If Not Trump, What?; New York Times, 4/29/16

David Brooks, New York Times; If Not Trump, What? :

"Donald Trump now looks set to be the Republican presidential nominee. So for those of us appalled by this prospect — what are we supposed to do?

Well, not what the leaders of the Republican Party are doing. They’re going down meekly and hoping for a quiet convention. They seem blithely unaware that this is a Joe McCarthy moment. People will be judged by where they stood at this time. Those who walked with Trump will be tainted forever after for the degradation of standards and the general election slaughter.

The better course for all of us — Republican, Democrat and independent — is to step back and take the long view, and to begin building for that. This election — not only the Trump phenomenon but the rise of Bernie Sanders, also — has reminded us how much pain there is in this country...

I don’t know what the new national story will be, but maybe it will be less individualistic and more redemptive...

We’ll also need to rebuild the sense that we’re all in this together. The author R. R. Reno has argued that what we’re really facing these days is a “crisis of solidarity.”...

Then at the community level we can listen to those already helping...

Over the course of American history, national projects like the railroad legislation, the W.P.A. and the NASA project have bound this diverse nation."

Online degrees could make universities redundant, historian warns; Guardian, 4/17/16

Richard Adams, Guardian; Online degrees could make universities redundant, historian warns:

"Oxford, along with all other universities, faces an “uncomfortable future” unless it embraces online degrees and draws up plans for raising billions of pounds to go private, according to the university’s new official history. The book, to be launched by Oxford University Press this week, says new technology has the potential to make universities such as Oxford “redundant” and that it is “only a matter of time” before virtual learning transforms higher education.

Laurence Brockliss, the historian and author, argues that Oxford itself should offer undergraduate degrees via online learning, and in doing so could solve the controversies it faces over student access. “I would like Oxford to pilot something, and say we are going to offer 1,000 18-year-olds online courses in different subjects, to experiment and see how it works and how it can be improved,” Brockliss said.

Offering online degrees could help Oxford to recruit students from backgrounds that it currently struggles to reach and allow it to forge better links with the general public, according to Brockliss, a professor of history at Magdalen College. “I don’t think we’re as good as we used to be at connecting with the public."

Social Media, Where Sports Fans Congregate and Misogyny Runs Amok; New York Times, 4/28/16

Juliet Macur, New York Times; Social Media, Where Sports Fans Congregate and Misogyny Runs Amok:

"DiCaro said she recorded the video of the mean tweets with the hope that it would change some people’s minds about harassing others on social media. She has two teenage sons, and she wants them and the younger generation to know what’s acceptable — and what’s not.

How does this abuse end? DiCaro said there needed to be more diversity in sports media. She lamented that sports was still a man’s world, and would be at least for the near future, leaving the few women in it as targets for some men who don’t want them in their boys’ club.

“It’s sort of like separating a weak antelope from the pack,’’ she said. “I think guys recognize that.”"

Why You Probably Shouldn't Say 'Eskimo'; NPR, 4/24/16

Rebecca Hersher, NPR; Why You Probably Shouldn't Say 'Eskimo' :

"According to the Alaska Native Language Center at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, linguists believe the word Eskimo actually came from the French word esquimaux, meaning one who nets snowshoes. Netting snowshoes is the highly-precise way that Arctic peoples built winter footwear by tightly weaving, or netting, sinew from caribou or other animals across a wooden frame.

But the correction to the etymological record came too late to rehabilitate the word Eskimo. The word's racist history means most people in Canada and Greenland still prefer other terms. The most widespread is Inuit, which means simply, "people." The singular, which means "person," is Inuk.

Of course, as with so many words sullied by the crimes of colonialism, not everyone agrees on what to do with Eskimo. Many Native Alaskans still refer to themselves as Eskimos, in part because the word Inuit isn't part of the Yupik languages of Alaska and Siberia."

USPTO appeals to Supreme Court for ruling on racially tinged trademarks; Ars Technica, 4/22/16

Joe Mullin, Ars Technica; USPTO appeals to Supreme Court for ruling on racially tinged trademarks:

"In December, a court case brought by Portland-based Asian American rock band "The Slants" led to what could be a major change in US trademark law. The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit overruled the US Patent and Trademark Office, which had refused to give the band a trademark, citing a law barring "disparaging" marks.

