discrimination

Sex workers deserve the basic respect and protection from violence that each nation owes its citizens. But in many settings, police abuse of sex workers receives scant public attention despite its entrenched global reality.

A new project from GLSEN asks young people and adults to pledge to put an end to bullying.  Over 96,000 people have taken the pledge, but we have to do so much more. 

Herman Cain's campaign went beyond traditional sexism in politics and political reporting, and  beyond traditional victim-blaming and skepticism, in part because the campaign enrolled women to attack other women. Cain might be out of the race, but the Women For Herman Cain are not. Their votes are as much in play as ever, and I don't know that there's much that progressives can do to change their minds.

This year, the theme of World AIDS Day is "Getting to Zero: Zero New HIV Infections. Zero Discrimination and Zero AIDS Related Deaths." In order to get to zero, we must be clear that now is not the time to cut back on essential services, even in the face of fiscal austerity.

Coercive sterilizations and castration are at the extreme end of a spectrum that also includes criminal sanctions for drug use during pregnancy and barring LBGT individuals from in-vitro fertilization services and adoption, as well as a host of other policies geared at making pregnancy and parenting difficult for those deemed unworthy.

AIDS-Free World has presented a first-ever legal challenge to Jamaica's anti-gay laws, by filing a petition at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights on behalf of two gay men whose names are being withheld to protect their safety.

Follow Jodi Jacobson on Twitter, @jljacobson

September 30th is the 35th "anniversary" of the Hyde Amendment. Hyde's legacy is that pitted women of different economic classes against each other, and resulted in a pattern of trading reproductive health care for other health coverage.

Governor Brownback's religious convictions are more than just a statement of personal theology. They represent policies he promotes under his administration. And these policies are policies of forced motherhood, elimination of  abortion access and endangering the lives of women. 

If the personal is political, it seems it would extend that women’s own experiences with miscarriage would lead to sympathy for those facing similar losses.  But as Bachmann talks about her miscarriage, she promotes policies that result in miscarriages of justice.

What a new study suggests about reducing abortion stigma.