"How many genders are there?" (US Senate)

"How many genders are there?": Sen. John Kennedy questions Human Rights Campaign Chief Robinson about gender

(Forbes Breaking News) June 21, 2023. At today's Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Sen. John Kennedy (Republican, LA) questioned HRC Pres. Kelley Robinson.

Forbes on Facebook: fb.com/forbes. Forbes video on Twitter: twitter.com/forbes. Forbes video on Instagram: instagram.com/forbes. More from forbes.com.

What's a "woman"?

Dhr. Seven, Ashley Wells, Amber Larson, CC Liu (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly COMMENTARY

Hi. I'm a woman, I mean a geneticist.

That a dangerous question nowadays, politically fraught, a minefield. But we at Wisdom Quarterly do not mind answering it with scientifical accuracy. "Science" changes, but if what scientists have taught is true to this point (XY sex-determination system), then we can define womanhood as the presence of XY chromosomes. Manhood is XX.

See how the jaw is robust? That's nice, huh?

This brings up the sticky question of potential genetic anomalies: Do humans change? Are we born one way and stay that way. There are intersex beings between the sexes. There are masculine females and effeminate males. There may even be more "letters" than X and Y because apparently a Y is just an X with a broken X, the lower right foot missing. What then if some human beings are born with an X and a ~ (chromosomal foot or fragment)? Or another "letter"? Or neither? Or something completely different? Biological sex is tough, but it seems to be mutable.

Defend Piers Morgan's right to be a Black lesbian.

"Are you transphobic?": Sen. Mike Lee questions NCAA's Riley Gaines

(Forbes Breaking News) June 21, 2023 At today's Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) spoke to Riley Gaines about the inclusion of transgender athletes women's sports. "Male gaze" is upsetting to biological female sports figures. Lia Thomas, "NCAA Woman of the Year," is excelling at the expense of athletes born female.

Gender is tougher. There is the genotypic and phenotypic distinction to be made -- what is in the genes (genotypic) and what is expressed (phenotypically). Gender is psychological and socially-constructed more than biological or biologically-determined.

No one may like to hear it, but Dr. Joseph Wallach (criticalhealhnews.com) has researched the matter and found that the increasing birth rate of transgender children is due to a nutritional deficiency in the mother during gestation. He has scientific evidence for this, but the LGBTQI+ community is not likely to be happy with such news. Pre-parents might like this news, but post-parents almost certainly will not. They'll say the mother is being blamed, as she was with SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome), which Dr. Wallach cured by first discovering the nutritional deficiency that caused it then getting those nutrients into baby formulas.

What makes a person gay, bi, lesbian, homosexual, pansexual, trisexual (try sexual), nymphomaniacal, questioning, confused, malleable, situational, asexual...? It's not clear if Dr. Wallach has yet successfully researched that.

What does Buddhism say?

Fortunately, Buddhism has an answer as to what a "woman" is and what a "man" is -- and there may even be a third and fourth gender, if not more.

The personally verifiable answer to this is found in the Abhidhamma or the "Doctrine (Dhamma) in Ultimate Terms," a dense and profound work on ultimate reality in Buddhism.

Your own pronouns? Do I get my own adjectives?

What is ultimately real?

What is "truth" (sacca or satya)? The ultimate truth (paramattha-sacca) is distinguished from the conventional truth (vohāra-sacca). By distinguishing them one can learn to discern conventional mind-and-body (into ultimate nama-rupa, "name and form").

There's a level deeper than conventional truth, analogous to physics. If the conventional is psychological, at a deeper level there is the ultimate or physical: streams of cittas (which along with cetasikas, "mental concomitants," form the basis of Buddhist psychology) and streams of kalapas and their Four Elements (mahabhuta or dhatu, the Four Qualities of Matter, as distinct from the mind element).

Mind-moments and particles, these things are real. Through mental purification (visuddhi), one gains stillness/concentration (jhana) and is able to use this intensification of mind to discern the subtle and otherwise invisible: mind-moments and particles.

In so doing one becomes able to look at the characteristics of particles (kalapas), seeing them imbued with sex, biological sex. They do not have a gender, but they are imprinted with the biological sex (bhāva) of the person.