The battle isn't quite over, though. Patent Office lawyers have appealed to the Supreme Court, asking them to consider the case. If the Supreme Court takes up the case and reverses the Federal Circuit—something the high court has not hesitated to do in recent patent cases—the USPTO will retain its ability to quash disparaging trademarks.

Either way, the results of the case will have repercussions for other owners of controversial trademarks—most notably, the Washington Redskins. The football team was stripped of its trademark rights after years of litigation but is continuing its fight at the US Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit."

FROM EASTENDERS TO X-MEN: BEN HARDY IS ATTITUDE’S NEW COVER GUY!; Attitude, April 2016

Attitude; FROM EASTENDERS TO X-MEN: BEN HARDY IS ATTITUDE’S NEW COVER GUY! :

"From the streets of Walford to Hollywood star, Ben Hardy has joined the X-Men universe as conflicted billionaire playboy Angel.

Returning to Attitude two years after the scorching cover shoot which helped propel his rising star into the spotlight, the 25-year-old discusses his burgeoning Stateside career and why he’s proud to star in a franchise which has for so long been associated with the gay community’s own struggle for acceptance.

“I remember [director Bryan Singer] saying that was one of the attractions of doing the first X-Men film,” Ben tells us across an exclusive 10-page spread.

“He felt it was something that could relate to those movement and to that kid at school who deosn’t feel like he belongs, doesn’t feel like a part of society, feels like an outcast, or feeling like they’re not a part of society.

“In terms of my character, Angel is quite angry and I put that down to him being an outsider. People who don’t get looked after enough can end up being very angry and I feel like this is where Angel’s anger comes from and maybe that gives him the potential to transform and become one of the villains.”"

ESPN Finally Grows Tired of Curt Schilling’s Barbed Language; New York Times, 4/21/16

Richard Sandomir, New York Times; ESPN Finally Grows Tired of Curt Schilling’s Barbed Language:

"Andrew Shaw and Curt Schilling insulted the gay and transgender community in recent days. But how they responded afterward suggests that one of them (Shaw) comprehends the ramifications of what he did, and the other (Schilling) does not.

Shaw, a Chicago Blackhawks forward, was suspended for Game 5 of his team’s playoff series against St. Louis on Thursday night for shouting an anti-gay slur after being sent to the penalty box during Tuesday’s game.

“I get it,” he said after being disciplined by the N.H.L. “It’s 2016 now. It’s time that everyone is treated equally.”

Schilling did not choose the road to contrition after he shared a post on Facebook that was an apparent response to the North Carolina law that bars transgender people from using bathrooms and locker rooms that do not correspond with their birth genders. On his blog, he snarled at “all of you out there who are just dying to be offended so you can create some sort of faux cause to rally behind.”"

Blackhawks’ Andrew Shaw Is Suspended for Anti-Gay Slur; New York Times, 4/20/16

Victor Mather and Naila-Jean Meyers, New York Times; Blackhawks’ Andrew Shaw Is Suspended for Anti-Gay Slur:

"After the game, Shaw told The Chicago Tribune: “I mean, emotions are high; I really don’t know what’s said. I was obviously upset with the call being that late in the game.”

But on Wednesday, he apologized in a statement. “I am sincerely sorry for the insensitive remarks that I made last night while in the penalty box,” he said. “When I got home and saw the video, it was evident that what I did was wrong, no matter the circumstances.”

Speaking to reporters later, Shaw said, “I’ll never use that word again, that’s for sure.”

“I get it,” he added. “It’s a hurtful word. It’s 2016 now. It’s time that everyone is treated equally.”

The Blackhawks said in a statement: “We are extremely disappointed in Andrew Shaw’s actions last night. His comments do not reflect what we stand for as an organization.”

Colin Campbell, the N.H.L. vice president for hockey operations, said that while Shaw was remorseful, he had to be held accountable.

