+ Politicians Try to Keep LGBTQ People, People of Other Religions From Adopting
A proposed bill would let adoption agencies refuse to let LGBTQ couples adopt, and it goes beyond that. The Huffington Post explains that the bill “is designed to allow religious foster and adoption agencies to deny services to all ‘nontraditional’ prospective parents, including same-sex married couples, unmarried heterosexual and same-sex couples, singles who are heterosexual or LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender), and people from other religions.”
+ Actress Fights Body-Shaming
“Fargo” actress Allison Tolman is done with body-shaming. “I think about my niece, I think about my friends who have daughters being on the Internet and reading these [body-shaming] things, and it just makes me furious. It makes me so angry,” she said. “While I know that me saying something to someone on the Internet and sassing somebody back doesn’t actually do anything to them — I don’t think I’m going to change anyone’s mind, obviously — but I’m hoping that if that’s part of the conversation, people saying nasty things to women, maybe we can also make part of the conversation women saying back, ‘It’s really none of your business, shut up.’”
+ Teen’s Science Project Takes On Cyberbullying
Teen Trisha Prabhu has an awesome science project meant to combat cyberbullying. “I realized I could use my science & technology skills to effectively prevent cyber-bullying ‘at the source’ (before it occurs),” she explained. “I hypothesized that if adolescents (ages 12-18) were provided an alert mechanism that suggested them to re-think their decision if they expressed willingness to post a mean/hurtful message on social media, the number of mean/hurtful messages adolescents will be willing to post would be lesser than adolescents that are not provided with such an alert mechanism.”
+ Bikini Activism
There’s still time to pull on a bikini for summer, and the hashtag #Fatkini has turned into a form of activism where women show that a bikini body is any body with a bikini on it. In other words, you don’t have to “look a certain way” to wear a bikini. If you want to wear a bikini, then go for it. You’re beautiful.
+ Uganda’s First Gay Pride Parade
In response to Uganda’s anti-gay law being thrown out by the Courts, the country celebrated its very first Gay Pride Parade. Homophobia is still strong in Uganda, though, but we hope this is a sign of things becoming more tolerant.
+ Some Senators Stand in the Way of Catching More Rapists
Some senators are holding back a $41 million grant that would help catch rapists and keep them off the streets. Why are they doing this? Because they want to add other things to the proposed bill, like a part that would prevent the EPA from doing more work to fight climate change. Yes, you read that right.
Photo: (Getty, Instagram, Buzzfeed, Texas Tribune)