#Independent Women's Law Center

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Molly Sprayregen at LGBTQ Nation:

Four Southern states have joined together with four conservative organizations to sue the Biden administration over a recently issued rule banning anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination in education.

[...]

The idea is that it’s impossible to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity without taking sex into account, a legal argument that the Supreme Court has already used in its 2020 Bostock v. Clayton Co. ruling with respect to job discrimination.

With the new rule, any school that receives federal funding will no longer be able to discriminate against LGBTQ+ students. This could affect states and school districts with policies to out LGBTQ+ students to their parents or ban trans students from using bathrooms that correspond with their gender. The new rules could also give students who face discrimination recourse in federal courts. Alabama, South Carolina, Florida, and Georgia allege in the lawsuit that the Biden administration does not have the authority to make this rule and also that it goes beyond the original intentions of Title IX, according to CBS News. The states are joined in the lawsuit by the Independent Women’s Network, Parents Defending Education, Speech First, and the Independent Women’s Law Center.

“The role of Cabinet agencies is to interpret laws as written by Congress – not to redefine the meaning of words to suit a fringe group of activists,” said Parents Defending Education president Nicole Neily in a statement, which went on to claim the rule proves “the Biden administration’s contempt for families, trumping state laws which reiterate parents’ right to access information and make decisions about issues related to their children’s gender identity in schools.” “By lowering the standard of ‘harassment’ to little more than a one-off expression of humor, satire, or parody,” Neily continued, “the free speech rights of every young learner in America has become subordinate to how the most sensitive student might interpret a phrase. This Title IX rule is both unconstitutional and immoral, and we look forward to vindicating our members’ rights in court.”

“We will fight very strongly against this rule,” added Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody (R), “just to ensure this does what Congress intended it to do, and that is provide opportunities to everyone and especially protect the security and fairness for our biological females.” Moody also claimed the new rule “is really a radical departure from what Title IX was originally meant to do.” The lawsuit alleges that the rule “conflicts with many of the state plaintiffs’ laws that govern public institutions of higher education and primary and secondary education, including laws involving harassment, bathrooms, sports, parental rights, and more.” It continues, “The rule thus impedes the state plaintiffs’ sovereign authority to enforce and administer their laws and creates pressure on the state plaintiffs to change their laws and practices.” The new rules, however, do not discuss transgender student-athletes and which teams they can play on. The DOE is reportedly planning to issue a separate rule regarding what Title IX means for sports participation.

4 Southern states are suing the Biden Administration for the right to discriminate against LGBTQ+ children over the LGBTQ+-friendly Title IX changes.

#Title IX #Anti LGBTQ+ Extremism #Anti Trans Extremism #LGBTQ+ #Joe Biden #Biden Administration #Transgender #Alabama #Georgia #Florida #South Carolina #Ashley Moody #Parents Defending Education #Nicole Neily #Independent Women’s Network #Independent Women's Law Center #Forced Outing

[coochiequeens]

Woman’ is not an ambiguous term open to an evolving interpretation.” - the attorneys representing the women who want to keep the sorority house they pay $8,000 for male free.

By Genevieve Gluck December 14, 2023

The female complainants at the center of a lawsuit to have a trans-identified male removed from a sorority at the University of Wyoming have re-filed their appeal, demanding the court clearly define the word “woman.” Artemis Langford, previously known as Dallin, was accepted into Kappa Kappa Gamma (KKG) last September, spurring several women to file a lawsuit to have him removed.

In August, the case of Westenbroek v. Kappa Kappa Gamma Fraternity was dismissed on the basis that re-defining “woman” to include males was “Kappa Kappa Gamma’s bedrock right.” Despite hearing testimony from the women, some of whom stated Langford had “watched” them undress with an erection, Judge Alan Johnson rejected the women’s request to rescind Langford’s admission into the sorority.

However, on December 4, the young women filed an appeal to have the dismissal reversed, arguing that Langford’s presence in the sorority house “caused emotional distress in a personalized and unique way,” and demanding that the court clearly define the word “woman.”

In the appeal, the women reassert that Langford displayed “strange and sexual behavior” towards them, and caused them a level of discomfort and anxiety amounting to personal injury. It reiterates claims that Langford had been filming and photographing the women without their consent and had displayed a visible erection while in the house.

“Specifically, Langford’s unwanted staring, photographing, and videotaping of the Plaintiffs, as well as his asking questions about sex and displaying a visible erection while in the house, invaded Plaintiffs’ privacy and caused emotional distress in a personalized and unique way. And thus Plaintiffs have pleaded a viable direct claim. This Court should therefore reverse the district court’s dismissal of Plaintiffs’ derivative and direct claims,” the appeal reads.

Some of the allegations are a reiteration of previous claims, which Langford’s attorney, Rachel Berkness, has attempted to portray as both false and discriminatory during court proceedings. In June, Berkness filed a motion to dismiss the sorority women’s claims against Langford as “frivolous and malicious,” stating: “The allegations against Ms. Langford … were borne out of a hypothesis in search of evidence and pieced together using drunken party stories. Ms. Langford is not a victim; she is a target.”

The initial suit, filed at the end of March, had asserted that Langford, who is 6’2″, had been voyeuristically peeping on the women while they were in intimate situations, and, on at least one occasion, had a visible erection while doing so.

“One sorority member walked down the hall to take a shower, wearing only a towel … She felt an unsettling presence, turned, and saw [Langford] watching her silently,” the court document reads.

“[Langford] has, while watching members enter the sorority house, had an erection visible through his leggings,” the suit says. “Other times, he has had a pillow in his lap.”

As evidenced by his Tinder profile, Langford is “sexually interested in women.” It was further stated in that Langford took photographs of the women while at a sorority slumber party, where he also is said to have made inappropriate comments.

“At a slumber party, Langford ‘repeatedly questioned the women about what vaginas look like, [and] breast cup size,’ and stared as one Plaintiff changed her clothes,” reads the appeal. “Langford also talked about his virginity and discussed at what age it would be appropriate for someone to have sex… And he stated that he would not leave one of the sorority’s sleepovers until after everyone fell asleep.”

Langford was also said to have taken pictures of female members “without their knowledge or consent.” Some of the women noted that they had “observed Langford writing detailed notes about [the students] and their statements and behavior.”

In May, a judge twice prohibited the women from suing anonymously, while stipulating that Langford’s identity should remain protected. Langford was referred to by the pseudonym “Terry Smith” and male pronouns in the legal documents. Six of the women then refiled the lawsuit under their own names, and are requesting that the court void Langford’s membership in KKG.

“It is really uncomfortable. Some of the girls have been sexually assaulted or sexually harassed. Some girls live in constant fear in our home,” one of the sisters, Hannah, told Megyn Kelly during an interview on her podcast.

Rather than addressing the privacy and safety concerns of the women in KKG, who had each paid $8,000 to live in the sorority house, “Kappa officials recommended that … they should quit Kappa Kappa Gamma entirely.”

In June, the sorority filed a motion to dismiss the suit, calling it a “frivolous” attempt to eject Langford for “their own political purposes.” According to the motion, the women suing were flinging “dehumanizing mud” in order to “bully Ms. Langford on the national stage.” The sorority invited the women to resign their membership “if a position of inclusion is too offensive for their personal values.”

In the motion, lawyers for Kappa Kappa Gamma attempted to depict the suit as an attempt by “a vocal minority” to impose their views on Langford and the rest of the sorority members.

“Perhaps the greatest wrongs in this case are not the ones Plaintiffs and their supporters imagine they have suffered, but the ones that they have inflicted through their conduct since filing the Complaint,” they wrote. “Regardless of personal views on the rights of transgender people, the cruelty that Plaintiffs and their supporters have shown towards Langford and anyone in Kappa who supports Langford is disturbing.”

The recent appeal against the suit’s dismissal, filed on behalf of the young women by Sylvia May Mailman of the Independent Women’s Law Center, the Law Office of John G. Knepper, Schaerr Jaffe LLP, and Cassie Craven of Longhorn Law firm, details several alleged violations of the sorority sisters’ rights, as well as KKG’s own policies.

