Recently by Miriam

Hope you can make it!

Racialicious and Feministing Happy Hour:

When: Tuesday, Nov. 18, 5:30pm - 8:00pm
Where: Chi Cha Lounge, 1624 U St NW, Washington, DC

Facebook event here.

An article from this weekend's NYTimes chronicles the rising trend in home births in NYC. It partially credits the recent Ricki Lake documentary, The Business of Being Born.

The article does a good job of addressing the different challenges for women giving birth in their NYC apartments. It takes about space concerns, neighbor issues, clean up and hospital transfers. The article is also accompanied by a slideshow of photos from various home births.

What the article doesn't address is the huge class divide in these types of births. I, as a doula and general advocate of midwives and out of hospital births, am a huge supporter of home births. I think they are better for moms and babies who have low-risk pregnancies. I think moms feel more comfortable and are away from the stress and pressure of a hospital. She is on her own time line, no questions asked.

But the huge drawback to promoting home birth is that it is primarily an option for upper middle class women. Not everyone has a home that is safe to birth in. This could be because of family circumstances, overcrowding, lack of support from partners or simply lack of adequate space. There are also obvious financial barriers since most insurance companies won't cover home births.

It's unfortunate that an article about birth in NYC didn't address this issue at all, seeing as it is such a diverse city, in terms of both class and race.

Also, once again an article about women's health is marginalized, this one was placed in the Home and Garden section. At least it wasn't in Fashion and Style this time.

For all you law students out there, a fantastic reproductive justice writing contest hosted by the National Advocates for Pregnant Women. They are giving out significant cash prizes, $1,000 for first prize, $500 and $250 for the runners up. The deadline for submissions is May 31, 2009.

Issues of concern to pregnant and birthing women have often been missing from discussion in law school gender discrimination and feminist jurisprudence courses and among reproductive rights activists. Thanks in large part to public education efforts by writers, filmmakers, and community activists, there is an unprecedented amount of attention and momentum surrounding the rights of pregnant and birthing women. To advance these efforts further, NAPW has developed two writing contests. NAPW and numerous Co-Sponsors and Supporters hope that these contests will leverage the enthusiasm and creativity of a new generation of feminist legal scholars and spark critical thinking about the need to address childbirth and birthing rights as constitutional and human rights issues.

Contest I: Birthing Rights as a Matter of Gender Equality

This contest asks for a critical analysis of the absence of birthing rights issues from gender discrimination and feminist jurisprudence textbooks and curricula (in fact, none of the top three casebooks used in law school courses dedicated to gender and the law address the issue of childbirth or midwifery).

Contest II: Challenges to Bans On Women Having Vaginal Births after Previous C-Sections

This contest asks students to develop legal theories that can be used to challenge policies banning pregnant women from having a vaginal birth after a prior caesarean section (VBAC). This topic will encourage students to address a growing problem that has received very little attention from the feminist legal community both in academia and within the leading women's rights legal advocacy organizations.

For the full writing prompts, submission guidelines, more information about our co-sponsors and supporters, and periodic updates, please visit the NAPW website.

Joe the Plumber, the apparent star of the McCain campaign, has just begun his foray into American society. Rumor has it he has an upcoming book, Joe the Plumber: Fighting for the American Dream as well as a website and country music deal. Really?

What about a book deal and website for Ann Nixon Cooper, who Obama eloquently referenced in his acceptance speech? There are a lot of American's whose experience deserves to be given a voice and platform. Sorry Joe, but I don't think you're it.

There has definitely been an influx of media around trans people over the last year or so. Thomas Beatie (the pregnant man) now has a memoir out, and WE TV has a new show called Sex Change Hospital.

Based in Trinidad, Colorado, this six-part series follows patients as they arrive in this Old West mining town--dubbed the 'Sex Change Capital of the World'--to see Dr. Marci Bowers, formerly Mark Bowers, who'll provide them with the ultimate life-changing operation. From retired grandfathers to construction workers, businessman to office managers, each shares their unique story of how they came to terms with their sexuality.

I recognized the name of the doctor from the Sundance Channel's series from a few years back, Transgeneration. One of the young women on that series goes to Dr. Bowers for her own gender reassignment surgery.

