If former president Donald Trump is reelected, advocacy groups expect him to enact anti-LGBTQ+ policies that are more far-reaching and extreme than those he put in place during his first term—based on his campaign promises and policies suggested by the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank that has shaped the GOP’s agenda for decades.
Nine States Allow School Employees to Carry Guns. Students and Teachers Worry It Will Do More Harm Than Good.
Tennessee joined eight other states in allowing school employees to carry guns on K-12 campuses. Students and educators worry it could do more harm than good.
Title IX Mandates Universities to Accommodate Students Who Have Had Abortions. Texas Is Suing.
The state of Texas does not believe its arsenal of antiabortion laws has done enough to strip pregnant people of control over their bodies.
Represented by antiabortion warrior Attorney General Ken Paxton, Texas is suing the Biden administration in a challenge to the Title IX claim that abortion-related discrimination is prohibited sex discrimination. Two professors from the University of Texas-Austin—John Hatfield, a professor of finance, and Daniel Bonevac, a philosophy professor—subsequently joined the suit as named plaintiffs.
At its core, this case is about the surveillance and control of the sexual and reproductive lives of students, and the chillingly privileged view that professors are somehow entitled to this measure of control over students’ lives based upon their own views about abortion.
The Upcoming Presidential Debate Is Really a Masculinity Contest
The GOP and its mouthpieces in conservative media repeat constantly that Trump and MAGA are the natural home of “real men,” who are the only ones that have what it takes to protect and defend this country.
By contrast, Biden embodies a wonkish, managerial masculinity that is calm, measured and empathetic. But that matters very little in terms of how he will be judged on his debate performance. What will matter is his energy level. His assertiveness and aggressiveness. The way he responds to Trump’s verbal aggression and bullying behavior. Whether or not he “scores points” in verbal repartee. In other words, the way he performs his “manhood.”
Flipping the Script on True Crime: The Ms. Q&A With Author Kristine S. Ervin
Kristine S. Ervin was 8 when her mother was abducted from a mall parking lot, murdered and abandoned in an Oklahoma oil field. In her debut memoir Rabbit Heart, Ervin resists the true crime trope of exploiting and glorifying femicide and instead delves into the emotional toll her mother’s death took on her and her family. We sat down recently to talk about her book, growing up motherless, how this informed her life’s gender power dynamics and her evolution from being a feminist-skeptic to writing what is undeniably a deeply feminist memoir.
“I see this as a grief memoir, a motherless daughter memoir, a memoir that is meant to show what 25 years of unrelenting, brutal grief looks like when you are the loved one of a victim and you don’t have answers.”
Pregnant and Finally Protected
A Better Balance released a new report, “Pregnant and Finally Protected,” detailing how the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act has shifted the paradigm and finally put the law squarely on the side of pregnant workers. Similar to the ADA, the PWFA guarantees an affirmative right to accommodations for millions of workers affected by pregnancy, childbirth and related medical conditions. No longer can a pregnant worker be forced off the job when a temporary accommodation can keep them healthy and attached to the workforce.
U.S. v. Rahimi Denies Abusers Firearms. The Decision Is an Outlier.
In an 8-1 decision, the United States Supreme Court held that abusers subject to protective orders can continue to be denied access to firearms.
However, Rahimi is not a broader indication that the tides of this conservative court have turned, including on gun control measures more broadly.
It’s Time to Turn Anguish Into Action for Abortion Rights
It’s been two years since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, and the young women of America are tired. We’re exhausted.
It would be easy to listen to naysayers who tell us it’s not our time to take action. And it would be easy to just give up. But that is not how we’re going to make change. We’ll make a change by turning out in mass this November to send a clear message: The vast majority of people in every state across the country—red states and blue states—want to protect abortion access.
Will SCOTUS Allow Pregnant Women to Die?
A decision from the U.S. Supreme Court will be coming any day now on whether states can prohibit doctors from treating women with life-threatening pregnancies until a patient’s condition deteriorates to the point where they are about to die.
N.Y. Bill to End Statute of Limitations on Sex Crimes Could Help Survivors Seek Justice
“We have to crawl our way out, even though we tripped our way in,” said Gabrielle Prieto, who was sex trafficked at 12 years old and is not challenging the stigmas surrounding survivors of sex trafficking and advocates to end sex trade.
In New York, a new bill could afford survivors seeking legal recourse for the crimes committed against them a real chance for justice—removing the five-year statute of limitations on sex crimes.