“The question at the heart of this case is the definition of ‘woman,’ a term that Kappa has used since 1870 to prescribe membership, in Kappa’s governing documents,” the appeal states. “Using any conceivable tool of contractual interpretation, the term refers to biological females. And yet, the district court avoided this inevitable conclusion by applying the wrong law and ignoring the factual assertions in the complaint.”

It goes on to note that from 1870 to 2018, KKG defined “woman” to exclude “transgender women” and that any new definition may not be enacted without a KKG bylaw amendment.

Numerous examples are given of rules put forward by the sorority which use the term “woman,” with the attorneys maintaining that “‘woman’ is not an ambiguous term open to an evolving interpretation.”

KKG leaders who approved Langford’s membership have “subverted Kappa’s mission and governing documents by changing the definition of ‘woman’ without following the required processes.” Kappa President Mary Pat Rooney’s legal team has argued that Langford’s admission into the sorority was based on a 2015 position statement which asserts that KKG “is a single-gender organization comprised of women and individuals who identify as women.”

However, the women’s legal appeal points out that KKG can only change its membership criteria by amending its Bylaws, a process which requires a two-thirds majority approval vote by a Convention of board members. As a Convention to amend Bylaws to reflect the position statement was never held, the appeal states, Langford’s acceptance into KKG is a violation of accepted policies.

KKG leadership is also accused of using “coercive” tactics during the process of voting Langford into the organization in September 2022. After an initial anonymous vote conducted via Google poll failed to result in Langford’s acceptance into the sorority, Chapter leaders developed a second, non-anonymous voting system in which multiple sisters changed their votes because of “fear of reprisal.”

In addition to denying women anonymity, Wyoming chapter officials, after consultation with Kappa’s leadership, had told members that voting against Langford’s admission was evidence of “bigotry” that “is a basis for suspension or expulsion from the Sorority.”

Curiously, prior court documents also reveal that Langford was admitted to KKG despite not even meeting their basic academic eligibility requirements. 

While KKG requires applicants to have a 2.7 Grade Point Average (GPA), Langford only had a 1.9 at the time he submitted his membership request, and was not on a grade probation. The legal complaint notes that this indicates Langford’s application was “evaluated using a different standard.”

In November, two longstanding alumni members of KKG revealed they had been expelled in an apparent retaliation for advocating that membership be restricted to females only. Patsy Levang and Cheryl Tuck-Smith had been members of the sorority for over 50 years, and had contributed to fundraising efforts for the organization.

Despite their long history of supporting KKG, Levang and Tuck-Smith were voted out by the sorority’s national leadership on November 9. Levang had been the past Kappa Kappa Gamma National Foundation President, while Tuck-Smith was an active contributor and organizer.

The women’s removal came after they had been vocally opposed to the admission of Langford to the KKG chapter at the University of Wyoming, and had supported a lawsuit launched by members of that sorority to have him removed.

Since news of the lawsuit first became widely circulated, Langford has received ample sympathetic coverage in mainstream media, with one MSNBC host labeling him “brave and unique.” In a recent profile by the Washington Post, Langford was given a platform to accuse the sorority sisters involved in the suit of lying while being compared to women who had historically been denied the right to a basic education.

#usa #university of wyoming #What is a woman? #Artemis Langford is Dallin #What is with TIMs choosing the names of goddesses? #Kappa Kappa Gamma (KKG) #The case of Westenbroek v. Kappa Kappa Gamma Fraternity #Get Judge Alan Johnson of the bench #Transbian #The court system was offering to protect the creeps identity but not the women involved #The women each paid $8000 to live in the sororiety house #Independent Women’s Law Center #the Law Office of John G. Knepper #Schaerr Jaffe LLP #and Cassie Craven of Longhorn Law firm #from 1870 to 2018 #From 1870 to 2018 KKG defined “woman” to exclude “transgender women” #any new definition may not be enacted without a KKG bylaw amendment #woman is not an ambiguous term open to an evolving interpretation #Convention to amend Bylaws to reflect the position statement was never held #Langford’s acceptance into KKG is a violation of accepted policies. #After an initial anonymous vote conducted via Google poll failed to result in Langford’s acceptance into the sorority #Chapter leaders held a second non-anonymous voting system in which multiple sisters changed their votes because of “fear of reprisal.” #While KKG requires applicants to have a 2.7 Grade Point Average (GPA) #Langford only had a 1.9 at the time he submitted his membership request #and was not on a grade probation. The legal complaint notes that this indicates Langford’s application was “evaluated using a different sta #TIMs claim to be victims but get a lot of perks #Kappa Kappa Gamma (KKG) would rather kick out two women who were active supports of the organization for decades than admit they were wrong

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

Abortions up to six weeks of pregnancy can resume in Texas after a state court blocked an anti-abortion law written before the 1973 US Supreme Court ruling in Roe v. Wade went into effect following the high court’s decision to strike down the constitutional right to abortion care last week.

Abortion rights advocates, providers and civil rights groups filed a lawsuit to block the pre-Roe law, which the state’s Attorney General warned would hold physicians “criminally liable” for providing abortion care.

On 28 June, a judge in Harris County temporarily blocked the century-old anti-abortion law from going into effect. A hearing date is set for 12 July.

Meanwhile, a Tennessee court has allowed that state’s law banning abortions at six weeks of pregnancy – before many people know they are pregnant, or roughly two weeks after a missed period – to go into effect, vacating a two-year-old injunction blocking the law.

Outlawing abortions at six weeks will be “nothing short of devastating,” according to said Melissa Grant, CEO of abortion provider carafem.

“Since the Supreme Court’s decision, we have been flooded with phone calls from patients urgently trying to find out their options and our staff has worked around the clock to serve them,” she said in a statement. “Unfortunately, this latest court decision means many will no longer have any option other than carrying to term against their will or fleeing the state if they need care beyond six weeks in pregnancy, before many even know they’re pregnant.”

A decision to block the Texas law “will allow abortion services to resume at many clinics across the state, connecting Texans to the essential health care they need. Every hour that abortion is accessible in Texas is a victory,” according to a statement from Center for Reproductive Rights senior counsel Marc Hearron.

“It is a relief that this Texas state court acted so quickly to block this deeply harmful abortion ban,” he said.

The Supreme Court’s ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization overruled Roe and its affirming decision in 1992’s Planned Parenthood v. Casey, ending a half century of constitutional protections for abortion.

The landmark decision handed the issue of abortion laws to states, rather than granting Americans the right to abortion care, and ignited a wave of legal challenges as several state-level laws that outlaw nearly all abortions went into effect.

Judges in Utah and Louisiana have also temporarily blocked anti-abortion “trigger” laws in those states. Lawsuits have been filed in Idaho, Mississippi and Kentucky seeking similar relief.

Amy Hagstrom Miller, president and CEO of abortion Whole Woman’s Health and Whole Women’s Health Alliance, which provides abortion care in Texas, said in a statement announcing the lawsuit that the impact of the Supreme Court’s ruling in Dobbs and the reinstatement of the state’s anti-abortion law “will be felt for generations” if they withstand legal challenges.

“We know this because we have been on the frontlines of the battle for abortion rights and access for years,” she said. “Pregnant people deserve better. Families deserve better. ... It is why we will persist unrelentingly in our mission to deliver the compassion, empathy, support, and care that the politicians responsible for this nightmarish situation have made clear they will not.”

Dr. Alan Braid, an abortion provider at Alamo Women’s Reproductive Services, said he plans to provide abortions “for as long as I legally can” while Texas law is blocked.

“Abortion is a standard and necessary part of maternal health care,” he said in a statement. “Nobody should be forced to travel across state lines for basic, time-sensitive health care. It is devastating that this will be the reality in many states, including Texas.”

