Jen Welter is the NFL’s First Female Coach

Jen Welter coaching the Arizona Cardinals (AZ Central)

Late last month, the Arizona Cardinals announced a new hire to the their coaching staff, someone that brings plenty of experience. Jen Welter has coached linebackers and special teams for the Texas Revolution of the Indoor Football League. She brings 14 years of professional football experience during her time in the Women’s Football Alliance, and holds advanced degrees in psychology and sports psychology. She also won two gold medals playing for the United States on two separate occasions during the International Federation of American Football Women’s World Championship within this decade.

Welter will be the first woman to coach on a National Football League (NFL) team.

But she’s used to blazing trails: She was the first female coach for the Indoor Football League, another men’s professional sports league. Welter was hired to that position this past February.

As for her day-to-day work, CNN reports:

Welter will work with the Cardinals’ inside linebackers and will coach throughout training camp and the preseason as a training camp/preseason intern.

It’s fantastic that the NFL is continuing to break barriers: Earlier this year, the league hired Sarah Thomas, its first female official. The two actually met during a recent preseason game.

How Common Is Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) in the U.S.?

Girls (The Borgen Project)

Generally, when people the phrase “female gentile mutilation,” they think of countries where that’s a common practice. Well, actually, many people tend to think of just one continent: Africa. It’s implied that since Africa is less developed and empowered, people don’t think it can happen in the U.S.

Well, it does. And significantly. FGM has been coming to light recently here in the U.S. For a quick primer: Forms of FGM include removing the clitoris to completely sewing the vagina lips shut, done for non-medical purposes. The procedure is usually done without anesthesia, and leaves victims with severe repercussions, especially with the reproductive system. The main goal is to ensure the victim’s virginity and sexual loyalty to her partner.

The Population Reference Bureau studied the rate of FGM in the U.S., and published results earlier this year. It’s estimated that 507K+ women have either had the procedure done, or are at-risk of having it. (The results gave no way to break down the number further into those who definitively have had it done.) Some commonalities have been found about those at risk:

The estimated number of girls at risk is based on the number of daughters of immigrants from countries, mostly in Africa and from some communities in Asia, living in the U.S.

Over 166K women at risk are under the age of 18.

Prior to these results, a study was performed in 2000. Fifteen years ago, it was estimated 227K+ women were at risk for FGM. (It’s unclear as to whether the number included women who’d had the procedure done.)

Performing FGM in the U.S. was made illegal in 1996, and the practice of sending a girl to another country for the procedure (termed “vacation cutting”) was made illegal in 2013. It’s clear there are not enough protections in place to stop this barbaric practice, so I hope strides will be made in the right direction.

Planned Parenthood Hacks: By The Numbers

Planned Parenthood site outage (Planned Parenthood)

You may have heard that Planned Parenthood’s website got hacked earlier this week. But did you know it got hacked twice?

That’s right. It actually happened twice in one week. Planned Parenthood was first hacked this past Sunday night, and then again on Wednesday. The hacking on Sunday was performed by a group called 3301. The group hacked employees’ personal contact information and internal emails and files. According to 3301’s leader E, the breach was possible due to the organization’s “extremely outdated and broken” coding.

While previously unknown, this group holds some extreme anti-abortion views, and feels that what Planned Parenthood does is “a very ominous practice.” The hacking was prompted by some recent leaked videos showing Planned Parenthood officials “discussing the sale of aborted fetal tissue.”

3301 calls its members “social justice warriors.”

The hacking on Wednesday interfered with the organization’s usual flow of web traffic. It was a large “distributed denial-of-service” (DDoS), where users couldn’t access the site due to the server getting flooded with voluminous quantities of data.

(And for those who wish I’d write about something else this week: yes, I know I just covered another prominent website’s hacking, but I couldn’t let this one pass by unacknowledged.)

Here are the numbers behind the hacking:

1: day that Planned Parenthood took their own site offline

2: times the site has been hacked this week

2: Government agencies (Department of Justice and the FBI) investigating the data breaches

300: number of Planned Parenthood employees whose personal information has already been leaked

200K: number of people who visit Planned Parenthood’s site daily

2.7M: Number of people that Planned Parenthood helps in a given year

#ThrowbackThursday: Planned Parenthood’s Site Outage, 2015

Planned Parenthood site outage (Planned Parenthood)

Today, I’m throwing it all the way back to…yesterday. But for good reason: Planned Parenthood kept its site offline yesterday to a cyberattack. And it’s actually the second cyberattack within four days for them. What a week!

This is important because Planned Parenthood is a trusted resource for people to get access to reproductive healthcare, especially those who might otherwise go without it. It’s very scary that anti-abortion extremists are targeting the site, and that our very rights are under attack. I just hope that the real “social justice warriors” are coming out in full force for this fight.

Ashley Madison Hacked: Is Your Data Safe?

Ashley Madison homepage (Ashley Madison)

Earlier this month, online dating/cheating site Ashley Madison had its data breached by a group called The Impact Team. The group is lobbying for completely shutting down the site, and has been threatening to release users’ sensitive information if their demands aren’t met. Their demands are aimed at Avid Life Media (ALM), Ashley Madison’s parent company head-quartered in Toronto.

The hackers have leaked personal information from only two people so far. Considering that the site has around 37M-40M registered users, this is miniscule. The group is specifically targeting Ashley Madison’s “full delete” feature, where a user must pay to get his information scrubbed from the site. According to The Impact Team, the feature “netted ALM $1.7M in revenue in 2014.”

