A mighty woman with a torch
Today…
is National Mango Day, and Hot Dog Day, and Hammock Day. Throw in a cold beer, and I am set. (Or would be, if the temperature outside was more sustainable for human life.)
is the birthday of poet and activist Emma Lazarus (1849-1887), she of “give me your tired, your poor…” (She died young, I didn’t realize.) “The New Colossus” has come to overwhelm the scope of her career, as she was considered one of the first really visible and successful Jewish American authors.
Long Island Sound
I see it as it looked one afternoon
In August,— by a fresh soft breeze o’erblown.
The swiftness of the tide, the light thereon,
A far-off sail, white as a crescent moon.
The shining waters with pale currents strewn,
The quiet fishing-smacks, the Eastern cove,
The semi-circle of its dark, green grove.
The luminous grasses, and the merry sun
In the grave sky; the sparkle far and wide,
Laughter of unseen children, cheerful chirp
Of crickets, and low lisp of rippling tide,
Light summer clouds fantastical as sleep
Changing unnoted while I gazed thereon.
All these fair sounds and sights I made my own.
Give a share, hm? Do it for Emma.
Abortion
Pence spreads lies about later abortion to try to scare voters
Lisa Needham | The American Independent
Speaking at a campaign event in Wisconsin last week, Pence lied when he told voters that "Joe Biden even supports late-term abortion — allowing innocent, unborn children to be aborted right up to the moment of birth." This rhetoric echoes that of Donald Trump.
The Abortion Pill Mifepristone Just Became Easier to Get
Carrie Baker | Ms. Magazine
Last week, a federal judge in Maryland issued an 80-page decision temporarily suspending enforcement of an FDA restriction on the abortion pill, forcing patients to make an unnecessary trip to their health care provider just to pick up the medication and sign a form.
Demand For At-Home Abortion Pills Exploded During the Pandemic
Carter Sherman | VICE
Between March 20 and April 11, Aid Access, an organization that ships abortion-inducing pills across the United States, saw a 27% spike in the rate of requests for the pills, a team of researchers led by the University of Texas at Austin found in a study released Tuesday.
Daily Beast | Coronavirus Sparks Surge in Demand for At-Home Abortions
Michigan
Michigan abortion foes drop petition drive to ban method
David Eggert | Rapid City Journal
Abortion opponents said Tuesday they're dropping a petition drive to prohibit a second-trimester procedure in Michigan after state election officials said the campaign didn't produce enough valid signatures. Right to Life of Michigan said it won't contest the conclusion when the Board of State Canvassers meets Friday.
Nebraska
Legislature adds abortion restriction to volatile mix of issues
Fred Knapp | KPNE- TV (Lincoln, NE)
Sen. Suzanne Geist is proposing to ban an abortion procedure commonly used in the second trimester of pregnancy. Medically known as dilation and evacuation, or D & E, the procedure involves dilating a woman's cervix, using suction and forceps to remove the contents of the uterus.
Nebraska News Service | Nebraska Legislative Session Kicks Off With Expected Debate on Taxes, Racial Justice Issues and More
LGBTQ
Many LGBTQ Youth Suffer From Mental Health Woes
Steven Reinberg | HealthDay
As many as 40% of LGBTQ youth and more than half of transgender and nonbinary youth contemplated taking their life in the past year, according to a new report. Also, one in three LGBTQ youth said they had been threatened or harmed because of their sexual identity, researchers from the nonprofit Trevor Project found in their 2020 National Survey on LGBTQ Youth Mental Health.
COVID-19 is quietly ravaging the LGBTQ community
David Johns, Earl Fowlkes Jr | The Hill
A growing body of research is showing that Black people are being hit disproportionately hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, but a lack of LGBTQ-inclusive data designed to capture the experiences of people who are both racial and sexual minorities renders many of us invisible — and puts us at even greater risk of harm.
22 States and DC Sue HHS for Overturning Some ACA Protections
Alicia Ault | Medscape
Attorneys general from 22 states and Washington, DC are suing the Trump Administration, seeking to stop a rule from going into effect that they say overturns protections for LGBTQ individuals, women seeking abortions, people with disabilities, and low-proficiency English speakers.
🠲 The Trump Administration’s Proposed HUD Rule Is Another Sign They Don’t Want Trans People to Feel Safe Anywhere
Lucy Diavolo | Teen Vogue
[T]he leaked document makes it look like the administration is more worried about making sure shelter operators know how to most effectively be transphobic than taking any steps to keep people in their homes or help those without them find permanent shelter during the double-barrel crisis of the pandemic and the recession.
