Vox: All Posts by Liz Plankhttps://cdn.vox-cdn.com/community_logos/52517/voxv.png2017-12-21T12:20:02-05:00https://www.vox.com/authors/liz-plank/rss2017-12-21T12:20:02-05:002017-12-21T12:20:02-05:00Donald Trump won't apologize to women, so I did it for him
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<img alt="President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump attend the Inaugural Luncheon at the US Capitol." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/tdFSRW3vDHdnJIMJQckN3KguRRE=/152x0:2876x2043/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/58071247/GettyImages_632211964.0.jpg" />
<figcaption>Molly Riley/AFP/Getty Images</figcaption>
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<p id="475FVh">Apologies from men are having a moment. While the #MeToo crusade has created space for women (and men) who have experienced sexual harassment or assault to come forward with their stories, it has also forced men (and women) who have been accused of abusive behavior to take responsibility for their actions. </p>
<p id="Ea29Xu">The apologies have been far from <a href="https://www.vox.com/first-person/2017/12/5/16735810/utter-failure-male-apologies-2017">perfect</a>: Some are missing key words, such as <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/11/10/entertainment/louis-ck-apology-reaction/index.html">“sorry”</a> or <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/inspired-life/wp/2017/11/21/the-recent-tide-of-apologies-by-famous-men-have-been-awful-heres-what-the-men-should-have-said/?utm_term=.d1f4331b2322">“apologize.”</a> And some apologies might have included a “sorry” but also came with curious <a href="http://variety.com/2017/film/news/harvey-weinstein-jay-z-apology-sexual-harassment-1202581711/">rants about the NRA</a> or delicious, yet unsolicited, <a href="https://www.vox.com/2017/12/16/16784544/mario-batali-cinnamon-roll-apology">pizza dessert</a> recipes. </p>
<p id="zJiDg4">But the mere act of recognizing wrongdoing and the subsequent cultural shift of placing the burden of responsibility for sexual assault and harassment on men, rather than women, is groundbreaking. As Anna North pointed out at <a href="https://www.vox.com/identities/2017/12/5/16710430/sexual-harassment-apologies-matt-lauer-louis-ck">Vox</a>, “for some survivors of harassment and assault, a perpetrator admitting fault can make a big difference in healing.” In the case of Al Franken for instance, his apology was <a href="http://thehill.com/homenews/news/360709-woman-who-accused-franken-says-she-accepts-his-apology">accepted</a> by the woman he victimized. </p>
<p id="c74Wtq">There is one man, however, who has a history of <a href="https://www.vox.com/2016/10/13/13274972/donald-trump-is-giving-us-a-master-class-in-why-womendontreport">bragging about sexual assault</a>, who has been <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/12/what-about-the-19-women-who-accused-trump/547724/">accused</a> of sexual misconduct by 19 women, and who regularly <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/29/business/media/trump-mika-brzezinski-facelift.html?mtrref=www.google.com&gwh=EF88F194B41E5C1905C97D8AC2835D62&gwt=pay">demeans women</a> in his <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/trump-attacks-kirsten-gillibrand-twitter-after-she-calls-him-resign-n828701">workplace</a>, but has been curiously silent: President Donald Trump. </p>
<p id="OLvZCb">Given that President Trump has <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/trump-on-god-i-dont-like-to-have-to-ask-for-forgiveness-2016-1">admitted</a> himself that he never asks for forgiveness, even though his sexist behavior makes women <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2017/07/everyday-sexism-in-a-post-feminist-world/533241/">feel</a> harmed on a <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/politics/donald-trump-sexism-tracker-every-offensive-comment-in-one-place/">daily basis</a>, we decided to do it for him — using his own words. </p>
<p id="P7gqOz">As a woman and a Canadian, I consider myself a foremost expert on apologizing and felt it was my duty to help out. </p>
<p id="aTt8zZ">This is my holiday present to you.</p>
https://www.vox.com/2017/12/21/16805606/donald-trump-apology-liz-plank-dsowLiz Plank2017-07-06T14:40:01-04:002017-07-06T14:40:01-04:00People with disabilities are staging protests in senators’ offices all over the country
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<figcaption>Toni Saia and Gabrielle Ficchi in Senator Jeff Flake’s office on Wednesday. | Gabrielle Ficchi</figcaption>
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<p>“I’d rather go to jail than die without Medicaid” shouted protestors with disabilities arrested for occupying Sen. Jeff Flake's office.</p> <p id="oPf1v6">President Donald Trump called the Republicans’ health care plan “<a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/06/20/politics/trump-mean-health-care/index.html">mean</a>.” Disability advocates have another word for it: deadly. </p>
<p id="OQrnId">Worried about the <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/6/22/15854614/senate-gop-health-bill-poor-pay-more">proposed cuts to </a><a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/06/22/politics/senate-health-care-bill/index.html">Medicaid</a> in the Senate Republicans’ version of the health care bill, several activists with disabilities staged a sit-in at the Phoenix office of Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) on Wednesday. One protester, Anastasia Bacigalupo, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/100005310492980/videos/753222394864770">live-streamed</a> her arrest on Facebook as she and two other women being arrested shouted, “I’d rather go to jail than die without Medicaid.” According to <a href="http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/arizona/2017/07/06/disability-advocates-we-occupy-sen-jeff-flakes-office-until-he-opposes-health-care-bill/453781001/">AZ Central</a>, four other<strong> </strong>people were arrested for trespassing.</p>
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<p lang="en" dir="ltr">Protesters at <a href="https://twitter.com/JeffFlake">@JeffFlake</a>'s office: If you're not at the table, you're on the menu. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ADAPTandRESIST?src=hash">#ADAPTandRESIST</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NoBCRA?src=hash">#NoBCRA</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/SaveMedicaid?src=hash">#SaveMedicaid</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NoCapsNoCuts?src=hash">#NoCapsNoCuts</a> <a href="https://t.co/vsWIclqWG3">pic.twitter.com/vsWIclqWG3</a></p>— ABILITY360 (@ability360) <a href="https://twitter.com/ability360/status/882742722800439298">July 5, 2017</a>
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<p id="jRv9sl">As Vox’s Dylan Matthews has <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/3/10/14847218/medicaid-ahca-republican-obamacare-replacement">noted</a>, cuts to Medicaid have stark consequences for people living with disabilities. The Republican plan would allow the federal government to set a cap on the amount of money spent on each person through Medicaid. Over a decade, starting in 2020, this cap would cut federal contributions to Medicaid to about $116 billion, Matthews reports. Advocates worry that states, strapped for cash, will begin to limit aid for people with disabilities who need services to live independently, including wheelchairs, oxygen tanks, or care attendants.<strong> </strong></p>
<p id="UIe8aR">Without access to this equipment, people with disabilities could face mass hospitalization. Like the rest of the population, people with disabilities <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-big-idea/2017/3/22/15026856/ahca-plan-medicaid-cut-hurts-disabled-institutions">are much happier</a> when they can live independently and not under the care of an institution. Having the freedom to live inside one’s home and community is something most people take for granted, but for people with disabilities that wasn’t always the case. </p>
<p id="i76dh8">“We fought so hard to have our right to live in the community recognized, and now … we’re still fighting for our freedom from incarceration in institutions,” Gabrielle Ficchi, one of the protestors at Sen. Flake’s office, told Vox. “Home and community services are what allow us to do our jobs, live our lives, and raise our families,” she continued.</p>
<p id="JEl8sQ">The protest itself was organized by members of the national disability rights organization <a href="https://www.facebook.com/NationalAdapt">Adapt</a>, a nonpartisan organization that has staged protests for decades. These have included rallying for access to public transportation for people with disabilities in the 1980s and <a href="http://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/182981-disability-rights-advocates-protest-obamas-proposed-medicaid-cuts">protesting</a> the White House over proposed<strong> </strong>Medicaid cuts under former President Barack Obama. </p>
<p id="HTBY9w">The advocacy group has stormed several public official offices over the course of the current<strong> </strong>health care debate. In June, they <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/6/22/15855424/disability-protest-medicaid-mcconnell">staged</a> a die-in Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-KY) office. Almost a dozen activists also took over Sen. Cory Gardner’s (R-CO) office in Denver <a href="http://www.denverpost.com/2017/06/29/cory-gardner-office-protest-removal/">just last week</a> for more than 48 hours, with <a href="https://twitter.com/dominickevans/status/880084250959241216">some activists</a> reportedly sleeping in their wheelchairs. In both instances, protestors were arrested, with images of police officers dragging them out of their wheelchairs <a href="http://metro.co.uk/2017/06/23/disabled-protesters-dragged-out-of-wheelchairs-during-healthcare-protest-6728659/">going viral</a>. In a press release, Adapt said “people with disabilities will go without needed services and be forced into institutions or die.” </p>
<p id="B4DBHQ">Protesters went to Flake’s office because he hasn’t announced how he will vote on the Republican health care Senate bill. In a statement to Vox, he refused to take a position, but thanked the protestors for showing up. </p>
<p id="yu5fAn">“While I have not yet seen a revised version of the bill, I can say my decision will be based on how it balances two principles,” he said. “The first is that the legislation needs to ensure that those who currently have coverage do not have the rug pulled out from under them. The second is that the Senate must agree on a solution that is fiscally sustainable. I would like to personally thank everyone for coming out to share their stories, and I will be sure to keep any concerns in mind as I evaluate the bill.”</p>
<p id="ZDvTRt">For Ficchi, Flake’s answer is insufficient. “Our message was very clear — we were not leaving without a no vote … we would rather go to jail than sit by and watch 22 million Americans lives be in jeopardy.” </p>
<p id="CzfLFn"><em>Liz Plank is a senior correspondent for Vox Media. </em></p>
https://www.vox.com/health-care/2017/7/6/15927940/people-with-disabilities-staging-protests-senators-officesLiz Plank2017-06-13T13:10:02-04:002017-06-13T13:10:02-04:00Stop calling Donald Trump a "newbie." He knows exactly what he's doing.
