Feisty Aphrodite Archives
Feisty Shout Out Newscast for Week Ending On 5/20/07
Taking a look at this week’s headlines concerning women’s issues around the world, flavored with music by independent artists.
Listen to the Podcast
Some of this week’s headlines:
New Report Cites Extensive Global discrimination Against Girls and Young Women
House Votes to Close Guantanamo
Pentagon Bars Soldiers From YouTube, MySpace
Gulf Coast Wetlands in Peril
Study Finds Independent Women More Likely to be Targets for Sexual Harassment
TX Man Indicted for Abortion Clinic Bombing
Anti-Gay Phelps Clan To Protest At Falwell Funeral
Transsexual Wins Battle Over Surgery Payment
This week’s news contributors:
Feminist Daily News Wire
Free Speech Radio News
Uprising Radio
Women’s ENews
365GaydotCom
Associated Press
BecauseImAGirldotOrg
REGNUM News Agency
Democracy Now!
BBC News
GayWireddotCom
PrideParentingdotCom
On Capitol Hill
Democrats to Hold No-Confidence Vote for Gonzales
Democracy Now!
A group of Democrats are pushing for the Senate to hold a no-confidence vote next week for Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. Gonzales has been widely criticized for his role in the politicization of the Justice Department as well as the administration's warrantless surveillance program. On Thursday President Bush refused to answer questions about whether he personally ordered Gonzales in 2004 to try to coerce then Attorney General John Ashcroft to sign off on the spy program. The Washington Post is reporting the Justice Department considered dismissing at least 26 prosecutors between February 2005 and December 2006. They amounted to more than a quarter of the nation's 93 U.S. attorneys. Thirteen of those known to have been targeted are still in their posts.
Deputy Attorney General Steps Down
Democracy Now!
Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty has announced he will step down later this year. McNulty is the second in command to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. He becomes the highest-ranking Bush administration official to leave office over the firing of U.S. attorneys. In his resignation letter, McNulty did not mention the scandal and said he’s stepping down in part for financial reasons.
House Votes to Close Guantanamo
Democracy Now!
The House has voted to demand the Bush administration begin the task of closing the military prison at Guantanamo. Meanwhile, a Navy lawyer has been found guilty of illegally leaking information about prisoners there. In 2005 Lt. Cmdr. Matthew Diaz mailed the names of 550 detainees at Guantanamo to an attorney at the Center For Constitutional Rights. Diaz faces up to 14 years in jail.
Romney: Double the Size of Guantanamo
Democracy Now!
The 10 Republican presidential candidates held their second debate Tuesday night in South Carolina. Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney called for Guantanamo to be doubled in size. Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Congressman Tom Tancredo suggested they support the use of torture, including the technique known as waterboarding, where prisoners are made to feel like they are about to drown.
Admin Backs Down on Gitmo Attorney Visits
Democracy Now!
The Bush administration has withdrawn one of its proposals to restrict attorney access for prisoners at Guantanamo Bay. The Justice Department says it will no longer seek to limit attorneys to just three visits with their clients. But it wants to keep rules that would allow just one visit for prospective lawyers; deny attorneys access to secret evidence and allow military officials to read attorney-client mail.
19 Senate Democrats Join GOP to Reject Bill to Cut Off War Funding
Democracy Now!
The Senate has rejected a bill to cut off money for combat operations in Iraq after March 31, 2008. 19 Democratic Senators joined Republicans in opposing the bill. Democratic Senator Russ Feingold of Wisconsin drafted the bill. The bill was rejected by 67 to 29 vote. Republican Senator John Warner of Virginia introduced an alternative bill that would have threatened billions of dollars in U.S. aid to Iraq if Baghdad failed to implement certain political and security reforms.
Senate Proposes Overhaul of Immigration Laws
Democracy Now!
A bipartisan group of senators has proposed sweeping changes to the nation's immigration laws. The Senate bill calls for increased security on the U.S.-Mexican border, the hiring of 18,000 more Border Agents and new requirements for employers to check the immigration status of employees. The bill would also allow undocumented immigrants living in the United States to continue to work here if they fulfill a number of requirements including paying a $5,000 fine and getting a biometric identification card. The bill would also set up a point system to determine who merits a new type of work visa. Details about the point system are still being negotiated but the White House has suggested immigrants should be able to earn points by serving in the U.S. military. The Senate proposal would also allow up to 600,000 temporary workers to come to the United States each year. Democratic Senator Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts spoke at a press conference Thursday announcing the bill.
Immigrant Rights Advocates Reject Senate Bill
Democracy Now!
Many immigrant rights advocates have expressed concern over the Senate bill. Democratic Congressman Xavier Becerra of California said the proposal would create a permanent underclass of immigrant workers. He also criticized the bill because it marks a major departure from the country's historic policy of giving preference to family members of immigrants already living in the U.S. Democratic Sen. Robert Menendez of New Jersey criticized the plan for the "prohibitive" fees that immigrants must pay to gain legal status. Several Republicans condemned the bill saying it gives amnesty to undocumented immigrants.
Privacy Oversight Member Resigns Following Admin Censorship
Democracy Now!
A member of the civilian panel created to oversee government protection of personal privacy has resigned in protest of White House censorship of the board’s first report. The Congressionally-mandated Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board had unanimously voted to send the report to lawmakers. But the Bush administration made more than two hundred revisions -- including the deletion of a passage on anti-terrorism programs that intelligence officials had cited as a potential intrusion on civil liberties.
Other U.S. News
CT Governor Signs EC Bill for Sexual Assault Victims
Feminist Daily News Wire
Connecticut Governor M Jodi Rell (R) signed a bill Wednesday ensuring that all licensed health care facilities make emergency contraception available to victims of sexual assault. The law, which will take effect on October 1, 2007, requires that victims of sexual assault receive medically accurate and objective information about emergency contraception (EC) and are provided with EC upon request.
