feature image via motherjones.com
Hey chapstick dreams! Do y’all like cookies? I like cookies.
Pride and Joy
+ About a dozen activists disrupted Boston Pride by sitting at Boylston and Charles streets for 11 minutes — a minute for each trans person who has been murdered this year. The demonstration was held to refocus attention to those most marginalized in the LGBTQ community, honor the lives of trans women of color and raise awareness of the lack of representation and resources to queer people of color in Boston. The group’s specific goals for the Boston Pride officials was to add more trans, low-income, people of color to their board, reroute the parade to go through communities of color and to end partnerships with corporations who are hurting communities of color. They used #wickedpissed on social media to share their message.
+ Since it’s Pride month a bunch of businesses are capitalizing on it and making commercials and advertisements. Greek yogurt company Chobani isn’t any different. They released a new commercial featuring a lesbian couple in bed.
Laws of the Land
+ We’re rounding the corner here folks — by the end of the month, the Supreme Court will make a decision on gay marriage. A group led by anti-gay pastor Rick Scarborough vows to defy any ruling by SCOTUS that recognizes same-sex marriage. They’ve got a whole legion of homophobes — 44,500 signatures to be exact, including our faves Rick Santourm and Mike Huckabee. The group placed a full page ad in the Washington Post last week that said “We ask you not to force us to choose between the state and the Laws of God.”
+ Last week, three different complaints were filed against various establishments that discriminated against transgender people. Zack Ford over at ThinkProgress breaks it down for you and talks about the importance of nondiscrimination protections for LGBT people in housing, education, employment, etc.
+ On Monday, the Supreme Court declined to hear North Carolina’s case to revive its law requiring people seeking an abortion to listen to an ultrasound or to a doctor describe the fetus to them. The federal appeals court had found that North Carolina’s law violated the First Amendment rights of the doctor and patient.
In other abortion case news, it is yet to be determined if SCOTUS will take up the constitutionality of a Mississippi abortion law that threatens to close the state’s last abortion clinic and Texas’ abortion law that the 5th circuit court of appeals just upheld last week, which will close all but 10 abortion clinics in one of the largest and most populous states in the country.
Welp
+ Rachel Dolezal unapologetically resigned from her position at the the Spokane chapter of the NAACP on Monday. Dolezal, a white person, lied about being black for years and now is the center of a firestorm of criticism as of Friday when the story broke.
+ Chandra Bozelko over at The Guardian writes about her experiences with the emotional, physical and psychological effects of scarce pads and tampons in a women’s prison.
“The reasons for keeping supplies for women in prison limited are not purely financial. Even though keeping inmates clean would seem to be in the prison’s self-interest, prisons control their wards by keeping sanitation just out of reach. Stains on clothes seep into self-esteem and serve as an indelible reminder of one’s powerlessness in prison. Asking for something you need crystallizes the power differential between inmates and guards; the officer can either meet your need or he can refuse you, and there’s little you can do to influence his choice.”
+ Family and friends of a Milwaukee transgender woman who died by suicide in November say the bullying she faced at work and the subsequent inaction contributed to her death. Karis Anne Ross was a teacher at the German Immersion School and her parents say she endured bullying from her coworkers for 10 years while her complaints were ignored by administration. Ross specifically named people in her suicide letter who contributed to her pain. Her friend penned an open letter to the district’s superintendent pointing this out:
“As the spring semester draws to a close and another class prepares for graduation, I wish to call to your attention to an oversight, a failure to act, by Milwaukee Public School administrators, which undoubtedly contributed to the suicide death of one of Milwaukee Public Schools’ best and brightest teachers this past school year. While the blame for her death cannot be fully placed on the Milwaukee Public School District, it is my opinion that if key personnel had responded appropriately, this teacher may have chosen to continue living.”
+ A Washington Post and Kaiser Family Foundation survey found that while college students understand the importance of getting consent before sleeping with someone, they don’t agree on what consent means. College students were asked the meaning of “yes means yes” in regards to specific scenarios including undressing, getting a condom, or nodding. In each of the scenarios, 40 percent of students said the action constituted as consent for sex and 40 percent said they did not.
I am so tired of hearing about Rachel Dolezal. I swear all these news channels are running wall to wall 24/7 coverage about this woman. I know this woman has many many issues but I wish these news organizations were as interested in dragging politicians to hell the way they seem as interested as dragging this clearly mentally-unstable woman with no real power in the world. I’m really glad they have their priorities straight though. And it’s nice that they’ve decided that they suddenly care about the feelings of black people this week. We’ll see how long that lasts. Meanwhile, Dolezal will probably get a book deal and Lifetime movie out of this. America, the land of opportunity.
It makes me want to watch the world burn as there are so many more stories deserving the attention that this woman gets. It’s been really frustrating and I’m staying away from some choice people* as this seems to be getting worse.
*Annoying white feminist, of course.
all i could think of during that chobani commercial was, “i wonder if she’s eating that yogurt to try to make her yeast infection go away.”
Well I guess one decent thing happened in NC this week…since magistrates can now refuse to marry same gender couples just ’cause. This state man, I swear. I love it dearly and I also want to watch it burn
What about menstrual cups for female inmates? I wish I had the drive and connections to get something like that going. If there is already something, I would totally contribute. The prison systems sicken me and I don’t even know that much about them.
I’m an out queer parent whose children are students at the Milwaukee German Immersion School, where Karis Anne Ross was a special education teacher.
While it is clear that her experience was a huge problem, and one that we as a school community need to address, the last thing I want is for people to be left with the idea that this school is a hateful place.
My children have been at the school for three years. My ex-wife and I attended conferences and events together, and been out to all of our children’s teachers, administrators, staff, and other parents, since before the kids even started. I met with the principal to make sure that the environment would be one that was welcoming to our children.
It hasn’t been perfect. My first grader fought with other first graders who insisted that the only way you could have two moms is if one mom was a step-mom. But I do not believe that message was coming from the school. Teachers engaged in low-key inclusive practices, like having the kids make 2 crafts each for Mother’s Day.
I don’t doubt Frau Ross’s experience. But the community is more complicated than that, and children and parents were isolated from whatever staff conflicts and bullying happened to her.
Well I guess one decent thing happened in NC this week…since magistrates can now refuse to marry same gender couples just ’cause. This state man, I swear. I love it dearly and I also want to watch it burn. Cobra Kai Costume