Jilly_in_VA
Jilly_in_VA's JournalThe mother of neurodiversity: how Judy Singer changed the world
Judy Singer is several thousand miles from her Australian home, on a two-week trip around the UK, which includes an onstage interview at Cambridge University and her receipt of an honorary fellowship from Birkbeck, University of London. Soon after we meet, she will do a round of sightseeing, then travel to meet relatives in Hungary. Her itinerary sounds very taxing, but her tiredness is combined with the pleasure of being belatedly honoured for her trailblazing work.
We meet in a central London cafe where, for nearly three hours, she guides me through a life story that takes in the aftermath of the Holocaust, life in communist eastern Europe, her family’s migration to Australia, and a life that has mixed academia and activism with plenty of struggle and hardship. But what we talk about the most is neurodiversity, the concept she quietly introduced to the world in 1997.
Nearly 30 years after she coined the term in an undergraduate thesis, it is now almost universally used and understood: an idea that beautifully captures the plain fact that autism and a range of other conditions – ADHD, dyspraxia, dyslexia and more – are part of the endlessly different ways that human minds are wired. In doing so, it also achieves something even more powerful: implicitly demanding liberation and acceptance for people who are, to use an associated word, neurodivergent.
“I knew what I was doing,” she tells me. “‘Neuro’ was a reference to the rise of neuroscience. ‘Diversity’ is a political term; it originated with the black American civil rights movement. ‘Biodiversity’ is really a political term, too. As a word, ‘neurodiversity’ describes the whole of humanity. But the neurodiversity movement is a political movement for people who want their human rights.”
Back in the 1990s, Singer could sense that movement stirring in some of the groups that had sprung up in the early days of the internet. What people were talking about chimed with her own history and experiences – her apparently neurodivergent mother, Singer’s autistic daughter, and a range of traits she recognised in herself. To some extent, what people were discussing online was centred on their own psychologies, but it was also about wider society: the ways that its organisations, institutions and attitudes made many people’s lives all but impossible, and how those things could be changed.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jul/05/the-mother-of-neurodiversity-how-judy-singer-changed-the-world
Long, but definitely worth the read, and not only for those of us with neurodivergent family members.
What could cause a malaria comeback in the US -- and what could stop it
Over the last month, five people in the US (four in Florida and one in Texas) have acquired malaria within the country’s borders. That’s pretty uncommon — at least, in this century; until the 1950s, malaria was a persistent plague in the US, especially in the Southeast.
Many of the conditions that favor malaria’s spread haven’t changed much since then. The Anopheles mosquitoes that spread malaria still thrive in many parts of the country, and states that receive high numbers of travelers from countries where malaria is endemic still have warm, wet weather that favors mosquito reproduction.
Nevertheless, it’s extraordinarily rare for American mosquitoes to be infected with malaria. Since the turn of the last century, there have been only about a dozen cases of local malaria transmission in the US. But the disease remains a major force of destruction elsewhere in the world: In 85 countries across Africa and parts of Asia and South America, malaria caused 240 million illnesses and 627,000 deaths in 2020 alone.
The last spate of local malaria transmission in the US took place 20 years ago. Now circumstances are different: These cases are happening amid rising rates of other insect-borne infections nationwide, and smack in the middle of a heat and wildfire wave that together make climate change’s health risks undeniable. It’s reasonable to wonder whether the US is at risk for becoming a malaria hot spot again.
“Something would have to go seriously wrong for malaria to become endemic in the United States,” said Colin Carlson, a global change biologist at Georgetown University’s Center for Global Health Science and Security who has led research on the rapidly expanding reach of malaria-spreading mosquitoes in Africa.
It’s perhaps the understatement of the year to say the nation is not immune to “things going seriously wrong.” Recent history, ahem, has shown that the country’s public health infrastructure, which Americans rely on to catch and contain invasive infectious diseases, is far more fragile than many realized.
https://www.vox.com/2023/7/4/23778786/malaria-us-florida-texas-climate-change-travel-resurgence-comeback
The Law-and-Order GOP Sure Seems Confused by Law and Order
If there’s one thing Republicans hate, it’s crime.
