Toxic waste spill in northern Alberta biggest of recent disasters in North America
“Every plant and tree died” in the area touched by the spill, said James Ahnassay, chief of the Dene Tha First Nation, whose members run traplines in an area that has seen oil and gas development since the 1950s.
Subvertising in California!
“Protecting the rich is this officer’s top priority.
Don’t be caught being poor.”
Stop Stigma Sacramento
The Mental Illness: It’s not always what you think project was initiated by Sacramento County Department of Health and Human Services’ Division of Behavioral Health Services to:
-Reduce stigma and discrimination
-Promote mental health and wellness
-Inspire hope for people and families living with mental illnessStop Stigma Sacramento is one of the many projects here working to support those with mental illnesses. These are all over the county—on billboards, community boards, and gas pumps.
For mental health resources in the county, visit the NAMI Sacramento website
Some more actual social justice. This is fucking perfect. Can we get these on billboards out here on the East Coast?
I’m overcome with the emotion that happens when someone does a great and righteous campaign.
I saw these a long time ago and San Luis Obispo County is doing the same thing to end stigma. I love these so much. While these might be stock-photo people, I love what they did to normalize these mental health conditions.
Captured. Photos by: Denisio Truitt
white women are earning 77 cents for every dollar a white man earns. the actual breakdown goes a bit more like this:
white women make more than Black AND Hispanic men
Black and Hispanic women make less than all aforementioned categories
whoops your intersectionality here you dropped it
Today marks an important victory for the transgender community, even though it may appear to be a small paperwork technicality. The Social Security Administration (SSA) has announced that it is now much easier for trans people to change their gender identity on their Social Security records. All that will now be required, according to the National Center for Transgender Equality, is for individuals to submit government-issued documentation reflecting a gender change, or a certification from a physician confirming they have undergone appropriate clinical treatment for gender transition.
This is a significant departure from the previous policy, which required documentation of complete sex reassignment surgery. Many trans people never undergo such procedures, either because they are too expensive, because they do not want to lose their procreative ability, or because it simply isn’t an important change for them to make to find authenticity in their identities. The SSA change eliminates this high standard for trans people to obtain the appropriate documentation for the gender that reflects how they live their daily lives.
(Source: justinspoliticalcorner)
YEAH!!!!
i got my bonus recently from work so i figured why not give some of it back to people? i am going to be giving away 1 binder from lesloveboat to whoever wins this giveaway!
here’s some info about the binders, located here:
Improved Mesh material allows for better breathability and comfort. Non-stretchable front layer for more firm binding and stretchable back layer for a comfortable wear. Velcro design easy to put on and comfortable to wear. No logo or mark on the outside of the binder.
Rules!
- more than one reblog is allowed, likes don’t count
- you don’t have to be following me
- you have to have your ask box open for me to tell you you’ve won!
- you have to be comfortable with giving me your address so i can ship it to you!
- contest ends on the 20th of june!
if you have any questions dont be afraid to ask!
good luck!
Police already abuse the immense power they have, but if everyone’s every action were being monitored, and everyone technically violates some obscure law at some time, then punishment becomes purely selective. Those in power will essentially have what they need to punish anyone they’d like, whenever they choose, as if there were no rules at all.
Even ignoring this obvious potential for new abuse, it’s also substantially closer to that dystopian reality of a world where law enforcement is 100% effective, eliminating the possibility to experience alternative ideas that might better suit us.
When the Department of Housing and Urban Development first began to systemically study housing discrimination in the United States in the 1970s, the most blatant forms of it were still common.
Blacks were denied appointments to meet with real estate brokers or rental agencies to tour homes that had been publicly advertised.
Or they were told those homes were no longer available, a lie that helped perpetuate the racial divides between whole neighborhoods.
Today, illegal incidents like these rarely occur (although they have not disappeared entirely). Discrimination, though, persists in a much subtler form. Minorities in search of a home today typically get to meet the agent and see the property.
But they’re less likely than whites to then learn about the full range of housing options available to them – to be told “I have another two-bedroom you might like to see,” or “let me show you one more house.”
“It’s very subtle,” says Margery Turner, a senior vice president with the Urban Institute. “It’s pretty much impossible for the victim to detect that this is happening to him or her.”
We know, however, that this kind of discrimination takes place across the country based on the results of a sweeping new study released today by HUD and conducted by the Urban Institute. The research is the fourth in a series of HUD-sponsored studies of housing discrimination in America that have taken place roughly once a decade since 1977.
In this latest study, 8,000 pairs of matched testers – one white, one minority, both equally qualified for the home in question – responded to ads for a variety of housing in 28 nationally representative metropolitan areas. Blacks in the market to own a home, for example, were then shown 17 percent fewer properties than whites.
In effect, this practice still constrains housing opportunities available to minorities.
“It still matters,” Turner says. “It still really makes a difference. Not only is it fundamentally unfair that somebody doesn’t find out about available housing because of the color of their skin, but it also really raises the cost of searching for housing for minorities, or it restricts their choices.”
This may mean that minorities don’t find the most affordable housing or the housing located in neighborhoods with the best schools or parks or proximity to jobs. In this study, the race of the rental or real estate agent appeared to have no effect on the results. But minority testers whose race was more easily identifiable – by name, by voice over the phone, or in person – experienced more discrimination than minorities who were more likely to be mistaken as white.
