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grrrly news 2/21

February 21, 2004 08:40 AM posted by lisa : track it (0)

Judge refuses to stop gay marriages
San Francisco's same-sex wedding march will continue unimpeded for what looks like several more weeks after a Superior Court judge refused to stop it Friday -- the second such ruling in three days.
After the second ruling on Friday, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger stepped into the fray, calling on the state attorney general to "take immediate steps" to halt the weddings. In a letter to Attorney General Bill Lockyer, Schwarzenegger directed the state's top lawyer to get a definitive court ruling declaring the city's actions to be illegal.

States aim at fetal homicide
In the wake of a recent unsolved slaying of a mother and her unborn son, Kentucky is considering adopting fetal homicide laws similar to those in 28 other states.
"There was already momentum for this legislation, but the [Jan. 7] murders" of 18-year-old Ashley Lyons and her 21-week-old fetus "definitely help push" the measure through the Kentucky legislature, said Jeannie Lausche, spokeswoman for Gov. Ernie Fletcher, a Republican.

State House passes bill outlawing abortion
The South Dakota state House has passed a bill that would outlaw abortion and challenge the landmark Roe vs. Wade decision.
Approved 54 to 14 after two hours of emotional debate Tuesday, the bill would make the practice of abortion a felony carrying a five-year sentence.

Infant Deaths Up for First Time Since '58
U.S. infant mortality has climbed for the first time in more than four decades, in part because more women are putting off motherhood and then having multiple babies via fertility drugs, the government said.

At the same time, U.S. life expectancy reached an all-time high of 77.4 years in 2002, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Wednesday. Life expectancy in 2001 was 77.2 years.

Texas Saleswoman Faces Trial for Selling Sex Toys
Joanne Webb is a mother of three, a Baptist, a booster of the town of Burleson, Texas, and a former schoolteacher. She also faces trial for being a smut merchant.
Webb, 43, was arrested in November by two undercover police officers for selling sexual toys and charged with violating Texas obscenity laws. She could face up to a year in jail and a fine of $4,000 if convicted.
Webb is a representative for Passion Parties, a California company marketing potions, lotions and sexual toys sold at gatherings that mimic Tupperware parties.
Women over 18 meet in a private home for what the company calls a "girl's night out of giggles and fun," during which products designed to enhance sex lives are sold.

Justice Dept. Demands Abortion Records
Under fire from abortion-rights groups, Attorney General John Ashcroft insisted Thursday that doctor-patient privacy is not threatened by a government attempt to subpoena medical records in a lawsuit over the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act

Kerry: 'Nothing
there to report'
In an interview this morning, Sen. John Kerry dismissed allegations of infidelity published yesterday by the Drudge Report.
Radio talk-show host Don Imus, who has endorsed Kerry for the Democratic presidential nomination, asked the Massachusetts senator if anything in the Drudge allegations or in his past should cause him to withdraw support

Flesh amid Ivy: Harvard allows student sex mag
A new student magazine aims to shake that up. On Monday, school administrators approved H Bomb, a journal being launched by two female undergraduates featuring erotic writing and nude photography.
H Bomb will deal with "sex and the issues surrounding sex for men and women of all sexual orientations and tastes," according to the application submitted by the students to the Committee on College Life. The committee, which includes students, staff, and faculty, voted without opposition -- and two abstentions -- to grant the magazine official recognition, allowing it to use Harvard's name and facilities, and to hang posters on campus. The approval does not include any funding. The magazine's first issue is expected this spring.

United Airlines ordered to pay $36.5 million to settle sex-discrimination lawsuit
A judge ordered United Airlines to pay $36.5 million to settle a sex discrimination lawsuit brought by 13 former flight attendants over the airline's weight policy.
The original settlement in the case was suspended in 2002 when United filed for bankruptcy. A judge reinstated the settlement Wednesday

Minnesota wrestling coach files gender discrimination complaint
Minnesota wrestling coach J Robinson filed a gender discrimination complaint against the university.
Robinson, who led the Gophers to the 2002 national title, said he filed the complaint because the university had created a class system based on the gender of student athletes.
"If you are on the man's side you don't get what the women's side gets," Robinson said, declining to give specifics. "There is just a lot of little things."

Demand for San Francisco's same-sex marriage licenses so great, hundreds of couples turned away
Demand for same-sex marriage licenses has been so great that on Sunday officials turned away hundreds of gay and lesbian couples lined up outside City Hall, saying they simply didn't have the time or resources to meet all the requests.
San Francisco authorities calculated they could process 400 licenses during special weekend hours — but on Saturday they granted 600 licenses and performed 270 weddings by late afternoon. Then officials gave numbers to 320 couples securing them places in line for Sunday.

