Julian Droms writes "Yesterday, there was a front page news story in the Detroit Free Press about new paternity fraud legislation for the State of Michigan. There are four bills; testimony will be on the 25th of this month in Lansing. All four bills have passed the house and are now in committee. Written testimony can be sent to the Senate Committee on Families, Mental Health and Human Services; 517-373-3543." The fact that these bills are coming forth in several states is an exciting wave of change I see affecting men's rights nationwide. But be prepared for a struggle, as has happened in the L.A. County case.

Steve writes "I will host this week's MANN chat, Wednesday night (9/18), starting at 9:30 PM Eastern Time, at the usual location. The topic for this chat will be "New Hampshire Commission and CEDAW:
Latest Government Attempts to Harm Men's Rights."  Recently, we've seen the attempts of N.H. Governor Jeanne Shaheen and her office to sabotage the new state commission on men. We also have CEDAW--a fundamentally anti-male treaty--moving to the floor of the U.S. Senate for a ratification vote. Courts routinely make anti-male decisions. Sometimes, it feels like threats are coming at us from all branches of government. What's an activist to do? Let's share ideas and develop strategy at thes week's MANN chat. Join us and let others know about it!""

A recent posting on the Men's Health America list announces that the federal Men's Health Act is gaining more support, with currently 115 co-sponsors in the House. We are encouraged to write to our legislators and ask them to support this bill during this time when they are very eager to get our votes during the election season. The Men's Health Act is a fairly non-controversial men's issue that we should definitely get them to include in their campaigns.

Wendy McElroy's latest column in FoxNews discusses some of the suspicious and outright dirty politics being used to stack the NH Commission on the Status of Men. Not only was it discovered that one of the nominees went on a NH Public Radio program arguing that men don't need this commission, but it has been exposed that the governor's office has been soliciting people to apply even after plenty of qualified individuals had applied for the commission. Some were even solicited after the application deadline had passed. Hopefully with this kind of media exposure, and more expected to follow, politicians will get the message that using underhanded tactics against men's advocates is not worth the cost.

Back in 1996, Health Canada released a report entitled The Invisible Boy: Revisioning the Victimization of Male Children and Teens. Prepared by Dr. Frederick Mathews, this paper documents the neglected experiences of our boys and provides yet another legitimate source of information regarding their troubles.

chicago joe writes "There is an article in this month's Oprah magizine [October] that should make everyone see red. It is a story about a former pro football player named Don McPherson and his men's program concerning domestic violence. He has been brainwashed into believing the traditional feminist stereotypes. He tells men at his workshop that women do not commit domestic violence - men do. He labels only men as perpetrators in gender crimes, and he states that male privilege, and our culture that breeds it, are responsible for most of women's woes. The article is also filled with the same anti-male distortions and facts that is common for this subject, and it convinces it's readers that the trend for many males is create or join organizations such as McPherson's so as to "take a hard look at their manhood.""

Luek sent us this article and writes "In Lawrence County, Pennsylvania the ACLU got 37 men out of the child support prison gulag. They reasoned correctly that anyone arrested and threatened with imprisonment is entitled to free legal counsel if they can't afford it and due legal process. Just because you are a male you still can't be treated like a piece of property by the iron heeled state tyrants." This could be a very important breakthrough if this kind of legal case is made in other regions. The ACLU has been lukewarm or completely apathetic to certain men's issues (ie, male reproductive rights) in the past, but this could be a way of getting our "foot in the door" and might lead to the ACLU being more open to men's rights issues. Let's hope for the best.

