Category: Social Justice

Power Girls

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“Powerful girls grow up feeling secure in themselves. They learn to take action, making positive choices about their own lives and doing positive things for others. They think critically about the world around them. They express their feelings and acknowledge the feelings and thoughts of others in caring ways. Powerful girls feel good about themselves and grow up with a “can-do” attitude. Of course, strong girls may (like all of us) have times of insecurity and self-doubt, but these feelings aren’t paralyzing because the girls have learned to work through their problems. Powerful girls will grow up to lead full, valuable lives.

Here are some of our experts’ ideas to help you raise powerful daughters.”

Read the article here.

#WickedPissed

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Gay pride parades are not always the most inclusive events, often focusing primarily on the most privileged members of the community. As part of an attempt to highlight within-community oppression, activists in Boston disrupted the parade for eleven minutes.

“The sit-in served to refocus attention on those most marginalized in the LGBTQ community, honor the lives of trans women of color, and raise awareness to the lack of representation and resources available to LGBTQ people of Color in Boston. The sit-in intentionally lasted for 11 minutes to symbolize the 11 lives of transgender individuals who have been beaten down, slaughtered, and brutally murdered in the United States this year. Every two days, somewhere in the world, a trans woman of color will be murdered! Today, we act to disrupt pride for eleven minutes to honor and bring awareness to the lives of each trans person murdered this year.”

Read the article and the activists’ statements here.

7 Talks on the Trans Experience

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Hailey Reissman has gathered seven different TED/TEDx talks to highlight the difference in every Trans person’s individual, lived experience.

“Alice Miller was born in a body that didn’t feel like hers. Every day, Yee Won Chong has to debate whether to use the men’s restroom or the women’s. Geena Rocero found success as a fashion model — but kept her birth gender a secret for nearly a decade, fearing what others would think.

All these people have transitioned into their true gender. And all of them made the decision to share their stories in a TED or TEDx talk. What these seven stories show: There is no one “right” way to live a life. And no one should have to spend a life hiding who they are.

Below, seven talks on living life expressing your true gender:”

Watch all 7 talks here.

Talking Trans

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Writing in the context of how mass media failed to show basic respect for trans lives, Thu-Huong Ha gives a brief guide on appropriate ways for people to discuss these topics, which deserves revisiting after the high profile introduction of Caitlyn Jenner to the public.

Read more here.

Image by Ray Lee

Kalief: In Memoriam

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Jennifer Gonnerman delivers a beautiful rendering of a tormented life. After three years at Rikers without a trial, Kalief Browder has died by suicide.

“Ever since I’d met him, Browder had been telling me stories about having been abused by officers and inmates on Rikers. The stories were disturbing, but I did not fully appreciate what he had experienced until this past April when I obtained surveillance footage of an officer assaulting him and of a large group of inmates pummeling and kicking him. I sat next to Kalief while he watched these videos for the first time. Afterward, we discussed whether they should be published on The New Yorker’s Web site. I told him that it was his decision. He said to put them online.

He was driven by the same motive that led him to talk to me for the first time, a year earlier. He wanted the public to know what he had gone through, so that nobody else would have to endure the same ordeals. His willingness to tell his story publicly—and his ability to recount it with great insight—ultimately helped persuade Mayor Bill de Blasio to try to reform the city’s court system and end the sort of excessive delays that kept him in jail for so long.”

Read the whole article here.

6 Genders of Judaism

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A fascinating look at gender representations in classic Judaism. The Sojourn blog notes they’ll be exploring the original source texts over the summer, so follow them there for continued updates.

“There’s a huge amount of information to unpack here, and we’ll be continuing all summer long to do just that, including looking at the legal obligations of each of the genders and what the real-world application of this information is. For now, though, the main point to take from all of this: The male/female binary is not, in any way, the exclusive system of gender classification in traditional Judaism*. ” 

Read about the 6 genders here, and see the original source here.

REMEMBERING TYLER CLEMENTI

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Another child lost to suicide-by-bullying. Five years later, his evangelical family is doing something about it.

“I just had this sense of harm,” she sighed. “I know it’s hard to understand, and strange to go back to that place. There was a suicide of a junior in the high school in June. So we had talked about suicide. And at the time, I really couldn’t understand how anyone could be so, so sad to harm themselves. I’ve since learned how you can be that sad.”

Read more about their foundation, and about the Day 1 Campaign.

WoCSHN Responds to AASECT Awards

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The membership and allies of the Women of Color Sexual Health Network respond to announcements of AASECT award winners:

“It is outrageous that a book with this history and an editor with this ethical approach to his work be given this award. How can AASECT make claims about increasing diversity and supporting under-represented communities while, in the same breath, rewarding this book? The message this sends is “we say we want diversity, but only on our terms.””

Read more here.

What’s in a Name? Everything.

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Joe Fitzgerald Rodriguez reports in the San Francisco Examiner how the international debate over Facebook’s “Real Name Policy” has local consequences for the Bay Area. When organizers for what is probably the world’s best known Pride event faced a contentious vote over whether to allow Facebook space in the parade, a vote which fell 5 to 4 in favor of Facebook.

“Banning the social media giant would have been a bold move that might have put pressure on Facebook to change its stance on its controversial “authentic name” policy. However, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg called Gary Virginia, the board’s president, and perhaps other board members to discuss the issue, according to documents obtained by The San Francisco Examiner.”

Minutes of the spirited meeting suggest that the brief calls from Zuckerberg implied donations or threats to withhold such if the vote decided against them.

Read more here.

Not a Welfare Queen

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Anna Gibson writes a piece introducing the myth of the welfare queen and the realities hidden behind that myth.

“What we find in impoverished communities are a number of Black women who work two to four jobs to keep food on the table, according to the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. This lack of time limits the ability to actively apply and pursue higher education or at least finish an equivalency program such as a GED. The lack of education keeps them away from higher paying jobs and leads to them and their children being ceaselessly being mired in poverty.”

Included are links to more detailed analyses of this pernicious and politically effective lie and the cascading consequences of building policy that conflates and demonizes being Black and poor.

Read more here.