Category: Civil Equality

Joe Biden on The View: I Don&’t Think I Treated Anita Hill Badly

~ mcequality

If his Friday appearance on The View was any indication, Joe Biden is going to have a real hard time addressing his history with women when the issue inevitably comes up (and comes up and comes up) on the campaign trail. He was asked to talk about his treatment of Anita Hill and his tendency to invade women’s personal space and it was a mess.

After much prompting by the show’s co-hosts, Biden reluctantly apologized to the women who accused him of being overly touchy. “Here’s the deal, everybody has to be much more aware of the private space of men and women,” he said. “It’s not just women but it’s primarily women. I am much more cognizant of that.”

via Joe Biden on The View: I Don't Think I Treated Anita Hill Badly

Chloë Grace Moretz: ‘No age limit’ for learning acceptance – BBC News

~ mcequality

US actress Chloë Grace Moretz knows a thing or two about LGBT education.
Growing up in the conservative Christian town of Rome, Georgia, two of her brothers felt they had to “pray the gay away” before coming out.
That led to her taking a role in last year’s Miseducation of Cameron Post, where she played a character who was sent to a gay conversion therapy centre.
Now, with stories about equality teaching hitting the headlines, Moretz tells the BBC that there should be “no age limit” for learning about these issues.
Speaking from Los Angeles ahead of the release of her new psychological thriller, Greta, the star says: “I think children know what you teach them.
“I had two gay brothers in my family, and our little cousins have known my brothers as gay from the time they were little bitty babies.

via Chloë Grace Moretz: ‘No age limit’ for learning acceptance – BBC News

‘Automated Racism’: Chinese Police Are Reportedly Using AI to Identify Minority Faces

~ mcequality

According to a report from the New York Times published on Sunday, the Chinese government is using a facial recognition system to track Uighurs, the country’s Muslim minority. The technology reportedly targets this population based on their physical appearance.

According to government procurement documents obtained by the Times, beginning last year, nearly two dozen police departments in China wanted technology that could identify and track Uighur individuals. And the documents reportedly indicate that the interest in this type of tech has grown in the last two years. In Yongzhou, for instance, police wanted software that could “characterize and search whether or not someone is a Uighur.”

via ‘Automated Racism’: Chinese Police Are Reportedly Using AI to Identify Minority Faces

Shamima Begum: IS bride ‘given legal aid’ for citizenship fight – BBC News

~ mcequality

Legal aid has been granted for Shamima Begum – who joined the Islamic State group aged 15 – to fight the decision to revoke her UK citizenship.
The 19-year-old, who left east London in 2015, was stripped of her citizenship in February, after she was found in a Syrian refugee camp.
Her family has previously said it planned to challenge the decision.
Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said the Legal Aid Agency’s decision to assist Ms Begum made him “very uncomfortable”.
He added, however, that the UK was “a country that believes that people with limited means should have access to the resources of the state if they want to challenge the decisions the state has made about them”.
Legal aid is financial assistance provided by the taxpayer to those unable to afford legal representation themselves, whether they are accused of a crime or a victim who seeks the help of a lawyer through the court process.

via Shamima Begum: IS bride ‘given legal aid’ for citizenship fight – BBC News

It’s not ‘snowflakery’ to expect basic civility on social media

~ mcequality

Imagine you’re on a train at the end of a working day. You suddenly spot someone who pops up on various media platforms from time to time and whose political views are different to yours. How likely are you to allow yourself to walk over and shout abuse at them so aggressively that they fear for their safety?

Not very likely, I’ll wager, because I’ve been on the receiving end of such aggression only once in this country. It is obviously not because I have won over the hearts of every person who finds me offensive since that rather unpleasant night, but because in the main people are civilised and rarely allow their inhibitions to drop in order to behave like thugs.

But we lose this self-check…

via It’s not ‘snowflakery’ to expect basic civility on social media

Senate bill would ban deceptive data collection by internet giants

~ mcequality

If American legislators have their way, tech companies will have to face more than negative publicity if they collect your data in a less-than-sincere fashion. Senators Mark Warner and Deb Fischer have introduced a bill, the DETOUR Act (Deceptive Experiences To Online Users Reduction), that would bar internet firms with over 100 million monthly active users from tricking you into handing over personal data. Companies wouldn’t be allowed to develop interfaces with the “substantial effect” of preventing you from making an informed decision. They also wouldn’t be allowed to divide users into groups for experiments without consent, and couldn’t develop compulsive experiences targeted at kids under 13 years old (such as auto-playing videos).

via Senate bill would ban deceptive data collection by internet giants

Ashley Judd On Georgia’s Abortion Ban: ‘I Would’ve Had to Co-Parent With My Rapist’

~ mcequality

In March, Judd signed a letter in protest of the Living Infants Fairness and Equality (LIFE) Act, a bill recently passed by the Georgia House of Representatives that bans abortion after six weeks, well before many even realize they’re pregnant. While Georgia’s bill would make bad on Governor Brian Kemp’s promise to make Georgia the most difficult place in America to obtain a legal abortion, it’s just one of many Republican-led attempts to restrict abortion access. A similar bill in Mississippi bans abortion after 15 weeks. Meanwhile, a Texas lawmaker has put forth a bill that would classify abortion as homicide, making it punishable by death. The bill has virtually no chance of passing, but as Esther Wang points out, it is pretty indicative of the mindset of many anti-abortion groups.

via Ashley Judd On Georgia’s Abortion Ban: ‘I Would’ve Had to Co-Parent With My Rapist’

Katie Bouman: the 29-year-old whose work led to first black hole photo | Science | The Guardian

~ mcequality

Katie Bouman was a PhD student in computer science and artificial intelligence at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) when, three years ago, she led the creation of an algorithm that would eventually lead to an image of a supermassive black hole at the heart of the Messier 87 galaxy, some 55m light years from Earth, being captured for the first time.

via Katie Bouman: the 29-year-old whose work led to first black hole photo | Science | The Guardian

Senate bill would make tech companies test algorithms for bias

~ mcequality

The senators saw this as a civil rights issue and pointed to recent incidents as examples. Facebook is still facing a charge of housing discrimination after it let advertisers exclude people in ways that could be racist or sexist, while Amazon shut down an automated recruiting tool after it was found discriminating against women. Facial recognition also has bias problems. It’s a modern form of practices like “real estate steering” (where black couples were discouraged from getting homes in some neighborhoods), Sen. Booker said, but more insidious as it’s “significantly harder to detect.” In theory, this would prevent companies from ignoring the potential for bias.

via Senate bill would make tech companies test algorithms for bias

Here's Every 2020 Democrat's History on LGBTQ Rights

~ mcequality

Democratic presidential hopefuls will face off in a public forum on LGBTQ issues this fall. The event, slated for National Coming Out Day on October 10, marks the first time Democratic candidates have debated queer issues since 2008, when Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, Dennis Kucinich, and Barack Obama faced off in a Human Rights Campaign Foundation forum.

A lot has changed in the past 11 years. For one thing, there’s an openly gay candidate in the race now (South Bend, IN, mayor Pete Buttigieg), reflecting the dramatic shift in attitudes toward LGBTQ people symbolized most prominently in the legalization of same-sex marriage. Whereas only one candidate in 2008—Kucinich, then an Ohio congressman—spoke out in favor of same-sex marriage, there is little apparent daylight between the 2020 candidates’ current stances on LGBTQ rights. There has also been a major cultural awakening around transgender rights and gender identity.

via Here's Every 2020 Democrat's History on LGBTQ Rights