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grrrly news 5/22

May 22, 2003 05:37 PM posted by lisa : track it (0)

Fla. Judge Delays Fetus Guardian Ruling
A judge postponed debate Wednesday over whether a guardian should be appointed for the 6-month-old fetus of a mentally disabled rape victim in a case that has attracted the involvement of Gov. Jeb Bush and pro-choice activists.

Laws tighten on sex offenders
A growing number of states are moving to bar released sex offenders from living near or visiting schools, playgrounds and other areas where children gather.
The measures build on child-abuse legislation of the mid-1990s, including federal and state "Megan's laws" that have made public the names of more than 450,000 convicted sex offenders. They also reflect how lawmakers across the country are heeding parents' calls for more aggressive measures to protect children

Battle of the sexes raises the stakes
Vijay Singh made headlines this week when he ripped Annika Sorenstam for attempting to play in the PGA Tour's Colonial.

Landmark Case May Curb Sexual Harassment in India, Say Experts
Indian rights groups feel a reputed Indian firm's highest ever compensation last week, for sexual harassment to a former employee, may boost efforts to curb the offence, which a new UN report says has a far reaching impact on career women.

Feminism is AIDS bill's message to African men
The Senate, which promotes sexual abstinence as a way of stemming the spread of AIDS in Africa, has another message for the continent's males.
The Senate early yesterday passed a $15 billion bill to help in the fight against the disease. While much debate centered on sexual abstinence, to which one-third of prevention funding would be devoted, senators without dissent passed a novel provision to teach feminism to African men.

Sports day ban on parents 'to spare the losers'
A primary school has banned parents from attending its annual sports day, with egg and spoon and obstacle races, to spare the children from embarrassment if they do not win.

Sorenstam dismisses critics; eager to test her game
Vijay Singh was backtracking on Annika Sorenstam Tuesday.
Tiger Woods was rooting for her a day later.
Sorenstam, the same as her game, was taking it right down the middle regarding Singh's hope that she misses the cut in next week's Bank of America Colonial.

Suit splits Planned Parenthood, city endeavor
Planned Parenthood of Central Texas has severed its ties with the Waco-McLennan County Library System, a decision its director said was forced by a lawsuit.
The family planning agency was sued in federal court in April by three Waco women who alleged it had violated their constitutional rights by denying them entry into the agency's buildings at an October event. The event was meant to showcase Planned Parenthood's Audre Rapoport Library, which had become a part of the city's library system a few months earlier.

Italy rushes in law to ban 'spare part' baby sales
Italy's government has vowed to push through legislation to stop the sale of human organs after a female gang auctioned off a newborn child near the southern port of Bari, possibly so that its organs could be used for transplants.

Same-sex marriage divides Canadians along equally passionate lines
Peter Cook is planning a dream wedding almost 33 years after meeting the love of his life. He envisions a classy affair at a posh hotel in St. John's, Nfld., overlooking the harbour. There will be fine linen, candlelight and a sit-down meal.
"I won't have a buffet," said the Vancouver business consultant, 56.
He's much like any other smitten groom - but with a twist that has exposed stark, sometimes ugly divisions among equally passionate Canadians on both sides.
Cook wants to marry another man.

A bill about unborn children entangles Peterson murder case in thick of abortion debate
Adding fuel to the already fierce debate over abortion, Republicans in Congress are evoking the Laci Peterson murder case as they try to enact the first federal law to endow a fetus with legal rights separate from the expectant mother.
Laws similar to the federal bill already are on the books in more than half the states, and with Republicans in control of both chambers of Congress, the federal measure has a good chance of passing.

Ride on pink bus drives unruly pupils to behave themselves
A pink bus with no heating is proving a strong deterrent to children misbehaving on school transport. It was introduced to segregate disruptive pupils and make journeys longer and less comfortable.
Since the "Pink Peril" service was introduced in the Isle of Wight there has been a dramatic reduction in threatening, abusive and violent incidents.

Children's agency funds study of men's sex lives
A federal children's health agency is funding a study of the sex habits of old men.
The National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) provided more than $137,000 for a three-year study to "provide the most comprehensive picture to date of the sexual behavior of aging men."

