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Published by Reuters By Alvise Armellini ROME (Reuters) – Italy’s courts should stick to tradition and avoid the novelty of gender-neutral symbols in official documents, according to the institution that acts as the guardian of the Italian language. The Accademia della Crusca was asked to weigh in on the matter by the equal opportunities committee of the Corte di Cassazione, Italy’s top appeals body, illustrating the national debate over gender issues and political correctness. In Italian, as in other Latin-based tongues, nouns can take a feminine or masculine form, but the plural masculine form tends to take precedence. For example, the masculine form “tutti” is routinely used for “everyone”, rather than the feminine “tutte”. Some see this as an expression of male dominance and support the introduction of gender-neutral noun endings, such as asterisks or the so-called “schwa”, a symbol that looks like an inverted “e”. For example, an email or a letter to a man or a woman would no longer start with “caro” or “cara” (dear), but with the gender neutral “car*”, which would also replace the plural “cari”. But the Accademia della Crusca, in its response to the Cassazione, rejected these changes for legal documents, saying they would be artificial and supported only by minority groups, “however well-intentioned.” “Legal language is not the right place for minoritarian innovative experimentations,” the Accademia said in a six-page opinion that Reuters reviewed on Monday, after the Corriere della Sera newspaper first reported on it. The Accademia said the Italian masculine plural form remains “the best instrument” to collectively represent “all genders and orientations”, but also backed the wider use of the feminine form of professional titles. In October, Italy’s first woman prime minister, right-wing leader Giorgia Meloni, sparked controversy after saying the preferred her title of “Presidente del Consiglio” to be preceded by the masculine article “il”, rather than the feminine “la”. (Reporting by Alvise Armellini; Editing by Keith Weir) View the full article

Published by PsyPost New research sheds light on the cultural values that played a key role in shaping people’s attitude toward Donald Trump and their intentions to vote for the Republican candidate in 2016. The findings, published in New Political Science, indicate that beliefs related to hegemonic masculinity, race/ethnicity, and authorities on truth influenced the likelihood of adults developing an affinity for Trump. “As social scientists, we were particularly interested in the social forces that encouraged people to develop affinities for Donald Trump — who was such a controversial, divisive, and fascinating … Read More View the full article

Published by uInterview.com Actor Lukas Gage revealed that he feels pressured to label his sexuality. “An agent that dropped me was like, ‘Stop dyeing your hair, stop wearing weird clothes, and pick a lane: gay, bi, or straight. It’s too confusing,’” he told The New York Times. “I understand representation and voices that need to be heard, but I don’t want to do anything on anyone’s accord but my own.” 50 BEST CELEBRITY BIKINIS SLIDESHOW! “Let me do it when I’m ready. And it’s acting. I feel like everyone should get the opportunity to play whatever they want,” Gage continued. “I’m a pretty open book about most things in … Read More View the full article

Published by New York Daily News A masked protester was arrested during clashing demonstrations outside a Manhattan drag story hour hosted by state Attorney General Letitia James Sunday, cops said. The gold-masked man was taken into custody about 11:30 a.m. after an assault at the protest outside the LGBTQ Community Center on W. 13th St. in Greenwich Village. Video posted on Twitter shows a small group of protesters, including a man in a Proud Boys sweatshirt, across the street from the center while a much larger crowd of counter-protesters lined the sidewalk to show their support for the event. At one point, the gold-masked … Read More View the full article

Published by AlterNet Rep. Park Cannon (D-GA) is committed to helping her colleagues understand the dangers of banning gender-affirming care in Georgia. According to The Cullman Times, a Georgia GOP-backed bill could allow the banning of “sex reassignment surgeries or any other surgical procedures and hormone replacement therapies that are performed on anyone younger than age 18 for the purpose of altering primary or secondary sexual characteristics.” As Georgia House members gathered last week to vote on the legislation, Cannon, who is only queer, pleaded with her colleagues to protect transgender children. READ M… Read More View the full article