Out of the state's 31 hospitals, only the four Catholic hospitals objected to the bill. In order to appease concerns by Catholics who oppose distribution of contraception, the bill allows a third-party provider, such as a rape crisis nurse, to dispense the medicine. Catholic officials, however, are not satisfied with the provision; Archbishop Henry J. Mansell still objects to the distribution of EC on hospital grounds, the Hartford Courant reports.
Other states are also considering bills that would provide sexual assault victims with EC. Most recently, the Wisconsin state Senate voted 27-6 to approve a similar bill this past week, and the Oregon legislature approved a bill, sending it the governor's desk where it expected to be signed into law. Read the rest of this story here.
XM Radio Gives One Month Suspension to Jocks for Rape Joke
Feminist Daily News Wire
XM Satellite Radio announced Tuesday that Gregg "Opie" Hughes and Anthony Cumia, the hosts of "The Opie and Anthony Show," will be suspended for 30 days after making vulgar and graphic rape jokes during their morning show last week. While the hosts offered an apology after the incident, comments were made during a Tuesday show that "put into question whether [the hosts] appreciate the seriousness of the matter," XM Radio stated. The management of XM Radio then issued their decision to suspend the pair in order to "make clear that [their] on-air talent must take seriously the responsibility that creative freedom requires of them."
According to the New York Times, two advertisers -- Trojan Condoms and the New York State Lottery -- have already withdrawn advertising with the show. Read the rest of this story here.
UN Official Blocked From Visiting NJ Immigration Jail
Democracy Now!
For the second time in a week, a United Nations human rights official has been barred from visiting a U.S. immigration jail. The official, Jorge Bustamante, is conducting a three-week investigation into how immigrants are treated in the United States. Bustamante had planned on visiting detained immigrants jailed at the Monmouth County Correctional Institution in New Jersey but he was refused entry. Last week he was blocked from visiting the Hutto facility in Taylor, Texas, where the U.S. is jailing up to 200 immigrant children and their families.
NYPD Documents Detail Espionage Campaign Against Protestors in 2003
Free Speech Radio News
The New York Civil Liberties Union has published nearly 600 pages of previously secret NYPD documents detailing a massive surveillance operation carried out against groups that organized protests during the 2003 Republican National Convention. A surveillance web monitored activist groups in New York as well as places like Des Moines, Iowa, Lawrence, Kansas and Portland, Maine. Entire pages in the files have been redacted. The activities of the Hip Hop Summit Action Network, the Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride, and Indymedia were monitored and included in regular surveillance reports. The documents are marked as secret but were released this week after a federal judge ruled that not all of the files should be kept away from public view.
Judges Hear New Mumia Abu-Jamal Testimony
Free Speech Radio News
Hundreds of people gathered outside of a Philadelphia courthouse Thursday, rallying in support of Mumia Abu-Jamal and the decades-old fight to overturn his death sentence. In 2001, a federal judge threw out Abu-Jamal’s death sentence after finding that the original judge gave the jury improper instructions. But both sides appealed. The results of this hearing could lead Judges to grant a new trial, affirm the life sentence, or re-instate the death sentence.
WBAI reporter Sally O’Brien was in the courtroom at the Third Circuit Court of Appeals. She told FSRN that one of the main issues discussed was the Batson Violation – or the exclusion of black jurors during the case. Journalist and author of Killing Time Dave Lindorff was also at the trial. He told host Catherine Komp that the outcome of this hearing could set a precedent.
Christian Evangelical Leader Jerry Falwell, 73, Dies
Democracy Now!
The Christian evangelical leader Jerry Falwell has died at the age of 73. He was the founder of the Moral Majority and a pioneering figure in the religious right. He led campaigns against abortion, gay rights, pornography and bans on school prayer. During the 1960s Falwell condemned the Rev. Martin Luther King and what he described as the civil wrongs movement. In the 1980s Falwell praised South Africa's apartheid government as a "bulwark for Christian civilization" and campaigned against economic sanctions. Falwell once described Nobel Peace laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu as a phony. Shortly after Sept. 11, 2001, Falwell appeared on Pat Robertson's 700 Club and blamed liberal groups in the United States for the attacks. "I really believe that the pagans and the abortionists and the feminists and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, and the ACLU and People for the American Way—all of them who have tried to secularize America—I point the finger in their face and say 'You helped this happen.'"
On Tuesday several of the leading Republican presidential candidates praised Falwell. Senator John McCain described him as "a man of distinguished accomplishment who devoted his life to serving his faith and country."
Anti-Gay Phelps Clan To Protest At Falwell Funeral
365Gaydotcom Newscenter Staff
Westboro Baptist Church says it intends to state a protest at the funeral of Rev. Jerry Falwell. The funeral will be Tuesday at the Thomas Road Baptist Church, the church he founded, in Lynchburg, Virginia. On its Web site, Westboro says it will "preach" outside the funeral "of the corpulent false prophet Jerry Falwell, who spent his entire life prophesying lies and false doctrines like 'God loves everyone.'"
The church is run by the Rev. Fred Phelps and its 70 members are made up mostly of Phelps' relatives. Although it professes to be Baptist it is not affiliated with any national Baptist group. In attacking Falwell the church says he "warmly praised Christ-rejecting Jews, pedophile-condoning Catholics, money-grubbing compromisers, practicing fags like Mel White (of Souflorce), and backsliders like Billy Graham and Robert Schuler, etc." The Topeka, Kansas-based Westboro operates Web sites including GodHatesFags and GodHatesAmerica and has been described as a cult.
