we have brains

grrrly news 01/04

January 4, 2004 07:09 PM posted by lisa : track it (0)

Gonzaga Law School Bans Christian Pro-Life Group
Gonzaga University's president, Father Robert J. Spitzer, S.J., has permitted the School of Law's Student Bar Association (SBA) to refuse to recognize a Christian student organization. According to the SBA, the Gonzaga Pro-Life Law Caucus's requirement that its leadership be Christian is "discriminatory."

Man freed after judge mishears 'guilty' verdict
Legal experts in Australia admit they don't know what to do after a judge freed an alleged rapist because he misheard the jury's guilty verdict.
The Northern Territory Director of Public Prosecutions is still considering whether to call for a retrial of the case in Alice Springs.

City warned to reconsider anti-gay monument
The Kansas-based Westboro Baptist Church on Tuesday threatened to sue the city of Boise if the City Council does not reverse an earlier Parks and Recreation Commission decision denying the church´s request for an anti-gay monument in Julia Davis Park.

Drag Queen Eatery Sues Zagat for Rating
The owners of Lucky Cheng's, a cabaret-restaurant with cross-dressing male waiters and entertainers, have filed a $10 million lawsuit accusing the Zagat Survey of libel for giving the restaurant a low rating for its food.

The suit said Lucky Cheng's has lost about $30,000 a week since Oct. 14, 2003, when the 2004 Zagat guide was published with the low food rating -- 9 out of a possible 30.

Healing the most intimate scars of war
Put yourself in the flipflops of a guerrilla fighter in Congo and you see the value of rape. A form of booty in a land with not much left to pillage, it is also a weapon, a tool of war.
Even when drunk or stoned there is method in the way marauding bands of armed men use sexual assaults to shatter the morale and family structure of rival ethnic and tribal groups

Michigan governor bans anti-gay bias
Gov. Jennifer Granholm has issued an order banning discrimination against gays in state employment, a move critics condemned as a first step toward legalizing gay marriage. The order issued Tuesday covers the executive branch, which has about 55,000 employees -- about 95 percent of all state workers. "The employment practices of state government should promote public confidence in the fairness and integrity of government and should reflect a commitment to equal employment opportunities," Granholm spokeswoman Liz Boyd said in a news release.

Rockland woman's sexual harassment suit reinstated
A federal appeals court has reinstated a sexual harassment lawsuit filed by a Wesley Hills woman against her former professor at the State University of New York at New Paltz.
The suit by Inbal Hayut alleges political science professor Alex Young repeatedly compared her to former White House intern Monica Lewinsky during 1998's presidential sex scandal

Former Newburyport district court officer arraigned on sex assault charges
A former Newburyport district court officer pleaded innocent to charges of assaulting a female prisoner in a courthouse cell, the Essex District Attorney's office said.
Douglas Morrill III, 49, of Gloucester, is charged with four counts of indecent assault and battery on a person over 14 and two counts of unnatural and lascivious acts.
Morrill is accused of assaulting a 20-year-old female prisoner in a courthouse cell, as she waited for a hearing on a probation violation. Morrill forcibly kissed the victim, fondled her and had her perform oral sex in two separate incidents while she waited for her court appearances, Essex Assistant District Attorney Kathe Tuttman said.

Iran Dancer Detained After Performance
Iran's best-known female dancer and 24 of her students have been detained on charges of dancing in public — for an all-female audience, her husband said Thursday.
Although there are no written laws against dancing, Iran's hard-line clerics have banned the activity, which they consider a promotion of moral corruption.

Study: Federal system unfair to diverse schools
Schools with diverse student bodies face higher hurdles in clearing Bush administration rules on education standards than schools with homogeneous populations, according to a new study

Japan prepares to allow women to inherit the throne
Japan is preparing to revise its succession law to allow women to ascend the 2,600-year-old Chrysanthemum Throne for the first time in more than two centuries.
The change could see Princess Aiko, the two-year-old daughter of the heir to the throne, Crown Prince Naruhito, become only the ninth female to head the world's oldest monarchy

Morning-after pill available over the counter
Emergency contraception will be available without a prescription from January 1 for the first time in Australia. Pharmacists have been advised to create private counselling areas for women requesting the morning-after pill when it is sold over the counter. Pharmacists who are morally opposed to selling emergency contraception can refuse to dispense the drug but may leave themselves open to legal action.

