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coochiequeens · 1 year

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Isabella Cêpa should be on a list of Inspiring and Influential WOMEN, not some man trying to silence her for speaking up for women.

The BBC is under fire after honoring a trans-identified male as one of 2022’s most “inspiring and influential women.” Erika Hilton, a transgender politician in Brazil, is currently seeking to have a women’s rights advocate imprisoned for misgendering him.

Hilton was elected to São Paulo’s municipal government in November of 2020, winning his seat by a landslide. At the time of his victory, he was celebrated by international media as being a “symbolic triumph” for transgender people. Hilton was amongst the top 10 most-voted for candidates in all of Brazil, and was touted as the “only woman” to make the cut.

Hilton was featured in this year’s iteration of BBC‘s 100 women from around the world who are “influential and inspiring women.” The theme for 2022 was “progress that has been made across different areas over the past decade.”

The BBC‘s list includes Hilton in their “politics and activism” category, lauding him with a description that reads: “The first black trans woman ever elected to a seat in the National Congress of Brazil. Erika Hilton is an activist who campaigns against racism, and for LGBTQ+ and human rights.”

But earlier this year, it was revealed that Hilton had been attempting to have an anti-domestic violence advocate imprisoned for calling him a “man.”

Isabella Cêpa, Brazilian feminist influencer, is well-known in Brazil for her advocacy on the issues of sexual and domestic violence. In 2020, shortly after Hilton’s election, Cêpa made a quick remark on her Instagram on the claims Hilton was the “most voted for woman” in Brazil.

Speaking exclusively to Reduxx in June, Cêpa said she hadn’t even known who Hilton was when she made her remarks, and had simply said she was “disappointed to hear that the most voted-for woman in São Paulo – later found out that it was in the entire country – was a man.”

Almost two years later, Cêpa discovered she was being charged with criminal transphobia for misgendering Hilton.

Cêpa’s mother was tracked down by police who questioned her on her daughter’s whereabouts and told her to visit a police station. After she spoke with police and learned it was over a complaint from Hilton, Cêpa was in the dark about the status against her until she read about them in Brazil’s national news, Folha, where an article on her case stated she was being charged with 5 counts of “social racism.” Some of the charges relate to Hilton, and others are from the Public Prosecutor combing through her social media feed to find other “transphobic” statements she had reportedly made.

In addition to learning about the charges, Folhaannounced Cêpa was facing up to 25 years in prison, a figure she says was manufactured to discourage other feminists from speaking out on similar issues.

Cêpa says Hilton appeared to be using the threat of suing feminists as a re-election strategy last year, rallying his supporters around the idea he will sue “transphobes” after having them criminally convicted, and then give his settlement money to other trans-identified males.

Speaking to Reduxx on Hilton’s nomination to the BBC‘s 100 Women list, Cêpa expressed amusement.

“What can I say? I think he shoudn’t be included for being a man, there’s nothing else to be said, even if he was the greatest man,” Cêpa says. “But still, that’s not even the case here. This guy hates women and has no shame in showing it.”

Cêpa has informed Reduxx she is not entirely sure what the status of her case currently is, and still has yet to receive any formal documentation on her charges.

Hilton’s inclusion on the list comes in stark contrast to the female nominations, all of whom have an impressive laundry list of achievements that benefit women and girls.

Of them, one was nominated by prolific writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, who was recently made a target by trans activists for noting the differences in life experience between trans-identified males and women.

Adichie nominated Joy Ngozi Ezeilo, a Nigerian law professor and founding director of the Women Aid Collective (WACOL). Ezeilo’s organization has provided free legal aid and shelter to 60,000 women in Nigeria in the last 25 years. She also provides rapid response to victims/survivors of abuse through her Tamar Sexual Assault Referral Centre. Ezeilo was lauded by Adichie, who said she has “impacted many lives… especially to women and girls whose human rights have been violated.”

Other women on the list include Geraldina Guerra Garcés, an Ecuadorian anti-femicide activist who works to protect female victims of violence in Ecuador, and Zahra Joya, an Afghan journalist who disguised herself as a boy for over 6 years in order to attend school under Taliban rule.

On social media, some have begun to call out BBC for Hilton’s name making the list, along with another trans-identified male who was similarly included. Efrat Tilma, an Israeli police officer, was also included in the 2022 iteration of BBC‘s list of 100 women.

Graham Linehan’s newsletter, The Glinner Update,announced Hilton and Tilma’s inclusion on the list. Glinner contributor JL pointed out that this was not the first time BBC‘s 100 Women list included males.

“No doubt, like most of the trans-identified males included in previous years, Hilton and Tilma are brilliant campaigners and activists and more than deserving of praise and recognition. But they do not belong on a list that is intended to celebrate women,” JL wrote. “… Even with approximately 3.905 billion females to choose from, the BBC has seen fit to include trans-identified males on a list supposedly dedicated to celebrating the achievements of just 100 women.”

On social media, women voiced their concerns by replying to the BBC‘s Twitter post, with some even asserting they would take their complaint to Ofcom, the UK’s media regulation body.

Hilton’s nomination to a list intended to honor 100 “women” comes just weeks after Glamour Brazil awarded a male influencer with the prestigious Woman of the Year award at its annual Generation Glamour ceremony. Linn da Quebrada, a “transvestite” social media celebrity, took home the top award despite the fact he has stated he does not identify as a woman, and does not even believe women ‘exist.’

On December 1, it was revealed that another trans-identified male in Brazil was seeking criminal penaltiesfor a female gym owner who denied him membership due to the facility being single-sex. The charges being pursued are similar to those pressed against Isabella Cêpa.

By Yuliah Alma Yuliah is a junior researcher and journalist at Reduxx. She is a passionate advocate for women's rights and child safeguarding. Yuliah lives on the American east coast, and is an avid reader and book collector.

#Erika Hilton is a man #BBC #inspiring and influential women #Brazil #Isabella Cêpa

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st-just · 3 years

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Barely coherent rambling about nation-states, culture, the Hapsburgs, and Canada

Because why have a blog except to occasionally purge one of the essays floating around half-formed in your brain. To be clear, it’s still half-formed, just on tumblr now. 1,666 words, here’s the Deveraux essay mentioned. Book is Martyn Rady’s The Hapsburgs: To Rule The World

So I’ve had like, nationalism on my mind recently.

And so there’s a kind of recurring beat in left-of-centre American political discourse (like, not ‘internet rnados screaming at each other’ discourse, ‘people with doctorates or think tank positions having debates on podcasts or exchanging op eds’ discourse) where you have some people on the radical end list some of the various horrible atrocities the country is built on, the ways that all the national myths are lies, and how all the saints of the civic religion were monsters to one degree or another – this can come in a flavor of either righteous anger or, like, intellectual sport. And then on the other end you have the, well, Matt Yglesiases of the world. Who don’t really argue any of the points of fact, but do kind of roll their eyes at the whole exercise and say that sure, but Mom and Apple Pie and the American Way are still popular, and if you’re trying to win power in a democracy telling the majority of the population that their most cherished beliefs are both stupid and evil isn’t a great move.

