Today is the best Wednesday of all time because I am spending it with Brittani Nichols in real life. While I am out living your fantasies, here’s the stories we missed this week.
Delhi’s Cab Service for Women
Cabs for Women by Women is exactly what it sounds like: another way women in Delhi are going to keep each other safe.
No More Revenge Porn
Women are fighting back against revenge porn, and they’re taking down GoDaddy with the whole mess:
A group of 23 women have signed on to a class-action lawsuit in the hopes of putting a dent in the practice of “revenge porn” — a rather despicable type of online pornography that consists of user-submitted pictures, usually of an ex-wife or ex-girlfriend and usually without the subject’s permission. According to The Houston Chronicle, the suit targets the revenge porn site Texxxan.com as well as its host, GoDaddy.com; it additionally names unidentified defendants including “the persons and/or entities hosting Texxxan.com” and “all subscribing members.” “I’m going after the revenge porn industry,” attorney John S. Morgan said. “The only way to destroy this industry is to go after the people who fund it.”
Taking on this industry has been a challenge. Many victims prefer not to pursue the sites hosting their pictures for fear of having their identities revealed. There’s also the constant fear of the offending ex-lover finding more motivation for continued harassment. In the case of the Texxxan.com lawsuit, plaintiff Hollie Toups told BetaBeat that the site said it would remove her pictures after she entered her credit card information — an offense that helped spur Toups to go public with her plight and sign on with the class-action lawsuit. “I went from being depressed and embarrassed to being really pissed off,” she said.
One-Liners About Really Important Women
+ PolicyMic picked 5 famous women who they think “should be on Twitter” without once mentioning that I’m actually already on Twitter. Rude.
+ Hillary Clinton is so over your bullshit.
+ Julie Penelope, lesbian separatist and academic, passed away on Thursday at 71.
+ Whitney Houston’s mom, Cissy, is opening up about her daughter’s death in a soon-to-be-released book – and confronting the rumors about her relationship with a woman.
+ Vice recently interviewed Emily May of Hollaback!, which is pretty badass.
+ The Real L Word’s Lauren Bedford has MS and wants to do whatever it takes to raise awareness about the condition.
+ Amy Poehler is writing a book that will replace every book.
An Inmate’s Sex Reassignment
Ophelia De’Lonta is close to getting sex reassignment surgery, covered by taxpayer dollars, while enrolled in prison.
“It’s major,” said De’lonta. “Finally, I can get what I need. That’s just like making parole. Really. It’s something that’s very much overwhelming.”
The appeals court ruling does not decide the merits of De’lonta’s 8th Amendment violation claim, and it doesn’t suggest that sex change surgery is the remedy.
It does say, the fact that Virginia D.O.C. is providing treatment for De’lonta’s disorder already, doesn’t foreclose the possibility that the medical services have become constitutionally deficient.
“As long as you are holding me here, you have to provide the treatment. Should happen that should happen,” said De’lonta.
De’lonta could become the first in the nation to have state-funded sex change surgery to treat gender identity disorder and the compulsion to self castrate.
Les Mean Girls
Cool girls got you down? Don’t get too miserables about it.
Gayborhood Watch
If you live in Canada, finding the queers has never been easier. Just look at the Census data, dood.
VAWA Should Probably Exist
It’s baaaaack! As promised, VAWA is making a reappearance in the Senate and potentially will do the same in our lives in the near future, just so long as the Republicans don’t fuck everything up. Again.
I’ve Got Some (Mostly Real Bad) News
Wes Breedwell got fired from his job for supporting gay rights and all he has to prove it is this lousy tee-shirt.
In New Jersey, Isabel Perez lost her job for being a lesbian. In Georgia, it’s a double-whammy of shitty times with public money funding scholarships at private homophobic institutions and highways filled with vanity plates – but none for le gays.
In Moscow, a same-sex kiss-in turned into an opportunity for jackass homophobes to hurt people as per ushe. At Boston College Law School, vandals used MLK day to spread hate at the LGBT student group office. In Portugal, though, gender identity and sexual orientation are now protected identities, which is a solid step toward making sure all of this bullshit stops.
Also, Mark Zuckerberg is playing nice with Chris Christie and, thankfully, Chris Hughes is bitching him out about it while experiencing higher levels of personal success.
I’m Really Inspired and Want To Learn About Knots and Camping Now
The Boy Scouts of America just may end their homophobic reign over the universe. From BSA spokesperson Deron Smith:
For more than 100 years, Scouting’s focus has been on working together to deliver the nation’s foremost youth program of character development and values-based leadership training. Scouting has always been in an ongoing dialogue with the Scouting family to determine what is in the best interest of the organization and the young people we serve.
