The Star of David was used by the Nazis to identify Jewish people, while the pink triangle was used to mark those persecuted for being homosexual. At the time, homosexuality was criminalised in Germany, and many of the Allied countries that liberated the concentration camps including Great Britain also had laws that criminalised gay people. As a result, some survivors who were freed from Nazi camps continued to face discrimination, prosecution, and imprisonment after the war. The pink triangle was later reclaimed by the LGBT community as a symbol of remembrance, resistance, and pride, particularly in recognition of those who suffered persecution because of their sexual orientation or gender identity.
Seven girls—ages eleven to fourteen, six of them visibly pregnant—stood on the train platform at Boston's South Station on September 22, 1920, being led by two men and three women toward a train bound for "St. Mary's Home for Wayward Girls" in upstate New York—when suddenly a woman in the crowd, Mrs. Catherine Walsh, age fifty-two, had shouted "THOSE ARE CHILDREN! WHERE ARE YOU TAKING THEM?"—and within seconds, over thirty women on the platform had formed a human chain blocking the train doors, and Mrs. Walsh had confronted the group's leaders: "Why are pregnant children being taken to New York?"—and one of the women had answered "These girls are unwed mothers going to a home for rehabilitation"—but Mrs. Walsh had walked up to the girls and asked directly "Are you married?"—and five of the six pregnant girls had whispered "Yes" and shown wedding rings, and one girl, age eleven, had sobbed "They told my parents I have to go there after my baby comes to learn to be a good mother, but I heard they take the babies"—and Mrs. Walsh had shouted to the crowd "THESE ARE CHILD BRIDES BEING TRAFFICKED! SOMEONE CALL POLICE!"—and the thirty women had refused to move from the train doors while Mrs. Walsh had kept the group there until police arrived—and investigation revealed the "home" was actually a facility where child mothers were separated from their babies (adopted out for fees), then kept as unpaid labor for years—and all seven girls were taken into protective custody, their "husbands" (ranging in age from thirty-two to forty-seven) were arrested, and the "St. Mary's Home" was raided, revealing forty-three child mothers being held there—and Mrs. Walsh and the thirty women who'd formed the human chain were credited with exposing a multi-state child trafficking operation.
The youngest girl, age eleven, lived until 2005, dying at age ninety-six. Before her death, she reflected: "I was eleven and pregnant, being taken to a train that would separate me from my baby. A stranger on the platform saw us—seven pregnant children being led away—and shouted 'Those are children!' Within seconds, thirty women formed a human chain blocking the train. They wouldn't move until police came. That human chain of strangers saved seven of us and led to forty-three more girls being rescued. One woman's shout, thirty women's bodies blocking a train, changed everything.
Women have been saying for years that there is a growing backlash against gender equality, and every time the conversation comes up we’re told we’re imagining it.
Now the United Nations is saying it.
According to a UN report, nearly 1 in 4 countries reported setbacks in women’s rights and gender equality. Hundreds of millions of women and girls are living in conflict zones, violence against women remains widespread, and UN officials are warning about a growing backlash against women’s rights worldwide.
The part that stands out to me isn’t even the statistics. It’s that women have been raising concerns about misogyny, online hostility toward women, violence, and attacks on reproductive rights for years, only to be dismissed as overreacting.
If the UN Secretary-General is warning about the “mainstreaming of misogyny,” maybe it’s time to stop pretending these concerns came out of nowhere.
Do you think women’s rights are genuinely facing setbacks, or do you think organizations like the UN are exaggerating the problem?
Isn’t it hypocritical to take a few Bible verses on sexuality and demand they be legislated over an entire country, while reducing over 2000 verses about wealth, care for the poor, the disabled, the vulnerable, and refugees to a private personal choice?
Look, Thailand was able to prove an audio recording was original, while in Korea they questioned an audio recording to save a pedophile, and the worst part is that he wasn't released by a judge but by the power of incompetent police officers.
The person in the public toilet is a stranger to me. I have no interest in their genitalia, either at birth or now. What they do alone in a closed toilet booth is also of no interest to me. I’ll just be getting on with my own business, washing my hands & leaving. As will they.
To the men saying, “I’m too scared to even touch women now because of allegations”:
Good. You were never supposed to touch women without their consent in the first place.
It’s not complicated. Keep your hands to yourself unless a woman has clearly welcomed that contact.
The fact that basic consent is treated like some impossible rule is exactly why so many women are exhausted.
Women’s boundaries are not an inconvenience, and no man is entitled to a woman’s body.
A Georgia couple who terrorized a Black family at a child’s birthday party with Confederate flags, racial slurs, guns, and death threats were sentenced for a hate crime. Joe Torres got 20 years; Kyla Norton got 15..😳🚨
Humanity thrived for thousands of years without AI. We can live without it. What we cannot live without is fresh water, farmers, agriculture, and land.
Stop supporting AI. It’s destroying our planet.