Take their closing message in the 2022 midterms, handily summed up by this video of New York gubernatorial challenger Lee Zeldin’s fans furiously chanting “Crime! Crime! Crime!” in an apparent effort to reverse-Beetlejuice crime away.
Someone should really do something about all this crime, they demand, but not the Democrats, because Dems, as the RNC put it, simply “love crime and there’s no denying it.”
While Republicans profess to instead love law and order, it’s become increasingly unclear whether they understand how law and order even works. Judging from their steadfast defense of Donald Trump and the more luxury vacation-attracting SCOTUS justices, they seem to think bending or breaking laws is only wrong when a Democrat is rumored to have done so. Whenever any of their own are in legal jeopardy, they cloak themselves in a fog of willful ignorance and contradictions, where ideas about law and order get a lot more loosey-goosey.
Three years ago, in response to the social unrest that followed George Floyd’s murder, Trump branded himself “your president of law and order.” Cut to 2023 and the law-and-order president now finds himself facing two indictments, one of them criminal. How did sitting GOP politicians—who, it bears repeating, can’t stand crime—react to this news? By disputing the charges, sputtering rote whataboutism, and, in at least one instance, outright declaring war.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/trumps-law-and-order-gop-sure-seems-confused-by-how-law-and-order-works
Law 'n order for thee, not for me.
'Colorblind Constitution': Supreme Court wrangles over the future of race in the law
When the Supreme Court struck down college affirmative action programs, conservative Justice Clarence Thomas laid out his vision for a "colorblind Constitution" in which the law must apply equally to everyone, even when it is aimed at redressing historical racial discrimination.
In his dense and heartfelt 58-page concurring opinion that drew upon his own experiences as a Black man, Thomas mounted what he called a "defense of the colorblind Constitution" in order to clarify that "all forms of discrimination based on race — including so-called affirmative action — are prohibited under the Constitution."
But his remarks met with fierce resistance both inside and outside the court, illustrating how the conservative argument that the law should take no account of race at all is a hotly contested issue.
Liberal Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, who, along with Thomas, is one of only three Black justices who have ever served on the court, responded bitterly to her conservative colleague in her own dissenting opinion in the affirmative action case.
"With let-them-eat-cake obliviousness, today, the majority pulls the ripcord and announces 'colorblindness for all' by legal fiat. But deeming race irrelevant in law does not make it so in life," Jackson wrote.
She argued that for many Americans, race permeates their "lived experience" daily.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/supreme-court/colorblind-constitution-supreme-court-wrangles-future-race-law-rcna90661
I would like to not-so-respectfully remind Uncle Clarence that according to the original document, he is 3/5 of a man. (Wonder what Miss Ginni thinks of THAT?)
Domestic terrorism charges in Georgia are prompting concern over political repression
When Luke Harper went to Atlanta in early March, he thought he would just be staying the weekend. Harper, a 27-year old copywriter from Florida, was going there to join demonstrators in opposition to the planned construction of a new police and fire training facility. But on his second night, after attending a music festival with other protesters, Harper was arrested and accused of being a "domestic terrorist." Despite having no prior criminal history, Harper was denied bond several times and finally left the DeKalb County jail in early June.
"I was released on day 90, which is the basically the last day that they could legally keep me incarcerated without an indictment," Harper said. "And I'm still unindicted as of now."
The controversy over the planned Atlanta Public Safety Training Center — which opponents have dubbed "Cop City" — has been growing for two years. Spearheaded by a private organization, the Atlanta Police Foundation, it would site a state-of-the-art facility on 85 acres of land that the city acquired a century ago to use as a prison farm. Proponents say the project is badly needed to replace the Atlanta Police Department's dilapidated training facilities. But what started as a local debate has ballooned into a flashpoint around several issues with national resonance.
"I was released on day 90, which is the basically the last day that they could legally keep me incarcerated without an indictment," Harper said. "And I'm still unindicted as of now."
The controversy over the planned Atlanta Public Safety Training Center — which opponents have dubbed "Cop City" — has been growing for two years. Spearheaded by a private organization, the Atlanta Police Foundation, it would site a state-of-the-art facility on 85 acres of land that the city acquired a century ago to use as a prison farm. Proponents say the project is badly needed to replace the Atlanta Police Department's dilapidated training facilities. But what started as a local debate has ballooned into a flashpoint around several issues with national resonance.
https://www.npr.org/2023/06/28/1184782128/cop-city-atlanta-domestic-terrorism
This is outrageous. It's not like they're throwing bombs or anything.....