Court to hear 'Roe's' challenge to '73 ruling
In a move hailed as a breakthrough by abortion opponents, a federal appeals court agreed to hear oral arguments in an attempt by the original plaintiff in Roe vs. Wade to overturn the landmark decision

Campbell lawmaker is target of complaints
A key Assembly committee is investigating complaints by at least five legislative staffers to Assembly member Rebecca Cohn, including two sparked by a photo shoot for San Jose Magazine in which Cohn allegedly asked aides to handle her bras and underwear.
Aides to Cohn, D-Campbell, have told investigators that she created an uncomfortable, sexually charged working environment by soliciting comments about her provocative attire and discussing her personal life in explicit terms, according to two Assembly Rules Committee interview summaries obtained by the Mercury News

Baby hatches," nameless childbearing serve as German abortion alternatives
German women confronted with an unwanted pregnancy now have a number of unique alternatives to abortion including anonymous childbirth and "baby hatches" to safely deposit abandoned newborns at clinics.
The baby hatches have popped up in several German cities in recent years, allowing mothers to leave their infants in good hands by simply opening a hatch fitted into a wall, away from prying eyes

Pro-Abortion Feminist Scouts
Texas Christian radio station is urging its listeners to boycott Girl Scout cookie sales because of the Girl Scouts' close dealings with Planned Parenthood, and last Monday, parents of nine Girl Scouts in Crawford, Texas announced that their daughters will be leaving the Girl Scouts of America. Pam Smallwood is "not who I want as a role model for my daughter," announced the mother of a ten-year old Girl Scout who apparently broke into tears upon learning of Ms. Smallwood's lethal occupation. "I have to make a stand or there's no telling what else would happen," another mother told the Waco Tribune-Herald.

Panel kills abortion bill
House committee Monday killed a bill that would have required women contemplating an abortion to wait 72 hours and to be given an ultrasound photo of the fetus.
"This bill illustrates the lack of trust the proponents have in a woman's ability to make her own personal and private decision in consultation with her family and doctor," Beth Ganz, executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice Colorado, told members of the House Health, Environment, Welfare and Institutions Committee

China's 'gendercide' crisis
China increasingly is developing a population dominated by males. This, too, is a direct offshoot of the one-child policy, which has resulted in the "disappearance" of millions of girls – most of whom are assumed to have been killed at birth or shortly afterward, while others were the victims of sex-selection abortion procedures. Many other young girls are put up for foreign adoption. Two-thirds of Chinese children put up for adoption are female.

Plan calls for police to secure schools
A D.C. Council member plans to introduce legislation tomorrow that would authorize the Metropolitan Police Department to take over security in the city's public schools, including oversight of a $45 million private security contract

The problem with family courts
In an unprecedented move, the attorney general has announced that over 250 cases where parents were convicted of harming their children following evidence from Roy Meadow should be urgently reviewed. It is estimated that over 5000 civil cases, where family courts separated children from their parents on Meadow's advice, also have to be reviewed. 'We will make sure that we recognise that not only injustices done in the criminal justice system but any potential injustices in care proceedings are identified and acted on' , the solicitor-general Harriet Harman has told Parliament.

The B-Word
What is it with this word? Everywhere I turn my ear I hear it.
For a while, women tried to reclaim the word, just as black people tried to reclaim the word "nigger." It didn't work. Instead, use of the word – not by women to empower women, but by men to demean women – has multiplied, in music, on television, in books, in movies, in arguments, in everyday life as a whole. The B-word crosses color and age and class lines. It seems like everyone feels entitled to use it.

A Needless Worry Concerning Breast Milk
The Jan. 20 article in the Health Journal, "Toxins in Breast Milk," conveys unscientific assumptions that will needlessly alarm many members of the public, especially women who plan to breast feed. The assertion that a study subject's body "carried 105 chemicals in measurable levels" is meaningless on its face. We all have thousands of "chemicals" in our bodies, both natural and synthetic. Why was the discussion centered on synthetic, to the exclusion of natural chemicals? Probably because only such chemicals are tested on animals (generally rats) for carcinogenicity at high doses and over prolonged periods. But many natural chemicals, found in our commonly eaten foods, are just as carcinogenic as synthetic ones when used in animal tests. Any substance can be toxic when used in excessive doses. Rats are not little people.

Woman's abortion experience shows how Portugal's strict laws hit the poor
"Portuguese women who have money get abortions done at private clinics in London, in Spain or in other big cities abroad. But the poor have them done here in less than ideal conditions which are often dangerous," she told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the stigma she feels Portuguese society still slaps on women who abort.