California
Lawsuit: Trans discrimination alleged after prostitution arrest by San Jose police
Robert Salonga | The Mercury News
A woman is suing San Jose police in federal court on the allegation that she was targeted, arrested, and jailed because officers took her transgender status to mean she was a sex worker
Colorado
Colorado governor signs four pro-LGBTQ bills into law
John Riley | Metro Weekly
Last week, Gov. Jared Polis (D) signed four bills into law that expand the rights available to LGBTQ people in the Centennial State.
Maryland
This Trans Man Is Suing A Maryland Hospital For Refusing To Treat Him On "Religious" Grounds
Elly Belle | Refinery29
After his doctors recommended a hysterectomy, Jesse Hammons went to the University of Maryland St. Joseph Medical Center to get his procedure. But the Towson, Maryland-based health facility refused to move forward with Hammons' procedure, citing religious grounds.
Michigan
Trans Educator Named Michigan Teacher of the Year
Trudy Ring | The Advocate Magazine
Owen Bondono, a teacher in Oak Park, Mich., who is queer and transgender, has been named Michigan Teacher of the Year.
Minnesota
New crowdfunding platform aims to boost minority, LGBTQ entrepreneurs
Cathy Wurzer | MPR News
Twin Cities restaurateur Jared Brewington is working on a new crowdfunding platform for people of color and LGBTQ entrepreneurs.
Pennsylvania
Transgender official takes abuse while leading virus efforts
Michael Rubinkam | Federal News Network
Many of the attacks against Pennsylvania’s health secretary Dr. Rachel Levine have little to do with the way she has handled the statewide response to the coronavirus pandemic.
Salon | A Pennsylvania fair held a transphobic dunk tank event mocking the state's secretary of health
Tennessee
Tennessee man who claims he was harassed at work and fired for being gay sues for discrimination
John Riley | Metro Weekly
A gay Tennessee man is one of the first LGBTQ people seeking relief under the Supreme Court’s landmark decision finding that it is illegal for employers to fire or discriminate against someone due to their sexual orientation or gender identity.
Reproductive Health & Justice
Reproductive Injustice and COVID-19
Seema Mohapatra | Harvard Law & Policy Review
The COVID-19 pandemic has laid bare deep racial inequities in healthcare, and COVID-19 related restrictions on reproduction and lack of support for childbearing and childrearing disproportionately burden Black women and other women of color. The Supreme Court seems unwilling to take into account who their decisions impact most.
🠱🠱 This is the first of a four-part symposium on “Regulating Reproduction After June Medical and During COVID-19.”
It’s Time to Abolish ‘Feminine Hygiene’ and Welcome New Language
Rachael Hope | Medium
Using euphemisms like aunt flow, woman’s time, that time of the month, and yes, sanitary products or feminine hygiene does the opposite of normalizing a regular biological function. We don’t talk about our periods, and that’s a problem.
Why choosing an OB/GYN is so tough if you’re a Black woman
Maya Feller | TODAY
Race-related health inequities continue to place the lives of Black women and their families at risk, but finding supportive doctors can change that.
Maine
Jackson Laboratory To Remove Name Of Founder And Eugenicist From Conference Center
Nora Flaherty | Maine Public Broadcasting Network
The Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor has announced that it will remove the name of founder C.C. Little from its conference center. Little was a longtime champion of eugenics, a belief that birth control, and even sterilization, could be used to selectively improve the genetic stock of populations.
New York
Planned Parenthood of Greater New York to remove late founder's name from center due to 'racist legacy'
Elisha Fieldstadt | NBC News
Planned Parenthood of Greater New York announced that it would remove the name of the national organization's founder from its Manhattan clinic due to her "racist legacy" stemming from her well-documented connections with the eugenics movement.
AP | Sanger's name to be dropped from NYC clinic over eugenics
Forbes | Planned Parenthood Drops Margaret Sanger’s Name From Manhattan Clinic Over Ties To Eugenics Movement
The Hill | Planned Parenthood to remove Margaret Sanger's name from center over 'racist legacy'
New York Times | Planned Parenthood in N.Y. Disavows Margaret Sanger Over Eugenics
Time | Why Planned Parenthood Is Removing Founder Margaret Sanger's Name From a New York City Clinic
Washington Post | Margaret Sanger: Planned Parenthood to remove founder’s name from N.Y. clinic over eugenics
Work & Money
We Can’t Fix the Economy Without Fixing Child Care. Joe Biden Finally Has a Plan for That.
Kara Voght | Mother Jones
It took a pandemic, a botched governmental response, and a recession. But at long last, a Democratic presidential nominee is promising a universal, federally backed child care program that recognizes caregiving’s crucial role in the US economy.
