CNN asked Caitlyn Jenner, a biological male, to supply a quote for its celebration of “International Women’s Day.”
For its March 8th International Women’s Day discussion, CNN asked women around the world: “What single thing would you change to improve gender equality where you are?” One of those asked to contribute was former Olympic champion, Kardashian TV cast member, and, biological man, Caitlyn Jenner.
The cabler invited celebrities, athletes, politicians, businesswomen, and activists to offer their pearls of wisdom about the day meant to praise the contribution of women across the world.
Jenner’s contribution was featured prominently as the third entry in the list.
“My path to womanhood was very different and through that process I feel like I learned a lot about women,” Jenner wrote. “Women are brought up to kind of be a second-class citizen. Emotionally weaker. Physically weaker. I’ve always been inspired by strong women. And in particular, both by daughters: Kendall and Kylie.”
The former Olympian has been controversial for transitioning from a male to a female, less for the transitioning than for being highly celebrated for the decision. In 2015, for instance, ESPN awarded Jenner its “Arthur Ashe Courage Award,” despite the fact that Jenner’s transition had little to do with sports.
Other contributors who are featured in CNN’s celebration include Namita Gokhale, a writer and publisher from India, plus-size model Ashley Graham, fashion designer Diane Von Furstenberg, Olympic gold medalist Jessie Diggins, left-wing comedienne Margaret Cho, along with a member of the Iraqi Parliament, the mayor of San Juan, Puerto Rico, and many others.
Now that’s a full damned goon right there. Damn she’s a goon. Nothing but attitude.
Evergreen professor who made anti-white comments resigns, gets $240G settlement
An Evergreen State College professor who was captured on video harassing her white co-workers resigned after reaching a financial settlement with the college.
Naima Lowe, a self-described black queer artist and educator who taught video and performance art at Evergreen State, received $240,000 from the college after she filed a discrimination and hostile work environment claim, according to college spokesperson Zach Powers.
Lowe has been on personal leave since the beginning of the school year after she claimed she was the victim of “online attacks on her,” according to a letter sent to colleagues. She officially resigned Dec. 6.
Lowe came under fire after she was caught on video berating her white co-workers.
“You are now these motherf***ers that we’re pushing against,” Lowe told her co-workers on the school’s Equity Council in a viral video earlier this year. “You can’t see your way out of your own *ss…This sh** is literally going to kill me.”
In a 2015 video that recently surfaced, Lowe is again heard making racist comments toward white people, the Campus Reform reported.
“White supremacy…lives and breathes within every single white person standing here right now,” Lowe said. “I refuse to shut my mouth and let white people set this agenda…the white gays, the white middle class assimilationist motherf***ing gays, took over the [gay] movement with their assimilationist goals.”
There has been at least five high-profile Evergreen employees who have resigned since last spring following a series of protest at the college relating to accusations of racism and intolerance, according to The Olympian, a local website. Rashida Love, director of the college’s First People’s Multicultural Advising Services program, also resigned last month due to online threats.
Racial tension at the Washington state college was heightened when a professor, Bret Weinstein, who has since resigned, was targeted by a mob of students after he took issue with a demand for a “day of absence” where all white people were asked to leave the campus for a day. The student mob shut down the campus for several days and accused Weinstein of being a racist. At the time, Weinstein had to be escorted out of the campus for fear of his life.
Weinstein and his wife, Heather Heying, a fellow Evergreen professor, filed a $3.85 million tort claim in July claiming Evergreen failed to “protect its employees from repeated provocative and corrosive verbal and written hostility based on race, as well as threats of physical violence.” They resigned in September as part of a $450,000 settlement with the college.
Stacy Brown, the chief of Police Services at the college, resigned after she was also targeted by protesters who alleged institutional racism.
A second transgender student is fighting for locker room access at the same suburban school district where a lengthy and historic battle over transgender rights set national precedence a few years ago.
Eighteen-year-old Nova Maday filed a lawsuit in Cook County Circuit Court on Thursday claiming that Palatine-based Township High School District 211 has in the past denied her use of the girls’ locker room during physical education class, hurting her grade as well as her mental health.
More recently, the district allowed the Palatine High School senior to change in facilities matching her gender identity but only if she agreed to dress in an “unspecified private changing area within the locker room,” which the lawsuit says is not required of other students.
District 211 Superintendent Dan Cates, in a prepared statement released later Thursday, said the “allegations in the lawsuit misrepresent the accommodations extended to this student and District 211’s approach to working with and supporting transgender students.”
But the suit contends the district has treated Maday differently than other female students, which it asserts is in violation of the Illinois Human Rights Act.