Published by AlterNet After the 2022 midterms gave Republicans a narrow single-digit majority in the U.S. House of Representatives, the reelected Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-California) made a major announcement: She would be remaining in Congress but stepping down as Democratic House leader. Pelosi, now 82, was ready to pass the torch, and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-New York) was chosen as House minority leader. Jeffries now finds himself frequently butting heads with conservative House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-California). Journalist Nolan D. McCaskill takes a look at Pelosi’s post-speaker life in an article published by … Read More View the full article

Published by Reuters By John Kruzel WASHINGTON – The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear a traveling Christian evangelist’s free-speech challenge to a University of Alabama requirement that he obtain a permit before handing out religious pamphlets and preaching from a sidewalk adjacent to its campus. The justices turned away an appeal by preacher Rodney Keister of a lower court’s ruling rejecting his claim that the university’s permit requirement violated free speech rights under the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment. Keister, founder of a Pennsylvania-based group called Evangelism Mission, regularly visits U.S. university campuses in hopes of spreading his Christian message to students, according to court filings. In 2016, Keister, along with a companion, preached using an amplifier and distributed Christian literature from a sidewalk adjacent to the University of Alabama campus in Tuscaloosa, trying to engage passersby. School officials told Keister he needed a permit for a public-speaking event, prompting him and his companion to leave. The university’s policy at issue governed when, where and how a person unaffiliated with the school may engage in public speaking on campus including on sidewalks, other than “casual recreational or social activities.” It required a permit application 10 business days in advance – which has since been reduced to five business days – and sponsorship by a student organization or university academic department. Keister in 2017 filed a civil rights suit against University of Alabama officials, arguing that the sidewalk’s status under the First Amendment is that of a “traditional public forum,” affording speakers the most robust protections available under the Constitution. Following losses in lower courts, Keister’s appeal in 2018 was turned away by the U.S. Supreme Court, prompting him to file an amended civil rights suit against school officials the next year. A federal judge in 2020 ruled in favor of the school officials, finding that the sidewalk was a “limited public forum” – a status giving public universities and other government entities more leeway to regulate particular classes of speakers or kinds of speech. The Atlanta-based 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed last year. The Supreme Court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority, in recent years has taken an expansive view of religious rights, though this case came to the justices as a free speech dispute. The high court is due to rule by the end of June in another free speech case involving religion. The court’s conservative justices during arguments in December appeared ready to rule that a Christian web design business owner named Lorie Smith has a right to refuse to provide services for same-sex marriages. Smith has said that under her Christian beliefs marriage should be limited to opposite-sex couples. (Reporting by John Kruzel; Editing by Will Dunham) View the full article

Published by DPA Jan Hempel, former world-class water diver, is pictured in the studio of the ARD talk show "Maischberger". Hempel has announced he will sue the German Swimming Federation (DSV) for compensation and damages after being sexually abused by his coach during his career. Henning Kaiser/dpa Former German top diver Jan Hempel has announced he will sue the German Swimming Federation (DSV) for compensation and damages after being sexually abused by his coach during his career. Hempel’s lawyer, Thomas Summerer, told broadcasters ARD in an interview Sunday that they were seeking more than €1 million ($1.07 million) from the DSV. Hempel went public with the case last year, and the legal complaint says the two-time Olympic medallist was abused more than 1,200 times during his career by the late coach Werner Langer over 14 years in the 1980s and 1990s. “It is the most blatant case of abuse that German sport has ever experienced,” Summerer said. The lawyer spoke of a precedent which could open the door for other athletes to take similar action, and that they were ready to fight in court for many years, if necessary. “The German Swimming Federation organisation has completely failed in monitoring and controlling its coaches. There was only cover-up. This organisational culpability leads to a federation being liable,” Summerer said. Hempel had accused the DSV of cover-up last year. The federation then suspended national team coach Lutz Buschkow who was said to have known of the abuse but had done nothing. Buschkow said he only became aware of it when Hempel went public. Summerer said they had talked with the DSV about compensation and that there had been a verbal agreement in principle but that they were now going to court because nothing has happened since then. “Nothing has happened that would keep our confidence in the German swimming federation high,” he said. View the full article

