Is it a groove or is it a rut
Today…
is Women’s Equality Day, when the 19th Amendment was officially official – 100 years today.
“I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own.” ― Audre Lorde
I could have sworn I used today subject line and shared this song before - and maybe I did, but I’m not finding it. Regardless. You like Neko Case? I had no idea who she was when I went to see this two-woman band perform at a tiny club in Pittsburgh in 2000. The whole album is a lot of fun, but this song is still in my head regularly.
Everything happens either not at all or at the same time.
RNC
Trump's convention gives platform to some with fringe views
Jill Colvin | Associated Press
An advocate of “household voting” in which husbands get the final say. A woman who has argued that school sex-ed programs are “grooming” children to be sexualized by predators like Jeffrey Epstein. A candidate who has peddled in racist tropes and bizarre QAnon conspiracy theories.
Daily Beast | RNC Speaker Mary Ann Mendoza Boosts QAnon Conspiracy Theory About Jewish Plot to Enslave the World
HuffPost | The Dark Hysteria Of The RNC Is Brought To You By Fox News
Mother Jones | How badly did they want to say the n-word? RNC, Day 2
Refinery29 | The Real Reason Republicans Are Talking About "Cancel Culture"
Vox | RNC speakers, explained for people who don’t watch Fox News
Washington Post | Fact-checking the second night of the 2020 Republican National Convention
Republicans' fake feminism might have worked
Jill Filipovic | CNN
If the first night of the RNC was about letting the Trump team's unhinged flag fly, night two was an attempt to leverage Trumpworld women to send a message of sanity and compassion. The scary thing is, it might have worked.
AP | First lady Melania Trump taking Rose Garden turn to pitch her husband
Now, this I’d have watched.
Abby Johnson
Anti-Abortion Activist Abby Johnson Is Speaking at Tonight's RNC. So Who Is She?
Jessica Mason Pieklo | Rewire.News
Abby Johnson is a former Planned Parenthood employee turned anti-choice activist [with] a long and colorful history of making up stories when it comes to abortion, while she frames her work as “helping” women.
More on Abby Johnson from ABC, Daily Beast, HuffPost, Slate, Vox
Don’t call her single-issue…
The 19th | RNC speaker Abby Johnson supports policies barring women from voting
Newsweek | Tweet Resurfaces of RNC Speaker Abby Johnson Saying One Vote Per Household
And while very little surprises me anymore when it comes to her, this one chilled me to the bone…
Daily Beast | White RNC Speaker Abby Johnson Said Police Would Be ‘Smart’ to Racially Profile Her Biracial Son
🠲 Why Only the Republicans Are Talking About Abortion
Lauren Kelley | New York Times
The G.O.P. convention featured an extreme anti-abortion activist. The Democrats mostly kept mum.
POLITICO | GOP hails Trump moves to dial back abortion
Cissie Graham Lynch
Franklin Graham's Daughter Brings Anti-LGBTQ+ Rhetoric to GOP Stage
Trudy Ring | The Advocate
Homophobia and transphobia got a platform at the Republican National Convention Tuesday night. The chief transphobe and homophobe on display was Cissie Graham Lynch, daughter of Franklin Graham — a major anti-LGBTQ+ activist and one of Donald Trump’s biggest supporters from the Christian right — and granddaughter of the late evangelist Billy Graham.
BuzzFeed | Billy Graham's Granddaughter Fear-Mongered About Trans Students In Her RNC Speech
The New Civil Rights Movement | At RNC Franklin Graham's Daughter Attacks Trans Girls as 'Boys' Who 'Put Our Little Girls at Risk' (Video)
LGBTQ
'Smoke and Mirrors': Grenell Claim Trump Helped Legalize Homosexuality Worldwide Is Fake News, Activists Say
Scott Bixby | The Daily Beast
The Trump campaign’s quadrennial overture to gay and lesbian voters began anew last week with the announcement that Trump, who has banned trans service members in the U.S. military and opposed legislation protecting LGBT people from discrimination, is “the most pro-gay president in American history.”
New Congressional Report Finds Trump Administration Supported Anti-LGBTQ+ Foster & Adoption Agencies With Taxpayer Dollars
Isabelle Lichtenstein | GoMag
A 34-page report by the House Ways and Means Committee has been released, in which the Trump administration is accused of intentionally harming LGBTQ+ Americans by discriminating against queer families in federally-supported foster care programs.
The U.S. Trans Survey is not coming out as planned
Kate Sosin | The 19th
The U.S. Trans Survey offers some of the only data on trans life in America, but a nonprofit's shortfalls and the pandemic threaten its future
Coronavirus lockdown has led to depression in LGBTQ people
Alex Bollinger | LGBTQ Nation
Isolation measures taken to fight the coronavirus pandemic had a negative effect on LGBTQ people’s mental health, according to a new study from the U.K.Researchers at University College London and Sussex University found that 69% of LGBTQ people suffered from significant depression symptoms during the lockdown.
Massachusetts
Gay mayor confronts 'homophobic' sex scandal ahead of primary
Tim Fitzsimons | NBC News
Alex Morse, the 31-year-old mayor of Holyoke, Massachusetts, and the Democratic primary candidate for the state’s 1st Congressional District, has had a busy few weeks.
Abortion
U.S. rejects U.N. rights panel upholding access to abortions during pandemic
Stephanie Nebehay | Reuters
The United States on Wednesday hit back at a U.N. women’s rights panel that said some U.S. states limited access to abortions during the COVID-19 pandemic, rejecting its interference and the notion of “an assumed right to abortion.”