The War of Janet's Nipple
Unless your brain's been frozen in a vat of liquid nitrogen for the past few days, you know—like everyone else within a lightweek of the planet—that during the recent Super Bowl, the right half of entertainer Janet Jackson's upper apparel was suddenly removed by her fellow performer Justin Timberlake (a name I know only because I have a 14-year-old daughter), revealing her naked right breast on national TV.

Al-Qaeda recruits women bombers
In their efforts to pursue terror tactics, al-Qaeda extremists may use women suicide bombers to smuggle explosives on board an aircraft.
A leading al-Qaeda organiser, held in custody, is understood to have told his captors that a woman was thought more likely to evade airport security. According to a report in The Times on Saturday, he suggested that a woman has already been selected for the attack, which could involve a British aircraft

Women in Iran to Boycott Elections, Seek Options
With Iran's reformists barred from standing in parliamentary elections today, female leaders are taking stock and looking for options beyond electoral politics to carry on their cause for equality

Two in U.S. Accused of Genital Mutilation
As the U.S. government prepares to prosecute its first case under a federal law prohibiting FGM, activists are pushing for better legal protection of girls who can face the disfiguring practice when they go to any of 28 African countries.

Professionals Who Are Mothers Take a Hit (Again)
Caitlin Flanagan's call for feminists to renew their commitment to social activism in this month's Atlantic Monthly strikes our commentator as worthy. But she flinches at the slamming of "professional-class" mothers.

Texas Ads Show the Real Face of Rape
A public-awareness campaign against sexual violence in Texas features victims. "Speak Up. Speak Out." is serving as a national model for combating sexual assault and encouraging victims to seek help

Native American Women Snap Up Health Book
Native American women are snapping up a health-advice book written, in the tradition of "Our Bodies, Ourselves," by and for them. Editors say interest in the book is fueled by historic abuses of indigenous women's reproductive rights

Nutrition For Working Women
While women across the country are finally succeeding in storming boardrooms, they are under even more pressure than before to balance work and home. Modern-day women have added responsibilities and shorter deadlines. Juggling professional and family obligations, it’s not surprising to find many women walking down the road to chronic stress, and, possibly, burnout

My Name Means Pure, Says Egyptian Mother-in-Law
Patricia Dunn writes about how her understanding of Safi, her Egyptian mother-in-law, changes when Safi is diagnosed with breast cancer and undergoes a mastectomy.

College Athlete Tells of Rape; Coach Insults Her
Katie Hnida, the first woman to score points in a major college football game, broke more than two years of silence and told Sports Illustrated magazine this week that she had been raped when she was a member of the University of Colorado team.
Her statement has set off a firestorm of reaction and at press time the Colorado football coach has been placed on leave and two additional women have come forward, asserting that they too have been raped.

WOMEN STREET PERFORMERS AND SEXUAL SAFETY
Everyone agrees street performing, or “busking,” is hard work. Someone once said about acting, that they do not pay you for the acting, they pay you for the waiting around. That is true in busking, too. Performing talent is about 30% of a good street act. The ability to persevere under harsh conditions, to battle police and merchants over air space, to assert free speech rights at every corner as they are questioned, to spontaneously gather and hold a crowd, and to keep up with hecklers, makes the profession a die-hard one, at best. You spend little time on musical rehearsal, as compared to holding your place in line for a good spot, or “pitch,” and then defending that pitch from police when they show up to shut you down. Street performing is not for the weak. And being a solo woman street performer has extra unseen entanglements, due to societal gender stereotypes.
Scholarship program helps girls go to college
The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America is accepting applications for the Girls Going Places College Scholarship, which recognizes teenage girls for entrepreneurship.
The scholarship is open to girls between 12 and 16. The three top scholarship prizes will be $10,000, $5,000 and $3,000. Another 12 finalists will be awarded $1,000 each.
Adults may nominate girls by submitting a 1,000-word essay on why the nominee deserves a Girls Going Places award. The nominees may be related, neighbors or students.

Survey shows girls' self-image far removed from reality
Teenage girls in the East Bay experience a gap between their perception of themselves and reality when it comes to their health, schooling and well-being, according to a survey released this week.
Of the 1,900 public high school girls who participated in the survey, some 80 percent said they were in good or excellent health.
Yet many of the girls routinely ate fast food, rarely exercised and neglected to eat fruits and vegetables.

Another girls school torched in Diamir
Unidentified people set ablaze another girls school here, the sixth such attack in less than a week, police said on Friday.

The attack came late on Thursday in Thore valley of Diamir district, some 150 Kilometres east of Gilgit, police official Zaheer Khan told AFP. "Unidentified people set on fire a girls school in Kote village of Thore valley at around 2:00 am and escaped," he said.

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