Published by DPA Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (R) shakes hands with President of Finland Sauli Niinisto during their meeting at the Presidential Complex. -/Turkish Presidency/dpa President Sauli Niinistö has defended Finland’s decision to proceed with accession to NATO without its neighbour Sweden on the grounds that rejecting Turkey’s pending ratification of its candidacy would have been problematic. “Should we have rejected ratification by Turkey? That sounds a bit crazy,” Niinistö said in an interview with Sweden’s SVT national public service that was broadcast in full on Saturday evening. “It would have been a very problematic situation, if we had said no to Ankara,” he added. Niinistö’s comments came after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced on Friday that his government would begin the ratification process for Finland. While he had always emphasized that Finland would go “hand-in-hand” with Sweden to the extent that the decision was theirs to make, ratification ultimately lay with Turkey and Hungary, the two NATO member still to ratify the applications, Niinistö said. After decades of neutrality, the two Nordic countries applied to join the trans-Atlantic defence alliance last May following Russia’s full invasion of Ukraine. They made clear that they wished to join together. Turkey continues to block Swedish accession on the grounds that Sweden refuses to extradite 120 people seen by Turkey as terrorists. Hungary too has yet to ratify the Finnish application, with a decision expected on March 27. View the full article

Published by AlterNet In an article published by The Nation on March 7, attorney Elie Mystal — who has often appeared as a legal analyst on MSNBC — laid out some reasons why former President Donald Trump could face a criminal indictment in the months ahead but still win the 2024 GOP presidential nomination and possibly even end up back in the White House on January 20, 2025. It remains to be seen whether or not such an indictment will come about, or whether the Republican Party’s next presidential nominee will be Trump, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (assuming that he runs) or someone else. But Trump is facing a variety… Read More View the full article

Published by Raw Story Clashes between Proud Boys and counter-protesters led to at least one arrest on Sunday. The incidents occurred on 7th Avenue in New York City at the Drag Queen Story Hour with Attorney General Letitia James event. Videos shared online showed some protesters wearing gear and colors associated with the Proud Boys. Members of the far-right group were seen clashing with counter-protesters in the street. One video shows a man in Proud Boys colors being arrested. ALSO IN THE NEWS: ‘Enough is enough’: Dem fires back at GOP meltdown over possible Trump indictment In another video, a group member appea… Read More View the full article

Published by Knewz A Ukrainian soldier has it under good authority that the eastern European Country will be developing a bomb that has an uncanny resemblance to a penis. The once-journalist now a warrior, known on Twitter as Spaghetti Kozak has revealed that Ukraine is developing a bomb that is not only capable of bringing death and injury to Russian troops on the frontline but also insult in that the weapon is phallic-shaped. Spaghetti Kozak has claimed this ‘phallic’ bomb is created using 3D printing techniques and wrote in a tweet “serious historians of this war will be forced to record that dozens of Russia… Read More View the full article

