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A state representative of Florida has proposed a law that would make it illegal for educators to discuss menstruation with students in any grade below 6th, even though it's normal for girls to start menstruating at the age of 10, which is the age of some fourth graders.

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Watch Florida State Rep. @StanMcClain tell Rep. @Gantt4Florida that his bill prohibits young people from talking about their period…. 

WHAT?!?!

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Watch Florida State Rep. @StanMcClain tell Rep. @Gantt4Florida that his bill prohibits young people from talking about their period…. 

WHAT?!?! https://t.co/PoEgRm4sK0

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Watch Florida State Rep. @StanMcClain tell Rep. @Gantt4Florida that his bill prohibits young people from talking about their period….

WHAT?!?! pic.twitter.com/PoEgRm4sK0
— Florida Planned Parenthood Action (@PPactionFL) March 15, 2023

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Watch Florida State Rep. @StanMcClain tell Rep. @Gantt4Florida that his bill prohibits young people from talking about their period…. 

WHAT?!?! https://t.co/PoEgRm4sK0

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Watch Florida State Rep. @StanMcClain tell Rep. @Gantt4Florida that his bill prohibits young people from talking about their period…. 

WHAT?!?! https://t.co/PoEgRm4sK0

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Watch Florida State Rep. @StanMcClain tell Rep. @Gantt4Florida that his bill prohibits young people from talking about their period…. 

WHAT?!?!

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Feminist activists have launched campaigns in recent years to increase the representation of women and other marginalized groups in politics. This article discusses the groups EMILY's List as it worked to train and support female candidates and candidates from underrepresented groups, with the goal of increasing their chances of being elected to public office during the 2022 midterms.

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*Correction appended.

Emily's List, which backs Democratic women who support abortion rights as they run for office, is rebranding - a move that includes an expanded focus on voting rights and endorsing a more diverse roster of candidates.

The shift in messaging and representation comes as the organization's first Black woman president, Laphonza Butler, prepares to mark a year at the helm. The veteran organizer, union labor leader, mother and graduate of a historically Black college is reaching out to new donors and candidates, speaking at events where she will reach prominent Black women, and adding a focus on issues like voting rights that she sees as key to the mission of Emily's List.

The moves come in the wake of the Supreme Court's June 24 decision that left the legality of abortion up to the states, and as a record number of women of color are running for and winning elected office.

Butler told The 19th that after 37 years of electing Democratic, pro-choice women, the question for the organization's next era is: To do what?

"For every election cycle, we have been the proverbial backbone as voters of the Democratic Party, and we're running for office not just to be at the table, but to change the whole conversation that's happening," Butler said. "The rebrand is a way I want to bring the completion to that sentence, that yes, we want women to run and we want to help them win, but ultimately what this country wants and what the Democratic Party has to be about is to do something - and that is to bring about change."

With 70 days to go before Election Day, the group is introducing a new logo that incorporates a flag and a checkmark, as a nod to voting rights, and a new tagline, "Run. Win. Change the World." A general election tour kicks off Wednesday in New Hampshire, where Butler will campaign with Sen. Maggie Hassan ahead of the state's primary election on September 13. Hassan, who does not face serious primary competition, is one of the more endangered Senate Democratic incumbents.

The issue of abortion has gained prominence with voters in the weeks since the Supreme Court's decision in Dobbs vs. Jackson Women's Health Organization, and women-led groups are seeking to capitalize on the momentum. The Emily's List tour will hit other states with competitive races, including Michigan, Colorado, Georgia, Arizona, Oregon and North Carolina. Planned Parenthood is focusing its midterm efforts in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Planned Parenthood Action Fund has already said it would spend $50 million on the 2022 midterms; Emily's List said it is partnering with Planned Parenthood and NARAL to raise and spend a historic $150 million on the 2022 midterms. Emily's List alone spent $112 million in the 2020 cycle, when there was a presidential election; the group said it's too early to know how much it is spending this year.

Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, formerly SBA List, which supports candidates who oppose abortion rights, says its organization and its affiliates plan to spend $78 million during the midterms and to contact 8 million voters ahead of Election Day.

A year ago, Butler predicted abortion would be a "winning issue" for Democrats in 2022, but added in her interview this week that the pitch to voters by the party and by groups like hers would need to be more holistic.

"We are committed to being a dedicated resource to ensure that we are protecting access to reproductive health care, but the only way for us to protect those rights is if we have free and fair access to the ballot," said Butler. "If we can't elect the people who represent our values, then they can't govern based on our values."

Many of the same states that are restricting abortion in the wake of the Dobbs ruling have also added new rules around elections that limit how people can vote or, in some cases, potentially make the running and certification of elections more partisan.

In an open letter to supporters, Butler wrote: "Right now, it's our turn to recognize the inextricable linkage between reproductive health, economic justice, civil rights, voting rights and climate justice. We must connect the advocacy movements that are fighting for our rights, because we build power by working together to achieve our goals."

Midterm voters "are not single-issue people," Butler said in the interview.

"They have whole lives, and they want candidates that have a core set of values that really speak to the kind of change they want to see in their communities and across the country," Butler said.

"Yes, abortion access is one thing that is top of mind for them and will always be critical to who Emily's Lits endorses, but we have to make sure they are able to speak to the whole voter," she continued. "Is that a shift for Emily's List? Probably, but what I know is that is what I have seen to be most effective."

Laphonza Butler speaks onstage during the Bans Off Our Bodies Rally in Washington, DC in May 2022. (Paul Morigi/Getty Images)

Butler has also made some stops on the campaign trail that were new or higher profile for Emily's List, where White women were long seen as the main leaders and beneficiaries of the group's largesse and influence. Earlier this month, she spoke at an Emily's List event at Martha's Vineyard during the high season for prominent African American vacationers. The group upped its presence at this year's Essence Fest and has engaged with historically Black colleges and Black sororities, recently convening women leaders at Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta. Butler will attend a prominent gathering of Black women leaders in politics, business, media and labor in the city next month.

"We have been in a lot more places than we had been in the past," Butler said. "I am intentionally trying to communicate that Emily's List is an organization that is accessible to every woman that wants to serve in public office."

Butler noted that in the past year, she has heard from women of color who had not been asked to support Emily's List in the past and from candidates who never thought they would get an endorsement from the organization.

"There have been lots of responses of surprise, of excitement, but most importantly, the response has been that more people want us to come," she said.

Butler is among a number of women of color who have recently taken top roles at organizations historically run by White women. That includes Planned Parenthood CEO and President Alexis McGill Johnson, NARAL Pro-Choice America President Mini Timmaraju and National Women's Law Center President Fatima Goss Graves. Emily's List has endorsed 34 women of color this cycle and said more endorsements will come. The group backed 28 women of color in 2020, 29 in 2018 and 18 in 2016. The rise is also a reflection of the increasing number of Black women who are running for and winning positions to elected office.

On the group's website, the featured candidates on the homepage are all Black women who would be the first in their roles if elected: U.S. Senate candidates Val Demings of Florida and Cheri Beasley of North Carolina and Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams.

Butler said highlighting women candidates of color in particular is about expanding Emily's List's core mission of what it means and who can be a viable candidate. (The organization's name is an acronym that stands for "Early Money Is Like Yeast.")

"It actually means something, and the more that we're able to manifest the meaning on behalf of women all over this country is an important part of how I continue the legacy of this organization," said Butler, who added that the group is continuing to endorse candidates at the federal, state and local level. "I have to remind people that Emily is not a person."

Maya Harris, sister to Vice President Kamala Harris, joined the Emily's List board in 2020. Half of the members of the board, including its chair, are women of color. She said Butler is bringing in people who had not previously seen themselves in the organization.

"You do want to have people who have been too often left out, to be not just let in, but be at the table," Harris said. "Laphonza gets that. She spent her career working on the ground, to build coalitions and bridges that actually build real power."

Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that Butler spoke at Essence Fest.

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Emily's List expands focus on diverse candidates and voting rights ahead of midterm elections

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Correction appended. Emily's List, which backs Democratic women who support abortion rights as they run for office, is rebranding - a move that includes an expanded focus on voting rights and endorsing a more diverse roster of candidates. The shift in messaging and representation comes as the organization's first Black woman president, Laphonza Butler, prepares to mark a year at the helm.

