The Long, Twisted Road to Reversing ‘Roe v. Wade’ (Rewire News Group) 

Andrea Grimes discusses the possible end of Roe v. Wade: “We are looking at the likely end of Roe’s protections in a matter of months, but this isn’t even the first time in recent memory that we’ve told-you-so’d after having told you that the end is nigh, only to have our clear-eyed analyses and urgent calls for change derided as fearmongering, hysterics, and overreaction—merely for, in some cases, taking anti-abortion politicians at their word. Warnings about the tenuousness of Roe go back decades, practically to the moment the Supreme Court decided the case in 1973.” Read more.

Court Upholds Former Performer's Discrimination Claims Against Oregon Nursing School (XBIZ) 

Gustavo Turner covers a former sex workers’ discrimination claim: “An Oregon court held that a former performer, who alleged discrimination during her time at a nursing school after staff found out about her adult work from a decade earlier, could move forward with her Title IX claim against the institution. Magistrate Judge Mustafa T. Kasubhai, sitting for the District of Oregon, held at the summary judgment stage that Nicole Gililland — who left the nursing program and is currently enrolled in law school in Massachusetts — could move forward with her action against Southwestern Oregon Community College because discrimination against sex workers may fall under ‘sex discrimination’ under Title IX.” Read more.

I Was Sexually Harassed by a Co-worker. My Boss Let My Harasser Stay to “Keep an Eye” on Him.  (Mother Jones) 

Jackie Flynn Mogensen shares Kelley Smith’s story of enduring workplace sexual harassment. Smith says: “It’s been a few years since all this happened. I want to move on. But I realized, everyone has to find a way to heal. And one of the best ways to heal is to talk about the story, and to find a way to do some good from it. If I could have power over my own narrative, and speak out, it might help to know I tried to help someone else in this position. The other thing that’s stuck with me is when I said I was going to tell someone about the harassment, he said, ‘No one will care.’ He has been right. I don’t want him to be right.”
Read more.

Gay and Trans ‘Panic’ Is Still Being Used to Justify Anti-LGBTQ Attacks (The Appeal) 

Adam M. Rhodes writes about using gay and trans “panic” as a legal defense: “The gay and trans panic defenses are not criminal legal defenses on their own, like self-defense, but instead used to argue provocation, diminished capacity, or insanity, as well as self-defense, according to Carsten Andresen, a criminal justice professor at St. Edward’s University in Austin, Texas. In other words, a victim’s sexual orientation or gender identity is argued to have provoked the defendant’s ‘panic’ and thus the sometimes deadly violence inflicted on a queer victim.” Read more.

How Minnesota’s Foster Care System Reminds Native Moms of a Racist Legacy (Mother Jones) 

Jessica Washington details how Native mothers experience Minnesota’s foster care system: “Since 2018, Nord has worked at the Indian Child Welfare Act Law Center, an organization dedicated to helping Native mothers and families reunite with their children in the foster care system. She sees the legacy of generations wrapped up in the child welfare system. [...] No two stories of parents involved in the child protective system are the same, but Nord feels she’s seen enough as a Native mom and working with other women to notice a pattern: Too often social workers default to removing Native children—and those presumed to be Native—from families experiencing difficulties.” Read more.

Groundbreaking Study Confirms Positive Effects of Hormone Therapy for Trans Youth (them.) 

James Factora highlights a study that confirms the positive effects of hormone therapy for trans youth: “A groundbreaking new study has confirmed what trans youth have long known to be true: access to gender-affirming hormone therapy can have overwhelmingly positive mental health effects. The study, published [December 14] in the peer-reviewed Journal of Adolescent Health, is the first large-scale research regarding the mental health effects of hormone therapy for transgender and nonbinary youth, with a sample of over 9,000 respondents between the ages of 13 and 24. The survey, conducted by researchers at the Trevor Project, a crisis support organization for LGBTQ+ youth, found that trans people under 18 who had sought out and received hormone therapy were nearly 40% less likely to report recent depression and a past-year suicide attempt than those who wanted hormone treatment but could not receive it.” Read more.

Tess’ Take: Violence Against Sex Workers (Woodhull’s Sex & Politics Blog) 

Tess Joseph writes about violence against sex workers: “The facts about violence against sex workers are harrowing. Amanda Ong writes, ‘LGBTQIA youth, especially Black and Latina trans women, are more likely both to become houseless and to become sex workers. Sex workers experience sexual violence at much higher rates. Sex workers are often arrested simply for reporting violence. The average street-sex worker is physically attacked once a month. The death rate for sex work is one of the highest of any profession.’ Undoing this complex web of violence is no small feat.” Read more.