PAPER: because sex rights are civil rights. » courier-journal

Ongoing sagas and local action

admin — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 03:58:00 +0000

First off: the Kentucky House has approved an In God We Trust plate. As you might recall, ROCK’s been at it to get a vanity IGWT plate for years—should this pass, it effectively kills ROCK’s fundraising strategy, and if it doesn’t pass, we’re spared license plate theocracy. A true win-win!

ROCK also got more free press from WAVE-3 this week when their demands weren’t met by the Clarksville Town Council. Not so amusingly, half the very anti-ROCK comments were deleted, but it would seem public opinion actually isn’t so much on ROCK’s side. The WAVE-3 reporter’s email is above the text of the article and Clarksville’s Town Council can be reached at trishAtdigicoveDOTcom. Let’s make our sex-positive voices heard!

Another ROCK member got a letter in the Courier today. She writes,

When I read “A Super Bowl advertisement we can do without” by Timothy Rutten in The C-J’s Feb. 3 edition, I was already nodding my head in agreement to what I was sure was going to be a detractor of Go Daddy’s blatant use of porn culture and sexuality of women to sell its product.

Interestingly, the idea of porn culture is not strictly far right—many very liberal thinkers object to an oversexualized culture. PAPER, of course, advocates not a wholesale condemnation of pornography and sexuality, but striving toward a culture where sexuality is just one aspect of whole, healthy people. What’s more interesting, though, is the idea that sexuality of women is something objectionable. So much of porn’s titillation factor is in seeing women behave in unladylike ways; it might lose its more addicting quality if everyday women weren’t shamed for being sexual entities.

The Courier also printed an editorial on the terrorist Scott Roeder and more abortion-related letters to the editor.

Amanda Marcotte takes down “101 Reasons not to Have an Abortion” spectacularly.

A new anti-choice bill in Utah illegalizes miscarriages. Yeah, the anti-choice movement cares about women. Sure.

And more on Tebow: there are actually TWO anti-choice Tebow ads, both funded by the extremists at Focus on the Family. Unfortunately feminist reaction to the ad has not been received well.

At least there are the following touching and/or funny videos.

Planned Parenthood hired two sports notables–wisely, men, as anti-choicers aren’t going to respect women talking about why abortion is a force for good–to make the official counter-ad.

Florida’s Raging Grannies sing it like it is.

Jimmy Kimmel makes the most biting counter.

On the sad career of choice.

Meanwhile, Kentucky’s own Planned Parenthood and ACLU made a great showing in Frankfort for real sex ed. Real sex ed is getting proper funding again, thanks to Obama–Planned Parenthood’s Cecile Richards responds.

In other sex ed news, a new study said abstinence education works. Huh? Well, it’s not abstinence-only education, it’s sex ed that highlights the positives of abstinence while giving good health and contraception information. More on this here.

Sexting as kiddie porn is nothing short of absurd.

The Courier also opined on repealing Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell and whew, the homophobia came rolling in. It’s not just Louisvillians: Ollie North said repealing DADT will lead to NAMBLA being in uniform, the American Family Association said gayness ought to be illegal, as did the Family Research Council. Remember, the AFA and FRC are two of ROCK and their ilk’s biggest sources of “evidence.” Neighborly, huh?

Although Obama and Hillary Clinton attended the National Prayer Breakfast, put on the theocratic group The Family, they condemned the Family’s work in hate-mongering and would-be genocide in Uganda. In the Courier, another religious GLBTQ-friendly voice was heard–come on, sane Christians, keep making noise.

A top Canadian music magazine named a transman for Canada’s sexiest man. Yay progressiveness!

Another disgusting little ploy: homophobes aren’t content with saying gays are evil, they’re ugly, too.

LA will not make condoms mandatory in porn, for a variety of reasons… link is more NSFW than most.

People always have questions about sex, most of which boil down to, “Am I normal?” Who cares?

Got a painfully curved penis? Help may be on the way.

The anatomy of sperm.

More Kentuckian fun with restricting abortion access

admin — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 19:58:42 +0000

This week the Kentucky Senate passed to the floor a bill that forces women to have an ultrasound before getting an abortion [the webpage has been glitchy, so you may have to refresh to get it to load correctly]. Kentucky law already requires counseling, in case you didn’t know. Find your representative’s contact info here so you can tell him or her to vote against this anti-choice nonsense. The Courier also ran an op-ed on this.

