Before we get to the good parts however: A Signal Fire via jonquil: Do not trust Clitoraid, the charity being promoted by Betty Dobson that offers surgery to FGM victims

see also RESPECT Find out what it means to me!

I WOULD NOT OBJECT TO OTHER ORGANIZATIONS ADDRESSING THE NEEDS OF WOMEN WHO HAVE BEEN CIRCUMCISED!

In fact, I agree that there is a need for services to such women.  According to the research I’ve done, there are indeed local Burkina Faso doctors offering surgeries to reverse the tissue damage.  Indeed it seems that the government of Burkina Faso itself offers these surgeries and since 2001 975 women have had state-funded genital repair surgeries. (If Good Vibrations had done their due diligence they would have known this!)

Some of the people performing the surgeries include Dr. Michel Akotionga, a gynaecologist and one of the first gynaecologists in Burkina Faso to perform the reconstructive surgery.

I am NOT opposed to Clitoraid because it offers reconstructive surgeries.  I am opposed to it because of their demeaning campaign. Again, I am ALL for women’s pleasure!  But I am also for respect and against humiliation. Nobody’s genitalia should be talked about in the way that Clitoraid is talking about African women’s genitalia.  In fact, no part of anyone’s body should be up for adoption in this way that reminds us too much of the slave trade (Oh no, I went there!).

Seriously, what does it mean to ‘adopt a clitoris’?  Does that mean you own said clitoris or are you just fostering it for a little bit?  Do you get to name it?   What are the implications for the person whose clitoris is being adopted?MORE

And now for the happy-making stuff:
Gay Family Adoption and Foster Ban in Arkansas declared Unconstitutional

Circuit Judge Chris Piazza ruled today that Act 1, an initiated act approved by voters in 2008 that bans any unmarried person living with a partner from serving as an adoptive parent, is unconstitutional, and amounts to an unwarranted invasion of privacy. Jerry Cox of the Family Council, the group who sponsored Act 1 and fought for its passage, called the decision “judicial tyranny” and says they plan to appeal the decision to the Arkansas Supreme Court.

Here is a copy of Judge Piazza’s order. Piazza writes, “Due Process and Equal Protection are not hollow words without substance. They are rights enumerated in our constitution that must not be construed in such a way as to deny or disparage other rights retained by the people.”MORE

Obama Orders Hospital Visitation For LGBT Families

In a move that could begin to mollify the rift between President Obama and the gay rights community, the President announced in a memorandum new rules mandating hospital visitation rights for all families, including gay and lesbian partners. The ruling applies to everyone, but is clearly shaded toward LGBT families. From the memorandum:MORE

FINALLY: Caster Semanya cleared to compete as a woman.

After months of speculation and gender testing, South African runner Caster Semenya is finally being allowed to compete again:

“Semenya’s lawyers told the eNews channel Wednesday that her medical team looked at test results following the 2009 world championships and their own tests and concluded that she was clear to compete.”

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Pending official “gender verification” from the track and field’s governing body, the IAAF, Semenya plans to make her return to competitive racing at Spanish competition on June 24.MORE

A bit on the British Elections. An American who lived there for a bit is writing blogposts to explain the election system to us. Any Brits who find any errors in what he has to say feel free to correct at will!

Brit Vote 2010 Introduction In which its is said that the British take 1 month in which to hold their election. Holy Shit!!! I would KILL for that schedule here!

Brit Vote 2010: More Background

Brit Vote 2010: Labour’s Manifesto

Brit Vote 2010: Conservative Manifesto

Brit Vote 2010: Liberal Democrat Manifesto

And JK Rowling has her  say about the elections but PLEASE DO NOT READ THE COMMENTS.:The single mother’s manifesto:David Cameron says the ‘nasty party’ that castigated people like me has changed. I’m not buying it

I had become a single mother when my first marriage split up in 1993. In one devastating stroke, I became a hate figure to a certain section of the press, and a bogeyman to the Tory Government. Peter Lilley, then Secretary of State at the DSS, had recently entertained the Conservative Party conference with a spoof Gilbert and Sullivan number, in which he decried “young ladies who get pregnant just to jump the housing list”. The Secretary of State for Wales, John Redwood, castigated single-parent families from St Mellons, Cardiff, as “one of the biggest social problems of our day”. (John Redwood has since divorced the mother of his children.) Women like me (for it is a curious fact that lone male parents are generally portrayed as heroes, whereas women left holding the baby are vilified) were, according to popular myth, a prime cause of social breakdown, and in it for all we could get: free money, state-funded accommodation, an easy life.

An easy life. Between 1993 and 1997 I did the job of two parents, qualified and then worked as a secondary school teacher, wrote one and a half novels and did the planning for a further five. For a while, I was clinically depressed. To be told, over and over again, that I was feckless, lazy — even immoral — did not help.

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Yesterday’s Conservative manifesto makes it clear that the Tories aim for less governmental support for the needy, and more input from the “third sector”: charity. It also reiterates the flagship policy so proudly defended by David Cameron last weekend, that of “sticking up for marriage”. To this end, they promise a half-a-billion pound tax break for lower-income married couples, working out at £150 per annum.

I accept that my friends and I might be atypical. Maybe you know people who would legally bind themselves to another human being, for life, for an extra £150 a year? Perhaps you were contemplating leaving a loveless or abusive marriage, but underwent a change of heart on hearing about a possible £150 tax break? Anything is possible; but somehow, I doubt it. Even Mr Cameron seems to admit that he is offering nothing more than a token gesture when he tells us “it’s not the money, it’s the message”.

Nobody who has ever experienced the reality of poverty could say “it’s not the money, it’s the message”. When your flat has been broken into, and you cannot afford a locksmith, it is the money. When you are two pence short of a tin of baked beans, and your child is hungry, it is the money. When you find yourself contemplating shoplifting to get nappies, it is the money. If Mr Cameron’s only practical advice to women living in poverty, the sole carers of their children, is “get married, and we’ll give you £150”, he reveals himself to be completely ignorant of their true situation.

How many prospective husbands did I ever meet, when I was the single mother of a baby, unable to work, stuck inside my flat, night after night, with barely enough money for life’s necessities? Should I have proposed to the youth who broke in through my kitchen window at 3am? Half a billion pounds, to send a message — would it not be more cost-effective, more personal, to send all the lower-income married people flowers?
MORE

Also via Daily Kos we got Bread lessons From Something the Dog Said.Sunday Bread and Bread Sunday One and Two and Three, which are part of the same series, he just tagged them wrong. *eyeroll* Then again I missed Food Sunday

About time: Federal Court Rejects National Day of Prayer as unconstitutional Cue rightwing heads exploding and screams of persecution from every side.

Makeshift Magazine Issue 7 is out.

Also new, cheaper issue of Arise Magazine. You can browse the issue on the website and buy at Barnes and Noble. I particularly like the articles on the experiences of the Ethiopians Jews in Israel and the efforts of various African countries to get into space.

And finally from Rod 2.0

Toni Braxton debuts the new music video for her single “Make My Heart”. The track is destined to be a clubbanger especially because the Billie Woodruff-directed video is a love letter to black and Latino LGBT youth. It fuses the vintage “house” music club scene of the 80s to the ballroom scene of the 90s and 00s.

Fat Dancers! Muscled women! Church Ladies! And all other sorts of hot LGBT dancers!!! And the music! SQUEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Toni Braxton – Make My Heart [Official Video]

On the Wendy Williams Show

have a happy weekend!