Tag: Discrimination

Capitalism, Transphobia, and Racism to Blame for Controversy around Olympic Boxers + Notes

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Capitalism, Transphobia, and Racism to Blame for Controversy around Olympic Boxers

No restrictions exist for people with other genetic advantages, such as a limit on basketball or volleyball players in the 99th percentile for height, or people like Michael Phelps who have double-jointed ankles and unusually long arms. For reference, intersex women (i.e. people assigned female at birth but with abnormal hormone levels or chromosomes other than xx) make up about 1.7 percent of all women, whereas women at least six feet tall make up only 0.5 percent of all women, yet this didn’t prevent the U.S. women’s basketball team from filling up 2/3rds of their roster with women who have this rare genetic advantage.

…

The Tokyo Olympics three years later saw the participation of two intersex Namibian runners, Christine Mboma and Beatrice Masilingi. While both had previously found success in the 400m and 800m races, they opted to compete in the 200m to avoid having to artificially reduce testosterone. Mboma won silver in the event, while Masilingi placed sixth. World Athletics responded by tightening its rules again, setting a testosterone threshold of 2.5 nmol/L for all events. Mboma and Masilingi complied with the regulations by taking testosterone blockers, which significantly reduced their running speed, and thus neither qualified for the Paris Games in 2024.

Related:

Testosterone:

Normal measurements for these tests:

  • Male: 300 to 1,000 nanograms per deciliter (ng/dL) or 10 to 35 nanomoles per liter (nmol/L)
  • Female: 15 to 70 ng/dL or 0.5 to 2.4 nmol/L

LGBTQ+ Identification in U.S. Now at 7.6%

Cis boys get gender-affirming surgeries more often than trans minors

Disabled need help living, not help dying

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

AS NEW HAMPSHIRE considers legalizing assisted suicide, also referred to as medical aid in dying (MAID), I would like to draw attention to the potential impacts this bill could have on disabled and other marginalized residents.

I was 19 years old the second time I attempted to die by suicide. I had just been diagnosed with a chronic but not life-threatening illness, I had rapidly lost about 70% of my hearing in the middle of completing a music degree, and I was struggling with untreated anorexia that was taking a serious toll on my health.

At my intake appointment with a new therapist a few days after my attempt, I explained my situation and the hopelessness I was feeling. She nodded along, then looked me in the eyes and said something I will never forget:

“I would probably kill myself if I were you.”

She wasn’t the first person to say this to me as I started becoming more noticeably disabled, but she was probably the last person I expected to do so. Now that I work in disability policy, nothing surprises me. I hear stories from other disabled people about doctors pressuring them to sign DNRs because they are assumed to have a low quality of life due to their disability. I get messages on social media from people asking me how to advocate for appropriate pain management when their doctors don’t believe the amount of pain they’re in. I pore over story after story of people like Michael Hickson and Tinslee Lewis having treatment withdrawn, withheld, or threatened because of the pervasive view that it’s better to be dead than disabled.

Jules Good: Disabled need help living, not help dying

Watched: Disabled & The Cost of Saying I Do

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

I’m attempting to read Capitalism and Disability: Essays by Marta Russell (you can listen, here) for personal reasons. I say attempting because I easily get distracted, and am already reading The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State. In Capitalism and Disability, a documentary produced by Marta is mentioned, Disabled & The Cost of Saying I Do, so I decided to watch it. It’s also on YouTube here, and in higher video quality here.

The documentary covers the unfair disincentives that those who are disabled, on Supplemental Security Insurance (SSI), and get married face. This marriage penalty doesn’t apply if you are on Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) unless you’re a Disabled Adult Child (DAC) or a widow or widower of a SSDI recipient. If SSI recipients marry someone with even a small income or level of assets, they could lose their benefits and Medicaid. This is because the Social Security Administration (SSA) considers a portion of the spouse’s income and assets as belonging to the SSI recipient. SSI recipients are often deemed to have income or assets that are too high for SSI or Medicaid because of this.

The Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund gets funding from the Department of Education, but they cover SSI and the marriage penalty decently here and here. More resources on capitalism and disability can be found, here.

David Villamar interviewed about Ecuador’s violent crime disaster

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Despite the ongoing genocide in Gaza, Ecuador’s violent crime problem is such an incredible disaster that it manages to attract international attention. Criminals have recently taken over live newscasts. Supporters of the rightwing governments that created the disaster (for example, The Economist) have declared Ecuador to be the deadliest country in the Americas. It’s difficult for Ecuador to get international news coverage. In recent years, it generally has to be something very bad (or sports-related).

David Villamar interviewed about Ecuador’s violent crime disaster

Related:

How Did Ecuador Spiral into This Nightmare? It Was the Neoliberal Dismantling of the State

ACLU Wisconsin files records requests for banned books across school districts

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

ACLU Wisconsin files records requests for banned books across school districts

Menomonee Falls School District banned 33 titles. The same day the ACLU made its open records requests, Elkhorn Area School District received a request from a parent challenging 444 books, prompting the temporary removal and review of those titles.

Related:

ACLU of Wisconsin Files Open Record Requests with Six School Districts That Recently Banned Books

The letter to the school districts accompanying the requests notes that removing books from school libraries threatens the First Amendment rights of students and their families. The Supreme Court held over 40 years ago that “local school boards may not remove books from school library shelves simply because they dislike the ideas contained in those books.”

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The largely forgotten book ban case that went up to the Supreme Court

Pressley Bill Would Classify Discriminatory Book Bans as Civil Rights Violations

Pressley Bill Would Classify Discriminatory Book Bans as Civil Rights Violations

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

The bill would also require public and school libraries to have a diverse book collection.

Pressley Bill Would Classify Discriminatory Book Bans as Civil Rights Violations

Parents should be able to have a say in their children’s education (although, they shouldn’t be astroturfed). The thing is, these articles are selective in revealing the money behind some of these groups. I’ve included links to a few, of the financials/partnerships, below the cut. I wasn’t able to find information on a couple of them, though. Another thing, PEN has ties to the CIA and the Congress for Cultural Freedom.

Related:

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