Phelps and the church first came to national attention when he organized a protest by his followers outside the 1998 funeral for Matthew Shepherd, the gay college student who was beaten to death in Wyoming. The killing, Phelps' protest, and the reaction of townsfolk led to the play "The Laramie Project." Church members routinely demonstrate at the funerals of AIDS victims and most recently at the funerals of soldiers killed in Iraq.
Lately it has pointed its criticism overseas. Last month the Swedish royal family hired a lawyer after hundreds of threatening faxes clogged the offices of various members of the royal family threatening they will "spend eternity in hell" and suggesting various members of the family, including King Carl Gustaf, are gay.
Falwell for his part was no friend to the gay community. Following the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington in 2001 Falwell declared that gays and pro choice advocates were to blame. In 2003 Falwell announced that he was putting aside everything to devote his time to passage of a federal constitutional ban on gay marriage and in the 2004 election campaign he worked with Republicans to use same-sex marriage as a wedge issue.
Soulforce founder Mel White at one time worked with Falwell but the two split after White came out. Read the rest of this story here.
Phelps and his church are currently involved in a suit with Warner/Chappel Music Inc. of Los Angeles over copyright violations with their Internet parody of the 1980s song “We Are the World” in which they substitute that line with the phrase “God Hates the World.” The song raised money for famine relief the video featured some of U.S. music's biggest stars, including Ray Charles, Stevie Wonder and Bruce Springsteen.
NY Couple Charged With Imprisonment of Domestic Workers
Alison Bowman & Nouhad Moawad
Women’s ENews
A Muttontown, N.Y., couple was charged with kidnapping and enslaving two Indonesian women for up to five years, Newsday reported May 17. Varsha Mahender Sabhnani and her husband Mahender Murlidhar Sabhnani were charged with enslaving the women, whom they hired as housekeepers. They also are accused of torturing and threatening them. The two women were discovered when one escaped the house and was found by police officers wearing only pants and a towel. They later found the other woman, Nona, hiding inside the home.
ILO Report Finds North America Leads World With Women in Management Positions
Alison Bowman & Nouhad Moawad
Women’s ENews
The European Union lags behind the Americas for the portion of women who hold top jobs in legislative and business management positions, Belgian news site EUobserver.com reported May 14. A report by the International Labor Organization found that North American women hold 41 percent of senior positions overall, Latin American women hold 35 percent and European women 30 percent. South Asia's female representation increased the most, doubling from 1995 to 2004, but women still hold only 8.6 percent of top jobs.
Iraq News
Agustin Aguayo Returns After US Military Prison Time in Germany
Sarah Olson
Free Speech Radio News
An increasing number of U.S. soldiers are questioning their participation in the Iraq War. According to the Pentagon, 40,000 soldiers have gone AWOL since the beginning of the Iraq War. Another 2,000 have signed the Appeal for Redress, calling for a prompt end to the US occupation of Iraq. When Army specialist Agustin Aguayo had his Conscientious Objector status denied, he went AWOL rather than return for a second tour of duty in Iraq. He was sentenced to more than six months in a U.S. military prison in Germany. He returned to the U.S. late last week, and has been traveling around California, speaking about his experiences ever since. Listen to the rest of this story here.
10 Iraqis Die in Samarra Due to Citywide Curfew
Democracy Now!
The Iraqi city of Samarra remains under curfew for nearly two weeks. Residents are struggling to find food, fuel and medication, as vehicles have been restricted from entering or leaving the city. The Iraqi government imposed the curfew on May 6 after a suicide car bombing killed 12 police officers, including Samarra's police chief. Residents said the situation in the city is dire.
Norwegian Oil Company Prepares to Pump Iraqi Oil
Democracy Now!
A Norwegian company has announced it will soon become the first foreign oil firm to pump crude oil from Iraq in over three decades. The company – DNO – said it will begin producing a small amount of oil from the northern Iraqi region of Kurdistan. For the past 35 years, Iraq's oil industry has been under state control. The Iraqi Parliament is debating a bill that will open up the country's vast oil reserves to foreign oil companies. On Tuesday protesters from the group Hands Off Iraqi Oil gathered in London to demonstrate outside the annual shareholders meeting of the oil giant Shell.
Iraq Police Enforces Ban on Reporting at Bomb Scenes
Democracy Now!
Iraqi police are now enforcing a ban on photographers and TV camera operators from filming the aftermath of deadly bombings. On Tuesday, police fired warning shots in the air after journalists attempted to report on a bombing in Baghdad that killed seven people and wounded 17. Reporters Without Borders said the growing restrictions on the media could end in a total news blackout on what's happening in Iraq.
Tenet to Testify on False Pre-War Intel
Democracy Now!
Former CIA Director George Tenet has agreed to testify before Congress on the Bush administration’s use of false intelligence to lead the country into war. The House Oversight Committee hearing will focus on the claim Iraq sought to purchase uranium from Niger.
Pentagon Bars Soldiers From YouTube, MySpace
Democracy Now!
The Pentagon has announced new restrictions on a dozen popular websites used by U.S. troops to share photos, video and messages. Soldiers are now barred from accessing sites including YouTube and MySpace from military computers. The Pentagon says file-sharing is taking up too much bandwidth. Thousands of soldiers rely on the social-networking websites to communicate with friends and family members.
Iraqi Parliament Calls for End to Baghdad Walls
Democracy Now!
Iraq’s parliament has approved a measure calling for an end to the building of massive security walls around Baghdad neighborhoods. The walls have drawn protests across sectarian lines as evidence of a U.S.-backed strategy of divide and rule.
