U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib (MI-12) introduced the Get the Flock Out of Our Communities Act today with community leaders in front of a Flock camera in Inkster, Michigan, whose city officials just signed a long-term contract with the mass surveillance company. The bill would prohibit the use of federal funds to purchase or operate any … More GET THE FLOCK OUT OF OUR COMMUNITIES
Imagine the day you make it to safe shores – you are settling into the first semblance of freedom and safety after years of fear and flight! Only to find you may be relegated to square one…. October 13, 2025 – first published at AHRC. The African Human Rights Coalition (AHRC) strongly condemns the Trump … More Trump Administration’s New Refugee Policy: Risks LGBTQI+ Refugees, From Safety Back to Threat of Death
By Melanie Nathan Oct 08, 2026 Maybe I am old enough to be a Snowbird…. I wanted to introduce my O-Blog-dee readers to some of the essays I’ve been publishing on Substack (@melnathan), where subscriptions are FREE! Substack is turning into a wonderful platform for me, allowing my writing, commentary, and advocacy to reach new … More A Little News from O-Blog-dee-O-Blog-da: My Writing Now Has Two Homes
African Human Rights Coalition – a signatory with 60 organizations on this letter to DHS: September 30, 2026 Joint letter led by Church World Service and Refugee Council USA warns tens of thousands of refugees are caught in a ‘deadly bureaucratic trap’ WASHINGTON, D.C.—Ahead of Thursday’s deadline for states to end Medicaid eligibility for many … More As Refugees Lose Medicaid Tomorrow, 60 Groups Urge DHS to End Green Card Freeze
What the Greatest Rugby Rivalry Can Teach the World By Melanie Nathan, Sep 15, 2026 For a few extraordinary hours in Baltimore, we knew exactly why we were there and who we were. We had all traveled from afar to watch a rugby match. Not just any rugby match, but South Africa against New Zealand: … More Respecting the Haka as Nkosi Sikele iAfrica ‘Sounds the Call to Come Together’
Leadership cannot mean discovering a boundary only after somebody has crossed it – First published on Substack As I publish the letter below, I want to be unmistakably clear about what it is – and what it is not. This is not a weapon to be used against the Democratic Party, nor is it an … More Dear DNC Chair Ken Martin: Jewish Democrats Are Asking You to Lead
Imagine you are nineteen years old. You arrive at college politically aware but hardly an expert on the Middle East. You know there is an Israeli-Palestinian conflict. You have heard about Gaza and the West Bank. Perhaps you know something about October 7. Perhaps you know almost nothing about Zionism beyond what has appeared in … More Back to School Warning: College Students – Great Campus Con
U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib (MI-12) introduced the No TSA Data for ICE Act, a new bill that would prevent the two agencies from coordinating to enforce the Trump administration’s mass deportation agenda. In a dramatic violation of privacy rights, the Transportation and Security Administration is sharing passenger names, birth dates, and other data with Immigration … More New Bill Introduced – No TSA Data for ICE Act with Support of over 60 Organizations
CYBERWELL WARNS – as flames subtly transform into distorted hate speech, conspiracy icons, and misinformation symbols. Posted by Melanie Nathan, Aug 04, 2026. TEL AVIV – CyberWell, a nonprofit and trusted partner of Meta (Facebook, Instagram and Threads), TikTok and YouTube working to combat online antisemitism, alerted X after identifying a new wave of antisemitic … More ANTISEMITIC CONSPIRACIES BLAMING JEWS FOR WILDFIRES ACROSS EUROPE
A Memorial and a Mirror By Melanie Nathan, Aug 02, 2026. On June 27, 1976, four terrorists hijacked Air France Flight 139. Two were members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. Two were German militants from the Revolutionary Cells. After diverting the aircraft through Libya, they landed at Entebbe Airport in Uganda, … More New Entebbe Monument to Yoni Netanyahu Memorializes Courage Demands Reflection