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This article was released Dec. 8th of 2022, and gives the news that beaches in Massachusetts now allow both men and women to swim and sunbathe without tops on. Previously, women would be fined $300 for taking their tops off, while men were allowed to.

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Topless beaches now legal on Nantucket | CNN

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It is now legal for women to be topless at beaches on the popular vacation island of Nantucket, off the coast of Massachusetts.

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This woman posted a YouTube short, where they're smiling and proudly showing off armpit hair in response to a hate comment they received over showing off their hair.

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This news article was written January 13th of 2023 and details the event and reactions to the Missouri House's decision to add onto the existing dress code stricter rules for women, while no changes were made to the male dress code. It added that women must also wear jackets or blazers to keep things professional.

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Missouri's House of Representatives kicked off its new session by tightening its dress code - but only for female lawmakers, to the dismay of Democrats who slammed the measure during floor debate and on social media.

Lawmakers met on Wednesday to debate changes to the House rules, as is customary at the start of a new General Assembly every two years. And while the day's discussions would go on to cover rules around issues like committee business and public hearings, they began with a heated conversation about workplace wardrobes.

The House's existing dress code defined proper attire for women as "dresses or skirts or slacks worn with a blazer or sweater and appropriate dress shoes or boots," according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. It also had rules about men's clothing, though no one sought to update them this week.

Republican state Rep. Ann Kelley proposed an amendment that would require women to wear jackets - defined as both blazers and knit blazers - because "it is essential to always maintain a formal and professional atmosphere."

Several House Democrats were quick to push back, deriding the proposal as sexist, impractical and even hypocritical.

"Yep, the caucus that lost their minds over the suggestion that they should wear masks during a pandemic to respect the safety of others is now spending its time focusing on the fine details of what women have to wear (specifically how to cover their arms) to show respect here," tweeted Democratic Rep. Peter Merideth.

Several said Republicans shouldn't be making women's decisions for them, especially with other more important matters at hand. Rep. Raychel Proudie made one such argument in brief remarks on the House floor, which progressive digital outlet Heartland Signal shared on Twitter.

"There are some very serious things that are in this rule package that I think we should be debating, but instead we are fighting, again, for a woman's right to choose something, and this time [it's] how she covers herself," Proudie said.

She was one of two representatives who questioned Kelley's right to decide what is and isn't appropriate for others to wear - saying thatKelley had recently worn a pink sequined outfit on the House floor.

"[She's] telling me I can't wear a crispy good St. John sweater if it has too many buttons," Proudie added. "I spent $1,200 on a suit and I can't wear it in the people's house because someone who doesn't have the range tells me that it's inappropriate. That's not why any of us were elected."

What I wasn't about to do was be made dusty for the next two years by someone who wears after 5 attire at 10am😌💅🏾

These folks need to stop playing on the taxpayers' dime with this type of nonsense, for real. Be a pick-me on you in time and at your own expense. https://t.co/r4KqyIChNO
- Raychel Proudie (@RCProudie) January 12, 2023

Rep. Brenda Shields, a Republican, defended Kelley's proposal as an effort to clarify the rules that were already in place and suggested adjusting the language to let cardigans count as jackets.

The Republican-controlled House ultimately approved that modified version of the amendment - though the conversation, and criticism, has continued.

The proposal raised questions and heated debate

Several critics took issue with the substance of the proposed rule change, characterizing the specific jacket requirement as both an inconvenience for current lawmakers and a possible obstacle to future ones.

"Just finished floor debate explaining why knit blazers do not include cardigans on an amendment restricting what women can wear in the House," tweeted Dem. Rep. Jamie Johnson. "Why would we need to add additional class barriers to the idea that anyone could represent the people..."

Women hold less than a third of seats in the Missouri House, according to the Post-Dispatch.

Proudie noted in her floor remarks that any sitting lawmakers who become pregnant will have to spend additional money buying or tailoring clothes.

"And I hope that you're able to continue to wear your cardigan, and vote on behalf of the people who sent you here," she said.

Rep. Ashley Aune took to the floor to question how such a requirement could even be enforced: Would someone be checking women's jacket tags to see what kind of material they were made of? Does silk count?

"Do you know what it feels like to have a bunch of men in this room, looking at your top, trying to decide whether it's appropriate or not?" Aune asked in a video clip shared on Twitter, calling it "ridiculous."

That sparked an almost minute-long back-and-forth between her and Kelley, who agreed that it was "absolutely absurd" to have this conversation on the House floor. Then why, Aune asked, did she even bring it up?

"You would think that all you would have to do is say 'dress professionally' and women could handle it," Kelley said. "You would think elected officials could handle that."

"You would think," Aune retorted. "But we're walking around here in sequins and velveteen, to the lady's point. So what is appropriate and why do you get to decide?" NPR has not seen images of the controversial top.

A post on the Facebook page of "Anne Kelley MO Representative" said that she has gotten "lots of hateful calls emails, and messages in regards to this amendment, which is funny because we already have a dress code all I was doing was fixing the errors and clarifying the rule."

She added that she brought the amendment to the floor because the House's chief clerk had "requested for many years to get [this] fixed in our rules." And she denied wasting anyone's time, saying her speech had only taken five minutes and blaming the Democrats for prolonging the debate.

"How is encouraging professionalism wrong?" Kelley added. "If there is ever a time to honor traditions and be professional it is on the House Chamber Floor in the Missouri House of Representatives; I will not apologize for standing up for these things."

Dress code debates have played out in other states

Dress codes are regularly the subject of controversy and debate in educational and professional settings, and state legislatures are no exception ( neither is Congress).

The National Conference of State Legislatures counted some sort of formalized dress code in about half of states as of 2019, as The Associated Press reported in a 2021 story about the growing sentiment against such rules "increasingly viewed as sexist and racist."

Some state legislatures have moved to deregulate their dress codes, or at least equalize the standards for men and women.

Lawmakers in Wyoming, which until recently was on the stricter side of the spectrum, voted last year to strip its dress code down to the basics: Members must dress in "business attire befitting the decorum of the house." Bolo ties are allowed, denim is not.

Legislators had initially set out to align the requirements for men and women, but decided to go in a simpler direction by essentially copying the dress code New Mexico implemented in 2009.

The onset of COVID-19 and remote work have helped relax dress codes in many workplaces and industries, including in politics, as NPR has reported.

The pandemic also shed light on what certain legislatures would - and wouldn't - require their own members to wear. In 2021, Iowa Rep. Beth Wessel-Kroeschell, a Democrat, wore jeans on the floor of the state House to protest Republicans' refusal to mandate face masks.

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The Missouri House tightens its dress code for women, to the dismay of Democrats

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Missouri's House of Representatives kicked off its new session by tightening its dress code - but only for female lawmakers, to the dismay of Democrats who slammed the measure during floor debate and on social media. Lawmakers met on Wednesday to debate changes to the House rules, as is customary at the start of a new General Assembly every two years.

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This Instagram posts reflects the beauty standard by showing slim, curvy women with long hair, no body hair, and makeup.

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View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Luluslly (@luluslly)

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These two people share a TikTok account called "The Goddess Boys" where they challenge gender construction by doing things like growing facial hair and wearing pink, all while having fun and confidently being themselves.

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Boom 💥 @beingadp #boom #trendin #fypシ #viral #ootd #legallyblonde #fashion 

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@rjchumbley
Boom 💥 @beingadp #boom #trendin #fypシ #viral #ootd #legallyblonde #fashion
♬ Sure Thing (sped up) - Miguel

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This YouTube video showcases many protests in which feminist activists oppose  restrictive laws on abortion. Feminist people, women's health organizations, and advocacy groups organize rallies, marches, and online campaigns to raise awareness about the impact of these laws on people who menstruate health and rights.

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Abortion rights protests fill streets across the U.S.

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A Black couple in California sued a woman who appraised their house because they believed they were given a low appraisal due to their race. The woman appraised their house at $995,000, but when they removed their family photos and had a White friend of theirs pretend to own the house, it was appraised at $1,500,000.

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A Black couple settled a federal housing discrimination lawsuit with a White licensed real estate appraiser, who they accused of giving their home a low appraisal because they are Black, Fair Housing Advocates of Northern California announced Monday.

