hankfully, my dad’s experiences haven’t been as negative. The site he currently works on, the A14 Integrated Delivery Team — the U.K.’s biggest road construction project — even runs a peer-based support network of mental health ambassadors who actually work on the job site. These are staff members in all positions who are trained in mental health first aid. This training, delivered by Mental Health First Aid England, aims to give those who undertake it a deeper understanding of mental health, helping them to understand the signs and triggers of mental health issues so that they can direct them to the right services.
The pressure to be beautiful in Bangladesh – BBC News
“As women we are often compelled to portray our beautiful selves,” says Habiba Nowrose, a 29-year-old photographer documenting the pressures on women in Bangladesh to be attractive.
“In that path to avail beauty we are made to strip off our individuality, stories and traumas.”
“We become anonymous even to ourselves and our identities remain concealed.”
The women in Habiba’s photos look bright and colourful but their faces are entirely covered, representing a loss of the inner self even though outwardly the women have made great efforts to look beautiful.
Gay conversion therapy: ‘I thought being straight would make me happy’ – BBC Three
I closed my eyes and clenched my fists; although we were sat opposite each other face to face, I avoided the therapist’s gaze. But I focused intently on his words: “So, your mother worked, you say?” I nodded. That was followed by, “You must feel anxious around boys. Why is that?” I gritted my teeth in response and stayed silent.
I was always terrified before each session as I trudged up the stairs to his office – nervous someone might see me and realise why I was there. I never fully relaxed, my back stiff and my body tense the whole time.
via Gay conversion therapy: ‘I thought being straight would make me happy’ – BBC Three
Public sex banned in two New Orleans gay bars investigation
Two New Orleans leather bars known for their cruising scenes have been hit in recent months with charges, fines, and a shutdown in sexual activity (which is barred in public venues by Louisiana State Laws). Some have assumed that the impositions on Phoenix and Rawhide 2010 have been politically motivated, perhaps the result of a homophobic witch hunt (“an attack on one of us is an attack on all us,” read a message posted by Phoenix management on the bar’s Facebook in February), but a recent article in New Orleans LGBTQ magazine Ambush paints a more nuanced picture of investigations arising from direct complaints that are the result of community in-fighting and sexual discrimination.
via Public sex banned in two New Orleans gay bars investigation
Pay Gap Between Men and Women Might Be Worse Than Previously Calculated
Today is Equal Pay Day, the day on which we acknowledge that a woman would have to work a full fifteen months to earn what a man in an equivalent role makes in a year. Since the wage gap is 80 cents to the dollar—that is, a woman earns 80 cents for every dollar a male peer earns—it takes women until April 2 to earn what men make between January and December. Many women of color have to work even longer to catch up to both their white male and their white female peers.
However, a recent study suggests that we might have to push Equal Pay Day a few more months down the road. As Vox reports:
“The commonly used figure to describe the gender wage ratio—that a woman earns 80 cents for every dollar earned by a man—understates the pay inequality problem by leaving many women workers out of the picture,” authors Stephen J. Rose, a labor economist and fellow at the Urban Institute, and Heidi I. Hartmann, the founder of IWPR and an economist in residence at American University, argue in their report, titled “Still a Man’s Labor Market.”Specifically, it leaves out women who have dropped out of the labor force temporarily, often to care for family.
via Pay Gap Between Men and Women Might Be Worse Than Previously Calculated
Debt crisis warning as poorest countries’ repayment bills soar | Business | The Guardian
Debt repayments by the world’s poorest countries have doubled since 2010 to reach their highest level since just before the internationally organised write-off in 2005, campaigners have warned.
The Jubilee Debt Campaign (JDC) said a borrowing spree when global interest rates were low had left many developing nations facing repayments bills that were forcing them into public spending cuts.
Plunging commodity prices, a stronger dollar and rising US interest rates had combined to increase debt repayments by 85% between 2010 and 2018, the JDC said.