AP | Biden: Better child, elderly care can create 3 million jobs
HuffPost | Joe Biden Makes Caregiving A Central Part Of His New Economic Plan
NPR | What's In Joe Biden's Plan For Child Care And Elder Care
A plan for that? Ah, yes – Elizabeth Warren’s new role: Key Joe Biden policy adviser
Schools Can't Reopen Safely Without A Lot More Money. Congress Is Running Out Of Time.
Jennifer Bendery | HuffPost
In a matter of weeks, millions of children will head back to school in the middle of a pandemic, leaving millions more parents filled with anxiety about risking their child’s health ― not to mention school staff ― to get an education. Public schools cannot safely reopen without a massive infusion of emergency funding from Congress, which is already dangerously late to this.
New York Times | Republicans Eye Checks to Families and Billions for Schools in Relief Bill
Philadelphia Inquirer | Republicans must back a COVID relief bill to rescue public schools. The alternative is calamity.
Investment in child care can’t wait until there’s a coronavirus vaccine
Katrina vanden Heuvel | Washington Post
Our economy cannot function without child care. That simple fact has been brought into stark relief by the recent pandemic, which has forced parents across the country to choose between supporting their family financially and caring for their children.
'Crashing down’: How the child care crisis is magnifying racial disparities
Eleanor Mueller | POLITICO
The collapse of the child care industry is hitting women of color the hardest, threatening to stoke racial and gender inequities and putting pressure on Congress to address the crisis in its new round of coronavirus aid.
Parents turn to private "pods" to school children
Meghan McCarty Carino | Marketplace
The situation has become critical as many school districts have announced they will not fully resume in-person classes this fall as coronavirus cases continue to surge. So parents are getting creative, forming “pods” with other families to share the cost and burden of home schooling.
I thought about grouping this 🠱 with the other articles on how the child care crisis is exacerbating racial disparities...
Other work and money news
Gender Lens Venture Investing Suffers Setbacks But Will Emerge Stronger From Covid-19
Bonnie Chiu | Forbes
Venture investment into women-led companies made up only 2.8% of all investments in 2019, and since the start of 2020, overall deal activity for women-founded startups has actually fallen. Despite the grim statistics, Covid-19 can present the opportunity to grow gender lens venture investing.
Virginia’s New Law Against Hair Discrimination and How We Got Here
Tom Spiggle | Forbes
Discrimination based on hair is especially relevant given the Black Lives Matter movement that’s sweeping our nation. And while it might now seem like common sense to have such protections, Virginia is only part of a minority of jurisdictions that no longer allow this type of discrimination.
More, More, More
For Black Women, This Sudden Feeling of Validation Leaves Us Overwhelmed
Tonya Russell | Allure
Imposter syndrome is defined as feeling like a fraud or a phony in your profession, despite your education. People who suffer from this feel like their success is not meritocratic, but actually luck. So how do you tell someone who previously wasn’t valued in their profession that new, abundant opportunities aren’t due to pure luck from being the flavor of the moment?
How ‘The Talk’ Is Different for Black Girls
Jennifer Epperson | DAME Magazine
Since Trayvon Martin’s murder in 2012, media has been grossly infatuated with dissecting “the talk” that Black parents have with their Black sons about the police. Over time, I wince in anticipation of these conversations after the rolling high profile cases of police brutality. Surely, Black daughters are educated about dealing with the police. Why aren’t our experiences part of the conversation?
🠲 'You're Not a Racist and Neither Am I': The Former Feminist Who Turned to White Supremacy
Seyward Darby | Jezebel
Since the demise of the ERA, white women have often challenged egalitarianism or opposed its champions. A majority of white women haven’t voted for a Democratic presidential nominee since 1996—and before that, the last time they had done so was 1964.
What Do Sweden and Mexico Have in Common? A Feminist Foreign Policy.
Alisha Gupta | New York Times
Six years after Sweden adopted a feminist foreign policy, several other countries are following its lead, raising pressure on the U.S. to do the same. “Put on your gender glasses. And, if you have a systematic feminist foreign policy, you never take off those glasses.”— Ann Linde, Foreign Minister of Sweden
As the "perpetrators of sexual violence," men need to join the feminist fight
Amanda Marcotte | Salon
Salon spoke with Cheung about being a young feminist in such perilous times and what it means to have a feminism that keeps going in the face of even some of the ugliest defeats.
Feminists have warned us - and now another "men's rights activist" turns to murder
Amanda Marcotte | Salon
Angry misogynists who commit murder aren't lone wolves — they're part of an increasingly violent movement.