“The emotion of the moment cannot and will not be a mitigating factor for the conduct that is expected of an N.H.L. player,” Campbell said."

How do we make the Guardian a better place for conversation?; Guardian, 4/22/16

Katharine Viner, Guardian; How do we make the Guardian a better place for conversation? :

"Last year, a few weeks before I started as the new editor-in-chief of the Guardian, I read a review in the New York Times of Jon Ronson’s So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed. The book looks at the emergence of public humiliations on social media, and the review ended by saying that “the actual problem is that none of the men running those bazillion-dollar internet companies can think of one single thing to do about all the men who send women death threats”. Since I was about to become the first woman to run the Guardian (not, sad to say, a bazillion-dollar internet company), I decided that I had a responsibility to try to do something about it.

That’s why, over the past two weeks, the Guardian has published a series of articles looking at online abuse, with more to follow in the coming months. You might have read our interview with Monica Lewinsky in which she described the trauma of being subjected to what could be called the first great internet shaming, and how she still has to think of the consequences of talking about her past – whether by misspeaking, she could trigger a whole new round of abuse.

Lewinsky’s experience has prompted her to tackle online harassment head on: she is now a respected anti-bullying advocate. But as we’ve considered online abuse in all its forms – the rape and death threats, the sexist, racist and ad hominem attacks, the widespread lack of empathy – it has become clear that some of the institutions that most need to follow Lewinsky’s lead are not; that police and tech companies are failing to keep on top of the problem, and victims are being abandoned to their abusers.

We’ve called our series the Web We Want. It’s an attempt to imagine what the digital world could and should be: a public space that reflects our humanity, our civility and who we want to be. It asks big questions of all of us: as platform providers, as users and readers, as people who write things online that they would never say in real life."

Monica Lewinsky: ‘The shame sticks to you like tar’; Guardian, 4/22/16

Jon Ronson, Guardian; Monica Lewinsky: ‘The shame sticks to you like tar’ :

"The reason why she finally agreed to meet me, despite her anxieties, is that the Guardian is highlighting the issue of online harassment through its series The web we want – an endeavour she approves of. “Destigmatising the shame around online harassment is the first step,” she says. “Well, the first step is recognising there’s a problem.”

Lewinsky was once among the 20th century’s most humiliated people, ridiculed across the world. Now she’s a respected and perceptive anti-bullying advocate. She gives talks at Facebook, and at business conferences, on how to make the internet more compassionate. She helps out at anti-bullying organisations like Bystander Revolution, a site that offers video advice on what to do if you’re afraid to go to school, or if you’re a victim of cyberbullying...

Later, she emails to explain why she didn’t walk away in the school playground – and why we read the negative comments. “I guess I was in shock,” she writes. “Psychologists speak about freezing as a response to a traumatic event. I was probably more afraid of the imagined pain of being completely outcast than the pain I was experiencing in that moment. Maybe there’s a twisted need to read the comments as a form of self-preservation, to be prepared for what may come down the pike.”"

Bystander Revolution: Take The Power Out Of Bullying

Bystander Revolution: Take The Power Out Of Bullying:

"What is Bystander Revolution?

Simple acts of kindness, courage, and inclusion anyone can use to take the power out of bullying.

Whether you're feeling afraid, ready to help, stuck, or inspired to change, you can find advice from someone who has dealt with a similar issue. Search by problem or solution to find tips from people who have been targets, people who have been bystanders, and people who have bullied.

Try one of the ideas. Share one of your own. You can be of real help right away. And if these ideas spread and become habits, it could change the dynamics forever.

Mission and History

Bystander Revolution was founded by author and parent MacKenzie Bezos to create a source of direct, peer-to-peer advice about practical things individuals can do to help defuse bullying. The ultimate goal is the discussion and spread of simple habits of leadership, kindness, and inclusion."

The Danger of Hiding Who You Are; TED Talks, November 2014

[Podcast 10 min. 22 sec.] Morgana Bailey, TED Talks; The Danger of Hiding Who You Are:

"Morgana Bailey has been hiding her true self for 16 years. In a brave talk, she utters four words that might not seem like a big deal to some, but to her have been paralyzing. Why speak up? Because she’s realized that her silence has personal, professional and societal consequences. In front of an audience of her co-workers, she reflects on what it means to fear the judgment of others, and how it makes us judge ourselves."

