by Artemis
Susan Xenarios. Photo: queer_happened_here Instagram page
On Sept. 6, Susan Xenarios died of cancer at age 79. In 1977, she cofounded New York City’s first rape crisis center, the Rape Intervention Program attached to St. Luke Hospital’s emergency room. Galvanized by experiencing rape and callous treatment from police and doctors, she transformed how police, hospitals, and laws respond to victims. The Program was among the first providing forensic rape evidence collection kits, counselors, psychiatric care, and serving male victims and those raped while incarcerated. Xenarios created the Sexual Assault Forensic Examiner Program, training medical staff to collect evidence and provide empathetic care. She ran Rape Intervention for 40 years, while it changed its name to Crime Victims Treatment Center, to include victims of domestic violence, child sexual abuse, and prostitution. Her work changed laws to protect confidentiality, remove homophobic terms like “sodomy,” and crack down on sex trafficking. She helped pass the 2015 “Enough is Enough” law requiring both parties to give affirmative consent to sex.
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In September, dozens of South Korean women filed a second lawsuit accusing the U.S. military of illegally maintaining a network of prostitution in which they were exploited. In 2022, the women won a previous Supreme Court case against their own government. It was found guilty of promoting prostitution to U.S. soldiers for the purpose of boosting the economy and maintaining good relations with the U.S. government. South Korea was ordered to compensate these “comfort women for the U.S.” for their trauma. That trauma included forcibly and violently injecting them with potentially lethal doses of penicillin as “treatment” for sexually transmitted diseases. Unable to sue the U.S. military directly, they can sue their own government again to hold the U.S. military culpable for their abuse. They seek an apology and compensation for this abuse, which lasted from 1950 to 2004.
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World March of Women Facebook page
On Oct. 18, over 20,000 people marched in Quebec City, Canada for the sixth annual World Women’s March (aka Marche Mondiale des Femmes). Themes were raising awareness about violence, poverty, and the environment and abolishing prostitution. It was organized by the World March of Women, Concertation des Luttes Contre L’Exploitation Sexuelle (CLES), the Feminist Coalition Against Violence Against Women, Missinak Community House, and Regroupment des Groupes des Femmes de la Capitale-Nationale. Speakers stated that over 60% of people in extreme poverty worldwide are women and over half of femicide cases are committed by men with criminal records. Marchers chanted, “Consent Is Not Bought!” and “Solidarity with Women All Over the World!”
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On Sept. 27, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, thousands joined an anti-femicide march to Parliament. They demanded justice for three victims, Lara Gutierrez, age 15, and Morena Verdi and Grenda del Castillo, age 20. Their tortures and murders were livestreamed on social media by a drug-trafficking gang. Five suspects were captured, but not the leader, who stated on livestream this was retribution for the women’s violation of gang codes. The victims’ families and friends attended. Signs read “There are No Good or Bad Victims, Only Femicide” and “Justice.” A femicide monitoring group states that a woman is killed by a man every 36 hours in Argentina.