Mexican Americans are the largest Latino group in the U.S. but lack political power



Russell Contreras
Sat, March 6, 2021, 5:30 AM·4 min read

Data: Pew Research Center, U.S. Census Bureau; Chart: Michelle McGhee/Axios

Mexican Americans make up the nation's largest Latino group, yet they remain politically outshined by more recently arrived Cuban Americans.

Why it matters: The disparities in political power between Mexican Americans and Cuban Americans reflect the racial, historical, geographical and economic differences within Latino cultures in the U.S.

For the first time in U.S. history, the Senate includes three Mexican Americans — Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), and Alex Padilla, (D-Calif.). — as the Mexican American population overall nears 37 million people.

Cuban Americans, who number just 2 million, are also represented by three Cuban American senators: Sens. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Ted Cruz (R-Tex.), and Bob Menendez (D-N.J.).

Between the lines: Today, the majority of Mexican Americans reside either in deep-blue California or in reliably red Texas. Neither state attracts many presidential candidates campaigning for the general election.

The political core of Cuban Americans live in swing-state Florida, making them more attractive to presidential candidates who often visit and play to the anti-communist passions of Cubans and Venezuelans.

The two groups helped deliver Florida and its 29 electoral votes for President Trump in the 2020 election.

How it works: Mexican Americans' concentration in non-swing states and weak political fundraising put them at a disadvantage to gain the political power that reflects their numbers, said Las Vegas-based Mexican American political consultant Eli Magaña.

The Democratic Party also hasn't invested in training Mexican American candidates or developing a pipeline for elected office, New Mexico political consultant Sisto Abeyta said.

The Koch-funded Libre Initiative trains Latinos to be activists on tax and immigration issues but doesn't train candidates to run for office.

Once-promising Mexican American political stars, like former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, former California lieutenant governor Cruz Bustamante and former Housing Secretary Henry Cisneros, flamed out amid scandal, clearing the bench of potential national figures, wrote Los Angeles Times columnist Gustavo Arellano.

People of Mexican ancestry have been here since before the U.S.' founding and today represent 60 percent of the 61 million Latinos. But their political power is limited.

Nearly one-third of Mexican Americans are under 18 and can't vote, according to Arturo Vargas, executive director of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials.

One in four adults of Mexican descent in the U.S. is not a citizen, Vargas said.

Most Mexican-American elected officials come from poor, majority Mexican-American districts because of racial segregation and gerrymandering.

Flashback: President John F. Kennedy galvanized Mexican-American voters during his 1960 presidential run through "Viva Kennedy!" clubs, in the first massive effort by a presidential candidate to reach out to Latino voters.


The Congressional Hispanic Caucus credits that 1960 outreach as the impetus that got Mexican Americans involved in politics. Since then, more Hispanics, mostly Mexican-American Democrats, have been elected to Congress than in the previous 140 years, according to the Caucus.

A generation later, Texas Republican Gov. George W. Bush courted Mexican Americans during his gubernatorial and presidential races, and drew record numbers of Republican votes from Latinos.

By contrast, large numbers of Cubans, many from elite, mostly white wealthy families, started arriving in the 1960s after Fidel Castro overthrew dictator Fulgencio Batista.

Unlike Mexican Americans, Cold War Cuban refugees were given clear and quick paths to U.S. citizenship, including voting privileges, said University of Houston political science professor Jeronimo Cortina.

Anti-communist Cuban Americans joined the Republican Party following the failed Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba, and formed coalitions with some Republicans and conservative Democrats against civil rights and anti-poverty initiatives.

Some Mexican Americans embraced the struggles of African Americans while some Cuban Americans would later snub South African anti-apartheid revolutionary Nelson Mandela for his relationship with Castro.

Those actions of Cuban Americans angered moderate-Democratic-leaning Mexican Americans and led to political tensions between the two groups that linger today.

More from Axios: Sign up to get the latest market trends with Axios Markets. Subscribe for free

Google uses medical leave to oust workers alleging discrimination, employees say

April Glaser and Char Adams
Sun, March 7, 2021

Benjamin Cruz, a former instructional designer in Google’s Cloud division, was caught off guard when a colleague told them that their skin was much darker than she expected.

Cruz, who is Mexican American and prefers to be identified by the pronouns they/them, reported the incident to human resources in 2019 where personnel told them they should “assume good intent,” Cruz recalled in an interview. Unsatisfied, Cruz asked human resources to look deeper into the incident, and an HR official said an investigation into the matter had been closed, Cruz said.

So, Cruz sought help from human resources again. The solution? Urge Cruz to take medical leave and tend to their mental health before moving to a new role in the company. Cruz went on medical leave, and hoped to take the company up on its offer for a new position, they said. But Cruz was turned down from every role they applied for, so they were forced to quit.

“After I made that complaint, my work started getting pushed out from under me, but my team acted like everything was fine. I wanted to find help,” Cruz said. “When the medical leave was recommended to me, it was like an automatic process.”

Benjamin Cruz in Los Angeles. (Allison Zaucha / for NBC News)

Google declined to comment on Cruz’s allegations.

Cruz’s experience with Google’s internal human resources personnel echoes that of several former and current Google employees, including two prominent Black women, Timnit Gebru and April Curley, who were pushed out of Google at the end of last year. Both women were known for their advocacy for increased diversity in the tech industry, and when their complaints about how the company handled racial and gender discrimination reached human resources, they were both given the same advice: undergo mental health counseling or take medical leave.

In the weeks since both women’s departures, nine other current and former Google employees have come forward to say they were treated the same way. They consulted human resources after colleagues made comments about their skin color or Black hairstyles, or asked if they were sexually interested in their teammates. They also contacted human resources to report retaliation after protesting sexual harassment issues and to advocate for raises for Black people to match white employees’ pay. Each time, human resource personnel recommended the employees seek therapy or take medical leave to address their mental health — despite their mental well-being having nothing to do with their complaints. An additional 12 current and former Google employees confirmed that this is a common practice at Google’s human resources department.