This series chronicles a number of trans people (both male to female and female to male) along their journey of transition and particularly surgery.

I haven't seen the show--have any of you? On first glance I am glad to see realistic depictions of transgender people and their experience on television. On further inspection, things like the before and after style photo gallery on the website bother me, as I think they focus too much on our fascination with the physical aspects of the trans experience.

This type of media has the potential to really expose a wider audience to transgender issues, but also runs the risk of exploiting their experience as part of the "wow" factor of television. Also, focusing entirely on transition surgeries leaves out a large sector of the trans community that either can't afford surgery or chooses not to seek it.

As many of you did, I had a pretty incredible night last night. I watched the election results come in surrounded by the company of some amazing friends. We were a rowdy bunch, cheering and yelling as the early results came in. We even did a jello shot in honor of Ohio. But at 11pm EST, when we counted down the closing of the West Coast polls and Barack Obama was announced as the President Elect, there was a total hush over the room.

We were in awe, we were shocked and we were brought to tears. Half my friends had their hands over their gaping mouths. It took a few minutes for the celebration to return, but return it did.

We then took to the streets of DC where it seemed everyone was out and rallying. I'm not sure if I will ever in my life see again what I witnessed last night. Such jubilation, such energy, such camaraderie. It was a hugely diverse crowd of young people, people of color, men and women, many of whom had never before been so excited about a presidential candidate. When we finally went home around 2:30am, the party was still going strong in front of the White House and in the historic African-American U Street district.

It is definitely a bittersweet day with the news of the anti-gay ballot measure results mixed with the excitement of the Obama win, but change is definitely on the horizon.

Where were you when Barack Obama was elected president?

photo from superspade

Like many of you, I voted for this first time ever (in person) today. It was pretty damn exciting, especially after all the build up over the last few years. I have to admit I wasn't on the Obama train until pretty late in the game, but as Dana Goldstein says, he's a pretty inspirational guy.

With all the hysteria about long waiting lines at the polls I was pretty apprehensive when I strolled in this morning around 8:45am. But good karma was with me because before I could even get to the back of the HUGE line I was led to the front by a woman who said my last name meant I could wait in a short line. I was in and out within 20 minutes.

I voted in Washington DC and I have to say I was surprised to see Ralph Nader on the ballot. I honestly didn't even know he was running again, which maybe is a good thing. I was kind of nervous, which is maybe why I accidentally filled in the arrow for Nader! No worries though, I was able to turn in my "spoiled" ballot and fill in a new one with the right choice.

I have to say I felt pretty proud on my way to work with my "I voted" sticker.

What's your voting story?

PS Something fun for your election watching this evening (thanks to Veronica for the link)

Michael Pollan had a fantastic article in the NYTimes magazine earlier this month entitled Farmer in Chief. If you haven't heard of Michael Pollan before, go pick up a copy of the Omnivore's Dilemma immediately. It has been garnering a lot of buzz for a few years now and in that book Pollan does an amazing job of making the politics of industrial agriculture interesting. A large portion of that book focuses on how corn is at the center of almost everything we eat and how the government influenced this change in the national diet.

In Farmer in Chief, Pollan outlines an impressive food policy for the new administration. He explains how everything from farmers markets, to an official definition of the word "food" to who is chosen as the White House chef could make an impact on the global culture of food and the future of climate change. Check out the full piece here. It's long, but worth the read.

Some highlights:

It is one of the larger paradoxes of our time that the very same food policies that have contributed to overnutrition in the first world are now contributing to undernutrition in the third.

The good news is that the twinned crises in food and energy are creating a political environment in which real reform of the food system may actually be possible for the first time in a generation. The American people are paying more attention to food today than they have in decades, worrying not only about its price but about its safety, its provenance and its healthfulness. There is a gathering sense among the public that the industrial-food system is broken.

If any part of the modern economy can be freed from its dependence on oil and successfully resolarized, surely it is food.

