LGBTQ Pride Month has begun and the stakes seem higher than ever. Here is a brief history, www.history.com/… Since it was called Gay Pride Month, the name has changed to be more inclusive, with some choosing just “Pride Month”. So I use that as a shorthand, but as a standalone name “Pride Month” seems to me to erase the whole meaning to the month. I can think of lots of things for which pride would be inappropriate. No Bigot Pride, thanks!
As you know if you’re keeping up with the news, as LGBTQ+ people have gained some recognition and acceptance, there is a rising conservative backlash. From violence to legislation outlawing transgender medical care to boycotts of companies with rainbow apparel, this past year has seemed particularly fraught. Here’s one summary, www.cnn.com/…
I am none of the above, but I don’t have a “normal” American family history of husband and 2 children either. So even beyond just basic fellow feeling and human decency, I am a strong ally for my own sake. Why? Because acceptance of LGBTQ+ diversity means acceptance of a whole lot of diverse lifestyles. Which we should all want. It can be lonely, living outside the stereotypes of what you “should” be and do as a woman or man. We all need to be free to be our best selves.
So if you are interested in showing your allyship this month, or just having fun, there are various Pride Month activities all around the country and the world. If you can’t make it this month, there is still Pride 365. Here is a partial (!) list, www.gaytravel.com/… I know it’s partial because I already know of activities near me, and I checked and they are not on this list. So in addition to considering travel to Pride events, you can Google “pride activities near me 2023” and do something local. Be careful out there (this link includes everything from hydration to hiding), be culturally sensitive, and have fun!
In Other News
Abortion
Good piece from Jessica Valenti: Most Americans oppose the Republican view on abortion. So why are the Republicans allowed to be the ones framing the debate?
HOW are wealthy Reptublicans framing the debate? In The Intercept is a tough article about Richard Uihlein, Jan. 6 Megadonor Helping Ohio GOP Preemptively Overturn Will of the Voters:
In March, two former Ohio Republican Party leaders were convicted on racketeering and bribery charges in a scheme that federal prosecutors described as the state’s largest-ever corruption case. In total, five Republican operatives were indicted in the plot, which involved a power company bankrolling efforts to elect industry-friendly lawmakers and a new state House speaker who would support a $1.1 billion bailout of a failed nuclear power plant.
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The constitutional amendment [requiring more votes for ballot measures] is deeply unpopular — it was first introduced in January and faced bipartisan opposition — but the proposal counts a major national political force among its supporters: Chicago-area billionaire Richard Uihlein, a GOP megadonor who supported groups involved in the January 6 attack in Washington and subsequent efforts to overturn elections.
The amendment is one of a raft of efforts in states across the country where extremist Republicans are taking drastic measures to circumvent the will of the public on issues like abortion, criminal justice, and education.
The19th Dr. Caitlin Bernard reprimanded and fined by the Indiana’s Medical Licensing Board]. The board has ruled that she violated patient privacy when she spoke to a reporter about having performed an abortion for the ten-year-old old rape victim who with her mother traveled from Ohio to Indiana for Bernard's help, because Ohio had outlawed all abortions.
At a reproductive rights rally at the end of June, Bernard spoke to a local news reporter about the case [and the published story went viral]. Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita [then] went on Fox News and referred to Dr. Bernard as “an abortion activist acting as a doctor” [, in July opening an investigation into whether she had violated patient privacy under HIPAA] and whether she had properly reported the child abuse in the state of Indiana. [The complaint he filed brought forward five counts, the fifth stating] that if any of the first four were proved, then Bernard was “unfit to practice” and should have her medical license suspended.…
Oklahoma Supreme Court strikes down 2 anti-abortion laws. Abortion remains illegal there except in cases of life-threatening medical issues, but medical personnel will not have to wait until the patient is actually near death before they intervene.
Malta
Woman in Malta charged in court for having abortion
Pro-choice groups condemn rare enforcement of country’s total ban on terminations
https://www.theguardian.com/…
Dodge and weave ACLU sues over Nebraska law that combines restrictions on gender-affirming care and abortion.
When a six-week abortion ban failed to pass in Nebraska, Republicans added a 12-week ban into a measure on gender-affirming care. [The new ACLU] new lawsuit argues that such legislation violates the state constitution by combining “two distinct and unrelated subjects” into one bill…
Abortion policies in the US since Roe v. Wade overturned:
Violence
UK
Rape and sexual assault
Nearly 70% of rape victims drop out of investigations in England and Wales
https://www.theguardian.com/…
From The Guardian- ‘You will be killed’: Iran’s female journalists speak out on brutal crackdown:
"It was a chilling warning from government agents. A young female journalist based in Tehran recounted the calls and messages she had received: 'It said they were at my sister’s place and were there to rape her.'
These were the same agents from Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) who had interrogated her after she had attended one of the nationwide protests that erupted last year after the death in custody of a 22-year-old woman, Mahsa Jina Amini, who was arrested for wearing her headscarf improperly and then reportedly beaten into a coma."
Safety
From POLITICO- Congress prods Biden administration on female crash dummies:
Congress wants the Biden administration to move faster on addressing the gender gap in vehicle crash testing — something safety advocates have urged for years amid soaring traffic fatalities.
