Asher Brown
Your weekday morning blend from Instant Tea:
1. The Houston school board on Thursday night unanimously approved a new policy prohibiting discrimination and harassment based on sexual orientation and gender identity/expression, according to a report from Meghan Stabler, a board member for the Human Rights Campaign. Houston ISD is the seventh-largest district in the nation, and the new policy protects both students and employees, Stabler reports. It comes eight months after the suicide of gay youth Asher Brown, who took his own life in response to anti-gay bullying in the nearby Cypress-Fairbanks ISD, which has not yet updated its policies to protect LGBT youth.
2. Despite rumors of an all-night session that would finally include a vote on marriage equality, the New York Senate abruptly shut down at 11 p.m. local time on Thursday and will reconvene this morning. Towleroad has a summary of where things stand.
3. As the wait continued in Albany, President Barack Obama addressed an LGBT fundraiser Thursday night in Manhattan, where he said he believes that “gay couples deserve the same legal rights as every other couple in this country” but added that marriage should be left up to the states. Watch video of Obama’s remarks and the protest outside below.