Currently, the BSA is discussing potentially removing the national membership restriction regarding sexual orientation. This would mean there would no longer be any national policy regarding sexual orientation, and the chartered organizations that oversee and deliver Scouting would accept membership and select leaders consistent with each organization’s mission, principles, or religious beliefs. BSA members and parents would be able to choose a local unit that best meets the needs of their families.
While your son is enrolling, maybe buy him a book for young queers.
Gay Cake Cake Cake Cake Cake Cake Cake Cake Cake Cake Cake
C’mon, put your name on it. Or at least on the letter next to it.
I present to you: a coming out cake.
Look At These Fucking Autostraddlers
On Sunday, thousands took to the street in Paris to rally for marriage equality / general sanity in France, including these ‘straddlers!
Brian Ellner, an American advocate of same-sex marriage who helped lead the campaign for it in New York State, is here as an adviser to a lobbying group called All Out. He said the level of support in France was “quite amazing.”
“France is always important as an exporter of ideas,” Mr. Ellner said in an interview. “That’s why it’s important internationally. I believe a win in France would undoubtedly have an impact globally and even in the United States,” where the Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments in March on two cases concerning same-sex marriage.
Frédéric Martel, an author and broadcaster who organized a gathering for government ministers, artists, intellectuals and other notables after the march, said: “We have to be in the streets and be strong. The bill will pass, we know it.”
The French Autostraddlers are adorable. Go France!
ouai! allez-y, les autostraddleuses! :)
autostraddleuses = nouveau mot préféré
hehe You called us adorable.
ALSO, there’s a fb page for French Autostraddlers but there’s less than 20! Surely, there’s more of us in France than that. Join us! We have glitter (as an incentive).
Just popping up to say there is a happy ending to that BC Law vandalism story. The day after there was a gorgeous hand drawn card filled with rainbows and words of friendship left at the office by some anonymous nice person, and all the other affinity student groups have offered support and resources, asking what they can do to help.
I go to BC Law and it’s my opinion that no one at the law school actually vandalized it; for starters it was a long weekend and the only people on campus would’ve been the overachievers in the law library and the undergraduate freshmen who share a campus with the law school. Also the school faculty and administration are extremely accepting. There are lots of professors who matter-of-factly include gay legal issues in their courses. So the atmosphere on campus isn’t threatening or unsafe; even though the motivation to write a bunch of slurs on the office walls is a serious issue that needs to be addressed, the actual slurs themselves were pretty…well, go take a look at them. My favorite was either “MILF” or “BEAN FLICKER.”
so there is this twitter thing going on in germany right now after a sexist remark by a politician. over 90000 tweets I believe have been using the hashtag #aufschrei (#outcry) to express thoughts and experiences re sexism!!!
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/29/world/europe/29iht-germany29.html?ref=global-home&_r=3&
german speaking people, you might wanna read this http://www.spiegel.de/politik/ausland/internationale-presse-ueber-sexismus-debatte-um-rainer-bruederle-a-880465.html
and watch this http://www.ndr.de/fernsehen/sendungen/panorama_3/panoramadrei475.html
and this http://maedchenmannschaft.net/ein-lauter-aufschrei-gegen-sexismus/
reading all this and seeing all these 140 characters full of sexism and sexual assault makes me have a lot of feelings I cant process right now cause it’s the middle of the night. I might just have to go out and punch the first man I see
Lina, I love this! Way to hop on that “correspondents from Europe”-train.
Also, there was at least something high quality about the sexism debate on tv: http://www.ndr.de/fernsehen/sendungen/panorama_3/panoramadrei475.html.
I love the coming out cake, so many wonderful puns.
I’m skeptical about the boy scouts suddenly announcing this when just like last week they pressured a group to drop a nondiscrimination pledge by threatening to take away their charter.
coming out cake!
I see a fellow snatch in that picture of French straddlers! Because we of course, run the world.
Everywhere we go, people wanna know…
laetitia? where is she? <3
I’ll save you all some time from reading Cissy Houston’s book. Oprah just did a whole special with her that aired Sunday. Basically, Cissy says she has no idea if Whitney and Robin were more than friends but she didn’t like Robin. Oprah asked her if she would have had a problem with Whitney being a lesbian and she said “Absolutely”. Oprah didn’t push the issue by having her elaborate on that but I wish she had asked her a follow up question instead of leaving it there.
That coming out cake’s so sweet. It’s nice that person got a slice of fame from it, too.
that coming out cake!
And french straddlers! I lurve the french!
That coming out cake is the best idea I’ve seen all damn year. Also, I’m really wonderfully grateful for the brave women in Delhi who have developed such a brillant method of keeping one another safe. And yay for Portugal!! Also yay for boyscouts!
Now I’m off in search for information about Julie Penelope.
Carmen, thanks for this info – now I know where to move in Toronto :)
QUEER ALL THE THINGS