Marin City, California, homeowners Paul Austin and Tenisha Tate-Austin sued the appraiser, claiming she used unsuitable, racially biased comparable home sales or "comps" in determining their home's worth.

The agreement included an undisclosed monetary amount. The licensed real estate appraiser, who doesn't have to admit any liability in the case, is mandated to attend training sessions on segregation and agree to not discriminate in the future, FHANC said in a press statement.

When mortgage rates were low in early 2020, the couple jumped at the chance to refinance their home. They had already refinanced in 2019 to take advantage of the home's higher value and generated more cash for additional improvements, "CBS Mornings" reported at the time.

In 2019, the home was appraised at over $1.4 million, but one year later, they said it was appraised at just $995,000. The couple suspected something was wrong.

"I mean, it's the financial impact, but it's the emotional impact," Tate-Austin told "CBS Mornings" in 2021. "It's the feeling every day like, the tax of being African-American in this country, like you don't know, it's a coin toss. You're not for sure what's going to happen."

The couple decided to get another appraisal. This time, they asked a White friend of theirs to pretend to be Tate-Austin, and the couple removed their family photos and any African-themed art, FHANC said.

A different appraiser then assessed the home's value at nearly $1.5 million dollars.

"Having to erase our identity to get a better appraisal was a wrenching experience," Tate-Austin said in a statement following the settlement. "We know of other Black families who either couldn't get a loan because of a discriminatory appraisal and therefore either lost the opportunity to buy or sell a home, or they had to sell their home because they had an unaffordable loan."

"We hope by bringing attention to our case and this lawsuit settlement, we can help change the way the appraisal industry operates, and we can start to see a different trend," Tate-Austin added.

"We're glad that we can put this lawsuit behind us," Austin said. "Having to experience everything that came with receiving the lowballed appraisal was overwhelming. Being able to tell our story and knowing we had legal recourse helped. We want others to know that if you experience discrimination, you can go to your local fair housing agency so they can investigate your case and help you if you want to file a complaint."

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Black couple who say home was given low appraisal because of their race settles discrimination lawsuit

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A Black couple settled a federal housing discrimination lawsuit with a White licensed real estate appraiser, who they accused of giving their home a low appraisal because they are Black, Fair Housing Advocates of Northern California announced Monday.

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A lawmaker in Tennessee posed with guns on his family's Christmas card, and this was accepted as fine until a high school in his area had a school shooting. However, Ja Morant, a Black NBA star, has been suspended for two games without pay because he posted a video with a gun in it on Instgram.

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View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Impact (@impact)

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This articles brings up the discussion of some parents fighting against critical race theory. The interesting thing though, is that people who normally protest critical race theory being taught in schools are White adults and lawmakers. These are not the people who would be the most affected by it being taught.

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The newer movement and activist group Black Lives Matter challenges the way privilege and oppression work in society by calling for changes in laws, private sector policies, and has caused a historic transfer of wealth to racial and leftwing causes.

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Claremont Institute Center for the American Way of Life

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BLM Executed A Historic Shakedown Of American Corporations

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Our database tracking contributions and pledges made to the BLM movement shows a historic transfer of wealth to leftwing causes.

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The Audre Lorde Project is working to help the needs of LGBTQ+ people of color, as they are a group of people that are often marginalized for their race and sexuality.

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Muslim women face intersecting forms of discrimination based on their religion, gender, and race. Organizations like the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) are working to combat Islamophobia and promote the rights of Muslim women in areas like employment, education, and housing.

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The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is a Washington D.C.-based 501(c)(3) non-profit organization with 28 independent chapters around the country. Since its founding in 1994, CAIR has sought to position itself as the leading American Muslim civil rights organization. In recent years, much of its activity has centered on responding to the proliferation of anti-Muslim incidents and sentiment expressed nationwide.

Some of CAIR's current leadership had early connections with organizations that are or were affiliated with Hamas. Hamas is designated as a foreign terrorist organization (FTO) by the United States and is also viewed by the EU as a global terrorist organization.[1]

In addition, some of CAIR's leadership have used inflammatory anti-Zionist rhetoric that on a number of occasions has veered into antisemitic tropes related to Jewish influence over the media or political affairs, or has descended into the vilification of Zionists, which includes the majority of American Jews, who view a connection with Israel as a component of their Jewish identity.[2] ADL defines Zionism[3] as the movement for statehood for the Jewish people in their ancestral homeland, the land of Israel.

CAIR frequently partners with vehemently anti-Zionist and anti-Israel groups like Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) and American Muslims for Palestine, many of whose members employ extreme rhetoric and questionable tactics to demonize Zionism and Zionists and disrupt pro-Israel activity.
CAIR and Israel
Although its main organizational mission is upholding the rights of Muslims in the United States, CAIR also comments on international issues, with a particular focus on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Key CAIR leaders have frequently expressed vociferous opposition to Israel and Zionism, claiming at times that Zionism and Zionists are fundamentally racist. (See below: Key CAIR Staff on Israel and Zionism).

One of the founding board members of CAIR's Dallas office, Ghassan Elashi, was linked to the Holy Land Foundation (HLF), a Texas-based charity that, according to the U.S. government, became the chief fundraising arm for the Palestine Committee in the U.S. The Palestine Committee was created by Hamas's parent organization, the Muslim Brotherhood, to support Hamas. Both HLF and CAIR were members of the Palestine Committee. In 2008, HLF's five founding officers were convicted on more than 100 criminal counts and sentenced in May 2009 to between 15 and 65 years in federal prison for financing terrorism by funneling more than $12 million to Hamas.[6] According to news reports, evidence presented at the Holy Land Foundation trial demonstrated that other CAIR leaders were also linked to HLF and Hamas activity in the U.S.[7] As noted above and according to the trial testimony, the Palestine Committee was a U.S. wing of Hamas' parent organization, the Muslim Brotherhood. The Palestine Committee was headed by Hamas official Mousa Abu Marzook,[8] who since 1995 had been designated by the U.S. government as a Specially Designated Terrorist.[9]

CAIR was included on a 2007 Department of Justice list of nearly 250 "unindicted co-conspirators" in the HLF case. A federal appeals court subsequently ruled that the government had been wrong to publicly identify CAIR and others on that list and that the list should be sealed.[12] CAIR's name remains on the list.

In response to CAIR's involvement with the Holy Land Foundation, the Federal Bureau of Investigation distanced itself from the organization. In the past, the FBI had interacted with CAIR representatives regarding community outreach activities, civil rights complaints and criminal investigations. However, in 2008, the FBI issued an instruction to its field offices that they should sharply curtail "non-investigative interactions" with CAIR.[13] This instruction was elucidated in an April 2009 letter to the Subcommittee on Terrorism, Technology, and Homeland Security, in which the FBI explained that it would cease to liaise with CAIR "until [they] resolve whether there continues to be a connection between CAIR or its executives and Hamas."[14] To our knowledge as of this writing, the FBI has not retracted this protocol.

Awad also appeared at a rally convened in April 2002 next to antisemitic Imam Abdul Alim Musa, the founder of the extremist group Sabiqun. Among other virulently antisemitic statements, Musa has claimed that the Jews ran the slave trade; that, compared to the what had been done to Native Americans and African Americans the Holocaust was "small potatoes;" that Jews are the enemy of humanity; that Jews control America and that Jews have manipulated Arab leaders into being drunk, broke and engaged in internecine warfare.[18] In the photo below, Nihad Awad is shown next to Musa, delivering a speech under a Hezbollah flag.

More recently, CAIR has supported and advocated for Rasmea Odeh, who was convicted by an Israeli court in 1970 for her role in a 1969 bombing of a supermarket that killed two Israeli students, and who was later released as part of a prisoner exchange. As a member of the Rasmea Defense Committee, both of CAIR's Midwest chapters (Chicago and Michigan) support the idea that Odeh "is a leading member of Chicago's Palestinian, Arab, and Muslim communities," and that she "is a community icon who overcame vicious torture by Israeli authorities...and an example for the millions of Palestinians who have not given up organizing for their rights of liberation, equality, and return."[19] The Rasmea Defense Committee was active up until September 2017, when Odeh was deported to Jordan.