Oh, and here’s The Onion’s take on such terrible laws:

New Law Requires Women To Name Baby, Paint Nursery Before Getting Abortion

Meanwhile, remember how Louisville’s anti-choice protesters have been showing up to the abortion clinic dressed like escorts? The feminist blogosphere picked up on it, and the protesters weren’t happy. Excerpt:

While these escorts may seem to you as brave, enduring, heroes, and more..to me they are individuals who use Saturday mornings as a way to justify being as angry and mean as possible. Who yell insults, profane language, and dance in the streets while women go into the abortion clinic. These insults come after attempts to simply say good morning or hello. We do not hate the escorts, nor believe they are deemed our “enemies” as they do. We are divided on this issue of great importance, yet I do not believe that it means we must hate one another.
These same people who “shelter” the woman going into the clinic barely speak a word to her, and instead focus on telling myself and my friends how stupid we are. In fact, the woman is often ignored. Is that emotional support?

Lies, lies, lies. This anti-choicer has conveniently ignored all the insults, judgments, and sanctimoniousness that come from the protesters. Escorts also don’t scream at the women going into the clinic, so I suppose it could be an honest mistake not to hear their kind words. The best thing is, the anti-choicer who wrote this silly email is in the video shot by escorts. So we know exactly the hatefulness he or she espouses, regardless of what they say later. [More here, including the video.]

Meanwhile, the murderer of Dr. George Tiller may be found guilty of manslaughter instead. This sets a terrifying precedent—essentially allowing lesser sentences for murdering abortion doctors. We can only hope it’s a means to curtail appeals. More here.

Repeal the Hyde Amendment!

On having anti-choice allies.

More debunking of the abortion causes breast cancer lie.

Stupak might run for governor. Well, it’d get him out of Congress at least.

Why the big disparity between states offering anti-choice and pro-choice license plates?

The following is tax-funded abstinence-only education in action:

Because clapping for the clap is so much better at curtailing teen pregnancy than telling teens condoms are effective. Riiiiight.

The Courier also ran an op-ed this week about all the Kurtz homophobia ruckus. More reader response here.

This week the Prop 8 trial began. Evidence will include testimony from gay couples, and a historian’s take on marriage. Meanwhile, the homophobes have demanded not to be shown on camera. Do they secretly know their weak arguments are based on hate, or what?

Always hilarious: prominent Irish homophobe Iris Robinson was caught in an extramarital affair with 19 year old chef for whom she embezzled $50000. Juicy! By the way, did you know divorce rates are higher in states banning gay marriage?

Reluctance may be growing about the Kill the Gays Bill in Uganda.

The Democrats might finally start moving on repealing DADT.

Fun stuff: how gay are Catholic priests… or how many people are into blasphemy play? And, also from The Onion, Gay teen worried he might be a Christian. And yes, it IS set in our own Louisville.

Neither victims nor voiceless: sex workers speaking for themselves. And, America’s first legal male prostitute compares himself to Rosa Parks. Uh, well, we guess it’s good for male prostitutes to be ballsy.

Lastly, one that goes to the heart of what PAPER stands for: breaking the generational shame about sex.

Happy New Year!

admin — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 23:57:55 +0000

Your intrepid webmistress’ schedule is awry, so bear with us for the next couple of weeks. We may be making some big changes to the site, too!

And on to the news. The drama continues to unfold regarding Louisville’s own Archbishop Kurtz, who donates to homophobia: the director of the Fairness Campaign responds, and so do readers. But best of all was Kurtz’s own response to criticism:

Unfortunately, the editors of The Courier-Journal characterized the support for marriage as bigotry. As archbishop, as a former social worker and as a citizen, I write to express my objection to referring to the church’s efforts, as well as those of countless citizens throughout the United States, in such derogatory terms. In fact, the majority of voters in more than 30 states have supported marriage as the union of one man and one woman.

As a good citizen, I do not seek to impose assent to religious truths, such as those regarding Baptism or the Holy Eucharist. Marriage, however, as the union of one man and one woman is not only a religious conviction … it is a time-honored, classical norm recognized in almost every civilization. The church supports marriage for the same reason it supports laws against stealing. We oppose stealing not only because of the seventh commandment, but because of the natural moral law regarding the good of private ownership. The seventh commandment confirms with special clarity and authority what anyone of good will may discover by the application of reason.