A backup plan
If common sense and rationality prevail, soon the so-called morning after pill - a two-pill regimen that prevents pregnancy if taken within the first few days of unprotected sexual intercourse - will be available through over-the-counter sales. The change would help women to avoid unwanted pregnancies and reduce the number of abortions.

More U.S. women crack glass ceiling
For the first time since tracking began 20 years ago, U.S. women outnumber men in higher paying, white collar managerial and professional occupations.
The gap will continue because of a self-perpetuating cycle of workplace gains for women, according to international outplacment firm Chicago-based Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

Texas warns of abortion-cerebral palsy link
The state of Texas is now informing women considering an abortion that the procedure boosts the risk of delivering a future baby with cerebral palsy.
According to the Reduce Preterm Risk Coalition in Vancouver, Canada, Texas is the first state in the nation to officially make such a warning.

Molestation lawsuits stack up as California approaches deadline
Californians are hurrying to file hundreds of lawsuits against the Roman Catholic church before a year-end deadline resulting from a state law that opened a window for old molestation allegations.
Attorneys handling the cases predict that up to 750 people will sue statewide, and that the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, the nation's largest, will pay a multimillion-dollar settlement to avoid defending itself in as many as 500 cases.

Marriage and Economic Liberty
During the Middle Ages, children born out of wedlock were often abandoned to the church or left to the streets and the kindness of strangers. In Latin they were termed expositi –the exposed ones. The skyrocketing rate of illegitimate births in America today, unprecedented in human history, has vastly deepened many of our social problems. The kindness of strangers must still be insisted upon, but is no solution. Government subsidy has proven to be an illusory measure as well.
Our remaining choices seem stark–abortion, or marriage. And here the debate divides. One action sacrifices the child on behalf of the mother’s freedom. The other limits the mother’s freedom, but saves the child. Here we should examine the matter most carefully. The aborted child is truly dead. We should look more closely at the institution of marriage as the solution to our woes.

Can Sex Liberate Red China?
Communist China is experiencing a sexual revolution, and Beijing is not at all happy about it. Sexologist Li Yinhe believes that while less than two decades ago only 16 percent of Chinese engaged in premarital sex, today at least 60 percent do. One-night stands, urban bar scenes and open Internet discussions of sexual issues now are common among young people.

Child abuse in government schools
The children sit in a circle. Some are wearing mittens; others are waiting expectantly with little plastic shovels. The rules of the game state that a few of the children must do nothing but sit and watch as the action begins. On the leader's "Go!" the children scramble for 100 pennies that have been scattered on the floor in the center of the circle.

Campus Follies Include 'Gender Blind Dorm' and Anti-War Professors
conservative college group has unveiled its list of top ten campus follies for 2003, and topping the list are a "gender blind" dormitory and a professor who required her students to write anti-war letters to President Bush.

Each year the Young America's Foundation, an educational organization promoting conservative ideas on the nation's campuses, finds incidences of bias and political correctness and compiles them in its annual list of the top ten most shameful campus events in the country's education system

Prevention, not abortion
LAST WEEK, when an advisory committee to the Food and Drug Administration recommended that the "morning-after pill" called Plan B be available without a prescription, I remembered a teenage girl whose abortion I helped perform as a medical student. The 15-year-old patient, whom I'll call Lakeesha, had a depressingly common situation. Each year, about one in 10 American girls between the ages of 15 and 19 gets pregnant, since about a third of teens use no contraception

Good News for Women
There was plenty of gloomy news for women in 2003. American women make just under 80 cents on the male dollar for full-time, year-round work. We lost Carolyn Heilbrun, Carol Shields, Rachel Corrie, Nina Simone and Martha Griffiths. Russia tightened its abortion laws; in Slovakia Romani women were sterilized without their permission; Iraqi women were freed from Saddam but confined to their houses by crime and Islamic fundamentalists. The Globe ran a slutty cover photo of Kobe Bryant's accuser. The New York Times reported that women are having painful and potentially crippling surgery on their toes in order to fit into their Manolos and Jimmy Choos, while in China, where short people are subject to major discrimination, they are undergoing excruciating operations to lengthen their legs. What's the matter with people? Don't answer that.

