Today…
is Gummy Worm Day. Not for me. With the exception of Swedish fish (and only if they’re a little stale and extra-chewy), I skip gummy candy.
in 1940, the DNC voted not to join the Republicans in including the ERA in its party platform.
is Tax Day 2020. One fun fact from my filing: it doesn’t really matter whether I got a guy or use TurboTax, as they were equally befuddled by the idea of self-employment expenses that don’t include car ownership.
And while I’m thinking about it, feel free to flag me on events, webinars or whatnot you’d like to share. I sometimes come across listings you’d appreciate – “you” being mostly org folks, advocates or reporters – but I don’t have the capacity to search for them. For example:
PBS just started streaming The Vote, a new documentary on the 19th Amendment. The American Public Health Association is hosting a webinar series this month on advancing racial equity. And on July 23, Philanthropy Women is discussing “Lack of Funding for Women and Girls of Color: What Donors Can Do.”
You should always, always feel free to mash that share button.
Abortion
The SCOTUS Ruling and Impact on Communities of Color
Nia Weeks, Makala Graves, Davynn Brown | Bloomberg Law
The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in June Medical Services is just one stepping stone on a path toward reproductive, social, socio-economic, and racial equality.
The Covid Crisis Reveals the Need to Abolish Abortion Restrictions
Renee Bracey Sherman | The Nation
[T]his moment has radicalized me. I’ve never supported restrictions—I’ve experienced the panic they create when I was unsure if I could afford an abortion—but I’ve realized that it’s time for us to push for decriminalization of abortion and the abolition of all abortion restrictions
A Window of Possibility on Self-Managed Abortion
Melissa Gira Grant | The New Republic
Following what reproductive rights and justice advocates have long fought to secure, a federal judge in Maryland ruled this week that, for now, people seeking a medication abortion do not need to visit a health care provider in-person to obtain the required medications.
Hey, Kanye: As Abortion Storytellers, We're Setting the Record Straight
Kenya Martin, CoWanda Rusk & Renee Bracey Sherman | Rewire.News
We refuse to remain silent as the anti-abortion movement capitalizes off Kanye West’s decision to traffic in white supremacy and misogynoir.
Alabama
Five questions for Amanda Reyes, leader of Yellowhammer Fund that bought an Alabama abortion clinic
Timothy Lange | Daily Kos
“We don’t see ourselves as setting any sort of bar, but only integrating all of the services that always should be in one place rather than siloed into various offices.”
Georgia
Federal Judge Blocks Georgia's "Heartbeat" Anti-Abortion Law
Madeleine Carlisle | Time Magazine
A federal judge permanently struck down Georgia’s controversial law banning most abortions after six weeks on Monday, ruling that it violates the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
Tennessee
Tennessee gov to do 'whatever it takes' in abortion fight
Kimberlee Kruesi | AP
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee said Tuesday that he will do “whatever it takes in court” to defend one of the strictest abortion bans in the country currently blocked from being implemented.
LGBTQ
"Horrific spike" in fatal violence against transgender community
Erin Donaghue | CBS News
At least 21 transgender or gender non-conforming people have been killed so far in 2020, according to the Human Rights Campaign. That marks the most violent deaths in the vulnerable community at this point in the year since the advocacy group began tracking them in 2013.
Her death sparked Transgender Day of Remembrance. 22 years later, still no answers
Kate Sosin | NBC News
The brutal death of Rita Hester in 1998 inspired a movement. But while her legacy is cemented, her name has been largely forgotten.
Nearly 1 in 3 LGBTQ people live in the South, report shows. Here's how LGBTQ activists of color are transforming the area.
Susan Miller | USA Today
For the LGBTQ community, the South is known as a region that often hangs an unwelcome sign on its door. A report out Tuesday reveals an eye-opening fact: Nearly one in three LGBTQ people, or 32%, call the South their home.
WH press secretary dodges on trans military ban, insists Trump is pro-LGBTQ
Chris Johnson | Washington Blade
As the three-year anniversary approaches of President Trump tweeting he’d ban transgender people from the armed forces “in any capacity,” his administration is showing no signs of reconsidering the policy.
Instinct Magazine | Kayleigh McEnany Tried To Tap Dance Around Trump’s LGBTQ Problem
The National Memo | McEnany Touts Trump’s ‘Great Record’ On LGBTQ Issues
Queerty | Kayleigh McEnany says she’s “proud” of Trump’s “great record when it comes to the LGBT community”
'Fundamentally flawed' study describes facial recognition system designed to identify non-binary people
Kyle Wiggers | VentureBeat
In a paper published on the preprint server Arxiv.org, coauthors affiliated with Harvard and Autodesk propose extending current facial recognition systems’ capabilities to identify “gender minority subgroups” such as the LGBTQ and non-binary communities.
Alabama
The Career of Racist Homophobe Jeff Sessions Is Over
Trudy Ring | The Advocate
The political career of Jeff Sessions, one of the most anti-LGBTQ+ people ever to hold public office, may finally be over. Sessions was trying to reclaim his Senate seat and faced Tommy Tuberville in a runoff for the Republican nomination, after no candidate won a majority in the March primary. But Tuberville, endorsed by Donald Trump, trounced Sessions.