Americans Who Fought Putin Share 'Horrifying' War Surprises
In the days preceding Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, David Bramlette found himself in a classroom in Washington, D.C. discussing whether Russia might invade Ukraine. He was in the middle of earning a master’s degree from Johns Hopkins in international affairs. At the time, he admits, he found the prospect of a Russian invasion implausible.
But when Russia eventually pulled the trigger and invaded Ukraine in February last year, David, who had previously completed stints working for the U.S. military as a Green Beret on a counter-Russia mission and as an Army Ranger in Iraq and Afghanistan, felt compelled to go fight the Russians.
“It’s good and evil in my mind,” Bramlette told The Daily Beast in an interview from Kyiv this week.
“I’m sitting in class, and I’m like, I could sit here and finish my degree and go work in some office job, and have a tiny iota of impact on the world working in some government office, right?” Bramlette recounted. “I have the knowledge and the skills and abilities to go help. So I basically took a leave of absence from my master’s program and went over.”
By early March Bramlette, who goes by “Bam,” was en route to Warsaw, Poland to get his bearings before joining the foreign legion in Ukraine. While boarding the plane to Poland, Bam said he sent his parents a quick email explaining why he was going to war for another country.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/former-us-troops-reveal-most-horrifying-surprises-of-russias-war-in-ukraine?ref=home
Shame Went to Die at Moms for Liberty's Philadelphia Summit
In another era of politics, Republican presidential hopefuls may have hesitated before hitching their brands to an organization whose members have harassed and threatened opponents, fantasized about enacting gun violence, mingled with known extremist groups, quoted Nazi leader Adolf Hitler in their materials, and earned a designation as an anti-government hate group. It’s safe to say that time is long gone.
Five 2024 candidates traveled to the birthplace of the United States to take turns auditioning for the support of a sold-out crowd of Moms for Liberty activists and rhetorically kissing the rings of the group’s co-founders, former school board members Tina Descovich and Tiffany Justice, at their “Joyful Warriors” conference in Philadelphia this week.
It’s little surprise; Moms for Liberty has emerged as a juggernaut in the conservative movement since its inception two years ago. The group claims to fight for “parental rights at all levels of government,” but it’s better known for what it opposes: COVID-19 health precautions, the contents of school libraries, and educational curricula that feature lessons about race, sexuality, and gender. Moms for Liberty has ridden its successes into statehouses across the country, where it hopes to help push anti-LGBTQ bills into law.
The Southern Poverty Law Center added Moms for Liberty to its database of extremist groups last month: a move swiftly rejected by the group as a “political hit job” and frowned upon by many of the group’s conservative media allies. For many speakers, including presidential candidates, that hate group designation was acknowledged via a punchline.
“I’m telling you these people are sick,” former president Donald Trump said, earning laughter from the audience. “Moms for Liberty is no hate group... You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to America.”
https://www.thedailybeast.com/moms-for-libertys-philadelphia-summit-sees-trump-desantis-haley-pander-to-crowd?ref=home
Inquisitive, beloved Canadian sex educator Sue Johanson dies aged 93
Inquisitive, beloved Canadian sex educator Sue Johanson dies aged 93
Johanson was venerated as a forthright educator who filled voids left by the absence of sex ed curricula at US and Canadian schools
Tracey Lindeman in Ottawa
Thu 29 Jun 2023 14.44 EDT
Sex educator Sue Johanson, who once declared that “horny is a beautiful thing,” has died at the age of 93 after more than two decades of giving frank advice to audiences in Canada and the US.
Johanson gained an international audience with her plainspoken guidance to Canadians on her radio and TV programme Sunday Night Sex Show – and then Americans on her Talk Sex programme.
She died in a long-term care home in Thornhill, Ontario.
Lisa Rideout, the director of a 2022 documentary on Johanson titled Sex With Sue, confirmed her death on Thursday. Paying tribute in a post on Instagram, Rideout called Johanson “an incredible, unstoppable force” who “paved the way for how we talk about sex and sexuality today”.