#us politics #news #the independent #2022 #us supreme court #scotus #roe v. wade #planned parenthood v. casey #dobbs v. jackson women’s health organization #abortions #abortion bans #texas #tennessee #trigger laws #carafem #Melissa Grant #Center for Reproductive Rights #Marc Hearron #utah #Louisiana #kentucky #Amy Hagstrom Miller #Whole Woman’s Health #Whole Women’s Health Alliance #reproductive rights #reproductive health #Dr. Alan Braid #Alamo Women’s Reproductive Services

[broadsandbroadswords]

BROADS AND BROADSWORDS VOLUME 2 PREORDERS ARE NOW OPEN!

Broads and Broadswords is a celebration of varied women, varied genders, and the swords and blades that love them. This zine collects more than 75 pages of original colour illustrations and comics from 50+ independent artists in a perfect bound book, available in both digital and print format.

Pricing:

Digital Copy: $9 USD

Physical Copy (includes digital): $22 USD

Physical Copy (includes digital) + damaged* copy of Volume 1: $24 USD

Physical Copy (includes digital) + undamaged* copy of Volume 1: $30 USD

*Damaged Volume 1 copies are available as a one-time offer due to an issue with the bindings during the Volume 1 printing.  A small number of undamaged Volume 1 copies are available as a one-time offer due to an excess of undamaged Volume 1 copies remaining in stock after the Volume 1 reprint.  You will NOT receive a digital copy of Volume 1.

Shipping:

United States: $5 USD for the first physical copy plus $2 for each additional physical copy purchased

International: $20 USD for the first physical copy plus $5 for each additional physical copy purchased

By reblogging this post you are also a part of our GIVEAWAY! Two winners will be drawn at the end of the pre-order period and one winner will receive a free copy of the Volume 2 digital zine, the other will receive a free copy of the Volume 2 physical zine. (If you win the giveaway but already purchased the zine, you will be refunded in full.) You can only reblog once a day, but the more reblogs, the better your odds, so keep at it!

Broads and Broadswords is a charity zine, and proceeds will go to the Transgender Law Center.

#broads and broadswords #broads and broadswords zine #lgbt zines #art zine #zines #armor #zine #art zines #nobinary zine #lgbtq #fantasy art #queer zines #broadswords #digital art #queer zine #women with swords #paladins #swords #fantasy zine #wlw zine #lgbt zine #sapphic #wlw zines #illustration #digital illustration #charity zine #lgbt #lgbtq zine #girls with swords #arms and armor

[fandomtrumpshate]

FTH 2024: Supported Nonprofit Organizations

Here are the nonprofit organizations that will be supported by this year's FTH auction. Many of these orgs will be familiar from last year's list, but we've cycled in some new groups as well. In particular, because it's a major election year in the US, we've brought in (or brought back) organations focusing on voter enfranchisement.

If you are a FTH creator and you want to ask your bidders to support an organization that’s not on the list, please read our policy on outside organizations here.

Bellingcat *

Bellingcat is an independent investigative collective of researchers, investigators and citizen journalists brought together by a passion for open source research in the public interest.

Civil Rights Education and Enforcement Center *

The Civil Rights Education and Enforcement Center (CREEC) is a nonprofit legal organization that fights for liberation and equity through the lens of intersectional disability justice.

In Our Own Voice: National Black Women’s Reproductive Justice Agenda *

A national-state partnership focused on lifting up the voices of Black women leaders at the national and regional levels in our fight to secure Reproductive Justice for all women, girls, and gender-expansive individuals, NBWRJA delivers proactive advocacy and policy solutions to address issues at the intersections of race, gender, class, sexual orientation and gender identity.

Life After Hate

LAH provides support to people leaving hate groups, and providing pluralism education and training to vulnerable young people.

Middle East Children's Alliance *

MECA is a nonprofit organization working for the rights and the well-being of children in the Middle East. They collect funds in order to provide direct aid, financial support for community projects, water purification systems, and university scholarships, and also create educational and cultural programs in the US and internationally to increase cultural understanding.

National Network to End Domestic Violence *

NNEDV offers a range of programs and initiatives to address the complex causes and far-reaching consequences of domestic violence.

Never Again Action *

A Jewish-led mobilization against the persecution, detention, and deportation of immigrants in the United States, NAA takes on campaigns against detention centers and ICE training programs, and organizes mutual aid and deportation defense.

Razom *

Razom initiates short and long-term projects, or collaborates on existing projects with partner organizations, which help Ukraine stay on the path of fostering democracy and prosperity

Sherlock’s Homes Foundation *

SHF provides housing, employment opportunities, and a loving support system for homeless LGBTQ+ young adults so that they can live fearlessly as their authentic selves. Within these homes, young adults learn about responsibility, accountability, financial independence, life skills, and how to love themselves

Spread the Vote

STV helps eligible voters make their voices heard through voter education, supporting voters through the process of getting necessary ID, and advocating against voter suppression laws.

Violence Policy Center *

VPC works to stop gun death and injury through research, education, advocacy, and collaboration; exposes the profit-driven marketing and lobbying activities of the firearms industry and gun lobby, and offers unique technical expertise to policymakers, organizations, and advocates.

VoteRiders

VR works to help all citizens exercise their right to vote. It informs and helps citizens to secure their voter ID as well as inspires and supports organizations, local volunteers, and communities to sustain voter ID education and assistance efforts.

Umbrella: Environmental orgs

For the past four years, FTH has supported one “umbrella” cause: we invite participants to donate to their own local grassroots organization, while also suggesting a handful of exemplary organizations working in communities where the need is especially acute. This year our umbrella category is environmental organizations.

Pollinator Partnership *

Deploy/Us *

Together Bay Area

Wildlands Restoration Volunteers

Coral Restoration Foundation *

++

Organizations marked with an asterisk (*) allow for international donations directly through their websites. The orgs without asterisks may take international donations through a paypal or venmo account. If you are a non-US-based bidder/donor and you are having trouble finding an organization to which you can donate, please email us directly at fandomtrumpshate @ gmail . com.

#fandom trumps hate #fth 2024 #supported organizations #fanworks auction #charity auction

[evilautisticsociety]

Making a master list for all the great Hopepunk Solarpunk posts ive seen (IT UPDATES!!)

you don’t have to read all of this! you can scroll and find ones that interest you, id bold the ones that i want you to see but then all the links would be bold lmao

giving this to my future self

recipes under 45 minutes, 5 or less ingredients

What is conformity?

What is Solarpunk? (reddit masterpost)

Hattie Carthan- A 60 year old black women who paved the way (website)

Rules of Guerrilla Gardening (youtube)

When to do Guerrilla Gardening (and when not to

Easy way to do Guerrila Gardening (no seed bombs needed) (youtube)

Hope is not mindless optimism

Solar punks are against a shitty future

Deeeefinitely don’t look at the native plants and plant them alongside sidewalks to make the world greener and prettier

How to really make a difference

It is the cohabitation that makes all things beautiful.

Buy Nothing group; becoming a community

Fixing clothes- how to do it

Know your local communities

What if we stop an apocalypse?

Individual action into collective action

Wallgardens- More accessible and less space needed

Gardening for a climate resistance

Social Ecology

Actual solarpunk vs misconception

How to help with little energy/effort

An actual ecovillage!!

Attracting native birds

Amazing Ecovillage (tiktok vid)

Reconstructed Railway Bridge (tiktok vid)

What is Solarpunk? (youtube(

How can we make Solarpunk a reality? (youtube)

A cool guerrilla gardening group (youtube)

How radical gardeners took back centeral city (yourube)

Trees bring rain

Minimalism vs Solarpunk

The first guerrilla gardener (website)

More about Hattie Carthan (website)

Project of homes for homeless

Recommended youruber for Solarpunk

The problem with individualism

California has passed a food law! (Website)

How to be a Druid

How to make Biomass sustainable again

Indigenous Climate Plan!!! (Website)

What is Solarpunk? (website)

Permaculture

Conventional vs Unconventional Permaculture

Independent Gardening is NOT Inaccessible!

Role of Poor Soil

Example of a Guerilla Gardening Community

Seed Companies

How to Start a Garden (for FREE!!)

