Queer Notes, May-June 2015

May 7, 2015

Malta protects Intersex infants from “normalizing” surgery; Richard Hedger exhibits National Treasures collection of elderly LGBT people; Russia refused drivers’ licenses to Transgender and Transvestite people; Gay-straight alliance at Andrews University banned from holding a bake sale for homeless LGBT youth.

read the rest!

Let Intersex children decide for themselves

August 31, 2014

From the September-October 2014 issue of News & Letters

South Carolina parents Mark and Pam Crawford, the Southern Poverty Law Center and Advocates for Choice filed federal and state lawsuits against South Carolina’s Department of Social Services and the healthcare workers responsible for the genital normalizing surgery performed on the Crawfords’ adopted child, known [=>]

read the rest!

Queer Notes, January-February 2013

February 26, 2013

by Elise

The newly signed law that would have protected all California Queer youth from “ex-gay” therapies and therapies to change gender expression has been suspended. Federal Appeals Court judges ruled that there must be a full review of the legality of the Bill (SB 1172). The therapists who administer “ex-gay” therapies claim the law [=>]

read the rest!

Slutwalk in Chicago (2012)

December 17, 2012

Photo for News & Letters by Terry Moon

Slutwalk participants showing off their signs at the demonstration on Sept. 16. Signs read: “The only time that my body ‘shuts that thing down’ is when I go through menopause”; “My body is a flower, not to be exploited”; and “Girls just wanna have funDAMENTAL HUMAN [=>]

read the rest!

Radical feminism redux

July 24, 2012

In blogs and podcasts, feminists have been discussing the perennial problem of having to explain that feminism means the struggle for gender equality, not female supremacy. Now many third wave and younger feminists have found the courage to reclaim not only the original meaning of “feminism,” but “radical feminism.” During the 1960s and early 1970s, [=>]

read the rest!

Palestinian solidarity

February 28, 2012

In Chicago on Dec. 31, well over 100 demonstrators came to show solidarity with Palestinians by releasing 300 black balloons in downtown Grant Park—one balloon for each child killed during Israel’s 22-day assault on the Gaza Strip three years ago.

On the International Day of Solidarity with Palestinian people, Nov. 29, we reflected on [=>]

read the rest!

Frantz Fanon and women’s liberation

February 1, 2012

Woman as Reason
by Terry Moon

Blogger L Boogie has written part one of “Fanon, Alienation and Sexual Harassment,” exploring Frantz Fanon’s 1952 Black Skin White Masks in an exciting way for feminism, by relating his thought to street harassment. (See http://nothingbutahuman.wordpress.com/2011/12/04/fanon-alienation-and-sexual-harassment/)

She begins by relating several incidents of harassment, noting that recollecting them reminded her of “how violent street harassment of [=>]

read the rest!

To Yemenis ‘rape is worse than death’

November 12, 2011

Woman as Reason
by Shatha Al-Harazi

Editor’s note: “Woman as Reason” is being turned over to Shatha Al-Harazi who has written for News & Lettersbefore. She offered us her important column, excerpted here, which was first published in Yemen Times.

* * *

“I would rather she died than be raped,” said Um Ahmed Alam angrily. A woman in her [=>]

read the rest!

Women World Wide, September-October 2011

September 28, 2011

by Artemis

Unite Here, a union for service workers, has filed charges against the management of Hyatt Hotels for turning heat lamps on hotel housekeepers picketing the Chicago Hyatt for safer jobs in July in near 100 degree temperatures. Nearly all hotel housekeepers are women and most are women of color and immigrants. After downsizing, they [=>]

read the rest!

Women World Wide, July-August 2011

August 6, 2011

by Artemis

The reactionary majority of the U.S. Supreme Court gutted all future class action suits by throwing out the case against Wal-Mart, which has discriminated against over 1.5 million women workers as well as implemented extreme anti-union policies. Not surprisingly, big business was delighted with the verdict.

The International Criminal Court at the Hague, Netherlands, issued [=>]

read the rest!

SlutWalk in Chicago

August 4, 2011

Chicago–SlutWalk came to downtown on June 4, a gorgeous hot day. Over 1,000 participated, including many GLBTQ folks. SlutWalk originated in Canada when a Toronto police officer told students at York University in January that if women don’t want to be raped, they should “avoid dressing like sluts.” That ignorant statement, uttered in 2011 by [=>]

read the rest!

Review of Unplanned

Unplanned: The Dramatic True Story of a Former Planned Parenthood Leader’s Eye-Opening Journey across the Life Line by Abby Johnson with Cindy Lambert (SaltRiver, 2011).

The religious Right has hailed Unplanned as an anti-abortion classic for a new era. It signals more cooperation between ultra-conservative Catholics and evangelicals. The book claims that newer anti-abortion protesters are non-violent [=>]

read the rest!

Hate out of Chicago!

May 20, 2011

Chicago–Twice in April, Chicagoans took to the streets to protest the presence of hate and ignorance in the Windy City.

On April 2, the Chicago-based, Catholic anti-choice group, Pro-Life Action League (PLAL), hosted a tribute dinner for Joe Scheidler at the Merchandise Mart Holiday Inn. Scheidler is a well-known bigot who is not just anti-choice, but [=>]

read the rest!

Women World Wide, May-June 2011

May 19, 2011

by Artemis

In its annual report, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization recommends giving women full legal rights to buy, sell, and inherit land, borrow money, open bank accounts, sell their produce, sign contracts, and be educated. These rights also need to be enforced and publicized. This could increase global harvests by between 2.5 and 4%, [=>]

read the rest!