More recently, cheap energy has underwritten a globalized food economy in which it makes (or rather, made) economic sense to catch salmon in Alaska, ship it to China to be filleted and then ship the fillets back to California to be eaten; or one in which California and Mexico can profitably swap tomatoes back and forth across the border; or Denmark and the United States can trade sugar cookies across the Atlantic.

A new birth control pill, called LoSeasonique, has just been approved for sale in the US by the FDA, according to Barr Pharmaceuticals.

Under the LoSEASONIQUE(R) extended-cycle regimen, women take combination tablets containing 0.10 mg levonorgestrel/0.02 mg of ethinyl estradiol daily for 84 consecutive days, followed 0.01 mg ethinyl estradiol tablets for seven days. The regimen is designed to reduce the number of withdrawal bleeding periods from 13 to four per year.

LoSeasonique is a low-dose version of Seasonique, which also reduces the number of periods a woman has.

What do you all think about these period-reducing birth control pills? Anyone tried them?

This year many states are facing a variety of ballot measures. We've heard a lot about the CA gay marriage initiative, and there are initiatives in 14 different states that could affect reproductive freedom, affirmative action, economic security, transportation, education, health care, energy and security (to name a few).

Choice USA, Campus Progress Action and Progressive Future have teamed up with the Ballot Initiatives Strategy Center to create this awesome guide to all these ballot measures, what they would really mean, and how you should vote on them.

So if you live in any of these states: Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Maine, Massachusets, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Oregon, South Dakota and Washington download the guide and get the facts. Or forward it along to people who do!

From Lynn Paltrow's piece at RH Reality Check:

This summer, the question of abortion and the rights of the unborn once again took center stage as a presidential campaign issue. In August, at the Saddleback Civil Forum, Pastor Rick Warren asked both presidential candidates: "At what point is a baby entitled to human rights?" Senator John McCain's answer, "at the moment of conception," immediately established his anti-abortion bona fides.

But the right answer, as a matter of international human rights principles and simple justice, is: human rights attach at birth, not at conception.This is the only position that ensures that upon becoming pregnant, women do not lose their human rights.

Political candidates of all persuasions should rest assured that to oppose the recognition of human rights before birth is not to deny the value of potential life as matter of religious belief, emotional conviction or personal experience. Rather, it is to recognize the value of the women who give that life.

Right on.

Cross posted at Radical Doula

You've probably heard McCain, Palin and various GOP pundits using the term ACORN like it's a dirty word. While we are hearing reports of really insidious voter suppression and voter intimidation (not to mention ballot "typos") all over the country, the Republicans have waged a campaign against the grassroots organization ACORN. Below is their response to the allegations.

I have to agree with them that this sounds to me like the Republicans laying the foundation for an election contest if Obama wins.

You're sitting in the airport terminal, rolling your copy of the Economist into a sweaty tube and waiting to see a significant other who lives far away. You're excited. You're aroused. But there's something else, a nagging feeling that gurgles in your stomach and won't go away. Is it pangs of guilt? It should be: The planet is about to suffer for your love.

As someone who has had my fair share of long distance relationships (LDRs for short) this Slate article really struck a chord with me.

By spending all their free time out of town or staring at a webcam--that is, in their apartments or airline cabins, rather than in parks, bowling alleys, and pubs--long-distance lovers erode civic commitment and social support networks. They have fewer chances to meet new people.

What's more, out-of-town daters have less sex than local couples--and long stretches of abstinence between visits could lead to negative health outcomes and thus higher health care costs. Distance also magnifies the impact of negative feelings like longing and suspicion; according to one study, intercity lovers are more likely to be depressed and less likely to share resources or take care of each other when sick. And they spend money on travel that they might otherwise save and invest--leaving them vulnerable to economic shocks and wearing away their future standard of living. Every one of these demons could be banished by simply dating local.

I couldn't agree more. I've been joking with some friends of mine about wanting to start a campaign against long distance relationships. Constantly missing your significant other, spending your life on the phone, always counting the days until you see them, or the days until you have to say goodbye again.

I think our increasingly globalized and technologized world is making LDRs much easier (and maybe more likely). Internet dating, email and social networking sites all make it much easier for us to connect with people who live far away. These things also make it much easier to maintain your connection with someone--you can always be connected to them, at least virtually. What used to be cheap airfare also makes it easier to visit one another (although that might be changing).

