IHSS Blog 2020-2021

Nearly 550 college athletes have demanded that the NCAA withdraw championships from states that have anti-transgender sports laws. The nation's leading children's health and welfare organizations, which include more than 7 million youth-serving providers and over 1000 child welfare organizations. These organizations banned together and issued a statement urging lawmakers across the country to reject dozens of bills that threaten LGBTQ people, especially transgender youths. Anti-LGBTQ organizations, not lawmakers or the public interest, are driving this fight.  These bills come from the same forces that drove previous anti-equality fights by pushing anti-trans bills across statehouses. Hateful anti-LGBTQ organizations like the Heritage Foundation, Alliance Defending Freedom (designated by Southern Poverty Law Center as a hate group), and Eagle Forum among others. For example, Montana’s HB 112, the first anti-transgender sports bill to be passed through a legislative chamber in a...

 Ethan Zweig Mr. Roddy IHSS April 7, 2021 The Libyan Slave Trade               In November a special report revealed that African migrants seeking to get into Europe were being sold as slaves by some criminal gangs in Libya. Libya has become the face of the new "Middle Passage"  to Europe according to CNN. In 2017, between 700,000 and 1 million African migrants died at sea making the voyage across the Mediterranean Sea. According to a reporter most of these migrants in Libya "are feeling armed conflict, persecution or severe economic hardship in sub-Saharan Africa". Another problem in Libya are their issues with jobs. This young African migrant said that they can either jump on the back of truck for a job for construction or sit in the back of a pickup to be sent to a detention center. He also said that on a good day at his job he makes five dollars and there are days where his contractor would refuse to pay him after an exhausting ...

  Deshaun Watson - https://www.cbsnews.com/news/deshaun-watson-sexual-assault-lawsuits-houston-texans/#:~:text=Houston%20Texans%20quarterback%20Deshaun%20Watson,being%20a%20%22serial%2 0pre   Disclaimer: as the law says, Deshaun is innocent until proven guilty, but we should always believe/ listen to the victims. As of now, he hasn't been proven for any of these many changes, so these are all accusations as of now.  During the past 2 weeks, many women have stood up saying the football star Deshaun Watson had sexually assaulted them. 22 women have come up saying he forced them to touch his genitals during a massage, and 2 women so far have filed lawsuits. His lawyer said everything was consensual and these accusations were completely false. The women claimed that he would turn over, and forcefully take out his genital and force the women to touch them. Many people questioned why the women went along with and did as he commanded, but we’ve seen instances like this a lot in ...

Everest Leo Mr. Roddy IHSS 6 April 2020 Turbulence Between China and Hong Kong     As most are aware at this point, China and Hong Kong are not on good terms, this is due to a large percent of the population of Hong Kong wanting more democracy. Recently changes were made so that only believers in the ideals that the Chinese government has are able to occupy positions of power, sealing the already worsening fate of the people who truly wish for more democracy. Naturally, other countries have spoken out about what China has done, but Hong Kong itself doesn't see a lot of free speech about its views on the main Chinese government anymore. It seems as though the vigor and energy of the people to change their city has fizzled out and been lost to the mainland. Lo Kin-hei, the chairman of the opposition democratic party in Hong Kong says that these recent changes will politically put Hong Kong "20 odd years back." so they have to choose whether to continue with their push for d...

  Alex Gross Mr. Roddy IHSS 6 April 2021 Civil Rights in Syria Syria, the densely populated country in the Middle East which is home to over 17 million people is plagued with a plethora of different Civil Rights issues and violations. The issues in Syria range from unlawful killings and assassinations, to excessive deployment of government forces. There have also been hundreds of articles in the past few years surrounding the Syrian refugee issues, which says a lot about the status of corruption in the country. An article from the Atlantic Council that was published yesterday (April 5th, 2021) goes into detail about another aspect of the difficulties of life in Syria; the economic struggle. The citizens of Syria are forced by the government to pay ridiculous amounts of money to exit and enter the country, renew passports, and quarantine due to covid. In-turn, this causes the citizens to be less likely to leave the country, despite its many issues. This problem is exacerbated by ...

Andy Walsh Mr. Roddy IHSS 6 April 2021 The Pandemic has Been Bad for Civil Rights  The COVID-19 pandemic has brought a lot of challenges to today’s society. However, in Latin America it is an even bigger issue. Across all of Latin America, the health crisis has been accompanied by civic disruptions causing the lack of communication and justice in civic spaces. Widespread quarantines and lockdowns have put a lot of stress on the civic system of all countries. However, countries with high poverty and large homeless populations have had trouble enforcing rules related to COVID. The lack of enforcement and communication have caused many issues in these countries. “ The measures taken in response to the pandemic have restricted civic spaces at local, national, regional and even international levels. The situation is alarming to the international community in general, and to the international rights community in particular.” (Andrés Serbin ). COVID has brought the need for governments...

  Mateo Sanchez Mr. Roddy IHSS 6 April 2021 Violations of Uighur Civil Rights  For the past couple of years, the Chinese government has been building detention camps for the Muslim minority with Turkish roots known as Uigurs who reside mainly in the Xinjiang province. This racially charged conflict began after multiple attempts at independence. And the Chinese government claimed that it was to prevent terrorism and Islamist Extremism. As a result, the Chinese government decided to execute a mass re-education program aimed at erasing the “Uyghur Identity” This has been executed by constructing mass detention centers one of the most famous of these the Dabancheng Detention Center which is thought to hold around multiple thousands of Uigurs. In addition to the detention centers, the Chinese government had organized mass passport recall as a result many Uighurs cannot leave the country. In addition to mass imprisonment there is evidence that Uighurs have been transported to factor...