Carson Pickett Becomes First USWNT Player to Appear with Limb Difference

In the friendly against Columbia, history was made when the North Carolina Courage defender Carson Pickett became the first player with a limb difference to appear in a game for the US Women's National Soccer Team. She was born without part of her left arm. 

Pickett was named as an alternate to the USWNT, and is one of three players to be available for the game.

https://www.si.com/soccer/2022/06/29/carson-pickett-is-first-player-to-appear-in-uswnt-game-with-limb-difference?fbclid=IwAR3qs2KKqUje8gmrLrvjMrMm820J3A5bZN-kS9grMI5cQUR6IK4NPnuy92U

Roe v. Wade Overturned

 

Celebrate Title IX, but We Have a Ways to Go

Posting pictures of Billie Jean King with Jill Biden on the 50th anniversary of Title IX, King discusses her famous tennis game against Bobby Riggs.

"I do think it helped push the idea of equality and women's sports and scholarships. I knew it was about social change and we were only in our third year of professional tennis. I wanted to change the hearts and minds of the country to believe in Title IX, believe that women deserved equality. We couldn't get a credit card on our own when I played Bobby. When I started the Women's Sports Foundation in 1974, I said we have to be the guardian angels of Title IX and really help protect it."

Title IX, which bans sex discrimination in any education program or activity that receives federal funds, allowed more women into universities and expanded sports participation. There's still work to do: 1.1 million more boys play sports in high school; women made up 44% of college athletes in 2021.

Donna Lopiano, a Title IX expert in more than 40 court cases and former women's athletic director at Texas, says “90% of institutions are out of compliance” at the Division I level. Title IX requires equitable scholarships and sports roster spots based on the gender ratio of the student population.

https://www.durangoherald.com/articles/qa-billie-jean-king-on-title-ixs-50th-anniversary/

Decisions are Made by Men, for Women. Not Women for Themselves

"I have learned the same lesson again and again: When the face of power remains the same, the face of suffering does, too."

We are facing global crises in the United States, Afghanistan, Ukraine and other countries, decisions are made by men who can impose hardships on women.

"A more equal future is not merely one in which women’s reproductive rights are protected; it is one in which the entire system that makes women’s lives so precarious has been dismantled. It is a future in which women’s voices ring clear and true, and are respected and heard, at all levels of society—in their homes and their workplaces, in capitols and C-suites, and indeed, in the privacy of a clinic or doctor’s office."

https://time.com/6189495/roe-overturn-women-leadership/?twclid=27hn1h8iccuqeamvu3p3e8y9wn&fbclid=IwAR2sfLynwNydxYhp8UOTzNoMAO8POPTQpxnce7JYpfyLnDksZRRChuvohYo

Texas Republicans Again Show True Hierarchy Colors

The Texas Republican Party unveiled its official position on LGBTQ issues over the weekend, defining homosexuality as an "abnormal lifestyle choice" and also opposing "all efforts to validate transgender identity."

According to the Texas GOP, anyone whose sexual identity is not like that of the top of the hierarchy - heterosexuality - makes them lower than the top, not even ranked but unacceptable.  Simple as that.

https://www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-politics-and-policy/texas-gops-new-platform-calls-gay-people-abnormal-rejects-trans-identi-rcna34530

Parents of Transgender Teens in Utah Sue for Sports Inclusion

The families of two Utah teenagers have filed a lawsuit challenging a state law banning transgender women and girls from participating in school sports. 

The suit asks the court to declare the ban unconstitutional and block its enforcement. It was filed Tuesday in the Third Judicial District Court for Salt Lake County. 

In Utah, a group representing the two student plaintiffs said the state's law is unfounded.

"It really is a tragically fear-based law," said Shannon Minter, legal director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights.

LGBTQ people in the United States are placed lower on the sexual orientation hierarchy by many clueless people, and in this case, many hierarchy supporters believe that transgender people should not even exist. 

https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/01/us/utah-lawsuit-schools-transgender-sports-ban/index.htm

All-Women Referees in Soccer World Cup for the First Time

The Under-20 Soccer Women's World Cup will be the first competition that will feature only women refereeing games.  

54 all-female officials have been appointed to the Under-20 Women's World Cup in Costa Rica by FIFA, the first time it has done so for one of its tournaments.

Of course, few noticed for years when only men refereed games, even if all the players were female. We don't notice when the top of the hierarchy makes decisions for lower groups. Now what we need is many men's tournaments being called by only female referees. 

https://www.espn.com/soccer/blog-fifa/story/4678808/under-20-womens-world-cup-to-be-first-competition-with-all-women-refereeing-teams

Taliban: Another Hierarchical Example When One Group (Men) Dictates Life for Another Group (Women)

In hierarchies, top groups enjoy parts of life that they make sure are not available to people who they put lower on their hierarchies. They demand that lower groups make sacrifices that they themselves would never agree to do. In Afghanistan, men are dictating the lives of women in ways that men would never dictate for themselves. 

Life is growing increasingly unbearable for academics in Afghanistan, almost a year into the Taliban’s rule. It has become particularly tough for female scholars and students.

For female scholars, life under the Taliban means that most must wear garments that cover their head and body, and are restricted from teaching men. And female students cannot attend classes with men and are restricted from being taught by them. “The Taliban is making the situation worse and worse for women,” says a female university student and medical researcher in Kabul, who requested anonymity.

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-01505-5