Women Sweep Redesigns of $5, $10 and $20 BillsWomen Sweep Redesigns of $5, $10 and $20 Bills; New York Times, 4/20/16

Jackie Calmes, New York Times; Women Sweep Redesigns of $5, $10 and $20 Bills:

"In advance of Mr. Lew’s decision, the emotion that the Treasury initiative had prompted was captured in a letter to the Treasury secretary on Tuesday evening. More than three dozen women including actors, feminists, corporate executives and journalists objected to preliminary news reports that he was planning to renege on putting a woman on the $10 face, calling it, if true, “a major blow to the advancement of women.”

They admonished the Treasury secretary, saying: “ Could there be a better metaphor for second-class status that continues to limit our girls?”

The signers included the actresses Ellen DeGeneres, Geena Davis, Jane Lynch and Sophia Bush; the former soccer star Abby Wambach; former Representative Gabrielle Giffords, the Arizona Democrat who became a gun-safety advocate after an assassination attempt; the news media figures Katie Couric and Arianna Huffington; the feminist leader Gloria Steinem; and the photographer Annie Leibovitz."

The New $20: Harriet Tubman vs. Andrew Jackson; Wall Street Journal, 4/20/16

Josh Zumbrun, Wall Street Journal; The New $20: Harriet Tubman vs. Andrew Jackson:

"While Harriet Tubman and Andrew Jackson have long and rich biographies, a few highlights of their lives provide the starkest contrast between the man being removed from the front of the $20 bill and the woman replacing him."

Cirque Du Soleil Scraps Shows In Protest Over North Carolina’s Anti-LGBT Law; Huffington Post, 4/15/16

Ryan Grenoble, Huffington Post; Cirque Du Soleil Scraps Shows In Protest Over North Carolina’s Anti-LGBT Law:

"In a statement published Friday on Facebook, Cirque du Soleil announced three separate tours of two different shows would be canceled, and called HB 2 a “regression to ensuring human rights for all.”

#CirqueduSoleil is opposed to discrimination in any form. Due to #HB2, we are canceling shows in #NorthCarolina: https://t.co/PTBdqn6MIu.

“Cirque du Soleil believes in equality for all,” the statement added. “It is a principle that guides us with both our employees and our customers. We behave as change agents to reach our ultimate goal of making a better world with our actions and our productions.”"

‘The Trump Effect’: Hatred, Fear And Bullying On The Rise In Schools; Huffington Post, 4/13/16

Christina Wilkie, Huffington Post; ‘The Trump Effect’: Hatred, Fear And Bullying On The Rise In Schools:

"It was only a matter of time before kids started picking up the aggressive, divisive language that’s become a hallmark of the 2016 presidential campaign.

According to a new report by the nonprofit Southern Poverty Law Center titled “The Trump Effect: The Impact of the Presidential Campaign on our Nation’s Schools,” the race is stoking fears and racial tensions in America’s classrooms...

The report identified two troubling trends: more openly racist and vicious bullying of minorities, and more fear and anxiety among immigrants and minorities about what would happen to them if certain candidates for president are elected.

The survey did not name specific candidates, but teachers named Trump, the Republican front-runner, in more than 1,000 comments — five times more often than they mentioned any of the other candidates."

Louisiana Governor Signs Executive Order To Protect LGBT Rights; Huffington Post, 4/13/16

Daniel Trotta, Reuters via Huffington Post; Louisiana Governor Signs Executive Order To Protect LGBT Rights:

"Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards on Wednesday signed an anti-discrimination order protecting the rights of gay and transgender people, aligning his state on the liberal side of a political divide playing out across the South.

The Democrat’s executive order also protects state employees and employees of state contractors against discrimination based on other criteria including race, religion, disability or age. It also bans state agencies from discrimination while offering an exemption for churches and religious organizations...