Affective Mousetrap (no rat poison needed)

How to get started with a new climate project (Instagram)

A district in Japan which works together with fish

How to start medicinal garden

Solar panels work

Ideas to improve bus stop

Kinetic energy power sources

Solar farms

Solarpunk Poetry

Food map :0 (where wild fruit/owned fruit trees are)

How to choose hope

How to turn your neighbourhood into a village

Creating a liberating society this sets off my warning sirens but idk look into it

Creating a Solarpunk city

Ableism, Cottagecire, and Solarpunk

Increasing soil capacity for water

Sourdough Recipe :3

Anarchists Calisthetics (anarcht every day!)

Guerilla gardening tutorial

#hopepunk #solarpunk #i will sow each seed by hand to make rhis my future #permaculture

[blackpilljesus]

Personally, I think a bigger obstacle to overcome when it comes to moids isn't the physical but the social. Many believe that physical strength is the problem for women and while I wont discount it; it's not the main problem imo. It's possible to take down much bigger people/things with the right mind + tools; it's why humans are on top of the animal kingdom despite being below average in speed/height/strength compared to other species. Weapons like tranquillisers & guns were created to kill much bigger animals; vehicles were created to travel at faster speeds than we can cover with our legs. Things like this allowed humans to architect the world around us.

Women have been able to take down moids despite them being physically stronger - women poisoned & shot moids fatally. Before puberty for maIes sets in, many young girls are able to physically defend themselves from moidlets in a similar age range however this brings social issues. Regardless of self defense laws in many countries women get punished for fighting back. Many women are in prison or have been charged for fighting back against their abusive partners while the law turns a blind eye at maIe abusers. Women receive longer sentences on average for killing in self defense than moids do for killing women in cold blood. Women are told to go through the legal system which only delays the inevitable of the moid taking her life cause the system is useless. Women are set up to fail and society is set up to habour moid evil.

There's a place called Longyearbyen near the north pole. It doesn't have typical day/night cycles, has one main shopping center, and people aren't allowed to die there bc it's so cold there's risk of infection as the bodies don't decompose, oh and they live among bears. All the citizens must be trained with guns so they can shoot a bear if it ever poses a threat. Now despite bears being much bigger & stronger than humans, humans are able to be near them and build lives independently bc they're able to take down bears* that are a threat. In any reasonable non maIeworshipping society that still kept xys around a similar thing could be done; for women to be armed to shoot moids when they pose a threat so they can at least walk around with a peace of mind. Because it's not just a thing of biology or socialisation when it comes to moid degeneracy, many of them abuse women because they know they wont face consequences for their actions as society paves the way for them to abuse women. In a nigerian state state the government were offering gun licenses to people so they can defend themselves from bandits (no victim blaming, no telling the citizens to 'pick better', etc because the system doesn't benefit from bandits as it does from maIe violence).

In the 1900s when women successfully used hatpins to fend off moids that wanted to sexually assault them, they got regulated, hatpins had to have protection & could only be a certain length. So not only is it not a fair fight physically but socially. Many women who've been trafficked get imprisoned for fighting & killing their captors. You dont see moids who are killed or harmed by women defending themselves get blamed for it for initiating attacks but women get blamed for being on the end of moid degeneracy. It's more difficult to fight the social differences because as humans we're social creatures typically bound to the laws + cultural views of the land even when women defend themselves they're seen as extremists or the abusers themselves which brings being ostracised + further abuse. Mixed sex societies are practically open air prisons women are held hostage in.

*Given that bears are a hot topic lately, imagine humans forced to live around bears defenselessly bc the bears benefitted from it. Imagine after numerous bear attacks that humans are still expected to be around bears (with no protection) & are just told to find good ones to trust even though they all have the capacity for their violence. Imagine people getting into politics over which bears are worse or more vulnerable (black, brown, white) meanwhile they're all dangerous as a whole. Imagine a chance that humans had to fight back against a bear attack & win yet they get punished by other bears for doing so but nothing happens if it's the other way around. I can go on but it starts to come together how fucked & a set up to fail mixed sex societies are for women & before anyone tells me "but bears aren't human!1!" for the past month most women have said they'd rather be with bears than moids in the forest.

#Under male supremacy women are set up to fail. #blackpill feminist #blackpill feminism #female separatist #female separatism #Society with moids will never work in womens favour moids benefit too much from womens suffering

[mariacallous]

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court of the United States will hear oral arguments in a challenge to abortion pill access across the country, including in states where abortion is legal. The stakes for abortion rights are sky-high, and the case is the most consequential battle over reproductive health care access since Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022.

At the center of this fight is mifepristone, a pill that blocks a hormone needed for pregnancy. The drug has been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration for more than two decades, and it’s used to treat some patients with Cushing’s syndrome, as well as endometriosis and uterine fibroids. But its primary use is the one contested now—mifepristone is the first of two pills taken in the first 10 weeks of pregnancy for a standard medication abortion, along with the drug misoprostol.

If the justices side with the antiabortion activists seeking to limit access to mifepristone, it could upend nationwide access to the most common form of abortion care. A ruling that invalidates mifepristone’s approval would open the door for any judge to reverse the FDA approval of any drug, especially ones sometimes seen as controversial, such as HIV drugs and hormonal birth control. It could also have a chilling effect on the development of new drugs, making companies wary of investing research into medicines that could later be pulled from the market.

Pills are now the leading abortion method in the US, and their popularity has spiked in recent years. More than six in 10 abortions in 2023 were carried out via medication, according to new data from the Guttmacher Institute. Since rules around telehealth were relaxed during the Covid-19 pandemic, many patients seeking medication abortions have relied on virtual clinics, which send abortion pills by mail. And it keeps getting more popular: Hey Jane, a prominent telemedicine provider, saw demand increase 73 percent from 2022 to 2023. It recorded another 28 percent spike comparing data from January 2023 to January 2024.

“Telemedicine abortion is too effective to not be in the targets of antiabortion folks,” says Julie F. Kay, a longtime reproductive rights lawyer and director of the advocacy group Abortion Coalition for Telemedicine.

Tomorrow’s argument comes after a long, tangled series of legal disputes in lower courts. The Supreme Court will be hearing two cases consolidated together, including FDA v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine, in which a coalition of antiabortion activists filed a suit challenging the FDA’s approval of mifepristone, asking for it to be removed from the market. The Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine is represented by the Alliance Defending Freedom, a right-wing Christian law firm that often takes politically charged cases.

Despite decades of scientific consensus on the drug’s safety record, the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine has alleged that mifepristone is dangerous to women and leads to emergency room visits. A 2021 study cited by the plaintiffs to back up their claims was retracted in February after an independent review found that its authors came to inaccurate conclusions.

In April 2023, the Trump-appointed judge Matthew Kacsmaryk of the Northern District of Texas issued a preliminary ruling on the FDA case invalidating the agency’s approval of mifepristone. The ruling sent shock waves far beyond the reproductive-rights world, as it had major implications for the entire pharmaceutical industry, as well as the FDA itself; the ruling suggested that the courts could revoke a drug’s approval even after decades on the market.

The US 5th Circuit Court of Appeals narrowed Kacsmaryk’s decision a week later, allowing the drug to remain on the market, but undid FDA decisions in recent years that made mifepristone easier to prescribe and obtain. That decision limited the time frame in which it can be taken to the first seven weeks of pregnancy and put telemedicine access, as well as access to the generic version of the drug in jeopardy.

Following the 5th Circuit ruling, the FDA and Danco Laboratories sought emergency relief from the Supreme Court, asking the justices to preserve access until it could hear the case. In its legal filing, Danco aptly described the situation as “regulatory chaos.”

SCOTUS issued a temporary stay, maintaining the status quo; the court ultimately decided to take up the case in December 2023.

As all this was unfolding, pro-abortion-rights states across the country were passing what are known as shield laws, which protect medical practitioners who offer abortion care to pregnant patients in states where abortion is banned. This has allowed some providers, including the longtime medication-abortion-advocacy group Aid Access, to mail abortion pills to people who requested them in states like Louisiana and Arkansas.

Though the oral arguments before the Supreme Court begin on Tuesday, it will likely be months before a ruling. Court watchers suspect a decision may be handed down in June. With the US presidential election in the fall, the ruling may become a major campaign issue, especially as abortion access helped galvanize voters in the 2022 midterms.