CAIR Staff Statements on Israel and Zionism

CAIR's Executive Director Nihad Awad has made numerous anti-Israel comments, some of which have played into conspiracy theories about Jewish control of the media or U.S. government. During a May 2021 CAIR webinar, Awad stated that "the mainstream media had monopoly over the talking points - [parroted from] the pro-Israel organizations."[21] In 2014, he claimed that Israel "is the biggest threat to world peace and security."[22]
Hussam Ayloush
CAIR-Los Angeles Executive Director Hussam Ayloush has a history of problematic rhetoric. During the May 2021 conflict between Israel and Hamas in particular, Ayloush denigrated Zionism and Zionists, including by invoking the Holocaust and comparing Zionism to the Ku Klux Klan and ISIS. He also intimated Zionist Jews are responsible for the scourge of Islamophobia in the United States:

May 28 Facebook post: "No person with a conscience can be a Zionist."[26]

May 25, 2021: Ayloush tweeted a video he alleged showed "the connection between Zionism, colonialism, and the far-right bigotry."[27]

May 21, 2021, speech: Ayloush referred to "the ugly nature and ideology of Zionism and what it brings with it, from apartheid, from murder, from occupation, from racism, from brutality..."[28]

May 17: "Zionism and Judaism are not equivalent, any more than ISIS and Islam are, or the KKK and Christianity are. Don't confuse violent and bigoted political ideologies with peaceful religions."[29]

May 15: Ayloush posted a video of an anti-Israel rally he attended which showed protestors chanting: "Hey hey! Ho ho! Zionism has got to go!"[30]

May 10 Facebook post: "...the same bigoted Zionists who are assaulting Al-Aqsa and Palestinians are the ones assaulting our Muslim community's rights in America and promoting Islamophobia."[31]

May 8, 2021, Facebook post: "Shame on every politician, activist, journalist, or clergy who continues to excuse, justify, defend, or ignore the war crimes committed by the murderous apartheid Zionist regime for the past seven decades. When will your humanity awaken?... Please share with others to remind them that our silence in the past led to genocides and a Holocaust.[32]

In February 2019, Ayloush implied that denying the Holocaust is morally equivalent to supporting "Zionism and its ethnic cleansing of Palestinians."[33]

In April 2018, Ayloush tweeted that "Debating apologists for Arab dictators is like debating Zionists about Israel. Both have little functional brain & no morals."[34]

In November 2018, Ayloush tweeted: "Iran's regime calling Israel a 'cancerous tumor' is like the pot calling the kettle black. All the people of that region will be better off once both murderous regimes are terminated."[35]
Zahra Billoo
CAIR-San Francisco Bay Area Executive Director Zahra Billoo is among the organization's most outspoken anti-Zionists, and she frequently posts her views on Zionism to social media or discusses them in speeches. Of note, during a talk about Islamophobia delivered at American Muslims for Palestine's 2021 Palestine Convention (held November 25-27 in Chicago), Billoo told the audience to "pay attention" to "Zionist synagogues" and other Jewish organizations that represent the mainstream American Jewish community, calling them "enemies:"[36]

"I also want us to pay attention to the 'polite Zionists,' ... We need to pay attention to the Anti-Defamation League. We need to pay attention to the Jewish Federation[sic]. We need to pay attention to the Zionist synagogues. We need to pay attention to the Hillel chapters on our campuses. Just because they're your friend today doesn't mean that they have your back when it comes to human rights...know your enemies, and I'm not going to sugarcoat that they are your enemies. There are organizations and infrastructures out there who are working to harm you, make no mistake of it. They would sell you down the line if they could, and they very often do behind your back. I mean the Zionist organizations; I mean the foreign policy organizations who say they're not Zionists but want a two-state solution. I'm not a Palestinian myself but it's my understanding that that is laughable, so know your enemies."

When Billoo was criticized for these remarks targeting most of the American Jewish community, CAIR National doubled down and publicly offered unqualified support for Billoo.[37]

Billoo has often equated Zionism with racism. In June 2018, she tweeted, "I do indeed oppose Zionism. I see it as racist, just like I do any other ethnic nationalism."[41] Before posting this, Billoo was scheduled to receive an honorary award from the interfaith organization, People Acting in Community Together (PACT); in the wake of these comments the award was temporarily rescinded.[42] Though Billoo garnered support from her wider community and eventually received the PACT award, she posted about her experience on Facebook, reiterating her original belief: "Everyone was talking about Muslims and Palestine. Everyone was talking about some people's reasonable belief, including my own, that Zionism is racism."[43] In October 2018, Billoo reiterated her belief that "pro-Israel work is pro-terror, pro-violence, pro-land theft, and pro-apartheid."[44]

In September 2019, only days after her appointment to the board of the Women's March and following a series of news articles about Billoo's extreme anti-Zionism, the group's leadership removed her from her post.[48] In a tweet, the Women's March stated that "some of her public statements [were] incompatible with the values and mission of the organization."[49]

At American Muslims for Palestine's annual convention in November 2019, Billoo stated she is "not going to support [Israel's] right to exist" and that "more polarization is good" in public dialogue about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. She also announced that henceforth she would apply a "Palestine litmus test to any interfaith spaces" in which she participated, adding "if you want to be in community with me, my people and the Palestinians I work in solidarity with, then let's have a conversation about how Israel as it exists today is an illegitimate state."[50]
Salaedin Maksut
Salaedin Maksut, Executive Director of CAIR-NJ, has demonized Zionism and Zionists on several occasions. In an October 31, 2021, post on Facebook, Maksut referred to Zionism and "other racist and oppressive ideologies."[51] On May 10, 2021, he tweeted: "Israel is a state based on a racist doctrine. Zionism is racism, pure and simple."[52]

At an anti-Israel rally on May 11, 2021, Maksut played into antisemitic themes about Jewish power and culpability for racism in the United States, remarking to attendees: [53]

"we have to realize that the same foot and the same knee that is choking the Palestinian people is the same foot and the same knee that is choking the Black and Brown people in this country. The powers that are funding the oppression of the Palestinian people are the same powers that are funding the oppression of minority groups in this country. It is the same money. They are cutting the same checks. They are the same people. They are sitting in the same offices of government."

He concluded with the chant: "Zionism is racism." Whatever his intent, altogether such rhetoric can be interpreted as suggesting that pro-Israel and Zionist Americans, and by extension the mainstream Jewish community, is the primary cause of racist oppression and brutality in the United States.

Maksut made similar remarks at a rally in July 2020.[54] Faced with criticism, he doubled down in a tweet: "I stand by what I said. 'In order to defeat this evil that is Zionism, we must realize that the foot on the necks of the Black and Brown people of this nation is the same foot and the same knee that is choking the Palestinian people....'"[55]
CAIR and other Anti-Israel Organizations
Jewish Voice for Peace

CAIR often partners with Jewish Voice for Peace, a far left anti-Israel group that promulgates anti-Zionist rhetoric, often spreads false and misleading statements regarding American Jewish communal organizations, and advocates for a complete economic, cultural and academic boycott of the state of Israel.[56] In a recent collaboration, JVP and CAIR were among the co-sponsors of a major anti-Israel protest (along with other groups such as American Muslims for Palestine) in front of the State Department during the May 2021 Hamas-Israel conflict.[57]

Other collaborations have included an October 2018 event cosponsored by CAIR-Austin and JVP-Austin featuring anti-Israel and anti-Zionist activist Kali Rubaii of Friends of Sabeel North America, an anti-Israel Christian activist group.[58] In 2019,CAIR-LA announced JVP as the recipient of its 2019 Champion of Justice Award because of its work "opposing anti-Jewish, anti-Muslim and anti-Arab bigotry and oppression."[59]

In May 2018, CAIR-Philadelphia signed onto JVP-Philadelphia's "Deadly Exchange"[60] petition, which is a JVP-run campaign falsely blaming Israel "for police brutality, especially against people of color, on American streets," and targeting ADL for running seminars and trips, which enable American and Israeli police to explore shared security challenges and discuss best practices for countering terrorism.[61] By partnering with JVP in this willful misrepresentation of these police exchanges, CAIR joins JVP in injecting extreme anti-Israeli animus into other important social justice movements, demonizing Israel and detracting from pressing civil rights work.
American Muslims for Palestine
CAIR is closely connected to American Muslims for Palestine (AMP), the leading organization providing anti-Zionist training and education to students and Muslim community organizations around the country. AMP promotes extreme anti-Israel views and at times has provided a platform for antisemitism under the guise of educating Americans about "the just cause of Palestine and the rights of self-determination."[62] In 2017, Nihad Awad spoke at AMP's 10th annual conference.

