2007’s Least Surprising Political Scandal
all of them.
Life is Hard.
A Christian pharmacist, Brian Bundy, was fired by Target for not being willing to dispense Plan B contraception to customers. He’s suing.
How odd. I can’t imagine. You don’t do your job & you get fired. What a weird outcome.
In Solidarity
(courtesy of www.unitedhollywood.blogspot.com)
& If you haven’t seen The Front, now’s the time to do it. & There are more speechless shorts, featuring the likes of Tim Robbins, Alan Cumming.
& Go here to sign a petition to tell the FCC we don’t want more media consolidation. You only have until Tuesday, 12/11, to sign it, so go do it now.
Good Riddance, 2007 – #4
2007’s Biggest Backstabber:
Joe Solmonese.
Bonehead.
Despite the studies, Dubya is pushing for more abstinence-only funding.
I wish Barbara had used birth control the night he was conceived.
A Week Left
There’s a week and a day left of the “16 Days” campaign. The intention of the campaign is not just to raise awareness about violence against women, but to link gender-specific violence with human rights by having the 16 days end on International Human Rights Day on December 10.
For more information, visit the 16 Days website, and sign the petition at saynotoviolence.org.
Sexual Politics
The other night at the Crossdressing: Erotic Stories event, the three of us who read were asked about sexual politics. Veronica Vera’s response really hit the nail on the head, so I asked if she would send me something of a transcript of what she said. Here it is.
The political consequences of sex without guilt are enormous.
enormous.
Our culture is mired in guilt and this has kept us bound in chains of fear and powerlessness, not only about the experience of sex but of the experience of being human. Our institutions of state, church and the media, either through ignorance or guile continue the process.
When we feel guilty, we do not voice our opinions. If we do not voice our opinions, we cannot raise questions. If we do not raise questions, we cannot effect change.
When I gave myself permission to touch myself and my sexuality in all of its aspects, I gave myself permission to feel. I validated my feelings. The right to feel is a basic right and with it comes the right to have an opinion, and what follows is the right to ask questions. We ask questions and we meet others who are asking the same questions and together we create a world.
It’s World AIDS Day
According to UNAIDS estimates, there are now 33.2 million people living with HIV, including 2.5 million children. During 2007 some 2.5 million people became newly infected with the virus. Around half of all people who become infected with HIV do so before they are 25 and are killed by AIDS before they are 35.
Around 95% of people with HIV/AIDS live in developing nations. But HIV today is a threat to men, women and children on all continents around the world.
Started on 1st December 1988, World AIDS Day is not just about raising money, but also about increasing awareness, fighting prejudice and improving education. World AIDS Day is important in reminding people that HIV has not gone away, and that there are many things still to be done.
14, Now
Since July of this year, 8 more states have said no to the abstinence-only Federally-funded sex education. The most recent, #14, is Virginia. Go Governor Kaine!
Let’s keep it going! Write to your state legislators & tell them you want your kids to get real sex edcucation, not this absinence bullshit that puts them at greater risk for STDs.
Mara Keisling on C-SPAN
If you haven’t seen it yet, Mara Keisling’s appearance on C-SPAN’s Washington Journal last week is worth viewing, and apparently isn’t going to be online forever, so do go watch it within the next week or so.
(You want the 11/10/2007 show.)
My favorite bit is when the woman calls to talk about how the founding fathers were Christian, & how Mara shouldn’t be allowed to talk at all, & Mara drinks her coffee stone-faced like Buster Keaton, the smile only showing at the very corners of her mouth, after which she explains, again, that the Bill in fact exempts religious institutions. (It’s at about 1:17 or so.)
& As one caller put it, I agree with him: Mara is a brilliant woman, and I’m happy to see her doing advocacy. That anyone said, “you can’t be a full person if you have to hide all the love in your life,” on Washington Journalis amazing, but I’m pleased as punch it was someone talking about LGBT rights.