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<figcaption>Don Emmert / AFP / Getty | Don Emmert / AFP / Getty</figcaption>
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<p>Trump wasn’t too dumb to know what he was doing; he was smart enough to know how to avoid getting caught.</p> <p id="9O6HUJ">Donald Trump is not a <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/compost/wp/2017/05/17/the-president-is-not-a-child-hes-something-worse/">child</a>. Donald Trump is not <a href="http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/story/opinion/my-turn/2017/04/05/opinion-call-trump-stupid/99780256/">stupid</a>. Let’s dispel the myth right now that Donald Trump doesn’t know <em>exactly</em> what he’s doing.</p>
<p id="iPQrfO">The president’s alleged ignorance has become Republicans’ official line of defense against monumental accusations that Trump fired his FBI director to help out his buddy at best, or help himself at worst. </p>
<p id="RQ6517">"The president's new at this,” House Speaker Paul Ryan <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/06/08/politics/paul-ryan-donald-trump-new-to-this/index.html">rebutted</a> after a reporter asked him about the allegation that Trump attempted to <a href="http://www.npr.org/2017/06/10/532321287/is-trump-guilty-of-obstruction-of-justice-comey-laid-out-the-case">obstruct</a> a federal investigation into former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn’s ties to Russia. Similarly, Rep. Kevin Cramer (R-ND) <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/republicans-emerging-trump-defense-a-naif-in-the-oval-office/2017/06/08/51abdd9c-4c71-11e7-bc1b-fddbd8359dee_story.html?utm_term=.da1568cb9507">justified</a> Trump’s behavior as simply the result of the fact that “he’s used to be being the CEO.” New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie even <a href="http://www.salon.com/2017/06/08/chris-christie-defends-trumps-loyalty-request-as-normal-new-york-city-conversation/">described</a> accusations of Trump demanding <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-russia-comey-loyalty-idUSKBN18Y2QJ">“loyalty”</a> from FBI Director James Comey as “normal New York City conversation.” </p>
<p id="k12myM">As Trump surrogates now call for the president to <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/06/13/politics/chris-ruddy-bob-mueller-trump/index.html">fire</a> Bob Mueller, the man leading an investigation into Russian interference in the election and ties to the Trump campaign, let’s not pretend that Trump is clueless. He’s taking deliberate actions to shield himself and his protégés. And the Republican Party is enabling him to do it.</p>
<h3 id="ho4P2v">The evidence is clear: Trump knows what he's doing</h3>
<p id="CKRjLm">Perpetuating the idea that Trump isn’t competent enough to be held to the standard of commander in chief when it comes to something as serious as the obstruction of an FBI investigation isn’t only irresponsible — it’s hard to believe. </p>
<p id="cLTgXr">If we are to take Comey’s testimony under oath as truthful, it’s difficult to see how Trump’s behavior was negligent rather than carefully calculated. Arguing that Trump’s actions were those of a novice is ridiculous when you look at the evidence that points to the very opposite.<strong> </strong>As my colleague Ezra Klein <a href="https://twitter.com/ezraklein/status/872524781857406979">put</a> it, Trump’s behavior is not that of a president; it’s that of a mob boss. </p>
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<li id="qwhzsw">
<strong>Trump left no fingerprints: </strong>Trump asked key advisers to leave the room in one of his meetings with Comey, even when Attorney General Jeff Sessions and top hand Jared Kushner lingered. In a separate meeting, Trump wanted Comey alone and allegedly demanded <a href="http://www.latimes.com/politics/washington/la-na-essential-washington-updates-trump-demanded-loyalty-asked-for-end-1496859119-htmlstory.html">“loyalty”</a> (something he has a <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/05/11/politics/trump-comey-loyalty/index.html">history</a> of valuing above any other quality). If the president <em>really</em> thought he wasn’t doing anything wrong, why wouldn’t he do it in front of his staff? </li>
<li id="he9o7u">
<strong>Trump covered himself with cryptic language:</strong> Republicans have tried to claim that Trump didn’t explicitly say, “Kill the investigation into Michael Flynn or you are fired.” But in fact, his decision not to proves the case even more clearly. He said, “I hope you can let this go,” and referenced the investigation without “the cloud” as opposed to giving Comey a direct order. This isn’t the behavior of a person who doesn’t know the rules — it’s the actions of a man who’s deliberately trying to zigzag around them. </li>
<li id="RamNck">
<strong>Trump set</strong><strong> </strong><strong>up a creepy dinner: </strong>Trump brought Comey into a one-on-one dinner in the White House, where he highlighted his power over him, reminding the FBI director that many people wanted his job. As Comey put it during his testimony, “The dinner was, at least in part, an effort to have me ask for my job and create some sort of patronage relationship.”</li>
<li id="XgB2Si">
<strong>Trump then fired Comey:</strong> There’s a narrative here. Trump pressured Comey repeatedly. Comey didn’t comply. Trump fired him. This is not the logical path of a compulsive person who didn’t know what he was doing. It’s a straightforward path. </li>
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<h3 id="dfJ3hr">Trump knew that Republicans would defend him no matter what, and that the media would buy it</h3>
<p id="7oSyBs">If the “Trump doesn’t know what he’s doing” argument feels familiar, it’s because it’s not the first time his conservative surrogates and the media have used the line to shield him from responsibility. There’s no reason to think Trump wouldn’t expect the same again. </p>
<p id="J2Gywk">During the election, when candidate Trump made baffling <a href="http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2016/09/trump-insinuates-hillary-clintons-assassination-again.html">references</a> to Hillary Clinton and the Second Amendment, campaign surrogates downplayed his behavior as simply gauche. “He is not a politician. He is not a person like you who’s very articulate, very well-spoken,” Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA) <a href="http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/duncan-hunter-trump-not-articulate">said</a> to Wolf Blitzer on CNN. “I’m not going to judge him on that, because I don’t think that’s what he meant,” he continued. </p>
<p id="8BDz4w">A few days later, when Trump proclaimed that Clinton had <a href="https://www.vox.com/2016/8/11/12438744/obama-founded-isis-trump">founded</a> ISIS with President Obama, campaign surrogate Rudy Giuliani minimized his comments based on Trump’s status as a layman who apparently didn’t know calling your opponent the leader of a terrorist organization was bad. "It may be that he may make more insensitive statements because he's not a polished politician," Giuliani <a href="http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/291368-giuliani-trump-makes-insensitive-comments-because-hes-not">told</a> John Catsimatidis<em>.</em> It remains to be seen how refraining from calling on your supporters to murder your political opponent would require years of training as career politician, but I digress.</p>
<p id="s1mu28">It’s not just the GOP — cable news is also culpable of lowering the bar for the president. While the bar was set justifiably high for Clinton, it was at times clownishly low for Trump. One <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/one-tweet-sums-up-the-absurd-double-standard-clinton-and-trump-face_us_57e97137e4b0e80b1ba38bd5">screengrab</a> MSNBC showed before the first debate said Clinton was expected to explain “what she would do and how she would do it,” while Trump merely had to “stop lying.” The media <a href="http://www.cnn.com/videos/tv/2016/09/04/media-grading-trump-on-a-curve.cnn">graded</a> Trump on a curve and therefore failed to hold him to the same standards as every presidential candidate who came before him. It’s one thing to do it while Trump was campaigning, but the gravity of doing it while he’s sitting in the highest office is exponential. </p>
