What’s Current: US Department of Education investigating claim that Yale discriminates against men

  • Kursat Christoff Pekgoz, a male PhD student, has filed a Title IX complaint against Yale University claiming that programs and scholarships that are exclusively available to women discriminate against men. Pekgoz has made similar complaints against other universities — including USC where he is a student — arguing that affirmative action for women is no longer necessary because women are no longer underrepresented on campuses.
  • The Winnipeg Police have pulled a woman’s body out of the Red River. Police have not identified the woman, but the mother of April Carpenter says it is the body of her missing daughter.
  • Canada’s National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls is holding Expert and Knowledge Keeper Hearings this week. Fay Blaney, an Indigenous feminist and lifelong activist, testified earlier this week. Video of her testimony is now archived here.
  • In Belgium, Kevin Lapeire has been arrested for murdering his ex-girlfriend in front of her three children on Mother’s Day. Lapeire appeared on the reality show Belgium’s Got Talent as a clown.
  • A Salvadoran who fled her country after being brutalized and raped by her husband was granted asylum in the US. Now, US Attorney General Jeff Sessions has assigned himself to review her petition. An op-ed in the New York Times says:

“Mr. Sessions has given himself the power not only to decide Ms. A-B-’s fate but also ultimately to try to rule on how our country handles claims for all survivors of domestic violence looking for asylum.”

Lisa Steacy

Lisa Steacy is an Assistant Editor at Feminist Current. She has a B.A. in Women & Gender Studies from the University of Toronto. However, the women she met in her five years as a frontline worker and collective member with Vancouver Rape Relief & Women’s Shelter deserve almost all of the credit for her feminist education. She lives in Vancouver with her partner and their cats.