His order rescinds one signed by his immediate predecessor, Bobby Jindal, a Republican and onetime presidential contender, that was part of the “religious freedom” movement in some Southern states that seeks to limit same-sex marriage rights and the ability of transgender people to choose which public restrooms they may use.

Edwards said his order was good for business."

Ringo Starr cancels North Carolina concert in protest over anti-LGBT law; Guardian, 4/13/16

Guardian staff, Guardian; Ringo Starr cancels North Carolina concert in protest over anti-LGBT law:

"Ringo Starr has followed Bruce Springsteen in canceling a forthcoming concert in North Carolina in protest over the state’s newly minted anti-LGBT law.

The former Beatles drummer said in a statement: “I’m sorry to disappoint my fans in the area, but we need to take a stand against this hatred. Spread peace and love.”...

Starr and Springsteen are not the only performers to have canceled gigs in response to anti-LGBT legislation in the south. On Sunday, Bryan Adams pulled a show in Biloxi, Mississippi, over a new law that allows religious groups and some private business to refuse to serve gay people."

The dark side of Guardian comments; Guardian, 4/12/16

Becky Gardiner, Mahana Mansfield, Ian Anderson, Josh Holder, Daan Louter and Monica Ulmanu, Guardian; The dark side of Guardian comments:

"Comments allow readers to respond to an article instantly, asking questions, pointing out errors, giving new leads. At their best, comment threads are thoughtful, enlightening, funny: online communities where readers interact with journalists and others in ways that enrich the Guardian’s journalism.

But at their worst, they are something else entirely.

The Guardian was not the only news site to turn comments on, nor has it been the only one to find that some of what is written “below the line” is crude, bigoted or just vile. On all news sites where comments appear, too often things are said to journalists and other readers that would be unimaginable face to face – the Guardian is no exception.

New research into our own comment threads provides the first quantitative evidence for what female journalists have long suspected: that articles written by women attract more abuse and dismissive trolling than those written by men, regardless of what the article is about.

Although the majority of our regular opinion writers are white men, we found that those who experienced the highest levels of abuse and dismissive trolling were not. The 10 regular writers who got the most abuse were eight women (four white and four non-white) and two black men. Two of the women and one of the men were gay. And of the eight women in the “top 10”, one was Muslim and one Jewish.

And the 10 regular writers who got the least abuse? All men...

At the Guardian, we felt it was high time to examine the problem rather than turn away.

We decided to treat the 70m comments that have been left on the Guardian – and in particular the comments that have been blocked by our moderators – as a huge data set to be explored rather than a problem to be brushed under the carpet.

This is what we discovered."

Exclusive: X-Men's Chris Claremont talks through five key storylines; Empire, 4/6/16

Dorian Lynskey, Empire; Exclusive: X-Men's Chris Claremont talks through five key storylines:

"A major theme of your X-Men stories was using mutants as a metaphor for other persecuted groups. Where did that idea come from?

I went to Israel for two months in 1970 and worked on a kibbutz. It affected me on levels that I hadn’t anticipated, working on a daily basis with people who were actual survivors of the Holocaust. You’d see military patrols going by every day. We would have armed volunteers walking around the property all night. It brought home international conflicts on a very personal level.

With the X-Men, were you thinking only of antisemitism or racism and homophobia as well?

It was blended in. There’s a lot of talk online now that Magneto stands in for Malcolm X and Xavier stands in for Martin Luther King, which is totally valid but for me, being an immigrant white (Claremont was born in England), to make that analogy felt incredibly presumptuous. An equivalent analogy could be made to [Israeli prime minister] Menachem Begin as Magneto, evolving through his life from a terrorist in 1947 to a winner of the Nobel Peace Prize 30 years later. That evolution was something I wanted to apply to the relationship between Xavier and Magneto. It’s an evolving 150-issue arc: Magneto’s resurrection as an angry, anti-human, pro-mutant terrorist. In #150 he lashes out and the person that gets hit is Kitty Pryde, a 13-year-old kid. His shattering realisation is: "What kind of monster have I become? Has what the Nazis did to me in the Shoah made me a Nazi?" Ultimately, my goal for the character was that he would come full circle and become Xavier’s heir, as headmaster of the school and leader of team. For me he was a much more fascinating character because of his flaws and there was always a risk that he might fall from grace...

