From the category archives:

politics

Justice Department to Miss Deadline for New Standards to Address Prison Rape

by Cara June 15, 2010

I’ve written a fair amount lately about the huge problem of prison rape in the U.S., and even encouraged you to directly contact the Department of Justice regarding new standards to prevent prison rape. But while we were left with a strict deadline to get our recommendations and comments in, it looks like the Department [...]

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How to Write About Domestic Violence Without Actually Discussing Violence

by Cara April 13, 2010

The mayor of White Plains, NY has been arrested on charges of domestic violence. Adam T. Bradley, who has not yet resigned, is accused of slamming a door on his wife’s hand, screaming at her that she should kill herself, and then threatening and harassing her to drop the charges against him. This is obviously [...]

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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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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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Man Destroys Rosa Parks Poster at Health Care Town Hall

by Cara August 13, 2009

It’s no big secret that the health care reform town halls are getting dramatically out of hand, and yet again displaying the erratic, borderline violent and frankly quite frightening behavior of extremist right-wingers. From the “Death to Obama” sign (h/t) and the man who brought a gun to an Obama town hall, there’s a lot [...]

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Women Who Would Have Medicaid-Funded Abortions Instead Often Give Birth

by Cara July 14, 2009

A new study just released by the Guttmacher Institute (pdf; news release here) determined that “approximately one-fourth of women who would have Medicaid-funded abortions instead give birth when this funding is unavailable.” Whatever the actual number of women who are essentially forced to give birth due to a lack of funding for abortion is, as [...]

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Americans Broadly Support Abortion Coverage in Health Reform

by Cara July 9, 2009

You my have heard — or you may not, as it seems to be getting little mainstream media coverage — that health care reform is in trouble. With Republicans and blue-dog Democrats sensing that some sort of of government coverage is likely to be successfully created this time around, they’re shifting tactics somewhat from attempting [...]

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Reaction vs. Prevention

by Cara May 29, 2009

Sometime recently — and I receive so many action alerts in my inbox that it’s impossible to remember when — I apparently emailed my congressional representative about the issue of funding for programs that prevent intimate partner violence.  Of course, I asked him to support for an increase in such funding.  My representative’s name is [...]

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Canadian Provinces Deny Transgender Health Care

by Cara May 16, 2009

In the past few weeks, two Canadian provinces have denied transgender people funding for their basic health care needs in a country which touts a universal and public health care system. First came Alberta, which previously covered sex reassignment surgery (SRS) (also known as GRS — gender reassignment surgery or gender reaffirmation surgery).  The province [...]

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Equality and Justice for Whom?

by Cara May 7, 2009

Last Tuesday, I attended Equality & Justice Day in Albany.  It is the LGBT lobby day for New York, run by the Empire State Pride Agenda.  I generally had a good time, and was glad that I attended to show my support. But I also noticed something throughout the day that, while I may not [...]

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