If the Supreme Court agrees with the plaintiffs that mifepristone should be taken off the market, some in the pharmaceutical industry worry that it will undermine the authority of the FDA, the agency tasked with reviewing and approving drugs based on their safety and efficacy.

“This case isn't about mifepristone,” says Elizabeth Jeffords, CEO of Iolyx Therapeutics, a company developing drugs for immune and eye diseases. Jeffords is a signatory on an amicus brief filed in April 2023 that brought together 350 pharmaceutical companies, executives, and investors to challenge the Texas district court’s ruling.

“This case could have easily been about minoxidil for hair loss. It could have been about Mylotarg for cancer. It could have been about measles vaccines,” Jeffords says. “This is about whether or not the FDA is allowed to be the scientific arbiter of what is good and safe for patients.”

Greer Donley, an associate professor of law at the University of Pittsburgh and an expert on abortion on the law, doesn’t think it’s likely that the court will revoke mifepristone’s approval entirely. Instead, she sees two possible outcomes. The Supreme Court could dismiss the case or could undo the FDA’s decision in 2023 to permanently remove the in-person dispensing requirement and allow abortion by telehealth. “This would be an even more narrow decision than what the 5th Circuit did, but it would still be pretty devastating to abortion access,” she says.

The Supreme Court could also decide that the plaintiffs lack a right to bring the case to court, says David Cohen, a professor of law at Drexel University whose expertise is in constitutional law and gender issues. “This case could get kicked out on standing, meaning that the plaintiffs aren't the right people to bring this case,” he says. “If most of the questions are about standing, that will give you a sense that that's what the justices are concerned about.”

As the current Supreme Court is considered virulently antiabortion, reproductive-health-care workers are already preparing for the worst. Some telehealth providers have already floated a backup plan: offering misoprostol-only medication abortions. This is less than ideal, as the combination of pills is the current standard of care and offers the best results; misoprostol on its own can cause additional cramping and nausea. For some providers who may have to choose between misoprostol-only or nothing, it’s better than nothing.

Abortion-rights activists have no plans to give up on telehealth abortions, regardless of the outcome of this particular case. “Let us be clear, Hey Jane will not stop delivering telemedicine abortion care, regardless of the outcome of this case,” says Hey Jane’s CEO and cofounder, Kiki Freedman.

“They’re not going to stuff the genie back in the bottle,” Kay says.

[probablyasocialecologist]

Although research shows that children are not harmed by quality center-based child care, and may even enjoy greater cognitive, linguistic, and socioemotional development than children cared for at home, American conservatives hate the idea of child care because it also challenges male authority in the family. One op-ed contributor for Fox News sees universal child care as part of an evil plot, arguing “totalitarian governments have gone to great lengths to indoctrinate children, and the biggest obstacles they faced was parents who contradicted what the government was telling their kids.” In this view, everything that state socialist countries did to support women —increasing labor force participation, liberalizing divorce laws, creating kindergartens and crèches, and supporting women’s economic independence—was aimed as brainwashing children. Even public schools served the primary purpose of indoctrination.

Kristen Ghodsee, Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism  

#Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism #childcare #children #conservatism

[she-is-ovarit]

https://www.reddit.com/r/BlatantMisogyny/s/8Td03lV5Rl

What do you think about the screenshot in this reddit post? Really grinded my gears, ngl. (like I know it's misogynistic, just curious if you're able to debunk it or something)

"—this is a delusion [women living independently from men] that stems from being in a highly advanced society where all of your needs are being met by strangers". He goes on to say these strangers are mostly men.

Living independent from men is a privilege in many ways. Our sisters in Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, etc. are forced to live their lives under the presence and command of a male guardian. Living dependently in men isn't nature, nor is it because we're unable. There are cultures in societies in which women live mostly separately from men and take care of each other. It used to be more this way further back in history. Men are the reason as to why women are unable to live independently—whether it's because of coercive control in Western nations, misogyny enshrined in law, or the threat of losing our lives because men are more prone to violence and committing femicide.

His next line on, "If society collapses and there weren't any men who'd fix the infrastructure and open jars?"...

Women would? Does he know that many of us love alone and single, or raising children as single mothers, work as electricians and engineers, live as lesbian separatists? And you can easily open a jar by running it under hot water for awhile first. Heat shrinks, cold expands, and the reason why jars tighten is because as it cooled it expanded tightly against the lid.

His next remark on if women were to disappear society wouldn't notice since we only fill front facing positions and "the humanities". Having had done both, women's jobs are thoroughly more difficult and detailed than male-dominated fields. I'm reminded by the young woman who published that TikTok while drawing or painting her nails describing how she worked several jobs in the trades and men do the easiest jobs—anyone can figure it out. Regarding his comments on reproduction, women could rely on sperm banks whereas men would completely die out very quickly.

Labor intensive jobs are done by women, too. There's a limit to man's physical strength. They use technology to get around this or simply find ways to lift less. Women would do the same, maybe even more efficiently considering we have a better center of gravity. What prevents women from going into jobs that would "dirty our hands" is because we don't want to work around a bunch of insufferable, testosterone piqued males.

#asks #reddit #misogyny

[haggishlyhagging]

“With the consolidation of private property and the father-family, not only the matriarchy but the fratriarchy fell in ruins. The mothers' brothers, abandoning their sisters, became the fathers of their own families and the owners of their own property. This left women with no male allies; they were completely at the mercy of the new social forces unleashed by property-based patriarchal society.

How women felt about this can be gleaned from a passage in the Arabian Kamil, cited by Robertson Smith. He calls it "a very instructive passage as to the position of married women."

"Never let sister praise brother of hers; never let daughter bewail a father's death;

For they have brought her where she is no longer a free woman, and they have banished her to the farthest ends of the earth."

(Kinship and Marriage in Early Arabia, p. 94, emphasis in the original)

In reality women were not banished to the ends of the earth; they were on the contrary cloistered in the private households of their husbands, to serve their needs and bear their legal sons. But to women who were once so free and independent this must indeed have seemed like the end of the world.

With the advent of slavery, which marks the first stage of civilized class society, the degradation of women was completed. Formerly exchanged for cattle, they were now reduced to the chatteldom of domestic servitude and procreative functions. The Roman jurists’ definition of the term "family" is a clear expression of this:

Famulus means a household slave and familia signifies the totality of slaves belonging to one individual. Even in the time of Gaius the familia, id est patrimonium (that is, the inheritance) was bequeathed by will. The expression was invented by the Romans to describe a new social organism, the head of which had under him wife and children and a number of slaves, under Roman paternal power, with power of life and death over them all. (Origin of the Family, Private Property, and the State, p. 68)

The downfall of women brought about a sharp reversal in their "value" as wives. In place of the bride price, the payment made by a husband to secure a wife, we now come upon the dowry. "The Athenians," says Briffault, "offered a dowry as an inducement for men to marry their daughters, and the whole transaction of Greek marriage centered around that dowry" (The Mothers, vol. II, p. 337).

Tylor, one of the few anthropologists to notice this reversal, found it an "interesting problem in the history of law" to account for this curious transposition of bride price into dowry (Anthropology, p. 248). But the law was merely a reflection of the new social reality. Once women lost their place in productive, social, and cultural life, their worth sank along with their former esteem. Where formerly the man paid the price for a valuable wife, now the dependent wife paid the price to secure a husband and provider.

How women felt about this humiliation heaped upon degradation is recorded in Euripides' drama, where Medea mourns:

"Ay, of all living and of all reasoning things

Are women the most miserable race;

Who first must needs buy a husband at great price,

To take him then for owner of our lives."

