We want to be free': Filipinos demand right to divorce
The Philippines is the only place outside the Vatican where divorce is outlawed, with the Catholic Church -- which holds great influence on Philippine society -- opposing the practice as against its teachings.
Those in favour of legalising divorce say the ban makes it difficult to escape violent or otherwise abusive spouses, or even for couples to amicably cut ties.
Anguish as rape survivors in Sudan unable to access vital medication | Global development | The Guardian
Rape survivors in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, are struggling to get hold of emergency contraception and abortion medication.
Access to a warehouse where 47,000 medical post-rape kits are stored has been cut off since the conflict began in April. Women are using social media to share information about where to find drugs to prevent pregnancies and infections – or are using herbal remedies.
Bill Cosby sued by 9 more women alleging sexual assaults decades ago - CBS News
Nine more women are accusing Bill Cosby of sexual assault in a lawsuit that alleges he used his "enormous power, fame and prestige" to victimize them.
The suit, filed Wednesday in federal court in Nevada, alleges that the women were individually drugged and assaulted between approximately 1979 and 1992 in Las Vegas, Reno and Lake Tahoe homes, dressing rooms and hotels.
One woman alleges that Cosby, claiming to be her acting mentor, lured her from New York to Nevada, where he drugged her in a hotel room with what he had claimed to be non-alcoholic sparkling cider and then raped her.
The 85-year-old former "Cosby Show" star has now been accused of rape, sexual assault and sexual harassment by more than 60 women. He has denied all allegations involving sex crimes. He was the first celebrity tried and convicted in the #MeToo era — and spent nearly three years at a state prison near Philadelphia before a higher court threw out the conviction and released him in 2021.
Conor McGregor accused of sexually assaulting woman at NBA Finals game - ESPN
UFC star Conor McGregor has been accused of sexually assaulting a woman during an NBA Finals game last week in Miami, according to legal letters obtained Thursday by ESPN.
The woman said McGregor "violently" forced himself on her inside a VIP men's bathroom at Kaseya Center, according to a letter sent to McGregor and his team. She said that McGregor "aggressively kissed her" before also attempting to force her into multiple sexual acts.
Asked Thursday by ESPN about the McGregor allegations, a spokesperson for the Miami Police Department said its special victims unit is investigating a report filed Sunday and no additional information will be released at this time.
The incident allegedly occurred during Game 4 of the Finals on Friday. The woman has accused the Miami Heat and NBA security of aiding McGregor in the attack by separating her from her friend and forcing her into the bathroom.
‘We’re part of society’: Italy’s sex workers fight for decriminalisation | Euronews
It was the first such event to be organised in Italy in almost 20 years, symbolically held to coincide with international sex workers’ day -- the date commemorating the occupation of a church in Lyon by a hundred sex workers in 1975 calling for better working conditions.
This year's event, which followed a march on the streets of Bologna, was attended by groups, associations and individual sex workers fed up with the jurisdictional approach that the country has toward them, which has been fundamentally hostile since 1958, when Italy shut down its ‘closed homes’, also known as ‘houses of tolerance’.
These ‘houses’, which were introduced in the late 1800s, allowed sex workers to meet their clients within the safe space of a home, which was also their designated place of business.
Black Panther 2 Star Tenoch Huerta Accused of Sexual Assault
Marvel star Tenoch Huerta, who recently portrayed Namor in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, has been accused of sexual assault online by Mexican saxophonist and renowned activist María Elena Ríos.
In a series of public Tweets, Rios attempted to distance herself from Poder Prieto, an organization focused on combating racism in Mexico, of which the Black Panther 2 star is a member.
In one Tweet, translated from Spanish, she claimed Huerta to be a "violent and sexual predator" and that the organization allegedly pursued her in order to "avoid scandals over their Marvel movie":
"I made it very clear to them when I left their sect that they protect the violator and sexual PREDATOR of Tenoch Huerta that they not publish anything about me. They still went to look for me at a hypocritical ball concert to avoid scandals over their Marvel movie."
Human trafficking and the politics of survivor engagement | openDemocracy
Stories drive attention. Attention triggers interest and investment. The anti-trafficking cause advances.
Rinse and repeat…
Survivors are crucial to this formula, but not all have been equally welcome. There are more survivors than microphones, so anti-trafficking organisations have historically been able to pick and choose whom they platform.
This means that a lot of strategic calculation takes place behind the scenes. Which stories best support the interests of the organisation, how will they be presented, and who will tell them? Do the owners of those stories have engaging personalities? ‘Appropriate’ appearances? Will they effectively advance the overall cause?