“Going on leave is so normalized. I can think of 10 people that I know of in the last year that have gone on mental health leave because of the way they were treated,” said a former Google employee, who is a person of color and who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he wasnot authorized to speak about his work at Google. He went on medical leave last year after he said he had numerous unproductive conversations with human resources about how his colleagues discussed race.

In early 2020, a Black woman attended a Google meeting about supporting women at the company where data was presented that showed the rate that underrepresented minority employees were leaving the company. When she said that Black, Latina and Native American women have vastly different experiences than their white female colleagues and advised that Google address the issue internally, her manager brusquely responded, telling her that her suggestion was not relevant, the woman said.

The woman then complained to human resources, who advised her to coach the manager about her problematic response or take medical leave to tend to her own mental health, she said. The woman also spoke on the condition of anonymity because she’s still an employee and not permitted to speak to reporters.

“It felt belittling. I wasn’t in shock because I had heard it before. I had watched other leaders in the organization take these mental health leaves and then disappear,” she said. “It was clear that they weren’t going to take me seriously.”

Google said in a statement that the company is committed to supporting employees who raise concerns about workplace treatment.

“We have a well-defined process for how employees can raise concerns and we work to be extremely transparent about how we handle complaints,” said Jennifer Rodstrom, a Google spokeswoman. “All concerns reported to us are investigated rigorously, and we take firm action against employees who violate our policies.”
Pushed out

Gebru and Curley worked in vastly different parts of Google. Gebru was a lead researcher on Google’s Ethical AI team and is one of the highest-profile Black women in her field, known for her work uncovering racial bias in facial recognition systems. Curley was a tech recruiter who brought in new talent from historically Black colleges and universities. Workers said they felt motivated to speak after Gebru and Curley’s departures, in which both women said they were fired after speaking out about racism and sexism at the company.

Curley is one of several Google employees that reported problems with race discrimination within the company. (Joe Buglewicz / for NBC News)

Google would not comment on Gebru’s ousting. But the company’s head of research said Gebru resigned. The company declined to comment on Curley’s termination, but said in a statement it disagrees with Curley’s characterization of her departure.

In her six years at Google, Curley said she never received a raise or promotion, which depends on managers’ input. She was assigned nine different managers during her tenure, two of whom she reported to human resources for allegedly mistreating her and her team, a majority of whom were Black women. Each time, Curley says she was told that Google had investigated the complaints and found nothing wrong. She said she was then offered mental health support or the opportunity to take medical leave.

Curley said that, in 2019, a manager asked her which of her teammates she would sleep with. “I gave him a lot of attitude after that, and it went downhill from there,” Curley said. She said she experienced retaliation in the months that followed, including being regularly talked down to in front of her colleagues.

She filed a formal complaint about her experience with this manager. Then, in December 2019, Google cut her pay by $20,000, Curley said. Also following her complaint, Curley was put on a performance improvement plan, a formal agreement about how her work would improve, which only added more stress. After telling human resources officials she continued to feel anxious about her work situation, they advised her to take medical leave to manage her mental health. Google declined to comment on Curley’s allegations.

“It felt like they didn’t care about my mental health,” she said.

The first time, she took the recommended medical leave. But Curley did not take the second leave. She, along with several other employees, said when they went on medical leave, they returned to find they had new managers or were moved into new parts of the organization. Because these new managers did not know them well enough to provide adequate reviews, they did not receive raises or promotions.

“I was supporting my family, my nieces and nephews and my mom, and to not be able to do that is traumatic in a different way,” Curley said.

Image: April Curley. (Joe Buglewicz / for NBC News)

Diversity reports

For years, Google has highlighted its commitment to a diverse workforce. In 2014, Google became one of the first tech companies to publicize its workforce’s racial and gender makeup in an annual diversity report. The 2020 report revealed that Google saw a less than 1 percent increase in Black hires from 2019 to 2020 across the company. The percentage of Latino employees working at Google rose by 0.2 percent that year.

But none of Google’s competitors have done much better. Apple hasn’t shared diversity data since 2018, but reported a 2 percent drop in the number of Black employees in technical roles from 2016 to 2018. Facebook reports its percentage of Black employees in technical roles rose 0.2 percent from 2019 to 2020 and increased 0.1 percent companywide.

While Google reportedly spent $265 million on diversity efforts in 2014 and 2015, it still didn’t result in much change. From 2014 to 2019, Google increased its Black hires across its workforce by 2 percent, according to its 2020 report. It increased its Latino hires by 0.7 percent from 2014 to 2019, the report shows. While the company would not reveal how many employees work at Google specifically, The San Jose Mercury News reported last year that it had about 23,000 employees at its main campus in Mountain View, California, and 50,000 employees statewide, according to its economic impact report. Google had more than 10,000 employees in New York state, according to its own economic impact report.

“The fact that they’re spending a lot of money on DEI efforts and yet the actual composition of the company isn’t changing means that they’re not truly committed to changing the environment,” said Meredith Broussard, a New York University professor who has written extensively on Silicon Valley culture. “If tech companies truly cared about having more diversity in their ranks, they would fix it.”

Suggesting therapy

Before Gebru’s departure, she said she regularly raised issues on internal team mailing lists and with her managers about how women were treated at Google. But when her messages were forwarded to human resource specialists, Gebru said they advised her to seek out mental health resources.

“They’re like, ‘Well, if there’s something wrong with you, here are all these therapy resources.’” said Gebru. “And I would respond that no amount of support system is going to get rid of Google’s hostile work environment. I have friends. I go dancing. I have hobbies and therapy already.”

Following Gebru’s departure, Google held a forum for employees to discuss racism at the company, according to three current employees who attended. The first half, they said, was dedicated to sharing Google’s side of the story.