Of course, you took the idea of mutants facing genocidal hatred to extremes with Days of Future Past (X-Men #141-142), where mutants are outlawed and murdered by the Sentinels…

The idea was to show our heroes why their fight is so necessary. There is a tragic cost to failure. The line we always used to describe these characters was ‘feared and hated by the world they are sworn to protect’. Their struggle is not simply to defeat the bad guys; it is to establish themselves as credible, honourable fellow citizens of the planet. The idea with Days Of Future Past was this is what’s lying in wait if you falter. If you ever needed a reason to try and try again, this is it."

Leading businesses take stand against states' new anti-LGBT laws; Guardian, 4/10/16

Edward Helmore and Matt Kessler, Guardian; Leading businesses take stand against states' new anti-LGBT laws:

"Local business leaders and educators warned that the legislation could harm the state’s competitiveness in attracting business and investment. “These assholes talk about gay women and gay men using the exact same language they were using in the 50s and 60s for segregationist purposes,” said the award-winning chef John Currence, owner of several restaurants in Oxford, Mississippi. He warned that Mississippi’s HB1523, known as the Religious Liberty Accommodation Act, would put businesses off from setting up in the state.

“When people see this kind of regressive social politics going on, it affects the quality of life”, he said. The new laws, he added, “could not be any more vile or regressive”.

Ivo Kamps, a University of Mississippi English professor, warned the law “will have a chilling effect on our ability to recruit students and faculty”, despite the university chancellor’s assurance that nothing would change...

Academics say the current legislation, combined with the Citizens United bill of 2010 that in effect gave corporations the rights of citizens, has placed corporations at the forefront of efforts to contain the spread of ideologically extreme legislation."

Corporate Coalition Is Forming To Fight Mississippi’s Anti-LGBT Law; Huffington Post, 4/5/16

Alexander C. Kaufman, Huffington Post; Corporate Coalition Is Forming To Fight Mississippi’s Anti-LGBT Law:

"Yet another coalition of tech titans is forming to fight yet another discriminatory law in yet another Southern state.

Top executives from Salesforce, Microsoft and IBM decried on Tuesday a new “religious liberty” law passed in Mississippi that gay rights advocates say legalizes discrimination in the state based on sexual orientation or gender identity.

The public statements, little more than condemnations at the moment, could be the first step toward organizing a divestment campaign such as the one currently growing in North Carolina. The announcements came hours after another tech giant, PayPal, said it would cancel plans to expand in North Carolina — a move that was expected to bring about 400 jobs to the state — as a result of the Tar Heel State’s anti-LGBT law."

Most College Students Want Free Speech On Campuses — But Not When It’s Hate Speech; Huffington Post, 4/4/16

Marina Fang, Huffington Post; Most College Students Want Free Speech On Campuses — But Not When It’s Hate Speech:

"College students want free speech on their campuses but want their administrators to intervene when it turns into hate speech, though they disagree on whether college campuses are open environments and on how the media should cover campus protests, according to a new Gallup survey on the First Amendment released Monday.

About 78 percent of students surveyed said that colleges should allow “all types of speech and viewpoints,” while 22 percent noted that “colleges should prohibit biased or offensive speech in the furtherance of a positive learning environment.”"

A Gay, Latino Partner Tests Goldman’s Button-Down Culture; New York Times, 4/1/16

Nathaniel Popper, New York Times; A Gay, Latino Partner Tests Goldman’s Button-Down Culture:

"Mr. Chavez has not been shy about pushing the company to embrace social issues as a selling point. He urged its human resources department to expand benefits to gay partners before the Supreme Court legalized gay marriage. He then encouraged Mr. Blankfein to speak out in support of gay marriage.

Still, he acknowledges, there is much to do. At an event for computer programmers last fall, he joked about Goldman’s lack of diversity.

He was in an office, he said, with a fellow Hispanic executive, when another executive stopped by. “He opens the door, he sticks his head in, and he says, ‘50 percent of the Hispanic partners of Goldman Sachs, right here, right now.’” The task now, he said, was to take Goldman “to a different place.”"