The New Gender Gap
When the leaders of the Class of 2003 assemble in the Long Island high school's fluorescent-lit meeting rooms, most of these boys are nowhere to be seen. The senior class president? A girl. The vice-president? Girl. Head of student government? Girl. Captain of the math team, chief of the yearbook, and editor of the newspaper? Girls.

It's not that the girls of the Class of 2003 aren't willing to give the guys a chance. Last year, the juniors elected a boy as class president. But after taking office, he swiftly instructed his all-female slate that they were his cabinet and that he was going to be calling all the shots. The girls looked around and realized they had the votes, says Tufts University-bound Casey Vaughn, an Intel finalist and one of the alpha femmes of the graduating class. "So they impeached him and took over."

Teen Pregnancy: From the Government With Love
One of the funniest lines I’ve ever heard at the alternative school where I work came from one of our inner-city born and bred teachers. When asked if a female student in his class was pregnant he said “No, but the guys are working on it.”
A humorous quip but poignantly true. Teen pregnancy at my low-income, inner-city school is not out of the ordinary. It’s part of the infrastructure of our building and always a part of staff conversation.

Crash landing for affirmative action?
The Old Gray Liar
The New York Times is to be commended for ferreting out Jayson Blair, the reporter recently discovered making up facts, plagiarizing other news organizations and lying about nonexistent trips and interviews. A newspaper that employs Maureen Dowd can't have had an easy time settling on Blair as the scapegoat. Blair's record of inaccuracies, lies and distortions made him a candidate for either immediate dismissal or his own regular column on the op-ed page.

The YWCA's Left Turn
Patricia Ireland has a new job. The former president of the National Organization for Women will soon be the new chief executive officer of the YWCA. For those unfamiliar with the contemporary focus of the Young Women’s Christian Association, it will come as a shock to find that the agenda of NOW under Ireland’s tenure is eerily similar to the agenda already employed by the YWCA. To this point, all the YWCA has been lacking is a nationally-known radical feminist to alert an unsuspecting public to its true agenda, and as the press release on the NOW web site crows, feminists across the country are cheering Ireland’s appointment.

The Fallacy of Female Biological Advantage
Public health programs have long taken a ho-hum attitude towards the problem of excess male mortality. But the current issue of the American Journal of Public Health sounds a wake-up call to health workers arouind the globe.
The May theme issue highlights the fact that men have higher death rates than women for each of the 10 leading causes of death. In North America, men die about 5 years sooner than women. After the disintegration of the Soviet Union, Russian men were dying as much as 15 years sooner than their female counterparts.

Why I Picked Up a Gun
In the fall of 2001 I remember driving home and passing a beautiful little house surrounded by crime scene tape. I wondered what happened, but didn't worry too much because nothing "really bad" ever happened in that part of town. Little did I know then, but the Baton Rouge Serial Killer had just left his first calling card.

Two-Earner Couples Pay More
Going to work, earning a living, and spending one’s earnings over time affects a variety of taxes and government benefits -- not just in the current year, but in all future years. Earning more today will also affect your future Social Security benefits and the federal income tax assessed on those benefits.

In order to sort through all of the effects, authors Jagadeesh Gokhale and Laurence J. Kotlikoff consider a hypothetical two-earner couple at various levels of income. They conclude that because working couples are required to participate in Social Security, they are worse off than they otherwise would be. That is, their lifetime consumption of goods and services is lower than it would be in the absence of Social Security payroll taxes and Social Security benefit.

Women's eNews Celebrates Third Anniversary
Rita Henley Jensen, editor in chief of Women's eNews, toasts the third birthday of the news service and its mission to provide substantive news stories of special concern to women.

Museum Devotes Exhibit Just to Girls
A museum pulls girlhood artifacts out of closets and, through vintage Girl Scout uniforms and a 1945 Girl's Bill of Rights, puts the often-obscured subject of girls' history on display.

