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‘When Was Your Most Recent Period?’: Student Athletes in Florida May Be Required to Share Menstrual History
For the past two decades teenaged women participating in Florida high school athletics have been asked to submit their menstrual history, including the date of their first period, the date of their last period, and how many periods they have had in the last 12 months. The board of directors of the Florida High School Athletic Association, the organization in charge of coordinating high school athletics in the Sunshine State, will debate later this month if they will make divulging that information mandatory for participating in sports. According to the FHSAA website that board is comprised of 14 men and two women. Not one is a physician or medical professional.
Critics are voicing concerns over a variety of issues, including the right to privacy, the need for the highly personal medical information, who has access to it, how it is stored, and how it could be used against the students, including to determine possible pregnancy, miscarriage, abortion, or if the athlete is transgender.
“Many parents and doctors are worried that schools will use the menstrual data to monitor students for late or missed periods, a possible sign of pregnancy, or to out transgender students by watching for girls who don’t get periods or boys who do,” The New Republic reports, calling it “a terrifying glimpse of our dystopian post-Roe world.”
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The three-page form, called the Preparticipation Physical Evaluation, asks:
“When was your first menstrual period?” “When was your most recent menstrual period? “How much time do you usually have from the start of one period to the start of another?” “How many periods have you had in the last year? and “What was the longest time between periods in the last year?”
A draft form slightly alters the questions, asking instead, “Have you had a menstrual period?” and “How old were you when you had your first menstrual period?” in addition to the other three questions.
While it currently states answering is optional, at the end of this month those questions could become mandatory, although the reason for the possible change has not been disclosed.
Because the information is not being given by the athletes to a physician or other medical professional or organization, the information is not subject to HIPAA regulations. And in some school districts the inform action is stored on a third-party platform, possibly exposing it to other entities.
“This is clearly an effort to further stigmatize and demonize transgender people in sports [and] meant to further exclude people who aren’t assigned female at birth in girls sports,” the president of PRISM, a South Florida nonprofit organization that provides sexual health information to LGBTQ+ youth, Maxx Fenning, told The Tampa Bay Times. “Beyond that, I think there’s concern among LGBTQ+ and non-LGBTQ+ [students] alike. This is an extremely invasive mode of gleaning into someone’s reproductive history, which is especially dangerous in this post-Roe world we live in.”
TIME adds that critics “have noted that this policy would be a major challenge for transgender athletes who may have to out themselves with their responses to the questions. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis approved a bill last year—which is currently under legal fire—that bans transgender female students from playing on women and girls’ sports teams.”
According to the fan-checking site Snopes, “these written forms with students’ medical information are submitted to school officials, contrary to a number of other states where only a doctor’s signature is required to clear an athlete for play.”
Snopes adds that “concerns grew as many states worked to criminalize abortions after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and transgender athletes faced scrutiny. In Florida, abortions are banned after 15 weeks, with only a few exceptions.”
“Any forms (physical or digital) could be subpoenaed. Meanwhile, in Palm Beach County, nearly all athlete-registration forms moved online, which meant reproductive data for athletes was being stored by a third-party software company called Aktivate. Other counties were also planning to digitize their forms.”
Last October NBC News reported that an Aktivate spokesperson said a student’s information could be removed but only with parental and school district consent.
Image via Shutterstock
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President Donald Trump, his team, and his allies are “saboteurs” who are “wrecking” all the institutions that brought America prosperity and prestige, says a fascism expert who warns that the president may take action to disrupt — or even cancel —a future election.
Dr. Ruth Ben-Ghiat, a professor of history and a scholar of fascism, is an expert on authoritarianism and strongmen. She spoke with Politicon’s James Carville and Al Hunt on Friday.
When asked whether it is “accurate” to call Trump a fascist, Dr. Ben-Ghiat replied, “He’s got many fascist qualities, and they’re recycling Nazi slogans now,” she observed.
Trump, she continued, “made a campaign video that said that he was going to — he was going to create a ‘unified Reich.'”
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“They’re taking from the fascist playbook,” she added, noting that they “love” Chinese President Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and “all autocrats.”
“They are trying their best to have an authoritarian state and destroy our democracy,’ she warned.
Ben-Ghiat agreed that she is worried that Trump would try to do something to intervene in the elections, perhaps by not holding one.
The “more they feel backed into a corner,” she observed, “and these are people, these strong men, who live in fear of being — getting into a position where they can be held accountable.”
“It’s inconceivable that he would just leave office normally,” she noted. “So you can’t underestimate what they’re going to do.”
“It could be the Insurrection Act, it could be trying to have a state — some kind of state emergency to cancel the election,” she said. “ICE could be used in violent ways or intimidating ways to get people to stay home.”
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“All kinds of tricks could be used.”
“They’re not gonna give up without a fight,” she warned.
Ben-Ghiat also said, “I have been saying since February — and people thought I was like a conspiracy theorist — that Trump and company are saboteurs.”