• Human nature or inborn "faculties" (indriya)
• The 18 constituents of a whole or being: dhātu
• What is a "person" (or living being)? The Five Aggregates

Come and see. This Doctrine and Discipline (dhamma-vinaya) called Buddhism invites investigation and personal verification. 

Then enter the debate with the certainty to be able to answer, "What is a woman?" Can it change? We speculate that biology is malleable (phenotypic plasticity and genotypic plasticity) as, for instance, seen with the use of biohazardous pesticides and other chemical toxins in the environment, particularly endocrine disruptors, which affect human hormones. It turns out we share hormones with animals and plants and even the mushroom kingdom (e.g., Vitamin D, which can be considered a hormone, is made in the fruiting bodies of fungi exposed to sunlight).

What does it mean to be "transgender"?

- FU, mofos, don't you ask me nuthin!

Did ancient Buddhism have anything to say about gender?

Playboy Hugh Hefner was motivated by Kinsey

In a word, yes. And that word is pandaka, an unflattering catch-all term for gender-role-transgressing individuals. That can include anything -- sex starved eunuchs resorting to homosexuality, hermaphrodites, gender nonconformists, crossdressers, transsexuals, butch and effeminate individuals, twin spirits, non-cisgender folks, gays, possibly even asexuals. The ancient world in and around what is now India, as known through the commentators, had their own explanations for such behavior. Sexual behavior falls along a spectrum, and deviating from the norm might earn one the label of pandaka or "pervert," particularly if one stood out. Dr. Kinsey may have done much to liberate modern thinkers from old norms, but he himself was almost certainly a pandaka dressed up in a scientific labcoat, promoted by academia, and accepted as positive cultural influence.

• VIDEO: [Cover up of murder continues] AP Explains: New details in Epstein's "suicide" emerge | (msn.com)

Psychiatrist debunks gender ideology "lies"

• VIDEO: Christian reacts to Riley Gaines leaving woke activist speechless for claiming men can't beat Serena Williams [who seems to be a man] in tennis
• VIDEO: Former trans kid Chloe Cole on why she LEFT transgenderism
• A Wagner [pronounced \vog-ner\] ex-convict returned from war and a Russian village lived in fear. Then he killed again | AP
• VIDEO: You have to see it to believe it! #shorts (msn.com)

Sex and monks and nuns (Monastic Rules)

Dhr. Seven, Ananda (eds.), Ven. Ariyesako, Monks' Rules: Laypeople Guide, Wisdom Quarterly

They have sex! They're hypocrites, liars, deceiving the world for minimal gains. We knew it!

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(II) Relationships

It's hard not to stare when you're still only human.

Buddhist monastics cannot live in complete isolation from laypeople, for their mutually supportive relationship is intrinsic to the monastic way of life.

However, it should never become an intimate or sexual relationship, for that would go against the whole purpose of leaving behind the "family or household life" with its endless "closed in" complications [43],

The "supreme life" (brahmacariya) is one that checks the display of any form of erotic desire through the actions, speech, and thoughts of a monastic. In fact, restraint from gross sexual misconduct is already part of the Five Precepts. [See Note 4].

The Eight Precepts as well as the Ten Precepts immediately refine this then the Monastic Disciplinary Code (Vinaya) manages it with even greater subtlety. One's Dharma life can then advance toward the letting go of all craving through development of the heart/mind through meditation (cultivation).

The most potent object for strong sexual craving, which the mind/heart is pining for and grasping after, is usually associated with the other sex. Therefore, many rules involve this relationship [44].

Sexual intercourse

Transgender "monk" in Tibet

The first offense of the 227 listed major rules of the Rules Recitation (Patimokkha) concerns a monastic engaging in sexual intercourse.

It is a hot issue, perhaps more today than before, going by the number of sex scandals that rock the Buddhist world in the East and West. Ven. Thiradhammo writes:

"While some of the guidelines may seem somewhat rigid or prudish, it is important to reflect upon the volatility and durability of rumor, even if untrue. The incessant sex-scandals in religious circles may provide a sufficient incentive to encourage the greatest measure of prevention and discretion" (HS, Chp.13).