Although Bazian subsequently apologized, claiming the image "is offensive and does not represent [his] views,"[66] he has continued to occasionally engage in similar rhetoric, which calls the sincerity of his apology into question. In August 2021, he re-tweeted an antisemitic cartoon depicting an Israeli soldier organ harvesting the heart of a deceased Palestinian man.[67] In May 2021, he tweeted: "Zionist Jews are so over taken[sic] and blinded by power, might and control over Palestine that they don't have the capacity to look in the mirror and ask the question of what role they are playing and how they became a powerful instrument in Western imperialism."

[19] http://justice4rasmea.org/about

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The Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR)

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The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is a Washington D.C.-based 501(c)(3) non-profit organization with 28 independent chapters around the country. Since its founding in 1994, CAIR has sought to position itself as the leading American Muslim civil rights organization. In recent years, much of its activity has centered on responding to the proliferation of anti-Muslim incidents and sentiment expressed nationwide.

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The Gender Wage Gap is an issue in itself, but it gets worse when you also take race into consideration. Asian women make 87 cents per White men dollar, White woman make 82 cents, Black women make 65 cents, and Hispanic women make 58 cents.

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Large racial and gender wage gaps in the U.S. remain, even as they have narrowed in some cases over the years. Among full- and part-time workers in the U.S., blacks in 2015 earned just 75% as much as whites in median hourly earnings and women earned 83% as much as men.

Looking at gender, race and ethnicity combined, all groups, with the exception of Asian men, lag behind white men in terms of median hourly earnings, according to a new Pew Research Center analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics data. White men are often used in comparisons such as this because they are the largest demographic group in the workforce - 33% in 2015.

In 2015, average hourly wages for black and Hispanic men were $15 and $14, respectively, compared with $21 for white men. Only the hourly earnings of Asian men ($24) outpaced those of white men.

Among women across all races and ethnicities, hourly earnings lag behind those of white men and men in their own racial or ethnic group. But the hourly earnings of Asian and white women ($18 and $17, respectively) are higher than those of black and Hispanic women ($13 and $12, respectively) - and also higher than those of black and Hispanic men.

While the hourly earnings of white men continue to outpace those of women, all groups of women have made progress in narrowing this wage gap since 1980, reflecting at least in part a significant increase in the education levels and workforce experience of women over time.

White and Asian women have narrowed the wage gap with white men to a much greater degree than black and Hispanic women. For example, white women narrowed the wage gap in median hourly earnings by 22 cents from 1980 (when they earned, on average, 60 cents for every dollar earned by a white man) to 2015 (when they earned 82 cents). By comparison, black women only narrowed that gap by 9 cents, from earning 56 cents for every dollar earned by a white man in 1980 to 65 cents today. Asian women followed roughly the trajectory of white women (but earned a slightly higher 87 cents per dollar earned by a white man in 2015), whereas Hispanic women fared even worse than black women, narrowing the gap by just 5 cents (earning 58 cents on the dollar in 2015).

Black and Hispanic men, for their part, have made no progress in narrowing the wage gap with white men since 1980, in part because there have been no improvements in the hourly earnings of white, black or Hispanic men over this 35-year period. As a result, black men earned the same 73% share of white men's hourly earnings in 1980 as they did in 2015, and Hispanic men earned 69% of white men's earnings in 2015 compared with 71% in 1980.

To be sure, some of these wage gaps can be attributed to the fact that lower shares of blacks and Hispanics are college educated. U.S. workers with a four-year college degree earn significantly more than those who have not completed college. Among adults ages 25 and older, 23% of blacks and 15% of Hispanics have a bachelor's degree or more education, compared with 36% of whites and 53% of Asians.

However, looking just at those with a bachelor's degree or more education, wage gaps by gender, race and ethnicity persist. College-educated black and Hispanic men earn roughly 80% the hourly wages of white college educated men ($25 and $26 vs. $32, respectively). White and Asian college-educated women also earn roughly 80% the hourly wages of white college-educated men ($25 and $27, respectively). However, black and Hispanic women with a college degree earn only about 70% the hourly wages of similarly educated white men ($23 and $22, respectively). As with workers overall, college-educated Asian men out-earn college-educated white men by about $3 per hour of work.

What contributes to these persistent wage gaps? Research shows that a majority of each of these gaps can be explained by differences in education, labor force experience, occupation or industry and other measurable factors.

For example, NBER researchers Francine Blau and Lawerence Kahn found that education and workforce experience accounted for 8% of the total gender wage gap in 2010, while industry and occupation explained 51% of the difference. When it comes to race, sociologists Eric Grodsky and Devah Pager found that education and workforce experience accounted for 52% of the wage gap between black and white men working in the public sector in 1990, and that adding occupational differences explained approximately 20% of the wage gap. And NBER researcher Roland Fryer found that for one group of adults in their 40s, controlling for standardized-test scores reduced the wage gap between black men and white men in 2006 by roughly 70%.

The remaining gaps not explained by these concrete factors are often attributed, at least in part, to discrimination. Blau and Kahn point out, however, that there are both portions of this "unmeasured" difference that could be due to factors other than discrimination (e.g., gender differences in behaviors like risk aversion or negotiation) as well as portions of the "measured" difference that may in fact be due to discrimination (e.g., a woman or minority not entering a high-paying STEM field because of experiences that may be rooted in prejudice, such as greater encouragement for men than women to pursue these studies).

When it comes to racial discrimination in the workplace, most Americans (60%) say blacks and whites are treated about equally, but opinions on this vary considerably across racial and ethnic groups. A new Pew Research Center report finds that roughly two-thirds (64%) of blacks say black people in the U.S. are generally treated less fairly than whites in the workplace; just 22% of whites and 38% of Hispanics agree.

About two-in-ten black adults (21%) and 16% of Hispanics say that in the past year they have been treated unfairly in hiring, pay or promotion because of their race or ethnicity; just 4% of white adults say the same. And while 40% of blacks say their race or ethnicity has made it harder for them to succeed in life, just 5% of whites - and 20% of Hispanics - say this. Some 31% of whites say their race or ethnicity has eased the way toward their success. At least six-in-ten whites (62%) and Hispanics (65%), and about half of blacks (51%), say their race or ethnicity hasn't made much of a difference.

For their part, about a quarter of women (27%) say their gender has made it harder for them to succeed in life, compared with just 7% of men. About six-in-ten men and women say their gender hasn't made much difference, but men are much more likely than women to say their gender has made it easier to succeed (30% vs. 8%). In addition, a 2013 Pew Research Center survey found that about one-in-five women (18%) say they have faced gender discrimination at work, including 12% who say they have earned less than a man doing the same job because of their gender. By comparison, one-in-ten men say they have faced gender-based workplace discrimination, including 3% who say their gender has been a factor in earning lower wages.

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Racial, gender wage gaps persist in U.S. despite some progress

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Large racial and gender wage gaps in the U.S. remain, even as they have narrowed in some cases over the years. Among full- and part-time workers in the U.S., blacks in 2015 earned just 75% as much as whites in median hourly earnings and women earned 83% as much as men.

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The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the intersectionality of race and health outcomes. Data has shown that Black, Indigenous, and People of Color have been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic in terms of infection rates, hospitalizations, and deaths. This is due in part to systemic racism and inequality that has created disparities in healthcare access, employment opportunities, and living conditions.

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Data gathered early in the pandemic showed that communities of color are disproportionately affected by COVID-19 across the United States. But incomplete data left a muddy picture of these disparities.

Today, as the U.S. has surpassed 200,000 COVID-19 deaths, and reached nearly 7 million confirmed cases, racial data is more complete, and the trend is crystal clear: People of color get sick and die of COVID-19 at rates higher than whites and higher than their share of the population.

The trend has persisted - and in some cases worsened - since NPR analyzed this data in May. As the country struggles to bring the pandemic under control, Blacks, Latinos and Native Americans bear an unequal burden

An NPR analysis of the latest data available from the COVID Tracking Project shows how this plays out state by state. ( Jump to charts below to look up your state). Here are the key findings of the national picture:

African Americans continue to get infected and die from COVID-19 at rates more than 1.5 times their share of the population.