Anyway, a couple weeks back Deveraux posted an essay for the 4th of July (which I don’t totally buy, but is an interesting read) about why the reason American nationalism is so intensely bundled up into a couple pieces of paper and maybe a dozen personalities is precisely because it isn’t a nation at all. Basically, his thesis is that in proper nation-states like England or the Netherlands or wherever, there really is a core population that is the overwhelming demographic majority and really have lived in more or less the same places since time immemorial, and that once the enthographers and mythologists finish their work, all those people really do identify with both the same nation and the same state as its expression. America, by contrast, is by virtue of being a settler nation whose citizenry was filled by waves of immigrants from all the ass ends of Eurasia in a historical eyeblink, even before you add in the native population and descendants of slaves lacks any single core ethnicity that is anywhere close to a majority, as well as any organic national traditions or claims to an ‘ancestral homeland’ that aren’t obviously absurd (and we are trying to include the descendents of slaves and the native population these days, to varying levels of success). All this to say that his point is America is a civic state, not a national one, with the identity of ‘American’ being divorced from ethnicity and instead tied to things like the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the whole cult around the Founding Fathers, Lincoln, and [FDR and/or Reagan depending on your politics].

Which, like I said, don’t totally buy, but interesting. (to a degree he overstates how homogenus ‘actual’ nation-states are, he makes America sound very special but if his analysis holds that it’d presumably also apply to several other former settler colonies, in the American context there’s a fairly solid case to be made that the whole ‘nation of immigrants’ story and the racial identity of whiteness were constructed to function as an erratz national ethnicity, with incredible success, etc, etc).

But anyway, if we accept that the American identity is bound up in its civic religion and the mythologized version of its political history, it’s absolutely the case that there’s several segments of the left who take incredibly joy in tearing said civic religion and national mythology apart and dragging whatever’s left through the mud. I mean, hell, I do! (reminder: any politician whose ever had a statue dedicated to them was probably a monster). And, well, call it a greater awareness of historical crimes and injustice, or the postmodern disdain for idols and systems leaking out through the increasingly college-educated populace, or the liquid acid of modernity dissolving away all unchosen identities, or a Marxist cabal undermining the national spirit to pave the way for the Revolution or whatever you like, but in whichever case, that critical discourse is certainly much more prominent and influential among left and liberal media and politics types that is was in decades past.

And, okay, so I finished Martyn Rady’s The Hapsburgs a few days ago. And I mentioned as I was reading it that the chapters on the 19th and 20th centuries reminded me quite a bit of courses I’d taken in school on the late Ottoman Empire and Soviet Union. Because all three are multi/non-national states (Empires, in Deveraux’s terminology, though that’s varying degrees of questionable for each, I think. Moreso for the Hapsburgs than the rest) who outlasted their own ideological legitimacy. And in all three cases it just, well, it didn’t not matter, but even as all the ceremonies got more absurd and farcical and the politics more consumed by inertia punctuated with crises, things kept limping along just fine for decades. Even in the face of intense crisis, dissolution wasn’t inevitable. (The Ottomans are a less central example here, admittedly, precisely because of the late attempt to recenter the empire on Turkish nationalism. But even then, more Arab soldiers fought for the Sultan-Caliph than ever did for the Hashemites, and most prewar Arab nationalism was either purely cultural or imagined the Empire reformed into a binational federation, not dissolved).

But as Rady says in the book – losing WW1 crippled Germany, it dissolved Austria-Hungary. And in all three cases, as soon as they were gone, the idea of bringing them back instantly became at least a bit absurd.

And okay, to now pivot to talking about where I actually live but about whose politics I (shamefully) know significantly less than America’s. I mean, maybe it’s because most of my history education from public school was given by either pinko commies or liberals still high off ‘90s one-world universalism, or maybe it’s just a matter of social class, but I really can’t remember ever having taken the whole wannabe civic religion of Canada seriously (the only even serious attempt at sacredness I recall was for Remembrance Day). Even today, the main things I remember about our Founding Father is that he was an alcoholic who lost power in a railroad corruption scandal.

Really, in all my experience the only unifying threads of national/particular Canadian identity are a flag, a healthcare system, those Canadian Heritage Minute propaganda ads, a bill of rights from the ‘60s, and an overpowering sense of polite smugness towards the States.

And that last one (or, at least, the generally rose-colored ‘Canada is the good one’ view of history) is taking something of a beating, on account of all the mass graves really rubbing the public’s noses in the whole genocide thing. At least among big segments of the intellectual and activist classes, most of the symbols of Canadian nationhood are necessarily becoming illegitimate as Canada is, in fact, a project of genocidal settle colonialism.

But it really is just purely symbolic. Most of the municipalities who cancelled their Canada Day celebrations are going to elect Liberal MPs and help give our Natural Governing Party its majority in the next election, no one of any significance has actually challenged the authority of the civil service or the courts. And, frankly, most of the people who are loudly skeptical of all the symbols of the nations are also the ones whose political projects most heavily rely on an efficient and powerful state bureaucracy to carry out.

(This is leaving aside Quebec, which very much does have a live national identity insofar as the vigorous protection of national symbols is what wins provincial elections. If I felt like doing research and/or reaching more there’s probably something there on how pro-independence sentiment has largely simmered down at a pace with the decline of attempts to impose a national Canadian identity).

I mean, Canada does have rather more of a base for a ‘national’ population core than the US (especially if you’re generous and count the people who mark French on the census as a core population as well). At the same time, no one really expects this to continue to be the case – even back in Junior High, I remember one of the hand outs we got explaining that due to declining fertility most or all future population growth would come from immigration (I remember being confused when my mother was weirdly uncomfortable with the idea when it came up). I suppose our government gets credit for managing public opinion such that anti-immigration backlash hasn’t taken over the political conversation. Which you’d think would be a low bar but, well.

But anyway, to try and begin wrapping this rambling mess up – it does rather feel like Rady’s portrayal of the late Hapsburg empire might have a few passing similarities to the future of Canada. A multinational state whose constitution and political system and built on foundations and legitimized by history that no one actually believes in anymore, or at least no more than they have to pretend to to justify the positions they hold, but persisting because it’s convenient and it’s there and any alternatives are really only going to seem practical after a complete economic collapse or apocalyptic war. (Though our civil service is a Josephist’s dream by comparison, really.)

