Fighting Irish seize the moment: With TV cameras rolling, the Notre Dame graduating class of 2017 just showed Mike Pence they're not playing around. The vice president, who has been notorious in his persecution of LGBTQ rights in the name of religious liberties, was the commencement speaker at the Catholic university this past weekend. More than 100 students protested Pence's presence by silently walking out once he hit the podium. Savage. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos had a similarly tough crowd when students at historically black Bethune-Cookman booed her during her speech at their commencement. This demonstration at Notre Dame reaffirms the power of peaceful protest, and that no matter what there's always something you can do.Low-grade education: Betsy DeVos is getting another F and a big FU for wanting to nix important student loan forgiveness programs. But that's not all. The Trump Administration released its budget and have proposed cutting federal funding to educational initiatives by $10.6 billion. Several K-12 programs are getting the same slash-and-burn treatment. According to the Washington Post, things like mental health services, civics and art, international education, language studies, gifted and talented classes and anti-bullying activities are all on the chopping block. This plan will give teachers a shoestring budget and leave grads drowning in debt.Credit to your cause: Two members of Congress, Rep Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) and Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA), introduced a new piece of legislation last week that will guarantee LGBTQ people better protections for their finances. The bill, known as the Freedom from Discrimination in Credit Act, aims to ensure that people cannot be discriminated based on sexual orientation or gender identity when applying for credit. Having credit means more than going on a shopping spree. Things like buying a car or home and qualifying for student loans, are based on a person's credit and are incredibly important for financial security. As it stands, many states allow discrimination against LGBTQ people in their financial journeys, so federal oversight needs to be put in place. As LGBTQ Pride, a month of activism and celebration, nears this is sure to be a major tenet for queer advocacy.Standing up for the locked up: Activist Samuel Sinyangwe has studied mass incarceration in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and found that modern-day prisoners are treated like antebellum-era slaves. The state, which has the overall highest rate of incarceration in the world, has black prisoners working for white government officials. The prisoners do servile tasks while a guard watches over them. The entire criminal justice system in the state creates a skin-crawling master-slave like power dynamic that is painful to hear about. If you are ready to join the fight to reform incarceration policy, here are few resources from the Sentencing Project to check out.The point of no return: The Svalbard Global Seed Vault is a gigantic refrigerator of precious seeds meant to potentially ensure the food supply of the human race forever. But things turned south with when the food vault, located on a frozen island in Norway, was flooded with melting ice due to climate change. None of the seeds were lost but their home is no a longer safe place for storage. If there are any humans left in a post-apocalyptic climate change world, their options for recultivating the earth will be very limited.Demanding respect: The Indonesian city of Surabaya gained national attention after 14 men were arrested for allegedly having consensual sex. Eight of the men were slammed with pornography charges and looking at up to 15 years if convicted. Also, in a cruel and unusual form of punishment, all them men were tested for HIV and their results were released to the media. That's huge violation of privacy and messed up, to say the least. Earlier this year two Indonesian men were sentenced to be caned in public for having sex with each other, and both are to receive 85 lashes a piece. All hope isn't lost -- Indonesian and HIV and LGBT organizations from around the world are calling out the Indonesian government for their treatment of the men in the Surabaya raid. Here's how you can help their efforts to end discrimination of LGBTQ people in Indonesia now.
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