“A good 20 minutes of the call was just them discrediting her. This was a clear way of showing you that this is what could happen to you if you speak up,” one Google employee said. That call was followed by another session for Black employees to discuss their concerns with Gebru’s case with a counselor present.

“People were sharing really brilliant reflections on how painful Dr. Gebru’s firing was for them. And the therapist was just repeating it back saying, ‘Yes, yes, I hear you,’” said another Google worker who was on the call. “It was this pattern. Their real concerns were dismissed as feelings.”

The three employees spoke anonymously because they are not permitted to speak to the news media. Google declined to comment on the meeting.

Google confirmed to NBC that it concluded its investigation into Gebru’s ousting, but did not make its findings public. The company said it will implement new procedures to handle employee exits and increase its staff handling employee retention, according to Axios.

Workplace diversity and inclusion experts say it is common for human resource officials to use mental health and well-being as a tactic to ignore discrimination — and even participate in it.

“The broader pattern of HR not being supportive, continuing to make the person who was discriminated against the problem in some way rather than the discrimination and the perpetrator of the discrimination as the problem — those are patterns that we have seen in our research,” said Laura Morgan Roberts, a professor at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business and co-editor of the book, "Race, Work, and Leadership."
Not sick

Current and former Google employees who are white say they faced similar treatment from human resources when they spoke up about the company’s racial and gender discrimination issues.

In late 2018, Claire Stapleton, who worked at Google for 12 years, helped organize a walkout to protest how the company’s handled accusations of sexual harassment and assault. The demonstration came after a New York Times investigation detailed how the creator of Android received a $90 million exit package even though the company found that a sexual assault claim against him was credible.

Claire Stapleton, an organizer of the 2018 Google walkout over sexual harassment and misconduct, in New York, November 2019. (Dina Litovsky / Redux)

After organizing the protest, Stapleton said she complained to human resources that her manager had demoted her. She hoped HR would provide a mediator to help find a solution. Instead a human resources counselor told Stapleton to try mindfulness techniques to improve her relationship with her manager, according to Stapleton. Another human resources director recommended she speak with a third director who specializes in employee benefits. That official suggested Stapleton take a medical leave, she said.

“I was raising a retaliation claim and then she said, ‘Oh, but did anyone tell you about medical leave?’ And I said, ‘Yes, I know what medical leave is, but that’s not what I need. I’m not sick.’ And she was like, ‘Oh no, no, no, it’s not like that. We put people on it all the time,'” Stapleton said.

She did not take the medical leave, but resigned instead.

Google says it provides multiple ways for employees to raise concerns and investigates all retaliation reports. “If an employee wants to explore a leave of absence or have a workplace accommodation, Google’s Benefits team will work with the individual on next steps,” Google’s Rodstrom said.

In 2019, another current Google employee, who is white and spoke anonymously because he’s not permitted to speak to the news media, raised concerns about pay disparities between white and Black employees with similar experience levels. He hoped one of his Black colleagues would get a raise. Instead, he was ignored and then told to stop asking about it, he said.

“After months, I was like I can’t even show up to work another day the way they’re dragging me along,” the employee said. “And then basically at the end I said, ‘I need some options,’ and HR said, ‘You can accept severance or you can take a medical leave.'”

On Feb. 5, Margaret Mitchell, the co-lead of Google’s Ethical AI team with Gebru, wrote in a blog post that Gebru “has been treated completely inappropriately, with intense disrespect, and she deserves an apology.” On Feb. 19, Mitchell announced “I’m fired.” Google confirmed Mitchell’s firing to NBC, and said she had violated the company’s code of conduct by removing documents and employee data from Google’s internal system.

Mitchell said in a statement after she was fired, “I tried to use my position to raise concerns to Google about race and gender inequity, and to speak up about Google’s deeply problematic firing of Dr. Gebru. To now be fired has been devastating.”

CORRECTION (March 7, 6 p.m. ET) A previous version of the article misstated what Google human resources advised Timnit Gebru to do after she reported issues with how women were treated at the company. She was advised to seek mental health care, not take medical leave. The article also misstated Margaret Mitchell's job status at Google. Mitchell was a co-leader of the Ethical AI Team at Google with Gebru; she did not work under Gebru.

Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Investigating 'Systemic' Hiring Discrimination At Facebook


Bibhu Pattnaik
Sun, March 7, 2021, 


The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has begun a probe against Facebook after applicants who were denied jobs filed complaints that Facebook discriminated against them.

What Happened: The commission is investigating Facebook, Inc (NASDAQ: FB) for racial bias in hiring and has designated the probe as "systemic," Reuters reported, citing attorneys representing the applicants. The agency is looking into company policies that may be contributing to widespread discrimination.

The "systemic" designation raises the level of the investigation and could broaden its scope to include more workers, according to Reuters.


According to the report, Oscar Veneszee Jr., who was hired by the company as operations program manager, and two other applicants, who were denied jobs, have alleged that the company discriminates against Black candidates by "relying on subjective evaluations and promoting problematic racial stereotypes." Another job applicant later joined their case.

The EEOC brought in systemic investigators in August and received detailed briefing papers from both sides over the last four months, the attorney representing the complainants said.

Facebook and the law firm representing it did not comment on the probe.

Why It Matters: Over the last couple of years Facebook has faced multiple lawsuits over discrimination.

In December, the U.S. Justice Department accused Facebook of discriminating against workers, saying the company has given hiring preferences to temporary workers, including those who hold H-1B visas.

In 2019, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development announced that it was suing Facebook for allegedly violating the Fair Housing Act. HUD claimed that the company unlawfully discriminated against people based on race, religion, familial status, disability and other characteristics.

Photo courtesy: Anthony Quintano via Wikimedia

© 2021 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.

2021 sees a record number of bills targeting trans youth



Orion Rummler
Sun, March 7, 2021

Republicans in at least 25 states have introduced over 60 bills targeting transgender children — a legislative boom since January that has beaten 2020's total number of anti-trans bills.

