Good middle-of-the-week morning. AKA Wednesday. Welcome to it.
As a woman who cultivates a bit of a gender-bending look, with very short hair and a taste for less-than-feminine attire, I am no stranger to people questioning my sexuality. From time to time, they also question my gender identify.
When I first adopted this haircut, I was still a TV anchor, and the decision caused a bit of a stir. I received at least one email that asked if I was transitioning (I was not), and another that asked if I had “switched teams” (if I understood that correctly, then no, still married to a man).
Why viewers thought it was completely appropriate to ask such personal and intrusive questions simply because I appeared on screen in their home on the regular, I will never know.
Like I said, I chose to cut my hair, and knew that a segment of society would likely respond in a certain way to that. But it still felt like a personal offense – what business is it of anyone’s how I choose to present myself, even as a semi-public figure?
The key element there, in my opinion, is choice. I make a choice to walk through the world in a certain way, and I expect my choices to be honored and respected.
To me, that’s really the issue behind the debate over pronouns. If a person chooses to a gender neutral pronoun, or adopts one that doesn’t correspond with the sex assigned to them at birth, what business is it of mine, or the government’s, for that matter?
Unfortunately, it’s not that simple, though awareness about nonbinary or third-gender classifications is growing, and giving people a choice as to how they would like to identified on official documents – like passports, or driver’s licenses – is also on the rise.
There’s still quite a bit of ground to cover before we reach equity around self identification, but a good way to start leveling the playing field is to honor the decisions of individuals you know to utilize the pronouns of their choosing – even if the grammarian in you might cringe a little at using the plural “they” to refer to a singular individual. You’ll get over it. I did.
Today is International Pronouns Day. As the website states:
Referring to people by the pronouns they determine for themselves is basic to human dignity. Being referred to by the wrong pronouns particularly affects transgender and gender nonconforming people. Together, we can transform society to celebrate people’s multiple, intersecting identities.
Observation of this day started relatively recently – in 2018. You can read more about the history here.
Another slightly unseasonably chilly day is on tap, with temperatures only hovering in the low 50s. Skies will be mostly sunny, though, and things will be warming up in just a few days – I mean, relatively speaking, like back into the 60s and even flirting with 70 degrees on Sunday. Wheee. Another reason to look forward to the weekend.
In the headlines…
President Joe Biden made a major promise on a push to put abortion rights into law as his party looks to seize on the politically divisive issue in the final push ahead of the midterm elections.
At an abortion-rights-focused speech at a Democratic National Committee event, Biden said that if Democrats elect more senators and keep control of the House in the midterms then he’d make abortion a top issue.
“We’re only 22 days away from the most consequential moment in our history in my view, in recent history at least — an election where the choice and the stakes are crystal clear, especially when it comes to the right to choose,” Biden said.
“I want to remind us all how we felt that day,” Biden said of the day the Dobbs decision came down. “The anger, the worry, the disbelief. If you care about the right to choose, then you got to vote.”
Three weeks from the U.S. midterm elections, Biden’s approval rating stayed close to the lowest level of his presidency as Americans worried about inflation, a Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll completed yesterday found.
Biden’s press team has made no secret of their frustration with the way their boss is covered. And of late, the president is venting that frustration himself.
Biden administration officials are considering trying to discourage American companies from expanding business ties with Saudi Arabia as part of a U.S. response to a recent Saudi-led push by oil-producing countries to cut global production.
The White House is intensifying a pressure campaign against the oil industry over rebounding gas prices as it tries to contain the political fallout of rising fuel costs just ahead of the midterms.
The United States plans to release millions of additional barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve in December and to make additional releases over the winter, White House officials said.
Biden’s reassessment of the U.S. relationship with Saudi Arabia will happen “methodically” and will include bipartisan consultations, and there will be no major changes until after Congress returns from recess, according to national security adviser Jake Sullivan.
In expanding Title 42 to include Venezuelans, advocates say the Biden administration has taken on a new level of ownership over the Trump-era policy that blocks migrants from seeking asylum.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said if his party wins a majority in the midterms, its members would be unwilling to “write a blank check” to Ukraine, suggesting it could be more difficult for Biden to get congressional approval for more aid for the war.
