Linkety-linkety

[moominmuppet]

Days after gay pride parades were held across the country, the Indian government has finally repealed Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, which criminalises homosexuality. -- YAY!!!!


Google AdWords Policy Disallows Ads for Abortion Services in Over a Dozen Countries -- BOO!!! (and a totally bullshit response from them, too)

a personal reflection by Robyn Ochs

Peg and I were invited guests at a historic event: June 29, 2009 marked the first time a United States President ever hosted a reception for LGBT people at the White House. I was there representing BiNet USA and the Bisexual Resource Center (BRC).

From NARAL, message your congresscritters -- this is important!

Senators on the Finance Committee are finalizing the health-care reform bill right now. Anti-choice senators are pressuring them to bar insurance plans from covering reproductive-health services.


From NARAL, some credit where credit is definitely due:

FAME: MSNBC's "The Rachel Maddow Show"

Let's give credit where credit is due. Rachel Maddow at MSNBC continues to devote significant time to thoughtful coverage of Dr. Tiller's murder and how it is part of a much broader pattern of violence, intimidation, and legislative gamesmanship designed to block women’s access to safe, legal abortion.

For many Americans, particularly those too young to remember the violence of the 1990s, Maddow's program has provided a tremendous public service, and should serve as a guide for other news programs.

Our gratitude to Ms. Maddow and her team.

Comments

[moominmuppet.livejournal.com]

Thanks; I'd read about that -- sounds like a major screw-up on the part of the parade organizers, and the end results totally suck.

[marnanel.livejournal.com]

I do feel we're not being given the full story on the AdWords problem. Specifically, why these countries? For example, are these countries where it's illegal to advertise abortion services and Google is just complying with the law (in which case we should be getting angry with the law, not Google)? If they were going to ban advertising for abortion services, why not everywhere?

Also, it seems that a lot of people are responding to this as though it was a problem with search (and saying "Let's find another search engine to use"), whereas it's actually a problem with advertising. There are ethical problems with Google's search system (one example is that the word "penis (http://images.google.com/images?as_q=penis&hl=en&btnG=Google+Search&as_epq=&as_oq=&as_eq=&imgtype=&imgsz=&imgw=&imgh=&as_filetype=&imgc=&as_sitesearch=&safe=active&as_st=y)" is not automatically barred from safe searches but the word "clitoris (http://images.google.com/images?as_q=clitoris&hl=en&btnG=Google+Search&as_epq=&as_oq=&as_eq=&imgtype=&imgsz=&imgw=&imgh=&as_filetype=&imgc=&as_sitesearch=&safe=active&as_st=y)" is) but this isn't one of them.

The CSR's response was canned bullshit, though, yes.

[fionnabhair-ii.livejournal.com]

The article in the link mentions two countries- France and Italy- with liberal (by the author's standards) abortion laws.

I don't know why those countries, either, but it's not because people can't obtain legal abortions in those countries.

[marnanel.livejournal.com]

I think perhaps you misread my comment:

are these countries where it's illegal to advertise abortion services

It may be illegal to advertise a legal service. (For example, advertising prescription medication is illegal in the UK.)

[fionnabhair-ii.livejournal.com]

Whoops, I did misread that. More coffee is needed.

[moominmuppet.livejournal.com]

*nod* And if it turns out that's what's going on, I'm ok with that (well, not ok with the legal policy, but OK with Google's reaction to it). I just want to know, and I hate being fed bullshit when a company is asked about something like this.