This is significant because it’s the second online dating site that’s encountered a massive data breach within a few months: Adult Friend Finder went through a similar situation back in May. But this case is unique in that it’s the only one that’s fallen prey to what ‘Time” calls “data kidnapping:” the hackers won’t leak the data unless they get what they want.

Ashley Madison is ranked #18 in adult sites, and received 124K+ visits on desktop since January 2015.

The Boy Scouts Will Allow Gay Scout Leaders

‘Boy Scout Handbook,’ 1962 (Envisioning the American Dream)

The Boy Scouts of America will soon undergo a momentous change: The organization will begin to allow gay adults to serve as troop leaders. This follows a sea change of public opinion, and several years of declining Boys Scouts membership. Nothing on paper has been been implemented yet, but the change is expected to be officially announced soon.

However, there is a catch: Troops backed by religious institutions will be able to deny troop leaders on the basis of their sexual orientation. The Boys Scouts are conscious that many members come from within religious folds, and feel those world views must be honored, respected and given a place at the table.

Here’s some context on how long it’s taken the organization to begin embracing gay participants: The Boy Scouts of America were founded in 1910. Gay troop members have been allowed within the organization only since 2013 (a mere two years ago!).

It’ll be interesting to me to see whether we’ll see an upsurge in gay leaders (either statistically or self-reported), and how long it will take to become noticeable. I’m also curious about how this will effect the Boy Scouts’ overall membership, since the organization will be seen as a (somewhat) more inclusive space. (And I wouldn’t be surprised if they began rebranding as such.)

“I Am Cait” Wins Big in Overnight Ratings

Caitlyn Jenner in ‘I Am Cait’ (New York Daily News)

Last night, “I Am Cait” premiered on the E! network. The eight-part docuseries follows Caitlyn (born Bruce) Jenner as she transitions from a man to a woman, and how that changes affects her relationships with family and friends. The series was announced right after Jenner’s groundbreaking “20/20” interview with Diane Sawyer in which she revealed she’d be transitioning.

With the overnight ratings in, the premiere garnered a 2.1 household rating within Nielsen’s 56 metered markets. It tied with TNT’s “Falling Skies” for the most-watched cable program of the night. Prior similar ratings points to this share being equivalent to about 3M viewers.

These ratings suggest that the interest in Jenner’s story is there, and substantial. I’ll be looking forward to seeing how these ratings progress on a weekly basis.

Siri Corrects Bruce Jenner to Caitlyn Jenner

Siri’s response to Bruce Jenner questions (Daviesha/Last November 4 Tumblr)

Happy Friday! Here’s a great example of how technology is adapting to the changing times. Tumblr user Daviesha found that Apple iPhone’s Siri corrects the name of Bruce Jenner to Caitlyn Jenner. Daviesha asked Siri, “how tall is Bruce Jenner?” and “What is Bruce Jenner’s real name?” You can see the results in the screenshot above.

This aspect of Siri began gaining attention earlier this month. Jenner came out as a transwoman in April of this year, and debuted her new name and look on the cover of “Vanity Fair” in the publication’s June issue. She recently received the Arthur Ashe Courage Award during the ESPYs this year, and her docuseries “I Am Cait” premieres Sunday night on E! (home to the Kardashian empire).

It’s fantastic that it took Apple absolutely no time to adjust Siri to account for this momentous event. After all, Jenner is now the most recognizable trans person in the world right now. The tech giant is showing they’re capable to changing as societal mores do, and updating their technology to reflect those changes.

American Ballet Theatre Promotes Filipina-American Stella Abrera to Principal Dancer

Stella Abrera (Ballet UK)

By now, I’m sure you’ve heard that New York City’s American Ballet Theatre (ABT) recently promoted dancer Misty Copeland to principal, making her the first Black principal in the company’s 75-year history. But that wasn’t the only important promotion that was made.

Stella Abrera became the first Filipina-American to ascend to the rank of principal. (Two promotions, two history-makers this round for the ABT, if you’re keeping track.) She was born in the Philippines and moved to the U.S. when she was four years old. Beginning in Pasadena, Abrera also studied ballet in San Diego and Sydney, Australia. She joined ABT in 1996, and became a soloist in 2001. Abrera’s various roles have included the titular role in “Cinderella,” Emilia in “Othello,” and Clara and The Snow Queen in different versions of “The Nutcracker.”

Ballet is an art form notorious for having little diversity. I hope Abrera’s promotion (and Copeland’s) opens the door for more non-white dancers.

Transgender People May Soon Serve in the Military

Soldiers (US Army)

According to reports, the Pentagon is very close to lifting a ban on transgender people serving in the military. U.S. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter is in the midst of creating a task force that will examine how allowing transgender people to serve their country will affect every aspect of the service. The task force will take about six months to completely analyze what changes are needed.

Thankfully, it doesn’t sound like Ash would ever decide to keep the ban in place: He’s already denounced the policy as “outdated” and “caus[es] uncertainty that distracts commanders from their core missions.” Sounds to me like he’s already made up his mind to do so (yay!); he just needs a roadmap to implement the necessary changes.

From the Department of Defense’s press release, Ash seems like a guy who gets it:

At a time when our troops have learned from experience that the most important qualification for service members should be whether they’re able and willing to do their job, our officers and enlisted personnel are faced with certain rules that tell them the opposite. Moreover, we have transgender soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines – real, patriotic Americans – who I know are being hurt by an outdated, confusing, inconsistent approach that’s contrary to our value of service and individual merit.

I’m looking forward to seeing how accommodating the military is willing towards transmen and transwomen interested in serving their country to be in the near future.

Sex & Stats: Where Numbers Come to Bang

Statistics. Economics. Sex.