The bid to reduce the unaffordable debts of the world’s poorest countries was prompted by grassroots activism in the late 1990s and early 2000s, first with the Jubilee 2000 campaign and then with Make Poverty History.
But the financial position of many developing nations has again deteriorated in recent years.
via Debt crisis warning as poorest countries’ repayment bills soar | Business | The Guardian
Inheritance tax loopholes allowing super-rich to pay lower rates | Business | The Guardian
The UK’s super-rich pay half the rate of inheritance tax paid by the merely very rich, according to an analysis of HMRC data that throws fresh focus on how billionaires’ advisers use a “kitbag” of tricks to reduce heirs’ tax bills.
Estates worth £10m or more paid an average of 10% tax to the exchequer in the 2015-16 tax year compared with an average 20% tax paid by estates worth £2m-£3m, according to data released by HMRC following a freedom of information request by asset manager Canada Life.
The law states that estates should pay 40% tax on assets above £325,000 – or above £450,000 if the family home is given to children or grandchildren. But Neil Jones, the market development manager at Canada Life, said the richest of the rich often did not pay anywhere near that rate because they had access to “a myriad of potential solutions in an adviser’s kitbag to help mitigate IHT [inheritance tax]”.
via Inheritance tax loopholes allowing super-rich to pay lower rates | Business | The Guardian
Teacher Fired After Topless Photo Leaked to Students
This year, Lauren Miranda, a 25-year-old middle-school teacher from Long Island, became eligible for tenure at her job. “I loved my job, I never woke up in the morning and didn’t want to go,” she recently told the press, adding “I really thought this is where I was going to spend the next thirty years of my life.” But last week, she was fired, after the South County School District in Bellport, Long Island caught wind that that an old topless photo of Miranda’s had been leaked to students.
The photo was taken three years ago, and according to local reports, Miranda says she sent it to her then-boyfriend, who taught in the same school district. Miranda says she does not know how the photo got into the hands of the students, and that the district discriminated against her because of her gender.
Ousted Nevada Rep. Ruben Kihuen Loses Las Vegas Council Run
A former Nevada congressman ousted over allegations of sexual harassment was looking to make his political comeback in the race for Las Vegas City Council on Tuesday. He missed his chance—barely.
Former Nevada Rep. Ruben Kihuen came just five votes away from winning a spot on the June general election ballot in the race to become a councilman for Ward 3. The top vote-getter, Olivia Diaz, got 33 percent with 1,016 votes, while the first runner up, Melissa Clary, narrowly beat Kihuen with 28 percent and 866 votes, meaning both will appear on the general election ballot in June, according to the Nevada Independent. Kihuen got 861 votes.
In 2017, three women who worked with Kihuen said he sexually harassed them. In 2018, the House Ethics Committee found the women’s allegations to be credible. According to Roll Call, the committee reported Kihuen “made persistent and unwanted advances towards women who were required to interact with him as part of their professional responsibilities.”
via Ousted Nevada Rep. Ruben Kihuen Loses Las Vegas Council Run
Police Reportedly Let Dahvie Vanity Off With a Warning After a Teenager Accused Him of Sexual Assault
In June 2007, a 14-year-old girl told Pinellas County, Florida police that Jesus David Torres, known as Dahvie Vanity in the scene band Blood on the Dance Floor, had forced her to perform oral sex. Police let the then-22-year-old Torres off with a warning. In the years since, dozens more women have come forward with allegations of sexual abuse.
According to HuffPost, Dianna Farrell was a shy kid who had trouble making friends when Torres allegedly began messaging her on Myspace. Torres hadn’t formed his band yet but was a popular hairdresser with a fairly large following on the platform. He drove across the state to do Farrell’s hair, and afterwards, she says he forced her to perform oral sex. Unable to process the assault, Farrell later called in to a Christian talk radio show where teens discussed their problems. The show’s host alerted police, and from there, Florida police did nothing: