The Writer Who Broke the Brandon Teena Story Revisits Her Biggest Mistakes 

~ mcequality

Cisgender journalists have not had (and still don’t really) the best track record when it comes to reporting on the lives of trans people. Frankly, far too many people fuck it up! Included in that history is Donna Minkowitz, The Village Voice reporter who broke the story of 21-year-old Brandon Teena’s brutal murder back in 1994, which inspired director Kimberly Peirce to make the Academy Award-winning 1999 movie Boys Don’t Cry. But rather than let her reporting, which posited dangerous theories like Teena’s trans identity was perhaps the result of past sexual abuse, stay uncorrected, Minkowitz is finally “making amends” for how she wrote Teena’s story.

via The Writer Who Broke the Brandon Teena Story Revisits Her Biggest Mistakes 

EFF and human rights groups sue to have FOSTA declared unconstitutional

~ mcequality

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and a number of other organizations and individuals have filed a lawsuit asking for FOSTA to be declared unconstitutional, with the EFF saying the law was “written so poorly that it actually criminalizes a substantial amount of protected speech.” They’re also pursuing an injunction that would prevent FOSTA from being enforced while a court considers the case. FOSTA was signed into law in April and though it claims to be an effort to stop sex trafficking, the flawed legislation features broad language, conflates sex trafficking and sex work and by many accounts, actually makes fighting sex trafficking more difficult. Among those speaking out against FOSTA and its sister bill SESTA were the ACLU, the Department of Justice, sex work rights organizations and sex trafficking victims groups.

via EFF and human rights groups sue to have FOSTA declared unconstitutional

What Life Was Like for Women Before Roe v. Wade

~ mcequality

Nearly a decade after her death, a photograph of Santoro’s lifeless body—naked, crumpled, and covered with her own blood—was published in Ms. Magazine, accompanying a 1973 story on the Supreme Court’s ruling in Roe. The words “Never Again,” in big bold letters framed the black and white crime scene photograph. The photograph, Broadly reports, became an icon of the feminist movement; Santoro’s death was transformed into an image of the desperate brutality and senseless deaths that reproductive restrictions had wrought on women for centuries. When Ms. Magazine celebrated the legalization of abortion in the first trimester, the photograph of Santoro was a promise that there would be no more dead women on hotel rooms floors—a promise that abortion, as the mantra goes, would be safe and legal.

via What Life Was Like for Women Before Roe v. Wade

BBC apologises to Carrie Gracie over pay – BBC News

~ mcequality

Image Copyright @BBCCarrie@BBCCARRIE
Report
The corporation said it had “reached an agreement to resolve their differences”.
Timeline: How the BBC gender pay story has unfolded

‘Today I can say I am equal’ – Carrie Gracie’s statement:
“This is a huge day for me. I love the BBC. It’s been my work family for more than 30 years and I want it to be the best. Sometimes families feel the need to shout at each other, but it’s always a relief when you can stop shouting.
“I’m grateful to the director general for helping me resolve this. I do feel he has led from the front today.
“In acknowledging the value of my work as China editor, the BBC has awarded me several years of backdated pay. But for me this was always about the principle and not about the money, so I’m giving all of that money away to help women who need it more than I do.
“After all, today at the BBC I can say I am equal.
“I would like women in workplaces up and down this country to be able to say the same. This has been an enormously long, hard road to get here. It has involved so much work by so many people, and I am proud of it.
“Cultural change takes time to help people think things through. It is an enormously difficult issue, not just for the BBC but for employers all over the country and all over the world. This is a win for me and a win for the BBC. I’m proud of all of us.”

Fellow broadcaster Clare Balding tweeted her appreciation for Gracie, saying: “To donate all of the agreed backpay confirms what we already knew – she is not fighting the fight for herself but for ALL.”
At her request, Gracie will now take up to six months of unpaid leave and will take on writing and speaking engagements about both China and gender equality.
Director general Tony Hall said: “I am pleased that we’ve been able to move past our differences and work through things together; we can now look to the future.”

Image caption
Tony Hall wants the BBC to “lead the way” for women in the workplace
Lord Hall added he was “glad” that she is contributing to a BBC project “to make the BBC a great place for women to work”.
“That really matters to me, and I want us to lead the way.”
When she resigned as China editor, Gracie said she had been dismayed to find the BBC’s two male international editors earned “at least 50% more” than their two female counterparts.
The BBC has now acknowledged she was told she would be paid in line with the North America editor when she took the role, and she accepted the role on that understanding.

Image caption
The BBC has said “fairness in pay” is “vital”
The corporation said it “has now put this right”.
Gracie: ‘I could not collude’ in pay discrimination’
Gracie quit because the two editors earned more than her £135,000-a-year salary. She said she had refused a £45,000 pay rise because it still left a “big gap” between her and her male counterparts, when all she wanted was to be “made equal”.
She went back to a job in the newsroom. The BBC said at the time that “fairness in pay” was “vital” to the corporation.
On 26 January, six of the BBC’s leading male presenters agreed to take pay cuts following the revelations about equal salaries.
The BBC said Huw Edwards, Nicky Campbell, John Humphrys, Jon Sopel, Nick Robinson and Jeremy Vine had all accepted reduced wages.
The Fawcett Society said it would use the donated money to give women legal support to negotiate equal pay, and it will contribute to strategic legal cases and interventions aimed at strengthening the law.