“I just want to be treated like every other girl in our school,” Maday said in a written statement.
The lawsuit says Maday has presented as female since October 2014, consistently dressing as a girl and using a female name and pronouns.
“Nova’s ability to live as a girl in all aspects of her life has been essential for treating her gender dysphoria,” says the lawsuit, which was filed on the student’s behalf by the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois and the Chicago law firm Mandell Menkes LLC. “Before treatment, Nova had severe depression. Since her treatment began, Nova’s depression has improved, her grades have gotten better in all of her classes besides P.E., and she has become more social.”
“Under the District’s policy … Nova must be conspicuously separated from her fellow students and singled out for differential treatment by being required to dress separately from them, either in a separate facility or in a separate area within the locker room,” the lawsuit says. “The District’s actions signal to Nova that she is not really a girl and should feel ashamed of who she is and about her body, in particular.”
The northwest suburban district had made national headlines when another transgender student — identified publicly as Student A — filed a complaint with federal authorities in 2013 seeking access to the girls’ locker room. An investigation by federal education officials found the district violated federal law, the first time a school was found to be in conflict with Title IX based on gender identity.
Administrators agreed to give Student A access to the girls’ locker room while installing privacy walls, but a group of parents who opposed such accommodations then sued the district and federal government in federal court, arguing that this violated the constitutional right to privacy and created a hostile environment for other students. That lawsuit is ongoing.
In response to Maday’s lawsuit, a spokeswoman for that group of parents said students should be separated by biological sex and that an “open-air locker room” is not a solution.
“The student is a biological male, and we separate these students by biology and anatomy for good reason,” said Vicki Wilson of D211 Parents for Privacy. “Schools have a duty to protect the well-being and dignity of all students.”
Maday’s mother had previously asked school officials if accommodations for Student A would apply to Maday as well. A school official told the mother that “the settlement only applied to Student A and would not extend to any other student in the district,” according to the lawsuit.
The superintendent’s statement Thursday, however, said district “has provided caring and responsive supports for transgender students for years, including multiple transgender students who daily use bathrooms and locker rooms of their gender identity in multiple schools.
“Every transgender student in District 211 who has requested use of the locker room of their identified gender has been offered such access, along with other supports within an individual support plan,” the statement said.
“We will vigorously defend and protect compassionate, fair and equitable support for all students, and, at the same time, we continue to defend our supports for transgender students at the federal level,” Cates added.
Despite this, Maday’s lawsuit is asking for the court to order District 211 to allow all students access to facilities matching their gender identity, as well as damages for emotional distress and loss suffered by Maday.
Palatine has become one of the main battlegrounds for transgender rights in schools amid a larger, ongoing fight for access based on gender identity nationwide.
In 2016, a directive from then-President Barack Obama’s administration declared that schools must accommodate transgender students, including allowing access to locker rooms or other facilities based on gender identity. But in February the Trump administration rolled back those protections, saying decisions on access were best made at a local level.
DALLAS — The Boy Scouts of America says it will allow transgender children who identify as boys to enroll in its boys only programs.
The organization announced Monday that it had made the decision to base enrollment in boys only programs on the gender a child or parent lists on the application to become a scout. The organization had previously held a policy that relied on the gender listed on a child’s birth certificate.
A spokeswoman for the organization says it made the decision based on states and communities changing how gender is defined.
A transgender child in Secaucus, New Jersey, was asked late last year to leave his Scout troop after parents and leaders found out he is transgender.
A former teacher-turned-transgender woman and LGBT activist who sued a California school district for discrimination has been arrested and accused of a triple homicide, police report.
Oakland police arrested Dana Rivers, 61, of San Jose in connection with a triple murder. Dead are Patricia Wright, 57, Charlotte Reed, 56, and 19-year-old Toto Diambu, found stabbed and shot to death in a home on November 11.
Officials arrested Rivers on three counts of murder, arson, and possession of metal knuckles, according to the Sacramento Bee.
Police say that after murdering the three victims, Rivers set the Oakland home on fire at about 12:30 a.m. on Friday, November 11.
Rivers was discovered with a gun, ammunition, and a knife used in the murder, according to police reports.
Officials offered no motive for the crime.
Media outlets quickly discovered that the suspect was once named David Warfield, a teacher at Center High School in Antelope, California. In the 1990s, Warfield began to transition into a female and eventually sued the school system for discrimination.
After an earlier announcement of his intention to transition into a woman, Warfield was suspended from teaching in 1999 and soon sued because of the school system’s decision. Later going by the name Dana Rivers, the former teacher won a $150,000 settlement from the school system.