In Missouri, Kansas, Wisconsin and Michigan, African Americans are dying at a rate more than 2.5 times their share of the population.

Increasingly, Hispanics and Latinos die from COVID-19 at rates higher than their share of state populations. In May, this was true in only seven states, but now it is true in 19 states and the District of Columbia.

Hispanics and Latinos have a disproportionate rate of infection in 45 states and the District of Columbia.

The Native American and Alaskan Native share of death and sickness is disproportionate to their population in 21 states out of the 36 states with sufficient data. That rate is five or more times greater than population share in Utah, Montana, New Mexico and Wyoming.

White, non-Hispanic deaths from COVID-19 are lower than their share of the population in 36 states and the District of Columbia.

As the months have passed, the availability of statewide race and ethnicity data has increased dramatically. When NPR first reported on this issue in May, only 51% of cases and 88% of deaths had an identified race. Since then, 65% of new cases have an identified race, and states have been working to identify the race of deaths previously recorded without a race.

Researchers who have been tracking racial disparities in COVID-19 outcomes since early in the pandemic say these trends are now impossible to ignore.

Samantha Artiga, director of the Disparities Policy Project at Kaiser Family Foundation, recently published a distillation of a wide range of research on these racial disparities.

"When you look at that continually growing body of research, the findings very consistently show that people of color are really bearing the heaviest burden of COVID-19 at every stage, from risk of exposure, to access to testing, to severity of the illness and eventually death," she says.

And these trends are confirmed wherever COVID and race data are collected.

Increasingly, the CDC has provided a variety of race and ethnicity data, something it was slow to do initially. On August 18, the CDC released data showing that Blacks, Latinos, and American Indians are experiencing hospitalizations at rates 4.5 to 5.5 times higher than non-Hispanic whites.

The COVID Racial Data Tracker did an analysis comparing white death rates to other groups. Hispanics and Native Americans are both dying about 1.5 times the rate of white people. And African Americans are dying at 2.4 times the white rate.

NPR's analysis shows that nationally, this death rate is still the highest of any group, despite modest improvements since May. Blacks continue to be over-represented in deaths in 33 states and territories. In May, death rates in 9 states were more than double their population share. As of late September, they are double in only four states.

COVID-19 related deaths among Hispanics and Latinos are cause for increasing concern. In May, the national death rate for Latinos was below their proportion of the population, but it has steadily crept up. There are now 20 states where the number of Hispanic deaths is greater than their share of the population, up from just seven in May.

"I think this really reflects the shifting of hotspots into Southern and Western regions of the country where Hispanic people make up a greater share of the population," says Artiga.

Meanwhile, these communities test positive for COVID-19 at disproportionate rates in almost every state.

For American Indians and Alaska Natives, the picture has become clearer as data becomes available and sample sizes grow. At least 19 states have disproportionately high cases for AIAN individuals and 15 states have disproportionately high death rates. In Arizona, over 500 Native Americans have died from COVID-19, 12% of the state's overall tally. Only 4.5% of the population of Arizona is Native American.

Behind all these disparities lies an even deeper, entrenched problem of health inequity in our society, explains Greg Millet, director of public policy at amfAR.

"It's not by dint of circumstance or luck that predominantly white counties - by and large - have not had as many diagnoses as compared to more diverse counties," he says. "There's a systemic issue that's underlying all of this."

As the pandemic stretches on - and these trends continue - the people meticulously collecting this information are fighting to keep perspective.

"At the end of the day, these numbers are huge, but each number is a human life lost or affected by this," says Rachel Lee, project manager at the COVID Racial Data Tracker. "These are actually people, family members and friends being killed."

"I pray [whenever] our data shifts - 'help me to see the people behind these numbers' - because otherwise, they're just going to be numbers."
Methodology
Coronavirus case and death data by race and ethnicity are based on publicly available data collected by the The COVID Racial Data Tracker. Race and ethnicity population data comes from the 2018 American Community Survey from the Census bureau. Certain territories are excluded from our analysis due to lack of recent demographic data. Due to the inconsistent race and ethnicity reporting from states, it is possible for the white category to include Hispanic/Latino individuals that are counted both as a race and a Hispanic/Latino ethnicity. These inconsistencies could cause a slight overestimate in white case and death rates and a slight underestimate in Hispanic/Latino case and death rates. Where possible, we use the ACS count for non-Hispanic whites, rather than all whites.

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As Pandemic Deaths Add Up, Racial Disparities Persist - And In Some Cases Worsen

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Data gathered early in the pandemic showed that communities of color are disproportionately affected by COVID-19 across the United States. But incomplete data left a muddy picture of these disparities. Today, as the U.S.

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Immigrants face discrimination and marginalization due to the intersection of immigration status and labor rights. Many immigrants work in low-wage, exploitative jobs and are vulnerable to exploitation and abuse. Immigrant rights activists have fought for recognition of their rights as workers and for systemic changes to address the intersection of oppression they face.

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GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) - West Michigan is at the forefront of a new report accusing a food manufacturer of violating child labor laws by hiring underage workers.

An Illinois-based food manufacturer with production locations in Kent County illegally employed underage migrant children in unsafe conditions, according to a new report from The New York Times.

The investigation found that Hearthside Food Solutions, a food processing manufacturer with four production locations in Kent County, violated child labor laws by employing young workers in dangerous jobs. Hearthside has operated four facilities in the area since 2009.

"It's the most hidden workforce," Teresa Hendricks, executive director & senior litigator at Migrant Legal Aid, said Sunday in an interview with News 8. "Even though I'm not surprised by it, it doesn't shock me at all, a lot of people are taken aback by what really goes on to get their food on their plate."

Hearthside is one of the nation's largest contract manufacturers, making food for companies like General Mills and Frito-Lay. Some underage workers told The Times that moving cereal all night on conveyor belts hurt their backs and their lungs would sting from spicy dust from large batches of Flamin' Hot Cheetos.

At least one was a Union High School student who, according to their teacher, dropped out of school as they worked late nights in production.

"They have to work to survive," Hendricks explained. "They have to be hired. And when they have to choose between school or earning a living to cover their basic needs or cover expenses for their families back home, they will choose work over their health and over their education every time."

Hendricks has worked as a migrant lawyer in Grand Rapids for more than three decades. She says sadly, the report isn't surprising.

"I've represented 4- and 6-year-old workers for wage claims," Hendricks said. "It's not surprising when I hear of exploitation in our food supply chain. It's not surprising that it's dealing with younger workers. Especially when we have a labor shortage right now, and it's been growing."

Hearthside reportedly hired underage workers through the Grand Rapids employment agency Forge Industrial Staffing, The Times reported. Three people who used to work at the agency told The Times that Hearthside supervisors were made aware they were getting younger-looking workers whose identities were flagged as false, but nothing was done about it.

Hearthside reportedly admitted to The Times it did not require Forge to verify ages through a national system that checks social security numbers.

In a statement to News 8, Hearthside said it's "appalled" by the article and takes the allegations seriously.

The company said it has hired an advisory firm and an independent law firm to conduct a review of the company's employment practices, third-party employee engagements, plant safety protocols and standards of business conduct. The review is expected to take 60 days.

Hearthside also said it has taken steps to confirm all of its workers are above the age of 18 and comply with all laws and regulations.

"Specifically, everyone entering our facilities must confirm their identity with a government-issued ID that must match the information on the facility badge," the company elaborated.

Forge told The Times it complied with the law and would never knowingly employ individuals under 18.

News 8 has reached out to Forge for a statement, and as of the publication of this article, we have yet to hear back.

Hendricks hopes the report will lead to improved working conditions and more oversight and accountability of the industry.

"I've been representing farm workers for 30 years," Hendricks said. "This goes back to my very beginnings. Every 10 years there'll be a major expose where it's exposed, but in between those times, it stays hidden as a private secret. Actually, it's an open secret."

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Company accused of employing migrant children in W. MI

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GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) - West Michigan is at the forefront of a new report accusing a food manufacturer of violating child labor laws by hiring underage workers. An Illinois-based food manufacturer with production locations in Kent County illegally employed underage migrant children in unsafe conditions, according to a new report from The New York Times.

