UK Lesbian and Bisexual Women’s Health July 29, 2008

Stonewall’s report on this important topic is out. Here are their key recommendations to the NHS:

1. Understand lesbian health needs:
Only one in ten lesbian and bisexual women said that healthcare workers have given them information relevant to their health care needs.
2. Train staff:
Only three in ten lesbian and bisexual women said healthcare workers did not make inappropriate comments about their sexual orientation.
3. Don’t make assumptions:
Two in five lesbian and bisexual women said that in the last year healthcare workers had assumed they were heterosexual.
4. Explicit policies:
Only one in eleven say that their GP surgery displayed non-discriminatory policy.
5. Tell lesbians what they need to know:
Three quarters of lesbian and bisexual women think they are not at risk from sexually transmitted infections.
6. Improve monitoring:
One in ten lesbian and bisexual women stated that when they did come out to a healthcare worker they were either ignored, or the healthcare worker continued to assume they were heterosexual.
7. Increase visibility:
Half of young lesbian and bisexual women have self-harmed in the last year. Increased visibility of lesbian and bisexual women will help improve self-esteem and morale.
8. Make confidentiality policies clear:
One in eight lesbian and bisexual women are not sure what their GP’s policy is on confidentiality.
9. Make complaints procedures clear:
Half of lesbian and bisexual women have had a negative experience in the health sector in the last year.
10. Develop tailored services:
Only two per cent of lesbian and bisexual women have attended a service tailored towards their needs.

Lots here that seems to me of interest to those interested in issues at the intersection of politics and epistemology: the importance of not making false assumptions based on prevailing norms, the importance of actively working to facilitate communication on sensitive matters, the importance of actively combatting dangerous false beliefs, the importance of knowing what information is relevant. And yes, put in these terms this stuff is not just about lesbians and bisexuals. These are good general practices, but the particular case of lesbians and bisexuals helps to make clear their importance. (Thanks, Heg!)

Reproductive Justice Victories in the UK May 21, 2008

Good news all round today, as the BBC tells us that the 24-week limit on abortion has been upheld (despite moves to lower it to 22 or or even 12 weeks); and that fertility clinics are no longer being required to consider the need for “a mother and father” when deciding whether to offer treatment. Instead, they will be required to consider the need for “a loving family”.

US readers may experience a bit of culture shock when they learn that the Tory leading the charge against the latter move said the following about lesbian parents: “I hope, like everybody else, we would want any such relationship to prosper and the child would benefit.” There certainly is homophobia over here, plenty of it– but totally blatant expressions of it are far less socially acceptable than in the US.

Women and Minorities in Philosophy December 14, 2007

There’s currently a huge amount of momentum around the issue of improving numbers of women and minorities in philosophy.  A major catalyst for this has been Sally Haslanger’s incredibly important paper on the topic.  I know that many women just starting out in philosophy found that paper a very depressing read.  But the extremely good news is that it’s serving as a real catalyst for discussion and action, and there’s actually a lot of optimism and energy. There’s a nice example in this post from Evelyn Brister:

In the last decade, at least half of U.S. college graduates have been women. But less than a third of philosophy majors have been women. Women have not reached workplace equity at the beginning of the 21st century, but there are only a few places and ways in which they are not reaching educational parity. Philosophy—the discipline that takes as its subjects ethics, justice, consistency, and self-reflection—is one of those places.What does this gender inequality indicate about our discipline? Some have taken it to indicate that the material itself is gender-biased, that the methods of argumentation reflect masculine psychology, or that philosophy is a bastion of cultural traditionalism that incubates sexist practices.That assessment is too negative, in my opinion. As an optimist, a meliorist, and a pragmatist, I think that it indicates first and foremost that philosophers, unlike other analytic disciplines, have not made gender parity a priority.       

Brister argues for greater attention to undergraduate recruitment and retention. If you have thoughts on this, head over to her post and share them! Sharon Crasnow suggests that those of us from under-represented groups who have persevered or even thrived in philosophy should reflect on what helped us to do this and to talk about this. If you have stories on this to share, go tell Sharon. There are also some very important data collection efforts getting underway– more on those in a later post.