It never ceases to amaze me that people can be genuinely uncomfortable with being called bigots, but have no discomfort at all with their own actual bigotry. Kurtz says he’s not, and “supporters of marriage” are not, bigots, but equates gay marriage with theft. He misrepresents marriage by implying “almost every civilization” treated marriage as Catholicism does, and relies on the old trope that homosexuality is somehow unnatural, because he can’t say the only reason he opposes gay marriage is because Paul and Moses told him so. Given that homosexuality is wholly natural, that gay families can be healthy and happy families, that gay marriages involve consenting adults, and that marriage has indeed been different culture to culture, there’s no conclusion except that Kurtz and his ilk are bigots. [Also let's remember that gay marriage laws come with clauses saying no church must perform/recognize gay marriage.]

Meanwhile, such homophobia’s real ramifications continue to play out in Uganda, where life imprisonment for gays is gaining more support than the death penalty. In Malawi, a gay couple got married in protest of the Ugandan bill and were promptly arrested. In happy news, however, Argentina has its first married gay couple, and Obama has appointed transwoman Amanda Simpson to the Department of Commerce.

A map of the world by gay rights:

Fun: daytime TV’s first gay love scene.

Should unmarried straight couples get benefits?

The abstinence-only clowns are hoping healthcare reform will save their lies. See also: the new paperback version of Jessica Valenti’s The Purity Myth.

More on abortion compromise from a Senator; response here. Locally, our own ACLU sent representatives to protest Stupak-Pitts, as well as condemn Rep. Chandler’s vote for the amendment.

Happy update: the military dropped the ban on pregnant soldiers.

On red and blue family values, and realities.

On men who fake orgasms.

And, where science gets really stupid: a new study says the g-spot doesn’t exist. [Another study recently confirmed its existence.] Sigh. Why was this even questioned?

Lastly, if a product relies solely on sex to sell while having nothing to do with sex, it’s probably a mediocre product.

Happy Halloween!

admin — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 23:46:39 +0000

And your intrepid webmistress has news, action alerts, and adventures for you. First off, TOMORROW, 10/28, is National Comprehensive Sex Education Call-In Day. Learn more from the organizers here.

Here’s something gleeful: check out the ROCK-mocking in this C-J article. ROCK’s radio show continues, and ROCK prez Bryan Wickens got more free press from the Southeast Outlook. The radio show is essentially an hour-long advertisement for ROCK—the other “practical solution” Wickens has offered on the show is going into school libraries and asking for books to be removed. Charming. In the SECC article, Wickens reminds us that “‘liberty’ is at the heart of everything,” which is funny, since censorship doesn’t seem much like liberty. Wickens adds that without Judeo-Christian principles this country will be torn apart, and that the country’s “moral decay” is shown by “the need for greater government control.” The article does not seem to be online, but it is nothing more than the usual back-patting incoherence one expects from ROCK. Also, Thursday, 10/29, ROCK will be having an event at Kye’s. Email us at paperkyanaATgmailDOTcom if you want to be involved in counter-activities.

And on to more dumb things: SuperFreakonomics asks why all women don’t become prostitutes. While PAPER wholeheartedly supports sex workers and believes it can be a great career choice, to wonder why all women don’t wander into the field at any level smacks of bad econ, attention-grabbing, and a misogynistic undertone. More here.

About the online prostitution subculture. Rather sex-negative in tone, but a look into how the internet is affecting the world’s oldest profession.

Utter crap: a new documentary says HIV and AIDS aren’t connected.

How do we like our contraception? Well, condoms now rival the Pill.

Snarking sexist shite from Details, Jezebel style.

Excellent and informative: The Pro-Life Pretense, which debunks “pro-life” legislators. This article was heavy on my mind Saturday when I escorted at the abortion clinic; and, I’m pleased to say, your intrepid webmistress’ take on Saturday morning is an editor’s pick at Open Salon.

More abortion links: study on abortion and mental health, and anti-choice FAIL from Law and Order. Seriously, cut the shit, TV shows.

Out of state homophobes again threaten gay marriage. Maine, don’t do another Prop 8!

In better news, hate crimes against gays are now federally prohibited. About time.

Lamda Legal has a new documentary out about getting anti-sodomy laws repealed. More good legal news: ruling eases transgender name change process.

Awesome: William & Mary students have elected a transgender homecoming queen.

Lastly in news: a gallery of photos from the Loveland Park in Korea. Very interesting—we hope to see more!

Lastly: we’ve added links to the blogroll, to the feminism page, and the abortion page.

And a very happy Halloween to you all.