Now, it's not always easy to avoid LDRs. People move away, for jobs, or school, or other life decisions. I know there are couples out there who have made it work. But maybe Slate has a point--if we have a local food movement, why not a date local movement?

Thanks to Tanya for the link

Some great thought on the Latin@ vote from Mamita Mala:

From the This Is What Women Want Campaign.

Cross-posted at Nuestra Vida, Nuestra Voz

Thanks to Tanya for the link

In honor of Love Your Body Day, the Feministing Crew has a little message for all you readers out there:

Go Masturbate!

We think that's probably one of the best ways to love your body -- and will probably make you feel better than throwing away a tube of lipstick or an issue of Cosmo. If you need some assistance on the loving your body front, check out one of the awesome sex shops that the feministing readers recommend. And come on, we all know it will make a great antidote to the political mess of late.

Happy Wednesday!

Via DCist and The Washington Times:

The paper signs began arriving last week in the mailboxes of the roughly 1,200 violent and child-sex offenders across the state with a letter explaining how they are to comport themselves on Oct. 31.

"Halloween provides a rare opportunity for you to demonstrate to your neighbors that you are making a sincere effort to change the direction of your life," the letter states.

In addition to posting the sign, the offenders must stay at home, turn off outside lights and not answer the door, according to the letter obtained by The Washington Times.

Samhita has written about this before, CA law requiring former sex offenders to live a certain distance from parks and schools, and GPS tracking devices. I know the subject of policing of sex offenders is a touchy one, but I think I agree with Samhita that these policies don't get at the overall problem here, which is the lack of services to address the underlying problems. Also, the stigmatization of formerly incarcerated people is a serious problem. Once someone has been incarcerated, regardless of how law-abiding they might be for the rest of their lives, they are consistently discriminated against.

Also I think this plays up on the idea of Halloween as a heyday for child predators. You know all those tales parents tell their kids about razor blades in unwrapped candy? Maybe it's linked to religious campaigns against Halloween, a celebration with pagan roots.

What do you all think?

I'm really excited about this upcoming film about Harvey Milk, the first openly gay man elected to public office in the US.

Via Queers United

Today is National Latino AIDS Awareness Day.

HIV/AIDS is the third leading cause of death among Hispanic men ages 35 to 44 and the fourth leading cause of death among Hispanic women in the same age group.

In honor of NLAAD, check out Ambiente, a bilingual online Latino LGBT publication.

It's discreet, but it's there. Yay for positive representations of breastfeeding. It can be sexy.

Via DoulaMomma

Hope to see some of you tonight!

Boston Feministing Happy Hour
Friday October 10th
5:30pm-8:30pm
Good Life Bar
28 Kingston Street • Boston, MA 02111
Anyone 18+ welcome to attend!

Facebook event here.

Via Kay Steiger, an article in the NYTimes about gender roles at fancy restaurants.

Back in 2003, I spent a summer working at a fancy five star country club restaurant. I worked there because the pay was really good, with an automatic 18% gratuity and my brother was able to get me the job. The restaurant was in North Carolina, so Southern hospitality was the law. Gender rules, whether it was for the servers or for the customers were a non-negotiable. We even had menus without prices for the women (not always used, but available). Women were served first, in order of age. I had to use the southern "ya'll" to refer to the customers, because "you guys" was gender inappropriate and too informal.

I wish I had a picture of me from that summer, the outfit I had to wear was absurd. I looked like a penguin. Everyone had to wear tuxedo pants, white button down shirts and black bow ties. Needless to say I didn't look great in my pleated tuxedo pants (think high high waist).

While I didn't criticize these gendered practices at the time, this article brought it all back for me. In my everyday life I am constantly confronted with gender stereotyping. Every time I walk into elevator or walk through a door, or interact with salespeople, I'm reminded that they are treating me differently because I'm a woman. Men always hold doors for me but will wait an eternity before letting me hold the door for them. I always have to walk out of elevators first, and then of course I get called "sweetie" and "honey" often.

