politics

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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Call Your Senators to Stop Violence Against Native American Women

by Cara March 17, 2009

According to reports by Amnesty International, Native American and Alaska Native women have a rate of rape and sexual assault 2.5 times higher than the U.S.  national average.  And seeing as how all of us here agree that the U.S. average rates of sexual violence are already much too high, this is clearly far from [...]

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Thoughts on Castration for Sex Offenders

by Cara March 12, 2009

The NY Times has a story on debates raging in Europe over whether is ethical and/or smart to castrate sex offenders as a form of punishment or rehabilitation. Whether castration can help rehabilitate violent sex offenders has come under new scrutiny after the Council of Europe’s anti-torture committee last month called surgical castration “invasive, irreversible [...]

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Offensive Remark of the Week: Obama is Like an Abusive Spouse Edition

by Cara March 9, 2009

I try to stay as far away from World Net Daily as possible, but via Media Matters comes this outrageous excerpt from a column that appeared on the site on March 4. After explaining why he thinks that Obama is already a completely colossal failure, Burt Prelutsky writes: Frankly, I don’t know why anybody continues [...]

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Arizona Legislature Considers Numerous Abortion Restrictions

by Cara February 28, 2009

Just as anti-choice, time-wasting nonsense gets cleared up in South Dakota, we find ourselves some more in Arizona.  Indeed, as Miriam and Ann note, anti-choicers seem to be going pretty wild all over the nation. This particular piece of ugly Arizona legislation would impose a whole ton of restrictions: Legislation to impose the first new [...]

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Sexual Violence in Italy Used to Support Racist Immigration Policies

by Cara February 21, 2009

Last month, I wrote a post about how Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi made statements which heavily implied a belief that women are raped not because certain men have a desire for control over women, or feel that they deserve permanent access to women’s bodies, but because women are so good looking.  Even worse than [...]

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Anti-Choice South Dakota Bill Stalls in Senate

by Cara February 10, 2009

The insidious proposed South Dakota bill that would force doctors to be available to talk with patients for a full two hours on the day before an abortion procedure is performed (even if the patient does not show up to the meeting), has thankfully stalled in the Senate. A bill to require a doctor to [...]

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South Dakota Fails in Abortion Ban; Attempts Death by a Thousand Cuts

by Cara February 5, 2009

After South Dakota’s two failed abortion ban attempts, and previous decisions to enact what are quite arguably the strictest abortion restrictions in all of the United States, I was almost silly enough to hope that Leslee Unruh’s proclamation that she was dropping the abortion issue for this legislative season might mean something good.  But no, [...]

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