The rule of celibacy (chastity) was originally laid down because of rich Ven. Sudinna. He was the son of a rich merchant, who left home to become a wandering ascetic (Buddhist monastic) only after great opposition from his family. He went away to practice Dharma, and when he came back to visit, his parents were overjoyed to see him.

So they plotted to lure him back into the lay life again. They invited him for a meal then laid out their wealth in front of him, piled up in two huge heaps of gold, while the wife he had left behind dressed herself in her most irresistibly alluring way.

Ven. Sudinna remained unmoved by all of this. After telling them to throw the gold away in the river, he referred to his former wife as "sister."

Nevertheless, when his elderly mother pleaded with him at least to give them a grandson and heir, he foolishly gave in. He had sexual intercourse with his former wife.

This first defeat offense is summarized: "A monastic who engages in any form of sexual intercourse [penetration] is defeated" (Parajika 1, BMC, p. 45).

Every form and variety of sexual intercourse with sexual penetration — be it genital, oral, or anal, whether with a female, male, or animal — is forbidden. The penalty is the heaviest one of defeat (parajika).

Intimacy — touching

I can't believe that hypocrite touched me.

The modern West is full of stories of sexual harassment. The ways the Buddha dealt with such matters should therefore not seem very strange.

If a monastic touches a person in a sexual way, one commits a very serious offense requiring formal meetings of the Monastic Community (sangha) and probation (sangha-disesa).]

The scrupulous monastic wants to remain above suspicion so, if able, will avoid all physical contact.

Hence monk's and nun's attitude toward shaking hands is to avoid them. Or if one wishes to avoid offending, because it is a warm social custom, they are kept brief. This also explains why, at least in Thailand, a receiving cloth is used to receive offerings from females. (See EN 85).

Buddhist monks are not alone in this. Catholics.

The rule was first set down by the Buddha after a Brahmin and his wife had gone to inspect Ven. Udayin's fine dwelling. [See Udāyī (2).] As Ven. Udayin was showing them around, he came up behind the lady and "rubbed up against her limb by limb."

After they had left the husband praised Ven. Udayin, but the wife was critical and explained what had happened. The Brahmin then complained, "Isn't it even possible to take one's wife to a monastery without her being molested?" This rule was then set down:

"Should any monastic overcome by lust, with altered mind, engage in bodily contact with a woman, or in holding her hand, holding a lock of her hair, or caressing any of her limbs, it entails initial and subsequent meetings of the Monastic Community" (Sanghadisesa 2, BMC, p. 100).

To be at fault the monastic must usually do some action to bring himself in contact with a female as lust overcomes his mind [45]. If he accidentally stumbles and bumps into a female, or vice-versa, or if he is accosted by one, as long as there is no intention to come into lustful contact with her, there is no offense.

However, the average monastic's mind tends to be so quick and unruly — for one is, after all, still in training and therefore not yet enlightened — that one may prefer to be super-cautious about such situations.

If a monastic touches his mother out of affection, this is still an offense but the lesser one of wrong-doing (dukkata) [46]. While gratitude to parents was strongly emphasized by the Buddha, the monastic having left the home-life and family should not cling to worldly relationships.

The only true way to fulfill one's filial obligations is by gaining insight into the Dharma and then teaching one's parents.

If a monastic is acting with lustful intentions, one incurs a grave (thullaccaya) offense for making bodily contact with a pandaka ("sex-aberrant") [homosexual, deviant, pervert, transgender, transsexual, prostitute, or eunuch] and an offense of wrong-doing for sexual contact with a male. (See BMC, p. 103).

The previous rules dealt with the monastic's physical actions. The next two rules are offenses — again of the very serious category — that concern his wrong speech towards females.

Flirting

Are you still a monk? - That was just temporary.

This rule came into being when many female visitors came together to look over Ven. Udayin's dwelling. He spoke to them in a lewd, flirtatious way so that some of them said, "It is improper. Even from our husbands we wouldn't like to hear this sort of thing." Therefore, the Buddha laid down this rule:

"Should any monastic, overcome by lust, with altered mind, address lewd words to a female in the manner of young men to a young woman alluding to sexual intercourse, it entails initial and subsequent meetings of the Monastic Community" (Sangh. 3, BMC, p. 110).

Propositioning

The following rule is very relevant today when some misguidedly believe that submitting to sex with spiritual teachers can help in their spiritual development.