Survivors with stories which cannot be effectively ‘sold’ are regularly left out in the cold. Survivors with ‘useful’ stories are welcomed, but for the most part only if they are willing to become professional storytellers of suffering. It’s a position that enjoys a platform but little internal power. Messengers aren’t on the same level as managers; mouthpieces don’t receive the same respect as experts. This is what many ‘survivor leaders’ have discovered after joining the movement. Inside the organisation they are judged as people with valuable lived experience, but without the necessary training and experience to lead.
Arizona governor vetoes transgender bathroom bill, condemns it as ‘attack’ on children | The Hill
Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs (D) vetoed a bill that would have prevented students in public schools from using a bathroom or changing facility for a sex different from their gender assigned at birth.
Hobbs said in her veto message on Thursday that she will veto every bill that “aims to attack and harm children,” as she said when vetoing another bill last month that would have restricted the use of a student’s pronouns consistent with their gender identity.
“SB1040 is yet another discriminatory act against LGBTQ+ youth passed by the majority at the state legislature,” Hobbs wrote.
Republicans hold a narrow majority in both the state House and Senate. The bill passed along party lines earlier this year.
The legislation would have required public schools to establish a “reasonable accommodation” for students who refuse to use a multi-occupancy bathroom or changing facility designated for a specific sex and who send an accommodation request in writing.
Study shows why sexual assault victims hesitate to come forward immediately - Lifestyle News
Researchers compared answers from a confidential online survey from people who have experienced sexual harassment to those who have not but were asked to imagine how they would react. People who have experienced sexual harassment reported a range of needs and engaged in a variety of actions to meet these needs. Needs for safety, personal control and social support were prioritised over formal actions, such as reporting to the police. Those who had not encountered sexual harassment anticipated having stronger needs and taking more actions–especially formal ones.
Senior author, Professor Manuela Barreto, from the University of Exeter said, “We found there is a widely held belief that quick and formal reporting is the correct response to sexual harassment. It’s what’s generally meant with the phrase ‘coming forward’. Yet most people who are sexually harassed do not report it formally and those who do, often report the offence a significant time after it happened. There’s a focus on procedural barriers with police and other authorities as to why this is, but less attention paid to the actual needs of the person who has experienced sexual harassment.”
West Virginia State Police Investigation
More women are filing lawsuits against the West Virginia State Police.
Wheeling West Virginia Attorney Teresa Toriseva sent a notice of legal action to Interim WVSP Superintendent Colonel Jack Chambers and West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey on April 21 saying 42 women, including 10 minors, plan to file lawsuits against the West Virginia State Police.
Remembering Catherine Kassenoff and Continuing the Fight for Fair U.S. Child Custody Outcomes - Ms. Magazine
Our courts repeatedly allow abusers to weaponize our legal system against women—making them the target of a war that can cost them, like Kassenoff, their health, jobs, money, homes, children and peace. No one should live this way in America—or anywhere. It’s an underworld only those who have been through family court, or know someone who has, can comprehend.
She wrote:
“I cannot survive this torment and the grief that comes from such a prolonged separation from my children. … This court system did this to me, as it does to countless other protective mothers (and fathers). Professor Joan Meier’s extensive research in this area confirms this is an epidemic. It is a predatory system that functions in darkness—through ‘gag’ orders like the one in my case, through a publicly-inaccessible docket, through a closed courtroom and through ex parte ‘temporary’ orders that are in place for years. Money is the goal, not helping families get through traumatic divorces. It must be investigated at large by the FBI or another federal law enforcement agency or it will continue to devastate our families.”
I first interviewed Catherine Kassenoff in December of 2021 for the groundbreaking Ms. article “Empty Home for the Holidays,” about how she and another protective mother, Cobie Jane, would spend the season without their children. Kassenoff was two and a half years into the battle with her husband, a litigator himself with Greenberg Traurig (now on a leave of absence), who she said took advantage of a dysfunctional judicial system after two of their daughters reported their father for physical abuse of one of them.
As Kassenoff wrote in her goodbye letter:
“Because the Courts of New York State are so invested in minimizing, suppressing and punishing valid claims of abuse, the Courts imposed ‘supervision’ on me for saying that the girls were telling the truth about their father’s abuse. This supervision, which came at a cost to me of $2500/week at its height, was at the suggestion of a court-appointed forensic evaluator named Marc Abrams. Abrams was removed from the Panel of Forensic Custody Evaluators on August 24, 2021.”
How Social Media Algorithms Hurt Black Girls
While research from Common Sense Media recently highlighted how social media impacts girls’ mental health in general, I started to wonder how viral police killings were affecting Black girls in particular. After all, Black girls sustain some of the highest rates of social media use and are more likely to encounter race-related content than other groups online. After conducting a study1 with nearly 20 Black girls (ages 18-24) across the US and Canada, my initial fears were confirmed: Black girls were reporting unprecedented levels of anxiety, depression, fear, and chronic stress from encountering Black death online.
