The world never seems to be living up to my dreams
Today…
…is the start of Hispanic Heritage Month. Between 2020 and United States, of course it begins with the worst news.
…in 1963, four Black girls – 14-year-old Addie Mae Collins, Denise McNair and Carole Robertson, and 11-year-old Cynthia Wesley – were killed in the 16th Street Baptist church bombing in Birmingham, Alabama.
…could you go for a little comfort food? Please yes. It’s National Cheese Toast Day, Double Cheeseburger Day, and Linguine Day. Rachael Ray doesn’t use linguine, but it would go just fine in her pumpkin sausage pasta recipe. Just made it last night. I always fiddle, leave out the wine, add roasted grape tomatoes or mushrooms, and it always works.
Remember I told you about the bomboniera? “To remind us that life is both bitter and sweet?” Days like today remind me why the name worked, even if half of you can’t remember or pronounce it. It’s fine. Have a little something.
Abortion
The Trump administration is now trying to stop abortions internationally
Ray Levy-Uyeda | Mic
In a continuation of its staunch anti-abortion position, the Trump administration is moving to expand policy that blocks federally funded international clinics from providing abortions. There's precedent for limiting which medical procedures federal funds can be used for, but it's a different level of interference to suppress abortion internationally through the power of funding.
CNN | Trump administration wants to expand international rule limiting abortion access
The Hill | Trump administration seeks to extend Mexico City policy on abortion
Trump admin ignored NIH evidence on fetal tissue, Democratic probe finds
Dan Diamond | POLITICO
The Trump administration’s efforts to curtail the use of fetal tissue in federal research was driven by political considerations despite health officials’ promise to follow the science, according to new findings from a long-running investigation by senior Democratic lawmakers.
Arkansas
Hearing nears on 3 of state's abortion laws
Linda Satter | Arkansas Democrat Gazette
Attorneys challenging and defending three abortion laws passed in 2019 by Arkansas legislators are preparing to face off Sept. 23 in oral arguments, via videoconference, before a three-judge panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The laws being debated aren't currently being enforced, thanks to an injunction imposed by U.S. District Judge Kristine Baker in Little Rock.
LGBTQ
Education Dept: High Court Ruling Does Not Support Transgender Athletes
Mark Walsh | Ed Week
The Trump administration is doubling down on its view that transgender female athletes are taking away opportunities from cisgender girls in violation of Title IX, and it argues that the U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision that federal anti-discrimination law protects transgender employees does not alter that equation.
Trump administration defends Indianapolis Catholic school's right to fire gay teacher
John Riley | Metro Weekly
The Trump administration has sided with religious leaders from the Archdiocese of Indianapolis who forced a local Catholic school to fire a teacher for entering into a same-sex marriage.
Lesbian whose longtime partner died before they could marry is entitled to social security benefits
Alex Bollinger | LGBTQ Nation
A woman who was denied Social Security survivor benefits after her partner of 27 years passed away has won her case in federal court.
Kroger Can't Force Workers To Wear LGBT Heart, EEOC Says
Hailey Konnath | Law360
The EEOC on Monday lodged a complaint against the Kroger Co., claiming a store in Arkansas illegally disciplined and fired a pair of Christian workers who refused to wear company aprons that featured rainbow hearts in support of the LGBTQ community.
Philippines Deports U.S. Marine Convicted of Killing Trans Woman
Trudy Ring | The Advocate
The U.S. Marine who was recently pardoned for the 2014 homicide of a transgender woman in the Philippines has been deported from the nation.
J.K. Rowling’s new book is about a man in a dress who kills women
Alex Bollinger | LGBTQ Nation
J.K. Rowling has a new book due out this Friday that is about two detectives investigating a cold case about a cisgender man who wears women’s clothes to kill women.
A.V. Club | So, here’s why #RIPJKRowling is trending
LGBTQ Nation | “I ❤️JK Rowling” billboard vandalized & removed hours after it went up
More from Forbes, Grit Daily, Los Angeles Times, The Mary Sue, NBC, them, UPROXX, Vanity Fair
California
CA governor signs law to equalize punishments for gay & straight sex offenders
Bil Browning | LGBTQ Nation
California Governor Gavin Newsom signed into law a bill that makes the punishment for certain sex crimes the same for queer and straight offenders – and resulted in an out state senator getting death threats.