By Melanie Nathan, July 29, 2026: First published here. For those who may have missed it, Boy George has released a new song, We Will Dance Again (Od Nirkod). Inspired by the victims of the October 7 massacre, it is both a tribute and a statement against antisemitism. It also provides Pride organizers with an … More Why Every pride Should Invite Boy George to Perform We Will Dance Again
Seventy-five years ago this week, the world made one of its most important moral and legal commitments. By Melanie Nathan, July 28, 2026. Emerging from the devastation of the Second World War, the Refugee Convention was born from one of history’s greatest moral failures. Jewish families fleeing Nazi persecution knocked on the doors of nations … More This Promise Should not be Broken
Proof of selective outrage deepens suspicion… See Petition at end. By Melanie Nathan, July 25, 2026 – First Published here. When New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani publicly described Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as “a war criminal” and “the architect of a horrific genocide against the Palestinian people,” he did far more than voice … More The Human Rights Test Mayor Mamdani Cannot Escape
By Melanie Nathan, July 23, 2026 (First published at this link: https://substack.com/home/post/p-207453006.) Long before Hamas’ massacre shattered Israel, there was another moment when activists faced a profound moral choice: whether to condemn the deliberate murder of Jewish civilians, or to celebrate someone convicted of participating in it. On a Friday afternoon in February 1969, as … More The Shabbat Bombing That Exposed Jewish Voice for Peace
We have lost one of the giants of courage. A friend and Comrade who will be sorely missed. By melanie Nathan, July 20, 2021. Bishop Christopher Senyonjo, who has died at the age of 94, was a remarkable Ugandan clergyman who chose conscience over comfort. At a time when evangelical hatred was helping propel Uganda’s … More A Giant of Courage: Bishop Christohpher Senyonjo Has Died.
Somewhere else has arrived…. first published on my Substack A descent into this hell – on the road to endless suffering, death – or deportation: Those who enter describe being swallowed into a system where they effectively disappear from their families, confined in overcrowded, filthy tents, denied adequate medical care, deprived of sunlight, beaten by … More Hell is not always the destination: Sometimes it is the transit lounge.
Is Uganda paying an American lobbyist to sell the normalization of repression? By Melanie Nathan, July 17, 2026, When America’s own human rights record has become similar to Uganda’s, what exactly is Uganda paying an American lobbyist to sell? Reform, or the normalization of repression? Uganda’s Embassy in Washington has retained Skyline Capitol, through Moran … More If America Reviewed Itself Like It Reviews Uganda …
By Melanie Nathan, July 04, 2026 I am reflecting on America’s 250th birthday. I came here in the mid-1980s from apartheid South Africa, leaving behind my twenties and hoping for a place where law and justice might finally occupy the same room. I had been a young, rookie attorney in Johannesburg, trying to make sense … More I Believed America
LGBTQI+ Refugees Trapped by Xenophobia in South Africa After Violent Rampage Leaves Group Destitute Melanie Nathan, July 02, 2026 Emergency Appeal: Protecting LGBTQI+ Refugees Trapped by Xenophobia in South Africa For more than a decade, the African Human Rights Coalition (AHRC) has provided humanitarian assistance, advocacy, and protection to LGBTQI+ refugees and asylum seekers fleeing … More LGBTQI+ Refugees Trapped by Xenophobia in South Africa After Violent Rampage Leaves Group Destitute
By Melanie Nathan Here are some posts that have appeared on my social media, my Substack pages. Posted June 27, 8.30 PM: Waiting for LGBTQI+ Leadership in San Francisco Bay Area to Condemn Antisemitism and the Jew-hate Attack on Sen. Weiner: :Disclosure: I am a former VP of the San Francisco Pride Board and also … More Unchecked Jew Hate Festers – The Hope for Statements