Or maybe I’m premature, and the dominant culture will just be incredibly effective at assimilating immigrants into that civic identity. Anecdotally, the only people I know who are at all enthusiastic about Canada as an idea are first generation immigrants. I could certainly just be projecting, really – I’ve never really been able to get all that invested in the nation-state as an idea of more moral power than ‘a convenient administrative division of humanity’, and certainly liberating ourselves form the need to defend the past would certainly rectifying certain injustices easier.

Or maybe I’m just being incredibly optimistic. Half the economy’s resource extraction and the other half’s real estate, so decent odds the entire place just literally goes up in flames over the next few decades. BC’s already well on its way.

#politics #political theory #nationalism #in this essay I will #this is theoretically a writing blog #the hapsburgs: to rule the world

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theliberaltony · 6 years

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via Politics – FiveThirtyEight

The American election system is a textbook example of federalism at work. States administer elections, and the federal government doesn’t have much say in how they do it. While this decentralized system has its benefits, it also means that there’s no across-the-board standard for election system cybersecurity practices. This lack of standardization has become all the more apparent over the past two years: Hackers probed 21 state systems during the lead-up to the 2016 election and gained access to one. But the federal government and states don’t appear to have made great strides to ensure that this doesn’t happen again. To do so, they’d need to deal with not only their own cybersecurity deficits but also those of the private companies that help states administer elections.

Voting machine manufacturers and the makers of election software and electronic poll books (which are lists of eligible voters) are crucially intertwined with state election systems. All states, to some extent or another, rely on these private companies for election products. But despite the central role these companies play, state regulations of them are relatively lax. That’s a problem, especially at a time when these companies are, along with state governments, targets of foreign agents of chaos.

The recent indictment of Russian military intelligence officers as part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation aligned with previous reports that VR Systems, a company that provides electronic poll books and voter registration management systems to eight states, had been hacked via a phishing scheme aimed at compromising employee login credentials. The compromise of VR Systems allowed the hackers to create convincing emails for phishing attacks, this time on state election officials who used the company’s products. Many state officials appeared not to learn of the compromise until news reports about it last summer. Emails obtained by The Intercept reveal that state officials who use VR Systems responded to the breach by seeking guidance from the Department of Homeland Security.

States have felt the heat for their sometimes poor cybersecurity practices, but private voting companies can also lag behind security industry standards. Recently, FiveThirtyEight learned that a webpage labeled “Client Web Portal” for Dominion Voting, one of the country’s leading manufacturers of voting machines, lacked basic SSL encryption, a standard security practice used to protect user credentials, passwords and other sensitive information. Vulnerabilities like that on a login page could lead to stolen passwords or the addition of malicious software or links to the site. When FiveThirtyEight reached out to Dominion to ask about the webpage, Kay Stimson, the company’s vice president for government affairs, said the page had been “identified for SSL encryption and other upgrades as part of a broader company initiative to enhance security protections for our online presence.”

Stimson couldn’t provide a specific timeline for the security enhancements, though she said the company was making improvements “as quickly as possible.” She said that Dominion’s chief security officer, Matt Horace, was running “both physical and cybersecurity functions for the company.” As of this publication, Dominion’s client web portal page that was flagged as being vulnerable appeared to be out of service.

While a voting company’s poor website security doesn’t mean its products are faulty, it also doesn’t instill a great deal of confidence in its cyberattack preparedness. “Parts of the election business are still behind in implementing current best practices for cybersecurity,” election security expert J. Alex Halderman wrote in an email.

But Halderman also pointed out that private election companies are simply responding to the relatively unregulated marketplace in which they operate. “Somebody needs to produce and service election equipment, and the companies in this space simply respond to market and regulatory incentives. … The main problem is that our elections are largely administered by local governments, which have little to no cybersecurity expertise but are suddenly on the front lines of international conflict.”

States and local municipalities get to determine what voting machines, electronic poll books and other election software they will use. When it comes to voting machines, most states require them to live up to the standards set out by the federal Election Assistance Commission. But there are no EAC standards for poll books or for the electronic security of companies’ web presences. (According to the National Council of State Legislatures, 33 states use electronic poll books, but only eight states require state officials to certify the poll books themselves.)

In October 2017, Sen. Ron Wyden sent inquiries to the heads of the major manufacturers of voting machines, asking about their cybersecurity practices. Wyden’s inquiries included questions about whether the companies employ chief security officers and if they had processes in place to receive unsolicited reports about vulnerabilities in their products. (The Department of Homeland Security told FiveThirtyEight that it was providing ongoing cyber hygiene scans to five private voting companies, though it declined to name which ones.) The companies’ responses to Wyden’s letter reflected the ad hoc state of the industry: At least one has no security officer, while the others said that their security was spread across staff positions. Then again, they don’t have to do otherwise.

Other nuggets contained within the letters added to the impression that voting companies’ cyber practices are still evolving and are far below the standards of other industries. While having processes in place to receive unsolicited reports of system vulnerabilities is standard practice in most tech companies and could resolve bugs in a timely manner, Dominion Voting said that individuals who reported vulnerabilities in its systems would be “subject to criminal prosecution.” Separately, Motherboard recently reported that ES&S admitted in response to a follow-up letter from Wyden that the company had previously installed remote-access software in voting machines, a security risk. The company had previously denied that it had done so to the author of the Motherboard story.

“Election machine manufacturers have resisted meaningful oversight from both states and Congress about their security practices, and have actively deceived the press about the use of remote monitoring software on election equipment in the past,” Wyden said in a statement to FiveThirtyEight.

This lack of accountability is a fundamental problem among the manufacturers of voting systems — even the U.S. Senate can’t hold them to task. The power to impose stricter regulations on the cybersecurity practices of these companies lies with the states. Wyden warned that Russian President Vladimir Putin would order more sophisticated attacks in upcoming elections and that it was dangerous that we rely on state governments for election security. “America doesn’t allow individual states to fight wars with foreign governments, and it’s ridiculous to make states responsible for safeguarding our elections against foreign hacking,” he said.

Neil Jenkins, chief analytic officer at the Cyber Threat Alliance, said that the best approach for improving industry standards would be for states to require voting systems to have stricter certification and that their contracts with private voting vendors include “appropriate security considerations for every piece of voting infrastructure,” not just machines or ballot counters.

During a political moment when the world lives with eyes glued to the White House, the central symbol of federal power, it can be easy to overlook the influence that rests with individual states. As foreign attackers realize the potential to erode democracy by sowing seeds of doubt in our elections, state officials find themselves on the front lines of sophisticated attacks. While they have been taken to task for their insufficient preparedness, the greatest power to change the status quo lies with them. Foreign interference in American elections could remain a fiasco or become their motivating jolt into action.

