Gay marriage ruling: Some officials stop holding weddings

• 1 July 2015
 
• From the sectionUS & Canada

The Supreme Court ruling was celebrated at Gay Pride marches at the weekend in several US cities

Gay marriage ruling

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Officials in the US south are resisting last week's Supreme Court ruling on gay marriage by refusing to issue licences to any couples - gay or straight.

Last Friday the court said marriage for all is a constitutional right.

But reports suggest some county offices in Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi, Texas and Louisiana are trying to find ways around the contentious decision.

Many opponents of gay marriage are preparing for legal challenges over religious objections to the unions.

In Alabama, one judge is refusing to issue marriage licences to anyone, saying that state law merely says they "may" be issued by officials, not that they must issue them.

Wes Allen, a probate judge in Pike County in southern Alabama, told the AP news agency that he is "not in violation of any Supreme Court order".

"We're just going to hold the course and not issue any marriage licences," he said, adding that he believes marriage "is one man, one woman".

Gay marriage supporters gathered outside Rowan County Judicial Center in Kentucky after it stopped issuing marriage licences

In Kentucky, Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis is another official ignoring the ruling and turning gay couples away from her office.

"It's a deep-rooted conviction; my conscience won't allow me" to grant gay-marriage licences, she told AP. "It goes against everything I hold dear, everything sacred in my life."

Many officials are pointing to religious rights and freedom of speech in a bid to justify their refusal to recognise gay marriage, but some experts doubt such arguments will stand up in the long run.

On Wednesday, a federal judge in Alabama told county offices they must abide by court decisions allowing gay marriage. However, the order does not affect counties that have stopped issuing all marriage licences.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-33352734

What it means to be female in Nigeria

BBC TrendingWhat's popular and why

• 1 July 2015

Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, whose book inspired #BeingFemaleInNigeria

What does it mean to be female in Nigeria? Women in Nigeria are using a hashtag on Twitter to share their experiences of everyday gender discrimination.

It started with a small book club meeting in the capital of Abuja on Sunday. Its members were discussing Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's "We Should All Be Feminists", based on the writer's popular talk. "We started describing our own experiences and challenges and thought we should bring the discussion to a larger group," says the book club's Florence Warmate. The area sales manager began totweet her thoughts with the hashtag #BeingFemaleinNigeria, and soon the timeline flooded with other women sharing the unique situations they face because of their gender.

The hashtag, which has been mentioned more than 80,000 times on Twitter, has been used by both women and men to debate gender identity and describe how women face sexism in their workplace, public places and even in their homes.

"#BeingfemaleinNigeria is being told countless times that I will never find a husband because I am 'too ambitious' and outspoken," said one tweet.

Several tweets explained how they had to deal with gender stereotypes at work or being judged even based on the kind of vehicle they drove. "I learnt that if you graciously cook food & take to work for male colleagues, you must clear their dirty plates too," said one woman. "If you own an SUV, it's your sugar daddy/ married lover that bought it for you," tweeted another user.

"You can't go to club on your own to have a solo drink, you're a prostitute," read a tweet about the problems faced while going out. "Having to bear the trauma of your rape alone because your rapist is a highly respected family member," said another.

Another post referenced #BringBackOurGirls, the global online campaign which called for the release of the Nigerian schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram fighters: "You get kidnapped and killed because you are being educated."

Warmate says she does not expect society to change overnight. "But this can enlighten people and change perceptions about women. When women work hard, respect that." Nigeria is currently ranked 118th out of 142 countries in the Gender Gap Index 2014 of the World Economic Forum. In a new survey the 'Global Women Entrepreneur Leadership Scorecard', Nigeria scored the highest when it came to women who thought they have the skills to become entrepreneurs, but scored the least among 31 countries for 'business environment'.

While several men have also actively encouraged the stories coming out of #BeingFemaleinNigeria, some responded with another hashtag:#BeingMaleinNigeria. "You must pay for lunch/dinner/movies/etc because masculinity = money," tweeted one man, while another said, "You are responsible, hardworking, morally upright. But stereotype of Nigerian men by women will overshadow your efforts."

Warmate clarifies her trend is not meant to put men down. "This is about gender equality. It's about how if a man did the same thing we did, no-one would ask him anything," she tells Trending. "It's not male bashing. It's not feminism." When asked why she thinks the trend is not linked to feminism, she explained that feminism is a broad subject with different definitions for different people, and it can be associated with a 'negative agenda'.

The conversation that started in Nigeria has resonated with women across the world and has sprouted posts about what it means to be women in other Africancountries like Ghana, and also Bangladesh. "Hashtags #BeingFemaleInGhana #beingfemaleinZimbabwe #BeingFemaleInNigeria just show that it's tough being a woman. Simple. But we're strong!," summarised one user.

Blog by Samiha Nettikkara

Next story: Bree Newsome: Flag activist becomes online folk hero

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http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-33239356

Google apologises for Photos app's racist blunder

• 1 July 2015
 
• From the sectionTechnology

Mr Alcine tweeted Google about the fact its app had misclassified his photo

Google says it is "appalled" that its new Photos app mistakenly labelled a black couple as being "gorillas".

Its product automatically tags uploaded pictures using its own artificial intelligence software.

The error was brought to its attention by a New York-based software developer who was one of the people pictured in the photos involved.

Google was later criticised on social media because of the label's racist connotations.

"This is 100% not OK," acknowledged Google executive Yonatan Zunger after being contacted by Jacky Alcine via Twitter.

"[It was] high on my list of bugs you 'never' want to see happen."

Mr Zunger said Google had already taken steps to avoid others experiencing a similar mistake.

Mr Alcine said the error had affected several photos in his collection

He added it was "also working on longer-term fixes around both linguistics - words to be careful about in photos of people - and image recognition itself - eg better recognition of dark-skinned faces".

This is not the first time Google Photos has mislabelled one species as another.

The news site iTech Post noted that the app was tagging pictures of dogs as horses in May.

Users are able to remove badly identified photo classifications within the app, which should help it improve its accuracy over time - a technology known as machine learning.

Google has faced criticism since the error was made public

However, Google has acknowledged the sensitivity of the latest mistake.

"We're appalled and genuinely sorry that this happened," a spokeswoman told the BBC.

"We are taking immediate action to prevent this type of result from appearing.

"There is still clearly a lot of work to do with automatic image labelling, and we're looking at how we can prevent these types of mistakes from happening in the future."

But Mr Alcine told the BBC that he still had concerns.

"I do have a few questions, like what kind of images and people were used in their initial priming that led to results like these," he said.

"[Google has] mentioned a more intensified search into getting person of colour candidates through the door, but only time will tell if that'll happen and help correct the image Silicon Valley companies have with intersectional diversity - the act of unifying multiple fronts of disadvantaged people so that their voices are heard and not muted."

http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-33347866