Even this was not all. After reducing women to economic dependency and to merely procreative functions, the men of early civilized society declared that women were only incidental even in childbearing. No sooner was the paternal line of descent fixed by law than men began to claim that the father alone created the child. According to Briffault, Greek thinkers in the classical period viewed the mother's womb as "but a suitable receptacle"—a bag—for the child; the mother was subsequently its nurse, but "the father was, strictly speaking, the sole progenitor" (The Mothers, vol. I, p. 405). Lippert writes that, while "no historian has turned his attention" to this subject, the evidence shows that matrilineal descent gave way to "the opposite extreme," which he describes this way:

She who for untold thousands of years had been the pillar of the history of young mankind now became a weak vessel devoid of a will of her own. No longer did she manage her husband's household; these services were forgotten in a slave state. She was merely an apparatus, not as yet replaced by another invention, for the propagation of the race, a receptacle for the homunculus. (Evolution of Culture, pp. 355, 358)

This idea that men alone created children indicates that even at this late date, the beginning of civilization, men were still ignorant of the facts about reproduction. Whatever vague speculations they engaged in on the subject, genetic fatherhood had played no part in the victory of the father-family and patriarchal power. Men had won on the basis of their private ownership of property. It was not biology but the Roman law that laid down the dictum patria potestas—"all power to the father." And, as Briffault's description shows, property was the father of this patriarchal legality.

The patriarchal principle, the legal provision by which the man transmits his property to his son, was evidently an innovation of the "patricians," that is, of the partisans of the patriarchal order, the wealthy, the owners of property. They disintegrated the primitive mother-clan by forming patriarchal families, which they "led out of" the clan - "familiam ducere." The patricians set up the paternal rule of descent, and regarded the father, and not the mother, as the basis of kinship -"patres ciere possunt." (The Mothers, vol. I, p. 428)”

-Evelyn Reed, Woman’s Evolution: From Matriarchal Clan to Patriarchal Family

#evelyn reed #patriarchy #women as property #human history #female oppression #male entitlement #history of fathers

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Ansev Demirhan at Ms. Magazine:

The anti-feminist Independent Women’s Voice/Forum (IWF/V) has officially launched its 2024 election agenda. An internal fundraising document provided to True North Research shows one way it is putting that agenda into action is by continuing to try and blunt the horrific repercussions of the Supreme Court overturning Roe, while deploying their veneer of independence to sway centrist and independent voters.  The document details a two-phase plan and a budget that is almost twice the amount it proposed in its 2022 midterm fundraising documents, as reported by The Washington Post. Despite claiming to take no position on abortion, IWF/V launched a PR campaign ahead of the 2022 midterms—the first election cycle following the Dobbs decision—which included advertising trying to convince younger women that reproductive rights were less important than other issues the group listed. 

One way IWF/V’s agenda for this election cycle stands out from its previous midterm action plan is its emphasis on reassuring women that access to contraception is not in jeopardy—despite key voices in the anti-abortion movement making it clear otherwise. The group is a member of Project 2025, a MAGA blueprint that includes detailed plans to attack contraception access, promote the rhythm method, deploy the CDC to increase “abortion surveillance” and data collection and much more.  IWF/V also has a long history of undermining contraception access, though the group has a talking point about supporting over-the-counter availability of the contraception pill.

IWF/V’s “Hope Agenda”

Independent Women’s Forum (IWF), a 501(c)(3), and its 501(c)(4) the Independent Women’s Voice (IWV), are pay-to-play groups that use their “independent” branding to laud right-wing politicians along with the legislative wish lists of some for-profit corporations, such as Juul. Based on its most recent tax filings, the groups reported a combined $8.1 million in revenue. IWF/V has received money from the Koch network, Leonard Leo’s network and funds from secretive donor-advised funds, like the Bradley Impact Fund, the National Christian Charitable Foundation and DonorsTrust. 

[...]

But Americans are intimately familiar with the political reality of abortion access in this country. 

The majority of states have abortion restrictions or bans in place that make it difficult for pregnant Americans to receive essential healthcare. 

The U.S. Supreme Court continues to be deployed as a tool to potentially limit abortion access nationally (in the mifepristone and EMTALA cases). 

Over 64,000 unwanted pregnancies have been caused by rape in states with total abortion bans that were implemented post-Roe. 

Abortions increased in 2023, the first full calendar year following the Dobbs decision, because people continue to need and seek abortions despite the fractured abortion healthcare landscape unleashed by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Americans are also faced with the political reality that the anti-abortion movement is coming for contraception. That is one reason why IWF/V honing in on messaging around birth control access as something that is safeguarded and supported by the GOP is so troubling. The group itself has a history of opposing contraception access. 

[...]

Anti-trans messaging is also central to IWF/V’s plan to ‘get out the vote’ in 2024, according to its “Hope Agenda.” IWF also attacked the Right to Contraception Act, using anti-trans scaremongering to falsely suggest that this legislation would “require doctors to sterilize minors.” This is not the only anti-trans tactic the group has used to detract from the devastating impact of the overturn of Roe.  IWF/V is also behind the anti-trans “model” bill the “Women’s Bill of Rights,” which enumerates no rights other than the right to discriminate against transgender people, especially transgender women. This model bill has ostensibly been used by so-called conservative or independent policymakers and groups that allegedly care more about American women, but IWF/V itself has repeatedly attacked pro-woman policies. IWF/V has opposed the Equal Rights Amendment,  federal paid leave, federally subsidized child care, the Violence Against Women Act and Title IX—though it recently backed a watered-down version of VAWA and for decades it sided with men’s sports teams against Title IX spending on women’s sports until it deployed anti-trans messaging about women’s sports.

Ms. Magazine exposes the right-wing Koch/Leonard Leo-funded antifeminist group Independent Women's Forum and their sister groups Independent Women's Voice and Independent Women’s Law Center. These groups claim to be pro-women, but in reality, the policies they support-- such as anti-trans "Women's Bill of Rights" and attacks on abortion access, contraception, and in vitro fertilization-- are harmful to women.

#Antifeminism #Women #Independent Women's Voice #Independent Women’s Law Center #Independent Women's Forum #Contraception #Project 2025 #Abortion #Koch Brothers #Leonard Leo #DonorsTrust #Emma Waters #Kellyanne Conway #Women's Bill Of Rights #Anti Trans Extremism #Marble Freedom Trust #Barre Seid #Comstock Act

[coochiequeens]

Julian Borger in WashingtonThu 22 Feb 2024 14.12 EST

UN experts say they have seen “credible allegations” that Palestinian women and girls have been subjected to sexual assaults, including rape, while in Israeli detention, and are calling for a full investigation.

The panel of experts said there was evidence of a least two cases of rape, alongside other cases of sexual humiliation and threats of rape. Reem Alsalem, the UN special rapporteur on violence against women and girls, said the true extent of sexual violence could be significantly higher.

“We might not know for a long time what the actual number of victims are,” said Alsalem, who was appointed special rapporteur by the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in 2021.

She noted that reticence in reporting sexual assault was common because of the fear of reprisals against victims. She said that in a wave of detentions of Palestinian women and girls after the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war on 7 October, there was an increasingly permissive attitude towards sexual assault in Israeli detention centres.

“I would say that, on the whole, violence and dehumanisation of Palestinian women and children and civilians has been normalised throughout this war,” Alsalem said.

There was evidence of widespread sexual violence by Hamas against Israeli women and girls during the 7 October raid in southern Israel. The Association of Rape Crisis Centers in Israel has reported that the use of rape and other abuse by the Hamas attackers was “systematic and intentional”. Those assaults, which were also condemned by Alsalem and the other UN experts, are to be the subject of a report by the UN secretary general’s special envoy on sexual violence, Pramila Patten.

Alsalem said she did not know whether Patten’s report would cover the allegations of rape and sexual assault of Palestinians women and girls, but that she was hoping to discuss the issue with her.

The Israeli government has rejected the allegations of sexual violence against Palestinians as “despicable and unfounded claims”.

The US state department spokesperson, Matthew Miller, said the administration was aware of the allegations and had asked the Israeli authorities to investigate.

“I cannot independently confirm the reports,” Miller said. “I will say that we have been clear that civilians and detained individuals must be treated humanely and in accordance with international humanitarian law. We strongly urge Israel to thoroughly and transparently investigate credible allegations and ensure any accountability for abuses and violations, and that will continue to be our position.”