Published by BANG Showbiz English Martina Navratilova and her wife Julia Lemigova have put their plans to adopt a child on hold as the sports star battles cancer. The 66-year-old tennis legend and her partner had been hoping to expand their family this year, but Julia has now revealed they halted the process after Martina was diagnosed with stage one throat cancer and breast cancer in January as they want to wait until she has recovered before bringing a child into their home. Speaking on ‘The Real Housewives of Miami’ reunion show, Julia explained: “When you’re adopting a child, it has to be about the child. And right now it’s everything about Martina and for her getting health. We’re putting it on hold. “We were thinking any moment the agency would call and give us the happy news that we were going to have a baby.” Host Andy Cohen asked if they were far along in the adoption process, and Julia replied: “Instead, we are fighting two cancers. Like one is not enough. I’m just waiting for Martina to get better.” Julia went on to thank fans for all their messages of support, saying: “I want to thank all of you here for reaching out and for showing your support. Thank you so much, she’s going through a very hard time right now.” The couple married in 2014 and Julia is mum to two daughters Emma, 17, and Victoria, 21, from a previous relationship. She also had a son who died when he was an infant. Martina – who won 59 Grand Slam singles and doubles titles in her four-decade career – went public with her cancer diagnosis in January after discovering an enlarged lymph node in her neck in November. Tests later confirmed she had stage one throat cancer and another “suspicious form” was then found in her breast which was unrelated. Martina said: “This double whammy is serious but still fixable. I’m hoping for a favourable outcome. It’s going to stink for a while but I’ll fight with all I have got.” It comes 13 years after the tennis icon underwent radiation therapy for breast cancer and was given the all-clear after undergoing six weeks of chemotherapy. A spokeswoman for Martina added both her cancers “are in early stage with great outcomes”, saying in a statement: “Martina Navratilova has been diagnosed with stage one throat cancer. The prognosis is good and Martina will start her treatment this month. “The cancer type is HPV and this particular type responds really well to treatment. Martina noticed an enlarged lymph node in her neck during the WTA finals in Fort Worth. When it didn’t go down, a biopsy was performed, the results came back as stage one throat cancer. “At the same time as Martina was undergoing the tests for the throat, a suspicious form was found in her breast, which was subsequently diagnosed as cancer, completely unrelated to the throat cancer. “Both these cancers are in their early stages with great outcomes.” View the full article

Published by Sports Illustrated By Madison Williams The 25-year-old admitted he initially didn’t intend to come out during his fighting career because of the possibility of negative responses. After an intimate video of UFC fighter Jeff Molina was posted without his permission on Thursday, the 25-year-old posted a statement on social media Friday revealing he is bisexual. In his statement, Molina said he preferred to come out on his own terms but stated that he wanted the news to come from him. Based on his statement, it sounds as if Molina didn’t intend to come out during his mixed martial arts career because he was worried… Read More View the full article

Published by Raw Story The latest episode of ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ takes aim at right-wing inspired drag bans, The Daily Beast reports. The Emmy-award winning reality show in its 15 season features a conversation in which the artists get real about the rise of anti-LGBTQ+ targeting in America. The episode was filmed last year, but aired following the passage of a sweeping Tennessee bill that restricts “adult cabarets” in public or in the presence of children, and bans such performances anywhere within 1,000 feet of schools, public parks, or places of worship. “It feels like we’re taking a giant step back,” said Anetr… Read More View the full article