#IFTTT #Politics – FiveThirtyEight #politics #538 #Clare Malone

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orbemnews · 3 years

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Russian opposition activists detained at a democratic forum in Moscow. The Kremlin says they were breaking Covid-19 protocol On Saturday, municipal deputies from Russia’s regions gathered in the Russian capital to discuss parliamentary and local elections — which are scheduled for September — at a forum held by United Democrats, a project aimed at supporting competitive election, according to their website. Opposition activist Ilya Yashin said 40 minutes into the event, police broke up the forum and detained around 150 deputies. “A very symbolic end to a short forum: deputies in police vans, and masked police are twisting people’s arms,” Yashin said on Facebook. “But nobody promised us the freedom on a silver platter. Russia will be free anyway,” he added. Yashin also posted images on Twitter of the moment he was taken away from the forum by police and from inside the police van. Anastasia Burakova, a coordinator of United Democrats told Russian state media RIA Novosti that the forum was held at the Izmailovo Delta Hotel, where municipal deputies from all over Russia gathered to discuss the strategy for the next electoral cycle and share their experiences with each other. “Everyone was detained who took part both as a listener and as a speaker. No reason was given,” Burakova told RIA Novosti. In a statement, Russia’s Ministry of Internal Affairs said that around 200 people had been detained, citing a breach of coronavirus restrictions. “In one of the hotel premises in Izmailovsky Highway, a group of residents, representatives of a public organization, made an attempt to hold a public event in violation of the established sanitary and epidemiological requirements — a considerable part of the participants did not have personal protective facilities,” the Interior Ministry statement said. The statement added that “besides, members of an organization whose activities are recognized as undesirable on the territory of the Russian Federation were identified among the participants,” and that police stopped the “illegal actions.” Prominent activist and Kremlin critic Vladimir Kara Murza — a longtime colleague and friend of assassinated opposition figure Boris Nemtsov — was listed among those detained. Murza, who says he was poisoned in 2015 and 2017, is the Chairman for the Boris Nemtsov Foundation for Freedom, a group committed “to the spread of education, freedom, and progressive development,” according to its website. OVD-Info, an independent monitoring group, said at least 180 people had been detained. For months, opposition activists have been met with a harsh show of force, demonstrated most clearly on January 31, when over 5,000 people were detained during nationwide protests in 85 cities in support of Navalny. The Ministry of Internal Affairs said that “checks are being conducted” on the activists detained on Saturday, and that “a decision will be undertaken in compliance with the law.” Source link Orbem News #activists #breaking #Covid19 #Democratic #detained #Forum #Kremlin #Moscow #opposition #protocol #Russian

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coochiequeens · 2 years

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Same thing happened in the UK and Norway but this case is even more disgusting. A man in a dress is using a woman’s experiences with abuse against her and claiming that she accused a man of color. Her is white.

A Brazilian feminist is reportedly facing up to 25 years in prison after being charged for calling a trans-identified male politician a “man” in a case she says she hopes will wake the world up about the impact of gender ideology on women’s rights.

Isabela Cêpa, also known by her social media handle FEMINISA, is a feminist influencer well-known in Brazil for her advocacy on the issues of sexual and domestic violence. She spoke exclusively to Reduxx on what she describes as “unconstitutional” criminal charges that have been formally lodged against her by the State on behalf of a trans-identified male politician – Erika Hilton of the Socialism and Liberty Party.

Hilton was elected to São Paolo’s municipal government in November of 2020, winning his seat by a landslide that gave him the title of the most voted-for ‘woman’ in Brazil.

At the time of his victory, Hilton was celebrated in international media as being a “symbolic triumph” for

transgender people. Hilton was amongst the top 10 most-voted for candidates in all of Brazil, and was touted as the “only woman” to make the list.

It was the widespread announcement of his victory that first put him on Cêpa’s radar.

“At the time I didn’t even know who this person was. I just saw a headline on an Instagram page celebrating that ‘the most voted woman in São Paulo is a transwoman,'” she says, recounting how her ordeal began, “Then, I shared a video with my followers saying I was disappointed to hear that the most voted-for woman in São Paulo – later found out that it was in the entire country – was a man.”

Cêpa says she left her home to go shopping, and when she had returned, a veritable firestorm of outrage had broken out, one which quickly spiraled out of control.

“When I arrived back home, I was already being attacked by thousands of people,” she describes, stating Suyanne Ynaya, an editor at ELLE magazine’s Brazil franchise and friend of Erika Hilton’s, had posted her Instagram video to Twitter, calling her out for describing Hilton a “man.”

But Ynaya’s attack didn’t just end there. The ELLE editor also accused Cêpa of filing a false sexual assault report against a Black man in an attempt to also paint her as a racist.

“This is something that just never happened. I’ve never reported a Black man for anything at all. So people started spreading the rumor that not only am I transphobic, but also a racist and a liar who takes advantage of the feminist movement to file false reports against innocent men of color.”

Cêpa told Reduxx she had been the victim of a sexual assault, but that her rapist was Caucasian. Despite that, Ynaya continued to spread the rumor that she had reported an Afro-Brazillian man, and even engaged beneath Cêpa’s tweets calling her “privileged and disgusting.”

On Instagram, Ynaya threatened to physically harm Cêpa multiple times, threats she brought to the Police but nothing was done.

“I have no idea why she did it … She deleted tweets when she realized it would result in criminal charges against her,” Cêpa says, noting that some survivors of sexual assault had begun to take issue with Ynaya’s campaign to delegitimize Cêpa’s sexual assault testimony, but the ELLE editor told them Cêpa did not deserve an apology because she was transphobic.

In an audio recording Cêpa provided to Reduxx for review, Ynaya is heard calling Cêpa a “racist” with mental health issues, and repeating the rumor that she had falsely accused a Black man of rape.

“I couldn’t count how many threats I received, between my social media profiles and e-mail,” Cêpa told Reduxx, saying that in the 24 hours after Ynaya launched her campaign, she lost over 11,000 followers on Instagram, “I was also uninvited to participate in a podcast where I was supposed to talk about sexual violence, as a survivor. My friends were threatened.”

But the social media attacks had more than a cursory impact on Cêpa’s life, they would also go on to impact a situation of domestic violence she was attempting to navigate shortly after.

“When I broke up with my [ex-boyfriend] after he raped me, he found a really comfortable space to say I was a false accuser. Things got to a point I coudn’t go out anymore without being taped, watched or photographed by his supporters – all women. His ex-girlfriend – a very fanatic trans ally – sent private information about the investigation to media, and then many people started saying online that I was a false accuser.”

Cêpa’s ex-partner was convicted of violating her restraining order against him last week, with an additional 6 alleged crimes still being investigated. Cêpa says that he told her in a recorded conversation that it was “way too easy” to convince others he hadn’t committed any wrongdoing against her because of the trans activist campaign that had been launched to discredit her.

While all of this was happening, Hilton was using Cêpa’s fall from popularity as a talking point. In early 2021, he mentioned he was planning on taking 50 people to police, of which Cêpa and her friend, whom he called a “mythomaniac,” were two of them.

