A creature was stirring
Today…
as I often do, I woke up to find a curious trail of clutter left by the sleepless 12yo. Last night he appears to have scrubbed a big rock in the bathroom sink, disassembled the bug zapper, and eaten some frozen ravioli (as in, straight from the freezer, can you imagine).
is the birthday of Ida B. Wells (1862-1931), groundbreaking journalist, activist, writer, researcher, all the things.
is the birthday of Ginger Rogers (1911-1995). Backwards and in heels, my friends…
Abortion
GOP attacks on later abortion are especially harmful to Black women
Lisa Needham | The American Independent
Republicans never talk about who their abortion bans will affect the most. In the wake of a recent Supreme Court ruling against a Louisiana abortion restriction, conservatives are left to scramble for how to attack abortion next. There's a good chance that anti-abortion extremists will fall back on one of their major offensives of the past year: attacks on later abortion.
Medication Abortion Access Is About to Radically Change
Jessica Mason Pieklo | Rewire.News
Medication abortion access just got a little easier and safer for patients during the COVID-19 crisis. It’s about damn time, and it should stay this way forever.
Why Are Coronavirus Deaths Surging Under 'Pro-Life- Leaders?
Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove | Time Magazine
As the coronavirus surges across the U.S., states across the South and West have reported sharp increases in their daily number of new cases. While the initial outbreaks in New York and Seattle reflected where community spread of the disease began in the U.S., these more recent surges in Florida, Texas, Arizona and some two dozen other states reveal more about our capacity to respond.
Texas
4 People Fighting to Save Abortion Access in Texas Explain What’s at Stake
Reina Sultan | SELF Magazine
During the new coronavirus crisis, lawmakers in certain states have attempted to enact even more restrictions on abortions, making them all but impossible to get for far too many people. Texas is one such place.
LGBTQ
LGBTQ+ lawyers and attorneys with disabilities report prevalent discrimination, ABA study says
Amanda Robert | ABA Journal
Nearly 40% of lawyers who identify as having disabilities and/or as LGBTQ+ report experiencing discrimination, harassment and bias in the workplace, according to a new national study by the ABA and Burton Blatt Institute at Syracuse University.
Study: Queer Men of Color Have Sex at Earlier Ages Than Straight Peers
Daniel Reynolds | The Advocate
A new study drives home the need for LGBTQ+-inclusive sex education. Young gay sexual minority men have sex younger than their straight counterparts, according to research released by the Rutgers School of Public Health's Center for Health, Identity, Behavior and Prevention Studies.
2020 is seeing an "epidemic" in transgender and gender non-conforming murders
Maddie Lee | Boing Boing
This year, the Human Rights Campaign has recorded at least 21 violent deaths of transgender or gender non-conforming people. In 2019, they tracked at least 27. In what is being called an “epidemic,” 2020 is likely to see more fatal attacks than in 2019.
Transgender women win elections for the first time in West Virginia & Louisiana
Alex Bollinger | LGBTQ Nation
Two women who won elections this past month just became the first transgender elected officials in their respective states.
A new report exposes how some dating apps put LGBTQ users at risk
AJ Dellinger | Mic
A new report released Tuesday from cybersecurity firm Recorded Future found that many apps which court LGBTQIA+ users often fail to adequately protect them from oppressive government regimes, and other technology, including facial recognition, could further put this community at risk.
Survey: 40 percent of LGBTQ youth 'seriously considered' suicide
Tim Fitzsimons | NBC
Two in 5 LGBTQ youth in the United States have "seriously considered" suicide in the past year, a sobering survey released Wednesday said, showing what one expert called the "devastating mental health consequences" of society's failure to create a safer and more affirming environment for America's queer youth.
Forbes | Largest Survey Of Transgender And Nonbinary Youth Says More Than Half Seriously Considered Suicide
The White House claimed Trump is pro-LGBTQ. His policies show he isn’t.
Katelyn Burns | Vox
Press secretary Kayleigh McEnany listed off three key LGBTQ policies, but a closer look tells a different story.
WUSF-FM (Tampa, FL) | Trump Policy Adds Additional Barrier To Health Care For Transgender People
Pregnancy & Parenting
‘They Go to Mommy First’
Jessica Grose | New York Times
A pre-print of a study soon to be published in the journal Gender, Work & Organization showed that in heterosexual couples where both the mother and father were continuously employed and have children under 13, mothers “have reduced their work hours four to five times more than fathers.” This has exacerbated the gender gap in work hours by 20–50%, the study found.