Democracy Now! Interviews Two Feminists on Impacts for Women Living Under U.S. Occupation and Rising Fundamentalism
Two leading feminists, one from Iraq and one from Afghanistan, joined Democracy Now! to talk about the dire situation for women in their countries. Yanar Mohammed is the co-founder of the Organization for Women's Freedom in Iraq. The group vocally supports women's rights in Iraq and shelters Iraqi women targeted in honor killings and sectarian violence. Dr. Sima Samar is the chair of the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission and is the United Nations special envoy to Darfur, Sudan. She served as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Women's Affairs in Hamid Karzai's first government following the U.S. invasion of 2001. She was forced to resign her government post following death threats. Listen to/read the interview here.
International News
New Report Cites Extensive Global discrimination Against Girls and Young Women
Because I’m A Girl
According to a new report from Plan International entitled “Because I’m a Girl: The State of the World’s Girls,” six of the United Nation’s eight Millennium Development Goals are in jeopardy due to the horrible inequalities plaguing girls and young women around the world. The report compiles and analyzes global statistics that illustrate the prevalence of gender discrimination and is just the first in a series of nine studies that will run until 2015. Here are just a few of the facts the report uncovers:
• Young women between the ages of 15 and 19 are the victims of half of all sexual assaults worldwide
• In Asia, at least 60 million girls are ‘missing’ from the population, despite laws banning sex-determination testing and sex-selective abortions.
• An estimated 121 million children currently do not attend primary school. The majority – 54 per cent – are girls. So are the majority of illiterates: about 57 million young men and 96 million young women aged 15-24 in developing countries cannot read or write.
• An estimated 7.3 million young women are living with HIV and AIDS compared to 4.5 million young men. Two-thirds of newly infected youth aged 15-19 in Sub- Saharan Africa are female.
• Despite a shift toward later marriage in many parts of the world, 82 million girls in developing countries who are now aged 10 to 17 will be married before their 18th birthday, despite laws forbidding this in many cases. More than 70,000 teenage girls are married each day. In some countries, the majority of girls still marry before their 18th birthday. These include India (50 per cent), Nepal (60 per cent) and Niger (76 per cent).
• Worldwide, some 14 million girls and women between ages 15 and 19 – both married and unmarried – give birth each year. That is 40,000 every day. Pregnancy is a leading cause of death for young women aged 15 to 19 worldwide, with complications of childbirth and unsafe abortion being the major factors.
• Girls aged 15 to 19 are twice as likely to die in childbirth as those in their twenties. Girls under age 15 are five times as likely to die as those in their twenties.
• Younger women and adolescent girls are especially vulnerable to gender-based violence. Nearly 50 per cent of all sexual assaults worldwide are against girls 15 years or younger.
• An estimated 450 million adult women in developing countries are stunted as a result of childhood proteinenergy malnutrition.
• Of the 1.5 billion people living on less than a dollar per day, 70 percent are female.
You can download the report here, or visit the Because I’m A Girl Website for more information.
Study Finds 25 Countries Block Web Sites
Anick Jesdanun
Associate Press
At least 25 countries around the world block Web sites for political, social or other reasons as governments seek to assert authority over a network meant to be borderless, according to a study out Friday.
The actual number may be higher, but the OpenNet Initiative had the time and capabilities to study only 40 countries and the Palestinian territories. Even so, researchers said they found more censorship than they had initially expected, a sign that the Internet has matured to the point that governments are taking notice.
China, Iran, Myanmar, Syria, Tunisia and Vietnam had the most extensive filters for political sites. Iran, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen had the strictest social-filtering practices, blocking pornography, gambling and gay and lesbian sites.
In some countries, censorship was narrow. South Korea, for instance, tends to block only information about its neighboring rival, North Korea.
The OpenNet Initiative, a collaboration between researchers at Cambridge, the University of Oxford, Harvard University and the University of Toronto, has previously published reports detailing censorship in specific countries. The latest study was its attempt to compare filtering worldwide. Visit OpenNet for more information.
Israeli Air Strikes Kill 10 Palestinians in Gaza
Democracy Now!
Israeli air strikes in Gaza killed at least 10 Palestinians this week. In the biggest raid, an Israeli bomb destroyed a two-story building belonging to Hamas. The bomb killed two members of Hamas and wounded 45 people, including civilians who were buried in the rubble. Five more Palestinians died when Israeli war planes bombed a Hamas headquarters building east of Gaza City. A third Israeli air strike targeted a pickup truck near the southern town of Rafah. It killed three people, a father and his two teenage sons. Israeli troops and tanks have also moved across the Gaza border. Hamas accused Israel of colluding with Fatah in a battle for dominance over Gaza. A spokesperson for Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said the Israeli attacks were justified because Hamas is firing rockets into southern Israel.
Meanwhile, over sixty Palestinians have been killed this week from the in-house fighting that continues between Hamas and Fatah, with 25 people dying on Wednesday alone. The Palestinian Interior Minister has also resigned this week due to the fighting.
U.S. Helps Arm and Train Fatah Fighters
Democracy Now!
Israel has claimed it will not get involved in the factional fighting between Hamas and Fatah, but many Middle East observers say the U.S. and Israel have both directly helped Fatah in recent months as part of an effort to topple the elected Hamas leadership. The U.S. is spending $86 million to help arm and train the Palestinian presidential guard which is loyal to Fatah leader, Mahmoud Abbas. This has helped pay for shipments of rifles and bullets. In January President Bush's Deputy National Security Advisor Elliot Abrams called for a "hard coup" in the Occupied Territories to overthrow Hamas. Last week a Jordanian newspaper obtained a secret 16-page U.S. document that outlined an action plan for undermining and replacing the Palestinian national-unity government.
Study: 1,000 Palestinian Homes Abandoned in Hebron
Democracy Now!