<h3 id="epGAP3">Trump is dumb like a fox</h3>
<p id="1njSi4">Donald Trump is not a new waitress at the Olive Garden who just screwed up a breadstick order — he’s the president of the United States of America, and he is being accused of a high-level crime that’s a threat to the democratic institutional order. A president who impulsively fires people who value integrity over loyalty is not running a government; he’s running the Mafia. That should be something that terrifies everyone, <em>especially</em> the people whose party will be remembered for putting him into office in the first place. </p>
<p id="px7KKb">Playing dumb and counting on his buddies to cover for him was how President Trump got elected. He’s seen how it works. And there’s clear evidence he knows it. Fueling the narrative that he’s simply an inexperienced politician only makes him less accountable to the people he swore an oath to serve. That standard for the commander in chief is high. It’s time Trump’s party holds him to it.</p>
https://www.vox.com/videos/2017/6/13/15782878/trump-newbie-defense-bogusLiz Plank2017-04-21T15:20:01-04:002017-04-21T15:20:01-04:00The bro-code that makes men stick together when they’re accused of sexual harassment
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<figcaption>Baltimore Orioles v New York Yankees<br>Donald Trump and Bill O'Reilly drink milkshakes during a New York Yankees game against the Oakland Athletics on August 30, 2010 at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx, NY. (Photo by Robert Sabo/NY Daily News via Getty Images) | (Photo by Robert Sabo/NY Daily News via Getty Images)</figcaption>
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<p id="puT0wq">When powerful men are accused of sexual assault, they stand strong together. When their accusers become vocal about being sexually harassed, they're paid to shut up. </p>
<p id="zy1Y9x">Nothing seems clearer in the aftermath of Bill O’Reilly’s exit from Fox News.</p>
<p id="1X4HGG">Sure, O’Reilly is leaving the network, but Fox News knew of the several sexual harassment allegations against him long before the rest of the world found out. Executives even shielded him by <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/bill-oreilly-and-fox-news-parent-paid-13-million-to-settle-five-harassment-claims-1491080833">paying</a> large sums of money to buy victims’ silence. In other words, the network put its money exactly where its mouth is: right between the lips of its alleged victims.</p>
<p id="3tmSra">Ironically, it seems like being a sexual harasser gets you <a href="http://www.salon.com/2017/04/20/bill-oreillys-golden-parachute-from-fox-news-is-almost-twice-as-big-as-the-payouts-to-his-five-accusers/">more financial compensation</a> than being a victim, since none of the five women who settled got close to the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/20/business/media/bill-oreilly-payout.html">$25 million dollars</a> O’Reilly will reportedly receive to leave Fox. </p>
<p id="xkCsyB">Add that to former Fox News CEO Roger Ailes’s $40 million <a href="https://www.recode.net/2016/7/19/12229844/roger-ailes-out-fox-news-rupert-murdoch-sexual-harassment">payday</a> after leaving under similar circumstances. (Meanwhile, his accuser, Gretchen Carlson, walked away from the network with <a href="https://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2016/09/06/carlson-settles-lawsuit-against-ailes-for-million/BK19YuNetE2cvznXBuXmtI/story.html">half</a> that.) </p>
<p id="OpNPXt">Both Ailes and O’Reilly swore up and down they were targets of fake sexual assault claims, issued so the accusers could<strong> </strong>make wads of cash. O’Reilly himself clung to this claim in his <a href="https://www.billoreilly.com/g/Statement/868.html">last public statement</a>, saying, “Just like other prominent and controversial people, I’m vulnerable to lawsuits from individuals who want me to pay them.” </p>
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<cite>(Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images)</cite>
<figcaption>Donald Trump (L) and television personality Bill O'Reilly attend a game between the New York Yankees and the Baltimore Orioles at Yankee Stadium on July 30, 2012.</figcaption>
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<p id="UcJ8jv">Perpetuating the myth that women make false accusations for money has a purpose: It keeps women silent. In fact, it’s been proven that people who experience sexual harassment at work are typically unlikely to report it, often citing the fear of not being believed. Falsehoods about women who report sexual assault don’t just prevent women from coming forward, they make the public less empathetic. And the people who do it know exactly what they’re doing. </p>
<p id="ytL0hl">Tamara Holder, who joined Fox as a contributor in 2010, knows this first hand. Holder says that in February 2015, Fox News Latino Vice President <a href="http://www.latimes.com/business/hollywood/la-fi-ct-fox-news-sex-assult-20170308-story.html">Francisco Cortes</a> shoved Holder’s face onto his genitals and tried to force her into a sexual act in his office.</p>
<p id="HCBqvi">“When I reached out to my agents, they told me not to report or my career would be over,” she told me Thursday night. “I’m a criminal defense attorney and I was afraid of going to the police.”</p>
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<cite>Tamara Holder</cite>
<figcaption>Tamara Holder</figcaption>
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<p id="cdZSfo">Holder explains that the aftermath of her sexual assault case proved some of her fears right. She explained that since coming forward in March, other than Carlson, not one current or former female employee at Fox News attempted to support her. “What happened after the fact is proof, since no one even reached out to me,” she said. </p>
<p id="HaUdpH">When I asked her why, she hypothesized that people there were under the influence of “Stockholm syndrome.” Both men and women at the company, she said, create and prop up a culture of silence around sexual harassment.</p>
<p id="Bg5ISx">So far, Holder is the only woman who came forward with allegations and successfully got Fox to admit publicly abuse took place. Cortes was eventually let go from Fox News Latino, although it’s unclear what kind of severance package he received. His Twitter bio currently reads “founder Fox News Latino.” Holder fought for an internal investigation so she could speak up about the sexual harassment and assault she sees not just at Fox, but in workplaces across the country. “It’s not just about Roger Ailes, Bill O’Reilly, or [Chair of Fox News Rupert] Murdoch, this is about an epidemic.” </p>
<p id="kc6ogM">It’s a problem that even President Donald Trump, who has been <a href="http://www.vox.com/2016/10/13/13274972/donald-trump-is-giving-us-a-master-class-in-why-womendontreport">accused</a> of sexual harassment and assault several times, seems to be aware of. While he <a href="http://www.vox.com/identities/2017/4/5/15194022/trump-bill-oreilly-sexual-harassment">declared</a> April “sexual harassment month” — and the internet debated whether or not it was an <a href="http://www.mediaite.com/online/surely-an-april-fools-joke-tina-fey-mocks-trump-for-sexual-assault-awareness-month-announcement/">elaborate April Fool’s joke</a> — he took the time out of his busy schedule of raising awareness about sexual assault to defend a man accused of it. “I don't think Bill did anything wrong," he said about O’Reilly, who he also called “a good person,” in an <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/05/us/politics/trump-interview-susan-rice.html">interview</a> with the New York Times. </p>