Some Britain-Born Pakistani Women Forcibly Married
Human rights activists say that in 2002 alone, 250 British girls of Pakistani descent were brought to Pakistan by their parents and forcibly married off to relatives, the Christian Science Monitor reports.
The majority of these marriages involve Pakistani teen-agers with British citizenship, but girls are also being brought from Norway, the Netherlands and Ireland to Pakistan, where forced marriages are rarely challenged.
The Monitor cited the example of Neelum Aziz. When the British resident visited Kashmir--a disputed territory between Pakistan and India--for the first time last year, she was told an arrangement had been made for her to be married.
She told the Monitor that her father took away her British passport, money, and other belongings and locked her up. "I screamed and shouted and kept on crying," Aziz was quoted as saying. "My tears dried up, but my family elders did not listen to me and married me to a cousin of mine without my consent."

Foundations Dig Up Their Own Data on Girls, Women
Finding a dearth of data on the needs of local women and girls, many U.S. women's foundations are conducting their own research and using the findings to target donations and pursue corrective actions

Older Minority Women Need Retirement Help Now
As members of Congress contemplate tax breaks for wealthier Americans, alarmingly high rates of poverty among older minority women could be redressed by a handful of practical changes.

Hiring of Women Slumps in Sports Industry
The hiring of women in sports organizations has suffered its first reversal in many years, according to the 2003 Racial and Gender Report Card. The author wonders if the setback is tied to an erosion of federal support for Title IX.

Women Becoming Majority at Public Policy Schools
U.S. graduate policy programs are accepting more female applicants than ever and women now claim majority status in many such programs. In the long run, some think the trend will help narrow the gender gap on Capitol Hill.

Writers in Brazil Let Us into Their Worlds
Women's eNews excerpts two interviews from "Fourteen Female Voices from Brazil," published by Host Publications, Inc

Women enjoying high status in UAE
Her Highness Sheikha Fatima bint Mubarak, the President's Wife and Chairwoman of the UAE General Women's Union, has said that there were no hurdles impeding the participation of UAE women in the political life of the country.

"Views of women are highly valued by President His Highness Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, and his brothers, Supreme Council Members and Rulers of the Emirates," said Sheikha Fatima in an interview with Al Ahram weekly English newspaper.

Sheikha Fatima who is on a week-long visit to Egypt told the paper that the UAE women had made astounding progress over the last three decades, with women currently holding senior positions in the country's civil service.

Moroccan women fear extremism
Rising fundamentalist tide in Moroccan kingdom makes women first victims of attacks over their modern lifestyle.

Women Accused of Preparing Girls for Sex
A 74-year-old Clintonville woman is accused of "ggrooming" two juvenile girls for sex with an inmate upon his release from prison.
The woman is charged in Waupaca County with conspiring to commit first-degree sexual assault and child enticement, among other counts.
A criminal complaint says the woman struck up a relationship with the 45-year-old inmate she met through her son. The man is serving a sentence for sexual assault at the Racine Correctional Institution.

Award for lesbian Catholic educator withdrawn
Demonstrators staged a protest after a Catholic religious education coordinator was denied an award from the Archdiocese of Minneapolis-St. Paul because she is a lesbian. Approximately 200 members of St. Joan of Arc Catholic Church demonstrated Wednesday night in support of Kathy Itzin, the church's religious education coordinator. Itzin was to be one of 18 archdiocesan workers honored for their work in teaching young people about the faith. She is in a committed relationship, and she and her partner have four children, ages 10 to 16.

WHY FEMINISTS SHOULD RETHINK ON SEX WORKERS’ RIGHTS
During my nine years with the sex work project in Birmingham, I was marginally aware that there were feminist views that defined sex work as abuse of women, but not that HIV prevention work with sex workers was often viewed as a direct inheritor of the provisions of the Contagious Diseases Acts: that the ECP expressed views of this kind I did know, but as they also adopted the view that HIV was a myth designed to stop black people reproducing, I considered their opinions irrelevant. However, I never imagined that feminists of any persuasion would initiate, embrace or endorse policies towards sex work that actively endanger sex workers’ health and safety, increase their criminalization, or define them as incapable of making their own judgements about their own best interests. Neither did I ever expect to see feminist analyses of sex work bolstering sexist and racist law enforcement and immigration agendas. Over the past several years, however, all of these – to my mind – perversions of feminism, have become impossible to ignore.

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I just can't shut my pie hole.

Posted by: Whiny Communist Bitch on November 12, 2004 06:51 PM |