O mamma mia, o che tormento
Today…
is National Pots de Creme Day. No, for real.
in 1883, the most powerful volcanic explosion in recorded history occurred on Krakatoa, killing ~36,000 people and setting off a global chain of natural disasters felt for years following. Also, tonight is last night of the RNC.
I was going to share an old suffragette-era song but when I start thinking about protest music, my brain brings me to Bella Ciao. It’s so lively! There’s clapping! And I have love in my bones for the accordion, I just do.
Also, a small but important historical note. The song originated among poor women who worked under brutal conditions in the rice fields in Northern Italy. The original lyrics aren’t about resisting fascism but about resisting the capo with his cane.
Ma verrà un giorno che tutte quante (But the day will come when us all)
lavoreremo in libertà. (will work in freedom)
RNC
Women Take the Stage at the RNC to Make the Case for Trump
Elizabeth Crisp | Newsweek
How Republicans Packaged Abortion for a TV Audience at the RNC
Jessica Mason Pieklo | Rewire.News
Day two of the Republican National Convention was all about the culture wars. And unlike the Democratic National Convention, abortion played a prominent role.
Fact check: Does Biden support government-funded abortions?
Jane C. Timm | NBC News
Biden supports abortion rights. Elective abortions do not occur "up until the moment of birth." Just 1.2% occur after 21 weeks of gestation, according to the latest data. Biden does, however, support government funding being used for abortions.
🠲 Trying to disgust you is the only move the Republican convention’s antiabortion speakers have left
Monica Hesse | The Washington Post
Abby Johnson had to describe abortion as a horror show because the alternative would have been too banal to achieve the effect she desired.
Rewire.News | I'm an Abortion Provider, and Here's What I Want to Tell Abby Johnson
HuffPost | RNC Praises Women's Suffrage After Featuring Speaker Who Wants Sexist Voting System
Salon | Of course the RNC featured anti-choice radical Abby Johnson, who thinks women shouldn't vote
Gay Trump Appointee Grenell Spreads Falsehoods at GOP Convention
Trudy Ring | The Advocate
The RNC featured an out gay speaker Wednesday night: Richard Grenell, former ambassador and acting national security adviser, and he used some of his time to make unfounded and misleading accusations against Trump’s predecessor as president and the man who hopes to unseat him.
The Daily Beast | 'Smoke and Mirrors': Grenell Claim Trump Helped Legalize Homosexuality Worldwide Is Fake News, Activists Say
GOP convention speaker thanks Trump for rolling back transgender rights
Casey Quinlan | The American Independent
Cissie Graham Lynch, the daughter of Franklin Graham and the granddaughter of Billy Graham, praised Donald Trump for undoing much of the Obama administration's work to advance LGBTQ rights while giving a speech on the second night of the 2020 RNC.
GOP resolution condemns org that tracks anti-LGBTQ hate groups with ties to Republican politicians
Bil Browning | LGBTQ Nation
A resolution passed at the RNC condemns the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) for tracking hate groups in America. The resolution does not denounce hate groups or prejudice and specifically defends an anti-LGBTQ hate group with deep ties to the Trump administration.
Abortion
Trump administration asks Supreme Court to reinstate medication abortion requirement despite Covid-19
Caroline Kelly | CNN
The Trump administration is asking the Supreme Court to reinstate a rule requiring abortion seekers to visit health care providers in person to acquire one of the pills for medication abortions, after lower courts blocked the rule during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
More from Common Dreams, NBC
U.S. rejects U.N. rights panel upholding access to abortions during pandemic
Stephanie Nebehay | Reuters
The U.S. 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.”
LGBTQ
Schools Cannot Discriminate Against Transgender Students When It Comes To Bathrooms, An Appeals Court Ruled
Zoe Tillman | BuzzFeed News
Schools cannot prohibit students from using the bathroom that matches their gender identity, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday in a significant legal win for transgender rights. The decision from the US Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit is the latest development in the years-long legal saga of transgender student Gavin Grimm, who was a teenager when he first took his Virginia school district to court in 2015 to enforce his right to use the boys' bathroom.
The Advocate | Anti-Trans School Restroom Policies Unconstitutional, Court Rules
Teen Vogue | Appeals Court Rules Banning Transgender Students From Certain Bathrooms Is Discrimination in Gavin Grimm Case
them. | Gavin Grimm Wins Another Legal Victory for Transgender Students
Washington Blade | Federal appeals court again rules in favor of Gavin Grimm
Also AP, CNN, Common Dreams, The Hill, Metro Weekly, National Law Journal, POLITICO, Reuters
Trump’s second term: What another four years would mean for LGBTQ people
Katelyn Burns | Vox
While Trump himself doesn’t often comment publicly on queer or transgender issues, Pence has a long record of anti-LGBTQ lawmaking and rhetoric,and LGBTQ advocates have already called the Republican Party platform — a holdover from 2016, as the GOP did not write one for 2020 — one of the most anti-LGBTQ in the party’s history.
Study: Pride Games Decrease Antigay Slurs Among Players by 40 Percent
Daniel Reynolds | The Advocate Magazine
A groundbreaking new study shows that holding a diversity-themed game in support of LGBTQ+ people can decrease the use of homophobic slurs by 40% among players.