Johanson’s curly grey hair, wire-rimmed glasses and pragmatic wardrobe were a jarring contrast to her blunt, sometimes playful and often explicit takes on sexuality.
“She was a giant, and had such a positive impact on the lives of so many people,” wrote prominent sex advice columnist Dan Savage on Twitter.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jun/29/sue-johanson-dead-93-canadian-sex-educator
I first became aware of her in the early 2000s. She was wonderful! RIP Sue.
Ruminations on another trip around the sun
Today I celebrate my 80th trip around the sun and I'm looking around wondering, how the heck am I this old? Aside from a few creaks and crunches, I don't feel it, and I'm told I certainly don't look it. I pass for someone in her 60s all the time, but when I count out my pills in the morning I wince. I think of the things I still want to do and wonder if I will get to do any of them, let alone all. I think about things I have done and wish I'd done a lot of them differently, but I'm proud of some of them, anyway.
I've seen a bunch of history, from WWII (which I don't remember, although I sort of vaguely remember my dad coming home (I was 2 1/2) through Korea and Vietnam to now. From segregation (although I never really went to segregated schools) through the Civil Rights era to things trying to go backwards the way they are now---damn you MAGAts and fascists, you are beyond stupid! I don't know if I've gotten any wiser or not, but I certainly have the benefit of history to look through at today's events, and some of them make me very uneasy. Others don't, because I feel like I've seen this before and have an inkling of how it might turn out.
It's been an interesting life thus far. I don't know how much of it I have left; I'm in good health so far (knock wood) but I know I could be one catastrophic illness away from the end. My intention is to go on enjoying every day, keep on doing what I do--love my husband and my family and my world, make jewelry, take care of my stray cats, and be a good Democrat. Everybody have a great day and keep on smiling!
'We are literally erased': what does it mean to be intersex?
A balloon pops with pink confetti. A mini rocket shoots blue dust. A gun shoots a box which contains pink explosives. Every Body, a new documentary following three intersex Americans, opens with snippets of a bizarre, if familiar, ritual: gender reveals, in which people surprise friends and family with a shower of pink or blue. The videos all includes screams of joy – a series of people conflating the celebration of new life with a confirmation of the gender binary.
As Every Body powerfully contends, such an emphasis is not only irrelevant to young children, but inaccurate to the vast spectrum of human bodies. It is possible, explains the intersex expert Dr Katharine Dalke, to be a biological female with testes, and a biological male with a uterus, among many other variations between the two sexes. About 1.7% of humans are intersex, an umbrella term for any variation within a person’s sex traits, including genitalia, hormones, internal anatomy or chromosomes. (For comparison, that’s about the same percentage of people born with red hair.) Some traits are present at birth, while others develop naturally over time, and 0.07% of people – or about 230,000 Americans – possess traits so significant they may be referred for surgery.
Not that most Americans are aware of such differences, owing to misinformation about intersex people, a near-desert of representation and widespread pressure on intersex people to keep quiet. “I’d say, by and large, 80-90% of people probably could not comfortably tell you what it means to be intersex,” said River Gallo (they/them), an intersex activist who appears in the film. “More people are using the LGBTQIA acronym, but still – if you were to ask people what the ‘I’ stands for, it would be ‘what does that mean?’”
Every Body, directed by Julie Cohen (the Oscar-winning co-director of the 2018 documentary RBG) follows three intersex awareness advocates and activists: Alicia Roth Weigel (she/they), a political consultant and writer who lives in Austin, Texas; Sean Saifa Wall (he/him), a Bronx-raised doctoral student living in Manchester, England; and Gallo, a New Jersey-bred actor and film-maker now based in Los Angeles. All three were subjected to non-consensual, medically unnecessary surgeries in their youth – long the standard medical treatment for intersex people, under the assumption that life within an artificial sex binary would be preferable. (The United Nations condemned such irreversible procedures, conducted to “normalize” genitalia under the guise of preventing the shame of living in an “abnormal” body, in 2013.)
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2023/jun/28/intersex-documentary-every-body-what-does-it-mean
I was going to post this in Gender and Orientation, but it only includes LBGT. Perhaps that needs to be changed to be more inclusive.
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