New campaign calls on Democratic leadership to condemn homophobic attacks on FCC nominee
Digital rights groups Demand Progress and Fight for the Future, known for hosting the BattleForTheNet.com action site and mobilizing millions of people in support of net neutrality, have launched a new petition campaign calling on Senate Democrats and the White House to stand up to homophobic attacks on Biden’s FCC nominee Gigi Sohn.
See the campaign page here: https://www.fightforthefuture.org/actions/condemn-attacks-fcc-nominee
In recent days, Fox News, Daily Mail and other right wing news outlets have all released nearly identical stories falsely claiming that Sohn “opposes” efforts to combat sex trafficking, because she sits on the board of the highly respected Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), one of dozens of human rights organizations that have opposed SESTA/FOSTA, legislation that claimed to address sex trafficking while actually making it harder to prosecute. EFF issued a thorough statement on the attacks here.
The new petition from Demand Progress and Fight for the Future reads, “it’s been several days since telcom backed bigots launched these fact-free, blatantly homophobic attacks on Gigi Sohn, and Senate Democrats and the White House, who should be defending Sohn, have been shamefully silent. If they don’t speak up now and condemn these attacks, this will become a go-to strategy for bigots looking to sink any LGBTQ person’s nomination. We can’t let that happen.”
It calls on Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell, and the Biden White House to condemn the attacks and commit to quickly advancing Sohn’s confirmation. Until Sohn is confirmed, the FCC remains effectively kneecapped: unable to restore net neutrality or broadband privacy rules, unable to update broadband maps or provide proper oversight of the industry, and unable to exercise its authority over cell phone location data, despite the enormous risk that unregulated use of this data poses particularly to abortion rights in the wake of the Dobbs decision.
The Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, Common Cause, the United Church of Christ, Senator Ed Markey, and others have already condemned the homophobic attacks on Gigi Sohn. Senate Democratic leadership and the White House need to do the same.
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