Texas
Texas renews court effort to ban abortion procedure
Kevin McGill | Associated Press
Texas officials asked a federal appeals court’s permission Tuesday to enforce a ban on a commonly used second-trimester abortion procedure — before the court rules on its constitutionality.
Pregnancy & Parenting
The 19th | Pregnant in a pandemic: The 'perfect storm for a crisis'
Albany Democrat-Herald | As We See It: State needs to step up on child care
Des Moines Register | Dilemmas for parents and school districts in Iowa didn't have to happen
Des Moines Register | To give Iowa women a fair shot, we need new policies addressing leave, child care and the pay gap
Forbes | The Childcare Crisis Limits Women Entrepreneurs’ Potential
The New Yorker | Should You Send Your Child Back to School During the Pandemic?
No (though you might have to). Next.
WKXW-FM (Ewing, NJ) | Virtual learning — will Mom make more sacrifices than Dad?
Yes. Next.
Reproductive Health & Justice
GOP Policies Are Shortening American Lives
Michael Hobbes | HuffPost
For decades, the U.S. tracked the progress of other developed countries, as advances in nutrition, medicine and health care added years to the average life expectancy. But starting about 10 years ago, that progress stalled in the U.S. People in other wealthy countries kept living longer and longer, but Americans plateaued.
Work & Money
🠲 Was It Our Hair? Or Was It You?
Ashley Edwards | Glamour
For most working people, the expectation is that you’ll be evaluated on how well you perform the tasks you were hired to do. You’re either good at your job or you’re not, right? For Black women, it’s not always that absolute. Many of us have also been judged, reprimanded, or even fired for the way we wear our hair to work. It’s called hair discrimination, and in 43 states it’s perfectly legal.
Workplace discrimination: How to be a fair-pay CEO
Susan Alban | Fortune
Today’s business leaders are highly motivated to fix all forms of discrimination within their organizations. But gender- and race-based pay inequity are proving to be among the most troubling elements of this issue today.
Jerry Falwell Jr. is leaving Liberty University with a $10.5 million golden parachute
Peter Weber | The Week Magazine (US)
Jerry Falwell Jr. officially stepped down as president of Liberty University, the conservative evangelical Christian school his father co-founded, on Monday night, following a day of scandal and confusion over whether he had actually resigned.
More from LGBTQ Nation, Rewire.News
Networking differences may play a role in workplace gender gaps, study finds
Sabri Ben-Achour, Rose Conlon | Marketplace
Research published Tuesday in The Economic Journal suggests differences in the way men and women network may play a role in workplace gender gaps in pay, for example.
#MeToo Update: Fighting Forced Arbitration at Best Buy
Carrie Baker | Ms. Magazine
To get a job at Best Buy, the company forces employees to forfeit their legal right to sue for sexual harassment—even in New York state, which in the wake of #MeToo passed a law in 2018 banning forced arbitration.
Yale Law Professor Jed Rubenfeld Suspended for Sexual Harassment
Irin Carmon | New York Magazine
On Monday morning, members of the Yale Law School faculty received a terse message from their provost informing them that Rubenfeld “will leave his position as a member of the YLS faculty for a two-year period, effective immediately,” and that upon his return, Rubenfeld would be barred from teaching “small group or required courses.
Alaska
After sending a junior staffer 588 texts, some with kissing emoji, Alaska’s attorney general resigns
Katie Shepherd | Washington Post
Alaska AG Kevin Clarkson (R) resigned Tuesday, following the leak of more than 500 texts he sent to a junior state employee’s personal cellphone in one month, frequently remarking on her beauty and sharing the kissing-face emoji.
More from AP, ProPublica
Colorado
Paid Family, Sick Leave Initiative Makes Colorado Ballot
KCNC-TV (Denver, CO)
An initiative asking Colorado voters if they want to create a $1.3 billion state-run paid family and medical leave insurance program has qualified for the November ballot.
Kansas
The Teen Candidate Who Blackmailed a Girl for Nudes Isn't Dropping Out After All
Carter Sherman | VICE
A 19yo Democrat who admitted to viciously bullying girls in middle school, including blackmailing one for nude photos, had planned to drop out of his race for a Kansas state House seat. But on Tuesday, the candidate said he’ll remain in the race — because he wants to help women.
More from AP, The Mary Sue, New York Times
New Jersey
NJ Attorney General pursues pregnancy discrimination case in North Bergen
Daniel Israel | The Hudson Reporter
AG Grewal and the Division on Civil Rights (DCR) announced on Aug. 24 that DCR will pursue a former corporate marketing director’s complaint against her ex-employer alleging pregnancy discrimination.
York Daily Record | Economic crisis in wake of virus has Pa. in a state of uncertainty. Is legal weed the solution?
Yes. Next.
More, More, More
The 19th
Entrepreneur Magazine | Mita Mallick | Here's One Way to Honor Women's Equality Day: Check Your Bias When it Comes to Working Mothers
Los Angeles Times | Reva Siegel, Julie Suk | Women won the vote but not the suffragists' larger goal
Miami Herald | Sharon Johnson | This Women’s Equality Day, gender justice is the new goal to reach
Ms. Magazine | Eme Crawford | Voting Rights are Reproductive Rights: Legislators Across 19 States on 19th Amendment's Legacy
New York Times | Maggie Doherty | Feminist Factions United and Filled the Streets for This Historic March
POLITICO | Martha Jones | What the 19th Amendment Meant for Black Women
Salt Lake Tribune | Charlotte Maloney | Time to hold elected officials responsible for equal rights
Salt Lake Tribune | Vickie Samuelson | Women continue to fight for equality