Hilton didn’t report Cêpa to police until November of 2021, and in January, police would turn up to Cêpa’s mother’s workplace to ask for her whereabouts.

“They just gave her a document and she called me, worried. At the time I was traveling in another town and had to call the police station to understand what it was about,” Cêpa says, describing having to go to a local police station and speak with the officer there.

“When the officer told me it was about the politician I laughed. There was no other possible reaction … I said: Yes, I do defend women’s rights on a biological basis. There is no crime in stating the facts.”

After she spoke with police, Cêpa would be in the dark about developments in her case until June of 2022 when a reporter from a major Brazilian newspaper contacted her to ask for comment for a story she was writing on the charges.

“I heard about my charges for the first time on June 18th when a reporter from Folha sent me a direct message on Instagram asking for a statement, minutes before posting the article,” Cêpa says, “This was the first I had heard I was being formally criminally charged with anything.”

Cêpa learned from the Folha article that she was being charged with 5 counts of racism after the Public Prosecutor combed her social media feed to find other “transphobic” statements.

In 2019, Brazil’s Supreme Federal Court ruled that discrimination against ‘LGBTQ Community’ constituted a penal offense, but fell under existing race-based protections as a form of “social racism.” This came a few years after State Police in São Paolo began to include trans-identified males in “femicide” statistics.

In addition to learning about the charges, the outlet announced Cêpa was facing up to 25 years in prison, a figure she says was manufactured to discourage other feminists from speaking out on similar issues.

“That [25 years] would be more time than a murderer convicted in the first degree would get here,” she says, calling the threat of the sentence “psychological terrorism.”

Speaking with Reduxx on Cêpa’s case, Brazilian journalist Andreia Nobre points out political dynamics are likely playing a role in her ordeal.

“[Cêpa] is being punished by a man who says he’s trans, because Brazilian media outlets wrote that he was the most-voted female councillor of all time and she challenged it,” Nobre says, “All she stated was fact. How can anyone believe that a government composed of 50% males saying they are ‘cis’ and 50% males saying they are ‘trans’ would represent progress?”

Nobre, who is the author of the newly-released Grumpy Guide to Motherhood and critically-acclaimed Grumpy Guide to Radical Feminism, notes that females comprise less than 20% of political seats worldwide, and are massively underrepresented in politics in Brazil.

“It shows Brazilian women they are not humans deserving of rights,” Nobre says, “It is definitely a setback. We barely have our rights respected in Brazil.”

Despite still having no formal copy of the charges that have been filed against her by the State, Cêpa has put together a team of 12 female lawyers to fight on her behalf.

“It would be unconstitutional to convict me for any of these charges … I’ve been facing these kinds of attacks from trans activists for years, so when I heard about it, I just put my legal team together right away.”

Last year, Hilton announced he would be suing 50 people for “transphobic” remarks, but as of right now Cêpa says she is the only one who has been formally targeted. In reports made across Brazilian media last year, Hilton appeared to be using the threat of suing feminists as a re-election strategy, rallying his supporters around the idea he will sue them after having them criminally convicted, and give the settlement money to other trans-identified people.

Cêpa says she hopes her ordeal will show how women are losing basic constitutional rights to validate the feelings of males.

“This case is not about a hate crime, but about a difference in political views. No one can impose upon a woman a belief that her sex is irrelevant.”

By Anna Slatz

Anna is the Co-Founder and Editor-in-Chief at Reduxx, with a journalistic focus on covering crime, child predators, and women's rights. She lives in Canada, enjoys Opera, and kvetches in her spare time.

#Brazil #wrong think

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loyallogic · 4 years

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Sajjan Kumar gets convicted – Justice delivered or denied

This case summary is written by Shreya Tandon, from Vivekananda Institute of Professional Studies (VIPS), IP University. In this article the author covers the landmark judgment of the case named State through CBI Vs Sajjan Kumar vs Ors.

Introduction

The 1984 Anti- Sikh Riots are making a splash in headlines for decades. It again popped up in the news as the High Court reversed the Trial Court’s decision and convicted former members of the Parliament, Sajjan Kumar to be imprisoned for life. The court finally unmasked the cover-ups and stated that the instances during 1984 were equivalent to the acts against humanity. This judgment was delivered in the eleventh hour which unfortunately reflects the poor ability of the judicial authorities to deliver justice on time and gives lessons to learn.

Background screening

Sajjan Kumar is one of the most controversial leaders of his time belonging to the Indian National Congress. His journey has been massive from an active politician to a tendentious one. He was a close friend of Sanjay Gandhi who helped him enter politics. They were like two minds acting as one. The starting point of his journey began from 1977 when he contested Delhi municipal elections from Madipur and was appointed as a councilor in the consequent year itself. He was also the face of the Pradesh Congress Committee(PCC) and was allotted the post of General Secretary. His political career scaled heights when he became part of the consultative committee and Ministry of Works and housing in the 7th Lok Sabha Elections, 1980.

Afterward, he was re-elected as Lok Sabha member in the 10th and 14th Lok Sabha elections for the third time recurrently and he again won in 2004 by gaining the maximum number of votes. In the year 2018, he was made to leave the parliament as he was convicted and sent to imprisonment for life in the 1984 riots case. He is known as the mastermind and brainbox of the riots and is charged with involvement in the killing of five members of the Sikh family, namely- Raghuvender Singh, Kehar Singh, Narendra Pal Singh, Kehar Singh, and Kuldeep Singh via mob. He’s called as a symbol and face of mass killings at that time as he incited mobs to attack the Sikh community after the assassination of then Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi.

Connection with the 1984 riots

The unforgettable instance of 1984 riots can still bring goosebumps to each one of us. Listed below is the timeline of the present case which includes the history of riots and its repercussions.

Where did it all start

In 1984, Indira Gandhi, which was then the Prime Minister of India, proposed a military operation which was popularly known as Operation Blue Star. This operation took place inside the golden temple and aimed at eradicating Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale (Perceived as the leading influencer who proposed the idea of Khalistan) and other Sikh militants along with their weapons and regain control over Harmandir Sahib (Golden Temple) in Amritsar.

Incipiently, the origin of the operation emerges from the Khalistan Movement whose sole purpose was to create an independent state for the Sikh community. In other words, they demanded a fragmented India, that is, North-Western Part which segregates Sikhs from other citizens of the country.

This is one of the most gigantic and colossal missions which was taken by the Indian army and it lasted for ten days, starting from 1st June 1984 to that of 10th June 1984.

The army used tanks, armored vehicles, weapons, and helicopters to have full control over the Golden Temple which also led to the destruction of Akal Takhat and ‘Guru Ram Das Langar’.