<p id="mBirwe">As Rebecca Traister <a href="http://nymag.com/thecut/2017/04/donald-trump-bill-orielly-fox-news.html">noted</a> at the Cut, it’s perfectly fitting that Trump defends O’Reilly, especially if you consider the host’s pivotal role defending him after Trump’s crude <em>Access Hollywood </em>tape leaked. O’Reilly <a href="https://mediamatters.org/video/2016/10/07/bill-oreilly-dismisses-trumps-deplorable-hot-mic-video-guy-talk-and-attacks-washington-post/213634">downplayed</a> Trump bragging about sexual assault as being simply spouting “guy talk.” And of course, O’Reilly and Trump both happen to have <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2016/07/24/donald-trump-defends-roger-ailes-casts-suspicion-on-his-accusers/?utm_term=.98055b5d999e">discredited</a> Ailes’s alleged victims when the then-CEO was accused of sexually harassing several women. </p>
<p id="f1BcQi">Trump even <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2016/10/28/politics/donald-trump-mike-tyson-don-king/">defended</a> Mike Tyson in 1992 after he was convicted of rape, and called his conviction a “<a href="http://www.cnn.com/2016/10/11/politics/trump-stern-mike-tyson/">travesty</a>.” In a recent head-scratching public appearance, Tyson repeatedly seemed to suggest Trump had <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/mike-tyson-chris-christie-donald-trump-pardon-promise-2017-4">promised him pardon</a>. And who did the boxing champion just so happen to openly support in the 2016 election? His <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/01/21/mike-tyson-why-i-m-a-muslim-for-donald-trump.html">pal</a> Donald Trump.</p>
<p id="Q9VAt4">Sense a pattern here? Nothing brings men together quite like being accused of violence against women.</p>
<p id="qRWLD7">Men accused of abuse against women defend other men and invalidate their alleged victims for a reason. It’s not camaraderie, it’s survival and it’s utilitarian. When you can discredit other alleged victims, it makes it easier for you (and members of the public) to discredit yours. Holder describes it as a “bro-code” that goes beyond Fox. “There’s a good old boys club in America where rich men rule, and if there’s a sexual assault claim, what is a couple million dollars’ [worth] when you’re bringing in millions more every month.” </p>
<p id="tcYYlb">I asked Holder if her experience and the latest news around O’Reilly leaving the network made her feel like Fox News’s leaders genuinely care about stopping sexual harassment. </p>
<p id="vBSZ6D">Holder laughed and uttered a flat “no.”</p>
<p id="oIT5cz">She said she “wouldn’t be surprised” if other women would come forward with their own accounts of sexual harassment at Fox. But given that <a href="http://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/4/19/15362690/bill-oreilly-fox-fired-memo">the memo</a> sent to staff about O’Reilly’s departure spent more time venerating him than explaining what he did, it’s worth asking if Fox thinks he did anything wrong, or if they’re just mad they got caught. </p>
https://www.vox.com/identities/2017/4/21/15380146/bro-code-men-stick-together-sexual-harassmentLiz Plank2017-03-26T08:00:01-04:002017-03-26T08:00:01-04:00Ivanka Trump once organized a campaign encouraging women to share their job titles
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<figcaption>ivankatrump.com</figcaption>
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<p>And now she should take her own advice.</p> <p id="YpLMEm">Ivanka Trump is <a href="http://www.vox.com/2017/3/22/15005508/ivanka-trump-white-house-nepotism">refusing</a> to be transparent about her current position at the White House but only two years ago she crafted an <a href="https://ivankatrump.com/womenwhowork/">entire campaign</a> encouraging women to do the opposite.</p>
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<p id="qdzH6W">“Record yourself saying your extended job title, followed by your name and actual job title,” reads a post on her website, advertising<strong> </strong>a campaign that encourages women to state all of their roles, even the ones that extend beyond the workplace. “Post the video to your social channels and tag a few of the women who inspire you to encourage them to follow suit. Be sure to hashtag #WomenWhoWork and tag @IvankaTrump.” </p>
<p id="YPiZsB">The post is dated November 16, 2014, and is still the main landing page for the “Women Who Work” section of Trump’s website, an initiative she recently turned into an upcoming <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Women-Who-Work-Rewriting-Success/dp/0735211329">book</a> that will be published as she is moving into her office in the White House. </p>
<p id="K3AoGh">The video for the campaign ends with Trump saying, “Let’s show the world what it is to be a woman who works.”</p>
<p id="6BYvra">Turns out there are a <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2017/03/23/news/ivanka-trump-white-house-ethics/">few people</a> <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2017/03/23/ivanka-trumps-west-wing-job-isnt-just-unethical-its-also-dangerous/?utm_term=.1ed933531437">wondering</a> “what it is to be a woman who works” in the White House with no official title or job description and little experience beyond being the daughter of the president. </p>
<p id="aw6n1E">Given that Ivanka Trump’s campaign explicitly encouraged women to proudly disclose the multiple roles they play in the<strong> </strong>workplace, it’s ironic that Trump is refusing to explain her own role, especially when her workplace is the nation’s highest office. </p>
<p id="EncN49">Government watchdogs are <a href="http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/325593-government-watchdogs-give-ivanka-trump-official-title">demanding</a> she provide a specific job title, as doing otherwise could violate government regulations, but it hasn’t stopped the White House from moving forward with its plan to give her a vague, “unofficial” position that, as Vox’s Libby Nelson <a href="http://www.vox.com/2017/3/22/15005508/ivanka-trump-white-house-nepotism">points out</a>, seems official in all but name. </p>
<p id="Gz1js9">The first daughter has been given an office, a government phone, and security clearance to see classified materials, but somehow not a title explaining what exactly she is doing there. Her lawyer <a href="http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/03/21/520965076/ivanka-trumps-move-to-the-white-house-raises-questions-about-ethics">claims</a> she will personally respect all the rules that apply to government employees, but ethics experts are concerned that because she isn’t serving in an official capacity, she’s not legally bound to do so. In other words, Ivanka Trump promising to follow the rules is sort of like me promising to audit a class. It could totally happen, but it also very well could not, because nothing bad would happen to me if I didn’t.</p>
<p id="R5B7Yk">And if as some have suggested, Ivanka’s White House role is to act as a “babysitter” for the president, to smooth over his worst tendencies, it’s all the more reason for her to be transparent about what she’s doing.<strong> </strong>Trump’s brand emphasizes empowering women at work, and there is nothing feminist about a woman stepping in to do all the work with no credit or pay. As Sady Doyle <a href="http://www.elle.com/culture/news/a44019/ivanka-trump-white-house-office/">writes</a> at Elle, “this dynamic — the theatrical, unreliable, charismatic man soaking up the credit, and the competent, detail-oriented woman plugging away in the background and compensating for his personality problems — is hardly unfamiliar.” If Trump truly wants to preserve her commitment to the cause she supposedly takes the most pride in, she would disclose what her own work entails. </p>
<p id="sFBzV6">So let’s encourage Ivanka to follow her own advice. She asked women to share their titles on social media, and now she should do the same. Hopefully she remembers to use the hashtag #WomenWhoWork and tag @TheRealDonaldTrump.</p>
https://www.vox.com/identities/2017/3/26/15052586/ivanka-trump-job-titleLiz Plank2017-03-11T17:50:01-05:002017-03-11T17:50:01-05:00Male congressman questions why men have to pay for prenatal care. Really.
