ACA Sunsets Gender Rating Practice; CA College Presidents Take Raises as Students See Tuition Hikes

Pride at Work Pushes for LGBT Equality in the Workplace. Members of the Ohio chapter of Pride at Work, an LGBT rights group affiliated with the AFL-CIO, are pushing to prevent employers from terminating workers based solely on their orientation. The state of Ohio, which does not extend employment protections to LGBT persons, which means they are not covered by civil rights laws. Many inside the state have voiced opposition to the lack of coverage for LGBT employees, which has raised hope amongst Pride at Work members over progress made on LGBT rights. “I think people’s understanding of the LGBT community has grown by light years, especially in the last five years,” said Pride at Work’s executive director, Peggy Shorey. “At the same time, the law hasn’t necessarily caught up with it. People can still be legally discriminated against.” James R. Darby Jr., who serves as co-chair of the Ohio chapter of Pride at Work. Darby Jr. and fellow group member Monica Hogan have helped labor unions and various companies inside the state comply with LGBT workers needs, in an attempt to stop harassment of LGBT workers, which they say can demean the person. “Think about it like bullying,” Hogan said. “Turning the other cheek is great and ignoring them is OK, but you can only do that for so long. It makes you miserable, and you shouldn’t be miserable at work.” [Cleveland.com]

Health Insurance Company’s War on Women Set to End. Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, the health insurers' practice known as gender rating-- when woman pay higher premiums than men simply for being women for the same treatment-- will be banned starting in 2014,saving 90 percent of the American women who shell out more money for coverage than their male counterparts a lot of money. A recent survey by the National Women’s Law Center found that women spend $1 billion more annually on their health insurance premiums then men because of the common practice. Unfortunately, 35 percent of people surveyed knew about the ban on gender rating, and only 6 out 10 people supported the provision once they were informed of it, according to a recent Kaiser Family Foundation health tracking poll. Under the recent Supreme Court-approved ACA, insurers will only be allowed to vary premiums based on four factors: individual vs. family enrollment, age, where the insured people live, and tobacco use. Under the current system, the NWLC found that more than half of all individual plans charged a 40-year-old woman who doesn’t smoke more than the same aged male who does. [NPR]

California State University Presidents Get Raises While Students Shell Out More Money. The California State University Board of Trustees announced on Tuesday that several incoming presidents at several of the system’s schools would receive pay raises, despite vast criticism from students and faculty who have witness staggering tuition hikes and faculty-pay cuts. The board’s decision is the first implemented under the state’s new policy, which freezes state-funded pay while allowing individual campuses to supplement 10 percent of their revenue from private donors instead of relying solely on the state solely for funding. The decision has drawn the ire of students like Nakia Brazier, a graduate student in sociology at Cal State Los Angeles, who advocates the presidents reject the bonuses. “If you believe in the promise of public higher education, do not take the pay raises,” Brazier told a crowd outside the building. New Cal State Northridge President Dianne F. Harrison, who will directly benefit from the pay raise proposal, argued that the current pay for the presidents is not competitive with other colleges, and that the raises are desperately needed. “I believe in the mission of CSU,” Harrison said. “I have a background in social work and what we’re doing is comparable with my social values. It’s personally painful when people who don’t know me or my values act as if I don’t care about students, faculty and staff.” [The Los Angeles Times]

Christopher Boan is a journalism intern with Campus Progress.

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