The situation became horrible each passing day. Media faced a blackout. Curfew was imposed in Amritsar. People were deprived of the resources and were confined to their homes. Electricity and water supply was shut down. The internet services were completely blocked and no outsider was allowed to enter the state. The military assault bulldozed tension amongst the Sikh community and created a situation of apprehension all over the globe. In June 1984, 83 army deaths and 49 civilian deaths were reported.

The worst was yet to come. The outrage of the Sikh community and the rage resulted in the most notable event of this operation that is, the assassination of Indira Gandhi. This was done by her two Sikh bodyguards who shot her dead by firing thirty-three bullets inside her. This took place on 31st October 1984, four months after the operation.

This had a huge impact and became one of the major setbacks for the nation. This was not the end, the situation worsens. The anti-Sikh riots began on 1st November 1984.

Amongst the other Union territories, New Delhi was one of the tops in the list that claimed to have more than 3,000 deaths of Sikhs and the official number is still in the question. Sikhs were being beaten to death, their houses were burnt by the mobs, women and girls were raped, children killed, dead bodies were neither recognizable nor were traceable. At least 50,000 people were displaced and thrown out of their houses. 10,000 business places were destroyed. Northern parts of India also reported attacks on forty-three Sikhs.

54 Cases, 426 Murders and none convicted. Despite all this, there were hardly any FIRs being noted.

How did Sajjan Kumar gain limelight and come into the picture

In 2000, the Nanavati Commission was set up to scrutinize the whole critical situation of riots.

In the year 2005, the matter went to the Central Bureau of Investigation(CBI) and after five years that is in 2010 charge- sheet was filed.

Summons were issued against Sajjan Kumar, Balwan Khokkar, Mahender Yadav, Captain Bagmal, Girdhari Lal, Krishan Khokkar, the late Maha Singh and Santosh Rani, who was named as the accused. While the case moved forward, the three fearless prime witnesses came into the scene, namely:

Jagdish Kaur (PW-1)

Jagsher Singh (PW-6)

Nirpreet Kaur (PW-10)

The Special Investigation Team (SIT) gave a list of a total of 18 witnesses including Naresh Sherawat and Yahspal Singh in its charge sheet.

In 2013, the session court passed a judgment and acquitted Sajjan Kumar.

In 2015, The Ministry of Home Affairs set up SIT and was given the duty to reinvestigate 187 cases. On 6th December 2017, these cases were closed without any investigation. Then the Supreme Court took the matter in its own hands and decided to work on the same to find out as to why those cases have been closed without giving any reason.

The Trial Court’s Judgment was challenged in 2018, the Delhi High Court ordered the death penalty to convict Yashpal and awarded life term imprisonment to Shikhawat.

Further on 18th December 2018, the Delhi High Court reversed its decision and held Sajjan Kumar guilty by granting him Life Imprisonment for the remainder of his natural life.

The matter is pending in Supreme Court and recently in 2020, Sajjan Kumar was denied the opportunity of getting bail.

Identification of parties and the corum

Parties: State through CBI Vs.Sajjan Kumar and others

Corum: Justice S. Muralidhar

Justice Vinod Goel

Issues of vital importance

There are several charges which are booked against Sajjan Kumar but the most important one that he stands accused of is that he has murdered 5 people of the Sikh community living in the Raj Nagar area in Palam Colony, Delhi on 1st and 2nd of November,1984.

The other matter being related to the burning of Gurudwara situated in Raj Nagar phase 2.

The following are some other charges which were framed against him

Punishment of criminal conspiracy (Section 120B)

Rioting (Section 146)

Punishment for rioting (Section 147)

Rioting, armed with a deadly weapon (Section 148)

Promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc., and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony (Section 153A )

Injury or defiling place of worship, with intent to insult the religion of any class (Section 295)

Murder (Section 300)

Punishment for murder (Section 302)

Dacoity (Section 391)

Punishment for dacoity (Section 395)

Robbery, or dacoity, with an attempt to cause death or grievous hurt (Section 397)

Mischief (Section 425)

Mischief by fire or explosive substance with intent to destroy a house, etc (Section 436)

House-trespass in order to commit an offense punishable with death (Section 449)

Statements conducted to public mischief (Section 505)

Trial Court and High Court’s judgment

Way back in 2013 the trial court held Sajjan Kumar to be not guilty and set him free on the following grounds:

One of the Prime Witnesses of the crime was Jagdish Kaur (PW-1). She gave her statement against Sajjan Kumar’s acts. It was held to be inconsistent as they were hearsay and he deserved ‘The benefit of Doubt.’ The court said that this statement should have prima facie emerged but didn’t at the time when she testified during her investigation which took place before the Nanavati Commission. The court observed,

“The prima facie statement was made by Jagdish Kaur in the year 1985. Till then, there was no mention of Kumars’ name. But later In the year 2007, when she was told to dictate the whole incidence under Section 161 CrPC, Sajjan Kumar’s name popped up from nowhere.”

Following the above, the statement of PW-1 came up almost 27 years after the incident. The court observed that Kaur did not specifically mention Kumar’s role in her statement given to the Justice Ranganath Misra Commission in 1985. However, in 2002, almost two decades later, Kaur stated in a court affidavit that Kumar’s role was “not to be brushed aside”.

Nirpreet Kaur(PW-10) statements were proved to be not reliable as she first mentioned Kumar in the year 2007.

The role of police authority was also criticized due to which there was hardly any evidence available in the court to help the court turn its decision. According to the official number total number of deaths was 341 and only 21 FIRs were registered in the police station out of which only 15 included the charge of murder. Lack of proper investigation and carelessness was observed on part of the authority. Neither the dead bodies were found nor the investigation took place properly. The cases which should have been recorded separately were clubbed together in only one FIR in Delhi Cantonment.

Despite all odds, this is how the Jat leader got away from the conspiracy by the loopholes present in the court of law.

The Trial Court’s Judgement was challenged in High court by the Central Bureau of Investigation and since 2013 it has appeared before the bench more than 100 times. The case was first heard on 27th May 2013 by Justice Pratibha Rani.

The case finally made it through the leeway after 2016 when it was under former CJI Gita Mittal. But after her transfer to Jammu and Kashmir, the case was transferred to Justice Muralidhar and Justice Goel who finally delivered the judgment within two months.

The Trial Court’s judgment was set aside and life term imprisonment was granted to Kumar. Along with this, the death penalty was awarded to one of the victims, Yashpal, and life term to Shikhawat.

The court by considering all the shreds of evidence, proofs and gravity of the case observed that,

“The Court would like to note that cases of the present kind are indeed extraordinary and require a different approach to be adopted by the Courts…

…The mass killings of Sikhs between 1st and 4th November 1984 in Delhi and the rest of the country, engineered by political actors with the assistance of the law enforcement agencies, answer the description of “crimes against humanity.”

Political Patronage emerged as a disgraceful reason that kept him away from what he deserved until 34 years. In its judgment, the high court pointed out that a “majority of the perpetrators of these horrific mass crimes, enjoyed political patronage and were aided by an indifferent law enforcement agency. The criminals escaped prosecution and punishment for over two decades”.

