Campus Informer
Gun-Pushers Cite Need for Protection on Campus; LGBT Activists Bike for Marriage Equality
Attorney General Holder Blasts Voter ID Laws at NAACP Conference. United States’ Attorney General Eric Holder Wednesday called for the repeal of recently passed Voter ID laws, which he said are an attempt to disenfranchise minorities and young people across the country. “We will not allow political pretext to disenfranchise American citizens of their most precious right,” Holder said. Holder’s keynote speech was delivered at the annual convention of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in Houston, Texas. Holder also noted that the state of Texas has been front-and-center during the Voter ID debate, as Holder’s Department of Justice has opposed the state’s law requiring photo identification for all voters. “Under the proposed law, concealed handgun licenses would be acceptable forms of photo ID, but student IDs would not,” Holder added. “Many of those without IDs would have to travel great distances to get them, and some would struggle to pay for the documents they might need to obtain them. We call those poll taxes.” [The Houston Chronicle]
Georgia College Pushes for More Guns on Campus. Georgia Tech University students Robert Eager and Kyle Wilkins are championing a push to allow students to bring weapons with them on-campus. The students have led a campaign called Students for Concealed Carry, citing a need for extra protection against potential robbers and assorted criminals. In defense of the proposal, Wilkins said, “This is especially important since criminals know that students are unarmed, carrying $1,000 laptops, cell phones [and] text-books.” The push by these students comes as an increasing number of states have pushed bills that would allow students to carry guns with them on their college campuses. Of those 18 proposals, though, only 2 have survived—in Wisconsin and Mississippi—with the remainder balking at the proposals. A 2010 survey conducted by the U.S. Secret Service, Department of Education and the FBI explained that while on-campus assaults have increased over the past three decades, so too has the number of incidents in which a firearm was involved. According to the survey, 54 percent of on-campus attacks took place with firearms, a number that has led many to object to campus concealed-carry laws. [The University of South Florida Oracle]
Group of Athletes Bike Across America for LGBT Equality. Last month a group of LGBT activists started a 53-day, 3,667-mile trek across America to push their message in favor of marital equality to people they meet along the way. The group is led by Richard Carey, who aims is to raise $25,000 for Freedom to Marry's Win More States Fund by trip's end. The trip will begin and end in states where referenda related to marriage equality are on the ballot this fall, starting with Washington state and passing through Minnesota and Maine. "Americans are currently engaged in a conversation about whether same-sex couples should be able to share in the freedom to marry. I'm going to join that conversation in a rather direct way," said Carey. "I'll talk about the cause with anyone and everyone who's interested." [Queerty]
Obama Threatens To Veto House Republican’s Student Loan Bill
Struggling Homeowners, Low-Wage Workers Protest in D.C.
Coast To Coast, College Sexual Assault Survivors See Gains