Top Stories This Week

• What’s happening at Woodhull;
• Ending book bans in Illinois;
• The new tactic in banning books;
• The STOP CSAM Act;
• Regulating teen safety and privacy online;
• Online safety bills; and
• Tess’ take on the first “wrongful death” abortion case.

Did you see Rev. Bev’s note about our 20th Anniversary this week?

Rev Bev. shared, “As an ordained clergy in the Christian Church, I am painfully aware of the 2,000 years of suspicion toward the sexual body from the Western Christian Church. This has fueled cultural ambivalence toward sexual freedom and provided justification for its opposition. In turn, it continues to fuel ongoing and, increasingly intensifying body injustice within our laws, policies, and practices. 

One organization I support and am deeply grateful for is Woodhull. I think of Woodhull as the David standing in direct opposition to the Goliath of censorship and privacy violations, supposedly religious or not.” 

Missed Monday's live stream of Censored Pleasure: Porn, Free Expression & Sexual Freedom? 

Don’t worry! All of our Censorship Series programs are recorded and available on our YouTube page. Stay tuned to our emails and social media for announcements about future Censorship Series programs.

We will be discussing the recent passage of bans on drag performance in June. You don’t want to miss it!

Upcoming Spokes Hub Classes: 

It’s not too late to register for the class we have coming up this afternoon! Spokes Hub is a virtual peer learning program for people with lived experience in the sex trade. During this class, coordinators for the Spokes Hub program will explain how the program works, how it can benefit students, and how to graduate.

Welcome to Spokes Hub

Wednesday, May 24 (today!)
12 noon PT / 2:00 pm CT / 3:00 pm ET
Taught by Moses Moon & Savannah Sly

(Charles Rex Arbogast/AP)

Illinois set to become first state to end book bans (Politico) 

Shia Kaps explains Illinois’ House Bill 2789: “The bill says that in order for public libraries, including in public schools and universities, to remain eligible for grant funding, they must adopt the American Library Association’s Library Bill of Rights or adopt their own written statement prohibiting the banning of books. A library that doesn’t certify either of the statements, or takes the next step of banning a book, will not be eligible for grant funding from the secretary of state, according to the secretary’s office.” Read more.

(Paul Hennessy-Anadolu Agency)

The Extreme New Tactic in the Crusade to Ban Books (Time) 

Summer Lopez highlights the extreme new tactic in book-banning: “Not content to demand books be removed from classroom shelves, or to pass laws that restrict topics students can read about in school libraries or even discuss in classrooms, now the book banning movement is going after publishers, with legislation that would censor what books they can publish or distribute to public schools, with imprisonment and fines as possible punishment upon conviction in some cases.” Read more.

(Electronic Frontier Foundation)

The Dobbs Leak Didn’t Wreck the Supreme Court—the Justices’ Scandals Did (Mother Jones) 

Pema Levy reflects on the Dobbs leak and the legitimacy of the Supreme Court: “Many events following the leak have undoubtedly eroded the court’s legitimacy, including the decision itself, which overturned 50 years of precedent and took away a fundamental right. (Indeed, polls showed approval of the court plummeting just after Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health was formally issued.) When Justice Elena Kagan warned such conservative decisions were undermining public confidence, Chief Justice John Roberts fired back, saying that ‘simply because people disagree with an opinion is not a basis for questioning the legitimacy of the court.’ But insisting that the court’s integrity is above reproach does not make it so.” Read more.

(Adrian Swancar)

Regulating teen safety and privacy online is a challenging needle to thread, experts say (The Drum) 

Kendra Clark writes about regulating teen safety and privacy online: “Kids’ and teens’ privacy and digital safety have become a top priority for many lawmakers. The issue was hotly debated last month when TikTok CEO Shou ZI Chew testified before Congress. US states like Florida and Utah are going to new lengths to limit teens’ access to social media. California, meanwhile – a longtime leader in privacy policy in the US – is drawing inspiration from the UK in its proposal to require digital platforms to create age-appropriate interfaces for users under 18. Now, two US bills with bipartisan support are gaining momentum in Congress. If enacted, they would expand privacy protections for teens and force digital platforms to adopt new by-design safety features for young users.”
Read more.

(AP Photo, File)

Online safety bills will mean kids are no longer seen or heard online (The Hill) 

Ben Sperry argues against so-called “online safety bills”: “According to an old English proverb, children are meant to be seen and not heard. But if we aren’t careful with new online-safety legislation, kids will be neither seen nor heard in online spaces. There has been no shortage of stories in recent months focusing on the real harms associated with teens on social media, which the platforms have already invested in mitigating in response to market demand from parents, advertisers and teens themselves. Far less attention has been paid to the benefits that teens today enjoy in terms of increased connections and access to information that was previously unimaginable in an offline world.” Read more.

(Olga Fedorova/SOPA Images/Sipa USA)

Tess’ Take: Punishing Survivors for Survival in Oklahoma (Woodhull’s Sex & Politics Blog) 

Tess Joseph shares her take on punishing survivors for survival in Oklahoma: “[A] glimmer of hopeful news arrived for survivors: the Domestic Abuse Survivorship Act, authored by Rep. Toni Hasenbeck (R). In short, the bill allows for survivors of domestic/interpersonal violence to introduce evidence of their abuse in court and receive a lower sentence. In February 2023, Oklahoma’s House unanimously passed the bill, sending it on to the state Senate. To be clear, this is good news – many survivors in Oklahoma will benefit from the bill, should it become law. But Samantha Michaels notes that survivors deserve much better than the bill as it currently stands.” Read more.

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