Luckily I don't go to many fancy restaurants these days, where these rules seem to be important, but it's sad to see that it's still enforced for new restaurants. All these things are just reminders that women's liberation be damned, these subtle differences aren't going away anytime soon.

Gloucester High School, site of the 17 High School girls who got pregnant this past summer, voted to make contraceptives available (with parental consent) at the high school health center last night.

Good move, Gloucester. Now while it's unclear that these young women would have been impacted by this change in policy (remember, it's alleged that at least half of them wanted to get pregnant) this will be a great service to the rest of the teens at this high school.

Want more about this story? Read Courtney's op-ed about the missing pieces in the original Gloucester coverage, Vanessa's take down of girl shaming and Jessica talking about giving credit to Crisis Pregnancy Centers.

I might make this a regular Wednesday afternoon feature. We'll see!

Continuing on the theme of sex and Wednesday's (and don't you all need something uplifting after that debate last night), here is an interview via Babeland with Tristan Taormino. Tristan is the self-professed anal sexpert, and an all around impressive lady. She has been writing a sex column for the Village Voice for years (which was recently cancelled, sadly). She led one of the first sex workshops I ever went to, at Wesleyan University a few years ago. She has a great story about how she was going to go to law school, but she decided to become a sex writer instead. Tristan has a new book about open relationships called Opening Up.

An exerpt from the interview, available on Babeland's blog in two parts:

What was the most interesting thing you learned from the couples you interviewed for Opening Up? I didn't talk to just couples - I interviewed singles, couples, triads, quads, circles of five, lots of different combinations! I learned so much from each person I talked to and realized that life really is in the details. No one does non-monogamy the same way. It's all about crafting a relationship that's custom made for the people involved.

What is your favorite anal sex toy? I cannot pick just one! Of course, I have to say the Tristan butt plug from Vixen, since I helped design it and it's named for me. I think the Mistress is the best dildo for strap-on anal sex, especially for beginners. Now it comes with a vibrator, too, which rocks.

What is your favorite non-anal sex toy? I have fallen in love with a new strap-on harness recently, the Jaguar Harness from Aslan. In Cherry Red. The leather is smooth and gorgeous, it fits like a glove, and it's so comfortable, I could wear it all day!

Happy Wednesday!

The HRC went to Wasilla, Sarah Palin's town in Alaska to talk to LGBT people about her views and politics. It's pretty interesting, check it out below.

I know like many of you I watched the debate on Thursday. While I was disappointed by Joe Biden basically conceding that they agree on the gay marriage issue (I got so angry I had to walk out of the room), I was fuming at Sarah Palin's use of the world tolerate. I don't need you to tolerate me Sarah Palin. I just need you to stay out of my life, just like I want to stay out of yours. You can take your bigoted views back to Alaska with you.

Via Queers United

Hello from Beantown!

All you Feministing readers living in Boston, I hope you can come out this Friday to the Feministing Happy Hour. Shout out to readers Rachel and Sarah for helping to organize this event!

Boston Feministing Happy Hour
Friday October 10th
5:30pm-8:30pm
Good Life Bar
28 Kingston Street • Boston, MA 02111
Anyone 18+ welcome to attend!

So come and mingle with some awesome Boston feminists! Hope to see you all there. Facebook event here.

Via CNN

The House of Representatives on Friday approved by a wide margin the $700 billion economic bailout that sailed through the Senate earlier in the week. The measure passed by 92 votes, 263 to 171, with the plan picking up support on both sides of the aisle after going down to defeat in the House on Monday. President Bush signed the bill Friday afternoon. The bailout plan has new provisions, including an increase in the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. cap from $100,000 to $250,000. It makes $250 billion immediately available to purchase bank assets, leaving $100 billion at the president's discretion and $350 billion subject to congressional review. The bill also includes a "mental-health parity" provision, which would require health insurance companies to cover mental illness at parity with physical illness.

In honor of Google's 10th birthday, they have made their oldest available archive from 2001 available once again. So go here, google yourself, and find out if you had an internet presence way back at the beginning of this century.

One fun prepost-debate exercise: google all four of the nominees on the two presidential tickets. Can you guess which one of the candidates had no internet presence in 2001?