In their report, delivered on Monday, the UN experts said: “We are particularly distressed by reports that Palestinian women and girls in detention have also been subjected to multiple forms of sexual assault, such as being stripped naked and searched by male Israeli army officers. At least two female Palestinian detainees were reportedly raped while others were reportedly threatened with rape and sexual violence.”

The independent experts, who have been appointed by the UNHRC but do not represent the UN, reported that degrading photos of female Palestinian detainees, reportedly taken by Israeli soldiers, had been uploaded to the internet.

The experts said women and girls had not been spared in the widespread killing of Palestinian civilians. With the estimated death toll in Gaza now close to 30,000, the experts pointed to reports of women and girls being arbitrarily killed in Gaza, often with family members.

“We are shocked by reports of the deliberate targeting and extrajudicial killing of Palestinian women and children in places where they sought refuge, or while fleeing,” the experts said in a joint statement. “Some of them were reportedly holding white pieces of cloth when they were killed by the Israeli army or affiliated forces.”

#UN #palestine #Rape in War #War Crimes against women and girls #UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) #Pray for Palestine

[heathers-letters]

May 16, 2024

"Despite his own lack of personal virtue, Trump was willing to smash through the laws and court decisions that had supported equality since the 1950s, offering to center the country on traditional religion and racial hierarchies in exchange for power. Under him, traditionalists saw the courts stacked with extremists who would prioritize their evangelical faith across society, including by ending the federal protection of abortion rights."

"Today, almost exactly seventy years to the day after Brown v. Board ushered in a new era of equality and democracy in the United States, MAGA Republican lawmakers Andy Biggs (R-AZ), Lauren Boebert (R-CO), Michael Cloud (R-TX), Eli Crane (R-AZ), Matt Gaetz (R-FL), Bob Good (R-VA), Diana Harshbarger (R-TN), Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL), Ralph Norman (R-SC), and Andy Ogles (R-TN) traveled to Manhattan to stand with Trump at his criminal trial for falsifying business records to interfere in an election. The lawmakers made it clear that their determination to control the country has made them give up not only on the equality promised in the Declaration of Independence and defended by the Fourteenth Amendment, but also on democracy.

Echoing the promise of the right-wing Proud Boys to Trump before they stormed the U.S. Capitol to install Trump into office despite the will of the voters, Gaetz tweeted: “Standing back and standing by, Mr. President.""

Highlights from Heather Cox Richardson's Letters from an American. Full newsletter under the cut.

Seventy years ago, on May 17, 1954, the Supreme Court decided Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas. That landmark decision declared racial segregation in public schools unconstitutional. 

Brown v. Board was a turning point in American history.

It established that the U.S. government would, once and for all, use the Fourteenth Amendment to protect American citizens from discriminatory legislation written by state legislatures. 

Added to the Constitution in 1868, in the wake of the Civil War, as southern state legislatures were writing laws that made Black Americans subservient to white Americans, the Fourteenth Amendment asserted that the federal government could, and must, stop such discrimination. It established that “No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” It gave Congress the power to enforce the amendment.

In the late nineteenth century, the Supreme Court nodded to racial segregation in the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson decision, getting around the Fourteenth Amendment by asserting that separate accommodations were fine, so long as they were “equal.” But in 1954 a unanimous court under Chief Justice Earl Warren, who had previously been the Republican governor of California, ruled that racial segregation established by state law in public schools denied to Black children the equal protection of the laws guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment. 

“Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal,” it wrote. 

Just two weeks before it decided Brown v. Board, the Supreme Court had decided Hernandez v. Texas, which established that not only Black Americans, but also Mexican Americans and all other nationality groups, were entitled to equal protection under the Fourteenth Amendment. 

Over the following decades, the Supreme Court used the Fourteenth Amendment to strike down state laws against interracial marriage and gay marriage, and to establish equal rights for women, including the right to abortion. It also ruled the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibited discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin, constitutional.

That new legal framework, embodied in Brown v. Board, both established the equal rights that were central to the modern era and sparked a backlash against them. 

The federal requirement that states desegregate their public schools spurred southern state legislatures to pass laws and resolutions to block or postpone desegregation. In 1956, ninety-nine congressmen, led by South Carolina Democrat Strom Thurmond, wrote the “Declaration of Constitutional Principles,” quickly dubbed the Southern Manifesto, denouncing desegregation as unconstitutional. 

Lawmakers also found ways to transfer tax dollars to private schools, which were not covered by the Supreme Court’s decision. Attendance at so-called segregation academies exploded. By 1958, more than 250,000 students had migrated to segregation academies, a number that jumped to a million by 1965.

Those opposed to racial equality made common cause with those businessmen determined to get rid of federal regulation of business. In 1955, William F. Buckley Jr., the son of an oilman, started National Review, a periodical that promised to stand against an active government that protected labor and regulated business. Buckley said he would tell the “violated businessman’s side of the story.” 

In National Review, Buckley gave Virginia newspaper editor James Kilpatrick a platform to assure readers that desegregation challenged American values. Black Americans had no right to the equality declared unanimously by the Supreme Court, Kilpatrick wrote. Rather, the white community had an established right “to peace and tranquillity [sic]; the right to freedom from tumult and lawlessness.” Desegregation would lead to bloody violence, he promised, implying that Black Americans would rage and riot, although, in fact, it was the white community that was attacking Black Americans.

In 1964, Arizona senator Barry Goldwater brought these two themes to his presidential campaign. He stood firm on the idea that the federal government had no business either regulating business or protecting equality. In The Conscience of a Conservative, published under his name in 1960, Goldwater asserted that the federal government had no power over schools at all and certainly could not order them to desegregate. 

Goldwater accepted the Republican presidential nomination in July 1964, less than a month after three civil rights workers registering Black Americans to vote had disappeared in Mississippi. Goldwater told his cheering supporters:  “Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice, and…moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.” Strom Thurmond publicly announced that he would vote for Goldwater. 

Goldwater lost in a landslide, but his loss fed the backlash against federal protection of equality, especially after Congress passed the 1965 Voting Rights Act to expand Black and Brown voting, moving many of those voters into the Democrats’ camp. In 1968, Republican Richard Nixon courted Thurmond and white southerners with a promise to slow down desegregation and a defense of state’s rights. The so-called Southern Strategy moved the former Dixiecrats to the Republican Party. 

Religious traditionalists, particularly those among the Southern Baptist Convention, also opposed the federal government’s support for equality, although they got less press in the early years of that expansion. In their view, the Bible laid out hierarchical social arrangements, especially patriarchy. Government defense of women’s equality was a direct assault on their worldview. 

When he ran for the presidency in 1980, former California governor Ronald Reagan courted those religious traditionalists, and in 1985 his people made them a key part of the Republican coalition. Americans for Tax Reform brought together big business, evangelicals, and social conservatives under the leadership of Grover Norquist, who had been an economist for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. “Traditional Republican business groups can provide the resources,” Norquist explained, “but these groups can provide the votes.” 

In the following decades, Republican leaders used racist and traditionalist dislike of equal rights to turn out voters who would let them put their economic policies—cuts to taxes and deregulation of business—into place. But those opposed to equal rights found themselves out of step with a majority of voters and unable to get their policies enshrined into law as courts continued to uphold equal rights for racial and ethnic minorities, LGBTQ+ individuals, and women. 

The backlash against the federal protection of equal rights based on the Fourteenth Amendment entered a new era with the election of Donald Trump. In contrast to his predecessors, Trump let the racist and sexist voter base of the party drive policy. White evangelicals, especially, found in Trump an answer to their frustration at being sidelined by the courts and a majority of American voters. 

Despite his own lack of personal virtue, Trump was willing to smash through the laws and court decisions that had supported equality since the 1950s, offering to center the country on traditional religion and racial hierarchies in exchange for power. Under him, traditionalists saw the courts stacked with extremists who would prioritize their evangelical faith across society, including by ending the federal protection of abortion rights. 

