Boston Marathon

Good morning Bitch readers!  Here's what we've been reading today.

• In light of the recent Boston Marathon Bombing, there have been countless racist responses and unfounded finger-pointing. Here's why David Sirota hopes the bomber is a white American, and how white male privilege could dramatically shape the course the U.S. will take. [Salon]
• There's lots of coverage about the sadistic and sloppy abortion-performing doctor Kermit Gosnell. Here's a rundown seperating the truth from the false info in the gruesome case and a commentary on how the situation shows the lack of access to healthcare among poor people of color [RH Reality Check]. 
• One year since three Black trans-women were murdered, we remember them. [TransGriot]
• Folks are celebrating the release of "Trans 100," a list of 100 great trans* activists. [Autostraddle]  
• Breaking the cycle: In Afghanistan, it's taboo for women to ride bikes. But a group of women have semi-secretly formed a national biking team and are getting new gear from American cyclists. [New York Times] 
• Maintaining a heritage language can be difficult enough when you live in an English-speaking country, but coupled with thehuge stigma against foreign languages results in the overwhelming loss of an ability to speak them by the second-generations of immigrants. [Racialicious]
• While there are plenty of YA novels that are a source of empowerment for girls, the focus on "beauty" is still very prevalent. [This Ain't Livin']
• Although we've seen this done before, here's a new take on recreating the all-too-common sexist advertisements using role-reversal to replace the female models with males. [The F Bomb]
• Yay for progress!  New Zealand has officially approved its bill for marriage equality. [Huffington Post]
• North Dakota lawmakers are confident that the newest in a slew of anti-abortion bills will deter women from getting abortions, when in reality, they will only be making it more difficult and, therefore, unsafe. [NY Mag]

In 1967, five years before the passing of Title IX  (which required gender equity for sports in public education), twenty-year-old Kathrine Switzer ran the Boston Marathon. During the race, Switzer was physically accosted by race director Jock Semple, who tried to pull her out of the race by force (an act that, if we'd been around in 1967, would have definitely earned him a Douchebag Decree). Not deterred, Switzer went on to finish the Boston Marathon with an unofficial time of 4:20 (she was disqualified as only male runners were recognized as finishers). Her work in advocating women's rights in sports led to the official inclusion of women runners in the 1972 Boston Marathon and the first-ever women's marathon at the 1984 Olympics. Switzer's efforts to get women running spanned 30 countries when she founded the Avon Running Global Women's Circuit, a series of races for women.