Via DCist

So John McCain made a historic step by agreeing to an interview with an LGBT publication, The Washington Blade. He's the first Republican presidential candidate to do so. The interview is available here. I have to give him props (unfortunately) for not saying anything too offensive and maintaining a fine line of respect in his answers to questions. He hides behind his beliefs about federalism (that individual state's should have the right to make their own decisions about laws) to avoid stating opinions on issues like discrimination, marriage, same-sex adoption.

Blade: What is your position on California's Proposition 8, which would ban same-sex marriage there?

McCain: As I did in my home state of Arizona, I support the effort in California to define marriage as the union of a man and a woman. However, the people of California will ultimately decide this issue, and I'll of course respect the decision of the voters.

So, as often happens to me on Wednesday afternoons, shit can get a little depressing. You know, cause the economy is kind of failing, politicians are crazy, the trolls are out in full force and every day there is another immigration raid.

So you know what I do when the state of the world starts getting me down? I revert to my favorite topic of all time (and the ultimate picker upper) SEX. Yup, yup kids. It's a guaranteed way to get your mind off the economy, John McCain's ridiculousness and the general misogyny of the world.

This weekend, after an intense few days at the Critical Resistance conference, I had the pleasure of stopping by the Folsom Street Fair. Never heard of it? Well, it's probably the most unique thing I've ever witnessed.

Folsom is a street fair that happens during an eight day Leather festival in SF. Basically, it's a space for all those whose sexual interests and appetites might involve things like leather (you know, wearing it and such) or also other alternative practices, like bondage, domination, sadomasochism. I won't get into too much detail, but suffice to say there is something for everyone.

What was particularly cool about being at the fair was just how open and accepting the atmosphere was. For a group who usually has to keep their sexual desires and practices underwraps and behind closed doors, it was nice to see the community having a day to let it all hang out (pun intended). I also think it's refreshing to see alternative sexual lifestyles (that are heavily based in philosophies about consent) supported and celebrated.

For those of you who might be celebrating the Jewish New Year right now, L'Shana Tova!

Today is the second day of the Jewish holiday Rosh Hashanah, which marks the beginning of the Jewish New Year and a time of repentance, celebration and reflection. These are considered the Jewish High Holy Days, the most important religious days of the year. Rosh Hashanah begins a ten day period which is concluded with Yom Kippur, a day of fasting and asking for forgiveness for the new year.

Also, the apples and honey photo is because it's a tradition during this holiday to eat apples and honey to ensure that you have a sweet New Year.

Update: Cecelia reminded me that Ramadan, a Muslim month long festival and fast, also ended this week. The last day was September 30th, when Muslim's celebrate Eid ul-Fitr. Try this website for more information about Ramadan customs and traditions.

While I recognize that Cynthia McKinney's presidential candidacy (as the third party green candidate) is not really viable, she is still a bad ass woman and politician. I think the perspective that she and Rosa Clemente bring to the campaign is important, and gives a voice to a more radical, feminist and progressive political agenda with the hopes that some of those issues can be infused into the mainstream debate. Also, a presidential ticket with two strong women of color is just another sign that things are changing in the US political landscape. So, with that said, check out this video from McKinney talking about the economic crisis.

So I will be in Boston next week because some fabulous students from the Tufts Feminist Alliance invited me to speak. Shout out to Tiffany and Amanda for organizing that event! While I'm in town, I would love to organize a Feministing Happy Hour for all of you who live in Boston.

I'm looking for a volunteer to help me organize this happy hour, mainly finding a location. So email me at miriamATfeministingDOTcom if you want to help and have some ideas of public transportation accessible, affordable bars that will allow people under 21 to enter as well. Usually places that serve food are more willing/able. Also, it needs to be able to accommodate about 50 people.

Thanks everyone!

Texas Prison Bid'ness

Started in 2007, when two bills were introduced, one that increased capacity in private prisons in TX and another that would have rolled back tons of standards that were achieved under a previous lawsuit from the 80s. The first passed, the second did not.