The crash tests that regulators use to rate vehicles’ safety don’t use female test dummies in the driver’s seat in a key test, and in the tests where they are used, the dummies are less-accurate, scaled-down male versions. Advocates say the discrepancy means that hundreds of women needlessly die in crashes every year.
Gotta admit, I hadn’t thought of that, even though I know my “shoulder belt” is often around my neck.
Civil Rights
The19th Long excluded from the Mississippi statehouse, Black women fight on the margins for democracy: "Women in Jackson have continued to support the mission of those who came before them through coalition building, political organizing and working around the clock to stop what they say is targeted legislation."
From enslaved women who toiled in the cotton fields, to sharecropper-turned-voting rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer to political firsts like Flonzie Brown Wright, Black women in Mississippi have served as [Mississippi's] moral conscience and the upholders of human rights[, now fighting a wave of repression that many compare to the days of Jim Crow,]
Their unique positioning at society’s intersections, as both Black and women, has largely excluded them from the statehouse, but that has strengthened resolve in their own homes and communities. With the conviction that their freedom and equality are tied to that of the entire nation, Black women have led in roles like opening their homes and resources to Freedom Riders in the 1960s, spreading the word about voting rights like Hamer, pouring their life savings into scholarship funds like washerwoman Oseola McCarty, leading church groups, providing social services, supporting campaigns, and simply speaking out....
...“Black woman leadership is not new to Mississippi. When you think about all of the brave Black women that have come from Mississippi and have led national civil rights and voting rights efforts across this nation, you see that being a Black woman and being a leader is what we do in Mississippi. It’s who we are,” said Rukia Lumumba, executive director of the People’s Advocacy Institute, a nonprofit that advocates for the end of mass incarceration and increased public safety.…
Their Honors: More Asian-American and Pacific Islander women are becoming federal judges, but barriers remain in the rise to the bench:
In 1998 Susan Oki Mollway…. was the first Asian-American woman to become an Article III judge. Judges on Article III courts are nominated by presidents and confirmed by the U.S. Senate; they include judges on the U.S. Supreme Court, federal courts of appeals, federal district courts and the U.S. Court of International Trade. Prior to Mollway’s appointment by President Bill Clinton to the U.S. District Court for the District of Hawaii, just 11 of the previous 2,840 Article III judges were Asian American, and all 11 were men.
It would be another decade before a second Asian-American woman, Kiyo A. Matsumoto, followed Mollway to the federal bench.
...To date, 29 ... have been nominated and confirmed to sit on Article III courts. In his first two years, President Joe Biden appointed 12 Asian-American women, two more than the 10 appointed by President Barack Obama in eight years and more than double the number appointed during President Donald Trump’s four years in office....
Religion In Politics
From Slate- The Women of Israel Are Standing Together:
"Terrified of what the Supreme Court reforms mean for women’s role in their very religious society, women from all backgrounds are coming together to protest."
Dubious Entertainment
How sexist is Hollywood? Check out Geena Davis’s spreadsheet at the New York Times
Good News
The19th Few Marine scientists are Black. A Spelman College-OceanX effort aims to change that: A collaboration between the historically Black women’s college and an exploration nonprofit will allow students to spend weeks at sea with experts of color on the research ship OceanXplorer.
Saturday Morning Show Mission Unstoppable: Has been around for a while apparently (debuted in Fall of 2019), but I just saw it for the first time this morning. It’s fantastic! If you have kids, if you know kids, or maybe even if you don’t, you need to know about this show. Enjoy!
Each week, host and Executive Producer Miranda Cosgrove (iCarly) and an all-female leadership team showcase women on the cutting edge of science – including zoologists, engineers, astronauts, codebreakers, and oceanographers. Viewers will be inspired by female STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) superstars in leading fields including social media, entertainment, animals, design, and the internet – all categories key to the teen experience.
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“Strong female role models are essential to breaking down barriers and educating the next generation of leaders about gender equality,” said Geena Davis, Executive Producer, Mission Unstoppable. “Girls need to see themselves on and off the screen as STEM professionals, and as I always say, ‘If they can see it, they can be it.’ This new series strives to empower young women and showcase the many ways they can impact the world through careers in STEM.”
And the message, that women can do science, is not heavy-handed. The show simply shows women scientists doing their things. They apparently look for things that might hold particular fascination for kids.
In today’s episode: The use of koji fungi from Japan to make more satisfying meat substitutes; what neuroscientists believe is the explanation for the feeling of deja vu; a salute to Marie Curie, the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, the first person to win the Nobel Prize twice, and one of only two people to win the Nobel in two different fields (and whose body, books, and other artifacts from her life are all now in lead-lined containers, and people who study them have to dress for radioactive hazards); and mining for limestone in California, which involves big explosions and fizzing rocks. The show ended with a couple of the profiled scientists telling kids that there are lots of subjects covered by STEM, encouraging them to pick a few, read about them, and get inspired.
If you’d like to see it, check it out on CBS on Saturday mornings.
Action Item
DK post Watch-Tim-Scott-snaps-at-female-reporter-to-mansplain-abortion by Walter Einenkel includes a petition Pass the Women's Health Protection Act NOW to protect our bodies and rights
As always, this column is a group effort! Many thanks to Tara, mettle, Angmar, and SandraLLAP for items and discussion behind the scenes!