One thing that’s struck me is that there actually are a lot of genuinely well-meaning people in philosophy who would like to improve recruitment and retention of women and minorities in philosophy, at all levels, but who need some guidance about how to do so. I’m going to be working on providing a document with such guidance, and would appreciate any suggestions you may have. One thing I’d particularly like to hear about is what sorts of techniques actually help one to correct against the very unconscious biases that Haslanger and Valian have drawn our attention to. But I’m really interested in hearing about any ideas you may have– or reports of efforts, even those that haven’t worked. Please put them in the comments!

Note: Categories have been updated as a result of comments.

“Gay Rights Have Gone Too Far!” December 6, 2007

A likely response, I expect, to news that a UK man who donated sperm to a lesbian couple, now separated, is being required to pay child support.   The truth, actually, is precisely the opposite.  (1) If the couple had obtained sperm from a donor bank, the man would have no legal responsibilities.  But donor banks are currently permitted (though not required) to turn away lesbian couples because of the absence of a male role model.  (2) If the non-birth-mother had been legally recognised as a parent, the man would not have had any legal responsibilities.  So really what’s needed is MORE gay rights.  Changes to the law are currently being considered: 

Proposed legislation, at committee stage in the House of Lords before passing to the Commons, would give equal parenting rights, including financial responsibilities, to both members of same sex couples, but the change will come too late for Bathie, who is lobbying for the laws to be made retrospective and for him not to be seen as the legal parent of the children, now aged two and four.   

A really nice illustration of interconnectedness. Lesbian rights help heterosexual man!

Overtones of Homophobia???? November 18, 2007

This article from MSNBC reports that Iran has spared a man scheduled to be hanged for homosexual acts, after the international outcry against the planned execution. Good news that he’s been spared, but horrendous that he should have to be.  And completely bizarre reporting:

With overtones of homophobia, suspicions of political retaliation and a conviction based on activities that allegedly occurred eight years earlier, when Mouloodzadeh was just 13, his case captured the attention of a number of international groups that are trying to pressure Iran into improving human rights for women, gays and children. 

Planning to execute someone for homosexual acts has overtones of homophobia? Overtones??  

A Jihad For Love November 10, 2007

This wonderful documentary profiles gay and lesbian Muslims in twelve countries.  It tells an incredibly complex story (really, many stories) that I couldn’t hope to do justice to here.  I think perhaps what struck me most was this: the people in the film are being persecuted in the name of Islam, yet it is also clear that what sustains them through this persecution is precisely their deep faith in Islam.  The stories are complex, the people are complex, the interplays between culture, religion, and politics are complex– and they all (people, cultures, religious intepretations, laws) differ tremendously from one another.  I won’t try to say much more, except to note that there is a vast amount of rich material here for those interested in sexuality, gender, self-understanding, religion, culture, textual interpretation, human rights, silencing, and on and on and on.  See it as soon as you can, and tell others about it! the director has a blog here.  And here’s an interview with the director to whet your appetite.  

“They look like girls, but act and think like boys” October 28, 2007

Quote from a scientist, discussing behavior of worms that have been genetically manipulated to be attracted to “the same sex”.  So what it is to act and think like a “boy” is to be attracted to “girls”.  Problematic enough (especially since the claim is that these *worms* act and think like boys, which seems to me pretty insulting to boys).  But it gets more so:

There are no true females and only one in 500 nematodes is male. Most are hermaphrodites, with both male and female organs. Jorgensen and White loosely refer to hermaphrodites as females because they produce offspring.    

What it is to be a “girl” is to produce offspring. So, being “a girl” is a matter of reproductive ability, and acting like “a boy” is a matter of who you’re attracted to. Good to know.Still, the study seems to show that, at least for some worms, sexual orientation is genetically “hard-wired” in the brain. This may be interesting and useful once we free it from the desperate attempt to describe it in terms of ill-defined sex/gender categories.

Document the Silence: 31 October October 26, 2007

The Document the Silence Project aims to end the lack of attention to crimes of violence against women of color in the US. They have an important event coming up on October 31, and I’d urge you to participate:

Recent events in the United States have moved us to action. Violence against women is sadly, not a new phenomenon in our country or in the world, however, in the last year women of color have experienced brutal forms of violence, torture, rape and injustice which have gone unnoticed, received little to no media coverage, or a limited community response. We are responding to:

The brutal and inhumane rape, torture, and kidnapping of Megan Williams in Logan, West Virginia who was held by six assailants for a month.

