Soundbites about the latest news in sex and love, so that your friends think you’re smart. By Karley Sciortino
1. The Supreme Court Legalizes Gay Marriage – Obama’s Cute Speech
Obviiiiii last Friday the Supreme Court approved the constitutional right to same-sex marriage, meaning gay marriage is now legal in the entire United States! Mwahahhaa! I recommend you watch Obama’s speech (above), given right after the ruling. It’s only 8 minutes long and it’s really cute and inspiring. I love America! (Sometimes!)
2. A Women’s Rights Group Used a Drone to Drop Abortion Pills Into Poland
Drones can help out with just about everything: hanging mistletoe, killing people, making really futuristic sex tapes, etc. Yesterday, drones found a new purpose when the international women’s rights group Women on Waves launched their “abortion drone” from Germany into Poland, where it sprinkled the country with packets of abortion pills. Lol! The purpose of the stunt was to draw attention to the current reproductive rights of women in the primarily Catholic country of Poland, as compared with the rest of Europe. (Poland, Ireland and Malta are the only European countries where abortion is still illegal.) Access to abortions has been limited in Poland since 1993, and women are only allowed to have abortions in the case of rape, incest, or if a mother’s life is threatened by the fetus. These strict abortion laws result in about 50,000 underground abortions each year. Read more HERE.
3. Transgender Speaks out during Barack Obama’s Address at White House Gay Pride Event
During a gay pride reception at the White House on Wednesday, Jennicet Gutiérrez, a transgender woman, disrupted Obama’s speech by shouting that his administration should release lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender immigrants from detention. “President Obama, stop the torture and abuse of trans women in detention centers,” were among the few things she shouted. While she didn’t get a response from Obama in that moment (he was annoyed that she interrupted him), her disruption sparked a good amount of media attention to the treatment of LGBTQ immigrants in America (and I’m embarrassed to say I didn’t really know about this issue!). As it was put by the Guardian, “Trans women in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention are routinely housed with men and are either at enormous risk of sexual assault, sometimes by ICE guards themselves, or are placed in solitary confinement for months for their own “safety” – all after already enduring violence in their own countries that led them to seek asylum.”
After the incident Gutiérrez said: “There is no pride in how LGBTQ and transgender immigrants are treated in this country. If the president wants to celebrate with us, he should release the LGBTQ immigrants locked up in detention centers immediately.” Read more about this in the Guardian.
4. Designer Babies Exist, and Apparently Kim and Kanye Want One (Even though they are Denying It)
Obvs, Kim is pregs with baby #2. Recently, there was a rumor going around that Kim and Kanye only had male embryos implanted during Kim’s In Vitro Fertilization, because they already have a girl and now want a boy. Kim has since denied this. But still, I recommend you read this article, in which medical experts at the The Fertility Institute talk about how the future will have designer babies. The ability to select your baby’s sex is def already a thing, and now they’re working on the ability to choose eye color. Of course, all of this sparks ethical discussions about whether doctors and scientists are “playing God.” If you don’t feel like reading, and would rather listen to someone talk, there was recently a good RadioLab podcast about this as well, which you can listen to below. The ep is called CRISPR, which is a method for genetic manipulation that is rewriting the way we change DNA.
Main image by Terry Richardson