Inside Edition | California Did Not Pass a Bill Decriminalizing Pedophilia, Despite Conspiracy Theorists Claiming So
Florida
Florida Democrat Andrew Gillum Comes Out As Bisexual
Mikelle Street | Out Magazine
“I don’t identify as gay but I do identify as bisexual. And that is something that I’ve never shared publicly before.”
More from Essense, LGBTQ Nation
Idaho
Two-thirds of Idaho residents support barring trans athletes from women's sports
John Riley | Metro Weekly
Two-thirds of voters in Idaho support a recently passed law that bars transgender females from competing in women’s sports, according to a recent poll.
North Dakota
North Dakota council member comes out as a lesbian during heated pride flag debate
Daniel Villarreal | NBC News
A lesbian elected official in North Dakota delivered an impassioned speech in defense of her municipality's decision to fly a rainbow flag outside City Hall. Her heated remarks followed several bigoted comments from townspeople angered over the LGBTQ pride symbol's public display.
More from The Advocate, AlterNet, Out
Pregnancy & Parenting
Maternal Health
How Black doulas are fighting the maternal mortality crisis
Nina Bahadur | CBS News
For Bailey Rollins, the owner of a Brooklyn-based doula service, the maternal mortality crisis informs every aspect of her work.
Efforts to reduce COVID-19’s spread could impact health outcomes for new mothers and infants
Elizabeth Heubeck | New Haven Register
Limiting external support persons during and after childbirth, offering early discharge, and using telehealth in lieu of in-person postnatal follow-up visits — may unintentionally exacerbate threats to the health outcomes of new mothers and infants in the U.S., which already lag behind those of almost every other developed nation
Pandemic Parenting
“We Didn’t Have A Choice”: Essential Workers Struggle With Childcare During The Pandemic
Venessa Wong | BuzzFeed News
Since the early days of the pandemic, parents who can’t work from home — the people we now call essential workers — have confronted the dual risk of exposing themselves to the coronavirus at work, often for wages so low they are earning less than what people have been collecting on unemployment, while their children are exposed in schools and daycares. There is little in the way of help.
Now Is Not the Time for 'Mom Shaming'
Meghan Walbert | Lifehacker
One consequence of living and parenting through a pandemic is that we may, unintentionally, begin feeling as though we are facing off against each other.
More headlines…
Fast Company | ‘I worry every moment’: 3 moms on parenting kids with special needs during COVID-19
MLive | The daunting struggle of single working parents whose children are learning online at home
Houston Chronicle | Texas teachers report hundreds of COVID safety violations since schools reopened
Reproductive Health & Justice
🠲 ‘Like an Experimental Concentration Camp’: Whistleblower Complaint Alleges Mass Hysterectomies at ICE Detention Center
Matt Naham, Elura Nanos, Alberto Luperon, Jerry Lambe | Law and Crime
Female detainees at ICDC who in April were able to release a video complaining about the lack of proper medical treatment and poor conditions at the facility.
The Intercept | “A Silent Pandemic”: Nurse At ICE Facility Blows The Whistle On Coronavirus Dangers
More from AP, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, CBS News, The Cut, Daily Beast, Jezebel, Mary Sue, Refinery29, VICE, The Week
In the 1970s, Racism Led to Women Being Sterilized Against Their Will. Could It Happen Again?
Sanoja Bhaumik | Rewire.News
Looking back to the battle around forced sterilization shows that fighting for reproductive justice—defined by SisterSong as the right to bodily autonomy, have children, not have children, and parent them in safe communities—must go beyond optical representation and outreach in majority-white organizations. Disagreements then and now illustrate a fundamental problem of prioritization: Who defines what it means to have choice?
CDC: Testing for STDs plummeted during pandemic
Alice Ollstein | POLITICO
A new CDC report shows that testing for sexually transmitted diseases plummeted during the pandemic, and the health agency estimates that tens of thousands of cases of gonorrhea and chlamydia and thousands of cases of syphilis have gone undetected as a result.
HPV vaccination rising among U.S. kids, many still unprotected
Amy Norton | United Press International (UPI)
More U.S. kids are getting a recommended vaccine that protects against several cancers -- but there is still much room for improvement, a new study finds. At issue is the vaccine against human papillomavirus. Certain strains of HPV are sexually transmitted, and some of those are "high risk" -- meaning that if the immune system does not clear the infection, it can eventually lead to cancer.