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This proposed Florida bill shows a challenge against feminist praxis. This proposed bill is an attack on women, which is the opposite of what feminists are fighting for. If this bill is passes, children in sixth grade and younger are not allowed to discuss menstruation in schools.

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🆘

Watch Florida State Rep. @StanMcClain tell Rep. @Gantt4Florida that his bill prohibits young people from talking about their period…. 

WHAT?!?!

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🆘

Watch Florida State Rep. @StanMcClain tell Rep. @Gantt4Florida that his bill prohibits young people from talking about their period…. 

WHAT?!?! https://t.co/PoEgRm4sK0

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🆘

Watch Florida State Rep. @StanMcClain tell Rep. @Gantt4Florida that his bill prohibits young people from talking about their period….

WHAT?!?! pic.twitter.com/PoEgRm4sK0
— Florida Planned Parenthood Action (@PPactionFL) March 15, 2023

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🆘

Watch Florida State Rep. @StanMcClain tell Rep. @Gantt4Florida that his bill prohibits young people from talking about their period…. 

WHAT?!?! https://t.co/PoEgRm4sK0

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.metadata.attachment_props.original_text
🆘

Watch Florida State Rep. @StanMcClain tell Rep. @Gantt4Florida that his bill prohibits young people from talking about their period…. 

WHAT?!?! https://t.co/PoEgRm4sK0

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.metadata.attachment_props.text
🆘

Watch Florida State Rep. @StanMcClain tell Rep. @Gantt4Florida that his bill prohibits young people from talking about their period…. 

WHAT?!?!

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This proposed bill in Florida would make it illegal for colleges and universities to have Women and Gender Studies classes. This is a challenge on feminist praxis because it prevents people from learning about the term feminist and about minority groups and their perspectives. If we don't learn from our past mistakes how will we make the future more inclusive and better?

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We're answering the "how" and "why" of education news. Sign up for our daily newsletter.
Gender theory. Ethnic studies. Intersectionality.

If Florida's House Bill 999 passes, students at the state's public colleges and universities would be prohibited from majoring or minoring in these academic disciplines as well as in related fields, including queer theory, critical race theory, feminist theory and social justice.

"The fields that are being threatened are fields that challenge the status quo, and these are well-established, respected disciplines," said Irene Mulvey, president of the American Association of University Professors. "They enrich academia. They enrich our civilization, but they're being dragged into the culture wars now. And I feel like these bills are an attempt by people in power to maintain the status quo . . .at the expense of a free and open democratic society."

Wording in HB 999 has also sparked fears that it could threaten sororities, fraternities and other clubs on campus that cater to Black students and other students of color. Currently in the Florida House's Education and Employment Committee, HB 999 will take effect July 1 if enacted. Along with its companion legislation in the Florida Senate, the bill is one of the latest introduced in a state that has passed a series of recent laws to limit what students can learn about race, gender, sexuality or inequity.

Another piece of legislation in front of the legislature, HB 1069, would restrict what can be taught in sex education courses in Florida's public schools, so that abstinence is emphasized and students learn that sex is determined "by chromosomes, naturally occurring sex hormones, and internal and external genitalia present at birth." Florida's HB 1223 would prohibit use of pronouns that don't match a child's assigned gender at birth and has been described as an expansion of legislation commonly known as " Don't Say Gay." Both of these laws would also take effect in July, if enacted.

Educational gag orders - which is how free expression advocacy group PEN America describes legislation that limits lessons on certain topics - typically target K-12 schools. Most states have introduced such bills over the past two years, and House Republicans last month passed the Parental Bill of Rights Act, which echoes legislation filed at the state level and purports to give parents a say in their children's education. This includes access to learning materials, school board meetings and conferences with teachers - rights educators note that parents already enjoy.

Demonstrators protest Gov. Ron DeSantis' plan to eliminate Advanced Placement courses on African American studies in high schools as they stand outside the Florida State Capitol in February 2023 in Tallahassee, Florida. (Joshua Lott/The Washington Post/Getty Images)

Increasingly, PEN America research has found, educational gag orders focus on higher education, indicating that these policies intend to do far more than expand parents' rights over their minor children's education but to broadly limit free thought.

"Most of us understood that what was happening in K-12 was going to find its way to higher ed," Mulvey said. "It's extremely concerning because the difference between K-12 and higher education is that in colleges and universities, students and faculty are free to follow their interests wherever they lead. That's what makes American higher education globally preeminent. This system of higher education, where robust academic freedom is enforced by disciplinary norms and professional standards and peer review, is what makes higher education a driver of the economy and has given us great breakthroughs."

While critics of legislation such as Florida's HB 999 warn that it is dangerous, they are also optimistic that, if passed, it would ultimately be struck down in court as unconstitutional due to long-standing legal precedents that protect academic freedom in higher education.

HB 999 has not only raised concerns because it would limit what college students can study but also because it would allow state university boards of trustees to review the tenure status of faculty members, a provision the legislation's detractors say could have a chilling effect on the free speech of educators.

Jerry Edwards, staff attorney with the ACLU of Florida, said the legislation puts tenure in the hands of political appointees, which significantly lessens job protections for faculty.

"I think the goal is to chill speech that our leaders in the state government disagree with," Edwards said. "I don't think that's something anybody should want because, first of all, leadership in state government changes. So you may like the leadership today, but you may not like it tomorrow. And do you want tomorrow's leadership who you don't like having that ability to bully the professors who are speaking out, who are dissenting? We need dissenting voices in society and in our public institutions. We need people to be able to research things without fear of retribution."

Joe Cohn, legislative and policy director for the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), a ​​nonprofit that works to protect free speech on college campuses, called HB 999 unconstitutional because it bans both majors and ideas that legislators have deemed disfavorable.

"There's over 60 years of Supreme Court case law prohibiting government intrusion into higher ed," Cohn said. "For example, there's a case called Keyishian v. Board of Regents, and there, the Supreme Court said academic freedom is of a special concern of the First Amendment, which does not tolerate laws that cast a pall of orthodoxy over the classroom. And it's hard to envision a law that casts more of a pall of orthodoxy than one that says, 'These topics can't be discussed, and these ideas can't be discussed because the majority in the legislature don't like those ideas."

If HB 999 is enacted, both Cohn and Edwards said that their organizations plan to fight it. The ACLU of Florida is one of the groups, along with the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and law firm Ballard Spahr, that filed a lawsuit to block enforcement of Florida's Stop W.O.K.E. Act in public colleges and universities. FIRE took part in separate litigation against the legislation, which bans critical race theory (CRT) and allows legal action to be taken if CRT is taught. While in effect in K-12 schools, a preliminary injunction prevents the Stop W.O.K.E. Act's enactment in higher education. Earlier this month, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied an appeal by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' administration to remove the injunction. As for HB 999 and its companion legislation in the Senate, Cohn said "if it does get into a courtroom, there's very little chance that it will survive. The case law is very strong."

Gov. Ron DeSantis, seen through a TV camera eyepiece, holds a rally in Pinellas Park, Florida in March 2023. (Thomas Simonetti/The Washington Post/Getty Images)

For decades, FIRE has defended tenure because it has been one of the most important tools for protecting faculty with disfavored views, but the group has no position on what form tenure should take. It also acknowledges that tenure isn't the only way to protect academic freedom, Cohn explained. The problem with the current crop of legislation, he added, is that it does not replace tenure with comparable policies that would allow faculty to speak freely and engage in scholarship and research without fear of reprisal.

Mulvey views any attack on tenure as an attack on academic freedom. She said legislation such as HB 999 amounts to censorship. In addition to that legislation, Texas and North Dakota have recently introduced bills that take aim at tenure. "We're going down a dark road if we're allowing the statehouses to censor what can be learned and what can be taught and what can be said in the classroom," Mulvey said.

Over the past year, the University of Wyoming has withstood multiple attempts by lawmakers to defund its gender studies program, most recently in the form of a budget amendment in the Wyoming House that failed in February. A similar amendment was proposed unsuccessfully last year.

"We were really pleased that the Wyoming law that would have eliminated gender studies didn't advance," Cohn said. "It was a bad idea and it was important that the legislature recognized that and didn't move it forward."