Rape survivors in the Dunbar Housing Projects in West Palm Beach, Florida one of whom was forced to perform sexual acts on her own child.

A 13 year old native American girl was beaten by two white women and has since been harassed by several men yelling “white power” outside of her home

Seven black lesbian girls attempted to stop an attacker and were latter charged with aggravated assault and are facing up to 11 year prison sentences

In a Litany of Survival, Audre Lorde writes, “When we are silent, we are still afraid. So it is better to speak remembering we were never meant to survive.” These words shape our collective organizing to break the silence surrounding women of color’s stories of violence. We are asking for community groups, grass-root organizations, college campus students and groups, communities of faith, online communities, and individuals to join us in speaking out against violence against women of color. If we speak, we cannot be invisible.

Join us and stand up to violence against women!

Be bold, be brave, be red. Wear red on October 31, 2007. Take a picture or video of yourself and friends wearing red. Send it to: beboldbered@gmail.com. We’ll post it!

Take Your Red to the Streets! Know of a location where violence occurred against a woman of color? Have a public location where you feel women of color are often ignored? Make violence against women of color visible by decorating the space in red. Be sure to send us pictures and or video of your display!

Rally! Gather your friends, family, and community to rally. Check out the Document the Silence website for the litany we’re asking participants to read together on October 31st. Be sure to send us pictures and/or video of the event! You could even gather where you created a display!

For more Information on how to Host a RED Rally, please click on the page “How to Host a Red Rally.”

Share your story of silence. Share your own story of silence by uploading it to the Document the Silence website (http://documentthesilence.wordpress.com/). You can send a story in any form you’d like – as a written statement, video clip, movie, documentary, or visual art.

For more information, go here.

ENDA, Sexual Orientation, and Gender Expression October 13, 2007

We’ve already touched upon ENDA, the US anti-discrimination law that is likely to pass the congress in some form or other and certain to be vetoed by Bush.  As the issue is laid out by some such as John Aravosis, the law will either protect against discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or do this  and also protect against discrimination against trans-people. Aravosis has been strongly criticised for asking why a single bill should include protection for both gay and trans people, since being gay and being trans are importantly different. I think it’s always a reasonable thing to ask why particular groups should or shouldn’t be grouped together, both conceptually and practically (and the practical issues are strange here, since the bill is certain to be vetoed)– though apparently Aravosis has a lot of historical facts wrong when he suggests that trans-people are latecomers to the long established and hard-working gay rights movement. And I also think that Aravosis poses the question in quite a dismissive and disrespectful way at times. But this important article by Susan Stryker suggests that Aravosis is utterly wrong to set out the legislative issues as he does. Gay people will not be properly protected unless trans-people are too, because anyone who is attracted to those of the “wrong” sex is not engaging in conventional gender expression. If you want to actually protect gay people who aren’t totally straight-acting and successfully closeted, you need to protect against discrimination on the basis of gender expression.

Protecting the rights of transgender people specifically is just one welcome byproduct of the version of ENDA that forbids discrimination based on both sexual orientation and gender expression or identity. This full version of ENDA, rather than the nearly introduced one that stripped away previously agreed-upon protections against gender-based discrimination and would protect only sexual orientation, is the one that is of potential benefit to all Americans, and not just to a narrow demographic slice of straight-looking, straight-acting gays and lesbians. It doesn’t really even do that much good for this group, as Lambda Legal points out, because of a loophole big enough to drive a truck through.Now here’s the rub — but it requires another of those fancy words my academic colleagues and I like to throw around: heteronormativity, the idea that whatever straight people do is really what’s what, and that whatever anybody else does is deviant to some degree. To want to have sex with somebody of the same gender violates heteronormative expectations of gender behavior as much as it does heteronormative expectations of sexual behavior. Simply put: Real men don’t suck cock. Nor do they use the word “fabulous” when describing a pair of women’s shoes. Nor do they keep a picture of their husband pinned to the wall of their office cubicle. All of the above violates conventional or stereotypical expectations of proper masculine gender, and as Lambda Legal’s preliminary analysis of ENDA makes clear, none would be protected under the rubric of sexual orientation alone. It’s OK to be gay, in other words, just so long as you don’t act like a fag. 