Coronavirus Has Finally Put A Spotlight On America's Childcare Crisis. What Happens Now?
Caitlin Munro | Refinery29
While many families of privilege are experiencing what it’s like to be without steady childcare for the first time — and are understandably buckling under that pressure — for those who were already struggling with finding affordable and appropriate care for their kids, the impact has been compounded.
Text in three months time and we'll be fine, I know.
(Well, maybe not that fine, but we'll survive anyhow.)
I won’t recall the due dates of each sad assignment.
And I question our enrollment here and now.
So what happens now?
(Another bookbag on another hook)
So what happens now?
(Another fight over a Spanish book)
Where are we going to?
(Staying home, just as we have before)
Where are we going to?
Back to school: Working parents will need help from employers
Dr. Charlene A. Wong & Dr. Laura J. Faherty | USA Today
COVID-19 and going back to school will bring complications to working parents so employers should be finding ways to help.
Some researchers and politicians call for pregnant women to be included in coronavirus vaccine testing
Shefali Luthra | The Washington Post
As Washington spends billions of dollars to fast-track a coronavirus vaccine, a number of medical researchers and Democrats are calling on Congress to guarantee that pregnant women are involved in federally supported trials — an inclusion that is not guaranteed though research shows they could be particularly vulnerable to the coronavirus.
Coronavirus baby boom or bust? How the pandemic is affecting birthrates worldwide.
Miriam Berger | The Washington Post
It’s still too early to say for sure, but initial trends suggest spikes in some parts of the world and declines in others. Broadly speaking, birthrates should continue to drop in many higher-income countries and climb in many poor and middle-income nations, where the U.N. Population Fund projects that pandemic-driven disruptions in access to contraception could lead to millions of unplanned pregnancies.
Reproductive Health & Justice
How Periods Have Changed During The Pandemic
Jennifer Gerson | Bustle
Much is still unknown about any correlation between COVID-19 — and the impact of living through a pandemic — and the endocrine or reproductive systems. One study published at the top of July found that the virus can worsen existing hormone conditions. But as a May review noted, more research needs to be done on what COVID could mean for endocrine health. Menstruation seems not to have factored into the COVID conversation — yet.
Fatphobia and Racism Are Inextricably Linked
Charlotte Zoller | Teen Vogue
[T]he idea that Black people—specifically Black women—are to blame for being fat goes back as far as racist pseudoscience claiming Black people couldn’t control their “animal appetites.” We can see this racism present today when we read about the increased mortality Black women face supposedly because of their weight, despite research showing that stress related to racism, sexism, fatphobia, and other societal mistreatment could be to blame for early death—and that it doesn’t necessarily have to do with their physical weight at all.
And only sharing this because the headline irked me: With kids spending more waking hours on screens than ever, here's what parents need to worry about. If there’s one thing we on top of as parents, it’s the worrying. Got it. Also?
Work & Money
Remote working is not working for the poor, the young and women, a new study finds
Mariya Brussevich | Agenda (World Economic Forum)
The IMF has investigated the feasibility of working from home in a large sample of advanced and emerging market economies. It estimates that nearly 100 million workers in 35 advanced and emerging countries could be at high risk because they are unable to do their jobs remotely.
Can The New Way Of Working Change The Game For Gender Equality?
Deanna Bass, Carolyn Tastad | Forbes
It’s clear that the COVID-19 pandemic has upended every aspect of normal life – but what’s less clear is how these changes will impact the way we work – and live – in the months, years and decades to come. It’s a subject of particular relevance to working women, who have been disproportionately affected by this crisis.
🠲 DOL Women's Bureau Seeks Public Input On Family Leave
Hailey Konnath | Law360
The Labor Department’s Women's Bureau wants to hear from the public on how existing state- and employer-provided paid family leave programs and their accessibility — or lack thereof — affect women and their families, according to a request for information (RFI) issued Wednesday. The Women's Bureau will open a 60-day comment period starting Thursday.
More, More, More
Feminism has helped white women most, Americans say in Pew survey
Alia E. Dastagir | USA Today
A Pew Research Center survey released this month, which found that while nearly 80% of Americans support gender equality, only 61% of women and 40% of men say "feminist" describes them very or somewhat well.