Viral Story Of The Day

Friday, February 24, 2017

21 powerful photos from protests following Trump's anti-trans order.

Trans students' rights are at risk, but they aren't alone.

On Feb. 22, the Trump administration formally rescinded Obama-era guidelines protecting transgender students from discrimination — but hope for trans students remains.

The Obama administration's now-rescinded letter was merely guidance to school districts as to whether existing law provides anti-discrimination protection on the basis of students' gender identity, something that's likely to be determined this year when the Supreme Court hears 17-year-old transgender student Gavin Grimm's case.

What makes the Trump administration's action harmful is not a matter of whether this changes the rights of trans students (it doesn't or, at least, it shouldn't). It's harmful because it signals to those who want to deny those rights that the administration won't intervene on behalf of trans students.

Gavin Grimm protests outside White House in support of trans students. Photo by Oliver Contreras/Sipa USA via AP.

In response, protests popped up in New York, Washington, and San Francisco to show support for trans students.

Grimm addressed the crowd at a demonstration near the White House, while others made their voices heard outside New York's LGBT landmark Stonewall Inn and San Francisco City Hall. Trans youth, trans adults, and their allies set out with a simple message: Trans rights are human rights.

8-year-old trans child Tal Moskowitz held a sign at the New York rally. AP Photo/Kathy Willens.

Sara Kaplan (L) and her 9-year-old transgender son James attend the San Francisco protest. AP Photo/Jeff Chiu.

New York. Photo by Kena Betancur/AFP/Getty Images.

A recent estimate from UCLA's Williams Institute shows that around 150,000 youth between the ages of 13 and 17 identify as transgender — roughly 0.7% of the population.

What the Obama White House tried to do with its guidance letter is urge states and school districts to ensure that none of those 150,000 teens face discrimination for no reason other than who they are. Instead of having to deal with this on a case-by-case basis for every school district — which, as Grimm's upcoming Supreme Court case demonstrates, leads to confusion and lawsuits — the federal government tried to clarify that. Trump's move makes those waters as murky as they were before, if not more so.

Photo by Kena Betancur/AFP/Getty Images.

Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images.

Some have argued that allowing trans students to use bathrooms and locker rooms that match their gender identity will put other students at risk. This has been thoroughly debunked.

A common refrain from those who oppose trans rights is a fear that cisgender (non-trans) boys will simply "pretend" to be trans in order to infiltrate girls' locker rooms or to dominate girls' sports.

"I wish that somebody would have told me in high school that I could have felt like a woman when it came time to take showers in P.E.," former presidential candidate and opponent of transgender rights Mike Huckabee said in a 2015 speech at the National Religious Broadcasters Convention. "I’m pretty sure I would have found my feminine side, and said, 'Coach, I think I’d rather shower with the girls today.'"

This simply does not happen.

Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images.

Photo by Kena Betancur/AFP/Getty Images.

In 2015, Media Matters spoke with officials in 17 school districts with transgender protections, representing more than 600,000 schools. The total number of problems? Zero.

15 states and the District of Columbia have clear gender identity and sexual orientation protections that apply to schools. The number of times people have pretended to be trans so they can recreate the plot of Porky's and Ladybugs? Zero.

Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images.

Photo by Kena Betancur/AFP/Getty Images.

Trans kids just want to exist in a world free from bullying, free from discrimination. That's all.

If there's one thing to take away from the protests that followed Trump's action, it's this: Trans students are loved and they aren't alone in this world.

Want to help out? Here's a helpful list of things you can do.

Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images.

A Republican, Christian mom of a trans child sounds off on Trump's bathroom order.

Kimberly Shappley didn't vote for Barack Obama, but she recalls the exact moment she became grateful for him.

A lifelong conservative Republican, Shappley found herself sobbing with joy when then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch told transgender Americans, "We see you" and "We stand with you" a few days before the White House issued guidelines requiring schools to treat students' gender identity as their sex.

Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images.

"I sobbed with relief, and in my mind, I thought our fight just got shortened and it was going to be easier," Shappley says.

