legislation

NY Bill Allows Sex Trafficking Victims to Clear Prostitution Convictions

by Cara June 28, 2010

Good News: earlier this month, the New York State legislature passed a bill allowing victims of sex trafficking to have prostitution convictions against them vacated. The bill currently only awaits Governor Paterson’s signature, but activists are hopeful that he will give it his stamp of approval: Sex trafficking victims may soon be able to have [...]

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Anti-Choice Ultrasound Laws Don’t Change Abortion Rates, But Continue Getting Tougher

by Cara June 1, 2010

Last last week, the New York Times published an article about the growing wave of U.S. state anti-abortion laws that center on ultrasounds. Specifically, the state laws in question usually either require that ultrasounds be performed prior to an abortion or that the woman (or person of a different gender seeking an abortion, though they [...]

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Man Reported Police Sexual Assault Against His Girlfriend, Now Faces Deportation

by Cara May 27, 2010

The man pictured above did a very, very scary thing. This man pictured above did the right thing. And for calling 911 while a police officer sexually assaulted his girlfriend during a traffic stop, Abel Moreno was arrested. His girlfriend was arrested, too. Then, things got even worse. Several things then happened. Five other women [...]

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Financial Interests Get in the Way of Meaningful Rights for Domestic Violence Victims

by Cara May 14, 2010

A new Massachusetts bill regarding victims of domestic violence has recently passed the State Senate, and is headed to the House. If approved, the bill would guarantee workers who are also victims of intimate partner violence some protections from their employers: The approved bill would require businesses to give employees who are victims of domestic [...]

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Federal Court Rules That Transgender Inmates Have the Right to Medical Care

by Cara April 2, 2010

Via Questioning Transphobia and Transgriot, some great news out of Wisconsin. A federal court has struck down a state law that denied hormone treatment to trans* people, despite its role as necessary care. The case was brought by the ACLU, Lamda Legal, and a group of incarcerated trans women who had been denied treatment. The [...]

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Anti-Choicers Target Women of Color: How Should Pro-Choicers Respond?

by Cara February 23, 2010

Earlier this month, Renee wrote a post about an Atlanta billboard targeting black women’s reproductive rights by pointing to the higher rates of abortion among black women, and claiming that abortion clinics are attempting to abort black children out of existence. It’s a great post, touching on many things that will come up here, and [...]

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Boss Admits to Firing Woman Because of Her Gender Identity

by Cara October 12, 2009

Vandy Beth Glenn was fired in 2007 when she informed her boss her boss that she was a trans woman with plans to begin her transition. With Lambada Legal, she has since launched a federal lawsuit against her former employer, the Georgia General Assembly. (Yes, you did in fact read that correctly — her employer [...]

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All Denials of Coverage For Pre-Existing Conditions Deserve Equal Outrage

by Cara October 8, 2009

You’ve almost certainly heard: in certain U.S. states, insurance companies are legally calling domestic violence a “pre-existing condition” and are therefore refusing to cover any treatment related to it. If the person in question doesn’t disclose the domestic violence prior to taking on insurance, they can have their coverage dropped by the insurance company. And, [...]

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U.S. Fence Causes Increase in Border Crossing Deaths

by Cara October 5, 2009

A recently released study by the American Civil Liberties Union of San Diego and Imperial Counties and Mexico’s National Commission on Human Rights (h/t abbyjean) shows that there has been an increase in migrant deaths at the U.S.-Mexico border in the past year: Marking the 15th anniversary of the misguided border strategy known as Operation [...]

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Bill in the Bahamas Attempts to Outlaw Spousal Rape

by Cara August 22, 2009

Until the 1970s, spousal rape (or marital rape) was legal in most of the United States. It wasn’t until 1993 that the last U.S. state (North Carolina) made spousal rape a crime, and there are still numerous states that treat spousal rape as a lesser crime than rape committed by anyone else. Given this history [...]

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