How ironic…or maybe it’s not, maybe it’s classic rather than ironic. Or both. Being marginalized doesn’t prevent the marginalized from marginalizing others, which is perhaps both ironic and classic. (Yes, that applies to me too. Yes, you alone among mortals are immune. Please sit down now.)

The Human Rights Campaign is a white guys club.

A new internal diversity report reveals the Human Rights Campaign has a sexist work environment where only ‘gay, white, male’ employees advance into leadership positions.

Well you see it’s like this – having a leadership position isn’t a human right.

Bullet dodged!

“As a woman, I feel excluded every day,” says an employee of the Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest LGBT civil rights advocacy group and political lobbying organization, in an internal diversity report released Wednesday.

The report was compiled by The Pipeline Project, and commissioned by HRC through focus groups and surveys with employees of the company. The report revealed that the organizational structure of HRC perpetuates sexism, while leaders have failed to establish a “real push for diversity,” which has created a “homogenous” leadership culture that is “gay, white, male.”

What could they do? It just turned out that all the really talented people were white and male. What could they possibly do about that??

A third of all staff in the report called HRC’s working environment is “exclusionary.” More than half of multiracial and Latino people, and 83 percent of genderqueer people working at HRC said they feel they are not treated equally based on their identity.

…

Straight women and lesbians experience sexist treatment from gay men.

Employees surveyed reported experiencing “femophobia,” where “feminine men and women are not considered as important [as more masculine staffers].” Another survey respondent claimed to have witnessed “visible misogyny,” which the staffer described as “cutting women off, [and] only addressing other white men.” The report notes that complaints about sexism and a “good old boy’s club” were cited 32 times in open-ended answers.

Now, working for an organization of that kind is bound to sharpen everyone’s perceptions of such things, so there could be some false positives, so to speak – or some debatable examples, or whatever you want to call them. That’s always possible, and it’s that much more so in organizations whose entire purpose is to do with equal rights and equal treatment. On the other hand if all the people at the top really are pale males, it’s hard to get that part wrong.

At an organization that claims to represent more than 1.5 million members, people of color, transgender staffers, and employees from a lower socioeconomic group claimed they faced institutionalized discrimination that played a part in their salary. Employees at the company claim that “a lot of folks are personally invested in diversity inclusion, but their voices have been smothered or pushed away.”

The report reveals an understanding that the way to succeed and advance in the company is to be a “young white gay male, who socializes with staff and especially senior staff.” Doing so ensures “there is a greater likelihood that you will advance sooner,” claimed one respondent. Another employee quoted in the report said they were discouraged from speaking up about such issues, because “raising concerns is not your job … Concerns are to be tasked by people who are more experienced, less radical, more conservative, more mainstream.”

Well, to some extent, yes. More experience is a valid criterion for many jobs, so you can see how that would play out.

Still, it’s interesting. Physician heal thyself etc etc.

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)

This is cool.

Trans People Are Creating Their Own Vanity Fair Covers With #MyVanityFairCover.

Laverne Cox recently began a dialogue on her Tumblr concerning the beauty standards surrounding trans women in light of Caitlyn Jenner’s Vanity Fair cover.

“It is important to note that these standards are also informed by race, class and ability among other intersections. I have always been aware that I can never represent all trans people. No one or two or three trans people can,” wrote Cox.

So: more “Vanity Fair” covers.

Call me Crystal.

A lot of people have explained it better than me recently, but a large contingent of the trans community has engaged in a lot of dialogue the past few days, ever since Vanity Fair announced their Caitlyn Jenner’s cover story, most of which revolves around the idea that the world only seems to embrace us if we’re wealthy enough or lucky enough to adhere to white, cisnormative beauty standards. I’ve felt frustrated and useless and overwhelmed by opinions on transgender women and how we’re “supposed” to look if we want to be taken seriously.

But not all of us adhere to those standards. Not all of us want to. Not all of us can. Some of us do, but only out of fear. Some of us do but we aren’t sure why. And whether we fit those standards or not, we’re beautiful, and we all deserve tofeel beautiful, and be acknowledged by the world. Admiration and praise for trans women shouldn’t only come if we fit a narrow definition of beauty. As a good friend of mine said Monday “Where’s my Vanity Fair cover?”

Well, it’s here (in white) and here (in black). Please share these and the hashtag #MyVanityFairCover and show the world the myriad faces of the trans community.

So people did.

Tumblr users didn’t hesitate to create their very own cover images.

“Not all of us can or even want to adhere to western cisnormative beauty standards. This doesn’t make us any less beautiful, or any less valid as women,” writes Nadia.

Call me Nadia.

I’m a 28 year old pansexual, polyamorous, mixed race, Dutch trans woman. Most trans women don’t have millions of dollars and instant access to doctors, hormones and surgeries like Caitlyn Jenner has. And not all of us can or even want to adhere to western cisnormative beauty standards. This doesn’t make us any less beautiful, or any less valid as women. So here’s MY Vanity Fair cover!