Mississippi Poised to Pass Breathtaking Anti-LGBT Law; Mother Jones, 4/1/16

Becca Andrews, Mother Jones; Mississippi Poised to Pass Breathtaking Anti-LGBT Law:

"[T]he Mississippi bill is so sweeping that it may be more discriminatory than even the North Carolina statute. The Mississippi bill would essentially make it impossible to sue for gender or sexuality discrimination if the motivation for the discrimination was religion.

Here are some of the bill's provisions:

Any organization can decline "to provide services, accommodations, facilities, goods or privileges for a purpose related to the solemnization, formation, celebration or recognition of any marriage."

Employers can make a "decision whether or not to hire, terminate or discipline an individual whose conduct or religious beliefs are inconsistent with those of the religious organization."

Mississippians can deny housing based on religious beliefs.

Foster care organizations and adoption agencies can "decline to provide any adoption or foster care service" without fear of retribution.

The state can't prosecute any person who "declines to participate in the provision of treatments, counseling, or surgeries related to sex reassignment or gender identity transitioning or declines to participate in the provision of psychological, counseling or fertility services" or any wedding- or marriage-related services.

Schools and business owners can establish "sex-specific standards or policies concerning employee or student dress or grooming, or concerning access to restrooms, spas, baths, showers, dressing rooms, locker rooms, or other intimate facilities or settings.""

Museum Reverses Position, Will Mention Bill Cosby’s Alleged Crimes; Slate, 4/1/16

Christina Cauterucci, Slate; Museum Reverses Position, Will Mention Bill Cosby’s Alleged Crimes:

"“We understand but respectfully disagree” with that suggestion, Bunch wrote. “For too long, aspects of African American history have been erased and undervalued, creating an incomplete interpretation of the American past. This museum seeks to tell, in the words of the eminent historian John Hope Franklin, ‘the unvarnished truth’ that will help our visitors to remember and better understand what has often been erased and forgotten.”

Bunch is right—the contributions of people of color have been underplayed and written out of every branch of historical study. In arts and culture in particular, white people have adopted and profited from black traditions for generations. But the lives of sexual assault survivors have been excised from popular histories, too, bolstering the legacies of men who abused their power at others’ expense...

The case of the NMAAHC is both weightier than that of the African Art Museum, since it’s a permanent display, and less so, because the entire exhibition does not hinge on Cosby’s name. The museums’ equivocation speaks to the predicament of many African-American cultural institutions that are grappling with the prospect of Cosby as a fallen star. The Cosby Show was a treasured reflection of black life for people who rarely saw their families represented in popular media, and it both normalized and complicated white America’s understanding of the black upper-middle–class family. There is no doubt that Cosby was an influential force in American comedy and a groundbreaker for black actors and comedians—that’s why the revelations about his alleged history of sexual abuse have so completely shocked and appalled the country. Cosby should absolutely have a place in a museum of black history and culture. But if we are to do right by future generations who’ll interpret Cosby’s legacy from exhibitions like this one, it must not evade the complicated truths of his story."

FedScoop unveils its list of D.C.'s Top 50 Women in Technology for 2016; FedScoop, 3/31/16

FedScoop; FedScoop unveils its list of D.C.'s Top 50 Women in Technology for 2016:

"Meet FedScoop's list of D.C.'s Top 50 Women in Technology for 2016 — an elite cadre of women transforming how the government uses technology...

But even as these women help change government for the better, honoring them is also a way of highlighting the gaps that still remain in the technology workforce.

According to the National Center for Women and Information Technology, only a quarter of professional computing jobs in the U.S. are held by women. Statistics about the next generation appear equally troublesome: The same report found only 22 percent of AP Computer Science test-takers in 2015 were female. And according to a National Cyber Security Alliance report from last year, the gap between the number of men and women who are interested in cybersecurity careers is more than five times greater than it was a year prior.

To bring more women to STEM, Smith said during a panel last week that girls need role models to help them picture themselves working in science and tech jobs."