Today…
is the International Day of Action for Women’s Health (#May28).
is Menstrual Hygiene Day (#MHDay2020). I am loving the sheer quantity and variety of campaign materials.
My favorite, the “menstruation bracelet” you can DIY with beads, cloth, string, or download a simple paper template with instructions to “color 5 beads (in a row) red.” OR, say, one white bead with red polka dots, two maroon beads, two red, three in a light russet…
was the start of the Tallahassee bus boycott in 1956, sparked by the arrest of two Florida A&M students – Wilhelmina Jakes and Carrie Patterson – for refusing to move to the back of the bus. It lasted seven months, fully shut down bus service twice, and is a hell of a story.
in 1980, Andrea Hollen became the first woman to receive a diploma from West Point.
is International Hamburger Day. And with that, supper menu is decided.
Abortion
Medical Groups Ask FDA To Ease Access To Abortion Pill During The Pandemic
Sarah McCammon | NPR
In a federal lawsuit filed in Maryland on behalf of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) and other groups, the ACLU requests an emergency order lifting regulations requiring patients to pick up the drug at a hospital or medical facility.
Common Dreams: New Lawsuit Challenges FDA Restriction That Imposes Life-Threatening Risks on Patients Seeking Abortion and Miscarriage Care
Roll Call: Physicians, ACLU sue FDA over abortion pill limits
VICE: Trump's FDA Won't Let Women Get Abortion Pills Remotely In a Pandemic. So The ACLU Is Suing.
Kellyanne Conway Turns Trump Tweet Question into Anti Abortion Rant
Leia Idliby | Mediaite
When White House counselor Kellyanne Conway was asked about President Donald Trump’s false murder accusations, she somehow turned the question into an anti-abortion rant, adding that she “thinks all life is precious.”
Evangelicals Paid Roe v. Wade Plaintiff to Publicly Oppose Abortion Rights
Carrie Baker | Ms. Magazine
For two and a half decades, the anti-abortion movement has weaponized the story of Norma McCorvey against reproductive rights in the United States. But it finally backfired on them.
Planned Parenthood Got COVID-19 Funds. Why Are Republicans Trying to Take It Back?
Paige Alexandria | Rewire.News
Congressional Republicans have been on a never-ending quest to make sure Planned Parenthood goes broke—now, they’re using a federal relief funding program to try to accomplish that mission during the COVID-19 pandemic.
LGBTQ
Larry Kramer, Author, Activist, ACT UP Founder Dead at 84
David Badash | The New Civil Rights Movement
Larry Kramer, the playwright, AIDS activist, author, public health advocate, and LGBTQ activist who founded Gay Men’s Health Crisis and later ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power), is dead at 84. Kramer was known as an outspoken activist who wielded hyperbole like a sword. “One of America’s most valuable troublemakers,” Susan Sontag called him.
The Advocate: Leaders in Health, HIV, LGBTQ+ Rights React to Larry Kramer's Death
AP: Larry Kramer Used Voice, Pen to Raise Consciousness on AIDS
Daily Beast: Larry Kramer’s Anger Powered His LGBTQ Activism. We Should Never Forget It.
Jezebel: Remembering Larry Kramer, Champion and Adversary of Humanity
LGBTQ Nation: Iconic gay activist Larry Kramer passes away at 84
New York Times: Larry Kramer, Author and Outspoken AIDS Activist, Dies at 84
Rolling Stone: Larry Kramer, Author and Firebrand AIDS Activist, Dead at 84
Salon: Larry Kramer, author and activist who was a major hero in the fight against AIDS, dies at 84
Washington Post: Larry Kramer, writer who sounded alarm on AIDS, dies at 84
Study: Seeing LGBTQ+ People in Ads, Media Makes Viewers More Accepting
Daniel Reynolds | The Advocate Magazine
Seeing LGBTQ+ people in ads, television shows, and films leads to greater acceptance. A new study from GLAAD and Procter & Gamble, "LGBTQ Inclusion in Advertising and Media," found that straight cisgender people who had been exposed to LGBTQ+ people in media over the past few years were more likely to accept members of this demographic and be supportive of the issues they face.
Adweek: Study Shows How LGBTQ Inclusion in Ads Benefits Brands
Instinct: New Study Results Tell Us What We Know - You See Us, Get To Know Us, You Accept Us!
Jared Kushner Comes Out Against Conversion Therapy
Donald Padgett | Out Magazine
Presidential senior advisor and son-in-law Jared Kushner is pushing to remove any reference to gay conversion therapy from the upcoming GOP party platform. Axios is reporting that Kushner wants to remove “culture war” items and reduce the bloated platform to a short list of “principles we believe in” that can fit on a single pocket-sized card.
4th Circuit court examines ‘this transgender situation’
Lisa Keen | Out in Jersey Magazine
One judge likened the use of separate restrooms for transgender students to separate restrooms for blacks. Another judge said Congress never contemplated “this transgender situation” when it passed a federal law barring discrimination based on sex in federally funded educational institutions.
All about Aimee
Gwendolyn Smith | Philadelphia Gay News
Aimee Stephens was a transgender woman — and that matters.
Tennessee
Anti-transgender bill advances in Tennessee as lawmakers return to work
Kimberlee Kruesi | AP
Tennessee lawmakers marked their return to legislative offices Tuesday by advancing an anti-transgender proposal after abruptly recessing three months ago. This included a proposal dictating that Tennessee elementary and high school students could only play sports based on the sex identified on their birth certificates.