Analysis – BBC media editor Amol Rajan
Carrie Gracie finished her tweet on today’s news with the words “I’m home”. This has been a long and difficult process for one of the BBC’s most distinguished journalists.
At base, today marks a moral and practical victory for an effective campaigner, and her donation of back pay to the Fawcett Society proves she meant it when she said this was about a principle rather than cash.
The narrow question is – what this means for the BBC. The corporation would like it to draw the matter to a close, and pointedly refers in its statement to the “specific circumstances” of her case.
While today might bring a close to this individual case, it is of course unclear what impact it will have on others at the BBC who are pursuing grievances.
The same applies beyond the BBC. As a significant victory for a high-profile campaigner, who came to have totemic status, today will give encouragement to others who have been denied equal pay for equal work.

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via BBC apologises to Carrie Gracie over pay – BBC News

The Fight Over North Carolina’s Latest Anti-Trans Law Begins 

~ mcequality

It’s been more than a year since North Carolina overturned its anti-trans bathroom law, but activists are going back to court on Monday to fight the law that took its place, the AP reports.

Democratic and Republican lawmakers presented that bill, HB 142, as a compromise after the uproar over HB2, which banned trans people from using bathrooms and public facilities that correspond with their gender identity and overturned and barred local ordinances meant to protect against discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Businesses and organizations, including the NCAA, protested the law, costing North Carolina an estimated $525 million in 2017.

via The Fight Over North Carolina’s Latest Anti-Trans Law Begins 

Catcalling: Women write in chalk to stop street harassment – BBC News

~ mcequality

“You better learn to answer a man when he speaks to you!”
It’s a rainy afternoon in east London and two women are writing these words on a pavement in coloured chalk.
The words are a catcall – shouted by a stranger to a woman walking down a street in London.
The trend of writing out catcalls started in New York and now it’s spreading to other cities around the world.
The woman who started the idea says she wants to stop “street harassment”.

via Catcalling: Women write in chalk to stop street harassment – BBC News

World Cup 2018: Smuggling the Pride flag into Russia – BBC News

~ mcequality

Six LGBT activists have found a way to fly the Pride flag in Russia – by wearing football shirts in the rainbow colours.
The country has had a law banning the spreading of “gay propaganda” among under-18s since 2013.
The Pride flag is a symbol celebrating lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities, but displaying it in Russia can get you arrested.

via World Cup 2018: Smuggling the Pride flag into Russia – BBC News

Nikki Columbus Says Job at MoMA PS1 Was Rescinded After Baby

~ mcequality

According the New York Times, MoMA PS1 offered a woman the curator of performance position, only to rescind it when she asked, not for maternity leave, but to work from home when starting the role while she recovered from having a baby.

Nikki Columbus had been in talks with the Queens museum over the spring and summer of 2017, and though clearly expecting, she chose not to mention her pregnancy at the advice of friends who had also job hunted while pregnant. (Pregnant women are not legally obligated to disclose their pregnancy, and it’s illegal for an employer to discriminate against them.) Columbus’ decision was further influenced by the ample disdain for the previous working mom in the role, with an interviewer saying that she had been “much less present” after having a baby.

via Nikki Columbus Says Job at MoMA PS1 Was Rescinded After Baby

Misogyny hate crime in Nottinghamshire gives ‘shocking’ results – BBC News

~ mcequality

The Misogyny Hate Crime Evaluation report was put together jointly by the University of Nottingham and Nottingham Trent University.
It recommends rolling the policy out nationally to increase publicity and the reporting of incidents.
This view is shared by Paddy Tipping, Nottinghamshire’s police and crime commissioner, who said: “A handful of other forces have come forward and later on this week all the chief constables in the country are going to discuss the issue.
“We all need to be pushing together to say we are not going to tolerate this kind of behaviour.
“The report has come out at a really good time, a couple of days before all the chief constables have this discussion, and I think there’s a lot of support for it.”

via Misogyny hate crime in Nottinghamshire gives ‘shocking’ results – BBC News

TRNSMT boss: Festivals have ‘a long way to go’ on gender balance – BBC News

~ mcequality

The organiser of TRNSMT has told Newsbeat there’s “a long way to go” with gender balance across festival line-ups.
Geoff Ellis says most festival promoters have been trying to “redress a balance”.
“We do have strong female representation across the line-up but we’re committed to doing more.”
This year’s TRNSMT includes The Stereophonics, Liam Gallagher and Arctic Monkeys as headliners.

via TRNSMT boss: Festivals have ‘a long way to go’ on gender balance – BBC News