Again, it was originally a lustful Ven. Udayin who was the cause of this offense. This time, he suggested to a beautiful and devout female follower that she make a "special offering" to him, that of sexual intercourse. The Buddha then set forth this rule:

"Telling a female that she would benefit from having sexual intercourse with oneself is [an offense requiring initial and subsequent meetings of the Monastic Community]." (Summary [47] Sangh. 4, BMC, p. 117). More

Cumming's sex robot; Cop molests corpse

Whitney Cummings (Netflix is a Joke); Pat Macpherson, Ashley Wells (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Whitney Cummings' 🤖 sex robot unveiled

Dead woman molested by LAPD cop on camera

Comedienne Whitney Cummings has a sex robot made for her boyfriend, and it does her dirty work. Watch her special "Can I Touch It?" on Netflix. Remember Robot Sofia, who is a citizen of Saudi Arabia? Ask Jimmy Fallon. Well, now "Whitney II" is here to ease us into future shock, a world where we are addicted to cell phones, spying devices, and the full internet experience using A.I. (artificial intelligence), algorithms, and learning android bots. This way we come into the future laughing with an edgy comedienne instead of shrieking in terror for Ed Snowden. Sex made the VCR a success. Guess sex will make the bot a household item, too.

(JRE Clips) Joe Rogan, Whitney Cummings, and her robot "Bear Claw"

Netflix is a Joke is the official hub of Netflix stand-up, comedy series, films, and all things funny — curated by the world’s most advanced algorithm and a depressed, yet lovable, cartoon horse…

• Would men go for sex robots? Officer David Rojas fondled a corpse and caught himself doing it on his body cam, not fired but being sued by family

Pornstar Ron Jeremy charged with rapes

James Queally, Los Angeles Times, 6/23/20; Sheldon S., Ashley Wells (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Ron Jeremy is greeted by Sheena Ryder at XBiz Awards in 2014 (Wally Skalij/LA Times).

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Porn addiction will lead to one's downfall.

[Fat, ugly] Ron Jeremy, one of the most iconic male figures in the adult entertainment industry, has been charged with "sexually assaulting" four women in West Hollywood since 2014, prosecutors said today. Jeremy, whose full name is Ronald Jeremy Hyatt, was charged with three counts of forcible rape and one count of forcible oral copulation and sexual battery, according to a news release issued by the Los Angeles County district attorney's... More

• That '70s Show Danny Masterson charged with rape

Vienna Rose, 20, quits unglamorous porn after to become U.S. Marine.

The transsexual Buddhist Soreyya

Bhikkhu Bodhi (USA), Maha Kaccana: Master of Doctrinal Exposition (BPS, Wheel #405/406); Monty Python (Life of Brian); CC Liu, Dhr. Seven, Ashley Wells (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Protestant Christian church flies a gay rainbow flag together with Old Glory, USA (ap.org).

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This a true story? I thought it was a legend.

The commentaries record [an incident] which stemmed from the impression that the enlightened monk’s golden physical form made on the minds of others.

One of these, reported in the Commentary to the  Dhammapada (Dhp-a to v.43, Buddhist Legends, 2:23–28) involved a straight young man named Soreyya, who was the son of the treasurer in the city of the same name.

One day the youth Soreyya was driving out of the city in a carriage, on route to a bathing spot together with an close friend and a merry band of companions.

Just as they were leaving the city, the enlightened chief disciple Venerable Mahā Kaccāna ("Great Golden") was standing at the city gate, putting on his outer robe before entering to walk on alms round.

When the married youth Soreyya beheld the golden-hued body of the elder [thera, "senior monk"], he thought to himself: “Oh, that this elder might become my wife! Or may the hue of my wife’s body become like the hue of his body!”

Karma mixed with iddhi is very strange.

At the very moment this wanton thought passed through his mind, Soreyya was instantly transformed from a man into a woman.

Startled by this inexplicable change of sex, he jumped out of the carriage and fled before the others could notice what had occurred. Gradually he made his way to the city of Takkasilā [the capital of Gandhara, modern Taxila].

His companions searched for him in vain then reported his strange disappearance to his parents. When all attempts to trace him proved futile, his parents concluded that he had died, and they had the funeral rites performed.

