In the News

Here is some stuff in the news today!

[Content Note: Violence; transphobia] CeCe McDonald was released from prison this morning after serving 19 months in a men's prison. McDonald, a trans woman, was sentenced to 41 months after fatally stabbing a man who was attacking her in a hate crime, because self-defense is for privileged people.

Federal investigators are now "looking into whether New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) improperly put Hurricane Sandy relief funds towards Jersey Shore tourism ads." Yikes this guy.

[CN: Infertility] Good news for some infertile women: "Nine women in Sweden have successfully received transplanted wombs donated from relatives and will soon try to become pregnant, the doctor in charge of the pioneering project has revealed. The women were born without a uterus or had it removed because of cervical cancer. Most are in their 30s and are part of the first major experiment to test whether it is possible to transplant wombs into women so they can give birth to their own children." The thing that struck me most about this story is how rare it is I read a story about medical research of this scope that stands to benefit women.

[CN: Sexual violence] I can't believe (ha ha I can totally believe sob) there needs to be a specific law for this: "California Assemblyman Mike Gatto introduced a state bill this week that would change the rules for reporting rapes on college campuses in an effort to hold universities more accountable. AB 1433 would amend California's Education Code to require hate crimes and violent crimes, such as homicide, rape, or robbery, that are received by a university's campus law enforcement agency to be immediately reported to the police."

Former George W. Bush bullshitter Ari Fleischer has written a terrific (ha ha not terrific) piece for the Wall Street Journal entitled: "How to Fight Income Inequality: Get Married." Good fucking grief. I love how conservatives spend half their time arguing that no gay people should be allowed to marry, and the other half of their time arguing that every straight person should basically be forced to get married.

Meanwhile: Closing the Gender Wage Gap Would Cut Women's Poverty Rate in Half. "But if women are financially independent and aren't forced to marry men to survive, then we'd actually have to make ourselves desirable as decent human beings!"—Ari Fleischer, probably.

Do you want to see the trailer for Game of Thrones Season Four? Well, if you do, you can watch it here!