Why it matters: LGBTQ advocates say the unprecedented push was catalyzed by backlash to Biden's election and the Supreme Court ruling that workers cannot be fired for being gay or transgender.

Data: ACLU; Chart: Andrew Witherspoon/Axios

By the numbers: 2020 saw 41 bills focused on trans youth specifically, per the ACLU — a number already surpassed in the first two months of 2021.

While the COVID pandemic suspended or closed many state legislatures last year, 2020 still outmatched anti-trans bills from 2019 and 2018 — which had 22 bills and 18 bills respectively.

This culture war seems to be a winning issue for Republicans, at least in the places where they’re fighting it most aggressively, says Dan Cox, the director of the American Enterprise Institute's Survey Center on American Life.


"On the Democratic side, this is not an issue that really excites the base," he told Axios. "But on the right, I think these issues are really, really salient, so it tends to fire up folks disproportionately on the right than the left."


"A lot of this stuff is being framed as dangerous for children. That harkens back to the gay rights movement," he said. "And that's a pretty effective way to get people who are sort of more moderate and middle of the road off and active on this issue. It's not random that these are the issues that are being brought up."

Zoom in: A big focus has been on school sports. Twenty-six state legislatures introduced 41 bills in just the first two months of 2021 to exclude trans youth from teams that align with their gender identity, per an ACLU tracker.


Mississippi's bill on trans athletes passed through both houses on Wednesday and is the first to be sent to a governor who is likely to sign it. Similar bills have passed the Utah, Montana, and North Dakota statehouses.


21 bills have also been introduced this year to criminalize gender-affirming care for trans kids. Many would make puberty blockers and surgery a misdemeanor offense for doctors, while some states, like Alabama, would make it a felony offense.


Many states have tried and failed to pass bills on trans youth multiple times, including Illinois and South Dakota.

A proposal in Georgia, which is similar to other bills on trans athletes across the country, would require students to provide details of their "reproductive organs, genetic makeup, and other medically relevant factors" in order to play on sports teams.


In a federal lawsuit against boards of education in Connecticut, three high school runners argued that they were deprived of scholarship opportunities due to trans competitors. “Mentally and physically, we know the outcome before the race even starts," one student said.


The runners are being represented by the Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative group that also fought to bar trans students from using bathrooms aligning with their identity. National backlash derailed most of the bills.

What they're saying: "This is a critical inflection point in the movement for trans justice," Chase Strangio, ACLU deputy director for transgender justice said recently.

The big picture: Biden's presidency marks a high point of national political attention on trans rights and an about-face from the Justice Department under former President Trump.


Biden revoked Trump's transgender military ban within days of his inauguration. Last week, the administration withdrew federal support of the Connecticut lawsuit.

After Trump sabotage, 3 things Biden must do to restore gay, lesbian and trans rights

Kevin Jennings, Opinion contributor

Sun, March 7, 2021

The House just passed the Equality Act for the second time in two years. But this time, it’s different. With a Democratic majority in the Senate, we have a real chance to make history and, for the first time ever, write explicit discrimination protections for LGBTQ people into our federal civil rights laws.

This would be welcome progress after Donald Trump’s four-year attack on LGBTQ people and about time, as the first version of the Equality Act was introduced in 1974.

In its first month in office, the Biden administration has taken several critical actions to reverse Trump’s damage to LGBTQ rights and restore the LGBTQ community’s trust. President Joe Biden repealed the discriminatory trans military ban. He achieved greater representation in government by appointing an out LGBTQ Cabinet member — the first to be confirmed by the Senate in our nation’s history. He directed federal agencies to apply the historic Supreme Court ruling in Bostock v. Clayton County, protecting LGBTQ people from discrimination in everything from housing to health care.

Yet just days ago, the Mississippi Legislature sent Gov. Tate Reeves a bill banning transgender athletes from female sports teams at schools and colleges, and he is expected to sign it. The nightmare is far from over, and we cannot get complacent. To advance LGBTQ equality, we have a lot more to do — and undo.
Undoing what Trump did

As we near the halfway point of Biden’s first 100 days, there are three concrete actions that the new administration must take. It must repair the damage to our courts by quickly adding a slate of pro-equality judges, stop granting “licenses to discriminate” and shut down policies that harm our most vulnerable.

The Trump administration installed judges intent on undermining LGBTQ rights and protections. Trump appointed nearly a third of currently serving federal appellate judges (including three of nine Supreme Court justices), and an alarming 40% of those judges have demonstrated anti-LGBTQ+ bias. The Biden administration must restore fairness and impartiality by naming judges who actually mean "equal justice under the law" when they say it.



Supporters of LGBTQ rights on Oct. 8, 2019, in Washington, D.C.

We also need to reverse the Trump administration policies that legitimate using religion as a pretext for discrimination against LGBTQ individuals. Through the rule-making process, Trump empowered federal agencies to allow health care providers, social service agencies and businesses to deny critical services to LGBTQ people based on the religious beliefs of their health care providers (who have a duty to safeguard the health of their patients).

The Trump Department of Health and Human Services gave adoption agencies the green light to deny same-sex couples the opportunity to adopt and foster children, meaning thousands will languish in institutional homes and foster care rather than be placed with families who want to give them a permanent and loving home. The Trump Department of Labor allowed federal contractors to discriminate against LGBTQ workers using “religious exemptions” as a smokescreen for discrimination.

Pass the Equality Act: Discriminatory rhetoric, laws are devastating to LGBTQ youth

The Biden administration must ensure that all organizations receiving federal tax dollars and businesses opened to the public treat all people with dignity and respect. To build a more inclusive society, our government must not subsidize private bigotry.
Restore our nation's values

Finally, we must protect the most vulnerable members of the LGBTQ community, including refugees, children and people living with HIV. The rights of too many of these individuals have been deliberately targeted by hateful policies or just simply ignored. America has long stood as a beacon to the oppressed and marginalized — a nation where all are welcome — but Trump tarnished our reputation. He made it harder for LGBTQ people, many running from danger, to seek refuge on our shores. He put trans kids, who are more likely than their cisgender peers to experience bullying, in harm’s way by rolling back lifesaving guidance from the Department of Education. He fired patriotic service members living with HIV from our armed forces.