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<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/F20iWqZmFb-UwwxHK7miKcH9YMk=/1x0:1024x767/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/53651839/GettyImages_478282396.0.jpg" />
<figcaption> Rep. John Shimkus in June 2015 | Getty Images</figcaption>
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<p>“What about men having to purchase prenatal care?” </p> <p id="mGPENx">Republicans spent <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/09/politics/obamacare-republicans-trumpcare-ryancare/">45 hours</a> this week debating the introductory version of the <a href="http://www.vox.com/2017/3/6/14829526/american-health-care-act-gop-replacement">American Health Care Act</a> (a bill with the modest aim of completely altering America’s entire health insurance system). Naturally, it didn’t stop some from revealing their discomfort with the idea of having a broad health insurance system.<strong> </strong></p>
<p id="RjqYv2"><a href="http://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/3/7/14841138/chaffetz-ahca-iphones-health-care">During an appearance </a>on CNN Tuesday, House Oversight Committee Chair Jason Chaffetz suggested low-income Americans can’t afford health care because they’re purchasing iPhones — if only they would settle for a good old secondhand Motorola Razr flip phone, they could afford Pap smears. </p>
<p id="Es6vrn">But Republican Rep. John Shimkus of Illinois took the cake on Thursday night when he questioned why men aren’t exempt from paying into insurance plans that cover prenatal care. “What about men having to purchase prenatal care?” he said. “Is that not correct? And should they?”</p>
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<h3 id="bhaIsL">That’s not quite how health care works</h3>
<p id="J6yeUT">Shimkus, who has<a href="http://www.ontheissues.org/IL/John_Shimkus_Abortion.htm"> made it his mission</a> to reduce <a href="https://will.illinois.edu/news/story/shimkus-doesnt-support-shutdown-over-planned-parenthood">women’s access to abortion</a>, wants to get involved in women’s decision to end a pregnancy but not in the essential care they need when they wish to maintain one. </p>
<p id="sRom3W">First of all, these services <a href="https://www.nichd.nih.gov/health/topics/pregnancy/conditioninfo/Pages/prenatal-care.aspx">reduce</a> the likelihood of complications for mothers but also ensure the long-term health of infants. </p>
<p id="gRy0Ig">Then there’s the fact that, shockingly, women do not self-impregnate. Contrary to popular belief, women cannot yet 3D-print children. Although there have been such advances in technology that women can download a <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/pizza-finder/id315809860?mt=8">pizza finder</a> on their phones, they can’t use them to fertilize their ovaries. Women <em>can</em> get pregnant with fertilization treatments (or with the help of a turkey baster), but advances in technology don’t yet allow us to make babies without the direct or indirect role of men. </p>
<p id="wJwsGI">And of course, like every other person on earth, Shimkus was presumably birthed by a woman. But prenatal care is not like barre class — it’s not something women do for fun. It serves a purpose for anyone who has been birthed by a woman. And, yes, that does include men.</p>
<p id="A1D0ys">Besides, Shimkus’s suggestion refutes the most fundamental principle of the health insurance system. Neither men nor women get to determine the items they want to cover, as Rep. Mike Doyle (D-PA) argued with Shimkus. If individuals could pick and choose what they wanted their money to go toward, which Shimkus seems to be alluding to, there would be no system to speak of. </p>
<p id="709DCm">The point is that both sick and healthy people pay into the same system to balance the costs for everyone insured. Men refusing to pay for prenatal care because they don’t have a uterus is as ludicrous as women refusing to pay for prostate cancer screenings because they don’t have prostates.</p>
<p id="O0krw0">The assumption that the cost of prenatal care should only be paid for by women suggests that it’s acceptable for women to be charged more for their health care, simply because of their gender. Charging women more for those services discriminates against them based on their gender, something the Affordable Care Act tried to <a href="http://obamacarefacts.com/no-discrimination/">eradicate </a>and that the AHCA wants to preserve by ensuring that women’s preventive services <a href="http://www.vox.com/identities/2017/3/8/14843636/birth-control-benefit-ahca-republican-obamacare-repeal-replace">remain covered</a>.</p>
<p id="GOiqQ2">Besides, prenatal services are crucial to the overall well-being of the country. The United States trails other rich countries when it comes to maternal mortality rate. In fact, it’s only gotten <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/22/health/maternal-mortality.html">worse recently</a>, which is counter to the declining maternal mortality rate around the world. Indeed, for every 100,000 births, 28 mothers die in the United States in 2015. That’s compared with 23 per 100,000 births only two years prior. </p>
<p id="QmEhdX">Experts attribute this change to many factors, but partially to <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2016/09/04/facing-surge-texas-maternal-deaths-researchers-fin/">disparities</a> in access to health care. African-American women for instance, are <a href="http://time.com/4508369/why-u-s-women-still-die-during-childbirth/">three times</a> as likely as white women to die while they are pregnant or when giving birth. The health and safety of mothers is an emblem of a country’s overall well-being. Women’s health care is not like guacamole: It’s not extra. Prenatal services are crucial in reversing figures that are unsettling to begin with.</p>
<p id="t4wQzt">Perhaps if conservatives can <a href="http://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/3/6/14838122/republican-health-bill-obamacare-replacement">agree</a> on what they are trying to solve with the AHCA, they would have more productive conversations about how to make it better. Given that Donald Trump, a man who slaps his name on everything from buildings to steaks, is reluctant to even attach his own name to the health care bill is perhaps a sign that he knows it doesn’t fulfill the many <a href="http://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/3/10/14881200/trump-health-care-promises">promises</a> he said it would. Hopefully, his supporters start to notice before it’s too late.</p>
https://www.vox.com/2017/3/11/14891034/shimkus-why-men-pay-for-prenatal-careLiz Plank2017-03-09T14:20:01-05:002017-03-09T14:20:01-05:00A woman running for Congress faces a double mastectomy — and the repeal of the ACA
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<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/j92Oiz61GGTu9tRoXy32_zD9Dlg=/210x0:1593x1037/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/53618383/Screen_Shot_2017_03_08_at_10.21.57_AM.0.png" />
<figcaption><strong>Alejandra Campoverdi</strong></figcaption>
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<p>“If Donald Trump wants to have a conversation about women's bodies, let's start with mine.”</p> <p id="ITeTj0">Alejandra Campoverdi is running for Congress and she is not afraid to let her campaign take a personal tone. </p>
<p id="sjYbu1">The former White House aide to President Obama who is now running for a congressional seat in a special election to fill Xavier Becerra's vacant seat in California's 34th district. She also just disclosed she has a rare<strong> </strong>gene mutation making her highly likely to develop breast cancer. </p>
<p id="ImPMDg">Similarly to Angelina Jolie, who in 2013 disclosed her <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/14/opinion/my-medical-choice.html">choice</a> to get a preventive double mastectomy after doctors gave her an 87 percent chance of developing breast cancer, Campoverdi has chosen to undergo the same surgery. </p>
<p id="i2JKUW">But now that Congressional Republicans have <a href="http://www.vox.com/2017/3/6/14829526/american-health-care-act-gop-replacement">officially</a> introduced an Affordable Care Act replacement bill, she’s worried about her own health coverage. </p>
<p id="KRt9mU">"Breast cancer took my grandmother's life, and it nearly took my mom's,” the candidate says in a new <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CPzRS9cm5E">ad</a> released Thursday. “I've inherited the harmful BRCA2 gene mutation, which has increased my risk of breast cancer to 85 percent. Because of this pre-existing condition, I could be denied coverage without Obamacare. If Donald Trump wants to have a conversation about women's bodies, let's start with mine." </p>
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<p id="gVIP4e">Like many women in America watching the tumultuous negotiations over the fate of health insurance, Campoverdi is afraid to lose many of the gains ushered in by the Affordable Care Act. From Trump’s proposed “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/06/us/politics/planned-parenthood.html?_r=1&referer=">deal</a>” to preserve Planned Parenthood federal funding strictly if they stop providing abortion (something that could put the <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2012/10/19/abortion-mother-life-walsh/1644839/">health of women at risk</a>) to the potential <a href="http://www.vox.com/2017/3/7/14837946/american-health-care-act-cancer-hiv-chronic-disease">gaps</a> in coverage for people cannot afford “continuous coverage,” there’s a lot to lose. </p>
<p id="wdaTRk">Although the Republicans’ proposed American Health Care Act would <a href="http://www.vox.com/2017/3/6/14829526/american-health-care-act-gop-replacement">preserve</a> Obamacare’s pre-existing condition provision, Campoverdi says she is worried about access to preventative services that women need to thwart diseases like the one that runs in her family. </p>
<p id="BD9osX">“I don't trust Donald Trump and Republicans to be honest about my health care,” she told Vox. “They have chosen to play political games with women's health by cutting funding for Planned Parenthood, and limiting access to potentially life-saving preventive screening and treatment for millions of women, such as pap smears and mammograms.” </p>
