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We Are Women March - Texas
This is the link for the Texas Facebook Group.
Feel free to repost with the links to your local group or organizers. Let’s not take this one sitting down.
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Texas Cuts Planned Parenthood from Women's Health Program
Today Health and Human Services Commissioner Tom Suehs signed off on a controversial new rule designed to exclude Planned Parenthood from participation in the Women’s Health Program – and in so doing has likely killed the successful program. The WHP is a Medicaid-waiver program that provides basic healthcare and family planning services to low-income and uninsured women who would not otherwise be eligible for Medicaid unless pregnant. The program was designed to increase access to preventative health for women and to reduce the number of Medicaid-paid births. It has done both.
This is no small issue for Texas, where more than half of all births are paid for by Medicaid – in 2009 alone that cost $2.9 billion. The first year of the program, in 2007, the WHP served 91,683 women; by 2010, the program served 183,537. HHSC estimates that the number of women served in 2011 (those final numbers aren’t ready yet) will show the program grew again.
And although there are some 1,600 WHP providers across the state, in 2010, PP served 46% of all WHP clients – that is, more than 84,000 women.
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For women in business, the squeaky wheel doesn’t get the grease
Our recent Catalyst report, The Myth of the Ideal Worker , reveals that women do ask for raises and promotions. They just don’t get as much in return.
The research focused on career paths of high-potential men and women, drawing on thousands of MBA graduates from top schools around the world. Catalyst found that, among those who had moved on from their first post-MBA job, there was no significant difference in the proportion of women and men who asked for increased compensation or a higher position.
Yet the rewards were different.
Women who initiated such conversations and changed jobs post MBA experienced slower compensation growth than the women who stayed put. For men, on the other hand, it paid off to change jobs and negotiate for higher salaries—they earned more than men who stayed did. And we saw that as both men’s and women’s careers progress, the gender gap in level and pay gets even wider.
Our findings run counter to media coverage of the so-called phenomenon that “women don’t ask.” Instead the problem may be, as some other research has shown, that people routinely take a tougher stance against women in negotiations than they take against men—for example quoting higher starting prices when trying to sell women cars or making less generous offers when dividing a sum of money. Catalyst research has shown a number of ways that talent-management systems can also be vulnerable to unintentional gender biases and stereotypes.
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What Does The Bible Actually Say About Gay Marriage?
This is a gender creation story, not a creation of marriage story. Adam and Eve do not exchange rings, say “I do” and have a jazz band reception in Paradise.
and:
The Bible “says” a lot of things but perhaps we should treat the Bible less like an authoritative contract with God and understand it more as a human-authored, divinely-inspired, document that arouses a life of faith.
So does the Bible have anything to “say” about gay marriage? The Bible is not specific, literate, or even concerned with what we call same-sex orientation or gay marriage. But the state of New York recently had quite a lot to say about gay marriage. Those that would insert the Bible into this debate would do well to reflect upon the text itself. If only we quit focusing on what the Bible didactically “says” and converse with the text in its broader cultural context. Then one can realize the multivalent value of such a book that a narrow reading cannot service.
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Plessy and Ferguson
The decedents of the namesakes of the Plessy vs Ferguson supreme court ruling have come together to start a foundation to highlight the historical struggle for racial equality in New Orleans.
Plessy vs Ferguson upheld the Jim Crow laws under the idea of “separate but equal”.
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Saturday Morning Links
- There was a lot discussion happening about the idea of a family raising a genderless baby, and the mother of baby Storm responds to the controversy via a letter, instead of feeding the crazy media frenzy. Props to her.
- That article from the Onion about the Planned Parenthood Abortionplex now has a hilarious spot on Yelp.
- A female self-proclaimed feminist that was on the jury of the NYC cop rape trial, speaks about the process and how difficult arriving at the verdict was.
- A group of three bisexual men brought a lawsuit against the Gay World Series. The men claim they were kicked out of the league for “not being gay enough”. A judge ruled that the league can keep the limited number of heterosexual players.
- Arianna Huffington talks with MSNBC about the stereotypes of strong women.
- Author VS Naipaul, a Nobel Laureate, says there are no women authors he considers his equal.
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U. of Michigan graduates walk out of own graduation
Over 100 students, almost one third of the University of Michigan Law School’s graduating class, walked out in protest over their speaker Senator Rob Portman’s (R-OH) anti-gay record at their own commencement ceremony Saturday. Students were protesting the choice of Portman who has a substantial anti-gay voting history.
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States that allow same sex marriage v. states that allow first cousins to marry
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My generation was bitterly divided over something that should have been so clear and right. The majority believed that what the judge said, that it was God’s plan to keep people apart, and that government should discriminate against people in love. But I have lived long enough now to see big changes. The older generation’s fears and prejudices have given way, and today’s young people realize that if someone loves someone, they have a right to marry.
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Mildred Loving, as in Loving v Virginia, the landmark case that made interracial marriage legal.
We’re still fighting this exact same battle, no?
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Here’s to all those people out there who can’t wait to be walking down that same aisle one day to get married to their significant other, and have all the people in the pews be supportive of that commitment.
<3 HG&Co.——
A Mother’s Day campaign: Partly in honor of Mother’s Day, Believe Out Loud is launching a campaign today for LGBT inclusion and equality in the Christian faith. Read more here.