“They’re trying to sabotage America so thoroughly that it’ll be wrecked for generations, and that’s why they’re wrecking medical research, scientific research, child welfare. All the things that brought America prosperity and prestige in the world have to be wrecked.”
“I truly see Trump as in office in part to solve Putin’s problems. And to make autocracy flourish.”
“He’s trying to take down America in every way. So that it has its role in the Western hemisphere, and then Xi can do his thing in Asia, and Putin can prosper, and all the failed, horrible states can have a new life, because the U.S. military or the U.S. — they’re not gonna come after them.”
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President Donald Trump, in what appeared to be an attempt to pressure two major cable news networks, warned against booking two prominent former officials from his first administration.
Trump targeted CNN and MS NOW — formerly MSNBC, which he called “MSDNC” — while denouncing attorney Ty Cobb, a former member of the White House legal team who reported directly to the president, and former Department of Homeland Security Chief of Staff Miles Taylor.
The president called Cobb “one of the Worst Lawyers in Washington, D.C.,” and a “WHACKJOB, who I hardly knew,” and said Taylor is “another major Loser … who I have no idea who he is.”
He charged that both “make livings talking about me like they know me well.”
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“So, when you watch these two guys on Television, which, fortunately, doesn’t happen often because there’s very little audience at either CNN or MSDNC,” he wrote, “remember, they know nothing about me — Just two DOPES trying to make a ‘buck’ by pretending to know something about someone who turned out to be very famous.”
Trump already was the president when they served in his administration.
“These two Networks are forewarned not to put them on the air again, because they have no knowledge or credibility with respect to anything have [sic] to do with DONALD J. TRUMP.”
Last month, Cobb “claimed President Trump is experiencing a ‘significant decline’ in his mental faculties,” according to The Hill.
“I think the dementia and the cognitive decline are, you know, palpable, as do many experts, including many physicians,” Cobb said.
Trump’s social media post came just about the same time that he or someone with access to his social media account deleted what many, including several prominent Republicans, denounced as a racist meme that depicted former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama as apes.
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Image via Reuters
Ahead of Sunday’s Super Bowl, a Washington Post guest opinion piece praising the deliberate growth of the Christian sports movement is being met with criticism by readers who appear to largely disagree with professional sports becoming overtly religious.
“Today athletes are some of the most prominent Christians in public life, far exceeding any pastor or priest,” writes Paul Putz, director of the Faith and Sports Institute at Baylor University’s Truett Seminary. “And the interviews offered at the end of sporting events may be the only time many Americans will hear a proclamation of faith.”
“Christians will be prominently featured during the biggest sports Sunday of the year. Seahawks receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba and Patriots quarterback Drake Maye have already used the run-up to the game to share their faith in Christ,” he notes. “When the contest starts, players will be found at various points kneeling in prayer, and pointing upward to God in celebration.”
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Putz also points to the event’s popular commercials, which he says for the fourth year will include “the latest Jesus ad from the ‘He Gets Us’ campaign.”
“And during the postgame interviews they’ll hear the winners give glory to God, while the losers try to make sense of the disappointment, perhaps turning to the Bible for solace.”
Putz makes clear that this “transformation” from a largely secular game to one infused with religion “did not happen by accident,” but is “the result of a Christian sports movement that has been growing since the 1950s.” He points to evangelical sports ministries such as the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, Pro Athletes Outreach, and Athletes in Action.
The Fellowship of Christian Athletes reportedly has come under scrutiny over the years for its recruitment efforts in public high schools, and for its statements against homosexuality.
Readers offered sharp criticism.
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“People of faith have always been in sports. They just didn’t feel the need to ram it down our throats before,” wrote one reader in the most popular comment.
“I hate to break it these athletes but God doesn’t care if you score a touchdown. God hopefully has more important things to be concerned about,” said another.
“Performing public Christianity is not Christianity, which Republicans do not seem to get at all. Aren’t we all just sick of politics and culture war dressed up as religion?” asked still another.
“Football Christianity and the Fellowship of Christian Athletes…really?” asked another reader. “What does that have to do with the Sermon on the Mount, Beatitudes, compassion teachings, taking care of the poor, the hungry, the stranger, the ill? Where are they in Minneapolis, Chicago, Los Angeles? When people were being rounded up, beaten, shot, pepper sprayed, dragged from their homes and automobiles?”
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Image via Reuters
‘This Is How It Begins’: Alarm Bells Erupt Over FBI Midterms Email to Election Officials
‘God Doesn’t Care if You Score a Touchdown’: Critics Torch Christian Sports Movement Op-Ed
Trump Warns CNN and MS NOW: Stop Booking Ty Cobb and Miles Taylor
Fascism Expert Warns Trump Could Invoke Emergency Powers to Cancel the Election
Fascism Expert Warns Trump Could Invoke Emergency Powers to Cancel the Election
Trump Warns CNN and MS NOW: Stop Booking Ty Cobb and Miles Taylor
‘God Doesn’t Care if You Score a Touchdown’: Critics Torch Christian Sports Movement Op-Ed
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