<p id="CWbfPC">Campoverdi says these services and the access to birth control “are critical for women in low-income and rural communities.” In fact, breast cancer is the<a href="https://www.cdc.gov/cancer/dcpc/data/women.htm"> most common</a> form of cancer among women and the <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3068727/">improvements in the survival rate</a> are partly due to an emphasis on early screening. For instance, England had one of the <a href="https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-12/aafc-bcm120216.php">sharpest declines</a> in mortality rates for breast cancer and a report by Cancer Research UK and the Department of Health in the United Kingdom shows a “20 percent reduction in breast cancer mortality in women invited for screening.”</p>
<p id="cO57F4">Campoverdi is not the first political figure to share such personal health information to make a point. Back in 2011, when Republicans in the House were pushing to shut down the government over Planned Parenthood funding, Rep. Jackie Speier (D-CA) took the floor and opened up about <a href="https://mic.com/articles/71789/politician-opens-up-about-her-abortion-shuts-down-republicans-who-think-they-can-speak-for-women#.se56T3Wgg">her own abortion</a> after Rep. Christopher Smith (R-NJ) disparaged abortion as “dismemberment” of babies and that it could not be “healthy” for a woman. “That procedure you just talked about was a procedure I endured. I lost a baby,” Speier said. “But for you to stand on this floor and to suggest, as you have, that somehow this is a procedure that is either welcomed or done cavalierly or done without any thought is preposterous.” The congresswoman could recently be seen enthusiastically <a href="https://www.bustle.com/articles/201514-democrats-gave-a-literal-thumbs-down-to-trumps-promise-to-repeal-obamacare">giving the thumbs down</a> when Donald Trump mentioned his plans to repeal the Affordable Care Act during his recent address to Congress. </p>
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<p id="QdYQ4J">Women shouldn’t be forced to share private and intimate experiences in order for their health concerns to be treated seriously by policymakers. But since<strong> </strong>their perspective is still a minority in both chambers of congress (both <a href="http://www.catalyst.org/knowledge/women-government">hover</a> around 20 percent women generally, and 7 percent for women of color) they often have to speak up for women, who, although we often forget it, do make up a majority of the population.</p>
<p id="Lvqw0D">Like <a href="http://www.npr.org/2017/02/23/515438978/trumps-election-drives-more-women-to-consider-running-for-office">many</a> other women who have been galvanized to run for office following Trump’s election, Campoverdi says she is eager to use her voice to elevate the voices and concerns of women. </p>
<p id="GnfZxe">“I’ll make sure women’s voices are loud and well-represented on the floor of Congress, and will be a fearless champion for women’s health, using every megaphone at my disposal to channel the energy we are seeing around the country into Washington,” she told me. </p>
<p id="jkR6Og">Campoverdi’s double mastectomy won’t be until 2019. She’ll be 39 years old — ten years younger than when her own mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. But she’s not afraid of the surgery, or of Donald Trump. In fact, she hopes to take her story and those of millions of others women straight to his office. </p>
https://www.vox.com/2017/3/9/14842102/alejandra-campoverdi-congress-double-mastectomy-breast-cancer-acaLiz Plank2017-03-01T00:50:01-05:002017-03-01T00:50:01-05:00Trump went from mocking disability to using it to further his agenda
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<img alt="Megan Crowley (C) is applauded as US President Donald Trump addresses a joint session of the US Congress on February 28, 2017 at the Capitol in Washington, DC.<br>At 15 months old, Megan was diagnosed with Pompe Disease and not expected to live more than " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/BWmNgP2vERc2rlB9XcjwA5trhRA=/475x0:3537x2297/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/53472955/GettyImages_646444116.0.jpg" />
<figcaption>Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP/Getty Images</figcaption>
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<p>Trump is no fan of regulations and is willing to use people with disabilities to cut them.</p> <p id="lGDx78">President Trump may have successfully read his teleprompter during his <a href="http://www.vox.com/2017/2/28/14767138/donald-trump-congress-speech-sotu">address to a joint session of Congress</a> Tuesday, but his attempt to assuage members of the disability community may have fallen flat.</p>
<p id="SuBKZ1">After <a href="http://www.cnn.com/videos/tv/2015/11/26/donald-trump-mocks-reporter-with-disability-berman-sot-ac.cnn">mocking</a> a disabled reporter during his presidential campaign (<a href="http://www.salon.com/2015/06/17/not_classy_donald_trump_calls_fox_news_critic_in_wheelchair_a_loser_who_just_sits_there/">twice</a>), which, according to <a href="http://www.vox.com/2016/8/10/12423248/trump-disabled-reporter-clinton">one poll</a>, people considered one of the most inexcusable acts over the course of his entire campaign, Trump has angered some disability advocates by using a woman with a disability, Megan Crowley, as a vehicle to justify his stance on loosening regulation on the Food and Drug Administration. Crowley who had the rare illness Pompe disease, was saved by an innovative treatment created by a company her father launched in 1999.</p>
<p id="PTOfm7">“Megan’s story” Trump declared, “is about the unbounded power of a father’s love for a daughter. “But our slow and burdensome approval process at the Food and Drug Administration keeps too many advances, like the one that saved Megan's life, from reaching those in need.” </p>
<p id="qKEWTi">The Trump administration’s decision to use Crowley as a poster child to push FDA deregulation did not sit well with those in the disability community.</p>
<p id="AAusjH">“This is not the moment to use disability as a prop,” Kate Meuser, who has cerebral palsy and works in marketing in Washington, DC, told Vox.<strong> </strong>“[Megan’s] father founded a company to find a cure. Many people don’t have that luxury.” </p>
<p id="Iyy8tg">Though Meuser recognized Trump’s probable intention to “make a point,” she said she is more concerned about the future of the Affordable Care Act, since she, like many others living with disabilities, depends on the program. Right now she is insured through her employer, but she worries about what would happen if she were to lose her job. “If I’m being honest, I’m scared,” she said. “My condition has no cure. ... I feel like my life is not considered and that it is in limbo.” </p>
<p id="pQGY9u">Meuser is not alone. <a href="http://www.vox.com/first-person/2016/11/9/13576712/trump-disability-policy-affordable-care-act">Many people with disabilities</a> are worried about losing indispensable and basic health care access and protections under the Trump administration. For instance, before the ACA, having a disability was a preexisting condition that could hurt people’s ability to obtain affordable health care. Though Trump has shown <a href="https://trumpcare.com/trumpcare-pre-existing-conditions/">support</a> for keeping this particular provision, nothing guarantees it will be preserved. If Trump’s plan to <a href="http://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2016/11/29/13778622/price-trump-medicaid-block-grants">change Medicaid is approved</a>, it would mean that thousands of people with disabilities <a href="http://www.ncd.gov/publications/2013/05222013">could be displaced from their communities</a> and would be forced into nursing homes or hospitals if they can’t afford things like a wheelchair or assistive technology that allows them to live in their residence.</p>
<p id="fob7EI">Ted Jackson, the former Democratic National Committee’s director of disability community engagement, said he was unimpressed by Trump’s address Tuesday night. “It’s always good to see disability issues discussed in the nation’s capital. But it’s hard to stomach when it comes from a president who has yet to apologize to our community for mocking a disabled reporter” he told me. “Americans with disabilities want an equal education, access to real jobs, and to be included like anyone else — not to be used as an excuse to limit regulations meant to protect people.” </p>
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<p id="UrkA5C">Of course the visibility of people with disability like Crowley matters, but it unfortunately loses its meaning when Trump’s proposal will likely do little besides pay lip service to both people with disabilities and able-bodied people. “Trump’s track record leaves me wondering if people with disabilities were merely a prop in his speech, intended to be nothing more than inspiration porn for others,” Jackson added.</p>
<p id="eFVGgn">In an attempt to possibly correct his callous record on disability in the past, Trump’s use of Crowley’s story may have further illustrated his perspective on outdated views on disability.<strong> </strong>He never addressed the community directly during his campaign and would often instead refer to people with disabilities as <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/donald-trump-absurd-defense-mocking-reporter-with-disability_us_579cfc5ce4b0693164c1870a">receivers</a> of his (<a href="https://www.buzzfeed.com/andrewkaczynski/records-contradict-trumps-claims-of-charitable-giving-to-a-d">questionable</a>) charity donations as opposed to contributing members of society. He also never presented a plan for disability rights on his campaign website or responded to a campaign questionnaire from the political disability rights organization RespectAbility, despite other Republican candidates such as John Kasich <a href="http://therespectabilityreport.org/2016/02/05/john-kasich-responds-to-pwdsvote-2016-campaign-questionnaire/">doing their due diligence</a>.</p>