This cruelty goes against our most cherished values as a nation.

A defining legacy: My dad listened to Rush Limbaugh attack gay people like me, and echoed his contempt

The Biden administration must open our doors to LGBTQ refugees (some of whom are fleeing countries where the government puts LGBTQ people to death as a matter of law), reestablishing asylum rules to provide safe harbor for those escaping oppression because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. To safeguard educational opportunities for transgender children and further restore equality to our military, President Biden must take immediate action to reinstate protections for transgender students and end HIV discrimination in the military so that all who want to serve can do so.

Progress comes in many forms. Sometimes it means breaking new ground. Other times it means getting back to where we were before. And now is that time for Joe Biden to restore decency to American policy. The Biden administration is off to a good start in restoring many of the hard-fought victories achieved before Trump sabotaged them. But there is much more to do to advance the goal of equality for LGBTQ individuals and all Americans.

Kevin Jennings is the CEO of Lambda Legal. Follow him on Twitter: @KJennings

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Biden must restore and advance gay, trans rights after Trump sabotage

Kids still aren't learning LGBTQ history. 

The Equality Act might change that.

A man passes The Stonewall Inn, where a police raid 

 in 1969 triggered LGBT rights riots.

Elinor Aspegren, USA TODAY

Sat, March 6, 2021

The Equality Act, a law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex, sexual orientation and gender identity, is moving to the Senate after being passed by the House of Representatives – and it could affect what's taught in classrooms.

The Equality Act enables protections within education, particularly with how teachers implement LGBTQ inclusive curriculum.

"It signals to educators who are not part of our community that they too can, hopefully, implement language, representation and curriculum that is LGBTQ inclusive," said Sophia Arredondo, director of Education and Youth Programs at leading LGBTQ+ education advocacy group GLSEN, to USA TODAY.

For many students, LGBTQ inclusive curriculum is lacking in their classrooms. Nationally, only 19.4% of respondents to GLSEN's 2019 National School Climate Survey said they had been taught positive representations of LGBTQ+ people, history, or events in their schools.

LGBTQ protections: Equality Act passes in House, but faces uncertain future in Senate

In California, where the first U.S. law mandating LGBTQ inclusive curriculum (the FAIR Education Act), was passed nearly ten years ago, only 31% of students reported being taught this history in 2019.

When it was passed, many advocates hoped the bill would lead to equitable and complete learning about the contributions and accomplishments of LGBT people throughout history and into the present.

But the FAIR Education Act was roadblocked in California for years.

And less than 20% of teachers are actually integrating LGBTQ history in the state today, said Erik Adamian, associate director of education for the ONE Archives Foundation.

“There's not this base to build knowledge on,” he explained.

ONE Archives Foundation is the host of the largest repository of LGBTQ+ resources in the world, housed at University of Southern California. Also the oldest continuing LGBTQ+ rights organization in the nation, it now works with teachers across the country to introduce LGBTQ+ inclusive content into the classroom.

“LGBTQ+ history is American history and world history. And it's time that our education system approaches it as such by making the space and providing the resources needed for teaching the next generation a more inclusive and just version of history,” Adamian said. “But you know, I would also imagine that's the reason why there's resistance in it.”

Up until the late 2000s, most LGBTQ+ inclusive teaching was pushed aside or hidden from students – if it wasn’t actively discouraged by states. Even today, five states – Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma and Texas – in the nation have ‘no promo homo’ laws, which expressly forbid teachers from discussing LGBTQ+ topics in a positive light. In contrast, five states – California, Colorado, Illinois, New Jersey and Oregon, as well as some counties in Maryland and Virginia – actually have laws that mandate LGBTQ-inclusive curriculum.

Some laws even require that teachers portray LGBTQ topics in a negative light – creating a vicious cycle of stigmatization and misinformation.

LGBTQ-inclusive books are hard to find. So these groups started sending them to schools.

And even in states where these laws don’t exist, some teachers don’t feel comfortable teaching these topics because of lack of support on the micro level — within their school districts, from their principal, or even from the parents. If there was pushback from one of these levels, there could be actual repercussions, said Shannon Snapp, professor of psychology at California State University, Monterey Bay.

The Equality Act could change that. It safeguards job protections for LGBTQ teachers, and could empower other educators to teach inclusively without fear of being fired, Arredondo said.

LGBTQ students without the support of inclusive curriculum are more likely to face harassment and bullying at school. But, research shows having LGBTQ storylines in the classroom affects all students positively, not just those who think they may be LGBTQ.

Students in schools with LGBTQ-inclusive curriculum are 82% more likely to report that their classmates are accepting of LGBTQ people than students in schools without LGBTQ-inclusive curriculums, according to the GLSEN National School Climate Survey.

A California high school senior, Jaiden Blancaflor vividly remembers the impacts to learning about the Stonewall riots as a part of his freshman AP U.S. history class.

“There are so many figures like Duke Ellington['s collaborators] and Marsha P. Johnson that so many people overlook,” he said. His teachers “always made sure to include if [historical figures] identified as something because it's important that we have historical figures that we can relate to.”

Blancaflor believes including inclusive education in schools only benefits the general population.

"Especially since it's history, you can't really just disregard parts of it," said Blancaflor, who serves on GLSEN's National Student Council.

A recent survey from The Trevor Project, a national group focused on suicide prevention among LGBTQ young people, also shows that positive school environments make the biggest difference in kids' lives, compared with other environments such as home, community and work.

