TRIGGER WARNING: GRAPHIC ABORTION CONTENT. Longshot presidential candidate to put abortion in your face during Super Bowl

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Section 315 of the FCC Telecommunications Act says stations must air ads for candidates for federal office and are prohibited from altering the content. That means they can’t refuse to run political ads even if the ads contain material the stations would ordinarily reject.

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Obama and the evangelicals and Catholics who voted for him in 2008 are the main targets of Terry’s ad, but anti-choice hopefuls including David Lewis, who is vying for Republican House Speaker John Boehner’s Ohio seat, and Angela Michael, who is challenging Rep. John Shimkus, R-Illinois, are running similar ads in their districts.

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He estimated he has raised about $40,000 so far and, ideally, would like to see the ads air in more than two dozen cities spanning seven states.

TRIGGER WARNING, GRAPHIC CONTENT OF ABORTIONS,

Watch the ads on Terry’s campaign site (graphic content)

STOP FORCED STERILIZATION IN SWEDEN: TRANS RIGHTS ARE HUMAN RIGHTS

If you are a transgender person in Sweden today looking to legally change your gender, in the 21st century you are still forced to undergo surgery that will render you permanently infertile and forever unable to have children. This barbaric practice of forced sterilizations has to stop!

The majority of the Swedish parliament is in favor of modifying this law - but up until now Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt has let a small conservative party block this long awaited reform.

Let’s make sure the Prime Minister knows that the majority of Sweden, and Europe - wants to see Sweden on the right side of history - by eliminating this archaic practice.

Please take one minute to sign this urgent letter to the Prime Minister of Sweden asking him to stop playing politics with the fundamental human rights of Swedish citizens. Our friends at RFSL, the Swedish LGBT Federation, will deliver your signatures directly to the Prime Minister’s office.

Thanks Girl Scouts! This Year I'm Eating Thin Mints for EQUAL RIGHTS!: Petition

Recently when a transgender child tried to join her local Girl Scout troop, she was excluded, despite identifying as a girl. Thankfully, Girl Scouts of America came out with a response saying “Girl Scouts is an inclusive organization and we accept all girls in Kindergarten through 12th grade as members. If a child identifies as a girl and the child’s family presents her as a girl, Girl Scouts of Colorado welcomes her as a Girl Scout.”

Girl Scout of America’s statement is exactly what (often at risk) LGBT children need to hear to know it really does get better. 

Unfortunately, bigoted people have responded to Girl Scouts of America’s statement with prejudice and suggestions of boycotting the cookies. 

Fight the boycotts and show Girl Scouts of America just how much support there is for equal rights for LGBT kids. Buy as many thin mints as you want this year and report back on just how many boxes of cookies you’re eating for equality.

Girl Scout Cookie Anti-Boycott (Buycott)

Recently, there has been contriversy in the Girl Scouts of America because a Colorado based Troop admitted a transgender girl into their Troop. Their decision has caused three Louisiana Troop leaders to resign and has prompted a California Girl Scout to make a YouTube video calling for a boycott on Girl Scout Cookies.
She wants the Girl Scouts to know that America is not happy with Transgendered people, and we NEED to prove her wrong. Whether you are Gay, Straight, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, Intersexed, Pansexual doesn’t matter. If you are a friend to the LGBT community, buy Girl Scout Cookies this year. Please, your friends need your support.

We did it! FBI Director Robert Mueller gave final approval to update the archaic definition of rape.

We did it! FBI Director Robert Mueller gave final approval to update the archaic definition of rape.

We did it thanks to you and the more than 160,000 emails we sent requesting a change in the way the FBI Uniform Crime Report defines rape.

With a modern, broader definition, FBI  statistics will finally show the true breadth of this violence that affects so many women’s lives. Women’s groups will work to ensure that this more accurate and complete data will lead to increased resources to combat and reduce the incidence of rape.

The old definition, adopted over 80 years ago, had been extensively criticized for leading to widespread underreporting of rape. Defined as “the carnal knowledge of a female, forcibly and against her will,” it excluded rapes involving forced anal sex and/or oral sex, rape with an object (even if serious injuries resulted) and rapes of men, and was interpreted by many police jurisdictions to exclude rapes where the victim was incapacitated by drugs or alcohol, or otherwise unable to give consent. The old rape definition excluded many rapes against women and all against men.