Some very important arguments here.

The Gay Elderly October 10, 2007

Intersectionality– roughly, the way that multiple oppressions may interact, and may even not be clearly separable– is rightly a major topic that receives a lot of attention in academia (though arguably still not as much as it should).  But some intersections get more attention than others, and one that doesn’t really get a lot of attention is the intersection of ageism and homophobia.  But it should, as this New York Times article makes clear.  There always has been a large gay elderly population (as a few seconds’ reflection would make clear to anyone but Mahmoud Ahmadinejad), but now things are a bit different: many of these people have eventually managed to live openly as gay in a world that is more tolerant than the one that they grew up in, partly by choosing the communities in which they live.  But when they need long-term residential care things turn ugly– they’re forced to live in close quarters in homophobic communities (both residents and staff).  Most of them return to their closets, and at a time when life is getting enormously difficult anyway this is a huge burden.  Some commit suicide, and many suffer depression.  The good news is that there are some– though surely not enough– retirement centers that cater to gay people; and that gay rights organizations are working very hard to educate those running and working retirement centers, in order to improve things. One of those working to do this, by the way, is Amber Hollibaugh, known to me for her writings on sexuality. (Although the article is primarily focused on homophobia, the work being done includes work against transphobia as well.)

Gay and Trans People in Iran (and the US) October 8, 2007

Last week, President Ahmadinejad declared that there is no homosexuality in Iran.  In reality, of course, it is a crime punishable by death, and there have been such executions very recently. However, there may well be fewer homosexuals in Iran than elsewhere, and not just because they’ve been killed.  There’s also the interesting fact that transsexuality is considered a treatable disease rather than a crime.  Many of those who find themselves attracted to the “wrong” sex in Iran wind up undergoing sex change surgery, which allows them to live on the right side of the law. Of course, this means many face a choice between being the sex/gender they want to be/are and loving the sex/gender they want to love. Scary. But also interesting to see that transsexuality is more accepted in Iran than homosexuality, when the reverse seems to be true in the West, as we can see from debates over the inclusion of transsexuals in ENDA in the US.

It’s interesting, also, as a way of calling attention to the way these issues are related.  If ENDA passes without protection for transsexuals (likely) and doesn’t get vetoed (unlikely), it will be illegal to discriminate against gay people but legal to discriminate against transsexuals.  (It will of course be vetoed, but set that aside– we’re philosophers, and we can imagine a possible world with a sane president.  Ahhhhh.) Now consider consider an American trans-woman, who is attracted to men.  This person, in our sane-president-world,  would fare best (so far as anti-discrimination law goes) if she concealed her womanhood and instead presented herself as a gay man.  In Iran, a man who identifies himself as a man but is also attracted to men would be better off having a sex change operation and presenting himself as a straight woman. (Well, except that he’d then have to live under the laws that apply to women!)  

By the way, the issue of whether or not one should support a non-trans-inclusive ENDA is immensely complicated.  To read more about this issue from both sides, I recommend John Aravosis’s article at Salon, and the comments discussing it there; and this excellent article from Susan Stryker suggested by reader Kathy. (Updated to include Stryker reference.)

Knowledge and Emotions September 28, 2007

Feminist philosophers have been played an important role in the now-quite-popular rejection of the idea that emotions are only obstacles to reason and knowledge-seeking.  Here’s a nice example of emotions helping someone to arrive at moral knowledge– specifically the knowledge that gay relationships and people deserve the same respect as straight ones. The Republican mayor of San Diego recently reversed his opposition to same sex marriage, citing knowledge gained from his relationship with his lesbian daughter and her partner: 

He fought back tears as he said that he wanted his adult daughter, Lisa, and other gay people he knows to have their relationships protected equally under state laws. His daughter was not at the news conference.“In the end, I could not look any of them in the face and tell them that their relationships - their very lives - were any less meaningful than the marriage that I share with my wife, Rana,” Sanders said.

