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At least 25 trans people have been murdered this year in the United States alone – internationally, it’s in the hundreds – and the majority of those we’ve lost were transgender women of color. Transphobia is not merely alive and well; it is thriving and militant. It has taken too many of us, of our brothers and sisters and siblings, away far too soon.
November 20 is set aside as a day to mourn the transgender people who have been lost to violence and hatred; it’s a day for grief and reflection. It’s also a reminder of the work we must do every other day of the year. Our knowledge of and commitment to the fight for transgender justice should not only come up each November 20. I’m talking especially to my fellow cis people: we have to do the work. All. Year. Long. It’s never been more important.
Today, we mourn. Every other day of the year, we fight like hell. Here are a few ways to get started:
Today is the start of Transgender Awareness Week (November 14 – 20)!
We want to honor one of the founders of the Trans + Queer Liberation movement, Marsha “Pay It No Mind” Johnson. Marsha is remembered in her role as a key activist who started the Stonewall Riot, launching the Gay Rights Movement. The documentary based on her life Pay It No Mind - The Life and Times of Marsha P. Johnson is available to watch for free on YouTube.
For information on Transgender Awareness Week and what you can do to support the Trans community visit these organizations.
Latinas who work full time, year round are paid just 54 cents for every dollar paid to white, non-Hispanic men. This is the largest wage gap in the country and impacts Latinas at all education levels. Latinas with bachelor’s and master’s degrees earn 66.3 cents and 69.9 cents respectively for every dollar a white, non-Hispanic man with a similar education earns. For Latinas to make as much as white, non-Hispanic men in one 12-month calendar yea…r, they must work 22 months—until the beginning of the following November. This results in a lifetime loss of over $1 (or one million) million dollars in wages. The gap between Latinas and white non-Hispanic men has remained largely unchanged since 1987.
As Latina wages continue to remain stagnant, this impacts their ability to care for their families, pay for health care, and save for retirement. For Latinas without documentation, they are more vulnerable to economic exploitation, as well as sexual and physical abuse.
Latinas are overrepresented in low earning occupations, such as maids, housekeepers, janitors, and building cleaners, where they comprise 22 percent of the workforce. Many working women depend upon this valuable labor to ensure a clean home, work space and reliable child care.
To end gender based exploitation and discrimination we need to ensure all women are not only part of the fight for equal pay, but that the labor of all women is valued and protected.
As a child, Kate Rubins dreamed of being an astronaut and a scientist. During the past four months aboard the International Space Station, that dream came full circle. She became the first person to sequence DNA in space, among other research during her recent mission, adding to her already impressive experience. She holds a doctorate in molecular biology, and previously led a lab of 14 researchers studying viruses, including Ebola.
Here’s a look back at Rubins in her element, conducting research aboard your orbiting laboratory.
Kate inside Destiny, the U.S. Laboratory Module
The U.S. national laboratory, called Destiny, is the primary research laboratory for U.S. payloads, supporting a wide range of experiments and studies contributing to health, safety, and quality of life for people all over the world.
Destiny houses the Microgravity Science Glovebox (MSG), in which Kate worked on the Heart Cells experiment.
Swabbing for Surface Samples
Microbes that can cause illness could present problems for current and future long duration space missions.
Understanding what microbe communities thrive in space habitats could help researchers design antimicrobial technology. Here, Kate is sampling various surfaces of the Kibo module for the Microbe-IV investigation.
Culturing Beating Heart Cells in Space
The Heart Cells investigation uses human skin cells that are induced to become stem cells, which can then differentiate into any type of cell.
Researchers forced the stem cells to grow into human heart cells, which Rubins cultured aboard the space station for one month.
Rubins described seeing the heart cells beat for the first time as “pretty amazing. First of all, there’s a few things that have made me gasp out loud up on board the [space] station. Seeing the planet was one of them, but I gotta say, getting these cells in focus and watching heart cells actually beat has been another pretty big one.”
Innovative Applied Research Experiment from Eli Lilly
The Hard to Wet Surfaces investigation from Eli Lilly, and sponsored by the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS), looks at liquid-solid interactions and how certain pharmaceuticals dissolve, which may lead to more potent and effective medicines in space and on Earth.
Rubins set up vials into which she injected buffer solutions and then set up photography to track how tablets dissolved in the solution in microgravity.
Biological samples and additional research were returned on the Dragon spacecraft more than a month later.
Sliding Science Outside the Station
Science doesn’t just happen inside the space station. External Earth and space science hardware platforms are located at various places along the outside of the orbiting laboratory.
The Japanese Experiment Module airlock can be used to access the JEM Exposed Facility. Rubins installed the JEM ORU Transfer Interface (JOTI) on the JEM airlock sliding table used to install investigations on the exterior of the orbiting laboratory.
Installing Optical Diagnostic Instrument in the MSG
Rubins installed an optical diagnostic instrument in the Microgravity Science Glovebox (MSG) as part of the Selective Optical Diagnostics Instrument (SODI-DCMIX) investigation. Molecules in fluids and gases constantly move and collide.
When temperature differences cause that movement, called the Soret effect, scientists can track it by measuring changes in the temperature and movement of mass in the absence of gravity. Because the Soret effect occurs in underground oil reservoirs, the results of this investigation could help us better understand such reservoirs.
The Sequencing of DNA in Space
When Rubins’ expedition began, DNA had never been sequenced in space. Within just a few weeks, she and the Biomolecule Sequencer team had sequenced their one billionth “base” – the unit of DNA - aboard the orbiting laboratory.
The Biomolecule Sequencer investigation seeks to demonstrate that DNA sequencing in microgravity is possible, and adds to the suite of genomics capabilities aboard the space station.