Colorado
Colorado’s out governor signs four pro-LGBTQ bills, ensuring it’s no longer “the Hate State”
Alex Bollinger | LGBTQ Nation
The governor of Colorado signed four pro-LGBTQ bills into law yesterday, including one that will make Colorado the 11th state to ban the gay and transgender panic defenses.
Pregnancy & Parenting
In virus era, back-to-school plans stress working parents
Travis Loller | AP
For generations, school has been an opportunity for American children to learn and make friends. For many parents today, though, it's something that's elemental in a very different way: a safe place that cares for their children while they are at work — or a necessity for them to be able to work at all.
Working Mother | More Than a Quarter of Parents Plan to Take a Break or Permanently Quit Their Job
Working Mother | Opinion: Stop Arguing About Schools Opening This Fall. Start Fighting for Paid Leave and Childcare
Nearly half of US childcare centers say they face permanent closure, survey finds
Mitchell Willetts | McClatchy DC
Millions of parents depend on child care centers to educate their kids, or to simply look after them so they can work and run errands — but the industry has been quietly bleeding out during the coronavirus pandemic, and if help doesn’t come soon, 40% of child care providers say they’ll likely close down for good.
World Population Could Peak Decades Ahead of U.N. Forecast, Study Asserts
Rick Gladstone | New York Times
The study, published in The Lancet, said an accelerated decline in fertility rates means the global population could peak in 2064 at 9.7 billion and fall to 8.8 billion by century’s end.
Newsweek | World Population to Peak by 2064, Then Drop Nearly 1B by 2100
USA Today | US, world population to shrink after midcentury, study suggests
U.S. News & World Report | Global Population Will Peak by Mid-Century, Shifting Economic Power
Reproductive Health & Justice
The ‘Sex Talk’ Is Actually a Series of Talks
Carrie Melago | New York Times
Several psychologists and sexual health experts offer ways to make conversations about sex informative and comfortable for children and parents.
🠲 The Race Gap
Samuel Hart | Reuters
Inequality between white and Black Americans persists in almost every aspect of society and the economy. Such disadvantages have proven immune to decades of laws and policies meant to address them, leaving Black people with less education, less wealth, poorer health and shorter lifespans.
Work & Money
White Democrats Are Wary Of Big Ideas To Address Racial Inequality
Meredith Conroy, Perry Bacon Jr. | FiveThirtyEight
In polling both before and since Floyd’s death, white Democrats have been fairly opposed to giving reparations to the descendants of enslaved people, an idea supported by a clear majority of Black Democrats. And on a wide range of other policy ideas intended to address racial inequality, white Democrats are fairly tentative.
Workplace Diversity: What Companies Need To Get Right, Right Now
H. V. MacArthur | Forbes
“The idea that one has to suffer indignity, discrimination, micro-aggressions, bias and lack of equity at work just to get ahead and build a career is rapidly coming to an end – that’s the most inspiring part of all this.”
Quartz | Please avoid this biased hiring practice during the economic recovery (🙄 at this clickbaity headline. It’s revisiting your educational and experience requirements, especially for entry-level positions. Do you need ‘em? Probably not.)
First Women To Hold Top Staff Jobs At Supreme Court Are Retiring
Nina Totenberg | NPR
Pamela Talkin retired last week as the Supreme Court's first female marshal. Also retiring is Christine Luchok Fallon, the first woman to hold the position of reporter of decisions.
America’s Most Prominent Women’s Rights Orgs Marginalized and Tokenized Black Women, Say Former Staff
Anne Branigin | The Root
For decades, organizations like the NOW, Feminist Majority and AAUW were heralded as the frontline orgs championing women’s rights. The limits of that “championing” were always clear to women of color: These organizations centered specifically and almost exclusively on the needs of well-educated white women.
A quick story. I was working at an org run very much by and for fancy white ladies, and attending an all-day LGBTQ+ event. This younger guy and I start chatting, he asks where I work, I tell him, and he responds with eye roll and hand on hip. I knew – the place was toxic on levels, everyone knew – but I really wanted to hear his thoughts.
He unloads on how we treated his org – a smallish but well-known WoC-run repro org – like our field department. We didn’t invite them in to talk strategy or partner in any meaningful way, much less hand them the mic and sit TF down. “You act like we don’t know anything. You write the plans, bring us in and go, ‘get this out to the brown people.’”
He was absolutely right, and I told him as much. I stressed that there was a younger cohort on staff who saw what he saw, and were trying so hard to get the message through. (You can imagine how those efforts were received.) So yes, sure, I read these articles and enjoy the shit-talk (like, a lot) but I really do hope that they lead to meaningful, long-overdue change. I really do.
More, More, More
Feminists File Amicus Brief Demanding Recognition of the ERA
Carrie Baker | Ms. Magazine
In January of 2020, Virginia became the 38th and final state required to ratify the ERA to the U.S. Constitution. But the Trump administration has refused to recognize the Amendment—so ERA advocates are now fighting back. The Equal Rights Amendment Coalition and more than 50 women’s rights organizations filed an amicus brief arguing that an arbitrary seven-year time frame imposed by Congress in 1972 should not stand in the way of adoption.
Above The Law | BigLaw’s Push For The ERA
Sioux City Journal | It's time for adoption of Equal Rights Amendment