American Independent: Tennessee wants to tell transgender kids which sports teams they're allowed on
Memphis Flyer: TN Legislators Advance Bill Targeting Transgender Athletes
Pregnancy & Parenting
Coronavirus is leaving pregnant women with tough choices and bleaker outcomes
Federica Maurizio | Agenda (Word Economic Forum)
Around the world, when health systems are overstretched, services for women are often among the first to suffer, resulting in increased maternal and child morbidity and mortality. To illustrate the risks, The UN Population Fund modeled the pandemic’s possible impact on three key sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services: births assisted by skilled health-care providers, including midwives; births taking place in health facilities; and access to contraception.
Experts Fear Increase in Postpartum Mood and Anxiety Disorders
Pooja Lakshmin | New York Times
Pregnancy and the postpartum period are already vulnerable times for women due in part to the hormonal fluctuations accompanying pregnancy and delivery, as well as the sleep deprivation of the early postpartum period. Now, fears about the health of an unborn child or an infant and the consequences of preventive measures, like social distancing, have added more stress.
Work & Money
The Coming Setback for Women in the Workplace
Rachel Donadio | The Atlantic
Governments play a huge role in shaping the labor market, through enforcing labor laws, providing paid time off, and requiring that workplaces offer parental leave. Yet policy makers must now consider another issue that affects whether women are able to go back to work: child care and reopening schools.
Planning for a Feminist Economic Recovery
Mara Dolan | Ms. Magazine
The COVID-19 pandemic is a seriously gendered crisis. Despite some claims that the coronavirus is “the great equalizer,” it is increasingly clear how disproportionately impacted people are based on race, class and gender.
Who Cares? Now, All of Us Must
Ai-jen Poo | New York Review Of Books
Domestic work and care work have historically been underpaid and overlooked, and the fact that even today this labor is often referred to as “help” rather than conceived as professional labor betrays the long devaluation of women’s work. This has material consequences for the workers who remain overwhelmingly women and disproportionately women of color.
Covid-19 Makes More Women’s Work
Peter White | Tennessee Tribune
The virus doesn’t discriminate but the disease does. COVID-19 is reversing progress on gender equality and women’s rights, according to Dr. Beatrice Duncan with U.N. Women.
“Excuse me, bartender? Can I get a bourbon with that hamburger? … Oh, right, I’m also the bartender, and the cook…”
6 Microaggressions You've Probably Heard in the Workplace and How to Handle Them
Audrey Goodson Kingo | Working Mother
Microaggression has the power to do lasting harm, not just to the people involved in an exchange, but also to an entire organization. They happen a lot. A 2019 study found that 73% of women have experienced at least one type of microaggression in their workplace. Women who identify as black, lesbian, bisexual or disabled are twice as likely as men to experience microaggressions at work.
Who Was Grace Lee Boggs, the Asian American Labor Organizer and Writer?
Sara Li | Teen Vogue
OG History is a Teen Vogue series where we unearth history not told through a white, cis-hetero-patriarchal lens. In this Asian Pacific Heritage Month edition, Sara Li documents the work and legacy of Grace Lee Boggs.
More, More, More
‘This invokes a history of terror’: Central Park incident between white woman and black man is part of a fraught legacy
Errin Haines | Washington Post
It is rooted in an idea, backed by generations of violence, that white womanhood is to be protected and that black men are inherently criminal. The phenomenon is a specific strain of American racism. “This woman instantly knew to evoke centuries of caste privilege as a white woman and endanger the life of a black man,” said Isabel Wilkerson, who wrote about the lives of millions of black Americans who fled white terrorism in search of a better life during the Great Migration.
The Cut: Why Amy Cooper Called the Cops
If You’re a White Woman and You’re Uncomfortable Right Now, That’s a Good Thing
Liz Plank | Cosmopolitan
To be a white woman in American society is to benefit from the white supremacy that is enmeshed in every part of a country that was created off the backs of enslaved black people. To believe that your gender protects you from being complicit in the oppression of people of color is to erase history.
Racist white women are not anti-heroes
Rachel Card | North Texas Daily
White feminism’s particular brand of exclusivity has dominated supposedly progressive media productions since feminism first became mainstream, and despite increased public awareness of discriminatory overlap, this is still the norm. There has been a recent influx of cinema that portrays racist white women as “complex” for voicing controversial opinions, à la “Mrs. America” (2020) and “Bombshell” (2019).
Anti-Asian Racism Is Taking a Mental and Emotional Toll on Me
Nancy Wang Yuen | SELF
As an Asian American woman, I am not new to racist and sexist attacks. In the past I’ve sometimes avoided engaging with perpetrators out of concern for my safety. Other times I have successfully set verbal boundaries with phrases like, “Stop talking to me,” and felt empowered as a result. But it can be hard to know what to do in the moment, especially when it feels like anti-Asian racism is more socially sanctioned than it has been in recent history.
What We Can Learn From "Mrs. America" — And Why The ERA Fight Must Continue
Timothy R. Bussey | BUST Magazine
The premise of Mrs. America is to tell the story of how progress on the ERA stalls, but the mini-series does far more than that. Simply put, the show places a spotlight on why this happens and how misinformation—in an era before “fake news” was widely discussed—played a critical role. The fight for the ERA didn't end after the events of Mrs. America, and it still continues today. Here's what we can take away from the show and, most importantly, why we can't give up the battle.