Studying Fluidic Dynamics with SPHERES
The SPHERES-Slosh investigation examines the way liquids move inside containers in a microgravity environment. The phenomena and mechanics associated with such liquid movement are still not well understood and are very different than our common experiences with a cup of coffee on Earth.
Rockets deliver satellites to space using liquid fuels as a power source, and this investigation plans to improve our understanding of how propellants within rockets behave in order to increase the safety and efficiency of future vehicle designs. Rubins conducted a series of SPHERES-Slosh runs during her mission.
Retrieving Science Samples for Their Return to Earth
Precious science samples like blood, urine and saliva are collected from crew members throughout their missions aboard the orbiting laboratory.
They are stored in the Minus Eighty-Degree Laboratory Freezer for ISS (MELFI) until they are ready to return to Earth aboard a Soyuz or SpaceX Dragon vehicle.
Measuring Gene Expression of Biological Specimens in Space
Our WetLab-2 hardware system is bringing to the space station the technology to measure gene expression of biological specimens in space, and to transmit the results to researchers on Earth at the speed of light.
Rubins ran several WetLab-2 RNA SmartCycler sessions during her mission.
Studying the First Expandable Habitat Module on the Space Station
The Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM) is the first expandable habitat to be installed on the space station. It was expanded on May 28, 2016.
Expandable habitats are designed to take up less room on a spacecraft, but provide greater volume for living and working in space once expanded. Rubins conducted several evaluations inside BEAM, including air and surface sampling.
Better Breathing in Space and Back on Earth
Airway Monitoring, an investigation from ESA (the European Space Agency), uses the U.S. airlock as a hypobaric facility for performing science. Utilizing the U.S. airlock allows unique opportunities for the study of gravity, ambient pressure interactions, and their effect on the human body.
This investigation studies the occurrence and indicators of airway inflammation in crew members, using ultra-sensitive gas analyzers to evaluate exhaled air. This could not only help in spaceflight diagnostics, but that also hold applications on earth within diagnostics of similar conditions, for example monitoring of asthma.
Hot Science with Cool Flames
Fire behaves differently in space, where buoyant forces are removed. Studying combustion in microgravity can increase scientists’ fundamental understanding of the process, which could lead to improvement of fire detection and suppression systems in space and on Earth.
Many combustion experiments are performed in the Combustion Integration Rack (CIR) aboard the space station. Rubins replaced two Multi-user Droplet Combustion Apparatus (MDCA) Igniter Tips as part of the CIR igniter replacement operations.
Though Rubins is back on Earth, science aboard the space station continues, and innovative investigations that seek to benefit humans on Earth and further our exploration of the solar system are ongoing. Follow @ISS_Research to keep up with the science happening aboard your orbiting laboratory.
Today, September
15th Native Women’s Equal Pay Day, we focus on the impact of the wage
gap on Native women and their families.
For every one
dollar white men earn, Native women are paid .58 cents. This wage gap is the second
largest for any group of non-white women in the country.
Nationally, Native
women must work an additional nine and half months each year to earn as much white
men do annually. These women have seen the largest decline in their wages over
the last decade according to the Institute for Women’s Policy Research.
This decline in
earnings has devastating impacts on Native families. Two-thirds of Native women
are the breadwinners of their families, and the wage gap only exacerbates the high
poverty rate among Native children.
Statewide, California
has the largest pay gap for Native women in the country, resulting in a loss of
$1,395,320 in lifetime earnings. Native women have the highest poverty rate in
California compared to their non-native counterparts.
Let us observe
and stand in solidarity for #NativeWomenEqualPay.
This is an illustrated guide I made as part of my co-admining work at The Middle Eastern Feminist on Facebook! It will be published there shortly. The technique that is displayed here is a genuine one used in psychology - I forgot the name and couldn’t find it again so if you know about it, feel free to tell me! Some could say: “Yes but you can use that technique for instances of harassment other than Islamophobic attacks!”, and my reply is: Sure! Please do so, it also works for other “types” of harassment of a lone person in a public space!! However I’m focusing on protecting Muslims here, as they have been very specific targets lately, and as a French Middle Eastern woman, I wanted to try and do something to raise awareness on how to help when such things happen before our eyes - that way one cannot say they “didn’t know what to do”! I’d like to insist on two things: 1) Do not, in any way, interact with the attacker. You must absolutely ignore them and focus entirely on the person being attacked! 2) Please make sure to always respect the wishes of the person you’re helping: whether they want you to leave quickly afterwards, or not! If you’re in a hurry escort them to a place where someone else can take over - call one of their friends, or one of yours, of if they want to, the police. It all depends on how they feel!
For my fellow French-speakers: I will translate it in French and post it on my page as soon as I can :)
Please don’t hesitate to share this guide as it could push a lot of people to overcome bystander syndrome!!
Lots of love and stay safe!
A Stronger California held a press conference at the California State Capitol to demand the California Governor Jerry Brown sign legislation that supports women’s economic security. The advocates group marched to the Governors office to hand over a petition demanding he support their list of bills. A Stronger California’s legislative agenda includes ensuring fair pay and job opportunities, expand access to affordable, quality early childhood care and education, support family friendly workplaces, and build economic security by addressing poverty.
The list of speakers included Senator Hannah-Beth Jackson, Chair of the California Legislative Women’s Caucus, and Lupita Cortez Alcalá, Chair of the California Commission on the Status of Women and Girls.
The bill Is authored by Assemblymember Cristina Garcia, a representative from LA,Vice-Chair of the California Commission on the Status of Women & Girls and Vice-Chair of the California Legislative Women’s Caucus.
"Every month, for 40 years of our lives, we are taxed for being born women.“
profeminist
