Back in the day, we talked and connected and networked to get organized. Today, led by my younger sisters, we are doing just the same. We didn't "chit and chat." We organized against the abuses of power, just as we do today. This is the best history report I could imagine reading during women’s history month. Let’s keep writing this report.
Last night, Utah Governor Gary Herbert vetoed an abstinence-only-until-marriage law that would have required that schools replace comprehensive sexual health education with discredited abstinence-only-until-marriage instruction. He angered far-right wing supporters of the bill, but did the right thing for teens and young adults in his state.
Lots of people take birth control pills because they are having sex and they don’t want to get pregnant. In fact, 86 percent of us take it at least in part because we want to be able to have sex and not get pregnant. Reproductive health, rights and justice advocates think it's a really good thing that women have autonomy over their bodies, their sexuality, and access to a full range of good choices about how to manage their fertility.
At an otherwise mind-numbing conference, something incredible happens: A federal government employee responsible for billions of dollars in budget allocations talks openly about queer youth in our communities and he tells the truth. He talks about their struggles, their needs, and our inherent prejudices. And he insists we can do better.
As a woman living with HIV and working with HIV-positive women throughout the U.S., I know all too well what character assassinations, funding restrictions, and the overall environment can do to women.
This month, one of Belgium’s women’s rights organizations, zij-kant, caused quite a stir with their annual “Equal Pay Day” message. Instead of merely high-lighting that women in Belgium, on average, earn 22 percent less than men, the organization launched a video starring porn actress Sasha Grey with the message “Porn is about the only way women can earn more than men—find a better alternative.”
A Reuters article now provides proof of what I have suspected for some time: The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops was involved in the whole Komen fiasco, on one hand forcing boycotts of Komen until it dropped Planned Parenthood and on the other taking millions of dollars in money from Komen.
Kansas Governor Brownback may soon have the chance to sign into law one of if not the most onerous anti-choice, anti-woman bill in the nation, a law that would guarantee forced pregnancy as a state policy. Now that the governor has decided to control everyone's reproductive and sexual health lives from his office, the the women and men of the state are seeking his advice.
It's a strange sensation to start something as a joke, expecting that only your friends on Facebook will see it, and then all of a sudden to see it all over the internet. That's what happened with my decision to report on my menstrual cycle to all of the Virginia legislators (not just the Republicans, contrary to popular news sources) who voted "yes" on HB462, the "mandatory ultrasound" bill.
