Mob set Naroda guesthouse on fire – India – DNA

A sex worker from Kolkata has died and two other women were injured in India this week due to burns sustained after a mob of about 50 people set fire to the guesthouse they were in. The mob of vigilantes believed the guesthouse, which had been raided by local police twice before, to be engaged in presumably prostitution-related "illegal activities." Evidently, however, despite any concerns for the guesthouse's occupants, the vigilantes decided manhandling the people there, pelting the building with stones, and ultimately committing arson that lead to murder was more appropriate behavior.

It is a grizzly reminder of the violence sex workers face at the hands of so-called "rescuers." While some of the loudest anti-prostitution activists are women, their advocacy perpetuates whore stigma to the detriment of all women; they're frauds.

Read brief source…[kot-contrib]. (Thanks, maymay!)[/kot-contrib]

Election 2010: Amendment 62 Defeated. People Still Have to Be Born in Colorado | RHRealityCheck.org

A glimmer of good news for progressive voters this US election is the defeat of Colorado's Amendment 62, which "would have privileged the survival of a fertilized egg over a living, breathing woman" by "[outlawing] abortion at every stage of gestation, [outlawing] all forms of hormonal contraception, and [making] it difficult if not impossible for pregnant women to receive medical treatment if there was any chance of harming the pregnancy," Jodi Jacobson writes. Lobbied for by the cowardly group, Personhood Colorado, Amendment 62 lost by a huge margin of 72-28%.

However, like the anti-gay measures pushed in 2004, Amendment 62's presence may have helped get out the conservative vote; government forced-birth proponent Ken Buck is currently neck-and-neck with the pro-choice Democrat, Michael Bennet.

Read brief source…[kot-contrib]. (Thanks, maymay!)[/kot-contrib]

Update: With 98% of the vote counted, Ken Buck is projected to have lost his race against Michael Bennet. Colorado’s women can breathe just a little bit easier for now.