College students are also concerned about legislation that imposes restrictions on courses of study. Last week, Florida students rallied against HB 999 in the capital city of Tallahassee.Maxx Fenning, a senior at the University of Florida and the founder and president of LGBTQ+ advocacy group PRISM, also finds the legislation unsettling. He worries about HB 999's potential impact both because PRISM is a proponent of LGBTQ+-inclusive education and because he is studying business administration with a specialization in education. As part of this specialization, he takes classes that focus on the role systemic oppression, gender identity, sexual orientation and gender theory play in education. It's unclear if all classes focused on topics such as gender, race or intersectionality would be banned if HB 999 passes or if the legislation would simply prohibit students from majoring or minoring in these subjects.

"Being able to have access to this information is so impactful for young adults," Fenning said. "Being able to have access to a wide diversity of opinions, a wide diversity of theories about the way that the world works, the way that we interact with each other, is part of building a nuanced view of the world."

While studying education, Fenning said he's learned about the importance of "mirrors and windows" - seeing oneself reflected back in the curriculum and being exposed to materials that help students empathize with people who are different from them.

"There's so many ways that this sort of representation matters," Fenning said. "So when we're talking about things like HB 999, in particular, we see this effort to whittle down the worldview that we present into one that certain legislators agree with, to shatter those mirrors, to tint those windows and prevent us from being able to live and learn authentically."

As both a graduate student and a lawmaker, Florida State Sen. Shevrin Jones is particularly concerned about HB 999's potential impact on higher education in the state. The Democrat is pursuing a doctorate in higher ed administration at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton.

"Students go to school to explore diversity of thought," Jones said. "We should not be in the business of interfering with that diversity of thought, interfering with that exploration. That is not our job. Our job is to create the best type of system where individuals can flourish, not push an agenda on students and on a system that's been shown to work."

Florida is home to four historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs). Although three of them are private, they receive state funding for certain academic programs. Jones questions how HB 999 could affect the state's HBCUs and the nine Black sororities and fraternities known nationally as the Divine Nine. He wrote an MSNBC opinion piece earlier this month urging Black Greek-letter organizations to keep fighting the bill. He noted that language in the Senate version of HB 999 has been changed to offer some protections to Black sororities and fraternities, but he worries that the House bill still prohibits public colleges and universities from paying for "programs or campus activities that espouse diversity, equity, or inclusion or critical race theory rhetoric," he said. Jones argues that this line could be interpreted in a way that would lead to the defunding of Florida's Black Greek organizations.

Florida Rep. Alex Andrade, the Republican lawmaker behind HB 999, said that this was not his intent. "HB 999 in no way applies to student-led organizations," he told The 19th in a statement. "Student organizations are neither contemplated nor affected by the bill."

Jones said he knows the bill sponsors have said that's not their intention. "But the problem is that, particularly in how the House bill is written, it could be implied because the bill clearly states that it prohibits state and federal fund usage for programs or campus activities that advocate for DEI and engage in political and social activism. Fraternities and sororities fall into that category."

Edwards agrees that the broadness of the legislation may pose a risk to a wide range of campus organizations, including Black sororities and fraternities, Latinx groups, affinity groups or even veterans' organizations.

"I'm sure they'll say that they added language in the most recent version of the bill that permits expressive activity, to the extent it's not inconsistent with regulations or university rules, but the problem there is that . . .after they passed the Stop W.O.K.E. Act, the Board of Governors then implemented regulation that was basically identical to what the statute prohibited. So if that happened [with HB 999], if they implemented a regulation, while the statute wouldn't necessarily stop those things, the regulation would."

It's unclear what will happen to Black Greek-letter organizations if HB 999 is enacted, but Jones said that he eventually expects HBCUs to face questions about their right to exist, pointing out that they are already massively underfunded and that HBCU Tennessee State University is currently under scrutiny amid questions about mismanagement.

"The [TSU] president right now is having to defend the reason why the institution is important to the Tennessee state legislature," Jones said. "And I think we will continue to see this questioning of whether or not HBCUs are still needed, which they are because HBCUs were founded because they were the only place where African Americans could be educated. Still to this day, HBCUs do admit students that PWIs [predominantly white institutions] just won't admit."

Students on a Florida college campus in Sarasota, Florida in January 2023. (Thomas Simonetti/The Washington Post/Getty Images)

A potential consequence of statewide legislation that takes aim at diversity, equity and inclusion; prohibits students from learning about race, gender and sexuality; and weakens tenure is that faculty and students may decide to pursue scholarship elsewhere. Many progressive Florida youth with the means to leave the state plan to do so, Fenning said.

"It is not a good reputation to have as a state when your best and brightest cannot wait to get out of it and take their business elsewhere, quite literally their business and their economic impact elsewhere," he added. "If there are greener pastures and they have the ability to get to those greener pastures, they're gonna."

Faculty are already telling their graduate students not to teach in states where there's no academic freedom, Mulvey said, and some institutions in these states are seeing fewer donations.

Jones said that he has made similar points about HB 999.

"Many researchers, particularly in STEM, come here because they know they are secure in their work and they will be able to complete a research project without being tampered with, without anyone trying to come against their research," he said. "They're not going to even think twice about coming to Florida if they know that they can be fired for their views or fired for any reason if the board of trustees or the board of governors find a need to do so. No one's going to come to teach in that type of state. I know I wouldn't."

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Florida bill would bring bans on gender studies and critical race theory to colleges and universities

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We're answering the "how" and "why" of education news. Sign up for our daily newsletter. Gender theory. Ethnic studies. Intersectionality. If Florida's House Bill 999 passes, students at the state's public colleges and universities would be prohibited from majoring or minoring in these academic disciplines as well as in related fields, including queer theory, critical race theory, feminist theory and social justice.

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This law reinforces Feminist Praxis because it discusses a law that helps women. This law prevents employers who're hiring from discriminating against women with ethnic hair and hairstyles.

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The House on Friday passed the CROWN Act, which would ban hair-related discrimination.

The measure, H.R. 2116, passed in a vote of 235-189 along party lines. It was introduced by Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman, D-N.J., CROWN stands for Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair. It prohibits "discrimination based on an individual's texture or style of hair." The bill will now go to the Senate for consideration.

The legislation states that " routinely, people of African descent are deprived of educational and employment opportunities" for wearing their hair in natural or protective hairstyles such as locs, cornrows, twists, braids, Bantu knots, or Afros.

"Here we are today, standing on behalf of those individuals, whether my colleagues on the other side recognize it or not, are discriminated against as children in school, as adults who are trying to get jobs, individuals who are trying to get housing, individuals who simply want access to public accommodations and to be beneficiaries of federally-funded programs," Watson said in remarks on the House floor Friday morning. "And why are they denied these opportunities? Because there are folks in this society who get to make those decisions who think because you're hair is kinky, it is braided, it is in knots or it is not straight and blonde and light brown, that you somehow are not worthy of access to those issues."

"Well," she added, "that's discrimination."

"There's no logical reason that anyone should be discriminated against on any level because of the texture of their hair or the style of their hair," Watson Coleman said.

Without naming him, she referenced Andrew Johnson, a Black varsity high school wrestler in New Jersey with dreadlocks who was forced in 2018 to make a choice: cut his hair or forfeit his match.

"This bill is vitally important," she said. "It's important to the young girls and the young boys who have to cut their hair in the middle of a wrestling match in front of everyone because some white referee says that your hair is inappropriate to engage in your match."

Before a vote was taken, a number of Black and African American legislators spoke of having been discriminated against because of their hair.

Gwen Moore, D-Wisconsin, said someone had told a previous employer that she was "an embarrassment" because of the way her hair looked.

She accused some of her colleagues, such as Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, who said Friday that he wanted to focus on issues of importance to Americans, of avoiding a conversation about discrimination that disproportionately impacts Black people. Al Green, D-Texas, who is African American, invoked Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in expressing his support for the CROWN Act.

In response to Jordan's remarks, Green said: "Black people are American people, too. And when you say the American people don't want it, you cannot exclude Black people. Black people would have this be on the floor. This is a kitchen table issue in Black households."

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House passes CROWN Act banning discrimination against Black hairstyles

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The House on Friday passed the CROWN Act, which would ban hair-related discrimination. The measure, H.R. 2116, passed in a vote of 235-189 along party lines. It was introduced by Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman, D-N.J., CROWN stands for Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair.