A toast!
Today…
is National Spumoni Day! And bonus, I have a child who will actually eat cherry ice cream, so I wouldn’t even have to pitch a whole third of the gallon.
You know who likes spumoni? My mother. Tiny Nana. Our queen. And you know what tomorrow is? Her birthday. I could write you a book, but I can say it in a snapshot – smiling, in the kitchen, the signature wave, the ever-present mapine on her shoulder, the pasta pot that’s older than me. Love it. Love her.
Care a little, share a little. Do it for Tiny Nana.
DNC
Joe Biden’s Speech Was Surprisingly Moving
Claire Lampen | The Cut
Biden’s campaign has been marked by gaffes, as well as a tendency to misstate things, leaving expectations for the biggest speech of the DNC low. And yet the address Biden gave – absent pauses for applause – was both powerful and stirring.
I shared this almost entirely for the “and yet.”
Can Joe Biden Build a Better LGBTQ+ America?
Michelle García | The Advocate
The former vice president’s plan for the future includes protecting marginalized people. Now is the time to take our righteous anger to the polls
Kamala Harris shines spotlight on trailblazing Black women in her 2020 DNC speech
ABC News
When Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., accepted the Democratic Party's nomination for vice president Wednesday night, she did so by recognizing the trailblazing women who came before her.
Washington Post | Black women have boosted Democrats for decades. In Harris they feel the party finally sees them.
Kamala Harris is invigorating abortion rights activists
Paige Winfield Cunningham | The Washington Post
Joe Biden has been less willing than other Democrats to lurch leftward on abortion rights. But the presidential nominee could hardly have given the issue a louder cheerleader than Sen. Kamala D. Harris (D-Calif.), his vice-presidential pick.
Elizabeth Warren made a crucial point at the DNC: Child care is "infrastructure for families"
Anna North | Vox
Her speech focused on one of the biggest problems facing Americans during the pandemic.
🠲 Prism | Treating child care as 'basic infrastructure' means valuing Black and brown women’s work
Quartz | The case for treating childcare like essential economic infrastructure
The 19th | Elizabeth Warren put child care front and center at the DNC
The DNC Refuses to Address the Elephant in the Room
Elie Mystal | The Nation
The Supreme Court will be lost for a generation if Biden loses, damning almost all progressive policy ideas. But no Democrats are talking about it.
The Democratic Party Can't Solve Its Women Problem With an Emotional Montage
Danielle Campoamor | Cosmopolitan
All I heard from that DNC video moment was "just please support this old white man."
And yet…
Abortion
International abortion rule led to lapsed health aid in some African countries, report shows
Caroline Kelly | CNN
A State Department review of the Trump administration's policy to bar funding for foreign nonprofits that perform or promote abortions found it has also affected efforts to treat tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS and to deliver nutritional assistance, among other programs, and has had significant impact in sub-Saharan Africa.
Canceling Margaret Sanger Only Helps Abortion Opponents
Katha Pollitt | The Nation
When Planned Parenthood took the name of the organization’s founder off its flagship clinic in Manhattan, they bought into anti-choice propaganda.
Indiana
Lawsuit dropped over Indiana abortion ultrasound mandate
Tom Davies | AP
Planned Parenthood has decided to drop its federal lawsuit challenging an Indiana law that will require women to undergo an ultrasound at least 18 hours before having an abortion.
Indianapolis Star | Starting 2021, ultrasound must be performed 18 hours before having an abortion in Indiana
WFYI-FM | Lawsuit Over Indiana Abortion Ultrasound Requirement Is Over
Mississippi
Abortion Providers Want SCOTUS to Skip Mississippi Law Review
Mary Anne Pazanowski | Bloomberg Law
The U.S. Supreme Court should deny a petition for review of a decision blocking Mississippi from enforcing restrictions on abortions beginning at 15 weeks’ gestation, abortion providers told the nation’s top court.
Texas
'Abortion is a blessing' billboards come to Carthage, East Texas
The Panola Watchman
At least four Lilith Fund-paid billboard ads proclaiming "Abortion is a Blessing" have appeared in Carthage and other East Texas towns recently, with anti-abortion advocates decrying the signs and planning a rally Saturday.
The Marshall News Messenger | Pro-choice billboard gets vandalized
‘Singular Hub Of Trustworthy Information,’ New Abortion Rights Website Launches In Texas
KTXA-TV (Ft Worth, TX)
Eight reproductive health rights and justice organizations today announced the launch of a new website: The Texas Abortion Access Network (TAAN), an online hub for abortion rights supporters to get involved in advocating for abortion access throughout Texas.
LGBTQ
State Dept. fighting to deny US citizenship to gay couple's child
Conor Finnegan | ABC News
The State Department is appealing a federal judge's decision that it must recognize the U.S. citizenship of a young girl born via surrogate to a gay couple – prolonging one of many legal fights over its controversial policy that was deemed unconstitutional in June.
Log Cabin Again Licks Trump's Boots But Ignores His True LGBTQ+ Record
Trudy Ring | The Advocate
In a USA Today op-ed, the organization glosses over the Trump administration's plethora of anti-LGBTQ+ actions.