Abortion and the Left

May 16, 2011

From the new issue of NEWS & LETTERS, May-June 2011:

Woman as Reason
Abortion and the Left
by Terry Moon

Our Draft for Perspectives in this issue contains these paragraphs: “It is not only that women’s human rights are under siege by the U.S. Congress and state legislators, it is that the barriers put up, the requirements women face, are themselves [=>]

read the rest!

Women in Yemen show revolutionary way

May 11, 2011

From the May-June 2011 issue of News & Letters:

Women in Yemen show revolutionary way
by Shatha Al-Harazi

Sana’a, Yemen–This is one of the most conservative countries when it comes to how women are viewed. But the current political climate has changed some of this.

Yemeni society has offered limited roles for women in politics. It never expected women to [=>]

read the rest!

World in View: No to ‘bunga-bunga’!

April 20, 2011

by Gerry Emmett

Hundreds of thousands of Italian women took to the streets Feb. 13 to protest President Silvio Berlusconi’s sexist and absurd political culture of “bunga bunga.” Demonstrations, mostly of women, calling for his resignation were held in 280 Italian cities.

Berlusconi will have to stand trial beginning April 6 for having sex with an underage [=>]

read the rest!

Women World Wide, March-April 2011

March 30, 2011

by Artemis

In Ivory Coast, troops loyal to Laurent Gbagbo gunned down eight women as they marched peacefully against his rule chanting, “We want peace!” He sent tanks against the women, who had held several all-women marches. As one woman said, “We’re marching because we’re tired. We can’t sleep. We are not able to eat. And [=>]

read the rest!

Walk for Choice 2011

March 29, 2011

Chicago–Feb. 26 was International Walk for Choice day, made urgent in the U.S. by the inhuman legislation pending in Congress (see article this page). Besides Chicago, Walks–really demonstrations–were held from coast to coast in more than 50 cities, from Los Angeles, San Diego, and Santa Cruz in California, to New York City; from Olympia, Washington, [=>]

read the rest!

Egyptian women define the struggle

March 28, 2011

For Egyptian women the oppression of the last decades was extreme. They could not report the harassment they experienced to anyone, and men face no consequences when they harass. Public spaces became very problematic for women: their very presence on the street was an opportunity for men to show their “manhood” by harassing them.

Despite a [=>]

read the rest!

Vicious attacks on women’s healthcare

March 24, 2011

During February, the Republican Party has led the largest legislative attack on women’s reproductive rights and health in recent history. The U.S. House of Representatives has passed several bills that, if passed by the Senate and signed by the President, would have a devastating impact on women’s health as well as abortion rights. One would [=>]

read the rest!

Women’s freedom and Marx’s dialectic

March 22, 2011

Essay
Woman as Reason

by Terry Moon

The contemporary nature of Marxist-Humanism is evident when one views the theory and practice of women’s liberation. Today that involves both an unprecedented attack on women’s rights–especially reproductive rights–now taking place in the U.S., and women’s creative activism in the revolutionary developments in the Middle East, where they are fighting repressive [=>]

read the rest!

International Women’s Day and Iran

March 21, 2011

From the Writings of Raya Dunayevskaya

Editor’s note: The first International Women’s Day was observed 100 years ago in March 1911. This year also marks the 32nd anniversary of the historic demonstration in Tehran, Iran, on International Women’s Day, March 8, 1979. On that day, women and supporters braved Islamic Guards and thugs allied with the [=>]

read the rest!

Women Worldwide, Jan.-Feb. 2011

February 22, 2011

by Artemis

On Dec. 17, 2010, the Eighth International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers was observed in 15 cities in the U.S., seven cities in Canada and six cities in other countries. In candlelight vigils, the names were read of 60 sex workers murdered in 2010. The speeches, discussions and video showings made statements [=>]

read the rest!

Women transforming the Middle East

February 21, 2011

Paradise Beneath Her Feet: How Women are Transforming the Middle East, by Isobel Coleman (Random House, 2010)

Many people in the Western world observe the fundamentalism, terrorism and oppression of women in Middle Eastern countries and assume Islam is the problem. In fact, many in the Middle East look upon women’s rights as a threat to [=>]

read the rest!

Condoms & corruption

February 20, 2011

Woman as Reason
by Terry Moon

The Pope made quite a splash a few months ago with his comments in Peter Seewald’s book Light of the World, where he grudgingly accepted the use of condoms in extremely limited situations: “there may be a basis in the case of some individuals, as perhaps when a male prostitute uses a [=>]

read the rest!

Harriet Tubman and the Civil War

February 18, 2011

Editor’s note: We commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Civil War with excerpts from John Alan on Harriet Tubman from the April 2004 News & Letters.

Since the 1960s there has been a growing interest in Harriet Tubman. Catherine Clinton in Harriet Tubman: The Road to Freedom (Little, Brown, 2004), lets her reader know immediately that the [=>]

read the rest!

Women World Wide, Nov.-Dec. 2010

December 7, 2010

by Artemis

Participants at the 25th National Gathering of Women in Paraná, Argentina, denounced physical attacks on feminists by right-wing Catholics who infiltrated their workshops on “Women, Contraception, and Abortion,” resulting in injuries. Feminists shouting “No More!” physically ousted the anti-abortion fanatics. That same night, thousands of women marched, singing chants against the dictatorship of the [=>]

read the rest!

Woman as Reason: Congo, capitalism and rape

November 10, 2010

From the Nov.-Dec. 2010 issue of News & Letters:

by Terry Moon

The latest tragedy in Congo was so horrific that it actually made a few headlines in the U.S. bourgeois press: for three days at the end of July and into August, well over 200 women including over 50 girls, in the village of [=>]

read the rest!