Sam Long has seen the effects of a positive school environment firsthand.

A high school science teacher from Colorado told USA TODAY students are more interested in his classes when he talks about the diverse gender, sex, and sexuality presented in nature.

But students who aren't taught that way "either check out mentally or check out physically and don't attend class," he said.

"My concern for science students who don't have a teacher and a curriculum that is gender inclusive, is that we're missing out on a lot of opportunities to support and to validate our students," he said. "We could give them the one reason that they need to continue going to school."

In GLSEN's 2019 survey, about a third of LGBTQ+ students considered dropping out of school said it was related to the hostile climate created by school policies and practices. The reverse: LGBTQ+ students who feel safe and supported at school have better educational outcomes.

Want to tackle LGBTQ bullying? Start a Gay-Straight Alliance at your high school, study says

Long is on Commission 1192, which develops recommendations for the expansion of inclusive civics and history education requirements in Colorado.

In order for educators to integrate LGBTQ+ inclusive curriculum, Long said they "have to stop teaching the way you were taught" and "actively seek authenticity."

The Equality Act will help with that mission, said Arredondo.

"And for students, I think it also signals that they can show up as their full selves."

Contributing: Claire Thornton, USA TODAY

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: LGBTQ history not taught at school, but Equality Act may change that

#IWD
International Women’s Day: How is it celebrated around the world?


Olivia Petter THE INDEPENDENT 
Mon, March 8, 2021

(AFP/Getty Images)

International Women’s Day (IWD) is being celebrated around the world on Monday 8 March, as people come together to champion the advancement of women’s rights and gender equality.

While the day itself carries the clear theme of female empowerment across the world, the way it’s acknowledged and celebrated differs from country to country.

Some companies offer women a half-day off work, for example, while others celebrate by giving one another flowers.


Read on to see how International Women’s Day celebrations vary across the globe.

United States

In the US, the whole of March is Women’s History Month.

This has been an ongoing celebration since February 1980 when President Jimmy Carter declared the week of 8 March as National Women’s History Week.

Within a few years, thousands of schools across the country had embraced the week as a means of achieving equality in the classroom, something that was spearheaded by the National Women’s History Alliance. It was also supported by city councils and governors, who ran events and special programmes to champion female empowerment.

The celebrations evolved and by 1986, 14 states had extended the celebrations to last for the duration of March.

Now, every year an official statement of recognition is issued by the President, known as a Presidential Proclamation, on IWD to honour the achievements of American women.

Italy

In Italy, International Women’s Day is called La Festa della Donna.

It’s celebrated primarily by the giving of bright yellow mimosa blossom flowers. On the day itself, bouquets of the sunshine-hued blooms are sold on almost every street corner in Italy, the idea being that people honour the women in their lives by giving them these flowers, which are viewed as a symbol of female strength and sensibility.

This floral theme also manifests in confectionery form, with some Italians choosing to celebrate IWD by making a special cake designed to resemble small blooms of the mimosa flower. Traditionally, this is a sponge cake made with citrus liqueur and topped with cream and cubes of pastry to mimic the shape of the flower.

China

In China, 8 March has been a national holiday since 1949. Many companies offer female employees a half-day on International Women’s Day so that they can spend the afternoon celebrating.

Similar to Valentine's Day, IWD in China is viewed as an opportunity for people to treat the women they love with special gifts.

It has, therefore, been adopted as a day for commercial opportunities, with many brands capitalising on the probability that people want to spend money on the women in their lives by launching special IWD marketing campaigns and deals.

China also celebrates Girl’s Day on 7 March, which is dedicated to championing the achievements of younger Chinese women in schools and universities.

Berlin

On 24 January 2019, Berlin’s parliament voted for International Women’s Day, known as Frauentag, to become a public holiday.

This means that workers in the German capital, the only state in the country to recognise the day as a public holiday, will get the day off.

UK

In the UK, International Women’s Day is celebrated in a number of ways, with a special focus on raising awareness of social and political issues affecting women.

Events taking place around the country this year in honour of IWD include virtual panel talks, screenings and art exhibitions, many of which aim to raise funds for specific charities dedicated to women’s rights.

In the past, fashion brands have partnered with women’s charities to raise money through sales of special IWD garments.

Spain

In 2018, more than five million female workers marked International Women's Day with a landmark 24-hour strike to protest against the gender pay gap, domestic violence and sexual discrimination in the workplace.

Rallies took place around the country in more than 200 locations. Those taking part were encouraged by organisers not to spend any money on the day and not participate in any domestic chores.

In 2019, similar protests, as organised by the feminist organisation The 8M Commission, took place.

Read More

International Women’s Day: When and how did the annual event start?

#IWD

Mexican president defends 

10-foot barriers to wall off 

women protesters 

AMLO MACHISMO MISOGYNY DENIES FEMICIDE

 Mexico City erects barricades ahead of expected violence in Women's Day march

IT'S ASKING FOR GRAFFITI, GRAFFITI IS VANDALISM NOT VIOLENCE

THE RIOT SQUAD THAT RESPONDS IS VIOLENT

Sat, March 6, 2021, 11:38 AM·2 min read

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Saturday said a metallic barrier to wall off the presidential palace ahead of a planned women's march on International Women's Day was to avoid provocation and protect historic buildings from vandalism.

In a country where femicides rose nearly 130% between 2015 and 2020, critics said the decision to erect the 10-foot-high (3-meter) barriers was symptomatic of Lopez Obrador's apathy toward the crisis of violence afflicting women.

Ahead of International Women's Day on Monday, barriers were also installed around other emblematic buildings and monuments in downtown Mexico City where a year ago tens of thousands of people protested rampant violence against women and impunity.

"We have to avoid provocation of people who only want to cause damage," Lopez Obrador said at an event in Yucatan. "Imagine, if we don't take care of the national palace and they vandalize it. What image will this send to the world?"

