i cannot emphasize how weird it is to return to the UK from the US and see this parade of high-profile "centrists" obsessively targeting the trans community with exactly the same arguments as some frothing-at-the-mouth GOP state senator
last year, i spent some time volunteering with @barcc (the Boston Area Rape Crisis Center) as a Medical Advocate, where i would get called out to local hospitals to offer confidential support to survivors of sexual violence.
"support" could be a million different things.
it could be connecting someone with a counselor.
it could be lending a phone charger because they'd been waiting in the ER all night.
it could be making small talk just to let someone know they're not alone.
there is literally no way to be even a TINY bit involved in this type of work without realizing that trans folks:
-are disproportionately at risk of sexual violence
-face HUGE barriers to accessing resources
and these barriers occur at every stage:
-being misgendered by doctors/nurses at the hospital
-legitimate fears of interacting with the police
-increased risk of homelessness which makes it difficult to connect with long-term resources
-underfunding of trans-specific resources
i am immensely proud to be a part of the @barcc community (alongside so many trans and non-binary volunteers + staff!) which provides trans-inclusive services and advocates for trans rights at the local, state & national level
so, next time you see someone attacking the trans community under the guise of "protecting" women from sexual violence (or, as i call it: astroTERFing)... find a local org that serves the trans community in your area and smash that donate/volunteer button!
or... just donate to @barcc, because i already did your due diligence and if you do it RIGHT NOW your donation will be matched, i.e. DOUBLED!! 💰📈💸
In April 2022, Russian hackers leaked a cache of 22,000 emails from a network of encrypted Protonmail accounts, including ex-MI6 chief Sir Richard Dearlove.
The emails were uploaded to a site with the domain name "sneakystrawhead" – apparently a reference to Boris Johnson's typically unkempt hairstyle...
A group of hard-right Brexiteers, including a former head of MI6, secretly attacked a top science journal after their debunked paper on an "alternative" Covid vaccine was rejected.
From @ComputerWeekly & @BylineTimes, this is a MUST READ 👇
This piece raises serious questions about the conduct of Sir Richard Dearlove, the former head of MI6 who is best known for his role in the intelligence failures surrounding the Iraq war.
In the early stages of the pandemic, Dearlove began collaborating with a group of scientists who claimed to have proof that the Covid pandemic was the result of a lab leak.
Mansfield's in-depth ethnographic work has given him an unmatched insight into the inner lives of Women. #Mansfieldat90
While feminist scholars pointed to spousal inequalities in domestic work, Mansfield's meticulous research allowed him to uncover previously unacknowledged contributions of men to the running of a household.
In 2021, Harvard apologized to Terry Karl and many others who were sexually harassed by Jorge Domínguez, acknowledging "institutional failures".
At the same time, Harvard was doing the exact same thing to the complainants in the Comaroff case!
And that's not the only overlap...
Jorge Domínguez had been director of the @HarvardWCFIA from 1996 - 2006, a position that allowed him to exert considerable power over funding opportunities.
John Comaroff is affiliated with the Weatherhead Center, as are (by my count) 22 of the 38 signatories to the open letter.
Of course, it's not exactly surprising that many social science faculty are affiliated with one of the main centers for social science research.
But several of the signatories hold (or held) leadership positions, not just affiliations.
Adding new links to the map each week is depressing, but one silver lining is seeing a coalition of journalists, lawyers, academics, and citizens come together to expose this government's corruption.
"I thought, I need a side project that's going to keep me occupied, something useful, that's nothing to do with Trump."
Q: Why does cronyism matter?
A: The idea that we created a ‘VIP lane’ for politically-connected firms goes against every set of anti-corruption best practices that's ever been written. By creating that system, the government incentivised all kinds of opportunistic behaviour.