Shappley's daughter Kai started telling her mom that she was a girl at age 3. At first, they tried to discourage her, hiding "girl toys" and even punishing her for insisting, but after meetings with a series of psychologists and psychiatrists, the Texas nursing student and devout evangelical Christian began to accept she had a daughter.

Shappley was always skeptical of the Trump administration's claims that it would support LGBTQ rights, given Mike Pence's record of supporting measures limiting them.

That didn't make the Justice and Education departments' Feb. 22, 2017, announcement rescinding the Obama-era guidelines any easier to stomach, particularly the notion that protections for trans students should be a "states' rights" issue.

“He just threw my kid under the bus, so to speak," she says. "He just said it’s OK for people to discriminate against her because of where we live. It’s still the United States. I shouldn’t have to decide which town or state is safe enough or welcoming enough or kind enough to let us live there."

It was a crushing blow after losing her family and almost all of her friends when her daughter came out.

Living in a conservative Houston suburb, many of her neighbors still have trouble accepting her daughter is a girl who belongs in the girls' bathroom.

Kai Shappley. Photo by Kimberly Shappley/Facebook.

Still, after months of agonizing, Shappley made the decision to continue to attend her church, where she says she and Kai still get dirty looks. Nevertheless, she believes it's important to continue to engage her community, even if that means changing one mind at a time.

"They still have to see me and they still have to see my daughter, and they still have to see that we love the Lord, that we still study our Bible, that we still pray, that we’re still good people," she says. "And I think that a lot of times the best advocacy is just being there, being present, being seen, and not hiding."

Through online support and advocacy groups, Shappley keeps in close touch with thousands of moms of transgender youth who identify as Christian. She says helping Kai navigate the world has enriched her faith.

Kimberly and Kai. Photo by Kimberly Shappley/Facebook.

"One of the things that I realized for me is that the Bible helps me be a better person," she says. "The Bible doesn’t help me tell other people how to be a better person, and that’s not what it was given to us for. It’s not a weapon for us to hurt other people, or tell them what they’re supposed to do or not do. It’s there so that we read it and we change."

Shappley doesn't expect Trump to come around to her way of thinking, though she hopes he heeds his own advice from the campaign trail.

"He said it didn’t matter to him which bathroom Caitlyn Jenner used at Trump Tower. If that is really true, and that is at the core of what he believes, then he should tell people that: 'This is right, and this is wrong. This is what I see.'"

In the bathroom debate, she sees parallels to the civil rights movement, where public safety concerns were used to mask a broader bigotry.

Winning with opponents in the White House, she believes, will mean fighting in every school district in every town across America.

Photo by Kimberly Shappley/Facebook.

"Call your school board members. Call your superintendent," she advises. "Call them, call them, call them. These are people that are elected, so just continuing to call them and let them hear. Whether they agree or not isn’t even the point. So I would encourage everyone who votes, especially, to call the school board members where you live. Call your superintendent that you elected."

Fighting on Kai's behalf and encouraging others to do so, she explains, is her duty a parent and a Christian.

"Is it challenging? Yes. Is it discouraging? Yes. But I can’t just stop because right now my child is 6 and I’m fighting for her now so that when she’s 13 or 20 or 50 or 75 years old that hopefully I’ve done enough, I’ve been loud enough, I’ve been vocal enough that there’s been change. Because as her mom, I won’t always be there for her."

For Shappley herself, that means continuing to show up.

Kimberly (rear center), Kai (front center), and family. Photo by Kimberly Shappley.

"We want people to see that we’re just people. We’re a family. We’re crazy, and our house is sometimes messy. It’s crazy to think that we have to show people that we’re human."

Thursday, February 23, 2017

17 delicious foods you can thank immigrants for.

Kellyanne Conway brought 'alternative facts' about feminism to CPAC. Let's clear that up.

She may not be a feminist, and that's OK. But let's get a few things straight.