Federal Reserve officials have coalesced around a plan to raise interest rates by three-quarters of a point next month as policymakers grow alarmed by the staying power of rapid price increases — and worried that inflation is now feeding on itself.
The rapidly rising cost of food, energy and other daily staples could allow many Americans to reduce their tax bills next year, the I.R.S. confirmed,
The 37% top marginal tax rate will apply to individual income above $578,125 and married couples’ income above $693,750 next year, as those thresholds go up 7% from 2022 under inflation adjustments announced by the agency.
Recordings made by Bob Woodward of his interviews with Donald Trump appear to contradict his claims that none of the documents he took with him from the White House were classified.
A judge who was appointed special master to review thousands of White House documents seized from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home in August challenged the former president’s legal claim of privilege over certain records.
Trump’s this week assault against Joe O’Dea, the GOP’s Senate nominee in Colorado, is angering Republicans while leaving them wondering if he cares about the party winning back the majority in the upper chamber.
Kanye West said he has organized dinner with Trump this week after agreeing to buy social media site Parler. The rapper wants to invite the former president onto his “free speech platform.”
Instead of a single ominous variant lurking on the horizon, experts are nervously eyeing a swarm of viruses — and a new evolutionary phase in the pandemic.
New COVID variants BQ.1 and BQ.1.1 are gaining traction in the U.S. at a “troublesome” rate, according to the White House’s top medical advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci.
Suicides in prisons and jails nationwide rose sharply over the past two years, a trend officials and inmate advocates say is driven in part by the increased isolation of inmates during the pandemic, more abuse of drugs including fentanyl and staff shortages.
Research at Boston University that involved testing a lab-made hybrid version of the SARS-CoV-2 virus is garnering heated headlines alleging the scientists involved could have unleashed a new pathogen.
Republican Lee Zeldin is closing in on New York Gov. Kathy Hochul with just three weeks to go before Election Day, according to a pair of new polls released yesterday.
With three weeks until Election Day, Hochul, the Democratic incumbent, saw her lead over Zeldin shrink to 11 percentage points, down from 17 points last month, according to a Siena College poll.
Hours later, a Quinnipiac University poll suggested an even tighter race, with Hochul leading by just four percentage points.
In the Quinnipiac poll, voters — especially Republican and independent voters — ranked crime, which Zeldin has hinged his campaign on, as the most urgent issue facing the state, followed by inflation and protecting democracy.
Zeldin appeared to take a swipe at New York City Mayor Eric Adams for blaming the surge in city subway homicides on guns even though firearms were only used in a fraction of the underground slayings.
Hochul is airing a campaign ad touting her success luring Micron Technology to open a complex of computer chip plants in suburban Syracuse.
In a complaint sent to the state Board of Elections, Dem party chairman Jay Jacobs argues that the Republican candidate’s campaign is breaking election law by working too closely with a pair of deep-pocketed super political action committees.
Former Cuomo administration aide Melissa DeRosa accused the current governor of failing to address subway crime.
In a new report, Reinvent Albany charges that the Hochul-controlled Covid emergency orders are rife with opportunities for “waste, fraud and abuse of state funds” amid allegations of pay-to-play schemes with campaign donors.
Laws meant to ensure privacy of victims and survivors of domestic violence, as well as the seizure of firearms of people under a protective order, were approved by Hochul.
Hochul says New York is “on track” to open some cannabis dispensaries within months — but industry leaders say they see only red signals ahead.
A state Supreme Court judge is expected to release a ruling this week that could upend the process to count thousands of absentee ballots that have already been sent to voters.
State Attorney General Tish James and Hochul released a report on the role that online platforms played in the racially motivated shooting at a Buffalo supermarket earlier this year that killed 10 people and wounded three.
James recommended that state lawmakers introduce criminal penalties for creating images or videos of a murder — a first-of-its-kind measure in the U.S. — and that those who shared such videos online be held liable for disseminating violent content.