The Effects Of Gender Differences In Mental Disorders
Maeve Hindenburg | Women's Republic
Personal differences are usually accounted for when professionals diagnose patients, but recently researchers realized that gender plays a bigger role than expected in how a person experiences a disorder.
Work & Money
Racism has cost Black Americans $70 trillion since the start of slavery
Mariette Williams | Business Insider
Shawn Rochester, author of "The Black Tax," has quantified the cost of racism in the United States: $70 trillion since the start of slavery.
Study: Inequality Robs $2.5 Trillion From U.S. Workers Each Year
Eric Levitz | New York Magazine
A new study from the Rand Corporation, in partnership with the Fair Work Center, illustrates the impact of a half-century of upward redistribution in bracingly concrete terms: If income had been distributed as evenly over the past five decades as it was in 1975, the median full-time worker in the U.S. would enjoy annual earnings of roughly $92,000 a year. As is, that worker makes just $50,000.
25 years wiped out in 25 weeks: Pandemic sets the world back decades
Carmen Paun | POLITICO
Global action to stop the pandemic would prevent illness and deaths caused by Covid-19, but there's more at stake: The crisis sets back strides made in global poverty, HIV transmission, malnutrition, gender equality, education and many more areas.
Dear Men: Female products cost more, and it doesn’t make sense
Yvonne Tang | The Daily Free Press
The “pink tax” is a subtle form of gender discrimination, with little to no economic reasoning.
Why now is the time to destigmatize paternity leave, for good
Alexis Ohanian | Fast Company
The pandemic has shone a bright light on unequal parenting expectations. But there is a solution, says the Reddit cofounder and venture capitalist.
Colorado
Douglas County superintendent under investigation for alleged workplace discrimination
Tiney Ricciardi | The Denver Post
Thomas Tucker, the outgoing superintendent of Douglas County School District, was placed on paid administrative leave in early September following an allegation of workplace discrimination and subsequent investigation.
KDVR-TV (Denver, CO) | Outgoing Douglas County superintendent under investigation for alleged ‘workplace discrimination’
Kansas
Black St. Joe woman won $8.5 million for discrimination at Spire. She’s suing again
Toriano Porter | Kansas City Star
Danielle McGaughy once sued her employer, Spire Energy, for workplace discrimination. She won — and now she’s taking the utility giant to court again. After years of litigation and mudslinging, and being on the wrong end of a multimillion-dollar lawsuit, one would think Spire would clean up its act. Apparently not.
Kentucky
We need to have stronger support for pregnant workers to help strengthen the economy
Iris Wilbur Glick | The Courier-Journal
As employers weather this public health and economic crisis, we are trying to do more than simply stay afloat — we are also dedicated to doing whatever we can to help our employees remain in the workforce. This means many things during a global pandemic, but one thing that remains a no-brainer is supporting accommodations for pregnant employees so they can maintain their health and their paycheck.
Wyoming
Survey: COVID-19's economic impact hit Wyoming women, single moms especially hard
Kathryn Palmer | Tribune Eagle
The social and economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic have hit Wyoming women especially hard. After the pandemic shut down schools and day care centers, 30% of single mothers worried about job loss because of child care, whereas 14% of women in a two-adult household felt the same.
More, More, More
Black electoral advocates lean on past movements to build power ‘from the grassroots up’
Ko Bragg | The 19th
In 1972 Shirley Chisholm ran for president and thousands attended the National Black Political Convention. Can 2020 harness that energy?
How Melinda Gates, Tina Tchen, and Karlie Kloss Are Leading the Way on Social Change
Abby Schultz, Lucy Cohen Blatter | Barron's
Creating change in the world doesn’t happen without strong leaders willing to speak out and take action. Melinda Gates, Karlie Kloss and Tina Tchen are providing this leadership through concrete social impact initiatives aimed at gender equality and transforming what’s possible for all women, from essential workers to corporate executives.
Florence Howe, ‘Mother of Women’s Studies,’ Dies at 91
Bonnie Wortheim | New York Times
Florence Howe, a key architect of the women’s studies movement and a founder of the Feminist Press, a literary nonprofit dedicated to promoting social justice and amplifying overlooked voices, died on Saturday in Manhattan. She was 91.