The blog was created to have a resource about private prisons in TX for legislators, activists, etc. TX was the birthplace of private prisons in the USA. Highlighting the abuses that were going on in private prisons (deaths, sexual assaults, guard abuse).

Two other criminal justice blogs:

Grits for breakfast--daily criminal justice blogging in TX

Think Outside the Cage---Colorado criminal justice reform blog

Kenyon Farrow

Wrote a piece in 2004 pitched to an indie paper critiquing gay marriage, called Is Gay Marriage Anti-Black? It was censored by that paper, and then it took on a life of its own, after which he began his blog.

Other criminal justice/PIC blogs:
T Don Hutto

In May 2006, the Department of Homeland Security opened its first prison for immigrant families 30 miles north of Austin. It is the first family detention center in the country to be based on the penal model, though plans were quickly made to build more.

The T Don Hutto facility holds men, women (some pregnant), children, and infants, none of whom have a criminal past. Administered by the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), the country's largest for-profit corrections company, Hutto lacks proper licensing and medical facilities, and has been proven to traumatize families.

This blog is dedicated to providing information on the growing movement to shut down Hutto and prevent this model of immigrant detention from spreading nationally.

Prisons as a Tool of Reproductive Oppression: Cross Movement Strategies for Gender Justice

Critical Resistance 10 Conference

Nerissa Kunakemakorn, Justice Now
The Prison Industrial Complex facilitates the destruction of reproductive capacity in three ways:
1) Overuse of hysterectomy and ovarectomy (often nonconsensually)
2) Poor reproductive healthcare provided to people in prisons
3) Imprisonment during the majority of one's reproductive years

More on #1:
-Often these radical procedures are used for fibroids and ovarian cysts, at much higher rates than on the outside
-There are documented cases of sterilization abuse, particularly after childbirth
-The new "gender responsive" prison strategies even discuss the cost effectiveness of sterilization after birth
-Some incarcerated people have been given hysterectomy's for cancers that were later found to be non-existent
-One doctor told a "lifer" (person sentenced to life in prison) that her ovary removal didn't matter since she was going to be in prison forever
-This is very closely connected with a history of sterilization abuse in communities of color (Native American women, Puerto Rican women, Mexican women in LA) More on this here.
-These procedures are disproportionately documented among people of color in prison
-Consent issues around sterilization procedures for people in prison (can someone in prison ever give consent? are there always coercive conditions?)

Elizabeth Barajas-Roman, Population and Development Program

In September of this year, a Texas woman was ordered to stop having children as a condition of her probation. The judge argued that since if she had been in prison for those ten years, she wouldn't have been able to get pregnant, it was a reasonable condition. If she becomes pregnant, she can be put back in prison for violating her parole. Clear connection between the prison industrial complex and population control.

Gabriel Arkles, Sylvia Rivera Law Project

Trans people face a whole different set of problems and barriers in prison. Not only are they targeted for incarceration (because of poverty, sex work, transphobia and racism) but once in prison they face particular challenges. Trans people are placed in prison not based on what their identification says, how they identify or how they present. Instead its usually based on what is between someone's legs. This puts trans people at risk for abuse, sexual or otherwise. Much of this logic (about not putting a trans woman in a woman's prison) is about not wanting there to be a possibility for pregnancy between prisoners. Again more evidence of the population control philosophy, and proof that they don't care about personal safety (or even preventing sexual activity) but just about preventing reproduction.

Other speakers: Maria Nakae, Asian Communities for Reproductive Justice and Miss Major Transgender, Gender Variant and Intersex Justice Project

*Note: There is no internet access on the conference site, so these live blogs will be posted with significant delay. Sorry everyone!