The new definition, as it appears on the FBI website, is: “Penetration, no matter how slight, of the vagina or anus with any body part or object, or oral penetration by a sex organ of another person, without the consent of the victim.”

This is a major policy change and will dramatically impact the way rape is tracked and reported nationwide. Thank you for your continued support throughout this campaign. Please take a minute to thank Director Mueller and the FBI, who finally changed the archaic definition of rape. Together, we are helping to make sure that all rapes will be counted.

For women’s lives,

Ellie Smeal

Eleanor Smeal
President
Feminist Majority Foundation
Stop wasting time explaining yourself to others. – Your friends don’t need it and your enemies won’t believe it anyway. Just do what you know in your heart is right.

30 Things to Stop Doing to Yourself

Marc and Angel Hack Life

Practical Tips for Productive Living

http://www.marcandangel.com/2011/12/11/30-things-to-stop-doing-to-yourself/

GLAAD and HRC take out full page ad condemning new ABC “comedy” Work It

cassket:

ABC is set to premiere a not at all funny sitcom called Work It about two men who dress as women to get jobs. If you are not sure how this has any comedic value and think it only serves to hurt the trans community then you are not alone. Ridiculing people for who they are is in no way funny.

Variety ad condeming Work It

And fortunately the folks at GLAAD and the Human Rights Campaign have taken out a full page advertisement in Daily Variety, the industry newspaper, condemning the new show and also educating the public on the issues facing the trans community. It is all too rare that the media highlights something positivein the trans community and shows like Work It move us in the opposite direction.

Here’s an excerpt of the ad:

Since ABC has a record of positive portrayals of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, they should know how offensive this show is, and that it even has the potential to jeopardize the safety of many transgender Americans in the process.

Transgender Americans — who can be legally fired in 34 states today simply for being who they are — face an inordinate amount of workplace discrimination that images like those on Work It perpetuate. In fact, 97% of self-identified transgender people reported being harassed or abused at work, and 26% — that’s one in four — reported losing their jobs because they are transgender.

Click here to sign the petition to tell ABC that Work It Doesn’t Work It

(via transqueery)

Source: feministing.com

NARAL Pro-Choice America: Hall of Fame and Shame 2011

Thousands of people have spoken, and the winner of this year’s NARAL Pro-Choice America Hall of Fame is:

Mississippians For Healthy Families!

This coalition of faith leaders, reproductive-justice and pro-choice allies, and other Mississippi-based groups successfully convinced their neighbors to reject a dangerous and far-reaching “personhood” measure.

Hats off to them!

And while we celebrate our pro-choice heroes, we recognize that 2011 brought a slew of new attacks on women’s freedom and privacy, ranging from the tragic to the ridiculous.

Every bushel has its rotten apples, and this year, Fox News Channel was voted rottenest of them all.

Remember when a Fox News commentator compared insurance coverage of birth control to manicures and pedicures?

Remember when Bill O’Reilly said that many women won’t use birth control because they’re “blasted out of their minds when they have sex,” and then said no-cost birth control would increase unemployment?

Remember when Sean Hannity said birth control is “not about women’s health?”

We remember. And it looks like you did, too.

Fox News Channel is the newest member of the Hall of Shame.

Documentary: My Penis and Everyone Else's

Set aside 55 minutes and watch this, worth it! (all genders)

My Penis And Everyone Else’s challenges society’s stereotypes of masculinity as well as getting to the heart of why men are so fixated with their members.

Emotional, revelatory, and intensely engaging, this film takes on one of society’s last taboos and culminates in one of the most daring exhibitions ever seen in the UK, as Lawrence puts together the world’s largest collection of penis portraiture ever seen!

“I do think pornography and the way it seeped into culture has had some effect because it’s so saturated, it’s so become a norm that people are seeing sex and their bodies through a completely distorted lens.” -Rowan Peeling, Former Editor of the Erotic Review

This transman is committed to making it better

Read more

…Until our LGBT and queer communities and the world at large acknowledge the violence and hatred that trans people – and especially trans women – face on a daily basis, I am committed to bringing awareness to the problem by calling out sexism, transphobia and trans-misogyny when I see it. This transman is committed to making it better for his fellow trans folk by being out, honest and courageous in the truth he speaks and writes. I encourage everyone reading to examine your own thoughts about gender conformity and to eliminate the language and fear that constricts each of us.