Their fight to return Trump to power is part of their fight to establish traditional religion, rather than the equality promised in the Fourteenth Amendment, as the nation’s fundamental law. As Trump’s chief of staff Mark Meadows wrote to Ginni Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, as they plotted to overturn the decision of voters in 2020 to reject Trump: “This is a fight of good versus evil. Evil always looks like the victor until the King of Kings triumphs. Do not grow weary in well doing. The fight continues. I have staked my career on it.”  

Today, almost exactly seventy years to the day after Brown v. Board ushered in a new era of equality and democracy in the United States, MAGA Republican lawmakers Andy Biggs (R-AZ), Lauren Boebert (R-CO), Michael Cloud (R-TX), Eli Crane (R-AZ), Matt Gaetz (R-FL), Bob Good (R-VA), Diana Harshbarger (R-TN), Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL), Ralph Norman (R-SC), and Andy Ogles (R-TN) traveled to Manhattan to stand with Trump at his criminal trial for falsifying business records to interfere in an election. The lawmakers made it clear that their determination to control the country has made them give up not only on the equality promised in the Declaration of Independence and defended by the Fourteenth Amendment, but also on democracy. 

Echoing the promise of the right-wing Proud Boys to Trump before they stormed the U.S. Capitol to install Trump into office despite the will of the voters, Gaetz tweeted: “Standing back and standing by, Mr. President.”

—

Notes and Citations available by subscribing to Letters from an American: https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/

#us politics #activism #joe biden #donald trump #republicans #democracy #vote #history #brown vs board of education #stormy daniels

[broadsandbroadswords]

Giddy up broads — it's the last day to preorder Broads and Broadswords! We are talking 75 pages of original color illustrations and comics; 50+ independent artists celebrating women, non-binary people, swords, and blades — and more whimsy than you can fit in a unicorn’s horn. Get your copy today!

Preorders close TODAY, July 31st.

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[blessed1neha]

Lagnesh in Various Houses in Astrology - Part 1

Lagnesh in the houses of the horoscope

Lord of the 1st house in the houses of the horoscope

The first house's ruler is known as Lagnesha since the first house is sometimes called Lagna (Lagna lord). The position of Lagnesh will reveal the person's natural area of interest and the location where they are investing the most energy. The native's primary area of interest, Paka-lagna, indicates the subjects on which he centres his life and through which he comes to understand himself.

The effects of Lagnesh's (the lord of Lagna or first house's) placement in the horoscope's houses

Lord Of the 1st house in the 1st house

Lagnesh is at home, where he feels at ease. This indicates that a person closely monitors his or her body and health and places a special wager on it. The indicators of the first house are strong (health, self-confidence).

He is his own master, self-centered, loves fame and a good name, erratic, fearless, and triumphs over challenges. A position like that ensures good health, admirable character traits, and a long, prosperous life. Sons are typically born first, planet in swakshetra (one's own home). A happy upbringing, a successful start to life, being born into a wealthy or noble family, strength, health, respect, a strong sense of duty, happiness, the capacity for leadership, and longevity.

Strong, attractive, and independent in spirit; most likely married twice. These individuals could be egotistical or overly self-conscious. Physical strength and widespread appeal are provided by this combination. The local will get good health and physical courage if the lagna's ruler immediately occupies the lagna. He will have two marriages and have intercourse with other women. He will be thoughtful, intelligent, and inconsistent in ideas. (From Brihat Parasara Hora Shastra, verse 26.1)

The native has a majestic appearance, a healthy body, and strong strength to resist illnesses if the lagna's king is in the lagna itself. Yet, these characteristics of the native will surprise you if there are negative influences.

Lord of the 1st house in the 2nd house:

Crossing the signs of the first and second houses indicates a desire to hoard (knowledge or money), clear vision, express oneself verbally, and deep ties to family.

educated, learned, a missionary, good, fair, wealthy, distinguished by lofty character traits and incredible foresight, concerned about the welfare of his family, but with somewhat petty-bourgeois interests. adversaries causing suffering. Wealth, good education, interest in and potential career in education, a pleasant family life, integrity, good speech, public speaking, and an interest in financial matters are all present in the first kid, a boy. The individual will be adept at producing money and have a strong attachment to family life. Expectable traits include a lack of children, charity, and restlessness.A solid education and the capacity for prediction are evident. When the lagna's ruler is in the second bhava, the native will want wealth, be knowledgeable, joyful, kind, spiritual or religious, noble, have a lot of wives, and have other admirable traits. (From Brihat Parasara Hora Shastra, verse 26.2)Comments: If the Lagna ruler is in the second bhava [house], the native is likely to be thrifty, practical, and economical. He possesses incredible foresight or forethought, and his commercial endeavours frequently result in financial success. The native is endowed with great powers of observation and investigation thanks to the fact that the lagna's ruler is in the vision bhava in this combination. His conclusions have the potential to have significant effects, and his strategies work.

Because the second bhava is the bhava of the right eye, his eyes have the capacity to see and comprehend the laws.

Lord of the 1st house in the 3rd house:

A person who is determined and entrepreneurial emerges when the indicators of the first and third houses are combined (particularly if the lagnesh is a negative planet) (Saturn, Mars). The native can discover who they are through manual labour, art, interaction, and literary pursuits.

brave, powerful, wise, kind, considerate, wealthy, well-respected, surrounded by nice friends and family, charitable, worldly, self-centered.

Gains from brothers and sisters, bravery, initiative, and self-effort are crowned with success, a strong will, perseverance, and a nature filled with strong desires. a passion for and potential profession in music, dance, or theatre. .. a person of courage, independence of thought, and generosity, with dexterous hands and a commanding voice. They will have a large number of marriage partners and hold a respected position in society. .. The native will be brave like a lion, have a variety of wealth, be noble, have two wives, and be intelligent and content if the lagna's ruler is in the third bhava. (From Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra, verse 26.3)

Comments:The third bhava, or "house," represents one's physical prowess, bravery, and strength. The native would be exceedingly entrepreneurial and have the courage to deal with any scenario if the lagna ruler is in the third bhava. The third bhava, where the lagna and its lord symbolise the body, will show the body's physical prowess to its fullest extent. The native will require more food and have a more balanced diet if the lagna's ruler is in the third bhava. The native will begin to make less money around the age of 40 or 45 if the Lagna is Mithuna [Gemini] and the ruler of the Lagna is in the third bhava.

His vigour and strength are dwindling. When Shani [Saturn] is in the Rashi [sign] of debilitation in the Kumbha [Aquarius] Lagna, which occurs when the lord of the Lagna is in the third bhava, opposite outcomes will be observed.

1st lord in 4th house

The owner of the first in the fourth is a native who values a comfortable living, a good environment, and a love of learning. Perhaps connected to the themes of real estate, construction, renovation, transportation, psychology, and education.

Gorgeous, descended from a noble family, sensual, sensuous, ambitious, joyful, does good deeds, owns land and family property, prospers via his own efforts, and works in accordance with his heart, not his mind. He also conducts good deeds. The man's parents are contented people. Inheritance property, a college degree, longevity, good health, a spiritual nature, or an interest in moksha (ultimate liberation) will all be given to the person, along with their own home, land, cars, yachts, and other real estate, good status or fame, respect, happiness from their mother, and inheritance property. a person of good birth, a landowner, friendly, and well-liked. These folks are well-educated, have a lot of cars, and care deeply about their homes and properties.

If the ruler of the lagna is in the 4th bhava, then the native will be blessed with paternal and maternal happiness, a large number of brothers and will be voluptuous, virtuous and charming. (Brihat Parasara Hora Shastra 26.4)

Comments: When the ruler of the lagna occupies the house in the 4th bhava, the native will not only be voluptuous, he will also become very sensitive mentally. The 4th bhava is associated with the mind and psychological results. Lagna itself is the body. The psychology of sexual relations is very close to the body. Therefore, a native can be voluptuous or lustful. Such a person takes special care of his body. He is always preoccupied with decorating his body and improving his appearance.

When the lagna is Mesha (Aries) and Makara (Capricorn), the beneficial effects of this sloka will not be observed. Because the lord of the lagna will be in the rashi [sign] of debilitation if he is situated in the fourth bhava, the results in these lagnas will be the opposite.

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