Getting Real about Alternatives to Cops

Critical Resistance 10 Conference, Rose City Copwatch

Founded in 2003 in Portland Oregon
Building community power in opposition to police violence
-observing police behavior (videotaping police)
-agitation, disruption
-reconciling police abolition with concerns about safety

Examples:
-bad date line for dangerous johns
-Community committees in apartheid SA where the police had abandoned the neighborhood
-Peace for the streets by kids from the streets, Seattle WA "donut dialogues"

Alternatives vs Auxiliaries? How do we reconcile programs to make policing better or safer with a larger goal of prison abolition?
-Hate crimes, violence against women and their usage to legitimize and escalate policing (the idea of "vulnerable populations" who need defense)
-Ubuntu, an organization run by survivors in Durham NC
-Trust building and community building as ways of creating our own networks for safety
-Emergency healthcare: police are always a part of first response
-Philly Stands Up: Sexual Assault Survivor Support
-Gang intervention in a community: mothers in the community would make lunch and go eat it on the corners where young men were hanging out. It was a way to reach out to them and make them uncomfortable.
-Grandmothers used as a security system, tough love policing
-What is crime? How do we look at that critically? Criminalization of drugs, stealing, what about morality, ethics, crime defined by harm?

Clay Aiken, of American Idol, has finally come out. It can't say it was much of a surprise.

Following the Aug. 8 birth of his son Parker, singer Clay Aiken is following through on a promise he made to himself as a new dad: to publicly acknowledge that he's gay.

"It was the first decision I made as a father," Aiken, 29, tells the upcoming issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday. "I cannot raise a child to lie or to hide things. I wasn't raised that way, and I'm not going to raise a child to do that."

He's also not the first male singer lately to have a child with a non-romantic partner, although unlike Ricky Martin, Clay says he will be co-parenting with the birth mother.

I will be heading to Oakland tomorrow for the awesome Critical Resistance 10 conference. I will be liveblogging, so stay tuned for those posts! If you're in the Bay Area the conference is free, so think about checking it out.

In September 1998, thousands gathered in Berkeley, California, for conference that founded Critical Resistance's movement to abolish the prison industrial complex (PIC).­ Each participant, with their own experiences of oppression and resistance, watched as diverse struggles were unified: by humanity, hope, and the shared vision of a different world. We witnessed a vision of a world with truly safe, healthy, and whole communities; a world with unconditional access to self-determination and dignity for all; and, critically, a world without imprisonment, policing, and other forms of punishment and control.

Over the past decade, the movement to eliminate the PIC has faced tremendous challenges. We have witnessed rising levels of imprisonment in the US and around the world. We have endured passage of the USAPATRIOT Act of 2001, the Military Commissions Act of 2006, increasing surveillance and policing in our lives. Meanwhile, US-led wars continue to ravage communities around the globe. We have witnessed the increased repression and criminalization of migrants and immigrants, people of color, young people, and queer communities. We have seen California prepare to embark on the biggest prison building project in history as the Gulf Coast region continues to struggle and to prevail in spite of ongoing neglect and militarization.

We have seen only the beginning of what we can accomplish together. CR10 promises to propel this momentum forward, with united, strategic force.

I'll leave you with one statistic that really struck me and inspired me to go to this conference: The United States accounts for 5% of the world's general population and 25% of the world's prison population.

Due to the looming financial crisis and recently proposed bailout plan, McCain just announced he will be suspending his campaign.

Republican presidential candidate John McCain announced Wednesday that he is suspending his campaign to return to Washington and focus on the "historic" crisis facing the U.S. economy. McCain said it was time for both parties to come together to solve economic crisis.

The Arizona senator called on his Democratic rival, Barack Obama, to do the same.The Obama campaign announced that Obama would make a statement shortly.He also urged organizers of Friday's presidential debate at the University of Mississippi to postpone the event.

"I am calling on the president to convene a meeting with the leadership from both houses of Congress, including Senator Obama and myself," McCain told reporters in New York. "It is time for both parties to come together to solve this problem."

It was not immediately clear how extensive the suspension he announced would be -- whether it would include dropping television advertising or just canceling scheduled appearances. McCain took no questions after reading his statement.

Via CNN
More at Think Progress

UPDATE: You can vote on whether or not you think the debate should be postponed.

UPDATE II: Obama says he will continue with the debate as planned.

"It's my belief that this is exactly the time when the American people need to hear from the person who in approximately 40 days will be responsible for dealing with this mess," Obama said in a news conference in Clearwater, Fla. "It's going to be part of the president's job to deal with more than one thing at once."

Sorry for the late post on this one, but I got it in just under the wire. App