Lopez Obrador reiterated that women had the right to protest and cited his own movement in 2006 as an appropriate form of peaceful protest.

"The presidency was stolen from us ... and we protested but never broke glass. ... I walked two, three times all the way from Tabasco to Mexico City," he said. Lopez Obrador has repeatedly accused opponents of electoral fraud over the years.

At least 939 women were victims of femicide last year in Mexico, official data shows.

Interior Minister Olga Sanchez Cordero said on Twitter that the barriers were "for the protection of the women."

Anger among women was stoked this year after Felix Salgado, who has been accused of rape, announced his candidacy for governor for the southern state of Guerrero.

A representative for Salgado did not reply to repeated requests for comment; media reported that he has denied the allegations.

Lopez Obrador has said that those calling on him to drop support for Salgado, a member of the ruling Morena party, are politically motivated.

(Reporting by Stefanie Eschenbacher and Adriana Barrera; Editing by Leslie Adler)

#IWD

Meet Afghanistan's fearless Gen Z influencers, who are blowing up on TikTok and have more Instagram followers than the president


Ali Latifi
Fri, March 5, 2021, 

Ayeda Shadab does a photo shoot at a scenic overlook in Herat, Afghanistan. Roya Heydari for Insider


A group of women in Afghanistan are breaking through as Gen Z influencers on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube.


More Afghans are online, and dozens of Afghan women have 50,000 or more followers on at least one social platform.


As tastemakers, they're offering a fresh point of view on what it means to be Afghan in 2021.


A generation of Afghan women in their 20s have mastered the art of living their lives on social media.

Digital natives as much as any young person in Istanbul or Los Angeles, they are doing more than shaping what's cool in Afghanistan. Over Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and Facebook, these influencers are proving they are more than the "post 9/11" generation, as they've been labeled for 20 years. Afghanistan is what they make of it.

Mixing traditional and streetwear styles, they blast Travis Scott, Rihanna, Nina Simone, and Afghan musicians like Ahmad Zahir. They post selfies in front of Kabul's graffiti walls and carefully timed videos of the Turkish chef putting on an elaborate show in the city's new high-end steakhouse. They make Tik-Toks of Megan Thee Stallion' Savage challenge and redub Bollywood clips to poke fun at their own country.
n.

Put simply, they're young, gifted and Afgha

By broadcasting to the public, these influencers are taking real risks, but also reaping big rewards. In Afghanistan, they've earned reputations as tastemakers who are sought out by savvy business owners for their marketing power. They work out for free at Kabul's flashy new high-tech gym. But in a country still at war, safety is a serious concern. Recently, there has been a pattern of targeted killings aimed at the nation's journalists, rights workers, politicians and other influential figures. No influencer has been targeted so far, but it's a threat that's never far from their minds.
Ayeda Shadab is one of Afghanistan's social media stars.

The 26-year-old posts several times a day, and she has more followers on Instagram than the country's president, Ashraf Ghani. She models the dresses for sale in her luxury Kabul boutique and shares glossy selfies from her trips around the country. Her devoted followers flood the comments with style questions and words of encouragement.

"Our intention is to show people the possibilities, that they can live life as they want," she told Insider. "There is always fear in your heart, that's just part of living in Afghanistan. But we have to stand up and live our lives."

Ayeda Shadab photographed at the ancient Citadel in Herat, Afghanistan. 

Roya Heydari for Insider

On a recent trip to Herat, the historic city in western Afghanistan best known for its ancient Citadel, Shadab documented her every move, excited to find fresh content for her 230,000-plus Instagram followers and her nearly 390,000 followers on TikTok.

The trouble was that everything she wanted to do seemed needlessly dangerous in a city known for kidnappings and where, just recently, police officers were killed by IEDs planted near the hotel where she was staying.

But Shadab was undeterred.

One evening during the trip, Shadab and her crew drove to the Roof of Herat, a scenic overlook with panoramic views of the city that's a popular sunset hangout spot. As they pulled in, her friends (and this journalist, at work on this story) began to wonder if it was a good idea to stage a photo shoot in such a public place.

Just behind the lookout was a mosque belonging to a controversial mullah who had taken out billboards across Herat reprimanding women for inappropriate attire. Nearby was a guest house owned by a local jihadi warlord who only a decade ago had criticized the city's rock bands for carrying guitars, rather than guns.

For the occasion, Shadab wore an embroidered top with billowing sleeves and a skirt that fanned out into kaleidoscopic waves of color. Before stepping out of the Lexus borrowed from a wealthy local businessman and onto the dirt and gravel road, Shadab slipped into a pair of Manolo Blahniks she had bought during a recent trip to Dubai.

Ayeda Shadab Roya Heydaari for Insider

Not too far away, groups of men idled in their cars and rickshaws smoking hashish. Two children were begging Shadab for coins, not remotely comprehending that they might be getting in the way of her Likes.

While Shadab twirled and grinned for the camera, a group of young men hopped out of a Land Cruiser with black government plates. They started doing their own braggadocious photoshoot, with one brandishing an AK-47 for the camera.

Sensing the tension passing between Shadab's crew, one of the men called out, "Don't worry, we'll be right here. We won't get in your shots!" But they kept staring.

Shadab continued posing, oblivious to everything except the camera.

And then something happened that confirmed Shadab's confidence and left her friends in fits of laughter.

With sudden recognition, the young man with the AK-47 called out, "That's Ayeda, she's on Instagram!"

For the rest of the trip "That's Ayeda!" became a running gag among the group. Including, a few days later, at Herat International Airport, when workers stopped her for a selfie.

"We follow you!" an airport policeman said as Shadab and her friends headed towards the departures gate.

As for the adventure that night at the lookout, it earned Shadab more than 12,000 likes.
The number of Afghans online lags far behind other countries, but they're catching up.

