40 Years Ago Car Racing Gender Barrier Broken with Janet Guthrie, But WIth Loads of Sexism

On May 14, 1977, forty years ago, Janet Guthrie saw a sign that might have been encouragement for any other driver trying to make the cut in the Indianapolis 500, but "JANET GRAB THAT POLE" was in the shape of a penis. Guthrie, now 74, put up with nasty sexist insults along the way to making a lot of cracks in racing's glass ceiling.

Guthrie was welcomed to Charlotte Motor Speedway by a throng of men chanting, "No tits in the pits!" 

"The strangest thing was the rubber chicken hex," Dick Simon, Guthrie's former teammate, recalled two years ago, during the Indy 500's 100th anniversary celebration. "One of the Yellow Shirts [Indianapolis Motor Speedway track guards] that was positioned at the entrance to Gasoline Alley would shake this rubber chicken at Janet every time she passed by him. Just cursing at her and shaking that chicken. It sounds stupid, but his intent was very hateful."

Janet Guthrie holds the record for the best finish by a woman in a top-tier NASCAR race, a sixth-place finish at Bristol in 1977.

 http://www.espn.com/espnw/news-commentary/article/8963949/espnw-janet-guthrie-outraced-insults-make-auto-racing-history

Rachael Scdoris-Salerno Challenges Republican Greg Walden in Oregon

32-year-old Democrat Rachael Scdoris-Salerno has filed paperwork to run for Oregon's Second Congressional District seat. She will attempt to unseat Republican Greg Waldon.

Walden has faced much opposition for his support of Donald Trump, the Trump immigration ban, and voting against LGBT protections. Walden also received more money than any other congresspeople from internet companies, and led the fight to allow internet use data to be sold.

Scdoris-Salerno has competed in the Paralympics in tandem cycling and has worked much of her life at her father's sled-dog business at Mt. Bachelor. She bought the business from her father two years ago.

http://www.kgw.com/news/politics/national-politics/noted-sled-dog-racer-scdoris-plans-run-against-rep-walden/440150575

Transgender Person Allowed to Sue Under Disability Law

In a step in the right direction in breaking down the sexual orientation hierarchy, a judge has ruled that a transgender woman can proceed with a sex discrimination lawsuit under the American with Disabilities Act for gender dysphoria, even though the ADA explicitly excludes transgender people from protection. US District Judge Joseph Leeson avoided ruling on the constitutionality of the ADA, as the plaintiffs had sought, under the legal principle that courts should avoid decisions on constitutional grounds if possible.

Being transgender is not considered by the American Psychiatric Association as a disorder, but it can give rise to a type of anxiety that may require medical treatment, gender dysphoria.

The suit is being brought against the retail chain Cabela's Inc., for sex discrimination, as the plaintiff says she was fired after harassment that included denying her the use of the women's bathroom and temporarily forcing her to wear a name tag with her male name given at birth.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-lgbt-idUSKCN18F02X

Trump is Getting Rid of Anyone He Thinks Will Hold Him Accountable

Donald Trump places himself on top of all the hierarchies in this country, and surrounds himself with people who believe and support his right to do that. People on top expect not to be held accountable for how their actions affect anyone else, and he is working hard to make sure that happens.

According to Mother Jones, Trump fired Comey because Comey was investigating his and his associates' ties to Russia. And Jeff Sessions had recused himself from the investigation long enough to join in supporting the firing.

In an article entitled "There's No One To Hold Donald Trump Accountable," obviously that's the point.

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/features/theres-no-one-to-hold-donald-trump-accountable-w481604

In Spain, Girls Win Boy's Soccer League, But Still Women Athletes Are Not Taken Seriously

"If you're technically better, you can compensate for being perhaps physically weaker," said Andrea Gomez, the top scorer of a girl's soccer team in Spain that won a boy's league.

In Spain, women's soccer remains a sideshow. Despite their first Women's World Cup appearance in 2015, the top women's league did not sign its first major corporate sponsorship deal until las summer, three decades after the league began. The country's most successful club, Real Madrid, does not field a women's squad.

We have a long way to topple the gender sports hierarchy, including in the United States.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/11/sports/soccer/girls-soccer-team-won-boys-league-spain.html?mwrsm=Facebook&_r=0

Andrea Gómez as the top scorer for her championship team.

The boys Gómez left in her wake, though, were not the first ones forced to retrieve one of her shots from their net. Gómez, 13, and her teammates had been confounding boys all season, playing so well that their girls’ team recently won a junior regional league in Spain over 13 boys’ teams.

“I always try to show that soccer isn’t just for boys,” Gómez said. “If you’re technically better, you can compensate for being perhaps physically weaker.”

In the United States and a handful of other countries, it is not uncommon for women to upstage their male counterparts when it comes to soccer success. But in Spain, women’s soccer, despite the country’s first Women’s World Cup appearance in 2015, remains a sideshow. Spain’s top women’s league did not sign its first major corporate sponsorship deal until last summer — three decades after the league began — and the country’s most successful club, Real Madrid, does not field a women’s squad.

Continue reading the main story

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Top Thinks It Can Make Decisions for Everyone, Including Only Men Discussing Health Care

Thirteen men are proposed to make up the group of GOP senators who will craft the Senate health care bill. As so typical of a hierarchy, people on top think that they should be able to make decisions for everyone else involved, and believe they are qualified to do so.

Since they believe their opinions and experiences to be superior to everyone else's, Republicans placing themselves on top see no problem with that idea.

http://www.cnn.com/2017/05/05/politics/senate-republican-health-care-men/index.html

Add Special Education Kids to the Bottom of the Republican Hierarchies

A coalition of school educators and advocacy organizations said efforts by Republicans to cut Medicaid payments would force states to “ration health care for children.”

"With all the sweeping changes the Republican bill would impose, little attention has been paid to its potential impact on education. School districts rely on Medicaid, the federal health care program for the poor, to provide costly services to millions of students with disabilities across the country. For nearly 30 years, Medicaid has helped school systems cover costs for special education services and equipment, from physical therapists to feeding tubes. The money is also used to provide preventive care, such as vision and hearing screenings, for other Medicaid-eligible children."

Apparently, Republicans don't care, as long as the rich pay less.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/03/us/politics/health-bill-medicaid-special-education-affordable-care-act.html

Republicans – White Males Taking Away Benefits for Others Not Like Them

Republicans, almost all white male, are celebrating today the passage in the House of Representatives of the new GOP health care bill, that will gut health care for millions.

While there were a handful of female lawmakers present, many on social media pointed to the overwhelming presence of white men on hand to celebrate a bill that seeks to eliminate federal funding for Planned Parenthood and make pregnancy significantly more expensive.

Here again are people on top of the hierarchy making decisions that negatively impact people who are not like them, who they push lower on their hierarchies rationalizing that lower people don't deserve benefits anyway. 

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/05/trump-house-republicans-rose-garden-obamacare-repeal-bill