New report finds Trump administration 'intentionally harms' LGBTQ children
Casey Quinlan | The American Independent
The Department of Health and Human Services let South Carolina discriminate against LGBTQ people in the foster care system.
Mental health disorders surge among college students returning to campus, survey finds
Katie Camero | McClatchy
The majority of students reporting anxiety and depression were low-income, individuals of color, part of the LGBTQ+ community and those caring for loved ones, according to the new survey co-led by the University of California, Berkeley, Center for the Study of Higher Education and the University of Minnesota.
Drop your administrative actions harming trans people
Chris Johnson | The Washington Blade
Rep. Joe Kennedy III is urging President Donald Trump to drop his administration’s anti-transgender actions.
Erased From the Trump Administration’s Draft of a Key Foreign Aid Policy: Any Mention of LGBT People
Yeganeh June Torbati | ProPublica
The lead U.S. foreign aid agency has proposed a new policy on gender and women’s empowerment that eliminates any mention of transgender people or contraceptives, running counter to its own long-standing practices in deciding what programs to support.
California
Police arrest suspect in Los Angeles hate crime targeting 3 transgender women
Karma Allen | ABC News
Police arrested a suspect on Thursday in connection with a hate crime against three transgender women on Los Angeles' Hollywood Boulevard.
Pregnancy & Parenting
Where Is the Bailout for Parents?
Elliot Haspel | The Atlantic
First came the closures of schools and child-care programs in the spring, followed by many summer camps and pools never opening, and now a fall during which huge swaths of the country will have all-virtual schooling. Many parents are completely depleted—mentally and financially.
To Be 25, Black, and Scared of the Risks of Pregnancy
Chase Alston | Glamour
As a Black woman in my mid-twenties, the thought of getting pregnant is incredibly anxiety-inducing. Not because I don’t want to be a mother, or because I lack the resources to support a child. The reason is simple: Being Black makes me much more likely to die from childbirth.
More Than 3 Million Youth Play a Caregiving Role. They Need Our Support.
Anthony Cirillo | U.S. News & World Report
The most recent Caregiving in the U.S. report by the National Alliance for Caregiving and AARP found that in addition to 48 million adults who are family caregivers, 3.4 million children under the age of 18 are assisting with care. The study shows that 7% of adult caregivers report the presence of a child caregiver.
Florida
Coronavirus baby boom? Local obstetrician sees 40% pregnancy increase sparked by quarantining
Catie Wegman | TCPalm.com
There has been a 40% increase in pregnancies since the start of the coronavirus pandemic when compared to last year's data, an obstetrician at St. Lucie Medical Center reports.
Reproductive Health & Justice
Less Than Half Of People Were Taught About Birth Control, Says Study
Alice Broster | Forbes
While sex and health education is on most school curriculums in some capacity, it’s likely you learned the ins and outs of getting intimate from friends, the internet or conversations with a parent first.
It's Time to Have a Crucial Conversation About Our Communal Health With Planned Parenthood’s Alexis McGill Johnson, EHE Health's Joy Altimare and Dr. Joia Crear-Perry
Maiysha Kai | The Root
Debuting this afternoon at the Root Institute is a comprehensive, frank, passionate and occasionally humorous discussion of the historical disparities in health for our communities and their current implications, as well as Black women’s health and how COVID-19 has uniquely impacted African Americans.
Work & Money
Almost every Gannett newsroom agrees diversity is “critical to telling stories.” Its staff demographics show there’s a lot of work to be done
Hanaa' Tameez | Nieman Lab
On Thursday, Gannett, the parent company of USA Today and more than 260 local news outlets in the United States, pledged its commitment to diversity, inclusion, and parity in all of its newsrooms.
EEOC proposed regulation would impede its ability to combat workplace discrimination
David Lopez | The Hill
As our nation undergoes an historic reckoning with structural racism, a pandemic that has left many out of work and vulnerable, and a 3-year-old #MeToo Movement that has emboldened many women to come forward with complaints of sexual harassment, the EEOC has chosen to create new avenues for employers to escape accountability for discrimination.
New Jersey
NJ AG Pursues Pregnancy Bias Case Against Home Goods Co.
Amanda Ottaway | Law360
The New Jersey Attorney General's Office is pursuing a pregnancy discrimination case against a North Bergen-based home goods company accused of firing its marketing director for using leave after childbirth and later declining a business trip in order to breastfeed, the office announced Thursday.
More, More, More
It's 100 years since US women got the right to vote, but how has gender equality changed?
Joe Myers | Agenda (Word Economic Forum)
This year marks the 100th anniversary of US women getting the right to vote. But data from the Global Gender Report shows there's still a long way to go to reach gender parity in the US and globally.
The consequential, evolving role of Black sororities in suffrage
Ko Bragg | The 19th
From suffrage to 2020’s vice presidential nominee, Black sororities have been part of the political process. But some sisters believe their actions could be bolder.
🠲 Flowers for Shirley Chisholm
Katheryn Russell-Brown | Gainesville Sun
[F]ocusing too narrowly on her achievements as the “first Black woman ...” obscures her legendary contributions. It’s what she did after she pushed open those doors and took a seat at the table that set her apart.