<p id="W0Q26D">People living with a disability like Meuser said Trump could make inroads if he “actually acknowledged disability as a minority group” and addressed the specific issues they deal with in terms of health care and job access. <a href="http://www.demos.org/blog/1/31/14/over-1-5-disabled-americans-are-poverty">One in five</a> people who are disabled are currently living in poverty, and the unemployment rate is <a href="http://www.demos.org/blog/1/31/14/over-1-5-disabled-americans-are-poverty">twice</a> as high as it is for non-disabled Americans. There are plenty of ways Trump could address these urgent problems within the disability community, if he were actually interested in fixing them. </p>
https://www.vox.com/2017/3/1/14772908/trump-disability-fda-megan-crowleyLiz Plank2017-02-25T13:30:01-05:002017-02-25T13:30:01-05:007 ways to make girls safer without discriminating against trans kids
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<img alt="A sign reads, “I love my transgender child!”" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/o0kNUrptGW3Swy263LYSu4L2SwM=/0x0:5472x4104/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/53422679/shutterstock_292361105.0.jpg" />
<figcaption><a href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-292361105/stock-photo-new-york-city-june-the-th-annual-lgbt-pride-parade-drew-an-estimated-two-million.html?src=zJCFj1SKQthGXMoZ_yeTPg-1-1">Shutterstock</a></figcaption>
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<p id="2zSebR">The Trump administration’s recent <a href="http://www.vox.com/identities/2017/2/22/14683572/trump-transgender-schools-guidance">decision</a> to rescind President Obama’s federal guidance protecting trans students has been applauded by many conservatives who argue it guarantees the safety of women and girls.</p>
<p id="MjCg5R">For instance, last spring, after North Carolina suffered backlash for enacting HB2, a law preventing transgender students from using a bathroom that aligns with their gender identity, Lt. Gov. Dan Forest <a href="http://www.cnsnews.com/blog/michael-w-chapman/nc-lt-gov-paypal-if-bathroom-law-protects-one-child-being-molested-its-worth">said</a>: "If our action in keeping men out of women's bathrooms and showers protected the life of just one child or one woman from being molested or assaulted, then it was worth it."</p>
<p id="2E8TaR">Putting aside the fact that there are <a href="http://www.vox.com/2016/5/5/11592908/transgender-bathroom-laws-rights">no spikes in sex crimes</a> when transgender people can pee where they want, there are in fact much more productive ways to curb the very real and pervasive issue of female sexual assault (something both Republicans and Democrats can agree on, huzzah!). Since the current administration seems so interested in the issue (could have been useful <a href="http://www.vox.com/2016/10/13/13265900/katrina-pierson-airplane-trump-sexual-assault">during the campaign</a>, but it’s cool!), here are some ways local and federal government can get involved positively.</p>
<p id="EQmHSL"><strong>1</strong><strong>)</strong><strong> </strong><strong>Investigate college campus rape</strong></p>
<p id="E8wfVi">Women are at extremely high risk for sexual assault while they are in college. <a href="http://www.vox.com/2014/12/11/7377055/campus-sexual-assault-statistics">One in five</a><strong> </strong>will be a victim of<strong> </strong>sexual assault or rape at some point, and many, if not most, of these crimes on campus <a href="http://www.aau.edu/Climate-Survey.aspx?id=16525">go unreported</a>. In fact, a whopping 91 percent of college campuses <a href="http://time.com/4124896/9-in-10-colleges-reported-no-sexual-assaults-in-2014-report-says/">reported zero sexual assaults</a> in 2014. </p>
<p id="8akaZd">Mandating that universities properly address sexual assault claims might be a great way to begin making women safer. Given that one <a href="http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/abs/10.1089/vio.2014.0022?journalCode=vio#utm_campaign=vio&utm_medium=email&utm_source=pr">study</a> showed one in three male college students <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/01/09/college-men-commit-rape-study_n_6445510.html">confessed</a> they would have “intentions to force a woman to sexual intercourse” if ‘‘nobody would ever know and there wouldn’t be any consequences," it may be time to send the message that criminals will be prosecuted. Given that Donald Trump <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/donald-trump-law-and-order-candidate_us_5783e562e4b0344d51505dde">branded</a> himself the “law and order candidate,” ensuring that rape is properly prosecuted could be a great way to follow through on that promise. </p>
<p id="cogR5y"><strong>2</strong><strong>)</strong><strong> Fight for appropriate sentences for rapists </strong></p>
<p id="gHRTef">During the 12 measly weeks that Brock Turner was in jail for sexually assaulting a woman behind a dumpster, an estimated <a href="http://www.vox.com/2016/9/2/12736418/brock-turner-jail-release">75,000 women were raped</a>. And despite that astoundingly short sentence, at least he <em>went</em> to jail — <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2005/jul/31/ukcrime.immigrationpolicy">many rapists never do</a>. The judge’s reasoning for the abbreviated sentence? He claimed anything longer would have had a <a href="https://www.buzzfeed.com/katiejmbaker/heres-the-powerful-letter-the-stanford-victim-read-to-her-ra?utm_term=.vdnLdZKE8#.alXw0We4O">“severe impact”</a> on Turner’s life (because being sexually assaulted doesn’t?). If the judicial system allocated <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ghomeshi-trial-sexual-assault-chill-1.3441059">appropriate sentences for sex crimes</a> and we had <a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/convicted-university-colorado-rapist-won-prison-time-article-1.2747224">fewer examples of rapists escaping sentences</a>, it could encourage more women to report. In fact, when women see assault accusations be taken seriously, as <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Health/sexual-assault-hotline-calls-wake-donald-trump-allegations/story?id=42805063">was the case during the presidential election</a>, it increases the calls to sexual assault hotlines.</p>
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<p id="59ZU78"><strong>3</strong><strong>)</strong><strong> Actually test rape kits </strong></p>
<p id="SVz9FS">There are currently an estimated <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/09/23/how-the-u-s-ended-up-with-400-000-untested-rape-kits.html">400,000 untested rape kits</a> across the country — that’s a backlog of evidence for thousands of rape and sexual assault cases collecting dust, as perpetrators go free. This problem, however, can be tackled. In 2015, the Department of Justice recognized the pressing nature of the issue and allocated $41 million to try to solve it. </p>
<p id="MX1ow3">This could be also become a priority for the current administration’s DOJ, especially since rape has a high <a href="http://www.middlebury.edu/media/view/240951/original">recidivism rate</a>. Rapists who aren’t caught often rape again, but testing rape kits and investigating these cases could potentially prevent future assaults from happening by punishing offenders for their crimes. For instance, <a href="http://jezebel.com/analysis-of-untested-rape-kits-reveals-serial-rapists-a-1780808012">one investigation</a> of 4,000 untested rape kits in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, this year found that out of the “243 kits studied, 51 percent were linked to serial offenders.” Since the Trump administration is dedicated to <a href="http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2017/01/23/trump-white-house-pledges-support-law-enforcement-white-house-page/">supporting law enforcement</a>, giving them the appropriate resources to investigate untested rape kits is a great way to start.</p>
<p id="YNpop5"><strong>4</strong><strong>)</strong><strong> Teach kids about consent</strong></p>
<p id="p6hNPs">If we truly want to reduce the incidence of sexual assault and counter the forces that lead to it, we need to target people when they’re young. According to <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/267256472_Myths_and_Facts_About_Sexual_Violence_Public_Perceptions_and_Implications_for_Prevention">data</a> collected through online surveys across 15 states by researchers at the University of Florida, only 16 percent of the information that children possess about sexual assault comes from parents or schools, which means they are gathering their information from other sources, such as the media, their peers, or the internet. </p>
<p id="72LWIR">Since the Republican Party has <a href="http://www.vox.com/2016/7/20/12226400/republican-party-platform-porn">enshrined</a> its commitment to restricting porn in its platform, perhaps providing an alternative to it — such as age-appropriate education about consent — would be a good place to start. For instance, according to <a href="http://webarchive.urban.org/UploadedPDF/410027.pdf">data</a> <a href="https://www.guttmacher.org/gpr/2001/02/sex-education-politicians-parents-teachers-and-teens">reported</a> by the Guttmacher Institute, a minority of boys ages 15 to 19 had<strong> </strong>learned how to say no to sex through a sex ed class before their first sexual encounter.<strong> </strong>This means they are becoming sexually active before they have the appropriate tools to understand how consent is given. Comprehensive and age-appropriate sex education is also a <a href="http://www.siecus.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=Feature.showFeature&featureID=1041">more effective</a> way to lower teen pregnancy rates, so it’s really a win-win.</p>
<p id="SvOut3"><strong>5</strong><strong>)</strong><strong> Stop teaching men it’s okay to hurt women</strong></p>