Many words can describe counselor to the president Kellyanne Conway, but "feminist" isn't one of them. Just ask her.

Speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), Conway discussed what it was like to be the first woman to manage a successful presidential campaign. The discussion, facilitated by conservative commentator Mercedes Schlapp, eventually centered around the label "feminist," and whether Conway considered herself one. She doesn't, and she suggested that feminists "in a classic sense" are "anti-male" and "pro-abortion."

GIF from ACU/YouTube.

Speaking of feminism from an objective viewpoint, Conway's probably right not to claim that title for herself.

Prior to working for the Trump campaign, Conway's most well-known client was then-Representative Todd Akin from Missouri, a man who torpedoed his shot at winning a Senate seat when he justified his opposition to abortion, even in cases of rape and incest, by saying, "If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down."

In the past, Conway also suggested that "femininity is replacing feminism as a leading attribute for American women," and she has said, "If women really want to be taken seriously in the workforce these days, looking feminine is a good way to start."

More recently, Conway has suggested that perhaps mothers shouldn't take roles in the White House. She also criticized a 17-year-old girl for asking how Conway rationalized working for someone facing multiple sexual assault accusations, and she "didn't see the point" in the Women's March on Washington.

Conway speaks at CPAC on Feb. 23, 2017. Photo by Mike Theiler/AFP/Getty Images.

If she doesn't want to call herself a feminist, that's fine. What's not fine is the mischaracterization of who feminists are and what they stand for.

First off, feminists (as a group) aren't "anti-male." Maybe some individuals are, but that's not some core requirement. Conway once said, "I challenge anybody to show me where [man-hating] is not part and parcel of the feminist movement." And, while some feminists may very well call their views "pro-abortion," a more accurate view of the broader feminist population would be that they believe decisions about what people do with their bodies are best left up to them — and not the government.

GIF from ACU/YouTube.

Nor do feminists, as a group, see themselves as victims of circumstance, something Conway has said on multiple occasions. Feminists simply acknowledge that obstacles remain in the fight for gender equality. The pay gap, sexism in the workplace, and a host of other issues stand between the world we live in now and a world with gender equality.

None of this is to say that it's impossible for a woman to succeed in the world. Conway is proof that, yes, women can find success and achieve their goals.

But just as Obama being elected president didn't close the book on racism, a handful of successful women doesn't signal the end of sexism.

📈'Feminism' is defined as "the belief that men and women should have equal rights and opportunities." https://t.co/Zjf7CAPUjL
— Merriam-Webster (@MerriamWebster) February 23, 2017

Conway doesn't have to be a feminist. But the rest of us won't give up until we've reached true equality for all women of all ages, all races, all religions, and all sexualities.

Conway is interviewed by Schlapp during CPAC. Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images.

Watch Conway's full CPAC interview below.

Trump just made bathrooms less safe for trans students. Here's what to do now.

How to feed an extra 2 billion people by 2050? A shift in how we grow food.

By 2050, the Earth's population is expected to hit 9 billion (!). That means we're going to need to get creative to feed 2 billion more mouths every day.

How in the heck are we going to do that?

We already live in a world where nearly 800 million people suffer from chronic hunger. How are we supposed to get that number down while also sustaining a growing population?

One answer lies in our cities:

For those who live in big cities around the world, having access to fresh, naturally grown food is not a given. That's where this inventive solution comes in.
Posted by Upworthy on Monday, February 13, 2017

This video illustrates the need for food to be produced closer to where people live. As more people are moving to cities, hauling food products hundreds or thousands of miles from farms to grocery shelves isn't a sustainable option. That's why farms are moving into cities.

To feed everyone, we have to rethink where our food comes from.

The urban population of the world has been growing incredibly fast. In 1950, there were 746 million people living in urban areas. By 2014, that number jumped to 3.9 BILLION. And it only keeps increasing.

Within the next 30 years, it is expected that 70% of the world population will be located in urban areas, with most of the growth occurring in less developed countries.

