Feminist Weekly june 06
News clippings and #FeministWins curated by Contributing News Editor Annie Wu Henry. From feel good news to headliners keeping you on the pulse. Here is the round up for the week!
Photo by Brielle French on Unsplash
Happy Pride Month!
June is Pride month, which is a month dedicated to uplifting the LGBTQIA+ community, honoring the Trans elders who paved the way in the historic Stone Wall Riots, reflecting on how far equal rights have come and continuing to fight for those yet to be achieved. Also a reminder that our acceptance, advocacy and celebration of the LGBTQIA+ community should be not only this month, but every single day.
ICYMI
Amazon is stopping weed testing and backs legalization: Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O) said on Tuesday it supports a proposed U.S. legislation to legalize cannabis at the federal level, and would drop weed-testing requirements for some recruitments. Although weed has been legalized and decriminalized in many U.S. states, employers have so far largely refused to work with the cannabis industry and it still a classified substance at the federal level.
100 years later: Remembering the Tulsa Race Massacre: Tuesday marked the 100th anniversary of the massacre that destroyed a thriving Black community (known as Black Wall Street) in Tulsa, Oklahoma. In 1921, a white mob, burned Tulsa’s Greenwood district,resulting in the murder of as many as 300 Black Tulsans. President Biden was the first sitting president in 100 years to visit the site of the Tulsa massacre in which he clarified, "This was not a riot. This was a massacre."
Pelosi is floating idea of Dem-run commission to investigate the Capitol Insurrection Jan 6.:Senate Republicans blocked an independent commission to investigate attack on U.S. Capitol. With a vote of 54 in favor and 35 against, the Dem-controlled congress was short of the 60 needed to proceed due to the filibuster. However House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) has presented four options to move forward and launch a comprehensive review.
Remains of 215 indigenous children were found at former school site in British Columbia: According to the Tk'emlúps te Secwépemc Nation, the children were students at the Kamloops Indian Residential School in British Columbia that closed in 1978. Canada's previous residential school system had forcibly separated indigenous children from their families which consituted a "cultural genocide."
President Biden Suspended oil and gas drilling in Arctic National Wildlife Refuge: This action reverses one of the final environmental decisions that the former president made before leaving office in January. The Biden-Harris administration plans to continue to take action on the negative environmental impacts that drilling has had on the region.
Florida Signed A Transgender Athlete Bill Into Law (on the first day of pride): On Tuesday, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) signed a bill that barrs transgender females from playing on public school girls' sports teams. The law is likely to be challenged as unconstitutional and is one of the many GOP laws being brought forth nationally to limit LGBTQIA+ rights.
Texas Dems walk out to stop voter suppression bills (for now): Democrats walked off the state House floor in Texas Sunday night, leaving the majority Republicans without the quorum they needed to approve Senate Bill 7 for this year's legislative session. This move was done effectively in the late and final hours before a midnight deadline. However, it might not last since Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) tweeted afterwards that he plans to call a special session to address "election integrity."
On the Pandemic Front…
For the first time since March 2020–the 7 day average of daily covid cases was below 20,000 and roughly 63% of Americans over 18 have received 1 or more doses of vaccine–Biden’s goal is 70 % by July 4.
–GoodGoodCo
The UK reported 0 deaths from covid for first time since July 2020
–BBC
This week in Culture
The 23-year-old, four-time Grand Slam tournament winner and one of the world’s highest paid female athletes shared on social media that she was going to decline press conferences during the French Open tournament due to mental health issues. The French Open responded by fining her $15,000 in which Osaka rebuttled by withdrawing from the tournament completely. There has been an outporuring of support for her prioritization of her mental health, including Serena Williams and other top athletes.
After hiking cross-county, the singer began training to summit Mt. Everest. While making his way up the mountain, he fundraised for the Detroit Justice Center; the GoFundMe he set up has currently raised over $218,000 in donations.
With the news of the third season of Hulu’s Madagascar: A Little Wild, a spin-off of the popular film franchise, it was also announced that it will feature a non-binary character voiced by a non-binary actor. This representation comes amid a wave of groundbreaking LGBTQ+ representation in animation that is long overdue
Olivia Rodrigo had three songs in the top 10 of this week's #Hot100. She is the first artist in history to chart three concurrent songs in the top 10 all from a first LP.
#FeministWins
As Lake Highlands High School's class of 2021 valedictorian, she submitted her commencement speech for approval, then ignored the whole thing. She used this platform to talk about how the new state law that bans abortions as early as six weeks is an attack on her body and her rights.
Brooke Blurton is set to star in The Bachelorette Australia.
As a bi-woman, she will be the first LGBTQIA+ lead in franchise history.
Blurton will lead with mixed gender cast
Karine Jean-Pierre Makes History as First LGBTQ+ Person to Lead White House Briefing. Jean-Pierre was also the first Black woman to stand behind the podium in 30 years.
Jane Goodall became first ethologist and 4th woman ever to win Templeton Prize – Good Good Co
Annie Wu Henry is a journalist, social media expert and politics + pop culture junkie. On the cusp of being a gen-z and millennial she understands the power and privilege that social media holds and chooses to use her platform to utilize these tools for good. Through sharing news in digestible, entertaining and easy to understand content, Annie seeks to promote the message that anyone can be an activist and make an impact. She believes people are important and thrives on building meaningful connections with others through sharing our stories and perspectives. As a proud adopted Asian-American, her work focuses on equality, mental health, intersectionality and education.