Kentucky
Kentucky lawmakers resume push to curb 'conversion therapy'
Bruce Schreiner | AP
Getting a head start on next year’s legislative session, opponents of “conversion therapy” presented their case Tuesday to shield Kentucky youngsters from a practice that attempts to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity.
New York
New York Dedicated A Park To Marsha P. Johnson In A Historic Move
Isabelle Lichtenstein | GoMag
Cuomo announced recently that the East River State Park in Williamsburg would be dedicated to and renamed for LGBTQ+ civil rights activist and pioneer Marsha P. Johnson.
Pregnancy & Parenting
Everything Parents Need to Know About Biden's Plan to Reopen Schools Amid the Pandemic
Murphy Moroney | POPSUGAR
While it's clear that the Joe Biden-Kamala Harris ticket plans to improve the lives of US families by making child care more affordable and accessible as well as addressing the country's high maternal mortality rates, its plan for getting schools to open safely is at the top of their to-do list
The economic cost of closed schools
Felix Salmon | Axios
Closing schools for COVID-19 could cost about $700 billion in lost revenue and productivity — a whopping 3.5% of GDP. How it works: Schools exist to educate children — but they also serve a vitally important child care function, looking after kids so that their parents can go to work.
And in response…
Dear Companies: Don’t Talk So Much About Productivity. Focus Instead on Supporting Parents This School Year
Susan Hodgkinson | Working Mother
COVID-19 has turned every kind of working mom arrangement there was completely on its head, and it is urgent that organizations find new ways—impactful ways—to support their working moms and working women as school starts.
The Conversation | Back to school does not necessarily mean back to work for mothers
Courier | Distance Learning Is Forcing Moms to Sacrifice Their Careers
Working Moms Are Being Stretched Beyond What Is Actually Possible
Caitlin Breedlove, Tabitha St. Bernard-Jacobs | Scary Mommy
Every day of this pandemic slowly drains us as parents and as workers, especially as we try to do both at once. We are never able to completely focus. We are half-working, all the time.
Reproductive Health & Justice
The Mental Health Trauma of the Black Maternal Mortality Crisis
Kelly Glass | Glamour
Black women are more likely to experience traumatic births than white women. And for those who do, the mental health consequences can be an entirely new kind of pain.
Work & Money
Lewd cheerleader videos, sexist rules: Ex-employees decry Washington’s NFL team workplace
Will Hobson, Beth Reinhard, Liz Clarke, Dalton Bennett | Washington Post
Interviews with more than 100 current and former employees and a review of internal company documents and other records show that, in his 21 years of ownership, Snyder has presided over an organization in which women say they have been marginalized, discriminated against and exploited.
The tech field failed a 25-year challenge to achieve gender equality by 2020 - culture change is key to getting on track
Francine D. Berman | The Conversation
In 1995, pioneering computer scientist Anita Borg challenged the tech community to a moonshot: equal representation of women in tech by 2020. Twenty-five years later, we’re still far from that goal.
YES! Magazine | The Key to Achieving Gender Equality in Tech
Action Without Apology — Can Founders Launch a Massive Racial Equity Plan Without Atoning for Its Past Failures?
Mike Jordan, Kate Bernot | Good Beer Hunting
Whatever comes next, Founders will continue to serve as a case study for an industry that’s grappling with its mostly white, mostly male identity.
In 2020 - after park rangers, mail carriers, professional athletes - should no longer be unexpected when your local craft brew magazine comes out for social justice. Go off, Good Beer Hunting. And while I’m here, how ‘bout some new sour recommendations for fall…
Please Don’t Tell Me I Am Being Difficult
Mita Mallick | SWAAY
Would you ever tell a man he was being too difficult? Too emotional? Too aggressive?
Kansas
AP | Party disavows Kansas candidate who admitted to revenge porn
Michigan
MLive | Michigan women’s commission shifts to new department to ‘address pay equity head on'
Montana
KULR-TV (Billings) | Montana’s Equal Pay for Equal Work Task Force extended through 2022
More, More, More
Voting is the best way to honor generations of women who paved the way for me
Kamala D. Harris | Washington Post
We cannot mark this day, now known as Women’s Equality Day, without remembering all the American women who were not included in that voting rights victory a century ago.
Once Again, White Women Are One of the Greatest Threats to Progress
Ilyse Hogue | Cosmopolitan
The attacks on Democratic vice presidential nominee Senator Kamala Harris have already begun in earnest and they are just as grounded in racism and misogyny as we expected from the voices we expected like Donald Trump.
Glamour | ‘Despair Is the Enemy of Justice’: Vanita Gupta on Voting, Marching, and Staying in the Fight
Jezebel | 'Votes for Women' and the Suffragettes' Compromised History
MadameNoire.com | In Her First Solo Event, Kamala Harris Focuses On The Power Of Black Women Voters
Ms. Magazine | Women's Representation at the Ballot Box-and in the Halls of Power-Has a Long Way To Go
Ms. Magazine | When it Comes to Constitutional Equality, the U.S. Lags Behind the Rest of the World
New York Times | 11 Female Voices, From Age 13 to 110, on Why the Vote Matters