Two Female Gold Medal Ice Skating Champions to Perform as a Pair

Retired Olympic champions Madison Hubbell and Gabriella Papadakis plan to skate together at events in a bid to help pave the way for same-sex pairs to compete officially. 

France's Papadakis won gold in ice dancing while American Hubbell won in the team event, both in Beijing. 

The two women will perform together during the Art on Ice Gala in several cities in Switzerland this month, and hope to help break down a gender stereotype in the sport.

"I see a lot of young women who want to pursue ice dance in a certain way and there's not that many young boys or men who are competing, so there's a limit to how many people right now are participating," Hubbell told Reuters on Wednesday after her rehearsal with Papadakis in Zurich.

In October 2022, Skate Canada became the sport's first governing body to allow same-gender pairs to compete at the national level.

https://www.reuters.com/sports/papadakis-hubbell-skate-together-promote-same-sex-pairs-competition-2025-02-06/?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=Social&fbclid=IwY2xjawIXaV1leHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHRkcasLhM7VZj1KdfoGZ9Chp76XLBmcKBJ6Brj1PNdY8It_oZuLEPmjfpA_aem_RElWRNRaDh2aig4Xh7yE4A

Portland Trailblazers Launch Technology for Visual Impaired Fans to Follow Games

The Portland Trail Blazers, an NBA team in Oregon, have become the first professional sports team to offer haptic display technology at every home game, providing blind and low vision fans a way to experience basketball through touch.

The technology, developed by Seattle-based startup OneCourt, translates live gameplay into trackable vibrations that fans can follow with their fingertips. The service is available at no additional cost at the Moda Center where the Trail Blazers play home games

The team will make five devices available for the remainder of the 2024-25 NBA regular season on a first-come, first-served basis. Fans can check out devices from Guest Services stands at three arena locations after making reservations via email..

"This success highlights what's possible when innovation meets inclusivity," the CEO of the founding company OneCourt. 

However, we wonder if the device will eventually be outlawed by Trump's DEI decrees, as it is made to promote inclusion.

https://www.kgw.com/article/life/trail-blazers-haptic-display-technology-blind-low-vision-fans/283-983035d8-1aa1-46f2-a80e-8fe8998754ed

Perhaps One Way to Get Men to Take Responsibility for a Pregnancy

Mississippi state Sen. Bradford Blackmon referred to the high number of state legislative bills introduced in recent years that target women's access to reproductive health care, specifically abortion and contraception, when he proposed fines for men having sex but not intending to result in a pregnancy.

He introduced a bill this week that would seemingly ban men from masturbating or engaging in other sexual acts when they have no "intent to fertilize an embryo."

With conservatives passing legislation to try to force women into being "barefoot and pregnant," this bill could make sense. After all, men are 50% cause of pregnancies. But, as usual, conservative hierarchy builders targeting women want little or no accountability for the actions of the top, in this case, men and boys. Women and girls are much easier to control if they must care for the children from unwanted pregnancies forced to term.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/rcna188938

Trump As a Threat to Human Rights

Tirana Hassan, the Executive Director of the New York-based independent rights group Human Rights Watch said that U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's return to the White House next week threatens freedoms at home and abroad. 

"The Trump administration's first term showed us what they're capable of and particularly showed their lack of commitment to human rights," Hassan told Reuters ahead of the annual report launch."

While the rise of concentrated power is occurring in some parts of the world, in places such as South Korea, people have stood up where there is an all-out assault on human rights, according to Hassan. 

We can hope that Republican attempts to curtail human rights in the United States will see the same resistance.

https://www.reuters.com/world/human-rights-watch-chief-says-trumps-return-threatens-freedoms-2025-01-16/

Costco Faces Possible MAGA Boycott for Not Favoring WHACCHUMs

Costco's board of directors rejected requests to remove its DEI program, which shareholders described as "illegal discrimination," prompting backlash from members of the MAGA movement.

The board of Costco said, "Our efforts around diversity, equity and inclusion follow our code of ethics."

The defense was met with anger from many Trump supporters, with some calling for a boycott on social media.

These MAGA types want to return to the 1950's when hierarchies were stronger, and white heterosexual able-bodied cis-gender Christian hierarchy-building US-born males enjoyed the privilege that their hierarchies granted them over everyone else.

https://www.newsweek.com/costco-faces-maga-boycott-2007942?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR1tRfLW2GY14NW1DpEYC3zD3EzyPNFKR-mvrDJ6qduqiQSTLsAZpx7wnns_aem_W7JDvWYcxtTpk-NrBiCzyg