A new study from two Israeli human rights groups shows Palestinians have abandoned more than one thousand homes and nearly two thousand businesses in the West Bank town of Hebron. The Association for Civil Rights in Israel and B’Tselem attribute most of the flights to pressure and violence from Israeli soldiers and settlers. Most residents have fled since the outbreak of the second Palestinian intifada nearly seven years ago.
Palestinians Mark 59th Anniversary of Nakba
Rami Almeghari
Free Speech Radio News
Palestinians mark the 59th anniversary of their Nakba (catastrophe) this week, which was sparked in May 1948, when Israel was established on Palestinian lands. Violence continues nearly six decades later. Listen to the rest of this story here.
Iran Arrests Iranian-American Scholar
Democracy Now!
Iran has confirmed the arrest of a prominent Iranian-American scholar. Dr. Haleh Esfandiari is director of the Middle East Program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. She was jailed last week on unspecified charges.
UN: Refugee Situation In Somalia "Worse" than Darfur
Democracy Now!
The United Nations top humanitarian chief is saying the refugee situation in Somalia is now worse than Darfur. John Holmes said "In terms of the numbers of people displaced, and our access to them, Somalia is a worse crisis than Darfur or Chad or anywhere else this year." In December U.S.-backed Ethiopian troops invaded Somalia to topple the Islamic Courts Union. Since then over 400,000 people have fled their homes. Unlike in Sudan, Holmes said no emergency camps have been set up to help the refugees. Most of those who have fled, including women, children and the elderly, are camping in fields without access to food, shelter, clean water or medicines.
U.S. Urges Ethiopia To Keep Troops in Somalia
Democracy Now!
The Bush administration is urging Ethiopia not to withdraw its forces from Somalia, nearly six months after U.S.-backed troops invaded Somalia and toppled the Union of Islamic Court. Over 1,400 Somalis have died in the country's worst fighting since the early 1990s. The fighting has also displaced up to 400,000 Somalis. The UN estimates that more than 60 percent of the displaced peoples are not receiving any help. Meanwhile, the United Nations has announced it will investigate human rights violations during the recent fighting in Mogadishu.
Brazilian Rancher Sentenced in Death of American Nun
Democracy Now!
In Brazil a rancher has been sentenced to 30 years in jail for ordering the assassination of the American nun Dorothy Stang.
Study Finds Independent Women More Likely to be Targets for Sexual Harassment
Alison Bowman & Nouhad Moawad
Women’s ENews
University of Toronto researchers found that women who show what many consider to be traditional male traits such as insolence, independence and ambition are more likely to be targets of sexual harassment than "feminine" women, the Sydney Morning Herald reported May 14. The study supported the presumption that sexual harassment was provoked by a desire to punish "gender-role deviants" rather than by sexual need.
Suicide On the Rise for Chinese Women
Alison Bowman & Nouhad Moawad
Women’s ENews
The suicide rate for women in China is 25 percent higher than for men, the Washington Post reported May 15. The rate is three times higher in rural areas, where consuming pesticides is a common method, than in cities. Suicide is increasing among young, married women. A study indicated that women who committed suicide had an average of five years of school and lived in households with monthly incomes of $13. Thirty-eight percent experienced domestic violence.
South Korean Farmers Evicted for US Base
Jason Strother
Free Speech Radio News
South Korea has been home to thousands of US troops since the end of the Korean War in 1953. Over the past few years, the number of soldiers has been reduced and many bases have been closed. Despite this, the realignment of forces has led to the expansion of one base, forcing hundreds of South Korean farmers off their land. Listen to the rest of this story here.
Sarkozy Appoints Seven Women to Cabinet Positions
Alison Bowman & Nouhad Moawad
Women’s ENews
Nicolas Sarkozy, the new French president, has appointed seven women to his 15-member cabinet, Agence France Press reported May 18. Women will oversee the ministries of the interior; justice; agriculture; higher education; culture; health, youth and sports; and social cohesion.
Female Minister Becomes Moderator for Church of Scotland
BBC News
The first female minister to be appointed Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland has been sworn into office. The Reverend Sheilagh Kesting, 53, took the position at the opening of the Kirk's annual gathering in Edinburgh. She becomes the second woman to hold the honorary role after Dr Alison Elliot, an elder who was appointed three years ago. Read the rest of this story here.
Environmental/Health
Increased Investment for Women’s Health Systems Called For at World Health Assembly
Alison Bowman & Nouhad Moawad
Women’s ENews
At the 60th World Health Assembly in Geneva Thoraya Ahmed Obaid, head of the United Nations Population Fund, called for increased investment in health systems. She cited 10 million women who died and 300 million who have suffered long-term disabilities in the last two decades from mostly preventable pregnancy and childbirth complications. WHO chief Margaret Chan also called for a "health legacy" for women, saying they need special attention as caregivers with a reproductive role.
Study Confirms Links Between Everyday Chemicals and Breast Cancer
Uprising Radio
A new study recently published in a journal of the American Cancer Society has found links between everyday chemicals and breast cancer. Co-authored by two advocacy groups and researched by five institutions, the study, “Environmental Factors in Breast Cancer,” analyzed the link between increased risks of breast cancer with exposure to common chemicals. More than 200 chemicals were found to have caused cancerous breast tumors in animals of which humans are highly exposed to nearly half of them. Of the 216 chemicals listed, 73 have been found in consumer products and as contaminants in food while 35 are air pollutants. Researchers in the study concluded that a reduction in exposure to such chemicals may reduce the incidence of breast cancer. In addition to the report, a free online database of the chemicals has been established. Breast cancer is the leading cause of death for women in the United States between the ages of their late 30’s to early 50’s. Nearly 178,000 new cases will be diagnosed this year in the U.S. alone. Click here to find out more about the study, or to access the list of chemicals click here.