Published by AFP Sensitivity readers are fair game in children's fiction, argue some authors — but adults have the option to put a book down if it offends them Washington (AFP) – It’s a profession which is increasingly under the spotlight as the culture wars rumble on: “sensitivity readers” — editors who identify insensitivities or stereotypes in manuscripts — are becoming a lightning rod for the publishing industry. Such readers have worked in the wings of the Western literary world for years now, though they were largely confined to children’s literature. But amid social reckonings such as the #MeToo and Black Lives Matter movements, sensitivity readers are becoming prominent in contemporary fiction publishing also — and not everyone is pleased about it. Publishers “are doing a damn good job, trying to ruin our books, and to ruin our fun as readers,” the American author of “We Need To Talk About Kevin,” Lionel Shriver, complained on ultra-conservative British channel GB News last month. Sensitivity readers have recently been pilloried again with the announcement that books by children’s writer Roald Dahl and Ian Fleming, the author of the James Bond novels, were being republished to be more adapted to current sensibilities. In Dahl’s books, for example, some characters are no longer identified as “fat” or “crazy.” Fleming’s books were being reissued with racial references — including the N-word — removed. Accusations of censorship began flying almost immediately from observers who fear sanitized literature could whitewash the past as well as the present. “People say that, but I don’t feel that they understand the process,” Patrice Williams Marks, a Los Angeles-based sensitivity reader, tells AFP. “If you’re writing about a people or community that you’re unfamiliar with, and you want it to be authentic… then you find somebody who’s a sensitivity reader who’s part of that community and ask for their opinions,” she explains. “I always let them know that they don’t have to accept the changes that I suggest,” says Lola Isabel Gonzalez, another sensitivity reader, also based in Los Angeles. Modern censors? So who are “sensitivity readers”? Mostly they are freelance editors, often paid by the word or number of pages — and with strict confidentiality clauses, of course — by authors or publishers concerned about the accuracy of their manuscripts. Or, as critics charge, to avoid at all costs the disaster of being canceled in a social media storm over a faux pas. The proofreaders often list their areas of expertise: “child of immigrants,” “bisexual,” “autistic,” “hijabi,” “deaf,” “expertise in both mainland Chinese and Hong Kong culture” and so on. “There are good reasons for regulating children’s reading: it is foundational and formational,” British author Kate Clanchy wrote last year. But she is much more circumspect when it comes to adults. Adults “are able to put books down if they upset them, so their books may safely contain difficult ideas,” argues Clanchy, who was herself at the center of a sensitivity reader controversy when her memoir was accused of being racist and insensitive. For Shriver, who has long complained about such readers, they are nothing less than “sensitivity police.” “At the keyboard, unrelenting anguish about hurting other people’s feelings inhibits spontaneity and constipates creativity,” she wrote in The Guardian newspaper in 2017. In France, a country widely resistant to this type of revisionism, the essayist Raphael Enthoven in 2020 denounced these “modern censors” as “the vanguard of the Identity Plague.” Progress But many other writers are in favor of readers — like the American Adele Holmes, who called on Marks’s services for her first book, “Winter’s Reckoning.” “Patrice was able to point out some areas of white privilege and the white savior role,” Holmes told AFP. And, more prosaically, for the character of a Black woman described as having “silky” hair, Marks suggested using the word “coil” instead, to make it more realistic. Holmes feels that the proofreader helped her “immensely.” As for the criticisms, she argues they come from people who feel “threatened” by minorities, in a publishing world long known to be predominantly white. For her part, Marks dates the renewed interest in her profession to the 2020 killing of George Floyd, an African American man, by a white police officer in Minneapolis. The murder ignited protests and a social reckoning on modern racism in the United States and around the world. Since then, authors have “become more conscious of the lens that they’re looking through,” Marks told AFP. Gonzalez also sees this increased care as reflecting social evolution. “I don’t think I could have done it professionally in any other decade,” she says of her job, welcoming the fact that “Generation Z” is challenging established social narratives. Those younger generations understand the importance of sensitivity reading, she argues — as opposed to their elders, who might “have a harder time seeing it as progress.” View the full article

Published by AlterNet Right-wing Daily Wire host Michael Knowles, whose talk show is supremely focused on the dehumanization of LGBTQ+ people, had no problem dressing in drag and portraying gay roles on film as an actor in college, according to multiple internet sleuths who discovered Knowles’ past performances earlier this week. Knowles’ filmography is available on IMDB. Media Matters for America also has an extensive collection of Knowles’ bigoted diatribes. On Friday, March 10th, Twitter user Witches Truth Post stated: What’s this? ‘A 2020 tweet from Knowles said, ‘Drag is funny because men aren’t supposed to we… Read More View the full article

Published by PsyPost A new study published in Behavior Genetics provides evidence of a bidirectional relationship between same-sex attraction and psychological distress. The findings indicate that experiencing attraction to people of the same sex can result in higher levels of depression and anxiety, but this relationship goes both ways – psychological distress can also result in an increase in same-sex attraction. Research has demonstrated that individuals who are sexually attracted to people of the same sex tend to experience higher levels of psychological distress, including depressive symptoms and anxiety, com… Read More View the full article