One more – the article has several, and no doubt Twitter has even lots.

I think “MyVanityFairCover” is a really cool trend to showcase a variety of trans experiences beyond those of the very white, very wealthy, and very lucky. So, uh, here’s me!

he/him/his pronouns, no hormones or surgery, 20 years old, surviving

Rock on.

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)

The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners has told GPs to stop prescribing homeopathic remedies and says pharmacists must also stop stocking such products for the same sort of reason they shouldn’t prescribe/stock candy or kale or blueberries as medicine.

The official body for Australian GPs has asked pharmacists to strip their shelves of homeopathic products and warned doctors not to prescribe them because they do nothing.

The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) has formally recommended GPs stop prescribing homeopathic remedies and says pharmacists must also stop stocking such products because there is no evidence they are effective in any way.

The RACGP’s position statement on homeopathy, released on Wednesday, follows recent findings by the National Health and Medical Research Council that homeopathy produces no health benefits over and above a placebo.

Homeopathic “remedies” are shelved in drugstores – at least in this country – next to actual remedies, with nothing at all to indicate that they are just pretend. People who don’t know better have no way of knowing that homeopathic “remedies” are not remedies at all. The whole thing is utterly fraudulent and I have never understood why it’s allowed.

Dr Jones said the lack of evidence about any benefits from homeopathy must prompt doctors and pharmacists to turn their backs on it.

“Given this lack of evidence, it does not make sense for homeopathy products to be prescribed by GPs or sold, recommended or supported by pharmacists,” he said.

RACGP noted all taxpayers were funding homeopathy through the federal government’s private health insurance rebate.

The Pharmacy Guild of Australia says it’s up to individual pharmacists to decide if they’ll stop selling homeopathic remedies branded useless by doctors.

“Branded” useless? As if it’s just an epithet, or insult, or opinion?

And why is it up to individual pharmacists to decide if they’ll stop selling fake medicine labeled as medicine? That’s fraud.

Oh well. Fraudulent sneakers or DVDs or tennis balls can do serious harm, but fraudulent medicine is no big deal.

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)

A bat signal. The Indian Atheists Facebook page has been banned as unsafe. This needs to be reversed.

Sorry, are you trying to promote rationalism and secular humanism in India, you may be unsafe for Facebook.

The Facebook page Indian Atheists is an initiative by the Nirmukta community. Our mission is to bring together a community of Indian Atheists and to build a society based on science, reason and humanistic values.

Yesterday we found that content from this page could not be shared as it has been flagged as unsafe. Facebook policies are such that, in case of an objectionable content, the said post would be removed by Facebook. But we found that no specific post was removed as objectionable. Instead the entire Indian Atheists page has been flagged as unsafe and we are not able to share our posts or tag Indian Atheists in any post, not even as comments in closed groups.

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)

Never forget, children: priests and bishops are better than the rest of us. They’re holy, good men who follow church teachings and serve God.

Except for the archdiocese of Minneapolis-St Paul, that is.

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis is facing criminal charges after US officials said church leaders ignored reports that a priest was molesting children.

It’s the archdiocese that’s charged, as a corporation, not people.

Officials alleged that the archdiocese “turned a blind eye” to complaints about priest Curtis Wehmeyer for years.

Wehmeyer, now defrocked, was convicted of molesting two brothers in 2013.

`It is not only Curtis Wehmeyer who is criminally responsible for the harm caused, but it is the archdiocese as well,” said Ramsey County prosecutor John Choi at a news conference on Friday.

“This organization said it protected children when in reality it did not”, said Mr Choi who called the church’s monitoring program for trouble priests “a sham”.

In other words it told lies, in service of protecting itself while leaving children in its care unprotected. How holy.

Lawyers for the victims accused the church leadership of not acting on “numerous and repeated reports of troubling conduct”.

Had clergy acted more quickly, Wehmeyer would not have been able to destroy the evidence that he did.

But they did it all ad maiorem dei gloriam.

H/t Deepak Shetty

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)

I’ve squandered a lot of time today arguing (hello SIWOTI) with people busy claiming I’m a transphobe or a friend and helper of transphobes or at least someone who doesn’t point and hiss loudly enough when a transphobe walks by – and I was rewarded for my efforts by this staggeringly credulous and illiberal comment:

And you know what? Once someone points out her transmisogyny to you, congratulations. She IS a “known transphobe” to you. You thank them for helping you get yourself together…

After the ellipse there’s a stupid jibe about my getting my feelings hurt, which is not the issue at all.