Women Encouraged to Ask Doctors About Episiotomy
By Andrea L. Hall
Women’s ENews
Two years after a landmark study concluded that routine use of episiotomy--a surgical incision made between the vagina and rectum during childbirth--was unnecessary, approximately one-quarter of U.S. women who give birth vaginally still undergo the procedure, often without their consent.
The federally funded study, published in May 2005 in the Journal of the American Medical Association, was a systematic review of the best available evidence on episiotomy published between 1950 and 2004. The researchers from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the Research Triangle Institute in Research Triangle Park, N.C., screened 986 articles on the subject and chose 26, based on their relevant data, for the study. They then concluded that five decades of medical literature fail to support routine use of the procedure.
The authors also found that episiotomy rates of less than 15 percent "should be immediately within reach." Although the number of episiotomies has consistently declined over the past two decades, researchers concluded the pace is not fast enough.
Doctors may be slow to stop performing this routine procedure, keeping the episiotomy rate too high. But pregnant women themselves should do more to take maternal care into their own hands to help hasten the decline, some health providers argue. Read the rest of this story here.
Ex-EPA Head Refuses to Testify About Ground Zero Cleanup
Democracy Now!
Christine Todd Whitman, the former head of the Environmental Protection Agency, is refusing to testify before Congress about the government’s handling of air quality in New York following the 9/11 attacks. A week after the attacks Whitman claimed that air monitoring tests at ground zero showed the air was safe to breathe. Later the EPA's own inspector general determined that Whitman’s comments were misleading. Thousands of rescue workers, firefighters and downtown residents have since developed severe respiratory problems after being exposed to dust and toxic material.
Military Scientists Link Gulf War Illness to Exposure of Sarin Gas
Democracy Now!
Scientists working with the Pentagon have found evidence that exposure to sarin nerve gas could have caused lasting brain damage in U.S. soldiers who fought during the Persian Gulf War. More than 100,000 American troops were exposed to sarin nerve gas after the U.S. military exploded two large caches of ammunition and missiles in Iraq in March 1991, a few days after the end of the gulf war. It is unknown how many Iraqis might have been exposed to the nerve gas. Advocates for veterans have argued for more than a decade and a half that a link exists between veterans suffering from gulf war illnesses and the nerve gas exposure.
Gulf Coast Wetlands in Peril
Melinda Tuhus
Free Speech Radio News
Between Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005, some 200 square miles of wetlands were destroyed along the Gulf Coast. This area already is home to the fastest shrinking wetlands anywhere on earth – losing the equivalent of a football field every 45 minutes. The bayous sustain a unique way of life that is now under serious threat. This ecosystem provides a large percentage of the country's seafood, as well as oil and natural gas. State, federal and local government agencies, non-profits and the oil and gas industry are scrambling to preserve and restore the wetlands at what will likely be a steep economic cost – in an effort prevent the total destruction of the wetlands over the next decade. Listen to the rest of this story here.
Admin Seeks to Weaken G8 Declaration on Global Warming
Democracy Now!
The Washington Post is reporting the Bush administration is trying to weaken a climate change declaration planned for next month’s gathering of world leaders at the G8 summit. U.S. negotiators are trying to delete a pledge to limit the global temperature rise and cut emissions of greenhouse gas to half 1990 levels. The administration also wants to strike language that designates the U.N. as the appropriate forum for negotiating action on climate change.
Reproductive Rights
Democrats to Allow $50 Million Drop From Abstinence-Only Education
Alison Bowman & Nouhad Moawad
Women’s ENews
Democratic leaders plan to let $50 million drop from the Title V federal funding stream earmarked for abstinence-only education programs after a recent study released to Congress reported the programs did not dissuade teens from having sex. Congressional Quarterly reported May 15 that lawmakers, who say they would rather see funding focused toward comprehensive sex education that includes abstinence, will not reauthorize the funding when it expires on June 30.
Massachusetts Legislature Considers Bill Limiting Protestors at Abortion Clinics
Feminist Daily News Wire
The Massachusetts legislature is considering a bill that would prevent protestors from entering a 35-foot zone around abortion clinics. The bill would strengthen a 2000 law that created an 18-foot zone in which protestors had to remain at least six feet away from all staff and patients unless they obtained permission to move closer.
The existing measure was a compromise with the House Speaker at the time, an abortion opponent. Police say it was not easily enforceable. "It hasn't been a real buffer zone," Captain William Evans, assigned for nine years to the area around Planned Parenthood's Boston clinic, said in the Boston Globe. "The law hasn't stopped protestors from going inside the zone. All they have to do is freeze. They can't get into people's faces, but the patients have to go around them to get in."
Governor Deval Patrick (D) is expected to sign the toughened bill if it passes the legislature, which appears likely. Mary Beth Heffernan, the governor's undersecretary of public safety, told the Globe, "This would provide essential protection for patients and medical personnel outside of these clinics."
The Feminist Majority Foundation was instrumental in initiating Madsen v. Women's Health Center Inc., a 1994 Supreme Court case that established the legality of buffer zones around women's health clinics. Through its National Clinic Access Project - the nation's largest and oldest clinic defense network - the Feminist Majority Foundation continues to support and protect clinic access.
TX Man Indicted for Abortion Clinic Bombing
Feminist Daily News Wire
Paul Ross Evans, who was arrested last month on charges that he attempted to bomb a women's health clinic in Austin, Texas, was indicted on Tuesday. A federal grand jury in Austin has charged Evans with five criminal counts, including an attempt to use a weapon of mass destruction, which is punishable by life in prison, and using and carrying a destructive device in order to commit an act of violence. Evans also faces a charge of possessing a destructive device as a convicted felon.