Golden sheen of Gandharans like the Buddha

Meanwhile the [transsexual] woman Soreyyā, on reaching Takkasilā, met the son of the city’s treasurer, who fell in love with her and took her as his wife.

In the first years of their marriage, she gave birth to two sons. Previously, while still a man, Soreyya had fathered two sons with his wife in his native city. So he was now the parent of four children, two as a father and two as a mother.

One day the formerly close friend of Mr. Soreyya came to Takkasilā on some personal business. Mrs. Soreyyā saw him in the street and called him into her house, revealing the secret of her mysterious metamorphosis from a man to a woman.

Walk this way. But very be careful.

The friend compassionately proposed that Soreyyā should offer alms to Ven. Mahā Kaccāna, who was living close by, and then beg pardon from him for [the mental karma of] having given rise to such a lewd thought.

The friend then went to the enlightened elder and invited him to come to the lady’s house for alms on the following day. When Ven. Mahā Kaccāna arrived, the friend brought Lady Soreyyā into his presence, informed him of what had long ago happened, and asked him to pardon her for that transgression.

A walk on the other side then a walk back

As soon as the elder uttered the words “I pardon you,” Lady Soreyyā was transformed back into a man.

Shaken out of all worldly complacency by this double metamorphosis, Soreyya determined that he could never again lead the household life [the life of an ordinary uninstructed worldling wandering on through samsara, the unsatisfactory cycle of rebirth].

Bhikkhu Bodhi (BPS, Wheel #405/406)

So he ordained as a Buddhist monk (bhikkhu) under Mahā Kaccāna, and after a short time s/he attained full enlightenment (arahantship) together with the supernormal powers (siddhis). More

• Dictionary of Pali Proper Names Soreyya...confessed his fault, and asked for forgiveness. When Maha Kaccana pardoned her, she once more became a man. He became a monk under Maha Kaccana and went with him to Sāvatthi. People who heard his/her story worried him with questions. So he retired to solitude and, developing insight, became fully enlightened. Before that, when people asked him which of his children he loved best, he would say: "The ones I gave birth to as a woman." After attaining full enlightenment he would say: "My affections [clinging, attachments] are set on no one" (DhA.i.324ff).

Discussion: How?

Shapeshifting is all well and good for sylphs (devas) to do, but as for humans?

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Maybe because I had practiced magic?

In an interesting side note, it is said that for the rest of his life, whenever anyone met Ven. Soreyya, they asked him the same sort of question:

"You had children as their father, and you had children as their mother; which children did you love more?" The answer, it is said, was always the same: "The children I had as a mother, of course."

This may tell us more about biological gender differences than the whole rest of the story. How could a body change sex if it gets its sex due to past life karma? This was magical "transformation" (shape-shifting), as we find in Shakespeare's play A Midsummer Night's Dream when the character Bottom is transmogrified becoming an ass.

Fairy (deva) transforms Bottom.

What gives us sex, and how could it change? This is explained based on Buddhist biology as found in the Abhidharma. Transformation is a supernormal power, which Soreyya had likely developed in past lives, as suggested by the fact that when he became enlightened he suddenly possessed those powers. Most people on becoming enlightened do not suddenly gain them.

Each particle (kalapa) has inherent characteristics like biological sex, much as we are taught that every cell has DNA with XX or XY chromosomes giving the body its sex.

• Buddhism and sexual orientation
• Are transsexuals gay? No. How about transgenders?
• Why LGBTQIA? Theravada Buddhist point of view
• Gay or queer in from a Mahayana Buddhist view
• Surgical transformation: Thai third gender kathoeys
• Attitude toward gays among Western Buddhists
• The Gay Buddhist Club: Hartford Street Zen Center

Gender Bending Agenda? (video)

Eric Dubay (AtlanteanConspiracy.com), May 23, 2019; Editors, Wisdom Quarterly

The Gender Bender Agenda 

Eric Dubay sitting in Buddhist Thailand

In the world today, there is an agenda well underway that is purposely subverting and transforming the family unit, creating sexual confusion and normalizing gender dysphoria while promoting and celebrating mental illness.