Tyler James Williams reluctantly addresses his sexuality | CNN
“Usually I wouldn’t address stuff like this, but I feel like it as a conversation is bigger than me. I’m not gay, but I think the culture of trying to ‘find’ some kind of hidden trait or behavior that a closed person ‘let slip’ is very dangerous,” he wrote. “Overanalyzing someone’s behavior in an attempt to ‘catch’ them directly contributes to the anxiety a lot of queer and queer-questioning people feel when they fear living in their truth.”
“It makes the most pedestrian of conversations and interactions in spaces feel less safe for our gay brothers and sisters and those who may be questioning,” he added.
Husband slaps man at Baltimore science conference for 'sexually assaulting his wife seven years ago'
The man accused the doctor, left a director of gynecological oncology at Stony Brook University, of sexually assaulting his wife in 2016 during a two-minute tirade
“This mother ****** sexually assaulted my wife seven years ago,” the audience member announces before slapping the panelist. ‘You know what you did. You touched my wife 7 years ago in New York. Don’t be a******. B****!’, he says, slapping him again.
“This is for all the men who sexually assault women,” he continued. “Be the goddamn man!”
The audience member is so upset when he makes his allegations that he declares that the assault on the physician panelist is for all men who harm women in such a way.
He emphasizes that his wife suffers from his alleged predatory actions.
Transgender adults in Florida `blindsided' that new law also limits their access to health care
Debate surrounding Florida’s new restrictions on gender-affirming care focused largely on transgender children. But a new law that Republican presidential candidate and Gov. Ron DeSantis signed last month also made it difficult – even impossible – for many transgender adults to get treatment.
Eli and Lucas, trans men who are a couple, followed the discussions in the Legislature, where Democrats warned that trans children would be more prone to suicide under a ban on gender-affirming care for minors and Republicans responded with misplaced tales of mutilated kids. Eli said he and his partner felt “blindsided” when they discovered the bill contained language that would also disrupt their lives.
“There was no communication. … Nobody was really talking about it in our circles,” said Eli, 29.
Saudi Arabian woman arrested over Twitter and Snapchat posts promoting reform | Saudi Arabia | The Guardian
A young women’s rights activist in Saudi Arabia has been arrested and imprisoned for having Twitter and Snapchat accounts that embraced recent social reforms but also demanded more fundamental rights inside the kingdom, it has emerged.
Manahel al-Otaibi, a 29-year-old certified fitness instructor and artist who frequently promoted female empowerment on her social media accounts, was arrested in November 2022. Among other charges, Otaibi was accused by Saudi authorities of using a hashtag – translated to #societyisready – to call for an end to male guardianship rules.
Otaibi has not yet been convicted or sentenced and remains in detention. But previous similar cases suggest that public demands for fundamental women’s rights – including inheritance rights, and ability to end a marriage by an abusive husband – have been deemed seditious.
The case marks the latest example of Saudis being arrested and imprisoned for using social media accounts to promote reform or challenge Saudi authorities. Salma al-Shehab, another Saudi woman and former PhD student at Leeds University, was sentenced by a terrorism court to more than three decades in jail for having a Twitter account and following and retweeting dissidents and activists.
As Predicted, Anti-Drag Laws Are Being Weaponized to Silence Trans People | The Mary Sue
A few months ago, Adria Jawort and others testified before the Montana legislature that its law banning drag events at public libraries would be used to target and silence transgender people. Just as she and others anticipated, it’s now being used to bar her from speaking about LGBTQ+ history.
Jawort, a Cheyenne writer and transgender woman, had been scheduled to speak at Butte-Silver Bow Public Library about the history of the two-spirit tradition in Native American culture. “Two-spirit” is an indigenous term for the alternative gender status of tribe members who have both male and female traits, a fascinating example of how trans and nonbinary people have always existed in all cultures and societies. The library canceled her talk—again, a history lecture, not a drag show—out of fear that they would run afoul of the state’s new anti-drag law and risk losing their public funding.
To Flip the Script on Harassment in China, Grease is the New Word
Mimicking men who surreptitiously take photos of women, flaunt their masculinity, or just stare lecherously, a new viral challenge is all the rage among young Chinese women — imitating the “greasy middle-aged man” persona.
In recent weeks, the challenge has surged in popularity, particularly on the short video app Douyin, where thousands have posted videos, often drawing inspiration from their daily lives. On the popular streaming platform Bilibili, guidance on how to perfect the art of being a “greasy man” has garnered tens of thousands of likes.
The trend began with the popular influencer Fangtouming, whose videos imitated self-centered high school boys and instantly gained traction online, with many other women sharing videos of similar experiences on Douyin