(Source: Business Insider)
Connecticut on its way to enact the “Homeless Bill of Rights”
June 12, 2013Connecticut is on the cusp of enacting a major new law to protect people who are homeless from discrimination.
Last week, Connecticut lawmakers passed the “Homeless Person’s Bill Of Rights” at the literal 11th hour — 11:30pm on June 5th, one half hour before the legislative session ended. The bill, SB 896, a landmark piece of legislation to protect homeless individuals’ rights, adds homeless people as a protected class who can’t be discriminated against in employment, housing, or public accommodations. It also includes protections for homeless people to move freely in public spaces, such as parks and sidewalks, without being singled out for harassment by law enforcement officers.
Here are the bill’s seven protections:
(1) Move freely in public spaces, including on public sidewalks, in public parks, on public transportation and in public buildings without harassment or intimidation from law enforcement officers in the same manner as other persons;
(2) Have equal opportunities for employment;
(3) Receive emergency medical care;
(4) Register to vote and to vote;
(5) Have personal information protected;
(6) Have a reasonable expectation of privacy in his or her personal property; and
(7) Receive equal treatment by state and municipal agencies.
This is no symbolic victory, Michael Stoops, Director of Community Organizing at the National Coalition for the Homeless, explained. “Homeless people are regularly discriminated against in employment and housing,” Stoops told ThinkProgress.
Nate Fox, Project Supervisor for Faces Of Homelessness Connecticut, a group that advocated for the bill, hailed its passage. “Currently, there are certain civil liberties that could be automatically wiped out when you walked into a homeless shelter,” Fox told ThinkProgress. This bill not only fixes that unintended side effect of shelters and other homeless services, it’s also “changed the conversation on how to protect homeless persons’ rights,” Fox said.
The bill now awaits Gov. Dan Malloy’s (D) signature before it can take effect at its scheduled date of October 1, 2013. It will not only play a major role in preventing discrimination against homeless people; it could also have an effect on municipalities like Hartford which currently have anti-loitering and anti-panhandling ordinances.
If it ultimately becomes law, Connecticut will become just the second state in the nation to enact a Homeless Person’s Bill of Rights. Last year, Rhode Island became the first state to do so. Illinois could increase the number to three if Gov. Pat Quinn (D) signs a bill which passed the legislature recently, and other states like Oregon and Delaware are considering similar legislation.
A Homeless Bill of Rights is also pending in California. Last month the Assembly’s Judiciary Committee approved the legislation but the Appropriations Committee put it on hold until January 2014.
With the regular harassment homeless people in California (especially those living on Skid Row) & in other states face, this kind of Bill of Rights legislation could help protect basic human rights like the freedom of movement, healthcare & employment.
[Content note: depression and suicide]
Mitchell of Research To Be Done has a fantastic post up about this idea that when you’re on psychiatric medications, you’re not “the real you.” I’ll shamelessly quote about half the post:
This is just a for the record, for everyone, whether you’re talking about antidepressants or any other form of medication or life circumstances: THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS THE “REAL YOU”.
You know why? Because HUMAN BEINGS ARE CONTEXT-DEPENDENT CREATURES.
You are the real you when you’re being flirty and charming and totally hitting it off with someone adorable. You are the real you when you’re crying on the floor of your room and wishing the world would end. You are the real you when you’re living it up on vacation and you are the real you when you’re just getting through the day at a boring job. You’re the real you when you’re on vacation and hate everything about it, and you’re the real you when you’re flying through the day at an amazing job. You are the real you when you’re at a party, and you’re the real you when you’re staying in with your cat. You are the real you when you’re drinking, when you’re high, when you’re reading, when you’re fucking, when you’re lonely, when you’re surrounded by friends, when you feel absolutely worthless, when you’re brimming with confidence, when you wish the universe would leave you alone, and when you love everything about it. You’re the real you when you’re unspeakably angry and hate everyone, and you’re the real you when you’re ecstatically in love and feeling on top of the world.
“THE REAL YOU” IS A MEANINGLESS TERM USED BY PEOPLE WHO DON’T UNDERSTAND HOW HUMAN BEINGS WORK.
I wanted to expand on that idea a bit and talk about why it’s extremely harmful to people who are suffering from mental illness.
I think this applies more generally, and hurts a lot of people. Especially when others get to decide what the “Real You” can even be like.
Me on medication isn’t “not the real me”, it is “me in a different context”. In this case, a different chemical context. I am different with different brain chemistry, the same as I am different in different social contexts, living environments, relationships, etc., etc. If I want to rearrange the context in which I live my life chemically in the same manner that I try to arrange my life socially, environmentally, etc., I may end up different, but I will not end up “less real”.
Also your brain chemistry is affected by all of these contexts, by stress and how much sleep you get and what you consume, by everything really. Medication is stigmatized, while changing your diet and getting more sleep and meditating are not, but it’s doing the same things - maybe in a more directed and specific way.
And as the writer above points out, identity is mostly illusory. People have lots of identities that we flip between interchangeably. The Real You is a projection that other people perceive as a sort of composite. Things they don’t approve of, like artifical chemicals replacing faulty natural ones, might get categorized as Not Really You, but that’s just their perception. And it’s unfair to be judged illegitimate as a person based on someone else’s perception of who you are.
Don’t let that scare you away from things that might help you live more comfortably.
Reminds me of a conversation I had with a young female client who had Bipolar d/o and she asked something along the lines of if the thoughts you think when you are manic are still your thoughts. I told her that they were, just that when your manic your thoughts are more out of the box.