The homemade bomb was left in the parking lot of the Austin Women's Health Center in late April. While the device was successfully disarmed, authorities have said that, if detonated, the bomb could have killed or seriously injured anyone within 100 feet. Video surveillance cameras and credit card records implicate Evans in the purchasing and manufacturing of the bomb.
Convicted Abortion Clinic Bomber Harasses Victims From Jail
Feminist Daily News Wire
Eric Robert Rudolph, sentenced to life in prison in 2005 for four bombings -- including bombings of abortion clinics in Atlanta and Birmingham -- has recently taunted his victims from jail using Internet postings. Anti-abortion activist Donald Spitz has posted Rudolph’s essays on the website of the Army of God, a group with which Rudolph claimed affiliation when he took credit for the bombings. Rudolph does not have a computer but presumably communicates with Spitz through letters. Regulations allow wardens to reject inmate mail if it will harm the public or facilitate criminal activity, but the US attorney who prosecuted Rudolph said the prison cannot interfere with his mail, according to the Associated Press.
Rudolph received multiple life sentences without parole for the bombings of abortion clinics in Atlanta and Birmingham (where a security guard was killed and a nurse critically injured), as well as a lesbian and gay nightclub and the Atlanta Olympic Park. After Rudolph eluded capture for five years, prosecutors waived the death penalty when he pled guilty to the four bombings and disclosed the location of 250 pounds of explosives he had hidden in North Carolina. Many have speculated that he worked with several accomplices, though no other convictions have been made.
Through its National Clinic Access Project, the Feminist Majority Foundation works to defend women's health clinics. Currently, senior field organizers are preparing to head to Wichita and Birmingham to help embattled women's health clinics. Read the rest of this story here.
KS Ends Abstinence-Only Sex Ed Program; Action Also Taken in MA, WA
Feminist Daily News Wire
The Kansas Board of Education voted last week to abandon its one-year-old abstinence-only program in favor of comprehensive sex education. The decision, which was achieved by a 6-3 vote, will mean that sex educators must no longer stress abstinence until marriage and can offer lessons on contraceptives and safe sex. The decision also reversed the state's mandatory parental permission slips for students to participate in sex education. Now, district officials may choose whether to require formal parental consent for participation in sex education. Board Member Sue Gamble, who supported the new policy, told the Kansas City Star, "It's teaching kids the only foolproof way of protecting yourself is abstinence. However, it understands that kids need the facts and need information if they choose to become sexually active."
In Washington, Governor Christine Gregoire (D) signed into law on Wednesday a bill that prohibits public schools from teaching abstinence-only sex education. While public schools may decide whether to teach sex education at all, those schools that do must include medically and scientifically accurate information about contraception and safe sex. On the same day, Gov. Gregoire signed a measure that will require public schools to provide information about the human papillomavirus (HPV) and the HPV vaccine.
These three decisions follow a federally commissioned report -- released last month by Mathematica Policy Research -- that shows that abstinence sex education programs fail to impact the sexual behaviors of participants. Read the rest of this story here.
LGBTI
Seeking Transjustice
Puck Lo
Free Speech Radio News
On March 16, someone strangled Ruby Ordeñana, a 27-year old Nicaraguan transgender woman who lived in the Mission District of San Francisco. Ordeñana's murder is not an isolated event. There have been at least three other violent attacks on male born, gender non-conforming people in the Bay Area in the past year alone. The National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs’ annual reports have identified a similar national trend of increasing rates of transgender women of color homicides since the year 2005. Listen to the rest of this story here.
Thousands Celebrate Warsaw's First Legal Pride
365Gaydotcom Newscenter Staff
More than five-thousand people marched Saturday in the first legally sanctioned LGBT pride parade in the Polish capital. The marchers carried rainbow flags and some held banners reading "Stop homophobia". The parade wound its way through central Warsaw under a heavy police presence, but most bystanders cheered and waved back at marchers.
The ultra-nationalist Catholic Youth Movement and the militant far-right All-Polish Youth staged a small counter demonstration nearby. Protestors carried signs reading "Homo go home." Both groups had called on Warsaw Mayor Hanna Gronkiewicz Walz to ban the parade. Friday she told Polish radio that she had no grounds for rejecting a parade permit application. The Catholic Youth Movement had demanded the march be rejected because it promoted immorality.
Walz said the parade would pose no threat to morals and pointed to this month's ruling by the European Court of Human Rights that Warsaw's former Mayor Lech Kaczynski - now Poland's President - acted illegally and discriminatory in banning previous gay pride marches. When he was mayor Kaczynski rejected parade applications from 2004 to 2006. Read the rest of this story here.
20-Year Old Gay S. Carolina Man Dead In Alleged Hate Crime
365Gaydotcom Newscenter Staff
An 18-year-old man is facing a murder charge after a man he punched died. The Greenville County Sheriff's Office said that Sean William Kennedy, 20, was walking to his car from a local bar when a car stopped along side him. A man got out, approached Kennedy and then hit him in the face. Witnesses said the man made a derogatory remark about Kennedy's sexuality. The twenty-year-old was openly gay friends said.
Kennedy later died in hospital without regaining consciousness. Investigators believe that after he was punched Kennedy fell to the ground and hit his head on a curb or the pavement. Based on witness accounts of the attacker and car Sheriff's deputies arrested Andrew Moller, 18. Moller is being held without bond. Investigators say they have not determined if the two men knew each other, or what led to the attack. South Carolina does not have hate crime laws and sexuality is not covered under federal hate laws.