The issue is the very thing denied by that ridiculous assertion. Oh right, once someone – anyone, everyone, it doesn’t matter who, and don’t you dare ask how that someone knows, or where that someone got the information – “points out her transmisogyny” to me, then I automatically know what that someone just told me, because there is no possibility whatsoever that that someone is wrong, or biased, or malicious, or passing on a claim passed on by forty thousand other people all of whom had no reason to believe it either. Listen up, atheists and skeptics: when someone tells you something, then you know that something, because someone just told you it. Believe what you are told, by anyone, no matter who; it’s the skeptic way.

Honest to fucking christ, what is the matter with people? Why am I supposed to take their word for this kind of shit, especially when they model such godawful epistemic practice themselves? What kind of politics do they think they’re creating, if we’re all just supposed to take everyone’s word for everything?

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)

Originally a comment by Jenora Feuer on The schools, financed by the government but run largely by churches…

never speak in your mother tongue to anyone, fellow student or staff, on penalty of a beating.

Yeah, “Kill the Indian, Save the Man” was pretty blatantly the point of the system. Forced assimilation and conformity. Utterly destroy any sense of being different and actually deserving of respect. Eradicate the local cultures.

Titles like “Truth and Reconciliation Commission” reek of cover ups,

Well, despite Prime Minister Harper officially apologizing on behalf of the federal government at the time this Commission was set up, his actions in general over the years leave little doubt that he’d be happy if that apology were all he had to do and he could just ignore the results.

The fact that the Commission had no authority to offer amnesty in exchange for testimony meant, unsurprisingly, that almost none of the people involved in the school operations were ever interviewed.

Almost all the people heard from were the victims. (Which in many ways is the way it should have been, but the problem is that the abusers would have been the only ones who would have known about money trails and the like, so actively taking apart any remnants of the system is harder without them.)

It’s also notable that the commission was supposed to have finished last year; but the federal government had to be ordered to hand over some of the documents back in 2013, and going through all that required extending the commission.

As I said, I expect Harper was hoping that the formal apology and setting up the commission would be all he would be required to do, and he could just let the whole thing die in committee.

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)

About Canada’s residential schools…

The New York Times reports.

OTTAWA — Canada’s former policy of forcibly removing aboriginal children from their families for schooling “can best be described as ‘cultural genocide.’ ”

That is the conclusion reached by the country’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission after six years of intensive research, including 6,750 interviews. The commission published a summary version on Tuesday of what will ultimately be a multivolume report, documenting widespread physical, cultural and sexual abuse at government-sponsored residential schools that Indian, Inuit and other indigenous children were forced to attend.

The schools, financed by the government but run largely by churches, were in operation for more than a century, from 1883 until the last one closed in 1998.

Oh no oh no oh no – those 11 words make up one of the most sinister phrases you can hear – the schools, financed by the government but run largely by churches. That describes the Irish industrial “schools” too, except that they weren’t even schools, they were prisons.

The commission documented that at least 3,201 students died while attending the schools, many because of mistreatment or neglect, in the first comprehensive tally of such deaths.

The report linked the abuses at the schools, which came to broad public attention over the last four decades, to social, health, economic and emotional problems affecting many indigenous Canadians today. It concluded that although some teachers and administrators at the schools were well intentioned, the overriding motive for the program was economic, not educational.

“The Canadian government pursued this policy of cultural genocide because it wished to divest itself of its legal and financial obligations to aboriginal people and gain control over their lands and resources,” the report said. “If every aboriginal person had been ‘absorbed into the body politic,’ there would be no reserves, no treaties and no aboriginal rights.”

But at least they gave the children a decent education, right?

The research and interviews conducted by the commission detailed a boarding school system that was woefully underfunded, inadequately staffed and largely ineffective at its stated aim of providing useful education.

Some former students interviewed by the commission cited school sports and music and arts programs as bright spots in their lives. But those programs were not generally part of the system, and most former students, even those who were not physically or sexually harmed or neglected, said their daily lives had been heavily regimented and lacked privacy and dignity. At many of the schools, students were addressed and referred to by number as if they were prisoners.

And yet we’re always being told that it’s Christianity that invented the idea of human dignity. Odd, that.

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)

I’m afraid.

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)

Josh thought he was making a joke, but it’s real. They’re really here. They’re replacing us while we sleep.

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)

Ok as I’ve mentioned I have reservations about people talking about trans women purely in terms of (a familiar, approved, acceptable, what you might call cisnormative form of) beauty, not least because I think it puts yet more burden on trans women who can’t or don’t want to attain that form of beauty. People on Facebook are saying I’m the worst kind of TERF  as a result. But there are other contexts in which “you are GORGEOUS” seem right even to me.

This tweet by Kadar Sheikhmous gives one such context.

Kurdish women remove dark dress after fleeing #isis west Tel Abyad nr #Kobani.

Oh yeah. That is gorgeous.

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)

Via Dave Silverman:

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)

Josh Spokes made an invention.

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)