Saudi women use Koran to advance fight for equality
They hope ancient Islamic law can further cause
When the religious police spy a woman on the streets of Saudi Arabia whom they consider insufficiently covered or suspect of mingling with men who are not relatives, they are quick with a terse reprimand.
"Ya mutabaraja!" many will yell, using an Arabic word that translates as a woman who "displays, shows or plays up her charms, adorns herself." It is, needless to say, the kind of encounter that Saudi women, especially those in its ever increasing class of highly educated professionals, would rather not face

Women's eNews Announces 21 Leaders 2004
Women's eNews announces today its 21 Leaders for the 21st Century 2004, an awe-inspiring, reader-nominated list, with each winner making news, often at great personal risk, by confronting issues of particular concern to women

Seven Who Create New Pathways for Success
Christine Grumm, Helen Hunt, Irene Natividad, Margarita Quihuis, Shadi Sadr, Donna de Varona, Faye Wattleton.

Seven Who Stretch Their Reach Across Cultures
Lois Abraham and Jane Roberts, Byllye Avery, Tillie Black Bear, Christina Bruning, Shahnaz Bukhari, Linda Chavez-Thompson, Clotilde Dedecker

Pauli Murray Ordained
January 8, 1977: Pauli Murray, the first female African-American Episcopal priest, is ordained

Seven Who Change Their Worlds
Abigail E. Disney, Connie Duckworth, Shirin Ebadi, Jane Fonda, Anne Sutherland Fuchs, Anne Glauber, Blu Greenberg

Year Ends With Wider-Than-Ever Wage Gap
Women's pay gap in 2003 is actually wider than it was 20 years ago. As a consequence, baby boomer women face a financial crisis, with far less money than men to pay for their typically longer retirement years

Group Aims Gun Laws at Domestic Violence
Gun-safety laws--often ignored by law-enforcers and elusive for potential victims--are the focus of a national campaign to stem domestic-violence bloodshed.

Review of The L Word
When I sat down to watch the first five episodes of The L Word last week, it was not without some trepidation: would the show live up to its potential? By the time I was halfway through, however, it was clear that when it comes to lesbian visibility on TV, The L Word is going to change everything. Just as the lesbian and bisexual women across the country who gathered around their TV sets on April 30, 1997, to watch Ellen Degeneres' coming-out episode witnessed a historic moment in lesbian visibility, those who tune into Showtime's premiere of The L Word on January 18, 2004 will see the beginning of a new era for lesbian and bisexual visibility

Shapiray's burqa says it all for Afghan women and notions of freedom
Post-Taliban, Islamic fundmentalists are reasserting their power, especially over females, writes Meena Nanji.
At the convention of the "loya jirga", or grand assembly, to debate Afghanistan's new constitution, an extraordinary thing happened. Malalai Joya, a 25-year-old female social worker from the rural province of Farah, stood up and said what no one else had dared say: that many of the jirga's committee chairmen were criminals. Instead of being given influential positions, they should be tried for their crimes. The actions Joya referred to were committed by Islamic fundamentalists - mujahideen, or holy warriors - from 1992 to 1996 and included widespread rocket shellings, torture, rape and mass killings of civilians.

Women Enterpreneur City To Be Set Up Near Lahore
Minister of State and Chairman, Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) Tariq Ikram Saturday said that a Women enterpreneur city would be set up near Lahore for involving them in national economic activities besides achieving the objectives of women empowerment.

Women find it's a new Army
Female American troops in Iraq have killed Iraqis with bombs and bullets. They've won medals for valor and Purple Hearts for combat wounds. They've been captured as prisoners of war, killed by enemy fire and buried as heroes in Arlington National Cemetery.

US girls embrace gay passion fashion
Some see it as the latest cool trend among girls in America's high schools. Others claim it is just teenagers doing what they do best - being rebellious. Either way, a wave of 'bisexual chic' is sweeping the United States.
Emboldened by such images as Madonna kissing Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera on a TV awards show, girls are proudly declaring their alternative sexualities at a younger age than ever before.

« grrrly news 12/29 | whb homepage | The Small Screen »

your comments : post a new comment