News & Commentary

I was 14 when I moved to the Elkhorn Public Schools district which had a small town feel and was just minutes away from Omaha. Elkhorn High was big enough for opportunities but small enough to where I could stand out. There was only one deterrent: I wondered how a school district with a 98% Caucasian population and a median income of over $75,000--the quintessential conservative community--would react to an openly gay youth.

The right to marry is a fundamental American right.  Something that no one should be denied – even prison inmates.

At a time when policy makers in Nebraska are playing politics with transgender students, it is heartwarming to see one entity, the Nebraska Coordinating Commission for Postsecondary Education, indicate strongly that all students, including transgender students, should have the opportunity to get a great education:

On August 5, 2015 Third District Judge John Colborn struck down 20-year-old policy that banned LGBT Nebraskans from providing foster care. This policy had been issued back in 1995 by the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services.

One way that people often show their support is through political signage in their yards, everyone has the right to free speech and expression.  During the summer before the 2008 presidential election, the ACLU of Nebraska helped Lincoln citizens freely display their political support for that presidential election.

Our nation is hurting.

Constitutional violations in public schools across our country are far too common. Schools in America should not be constitutional dead zones - students still have their constitutional rights to free speech and privacy!

Back in 2001, The Church of the Awesome God moved into a location in north Lincoln. The building was being rented on the edge of an area zoned for industrial uses.

Marco Silva is a pastor who travels around the U.S. to talk to churches and collect money for an orphanage in his home country, Peru.