As will be shown, this Gender Bending Agenda has existed covertly for decades and in fact centuries, but recently due to its successes is now becoming more overt, obvious, and ostentatious to the point that celebrities such as Charlize Theron are openly, physically, and pharmaceutically [chemically] transgendering their children as young as 7 years old.

All over North America drag queens are setting up library story hours to passively push transgenderism on children, and through new school "cyber-bullying" initiatives, LGBTQ's with their army of outrage and pronouns are becoming part of elementary curricula.

• EricDubay.com
• AtlanteanConspiracy.com
• IFERS.123.st

Pagan SEX origins of Valentine's Day (video)

Cozmo El; Wiki; Dhr. Seven, Crystal Quintero, Ashley Wells (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

VALENTINE'S PAGAN ORIGINS

 

I have a heart on for you, babe. - A heart?

[Saint] Valentine's Day has its origin in the dark and lust-filled rituals and animal (dog and goat) sacrifices of the pre-Christian pagan Roman holiday of Lupercalia (named after the cave of Lupercal).

Many people participate in these rituals today without even knowing about their origin. Let's find out what it's all about so that we are able to enlighten our friends.

Turning into a lycanthrope: Zeus turning Lycaon into a wolf, engraving by Hendrik Goltzius.

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"LUPERCALIA"

Easter morning whipping of the girls

Lupercalia (from the Latin lupa, "female wolf," Spanish loba, a wendigo, dogperson, or lycanthrope/werewolf) was a lusty Roman holiday.

It derives from a very ancient, possibly pre-Roman, pastoral annual festival that was observed in the City of Rome on February 15th (or between the 13th and 15th).

It was to avert "evil spirits" [Buddhist asuras, yakshas?] and purify the city, releasing health and fertility.

Lupercalia was also called Dies Februatus, purified (literally "Februated Day") after the "instruments of purification" or "instruments for purging" called februum, which give the month of February (Februarius) its name. More

What does it feel like for a human to turn into a wolf due to lust?

INDIAN "LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD" STORIES

Which of the three "Saint Valentines" does the Holy Roman Empire's Church worship?

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Breasty she-wolf yakshi ogre

In Buddhist, Hindu, and Jain texts, the yakṣi (she-wolf spirit) has a dual personality. [When appearing in human-form, yakshis are murderous beautiful young women with large breasts.] On the one hand, a yakshi (male yakṣa) may be an inoffensive nature-fairy, associated with woods and mountains. But there is also a darker version of the yakṣi, which is a kind of ghost (shapeshifting bhuta) that haunts the wilderness and waylays and devours travelers, similar to the ogres/rakṣasas. More

Man becomes woman, moves to women's prison

Associated Press (ap.org); CC Liu, Seth Auberon (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Prison-Industrial Complex wants women: 10 Worst US Prisons (Julia Tutwiler/Mother Jones)

John Becker is for gay, lesbian, transgender, questioning or LGBTQ rights (AP).

 

First sex reassignment inmate says women's prison is "torture"

Michael and I are gay. I mean Michelle.

SACRAMENTO, CA - The first U.S. inmate to have taxpayer-funded sex reassignment surgery says she is being mistreated since being transferred to a California women's prison, where she now has a beard and mustache because officials have denied her a razor.

Shiloh Heavenly Q. (CDC)

In a hand-written federal court filing, convicted killer Shiloh Heavenly Quine called her new housing at the Central California Women's Facility in Chowchilla a "torture unit."

 

She said she's unnecessarily isolated from other inmates and denied basic items. State officials say she's being treated like other female inmates. All initially are denied privileges like razors and TVs as they are evaluated.

Quine, 57, had the surgery she had long sought in January and was moved from a men's prison [to a women's prison] last month

She said she is being treated as if she's a newly arrived inmate and denied rehabilitation programs and privileges even though she's been serving a life sentence since 1981.

 

(California's death row )

Quine is housed alone in a cell but said she still has no privacy to perform required intimate post-operative procedures and is enduring "a restrictive isolation" that is pushing her toward anxiety, depression, and sadness. More

• Arkansas governor sets execution dates for 8 inmates
• White House crisis
• Trump approval rating
• fitness trackers
• California eases conditions at death row disciplinary unit
• Devin Nunes TIPS TRUMP on Russia investigation

Jury: Private prison company violated rights, but no need to pay