Massachusetts governor Michael Dukakis, Solmonese hosted The Agenda with Joe Solmonese on XM Satellite Radio. In February 2008, Solmonese appeared on two episodes of The Colbert Report, on August 27,2011, the Human Rights Campaign announced that Solomonese would step down as president of HRC on March 31,2012. On February 22,2012, the Obama 2012 campaign announced the appointment of Solmonese as one of 35 national co-chairs of the campaign, chad Griffin succeeded Solmonese as president on June 11,2012. On April 17,2012, Joe Solmonese helped establish the corporate consulting firm Gavin/Solmonese as a director and founding partner, leading the firm’s Washington. Joe leads the firm’s Corporate Strategy, Public Affairs and Policy practice, Joe Solmonese HRC Profile Metro Weekly interview series
29.
District of Columbia
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Washington, D. C. formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, the District, or simply D. C. is the capital of the United States. The signing of the Residence Act on July 16,1790, Constitution provided for a federal district under the exclusive jurisdiction of the Congress and the District is therefore not a part of any state. The states of Maryland and Virginia each donated land to form the federal district, named in honor of President George Washington, the City of Washington was founded in 1791 to serve as the new national capital. In 1846, Congress returned the land ceded by Virginia, in 1871. Washington had an population of 681,170 as of July 2016. Commuters from the surrounding Maryland and Virginia suburbs raise the population to more than one million during the workweek. The Washington metropolitan area, of which the District is a part, has a population of over 6 million, the centers of all three branches of the federal government of the United States are in the District, including the Congress, President, and Supreme Court. Washington is home to national monuments and museums, which are primarily situated on or around the National Mall. The city hosts 176 foreign embassies as well as the headquarters of international organizations, trade unions, non-profit organizations, lobbying groups. A locally elected mayor and a 13‑member council have governed the District since 1973, However, the Congress maintains supreme authority over the city and may overturn local laws. D. C. residents elect a non-voting, at-large congressional delegate to the House of Representatives, the District receives three electoral votes in presidential elections as permitted by the Twenty-third Amendment to the United States Constitution, ratified in 1961. Various tribes of the Algonquian-speaking Piscataway people inhabited the lands around the Potomac River when Europeans first visited the area in the early 17th century, One group known as the Nacotchtank maintained settlements around the Anacostia River within the present-day District of Columbia. Conflicts with European colonists and neighboring tribes forced the relocation of the Piscataway people, some of whom established a new settlement in 1699 near Point of Rocks, Maryland. 43, published January 23,1788, James Madison argued that the new government would need authority over a national capital to provide for its own maintenance. Five years earlier, a band of unpaid soldiers besieged Congress while its members were meeting in Philadelphia, known as the Pennsylvania Mutiny of 1783, the event emphasized the need for the national government not to rely on any state for its own security. However, the Constitution does not specify a location for the capital, on July 9,1790, Congress passed the Residence Act, which approved the creation of a national capital on the Potomac River. The exact location was to be selected by President George Washington, formed from land donated by the states of Maryland and Virginia, the initial shape of the federal district was a square measuring 10 miles on each side, totaling 100 square miles. Two pre-existing settlements were included in the territory, the port of Georgetown, Maryland, founded in 1751, many of the stones are still standing
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Logo TV
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Logo TV is an American digital cable and satellite television channel that is owned by Viacom Media Networks. The channel is aimed primarily at LGBT viewers but, since 2012, has shifted its focus towards general cultural, as of February 2015, approximately 51,337,000 American households receive Logo. The channel launched June 30,2005 as the first advertiser-supported commercial television channel in the United States geared towards the LGBT community and it was founded by former MTV executive Matt Farber. Its first president, Brian Graden, was named by Out Magazine as the 15th most powerful gay person in America in 2007, Logo replaced VH1 MegaHits when it was launched. The channels website says, We chose the name Logo TV because a logo is an identity and nothings more important than having your own, unique identity, and making it work for you. Your logo is your symbol, its what you put forward with pride, its who you are, Logo struck carriage deals prior to its launch date with DirecTV, Charter Communications, Adelphia Communications Corporation, Cablevision, Time Warner Cable, and RCN Corporation. The broadcaster reached a deal with Comcast after the launch date, Logo has partnered with CBS News to provide news briefs and has developed a relationship with LPI Media, publisher of The Advocate, Out and Out Traveler magazines. MTV Networks and Time Warner Cable announced an agreement December 11,2006, Logo became available on Dish Network in May 2009 as part of an add-on package. Day-to-day operations were handled by Lisa Sherman, who was vice president. According to its website, Were kind of big on fierce stuff, fiercely original programming to us means that in a perfect world everyone would be this interesting. Some content originated from other Viacom properties including Comedy Central, MTV, in April 2011, Logo acquired the rights to air the British comedy series Absolutely Fabulous and co-produced the shows three revival specials during 2011 and 2012 with the BBC and BBC America. Logo announced February 21,2012, that it would shift its programming strategy and this has prompted outrage from the channels LGBT viewership, who responded by comparing the channels new programming focus to that of the NBCUniversal-owned Bravo. As of 2017, Finding Prince Charming and the upcoming docuseries Fire Island are Logos only remaining original programs, Logo publishes a collection of websites, all of which it describes as being a part of LOGOonline, the umbrella name for these sites. In mid-2009, Logo moved its flagship site to the LOGOtv. com domain name, theBackLot. com - A site featuring news and commentary on bisexual and gay men in media and entertainment. Downelink. com — A social networking site primarily targeted to LGBT people, newNowNext. com — A blog on pop culture news and trends. 365gay. com — A site featuring news relevant to the LGBT community, happiestGayCouple. com — A site for fans of the series Rick & Steve. VisibleVote08. com — A site offering Logos coverage of the 2008 U. S, in September 2006, Logo launched a video on demand service featuring select programming content, it is available on cable providers Comcast, Cox Communications, Time Warner Cable and on Verizon FiOS. Logo programming has been available on the Roost service since the time of its official launch, Logo offered several audio and video podcasts through the podcast section of the iTunes Store
