Celebrate Sexual Freedom Day with the Woodhull Freedom Foundation this September 23rd! 

Anyone 18 and older from all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and the five US territories are welcome. The best part? You will not have to leave the comfort of your home. All meetings will take place virtually. The Lobby Day will be an excellent opportunity for you to have face time with elected officials from your home state or territory. The Lobby Day will take place on September 23, 2021 which is Victoria Woodhull’s Birthday and Sexual Freedom day. Can you think of a better way to celebrate? 

Click here to receive more information!

We can’t wait to celebrate sexual freedom with all of you.

‘Safe TECH Act’ Would Create Sweeping New Section 230 Exemptions (AVN) 

Lawrence Avery draws our attention to recent updates about Section 230 and the Safe TECH Act: “Section 230 is the passage in the 1996 Communications Decency Act that protects online platforms from legal responsibility over user posts — a provision that is important for any type of free expression on the internet, but in particular for adult content which is the frequent target of censorship. [...] Perhaps the most significant change to Section 230 that would be imposed by Safe TECH is a provision that would strip protections in cases where, the bill says, ‘the provider or user has accepted payment to make the speech available or, in whole or in part, created or funded the creation of the speech.’” Read more.

Love Sick: It’s Time to Uncouple Care Work from Romantic Love (Bitch Media) 

Oliver Haug urges us to uncouple care work from romantic love: “The COVID pandemic has laid bare the ways American society presumes that most of us must depend on a singular romantic relationship as the source of all the caretaking in our lives. Romantic love is a resolution, narratively: it’s a happy ending and an assumption of mutual care in perpetuity. But this past year has forced a lot more of us to consider the limitations of that narrative. What happens to those who fall through the cracks of romantic love? Who catches you when the systems intended to secure your survival in growing older assume that you won’t be doing so alone?” Read more.

The child welfare system is another form of discriminatory policing (Prism) 

Elizabeth Brico argues that the child welfare system is a form of discriminatory policing: “[The child welfare system] disproportionately targets Black mothers and which operates in the secrecy of closed courtrooms with the impunity afforded by vague laws, low evidentiary standards, and a poor public understanding of their function: child protective services (or, as organizer Joyce McMillan refers to them, ‘the family regulation system’). In New York City, this system comes under the moniker ‘Administration for Children’s Services’ (ACS).”
Read more.

“What Are We Going to Do About It?” Mariame Kaba Talks Abolition in Action (Truthout) 

Jindu Obiofuma and James Kilgore interview Mariame Kaba about her new collection, We Do This ‘Til We Free Us, and the abolition of the prison industrial complex. Kaba says: “I hope that people who maybe have never even heard of abolition before, but are curious and willing to be interested in maybe learning a little bit more, will appreciate the book. And I hope that this book provides them with a door to allow them to decide whether or not they want to walk in. And once they’ve walked in, maybe this will lead them to other people in other projects and other organizations that they would look into and deepen their analysis and then take action accordingly.” Read more.

A Hate Group Is Reportedly Behind 2021’s Dangerous Wave of Anti-Trans Bills (them.) 

Nico Lang writes about the hate group behind a recent wave of anti-trans bills: “A familiar foe is reportedly behind the bills attacking transgender youth introduced in more than 20 states this year. According to an NBC News report, legislation put forward in states like Arizona, Kansas, Mississippi, and Montana strongly resembles Idaho’s House Bill 500. Signed into law by Republican Gov. Brad Little in March 2020, the “Fairness in Women’s Sports Act” prohibits transgender girls from competing in school sports in alighment with their gender identity. The proposals, for instance, all reference the same section of a 2019 Washington Post op-ed co-authored by former tennis champion Martina Navratrilova.” Read more.

Unacceptable Care: Why Patients Manage Their Own Abortion (Rewire News Group) 

Susan Rinkunas discusses self-managed abortion: “Almost 40 percent of abortions in the United States each year are done with pills—but those are just the ones provided in clinics and other medical facilities. An unknown number of people end their pregnancies on their own with pills they bought online or from a pharmacy in another country. [...] Some people prefer going it alone, while others buy their own pills because getting care in a clinic is too difficult, expensive, or risky.” Read more.