New York elected officials recommended a package of large-scale changes to state and federal laws for social media platforms they charge have helped fuel the spread of hate from the cyber world into the real one.
New York Department of Labor officials pointed to efforts meant to bolster security when people apply for unemployment benefits after billions of dollars in fraud was reported during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli and his Republican challenger Paul Rodriguez face off in a debate tonight on Spectrum News and NY1.
Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, whose new podcast is set to launch this week, said that the show will serve as a vigorous fact-focused project, despite questions about his administration’s honesty that followed him out of office.
Adams and Councilwoman Julie Won are at odds over the controversial Innovation QNS project in her district — the largest proposed rezoning in Queens history — ahead of a crucial public hearing today.
Queens Borough President Donovan Richards modified his stance on the massive $2 billion Innovation QNS in Astoria just a day before the project goes before the City Council for its first public hearing at City Hall.
Top Adams administration officials opened the door to indefinitely housing Latin American migrants in a tent camp on Randalls Island, walking back a previous time-restricted policy as questions mount about other aspects of the controversial facility.
Instead of labeling the Randalls Island site a “Humanitarian Emergency Response and Relief Center,” Google Maps simply called it: “Adams Tent City.”
The facility, with about 500 beds for single men as well as a recreation center and cafeteria, is set to open today after buses arrive at Port Authority.
The city revealed how migrants staying there will be given three meals a day, fluff-and-fold laundry service and an array of entertainment including TV and video games.
Adams should reverse school budget cuts and allocate millions more in funding to properly serve more than 5,500 new students seeking asylum, City Comptroller Brad Lander said.
In a hidden camera recording by Project Veritas, an Adams aide questioned the mayor’s ability to handle an influx of illegal migrants from the Texas border that is sending the city “broke.”
Adams has yet to deliver on his goal for Diwali to become a school holiday, but it remains a legislative priority of his moving forward, a City Hall spokesperson said.
The head of the MTA admitted that cops on subway platforms aren’t even enough to deter underground crime — noting police were at the Queens transit station where a man died in a scuffle over a cell phone Monday.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said that companies doing business with the federal government need to cut off their supply of certain Chinese computer chips used in their products to protect the government from cyber warfare and data theft.
Jonelle Procope, who has served as the president and chief executive of the Apollo Theater in Harlem for nearly 20 years, will step down in June, the theater announced.
Actress Patti LuPone said she resigned from the labor union Actors’ Equity months ago, revealing the news after her history of reprimanding cellphone-using audience members was invoked in a new controversy about the policing of electronic devices.
After 60 years, Ted’s Fish Fry is closing its doors at its north Troy location due to a number of factors including a decline in sales, according to owner S.K. Deeb.
Clifton Park’s proposed 2023 budget of $20.6 million includes more than $1 million in federal funding, most of which will go into park improvements including off-road access to 41 acres on the Mohawk River, a splash water park and pickleball courts.
Workers at Amazon’s Schodack fulfillment center voted 2 to 1 against unionizing, ending a weeks-long campaign and delivering a victory to the company and a blow to a nascent national labor movement.
The National Labor Relations Board said about 66% of employees who cast valid ballots at a company facility near Albany rejected the Amazon Labor Union, which earlier this year won a landmark union vote at an Amazon warehouse in Staten Island.
The Justice Department hit the cement firm, Lafarge, with one of the largest penalties a corporation has ever paid for providing material support to a terrorist organization.
The lack of affordable, long-term housing in the Adirondacks is having a deep impact on the local economy, particularly at schools and healthcare facilities in the TriLakes.
Netflix snapped back to subscriber growth in the third quarter, giving the streaming giant a jolt as it works to execute two major strategic shifts aimed at bolstering its revenue and subscriber base.
More than a quarter century after Kristin Smart, a California Polytechnic State University student, disappeared after an off-campus party, a jury in California convicted Paul Flores, a fellow student, of murdering her.
A former reporter for The Wall Street Journal claims that a law firm hired cyber mercenaries to hack into his emails and circulate embarrassing material that ultimately led to his firing from the paper.
