Tagged: activism

Evidence mounts of political motivation behind Komen’s defunding of Planned Parenthood

In case you had doubts as to whether or not Komen for the Cure’s withdrawal of funding from Planned Parenthood was motivated by far-right social politics, add this to the evidence: Around the same time as the funding policy update was being rolled out late last year,  Komen released a statement (PDF) emphasizing that it does not and has never provided funding for cancer research using embryonic stem cells. The statement says that Komen will only fund researching using stem cells “derived without creating a human embryo or destroying a human embryo.” While embryonic stem cell research may or may...

Internet blackout post-mortem: Who still supports SOPA/PIPA? Who went dark? Did it help?

In the last day my search engine traffic has been divided into three categories: 1) Why is [Wikipedia/Google/some other site] blacked out? 2) Which sites are blacked out today? 3) Which politicians support SOPA? The first one, admittedly, I was trolling for, and I got it. The second one, I had a partial list, but I’m not sure anyone had a truly complete list since more and more sites were going dark all day. SOPA Strike, created by AmericanCensorship.org, has probably the most complete list of sites that participated in some kind of protest, whether they went completely dark like...

Learning about SOPA (and PIPA): A multimedia approach

I’ve been saying for a couple weeks that I’d make a nice, comprehensive post about the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and its Senate counterpart, the Protect IP Act (PIPA). The great thing about being a procrastinator about writing about popular topics is that by the time you get around to it, others have done it as well or better, and you can just create a “best of” compilation. So that’s kind of what I’m doing. Plenty of companies, organizations, and blogs have dedicated today to protesting these bills in various ways. Many, like Wikipedia, Reddit, Craigslist, WordPress, and others...

Why is Wikipedia blacked out? (A complete idiot’s guide)

Wikipedia (and other sites) are blacked out today to protest two bills in Congress, SOPA and PIPA. If passed, these laws could cause sites like Wikipedia, YouTube, Tumblr, and even Google to be blacked out FOREVER in the U.S. They want you to contact your senators and representatives and tell them to OPPOSE the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the House and the Protect IP Act (PIPA) in the Senate. SOPA and PIPA could CENSOR the internet in America JUST LIKE it is censored in CHINA and IRAN.

Bi-national gay couple wins deportation repreive

A married, bi-national gay couple from San Francisco has won a two-year stay of deportation for John Makk, an Australian citizen, partner of 19 years  and primary caregiver to his husband Bradford Wells, an American who suffers from AIDS-related illnesses. Their case was first covered by the Chronicle last June and touched a nerve, becoming SFGate’s most widely shared story of the year on Facebook, shared by 75,000 people. Their case received national and international media attention. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services issued a letter to Makk today saying he has been granted “deferred action” on his case for two...