Catholic University In Texas Revises Student Handbook To Protect LGBT Persons
In 2005, Cynthia Squiabro-Kee, then a graduate student at Our Lady of the Lake University (“OLLUâ€), a private Catholic university in San Antonio, Texas, began efforts to establish a Gay/Straight Alliance. Although some faculty at the university had reservations about a “gay†group being allowed on campus, she marched forward and by 2007 her vision was realized and The Alliance was formed.
According to an interview at that time with QSanAntonio, Cynthia had fears that the “hard work, and vision [of The Alliance] will disappear.” However, under the leadership of its former President, Amanda Benton, The Alliance membership led the way toward a revision to the university’s student handbook to protect students, faculty and staff of the university from discrimination based upon sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression, becoming one of the first Catholic schools in Texas with fully inclusive policies.
The work began in early 2012 when The Alliance posted a petition on the Change.org website seeking community support for their efforts, which received 247 signatures. The Alliance didn’t stop there and began collecting additional petition signatures from students, faculty and staff at the university, adding 408 signatures to the online count.
The group also solicited letters of support from those who would be affected by the policy change. Cynthia Squiabro-Kee, the founding member of The Alliance and now Assistant Director of Transfer and Graduate Admissions at OLLU, wrote to student life in support of the policy revision, stating, “As stewards of this great institution, we are responsible for the advancement of all existing and prospective students.”
Some of the additional letters of support read, in part:
“By embracing this full vision of equality, we can realize the best nature of who we are and what we stand for at OLLU.” Leda Barnett, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Political Science.
“Catholic teaching is the foundation for this inclusiveness. Only one reference is made here: From the Pastoral Constitution of the Church in the Modern World (¶29): ‘With respect to fundamental rights of the person, every type of discrimination, whether social or cultural, whether based on sex, race, color, social condition, language or religion, is to be overcome and eradicated as contrary to God’s intent.'” Oswald John Nira, Ph.D., Department of Human and Social Sciences, Chair, OLLU
“This language [including sexual orientation, gender identity and expression] would be in line with OLLU’s inclusiveness, and would signal the University’s support for universal human rights and dignity.” Paul Frisch, Ph.D. Professor, Library, OLLU
A resolution was submitted to the Student Voice Assembly for approval, seeking to “include the statement of ‘sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression’ to all relevant policies within the student handbook.”
After meeting with representatives of the Alliance, Equality Texas, the Rainbow Coalition and GetEQUAL TX, Jack Hank, OLLU’s vice president for Student Life, worked on revisions to the policy with the university’s attorney. On January 16, 2013, Hank announced approval of the policy change by the OLLU Student Life Council.
“As soon as I found out, I sent a mass text message to [The Alliance] members. Many of them couldn’t believe that we had finally done it. After the news had sunk in, I cried. All the hard work we had put in would now pave the way for future LGBT students being fully protected on our campus,” said Benton in an interview with tNCRM.
San Antonio remains the only metropolitan city in Texas without any ordinances prohibiting discrimination based upon sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression, falling behind Dallas, Ft. Worth, Houston, Austin and El Paso. Community leaders in San Antonio are currently seeking to amend all ordinances which provide for non-discrimination based upon other enumerations (such as race, religion and gender) to include sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression, but have so far been unsuccessful in presenting the amendments to City Council.
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Jay Morris is a State Lead for GetEQUAL.org, a founding member of the Direct Action Network San Antonio and blogger at jaysays.com. You can find him posting randomness on Twitter or engage him in conversation on Facebook.
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Maine Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Graham Platner is under fire after releasing a video declaring that new allegations against him are false, yet he is “taking time to reflect” on a path forward.
Politico on Monday afternoon reported that a woman who dated Platner, Jenny Racicot, “says he forced her to have sex with him nearly five years ago despite her repeated objections, an allegation Platner denies.”
“Racicot said she had an on-and-off relationship with Platner,” Politico reported, “for more than two years before he entered her rural Maine home uninvited one night in late 2021, deeply intoxicated, and forced himself on her while she repeatedly told him to stop. She said she cut off contact with him after telling him the encounter was not consensual.”
In a video posted to social media eleven minutes after the Politico story dropped, Platner says, “I wanted to directly address the troubling, serious, and false allegations against me. Any accusation of nonconsensual behavior is categorically false.”
He said he and his supporters “were united in a love of Maine, a belief that our politics must change, in a focus on defeating Susan Collins.”
“So, regardless of the inaccuracy of the reporting, but mindful the political reality will inflict, we are taking the time to reflect on the best path forward for the state that I love, the people that I love, the movement I belong to, and the goal of defeating Susan Collins.”
“Those were the goals when we launched this campaign. And they remain my goals today.”
“Throughout it all, you never turned your back on me. And I will not turn my back on you now. Every one of you deserves to see that vision come to fruition and see Susan Collins defeated. And we will use every tool at our disposal to do so.”