Homophobia in schools September 7, 2007

 The report is from the UK, but it could apply to many other places.  Action is needed, and a small one  should be easy:  Parents,  consider discussing these issues very seriously with your children, if you don’t already.

The figures in the article from today’s Independent are staggering:

Yet today, there is one corner of Britain where viciousness and violence against gay people are still endemic. It is a place where 41 per cent of gay people are beaten up, and 17 per cent receive death threats. You have been there, and so have I. It’s called school –

And the results?  Here’s one:

Jonathan Reynolds … was a 15-year-old boy from Bridgend, South Wales, who came out to some of his friends last year. He was bullied and harrassed and threatened as a “faggot” and a “poof” until he couldn’t take it any more.

So one day, after he sat a GCSE exam for which he earned an A*, he lay on the train tracks near his home

Last year the Daily Mail sneared in an article on a Home Office Report calling for action on homophobia in schools

homophobia - a word invented by gay lobby groups to apply to their critics - …

The Independent tells us

The bullying Jonathan endured is not unusual. It is the norm in Britain’s schools. The word “gay” is an all-purpose insult, the worst thing you can be called. Earlier this year, the gay equality organisation Stonewall published a detailed study of more than 1,000 gay pupils, conducted by the Schools Health Education Unit. It discovered that a majority of Britain’s gay kids feel so unsafe that they skive off school to avoid abuse.

And after a girl told her friend she is a lesbian, she was severely harassed. And:

“When I went into my form room everyone got up and moved to the back, including my best friends. The teacher didn’t do anything. I told [one of my teachers] and she said I shouldn’t have told anyone. I should make it less obvious. They [other pupils] won’t get changed [after PE] when I’m there.” She used to love school. Now she says that “I can’t stand to go in any more”.

Think of reading the Independent’s article. It says that children tend to hate difference, and too often teachers go along with it. Surely there are better ways to bring children up.
(And, in case you are wondering, I am the mother of a gay son. We had teachers complaining about him since he was three years old, when he cried rather than hit another little boy back. They, not we, put the problem in terms of being a real boy. And I know what it is like to have a sizable portion of the population think your beloved child would be better off dead.)

So shall you reap. August 31, 2007

This is widely covered in the blogsphere and newspapers, at least in the US, but it is  such a classic example, it might be useful to have a record here.  And it may also, for many of us, be a good case for thinking about moral emotions, particularly mixed ones.  The situation is both a sad case and a good cause for anger, all to be felt for or at the same person.

So enter US Senator Larry Craig, who has been a well-known Republican advocate of anti-gay measures.  And it appears he was caught soliciting sex from a man in a public restroom, in the Minneapolis airport.   His target, who was hanging out in a stall, was  a policeman and Craig was arrested. 

 Craig pleaded guilty.  That was a mistake, he says.  He  just wanted to make it go away, having in his life taken meaures to make sure it wouldn’t just go away for others.  One can hear right-wing talk show people argue that holding something is a sin and then sinning oneself does not constitute hypocrisy. That view misses the point. It is Craig’s use of power to shame and control others while indulging himself that is so objectionable.

You might well find it difficult to feel  sorry for Craig, but the police report, which requires Adobe Acrobat to read, is genuinely pathetic.

And his political career is likely finished. 

Googling around on the topic of hypocrisy, I found the following which is relevant only in so far as it features another US right-wing anti-gay public  figure, one this time found buying drugs from a gay hooker.  Look upon it and weep for rationality discourse.

richard dawkins and ted haggard:

Could feminists believe women are inferior? August 26, 2007

In looking at recent comments on posts put up some time ago, I came across the following remark, (which is in the fifth comment):

It seems to me to be an admirable goal to try and get more men interested in and working in feminist philosophy. In some ways, it’s more important that men be feminists than it is that women be. (For the same reasons that the people you’d *really* like to convince that blacks aren’t inferior to whites are white supremicists, not black people who most likely believe that anyway.)

Do blacks reject the idea that they are inferior to whites?  Could a real feminist believe women can’t do as well as men in, say, science?

