transgender

?People have rights, and when we say we want to end Israel's multitiered system of oppression...we must immediately, in the same sentence, say people have equal rights in every formal way," says Omar Barghouti, author of the new book Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions: The Global Struggle for Palestinian Rights. And author, activist and professor Sarah Schulman has been involved with the Palestinian queer movement, emphasizing that their struggle is deeply tied to the struggle to end the occupation. Omar and Sarah join Laura in studio for a discussion of the interlocking oppressions being fought by the BDS movement.

"The national movement has shrunk its vision," says Urvashi Vaid, organizer, activist, and Visiting Scholar with the City University of New York Graduate Center’s Department of Sociology. ; The LGBT movement has become too focused on appeasing, and remains centered around the needs and wishes of white middle-class men--at the expense of women and people of color, and poor people around the country.After the election, Urvashi gave the 2010 Kessler Lecture at the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies at CUNY and called for intersectional, grassroots movements that look beyond formal equality to true social justice. She joins Laura in studio to talk about just that--integrating racial and gender justice aspects into the larger progressive movement.

The Obama administration submitted its first report on its own human rights record to the United Nations Human Rights Council, becoming the first U.S. administration to do so--the Bush administration declined to join the council. The report for the first time showed the government admitting to its own failings, particularly in the area of economic and social rights. Barbara Crossette, the U.N. reporter for The Nation, covered the story for the magazine and she joins us in studio, along with Anja Rudiger of the National Economic & Social Rights Initiative to discuss the report, next steps, and what all this means for the state of human rights in this country. Are we moving forward? How far do we have to go? And will we be able to acknowledge social and economic rights as fundamental human rights?

Cathy Renna and Miriam Zoila Perez discuss the need for a transgender-inclusive Employment Non-Discrimination Act, why it matters, why it's hard to get, and why little steps do help.