It also acknowledged, “bringing such criminals to justice poses a serious challenge to our legal system”.

“It is important to assure those countless victims waiting patiently that despite the challenges, the truth will prevail and justice will be done,” the court said.

And finally, the four who never gave up and fought the battle for so long made it and succeeded in putting Kumar behind the bars and made him pay for his deeds.

SC on bail plea hearing

The above-stated judgment of the High Court has been challenged in the Supreme Court as well and the matter is still pending before the court of law. Recently an interim bail petition was filed in the Supreme Court by Sajjan Kumar citing medical grounds, the apex court hearing the matter through video conferencing rejected the same and has directed that the court will hear the petition for regular bail in the month of July. This was stated by the bench Justice Indu Malhotra and Hrishikesh Roy.

Analysis of the whole case

On 31st October 1984, the then Prime Minister, Smt. Indira Gandhi, was assassinated by two of her Sikh bodyguards which led to a communal crisis in the country and which further resulted in bloodshed. From 1st to 4th November of that year, all over Delhi, 2,733 Sikhs were brutally murdered and their houses were destroyed. Thousands of Sikhs were killed in other parts of the country as well.

A majority of culprits involved in these dreadful mass killings were protected by various political connections and law enforcement agencies. These criminals avoided prosecution and punishment for over 21 years after which the investigation was taken over by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

The main issue of concern was, There are a number of charges which are booked against him but the most important one that he stands accused of is that he has committed the murder of 5 people of Sikh Community living in Raj Nagar area in Palam Colony on 1st and 2nd of November. Another issue was concerning the burning of Gurudwara situated in Raj Nagar phase 2.

Sajjan Kumar, the Congress MP who was allegedly the Kingpin of these horrific killings was charged with having committed the offense of criminal conspiracy punishable under Section 120B read with Sections 146,147, 148, 153A, 295,300, 302, 395,397, 425, 436, 427, 436, 449, and 505 of the Indian Penal Code on account of agreeing, on or about 31st October 1984, with his accomplices including police personnel.

On 30th April 2013, the trial court acquitted Sajjan Kumar of all charges citing that the statement of the witness cannot be relied upon as the witness did not state at an earlier stage and the statement was added later. Also, the court found the evidence against Sajjan Kumar to be hearsay, and hence he was acquitted of all charges.

CBI challenged the above-stated judgment of the trial court in the Delhi High Court.

On 17th December 2018, the Delhi High Court set aside the acquittal of A-1 (Sajjan Kumar) by the trial Court. He was convicted of the offense of criminal conspiracy punishable under Section 120B read with Sections 302, 436, 295, and 153A (1) (a) and (b) IPC; for the offense punishable under Section 109 IPC of abetting the commission of the aforementioned offenses; and for the offense of delivering provocative speeches instigating violence against Sikhs punishable under Section 153A (1) (a) and (b) IPC. And he was sentenced to life imprisonment (for the remainder of his life).

The above-stated judgment of the High Court has been challenged in the Supreme Court as well and the matter is still pending before the court of law.

Recently on 11th March 2020, an interim bail petition was filed in the Supreme Court by Sajjan Kumar citing medical grounds, the apex court hearing the matter through video conferencing rejected the same and has directed that the court will hear the petition for regular bail in the month of July.

Conclusion

This verdict delivered by the Supreme court has finally quenched the thirst for justice of thousands of families across the country. Woefully, it is a fact that such type of violence cannot take place without any political backing, and leaders who are perpetrators are most likely to get away with it by using political means. This is sadly the reason that when such landmark judgments are pronounced against them, they serve more as a nudge of the unexecuted task of justice. The Apex court while delivering this judgment stated, “It is important to assure those countless victims waiting patiently that despite the challenges, the truth will prevail and justice will be done”

Tears filled in eyes and the pain of losing the family members have finally been substituted by the High Court, calling it a dark chapter in the history of India that upholds 70 convictions about the 1984 Sikh- Riots. We also see that political leaders welcome Sajjan Kumar’s conviction.

Such genocide crimes not only disturb the peace of the country but also put a tag on the harmony as well as the constitution. The sufferings of the victims of riots are unmeasurable but there have been a number of reasons for the delay. Firstly, there is a need to understand the importance and purpose of the rule of law. It takes not only time but also apt evidence, proofs, and investigation to reach a fair judgment as it’ll affect the lives of many people. There is a need for a systematic time framework system. In this case, especially, lack of investigation and failure to perform duty by police officers have played a major role in delaying such judgment which should have been delivered years ago. It needs to be understood that each one of us will be benefited from the strengthened applications of the procedure of law.

The struggle for victims is still not over and there is still a long way to go as now the matter is more likely to be in the Apex Court which will again take plenty of time to deliver the final judgment. Justice not only needs to be done but should also seem to be done. For now, we all must serve both sides of the argument and make peace to have a positive impact on the future.

References

https://time.com/3545867/india-1984-sikh-genocide-anniversary/

https://www.barandbench.com/columns/sajjan-kumar-case-the-long-quest-for-justice-and-lessons-to-learn

https://gulfnews.com/world/asia/india/anti-sikh-riots-what-happened-in-1984-and-after-1.60501721

https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/sajjan-kumar-convicted-1984-riots-arun-jaitley-delhi-high-court-1411069-2018-12-17

https://www.outlookindia.com/website/story/india-news-police-judiciary-ensured-1984-anti-sikh-rioters-are-not-punished-sit-report/346172#:~:text=F.I.R%20No.,-503%2F91&text=In%20an%20affidavit%20filed%20before,rioters%20from%20entering%20their%20locality.

https://www.deccanherald.com/national/delhi-court-awards-death-703991.html

https://indiankanoon.org/doc/4190613/

https://theprint.in/politics/sajjan-kumar-the-powerful-jat-leader-who-remained-untouched-by-1984-riots-for-25-years/165030/

https://www.deccanherald.com/national/1984-anti-sikh-riots-delhi-hc-705366.html

https://www.deccanherald.com/national/aap-bjp-punjab-cong-leader-708573.html

https://www.deccanherald.com/national/1984-anti-sikh-riots-delhi-hc-708569.html

LawSikho has created a telegram group for exchanging legal knowledge, referrals and various opportunities. You can click on this link and join:

https://t.me/joinchat/J_0YrBa4IBSHdpuTfQO_sA

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stopkingobama · 7 years

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Trump Day One Executive Actions Could Include Immigration, Obamacare, ISIS, and Trade

Photo: Gage Skidmore (cc by-sa 2.0)

President-elect Donald Trump plans to use “four or five” executive actions on Friday after being sworn into office, incoming White House press secretary Sean Spicer told reporters.