The Bulwark’s Tim Miller, a political commentator who served as the communications director for the Jeb Bush 2016 presidential campaign, blasted Platner.
“I’m sorry but ‘we are taking time to reflect on the best path forward’ is not an option on the table,” Miller wrote. “Either it’s false and you campaign with vigor or it’s true and you get out / apologize to everyone you let down.”
Journalist Ryan Grim, commenting on Platner’s video, noted that Platner “strongly suggests he is considering dropping out. Already Troy Jackson and Chellie Pingree, both gubernatorial candidates, are being kicked around in Maine circles as potential replacements.”
Several others, including Puck News’ Peter Hamby, predicted Platner will be dropping out.
Platner had postponed several campaign events before the Politico story was published.
— Graham Platner for Senate (@grahamformaine) July 6, 2026
President Donald Trump is facing backlash after posting a video of children — including showing their unblurred faces — graduating from kindergarten, with some of the girls purportedly wearing hijabs.
“President Trump posted a captionless video of graduating kindergarteners on Truth Social on Monday, goading his supporters into verbally attacking little children simply for being Muslim,” The New Republic reported. “The clip is from Gateway STEM Academy, a majority-Black K-8 public charter school in St. Paul, Minnesota. It shows about 21 children in caps and gowns on stage singing a song together. Most of the girls are wearing hijabs.”
The original post of the video which Trump reposted reads: “Public school in St. Paul, Minnesota. Every girl is in a hijab … in kindergarten.”
Trump did not add any comments. TNR called the post “Islamophobic, weird, and creepy,” while noting that the comments section of Trump’s post was filled with calls “by racist, xenophobic MAGA supporters” to “deport the children and ban hijabs.”
TNR also noted that it “should come as no surprise that Trump isn’t above attacking children who just learned how to read, but this post is still particularly discomforting—and will certainly contribute to the already potent level of anti-Muslim sentiment in the U.S. and in Minnesota.”
Critics blasted Trump.
“There is something deeply unsettling about the president of the United States—the most powerful person in the world—going after kindergarten schoolchildren in Minnesota because they wore hijabs, as Trump has done this morning on his website,” The Bulwark’s Sam Stein wrote.
One social media commentator wrote, “Trump posted an unblurred video of more than a dozen Muslim kindergartners to Truth Social, exposing the children’s faces while targeting them for their religion.”
Another added, “Trump is a bigot. The president took to Truth Social to attack kindergarteners in hijabs. These are little kids. The president isn’t just a bigot, he’s also a coward.”
The original video was posted to the X social media platform in June.
U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) at the time commented, “If you are in a public school in America, you should be speaking english.”
Image via Reuters
President Donald Trump’s apparent efforts to delay releasing the $5.8 million civil judgment to E. Jean Carroll are being met with a warning by the journalist’s legal team, who suggest there could be a legal maneuver for Trump to employ to forgo paying the judgment in either of the two cases he lost.
According to The Guardian, on July 4, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan ordered Trump to release the $5.8 million judgment, which is in escrow, to Carroll by this coming Tuesday — or explain why he would not do so.
Carroll’s attorneys think Trump may be trying to buy time to mount another legal strategy, telling the judge that Trump’s request for an extension “appears to be little more than yet another play for time.”
“The case is separate from Trump’s appeal of a Manhattan civil jury’s 2024 award of $83.3m to Carroll for defamation,” The Guardian explains. “But her lawyers have suggested a legal scenario in which the president might seek to conjoin the cases and further delay payment of both.”
Carroll’s attorney Roberta Kaplan (no relation to the judge) wrote, “We can only assume that defendant is seeking … to buy time so he can try to concoct some new basis to put off paying plaintiff presumably in connection with his forthcoming petition and motion for a rehearing.”
Trump’s former attorney, Justin Smith, in one of his final acts, wrote to the Supreme Court suggesting that his client would be appealing the $83.3 million civil judgment.
Smith argued that the Supreme Court “may wish to consider the petitions together,” given they involve the same parties.
The larger judgment case involves possible questions of presidential immunity, and that has Carroll’s attorneys concerned.
“A conjoined case, Carroll’s lawyers fear, could result in both judgments being wiped out,” The Guardian reports.
The president has also made clear he is no fan of Judge Kaplan, after the jurist made several rulings that “angered” Trump.
“What else can you expect from a Trump Hating, Clinton appointed judge, who went out of his way to make sure that the result was as negative as it could possible be,” Trump wrote on Truth Social in 2023, “speaking to, and in control of, a jury from an anti-Trump area which is probably the worst place in the US for me to get a fair ‘trial’.”
Image via Reuters
Platner Scorched Over ‘Taking Time’ Video After New Accusation
Trump Sparks Fury Online After Posting Unblurred Video of Muslim Kindergartners in Hijabs
One Legal Maneuver Threatens to Undo Everything E. Jean Carroll Won
Inside the Group Helping MAGA Voters Walk Away — And What Finally Pushed Them