The good news: We already produce enough food to feed 9 billion people. It's just not reaching the people who need it, and a third of all food produced is wasted. In other words, the major problems are access and waste.

In the United States alone, we waste enough food to fill up a 90,000-person football stadium EVERY. SINGLE. DAY.

One way to help with both the access and the waste problems is to grow food where people already are: in cities.

Image by Junko Kimura/Getty Images.

When you picture a farm, a city setting doesn't typically come to mind. But these days, it's becoming quite common to see farms on the tops of buildings, in small, communal plots of land, or in abandoned warehouses that beam with artificial light.

The traditional concept of farming in rural "farm country" has been broadened to more dense environments around the world, in cities with all types of weather and climate.

Image via iStock.

Yes, that means you can even grow food in the middle of a desert city like Dubai. Pretty cool!

Farming closer to home means the food is fresher, people are healthier, there's less food waste, and the environment is happier because of shorter distances from farm to table. And not only that, but urban plots can be up to 15 times more productive than rural ones, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization.

Growing food in urban areas is one answer to feeding more people, but it's just one piece of the puzzle.

To feed the world's growing population will require an equal focus on traditional agricultural practices in order for us to make real impact.

Image via Esther Havens/The Adventure Project. ‌

Up to 80% of the food consumed in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa is produced by female and smallholder farmers — many of them female. If we really want to close the hunger gap and feed more people, we must properly invest in their resources and growth to help boost their incomes and productivity with their yields.

There's a lot of work to be done before we're successfully able to feed an additional 2 billion people. It will take a global effort to find a sustainable balance between old and new agricultural practices.

It's cool to see that work in progress — quite literally, growing from a rooftop in the middle of a city.

These visually stunning posters were designed to show what already makes America great.

Spoiler alert: America is already great.

Image by Chris Lozos/Creative Action Network.

In response to the tactics used by the current party in power, many groups and organizations have assembled to fight the "alternative fact" that America isn't great already.

Image by Isaiah King/Creative Action Network.

One of those groups is the Creative Action Network, founded by Max Slavkin and Aaron Perry-Zucker, and their message is simple and powerful:

"Creative Action Network is a global community of artists and designers, making art with purpose. We run crowdsourced campaigns around causes. Anyone and everyone is welcome to contribute their own original, visual, meaningful work. We then develop those designs into print, apparel, and other products, and sell them here in our online store and through our retail partners, supporting artists and causes with every purchase."

One of their current campaigns is "What Makes America Great." It perfectly encapsulates, visually, what we're all thinking.

Image by Jennifer Brigham/Creative Action Network,

We spoke to Slavkin, a former Upworthy employee, about Creative Action Network's plan to release 100 posters by 100 artists over the first 100 days of the Trump presidency, while raising money for DreamCorps, a social justice accelerator created by former (Obama) White House advisor Van Jones.

Image by Corbet Curfman/Creative Action Network.

The benefit, as Slavkin explains, is two-fold, "On a more tactical level, we hope to raise some money for DreamCorps, and on a deeper level, we truly hope to shift a lot of people's mindset from fear and anxiety to one of more hope and celebration."

Image by Juana Medina/Creative Action Network.

Amazing artists have taken part in this campaign, including Juana Medina, who is illustrating the latest project by the current U.S. Poet Laureate.

DreamCorps is ecstatic to be part of this.

A statement from Jeremy Hays, chief engagement officer for DreamCorps, said in part: "Art is the soul of the movement. Art and artists help us connect our heads with our hearts in order to see with new perspective our struggles, possibilities, and strength. We are proud to participate in this campaign and to share this art with the thousands of people who make up America’s #LoveArmy."

Image by Vikram Nongmaithem/Creative Action Network.

Over 3,000 organizations have mobilized since inauguration, and they're doing incredible work. Creative Action Network is proof there is a place for compassion, hope, and celebration.

This is a movement full of art, fundraising, activism, and most importantly, a celebration of what already makes America great.

Image by Mark Forton/Creative Action Network

For more information visit the Creative Action Network.