“We’ve talked about that for a few months now—Obamacare, the fight against ISIS, he talked about immigration, key issues that have been important to him throughout the campaign that will continue to be important to him throughout this administration,” Spicer said Thursday at a press briefing.

This comes after Wednesday, when Spicer told reporters that Trump will have “in the area of four or five” executive actions during his first day in office.

During the Thursday press briefing, Spicer said Trump is committed to using executive actions beyond Day One.

“I think the president-elect is still working through which [executive actions] he wants to deal with tomorrow versus Monday or Tuesday,” Spicer said.

When later asked about trade, Spicer said Trump will move on taking action on the North American Free Trade Agreement and the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

“Part of what he announced in the executive order list, around Thanksgiving time, included actions on both TPP and NAFTA that will be done by executive order,” Spicer said. “So I think you will see those happen very shortly.”

During the campaign, Trump announced his first action to protect American workers will be to announce his plan to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement, a trade deal between the United States, Canada, and Mexico, with the threat of withdrawal if necessary. He also intends to withdraw from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, an 11-nation trade agreement negotiated by the Obama administration.

Ditching the Trans-Pacific Partnership would be largely symbolic because the agreement is essentially dead on arrival in Congress. But early executive actions by presidents are frequently symbolic, to mark a turning of the page in policy, said Dan Mahaffee, vice president for the Center for the Study of the Presidency & Congress, a nonpartisan education and public policy organization.

“Early in administrations, executive actions are used to fire up the base, but it also fires up the opposition,” Mahaffee told The Daily Signal.

Trump’s first 100-day plan, which includes potential executive actions on immigration, ethics, and energy, says he will “cancel every unconstitutional executive action, memorandum, and order issued by President [Barack] Obama.”

Geoffrey Skelley, a political analyst with the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics, anticipates more than symbolism from Trump’s earliest days.

“On one hand, symbolism could be a good place to start while the administration figures out how to implement a certain policy, but at the same time, I’m more inclined to think Donald Trump will run right into the fire,” Skelley said.

In the 100-day plan, Trump has said he would impose a lifetime ban on former White House staffers becoming lobbyists for a foreign government.

He also pledged to lift restrictions on energy production, which could include reversing Obama’s executive-imposed Clean Power Plan, for what he said would be $50 trillion worth of jobs.

With regard to immigration, the Islamic State, and Obamacare, some actions could be broad. For example, a president has wide latitude as commander-in-chief to combat the Islamic State.

Only Congress can repeal Obamacare. However, Trump could reverse some of the executive enforcement actions by the Obama administration, such as directing the Department of Health and Human Services to end mandated insurance coverage for abortion-inducing drugs, contraception, and therapy or surgery for gender transition.

On immigration, which was a signature issue for Trump during the campaign, he has said one of the actions he would take in the first 100 days is canceling federal funding to sanctuary cities or municipalities that don’t enforce federal immigration law.

Trump has also vowed to begin removing more than 2 million criminal illegal immigrants from the country, which is largely a federal law enforcement matter.

Commentary by Fred Lucas, the Daily Signal

#Donald Trump #executive actions #Executive Orders

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coochiequeens · 3 years

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BR — . A male politician is receiving international acclaim for having “won the most votes of any woman in Brazil.” Erika Hilton, who self-identifies as a woman, was elected to São Paulo’s city council by a landslide on 15 November, 2020.

France 24, a French state-owned, Paris-based international news television network, celebrated Hilton’s win as a “symbolic triumph,” a “breakthrough vote,” noting that, with 50,361 votes, the then 27-year-old Socialism and Liberty Party (PSoL) member “broke into the top 10 most-voted candidates nationwide, the only woman to make the list.”

Hilton, who self-identifies as a woman, topped British Vogue‘s list of “changemakers: women making a positive contribution to society.” Sarah McBride, who is male, also received recognition on the list of six for becoming the first transgender-identifying individual in the US to be elected state senator. Hilton was among 30 transgender-identifying individuals, including 25 city councillors, elected to office in Brazil in 2020, up from eight in 2016. Transgender-identifying individuals now hold 0.04% of city council seats. Individuals who identify as transgender are estimated to represent 0.69% of Brazil’s population. Male individuals who self-identify as women are making greater strides than women toward achieving proportional representation in the city council. According to World Bank data, women make up approximately 50.85% of Brazil’s population, and won just 16% of city council seats in 2020, up from 13% in 2016 (this number includes male candidates who self-identify as women).

Black women, who are 27.8% of the Brazilian population and the largest demographic group in the nation, won 6% of council seats in 2020. In 2,952 municipalities in the nation, not a single black woman was elected councilwoman. On 14 March, 2018, councillor Marielle Franco, who was at the time the only black woman in the legislature of Brazil’s Rio de Janeiro Chamber, was murdered in what many believe was an act of terrorism designed to keep women of similar origins out of positions of power.

Female individuals who self-identify as men also lag behind their male counterparts politically. For the first time in Brazil, candidates running in the 2020 elections were permitted to run under a ‘social name’, which allows transgender-identifying individuals to compete for office without being ‘dead-named’ (referred to by the name given at birth prior to taking on a transgender identity). 81.87% of candidates running under a ‘social name’ self-identified as women, while the other 31 (18.13%) self-identified as men. It is yet to be seen whether the preference for male candidates who self-identify as women over female candidates will become a pattern worldwide.

In the nation of Thailand, transgender-identifying individuals have outpaced women politically, holding 0.53% of seats in Thailand’s Parliament while comprising just 0.3% of the Thai population – a number nearly 1.8 times their portion of the general population. Meanwhile women, who make up 51% of the population of Thailand, have struggled to gain a foothold in politics, holding a mere 5% of seats in the country’s Parliament.

In the US, Emilia Decaudin, a male who self-identifies as ‘non-binary’-gendered, won a Female District Leader seat in Queens, New York with 52.56% of votes. 46.97% of votes went to Deirdre A. Feerick, Decaudin’s experienced female competitor and the Queens Democratic Party’s endorsee. Starting in 1920, shortly after American women won the right to vote, one district leader seat had been guaranteed to a man and the other to a woman as part of an effort by Eleanor Roosevelt and the League of Women Voters to ensure sex parity in politics. The rule remained until 2019, when Decaudin denounced it as “an outdated concept” that reinforced the “gender binary,” and persuaded local Democrats to rewrite the rule so that two people who “do not identify as the same gender” could be elected by the district. The move opened the door to Decaudin’s later, successful run.

Ladies run for office. If you don’t want to start big at the state level look at your town. What positions are vacant, who has been in office for ever, etc. If your don have the time to run look at who is running for what near you? Try to support the campaigns for women you agree with.

Because men want to be progressive but actually voting for a woman 🤷🏻‍♀️

#Brazil #TIMs in politics

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americanlibertypac · 7 years