Just 14% of the population uses the internet as a source of news and information, according to the Asia Foundation's 2019 "Survey of the Afghan People." In 2015, only 25% of households could get online using a cellphone with Internet access, but that number was up to nearly half in 2019.

Mariam Wardak, an Afghan-American who is working with Facebook to bring the anti-bullying and anti-extremism "We Think Digital" campaign to Afghanistan, said she has signed up 14 Afghan women, including Shadab, to be digital ambassadors.

Ayeda Shadab exploring the historic Citadel in Herat, Afghanistan. 

Roya Heydaari for Insider

She has identified 60 Afghan women with 50,000 or more followers, Wardak told Insider, adding: "They are building cultural tolerance in our society one post at a time."

Shadab sees herself principally as a businesswoman, and she uses social media to drum up business for her eponymous shop, which has become one of Kabul's hottest boutiques since she opened it a year ago.

Shadab comes from a prominent Afghan family. Her mother is a Senator from a Northern province and her step-father was the deputy governor of Logar province. (He was killed two years ago whole traveling to the capital.) As a student in Malaysia and China, where she got a masters degree in business, she learned about social media from her classmates. "They were Muslim, but they were willing to show off their style and personality," she said.

Her posts started getting the attention of other women in Kabul, who would reply by asking her to bring the clothes she was wearing in photos back to sell in Afghanistan. That's how she got the idea to open her own store.

"It was my followers who said we need a physical shop to come to," she said.

On the racks, denim jackets adorned with traditional embroidery from northern Afghanistan hang alongside voluminous dresses with subtly-dropped necklines. There are brightly-colored full-length faux fur coats that have appeared on the accounts of several other influencers. Her purchases from Herat -- like the second-hand velvet dresses she found at the antiques market -- will be repurposed into original designs.

"My entire business is reliant on my social media," she said. "Sometimes I fear what will happen to my business if Instagram ever shuts down."

As the number of influencers grows, Shadab's shop has become a place where they run into one another.

One of them is Sadiqa Madadgar, a former contestant on the popular reality singing competition Afghan Star.

She ended up placing seventh, but she stayed on social media, and now has a combined following of 239,000 on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook and YouTube. (One performance, in particular, has been viewed millions of times.)

Where Shadab is seen as aspirational, Madadgar, who's 22, is approachable. YouTube videos that show her cutting open a melon or describing a recent leg injury to a friend get tens of thousands of views. In showing her struggles with basic household chores in her modest Kabul apartment, she has become the girl next door.

Most YouTubers have professional studios with special lighting, specific backdrops, HD cameras and Pro-level computers to shoot and their videos on. Madadgar does it all with the most basic of tools. Each of these videos are shot, edited and published directly from her iPhone.

She's also known for being deeply religious, and has become a model for how to broadcast your life over social media while maintaining a sense of modesty.

Sadiqa Madadgar trying on a dress in Ayeda Shadab's Kabul shop. 

Rroya Heydaari for Insider

"When I first went on Afghan Star, everyone said 'there's no way you can remain a good Muslim girl and be a singer,'" Madadgar said. "So I set out to prove them wrong."

After her first appearance on the show in 2018, Madadgar received a frantic phone call from her mother in Quetta, who was incensed to see her daughter (who had moved to Kabul to study dentistry) singing on live TV.

"I'm still the same girl," Madagar remembers telling her mother. "I didn't do anything bad, say anything disrespectful or wear anything inappropriate."

Madadgar has found it much more difficult to monetize her following compared to Shadab. Yes, she enjoys the social perks and freebies, but what she really wants is to fund her music career, which means raising enough to record an album and film some music videos.

One recent morning, needing a dress for a photo shoot, Madadgar came into Shadab's shop with a couple of friends. The staff recognized her immediately and began to pull gowns from the racks. With an armored car idling outside, she spent 30 minutes trying on different looks.

Finally, Madadgar decided on a burgundy dress with an embellished belt and fully-covered sleeves. With that settled, she rushes out and into the waiting car.

"Oh, she didn't buy it. She's just borrowing it," Wardak, the "We Think Digital" leader, would later explain. "Sadiqa being photographed in it will help the business."
Shadab's success depends on posting a steady stream of content.

She is constantly looking for potential photo ops and video setups.

One evening during her trip to Herat, after a day spent rushing between photo shoots at the city's historic sites, Shadab relaxed in a wood and glass gazebo in the garden of the high-end ARG Hotel.

She was scrolling through the images they'd taken that day, wishing that they had been able to accomplish more. In this conservative city, there had often been nowhere for her to change modestly into different outfits, and so they lost time in traffic as they went back and forth to the safety of her hotel room.

The confidence that exudes from Shadab in person is also evident from what she posts online. What she wants most of all, she said, is for her followers, especially other young women, to understand is that she is an educated female entrepreneur who has built her own business on her own terms.

There are of course sexist and hateful comments that she has to reckon with too, including from people telling her she should cover her hair more. But for the most part she dismissed that as part of living your life online.

"It's so strange, all of these people are so curious about our lives," she continued. "They want to know what this boy or this girl is doing, but then, instead of supporting you, they use that same content to attack you."

Still, for Shadab it was all worth it. Trips like this offered new content, yes. But Shadab also saw them as a chance to show off her country. When she and her friends were growing up, most of the images of Afghanistan came from foreign war photographers. The country's story was often reduced to violence and tragedy.

But today, with just a mobile phone and an Internet connection, influencers like Shadab can show another side to their country - the banalities, the beauty, the luxury and the laughs - that war and displacement couldn't steal from them.

Shadab sips from a glass of saffron tea, scrolling through her comments. Suddenly, she lets out a heavy sigh.

Her friends, each busy with their own stories and tweets, turn to look at her.

"Listen to this," she says, and begins to read an Instagram DM.

"Thank you for showing my homeland that I haven't seen in 11 years," she reads aloud. Her friends sigh along with her. Shadab continues: "I miss it. You're very lucky."

Read the original article on Business Insider