Jeff Mapes from Kalamazoo College in Michigan is looking for a pro-male speaker to come to his campus and give a presentation on men's issues. If you're interested, please e-mail Jeff at k00jm03@kzoo.edu. Jeff has been successful in starting a "men's issues house" on campus. Here's an excerpt from the house's mission statement: "At every level of discussion on this campus, masculinity is ostracized and shunned. From the way sports players are cynically referred to as “jocks,” to the tendency of every discussion on masculinity to center around gender violence, the students, faculty and staff of Kalamazoo College largely operate under a fundamentally negative—and utterly wrong—conception of men and masculinity. This conception begins with the assumption that men, left to their own devices, will act like brutish animals in a Hobbesian state of nature. As a house, our primary mission will be to fight this misconception." We definitely need more college groups like this.

Rams forwarded me this article about an English professor at the University of New Hampshire who has taken a close look at boys and literacy. Prof. Thomas Newkirk argues that instead of viewing popular culture as of no intellectual value, that in the case of boys and reading, it can be a very important influence: "Newkirk interviewed 100 boys and girls in third, fourth and fifth grades in New Hampshire schools for the book, and discovered that sports, movies, video games and other venues of popular culture are a powerful way to encourage young boys to read and write. In his book, Newkirk argues against the simplistic stereotype of boys, showing that rather than mimic violence, boys most often transform, recombine and participate in storylines, and resist the unreality of popular culture." Newkirk has written a book on this subject, Misreading Masculinity: Boys, Literacy, and Popular Culture, that many MANN readers might want to check out.

frank h writes "This CNN story is on how single-sex schools are gaining popularity nationwide. It's among the few articles I've seen that highlights the advantages to boys of single sex schools; most highlight the advantages to girls. Perhaps this plays to the boys' advantage because it seems that the people who need to be convinced are feminist groups like the AAUW. Also, the article mentions the National Association for Single Sex Public Education, an organization perhaps we ought to look into supporting. Anyway, I'd like to all states REQUIRE that single sex classrooms (not necessarily whole single sex schools) be offered in public education, as it offers some tremendous advantages for BOTH boys AND girls. The men's movement, as a community of organizations ought to get behind this initiative in a big way. It may well be the "silver bullet" in solving the education gap between boys and girls."

SJones writes "A study in Australia seeks to blame men for creating sex offenders. Or at least that is the spin the headline gives it. It says bad fathers are to blame for producing male sex offenders. Mothers are given a pass. The article is here. And by all means, get on the bulletin board commenting on this article and slam the radical female supremacists who are dominating it right now."

The Gonzo Kid writes "Men's News Daily reports that an Australian woman faked the birth of a baby and forged documents in order to fleece an ex-boyfriend of nearly $25,000 dollars. Now tell me it's about the child, and not about money and revenge."

Acksiom submitted this article from NZCity and writes "New Zealand Children's Commissioner Roger McClay is going to ask the Government to consider criminalizing the routine genital mutilation of male minors. . .a big step forward for intactivism, if it happens!"

Marc Angelucci writes "Here you can read L.A. County's agenda for today. Take a look at Items 28 and 32 for more anti-male bias. Excerpt from Item #28: “specialized services in the areas of domestic violence against Cambodian refugee WOMAN and child care training and certification in total amount of $383,909...” Apparently Cambodian men are never DV victims, so they need not be included. Never mind that "approximately 1.5 million women and 834,732 men are raped and/or physically assaulted by an intimate partner annually in the United States." Excerpt from Item 32: “...$361,000...annually from the State Office of Criminal Justice Planning…to help combat teen pregnancy by prosecuting adult MALES who violate existing statutory rape laws with minor females and to obtain court orders against the fathers to increase child support collections, effective July 1, 2001 through June 30, 2003.” Is this a sincere effort to combat teen pregnancy? Or is it targeting men for the purpose of political grandstanding? Is imprisoning young males and then seeking child support from them an efficient, rational and effective way to use $361,000 a year to combat teen pregnancy? This is another reason we need a commission for men."

Steve Imparl's MaleDepression.com site was changed this morning, to create a memorial to the victims of the Sept. 11 attacks. As a site to help promote psycholocial healing, I felt that this was very appropriate. Thanks, Steve.