Legislation in Congress to add sexuality to federal law passed the House earlier this month and is pending in the Senate. Shortly before the House vote the White House issued a statement that if the measure passes Congress the President's aides would recommend he veto it. A poll released this week by Gallup found that despite the threatened veto 68 percent of Americans support the bill, also called the Matthew Shepard Act.
HIV-Pos Med Services To Improve For People On Low Incomes
365Gaydotcom Newscenter Staff
Part of a $2.9 trillion federal budget blueprint approved this week by Congress includes an amendment to expand access to vital medical services for low-income people who are HIV-positive. The amendment, by Sens. Gordon H. Smith (R-OR) and Hillary Rodham Clinton’s (D-NY) was based on the Early Treatment for HIV Act which also had sponsored. ETHA provides states the ability to extend Medicaid coverage to low-income, HIV-positive individuals before they develop full-blown AIDS.
ETHA was developed to supplement safety-net programs across the country that treat individuals with HIV/AIDS. In several cases, these initiatives are running out of money, and as a consequence, they are generally unable to cover all of the people who need assistance paying for their medical care. ETHA provides states with another way to reach out to low-income, HIV-positive individuals and offer health care coverage. Read the rest of this story here.
Mass. Judge Validates Over 170 New York Gay Marriages
By Anthony Cuesta
GayWireddotcom
More than 170 New York same-sex couples who married in Massachusetts between 2004 and 2006 are legally wed, a high court judge ruled. The Associated Press reports that Massachusetts Superior Court Judge Thomas Connolly ruled last week that since New York had not yet explicitly banned same-sex marriages before last July, those marriages are legally valid.
Couples are barred from marrying in Massachusetts if their marriages would be prohibited in their home states. The New York Court of Appeals ruled against same-sex marriages on July 6, 2006. Read the rest of this story here.
‘That’s So Gay’ Girl Loses Her Case
PrideParentingdotcom
On Tuesday, a judge ruled against Rebekah Rice, the famed 18-year-old student who sued her school because she was punished by the administration and bullied by other kids for saying “That’s so gay.”
Rice and her parents originally first sued the school in 2003. The case put a spotlight on the phrase and its derogatory meaning. Rice made the remark after students teased her about her Mormon upbringing, asking if she had 10 moms. It was then that Rice said, “That’s so gay.”
According to MSNBC, Rice said she did not mean the phrase as a slur, and just said it to mean the remark about the mothers was stupid, silly and dumb. However, the administration told MSNBC they needed to take a strong stance after a previous incident in which students were paid to beat up a gay student. Read the rest of this story here.
Russian Media Reports Gay Pride in St. Petersburg Banned
REGNUM News Agency
The committee on law, order and security of St. Petersburg government denied permission to hold first ever gay pride parade on the central street of the city – Nevski Prospect – on 26 May. According to the report, a detailed answer with the official notification of the ban will be given to the organizers of the St. Petersburg Gay Pride after it is studied by the lawyers. Read the rest of this story here.
Fired Trans City Worker Among Final Candidates For New Job
365Gaydotcom Newscenter Staff
The city manager of Largo, Florida who was fired after revealing plans to begin sex reassignment, has made it to the final six for a similar position in Sarasota.
Susan Stanton, 48, learned this week that she will be interviewed for the Sarasota City Manager's job. Eighteen people applied for the position and earlier this month the list was narrowed down to 11 people. After city officials checked references and conducted background checks six applicants, including Stanton, were left.
The City of Largo fired Stanton - who at the time was still using his birth name, Steve - in March after placing the 48-year old on suspension with pay following an interview Stanton had with the St. Petersburg Times. Stanton decided to go public after the paper began asking questions about rumors that had begun circulating that Stanton had been seen at out of town locations in women's clothing.
Stanton told the paper she has begun receiving hormone therapy and counseling - a requirement for transitioning. Following the publication of the interview Stanton issued an email statement to all staff at Largo City Hall outlining the reasons behind the decision to transition and pleaded for tolerance. City Council said it placed Stanton on suspension because the issue of transsexuality was dividing the staff. But after it voted to fire Stanton councilors said that was not the reason, claiming Stanton was difficult to work with.
Earlier this week Stanton was in Washington lobbying members of Congress about transgender civil rights.
Meanwhile, in Largo, city commissioners who voted to fire Stanton are calling for an investigation of Mayor Pat Gerard, Commissioner Gay Gentry who supported her. After about 200 residents signed a petition denouncing Gerard and Gentry commissioners want County Sheriff Jim Coats to investigate whether they or any others elected officials or employees violated the city charter by keeping Stanton's sexuality a secret until she publicly revealed it. The petition points to a provision in the charter that requires city officials to report any suspicions of misconduct in office to the city commission. Read the rest of this story here.
Transsexual Wins Battle Over Surgery Payment
365Gaydotcom Newscenter Staff
A 15-month battle with the administrator of a company insurance plan over the cost of sex reassignment surgery has ended in victory for an Ohio transsexual woman.
Electronics engineer Jan Stacy was told by company that its self insured plan covered the surgery, and in 2006 she entered hospital. But when she later submitted her bills to the plan's administrator, Highmark Blue Shield, it refused to pay.
She then took her case to Equality Advocates, a Pennsylvania organization that provides legal services to the LGBT community. Equality Advocates persisted and Stacy’s employer intervened forcing Highmark to reverse its position. Stacy was ultimately awarded $14,097, the bulk of the surgery costs.
Katie Eyer, Employment Rights Project Attorney at Equality Advocates, said that transgenders across the country have "systemic" problems dealing with insurance claims. Stacy was fortunate, said Eyer, that her company has a written policy on equality and that it had its own insurance plan which specifically covered transsexuals. Few other self administered plans or HMOs have such provisions. Read the rest of this story here.