<p id="PoQkbt">Attitudes around sexual assault need to shift for a change in behavior to happen. Many men simply don’t understand what sexual assault looks like, and one of them may or may not be the president of the United States. In the aftermath of the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/feministabulous/posts/1111364032315094">release</a> of the infamous <em>Access Hollywood</em> tape where Trump could be heard <a href="http://www.vox.com/2016/10/7/13205842/trump-secret-recording-women">bragging</a> about sexually assaulting women, when confronted about whether grabbing women by the genitals was assault, he dodged the question — <a href="http://www.vox.com/2016/10/9/13222094/donald-trump-presidential-debate-leaked-tape-questions">four times</a>. He labeled it <a href="http://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2016/10/13/13258184/locker-room-talk-insults-men">“locker room talk”</a> while his wife Melania called it <a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/world/2016/10/18/trumps-lewd-comments-boy-talk-melania-trump-says.html">“boy talk.”</a> </p>
<p id="REYuSQ">But should men be allowed to act like boys? Shouldn’t boys be taught to be better men? Men, unfortunately, are still often taught to <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/11758421/Sexism-in-the-workplace-is-used-by-men-to-bond-says-academic.html">bond</a> with other men over sexist rhetoric. And when someone as powerful as Trump sets an example, they follow it. For example, soon after the lewd tape was released, the Southern Poverty Law Center <a href="http://mashable.com/2016/12/05/trump-pussy-grabbing-threats-against-women/#XefQhmVYF8qn">reported</a> multiple instances of men threatening to assault women and borrowing Trump’s exact language. Whether they are young men, grown men, or the leader of the free world, they should all be held to a higher standard. </p>
<p id="SyPCF1"><strong>6</strong><strong>)</strong><strong> Include violence against trans women in </strong><strong>the</strong><strong> definition of violence against women </strong></p>
<p id="HN47aj">Trans people <a href="http://time.com/4314896/transgender-bathroom-bill-male-predators-argument/">are more likely to be victims</a> of crimes in bathrooms than they are to be responsible for them. In fact one <a href="http://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/wp-content/uploads/Herman-Gendered-Restrooms-and-Minority-Stress-June-2013.pdf">study</a><strong> </strong>from UCLA’s Williams Institute found that a whopping 70 percent of trans individuals have experienced some sort of harassment inside a bathroom. </p>
<p id="6GQiOQ">A harrowing <a href="http://www.vocativ.com/culture/lgbt/transgender-suicide/">41 percent </a><a href="http://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/wp-content/uploads/AFSP-Williams-Suicide-Report-Final.pdf">of transgender youth</a> have attempted suicide — a rate 10 times higher than the general population. Reducing any protections of such a vulnerable community could have devastating consequences on a group that is already disproportionately marginalized. As Chase Strangio, a staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union’s LGBT & AIDS Project, explained to me, “Hundreds of women’s groups, sexual assault prevention organizations, and domestic violence prevention organizations have come forward to make clear that discrimination against trans individuals harms all women and all survivors of violence.” </p>
<p id="63H1qP">Focusing on the safety of cisgender (non-transgender) women obfuscates the need to protect all women, regardless of their gender identity. According to an <a href="http://www.hrc.org/blog/gender-based-violence-lesbian-and-trans-women-face-the-highest-risk-but-get">analysis</a> conducted by the Human Rights Campaign, “transgender women in the United States face 4.3 times the risk of becoming homicide victims than the general population of women.” Given how alarmingly high the risk is for trans women, any law that places them at further risk should be perceived as staunchly anti-woman. </p>
<p id="NRHLz0"><strong>7</strong><strong>)</strong><strong> Empower people to actually talk about assault</strong></p>
<p id="jhUnk6">Even with how widespread sexual assault is, it remains a taboo subject. The trauma of being a survivor is obviously a huge burden to carry, but one that victims shouldn’t be forced to bear alone or feel ashamed of. A <a href="http://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/bsi/article/view/5215">paper</a> from <em>Behavior and Social Issues </em>showed that the “label assigned to a given act of sexual violence (e.g., rape, sexual assault) can have a notable impact on perceptions of the incident and the role of the individuals involved.” In their survey, the researchers found that “participants who labeled the event as a rape were less likely to assign responsibility for the assault to the victim.” The way we talk about these crimes matters, and giving the appropriate name or label to what a woman has experienced helps us understand these issues more deeply and can make that conversation more productive and useful. </p>
<p id="ke0aI9">We can be concerned with the safety of trans children <em>and</em> the safety of women. They are not mutually exclusive. When we take a more holistic approach to lawmaking, it becomes clear that a policy that <em>appears</em> to make one community safer at the expense of another is simply not an effective policy. “No one is safer when transgender kids are expelled from the restrooms that their peers use,” Strangio argued. “No one is safer when a school refuses to acknowledge the core humanity of any student.” </p>
https://www.vox.com/identities/2017/2/25/14672366/women-girls-safety-no-discriminationLiz Plank2017-01-27T10:20:01-05:002017-01-27T10:20:01-05:00If pro-lifers really care about life, they should protest Donald Trump
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<p id="xYMcYg">What’s pro-life about defunding programs that literally save lives?</p>
<p id="y4IW7b">Only a few days after the <a href="http://www.vox.com/2017/1/22/14350808/womens-marches-largest-demonstration-us-history-map">largest protest</a> in US history, which centered around reproductive rights (among other feminist issues), a very different march is taking place on the streets of Washington, DC. On Friday, thousands of people will rally around Washington with anti-abortion posters for <a href="https://pjmedia.com/trending/2017/01/26/trump-brings-up-march-for-life-the-press-doesnt-cover-them/">the March for Life</a>. The contrast between those two crowds should give anyone a sense of how divided the country is (if anyone is still unclear on that).</p>
<p id="rqBjEj">The March for Life comes on the heels of the inauguration of a president who campaigned on <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jan/24/trump-once-said-women-should-be-punished-for-abortion-t">punishing</a> women who have abortions (but only for a hot minute, until he changed his mind, and <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/04/03/donald-trumps-ever-shifting-positions-on-abortion/?utm_term=.eb1d45c41aa0">then changed it again</a>). While he spent the first few days in office signing an <a href="http://www.vox.com/identities/2017/1/23/14356582/trump-global-gag-rule-abortion">executive order</a> restricting family planning and abortion access for disenfranchised women in poor countries (<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/donald-trump-abortion-men_us_5886369be4b0e3a7356a7910">without a single woman</a> in the room), there’s still no word on how he plans to <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/2017/01/10/donald-trump-says-he-wants-obamacare-repealed-and-replaced-very-quickly-or-simultaneously.html">replace</a> the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. In other words, there is no plan for the millions of Americans who depend on this policy for life-saving health care. </p>
<p id="An2YJH">So if pro-lifers are so committed to defending life, perhaps their protest could include fighting for uninsured lives, too? According to <a href="http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMsa1202099">data</a> by the <em>New England Journal of Medicine</em>, if 20 million people lose their coverage — which is possible if the law is repealed without a replacement — nearly 44,000 <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2017/01/23/repealing-the-affordable-care-act-will-kill-more-than-43000-people-annually/">people could die</a> in the first year. </p>
<p id="8BraW3">It’s people like Jeff Jeans who are affect, a cancer survivor who made <a href="http://finance.yahoo.com/news/man-says-dead-without-obamacare-145053873.html">headlines</a> when he told Paul Ryan at a CNN town hall event on January 13 in New York City<strong> </strong>that he would be dead without health care access from the ACA. And look, if life-altering disease survivors aren’t your thing, you could rally for the lives of the poor and elderly, since they will be the ones most impacted by the cuts to Medicaid and Medicare President Trump is <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2017/01/18/republicans-want-to-fund-medicaid-through-block-grants-thats-a-problem/?utm_term=.714a671fefda">proposing</a>. </p>
<p id="FizpPk">And let’s not forget about people with disabilities. There are millions of people who <a href="http://www.ncd.gov/publications/2013/05222013">depend</a> on Medicaid as a source of health insurance for things like oxygen tanks, wheelchairs, and health aides. With cuts to Medicaid, recipients may face no other choice but living in nursing homes — or worse, mass hospitalization. </p>
<p id="ADOqwI">And although most of the signs and speeches at the March for Life focus on unborn children, maybe protesters can give some attention to the children who are already living. Like the <a href="https://www.medicaid.gov/chip/chip-program-information.html">8 million</a> low-income children and pregnant mothers who might lose access to CHIP, a life-saving federal health insurance program that provides access to health care, which this Republican-led Senate just <a href="http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/01/gop-senators-pass-budget-blueprint-after-vote-a-rama.html">casually voted</a> to defund. </p>
<p id="1ZmgK9">Thanks to the Trump White House, there appears to be quite a bit of life to fight for this year. So, pro-life protesters, don’t forget to pace yourself, drink lots of water, and wear comfortable shoes during the march. Given the number of people whose lives may be in jeopardy as a result of this administration’s policies, you might be out there for a while.</p>
https://www.vox.com/videos/2017/1/27/14399610/pro-lifers-should-protest-donald-trumpLiz Plank