Okay, Arizona, now you’re just messing with us.
Arizona is about to outlaw Internet trolling.
Which means I can think of a few people who’d better not be from Arizona.
...read moreArizona HB 2036 is bad for women anyway.
A week ago, Arizona HB 2036 passed the state Senate and headed to the House. The bill centers around the belief that a fetus feels pain at 20 weeks and thus bans abortion after 20 weeks of gestation (with an exception for the life of the mother). HB 2036 specifies gestational age “as calculated from the first day of the last menstrual period of the pregnant woman,” leading many to believe that it actually bans abortion after 18 weeks of gestation.
This isn’t accurate. It’s still 20 weeks. But there is so, so much more to be angry about.
...read moreThe Real People Behind Lawrence v. Texas
...read moreThat’s the punch line: the case that affirmed the right of gay couples to have consensual sex in private spaces seems to have involved two men who were neither a couple nor having sex. In order to appeal to the conservative Justices on the high court, the story of a booze-soaked quarrel was repackaged as a love story. Nobody had to know that the gay-rights case of the century was actually about three or four men getting drunk in front of a television in a Harris County apartment decorated with bad James Dean erotica.
Because those poor little men can’t be trusted to make their own decisions
I realize that Monday’s post about anti-woman bills was rather the downer. As an apology, today I thought it might be time to highlight some more… positive legislation.
...read moreArizona is officially the worst state in the union now, right?
I know it’s a tough competition, but now they’re evaluating a bill that would allow doctors to keep crucial information from pregnant women, if giving them that information might lead to abortion. The bill purports to protect doctors from “wrongful birth” suits, but the consequences could be much broader — it removes civil penalties for doctors who intentionally withhold health information from pregnant women. So if a woman gets prenatal testing and the fetus has severe abnormalities incompatible with life? It’s a-ok to just not tell her — just let her go on decorating that nursery! If a woman is pregnant and the doctor realizes that she’s going to have a baby with a disability or a birth defect? Just don’t mention anything, because who needs time to prepare? If there are potential health complications because of a fetal abnormality, or another problem with the pregnancy? Meh. Don’t tell the little lady, because she might make a decision you don’t like.
...read moreArizona demonstrates why “The Pill isn’t just for family planning!” isn’t enough on its own
The Arizona legislature, in yet another bid to prove that they’re willing to reach for the stars in the interest of screwing people over, is debating a bill that would allow employers to offer insurance coverage for good girls with medical needs without covering hobags who just like to do it–assuming the women in question are willing to put their private medical records up for the judgment of their boss.
...read moreIs the United States the only country where more men are raped every year than women?
That’s the claim in this n+1 piece, which is well worth a read:
...read moreIn January, prodded in part by outrage over a series of articles in the New York Review of Books, the Justice Department finally released an estimate of the prevalence of sexual abuse in penitentiaries. The reliance on filed complaints appeared to understate the problem. For 2008, for example, the government had previously tallied 935 confirmed instances of sexual abuse. After asking around, and performing some calculations, the Justice Department came up with a new number: 216,000. That’s 216,000 victims, not instances. These victims are often assaulted multiple times over the course of the year. The Justice Department now seems to be saying that prison rape accounted for the majority of all rapes committed in the US in 2008, likely making the United States the first country in the history of the world to count more rapes for men than for women.
Rape is what again now?
Conservatives seem to be really confused on that one. Take, for example, CNN’s Dana Loesch:
...read moreVirgina Rape Law
A proposed law in Virgina requires women to have ultrasounds before terminating pregnancies. Since most abortions occur in the first trimester, and since ultrasounds done before 12 are usually transvaginal, that means that the state of Virginia is effectively requiring women to be vaginally penetrated against their will. And that’s rape.
...read moreThis Is What Happened to CeCe
Cece McDonald stood up to bigots and survived a hate crime. Now she’s in the county jail waiting to be tried for second degree murder.
This is a story about intersectionality – what happens when a young trans woman of color goes up against white supremacy, misogyny and transphobia. It’s a story about what happens when you have to fight for your life.
...read more9th Circuit Says Prop 8 is Unconstitutional
...read moreA federal appeals court on Tuesday declared California’s same-sex marriage ban to be unconstitutional, putting the bitterly contested, voter-approved law on track for likely consideration by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Some Transformative Justice Links
In the wake of recent conversations, I’ve been looking around for further resources on transformative justice. I haven’t been able to do a lot of intense follow-up on the topic lately, because in mid-January I had major spinal surgery (after breaking my neck in an accident back in 2011); this obviously has involved many painkillers and a lot of sleep and not-working as much as possible. However, I have been able to do some reading, and I want to share some of what I’ve found most compelling.
...read more
Recent Comments