By Melanie Nathan, June 22, 2026 New AHRC Research Warns Xenophobia Has Evolved from Sporadic Violence into an Organized Human Rights Crisis For decades, South Africa has stood as a symbol of hope on the African continent, a constitutional democracy born from the defeat of Apartheid and committed to equality, dignity, and human rights. Today, … More Crisis Looms in South Africa as Anti-Foreigner Movement Demands Migrants Leave by June 30
By Melanie Nathan, June 15, 2026. I just watched a video of American students walking out of Stanford University’s commencement ceremony, waving Palestinian flags as they exited. For many, the flag symbolizes solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza, resistance, or opposition to Israeli government policies. For many others and Jews, the Palestinian flag no longer appears … More A Generation of Students Silent during the Collapse of the American Democracy
Niger has adopted a new Penal Code that, for the first time in the country’s history, explicitly criminalizes consensual same-sex relations. The legislation introduces severe penalties, including prison terms of up to twenty years for certain offenses related to same-sex relationships, marriage, and association. Enacted under military rule, the legislation represents a significant escalation in … More Niger Adopts its First Anti-LGBTQI Law in Regional Trend
There is still time for Mamdani to step up and be fully the leader his unique position insists upon. By Melanie Nathan, June 03, 2026, This Pride Month, New York City Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani chose to celebrate the city’s proud LGBTQ history with a moving tribute to queer and transgender New Yorkers. In a … More Mayor Zohran Mamdani Squanders True Pride Leadership Opportunity
Melanie Nathan, May 31, 2026 Friends, do you realize that Ghana has just passed one of the most extreme anti-LGBTQ laws the world has ever seen? While it does not carry the death penalty like Uganda’s infamous “Kill the Gays” law, it may as well. This is social death. It is a law likely to … More Calling CALL FOR THE BOYCOTT OF THE REPARATIONS CONFERENCE IN GHANA
AFRICAN HUMAN RIGHTS COALITION (AHRC) STATEMENT, May 29, 2026: Condemning Ghana Parliament’s Passage of the Human Sexual Rights and Family Values Bill, 2025 The African Human Rights Coalition (AHRC) unequivocally and in the strongest possible terms condemns the passage by the Parliament of Ghana of the Human Sexual Rights and Family Values Bill, 2025. This … More African Human Rights Coalition Statement on the Passage of Ghana’s Anti-LGBTQI+ ACT
Melanie Nathan, May 29, 2026, Post from AHRC news page: POST UPDATED: The Parliament of Ghana has passed the Human Sexual Rights and Family Values Bill, 2025, popularly known as the anti-LGBTQ bill, on Friday, May 29, 2026, following parliamentary proceedings in Accra. The bill now awaits the assent or otherwise by President John Dramani … More Urgent Crisis in Ghana as Parliament Speeds up Anti-LGBTQI Horror Law
By Melanie Nathan, May 28, 2026. After years in the field, I now spend many of my days researching how to stop governments, mobs, police, prisons, and even families from destroying human beings. Then I open social media and strangers inform me that I am a monster because I am a Jew. Let us wind … More The Irony of Expert Research and the One Click Expert Hater
A Critical Reflection on Ghana’s New Human Sexual Rights and Family Values Bill, 2025 By Melanie Nathan, May 17, 2026 The reintroduction of Ghana’s Human Sexual Rights and Family Values Bill, 2025 represents one of the most sweeping attempts in modern Africa to criminalize not merely same-sex conduct, but identity itself, together with advocacy, association, … More Sovereignty, Culture, and Human Dignity: Ghana’s New Human Sexual Rights and Family Values Bill
Violations of International and Regional Human Rights Law. African Human rights Coalition – An Open Letter to Congressional Black Caucus, Leadership of the NAACP, UNESCO : Why Ghana Is Not a Safe Host for the 2026 Reparatory Justice Conference | This Letter was first published here at the African Human Rights Coalition website Ghana has … More Ghana’s Anti-LGBTQ Bill Undermines Global Reparations Conference in Accra
