Feminist Fix: Remembering Ebony Morgan, Celebrating #WhiteWednesdays and Hillary Clinton's Reading List

Welcome to Feminist Fix, our bi-weekly round-up of feminist news, essays and analysis.

Feminist News

+ Donald Trump’s Muslim Ban has gone into effect.

+ Over 20 states have refused to comply with President Trump’s election commisson’s request for voter information.

+ Ebony Morgan is the 15th trans woman killed this year. The epidemic of deadly violence against trans women, and especially trans women of color, is nothing new—but data reveals that they are on the rise.

+ Donald Trump singled out a female Irish reporter in the Oval Office, commenting on her “nice smile.”

+ A Canadian baby just became the first to receive a birth certificate defining them as not having a gender.

+ The hosts of Morning Joe on MSNBC are alleging that The National Enquirer and White House officials have been part of a coordinated campaign of harassment against Mika Brzezinski and her family.

+ William Bradford, an Energy Department official, has a history of sending racist and sexist tweets. Meanwhile, the Trump administration may also be making room for a civil rights opponent in the Justice Department.

+ A district court judge has issued an injunction against an Indiana law requiring parental consent for abortions.

+ An all-girls robotics team from Afghanistan has been denied entry into the United States for a competition.

Roya Mahboob, who founded Citadel software company in Afghanistan, and was the country’s first female tech CEO, brought the group of girls together for the project.

“It’s a very important message for our people” Mahboob says. “Robotics is very, very new in Afghanistan.”

She says when the girls first heard the bad news about their visas, “they were crying all the day.”

While the State Department won’t comment on the visa denials (those records are confidential), recent numbers suggest it’s pretty tricky to get a travel visa from Afghanistan to the U.S. According to State Department records, in April 2017, the country gave out just 32 of the B1/B2 brand of business travel visas the girls were trying for. Compare that to Baghdad’s 138 B1/B2s issued that same month, or the 1,492 issued at the same time in neighboring Pakistan, and the records suggest the girls’ try was a long shot. Still, they persisted.

+ The Pentagon has delayed trans enlistment.

+ Same-sex marriage has come to Germany! Perhaps Texas should let them lead by example.

+ Google, CBS, Viacom and dozens of other major U.S. companies are signing on to an Amicus Brief in support of protections for LGB workers.

+ The White House has a wage gap problem.

+ A Florida judge ruled the state’s “Stand Your Ground” law unconstitutional.

+ Donald Trump tweeted a Medicaid chart that was, to say the least, misleading. Here’s what the BCRA—the Senate healthcare bill—really means for Medicaid. (Spoiler Alert: It makes it a “time bomb.”)

Movers & Shakers

+ Iranian women are wearing white to protest a mandatory dress code.

Women in Iran are sharing photos and videos of themselves wearing white on Wednesdays in symbolic protest to the country’s mandatory dress code.

Since the Iranian Revolution in 1979, the country has enforced laws requiring all women, including tourists, to dress modestly and cover their heads in public.

In May, Iranian activist Masih Alinejad started encouraging women and men in Iran to wear white in solidarity with one another and post photos to social media using the hashtag #WhiteWednesdays.

“My goal is just empowering women and giving them a voice. If the government and the rest of the world hear the voice of these brave women then they have to recognize them,” Alinejad, who currently lives in New York, told Reuters.

+ Trans advocate Raquel Willis and Feminist Majority Executive Director Katherine Spillar talked Trumpcare and activism on the latest episode of THE BOSSY SHOW:

Even being a woman is a preexisting condition under Trumpcare because it means if you’ve ben raped or sexually assaulted, or you’re a survivor of domestic violence, they’re gonna consider all of that a preexisting condition. If you’ve had a baby, now you’ve gone through childbirth, especially if you had a cesarian section, that’s a preexisting condition. Mental health and depression, all of those are preexisting conditions…Women and young women especially have a lot at stake in this fight…and our senators and members of the house of representatives have to hear from them.

+ Mischa Barton testified against her ex in a “revenge porn” case.

“We’re going to continue to fight for justice in this case,” Barton told reporters. “People should always have the right to protect themselves and especially women against people who stalk you, make you nervous, try to do things against you, try to release images without your consent. I consider this a victory today as well.”

Deep Dives

+ Rewire went to the National Right to Life Convention. This is their dispatch.

“There is so much that we can already do, but now the presidential administration, as well as our friends in Congress, are making it even easier for us,” the Rev. Frank Pavone of Priests for Life told attendees of one panel on mobilizing churches for the anti-choice cause.

Pavone, who has been among Trump’s most vocal defenders in the anti-choice movement, told Rewire he had not yet seen the most recent round of sexist tweets. But he outlined a pragmatic approach to Trump, comparing him to an auto mechanic.

“If I ask the question, do I want everybody to be virtuous? Yes, I do,” Pavone told Rewire. “But if I’m going to get my car fixed, I’m not there to clean up the guy’s language, I’m there to get the car fixed. If you can do it, I choose to pay you, I’m hiring you to fix my car. That’s what we’re doing with the president.”