I was reminded immediately of reading Malcolm Gladwell’s comment that he came out as biased against his own race on the implicit attitude test on race (Blink, pp. 81ff).  There are versions for a number of different subjects, including race, women in science and hetereo-homosexuality. 

What becomes clear is that many, many of us have picked up biased attitudes  in our society and consequently have automatic associations that favor one group over another.   It is controversial just what the associations result in, but, as Gladwell says in Blink, the differences hit you on the head as you take the test.

I tried it on race (European vs. African American) and women in science. On both these, I have pretty strong conscious beliefs about equality, and so I was very pleased when I took my first one to find out that the submerged associations I have were in line with my beliefs. I suspected, though, that it might be just that I was very good at taking tests. So I’m glad I took the second one. It hurt my head! And I came out biased against what I believe.

Please consider taking some of the tests, if you haven’t already.  They are short.  When you’ve had a chance to do so, I’ll confess in the comments to what I found out.

Treatment of Rape Victims August 23, 2007

Via Pandagon, I just discovered the fascinating blog PC Bloggs, written by “one very hacked off [UK] policewoman”. She gives helpful tips for rape victims here and she compares instructions given to officers responding to rapes of men and women here. 

Incident 1: Caller reporting her 17-year-old daughter was raped last night by two named offenders after going out drinking at her local pub. Daughter is very distressed and sore. Update from supervisor: Officers to attend and establish the following:

1. Is the daughter making an allegation?

2. Names and descriptions of alleged offenders.

3. How much alcohol was consumed?

4. If allegation is being made, locate scene.

5. Will the victim attend court?

6. If allegation could be true, will she consent to a medical?

Incident 2:Caller reporting her 18-year-old son was raped last night by a male known to him, following a party at his house. Son is in pain and upset. Update from supervisor: Officers to attend and establish the following:

1. Locate the crime scene.

2. Arrange medical examination and take victim to rape suite.

3. Name/description of offender.

4. Preserve forensic evidence, seize clothing.

Obvious inequities here, and it’s outrageous, as well as important to see.  But it’s worth noting that the instructions for Incident 2 probably would have been very different if the victim was returning from a gay club, or if the victim was in prison.

Compulsory Heterosexuality July 31, 2007

Just about the clearest case you could have.  A judge in Spain (yes, Spain– with the great laws on gay marriage) has ordered a lesbian to either find a male partner or give up custody of her child. His explanation:

It is understood that (a parent’s) drug addiction, child abuse, prostitution, belonging to a satanic sect or heterosexual affair would negatively affect the children and serve as a reason for a change of custody,” he said. “Well, it’s the same with homosexuality. 

The good news: a judicial watchdog is now looking into the case. (Actually, the article says that the judge is being probed, but I thought that was a bit ambiguous.) Apparently the judge has made some other controversial rulings, like not allowing lesbians to adopt and ordering the arrest of topless sunbathers despite the legality of topless sunbathing. Many thanks to reader Esa for passing this one on!

Lesbian Gangs With Pink Pistols! July 9, 2007

So goes the latest gay panic.  According to Fox News, the US is being over-run by lesbian gangs with pink glocks, who are indoctrinating and assaulting our children.     Needless to say, the evidence for this story is rather poor.  Amanda at Pandagon does a nice job, however, of showing its broader significance.  A story hyping and spreading fear of lesbian violence not only helps to shore up homophobia;  it also helps to make it look like there’s a level playing field out there– sure, there’s violence against women and gay people.  But look, gay women are violent too!  As she notes, it also helps to make the right-wing case that hate crime legislation for gay people is special, undeserved protection. (Why should gay people get “extra” protection against straight violence when the whole country is being terrorised by lesbian gangs– WITH PINK PISTOLS?!) How long, one wonders, before the lesbians start carrying tampon stun guns?

Apology to gay and lesbian armed forces June 30, 2007

From the UK Ministry of Defence, more here. US readers will be shocked to hear that the UK military has not fallen apart since allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly, in 2000. This suggests that perhaps the gay bomb the US considered developing in the 90s might not have been as effective as its proponents hoped. The brilliant idea behind that one was that a bomb which would turn people gay could destroy an enemy’s forces.  (Gayness and tampons: the weapons of the future?)