The Office on Violence Against Women gets a new (scary) director


The Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) is a tremendous feminist success story. The legislation, which was passed in 1994 and reauthorized in 2000 and 2006, allows for $3.9 billion in funding to help survivors of intimate partner violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking. Feminists were the driving force behind the drafting and passage of VAWA–it’s our baby.
So you can imagine my disappointment when I found out the Office on Violence Against Women (OVW) (where VAWA lives) is going to be run by yet another wacky Bush appointee.
Mary Beth Buchanan, US Attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania, is set to be OVW’s Acting Director.
Buchanan’s claims to fame?


The Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) is a tremendous feminist success story. The legislation, which was passed in 1994 and reauthorized in 2000 and 2006, allows for $3.9 billion in funding to help ...

HHS standing by Keroack

The Kaiser Network reports that the Department of Health and Human Services is standing by their man Eric Keroack. You know, the “doctor� who likes cartoons but thinks birth control is icky.

Christina Pearson, spokesperson for HHS’ Office of Population Affairs and Administration for Children and Families, said Keroack is not opposed to birth control…
Keroack “has expressed to us that he will fulfill his programmatic responsibilities in accordance with the law, and we believe him,” Pearson said, adding that Keroack’s work for A Women’s Concern accounted for only 20% of his time and involved providing ultrasound examinations to pregnant women and not counseling to women who were not pregnant.

Yeah, somehow that doesn’t make ...

Daytime soap to feature transgendered character


Okay, I’ll admit it. I frigging love All My Children. I started watching it when I was a toddler and my Nana took care of me—we had to watch her stories all afternoon long. For some reason, AMC stuck.
It was fab enough when the soap featured the first-ever lesbian smooch on a daytime drama, now they’re going to introduce a transgendered character. Nice.

The character, a flamboyant rock star known as Zarf, kisses the lesbian character Bianca and much drama ensues. The storyline begins with Thursday’s episode of the daytime drama.
…The show wasn’t interested in doing something just to be sensational, she said. GLAAD and some transgenders were brought in as consultants ...


Okay, I’ll admit it. I frigging love All My Children. I started watching it when I was a toddler and my Nana took care of me—we had to watch her stories all afternoon ...

Liberal Women’s Caucus in Canada tells it like it is.

The Liberal Women’s Caucus in Canada has put out a set of party policies that they feel are the most pressing issues women face in Canada. In doing so they called out what they called the conservative government’s war on women.
<blockquote>The federal Liberal women’s caucus is accusing the Conservative government of trying to keep females “barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen,” saying the government is pursuing an ideological agenda that ignores women’s needs and cuts funding to those who need help the most.

They have put together what they call the “Pink Book” which details their demands for women’s equity.

The document is the product of cross-country working sessions with women and women’s groups held last July, and is slated to ...

The Liberal Women’s Caucus in Canada has put out a set of party policies that they feel are the most pressing issues women face in Canada. In doing so they called out what they called the conservative ...

Pre-sex contraceptive pill for guys

This is some hot shit!

British scientists have developed a revolutionary pill that men could take as a one-off contraceptive just before a date.
The tablet would prevent a man from being able to impregnate a woman, but within a few hours his fertility would return to normal.
This would make it much more acceptable to men than other ‘male pills’ under development, which alter hormone levels and have to be taken over the long term.

The hormone-free contraceptive (it actually prevents ejaculation) can be taken a few hours before sex, or every day like women’s birth control pill. Sweet.

This is some hot shit!

British scientists have developed a revolutionary pill that men could take as a one-off contraceptive just before a date.
The tablet would prevent a man from being able to impregnate a woman, ...

Nigerian police raping women as intimidation tactic

Contributed by Jess Wakeman.
Police in Nigeria use rape as a means of intimidation and torture, Amnesty International reported today.
According to the Associated Press, the report outlines cases of “soldiers raping women in front of their husbands and children, detainees being sodomized with broken bottles, and toddlers assaulted after their parents had been arrested,” as well as a 2004 incident where two teenagers were gang raped by three policemen.
And there are few, if any, consequences that befall the perpetrators.

…most rapes are never reported because victims fear the security forces or fear being rejected by their families or communities, Amnesty said. When rapes are reported, “widespread failures throughout the judicial system result in only ...

Contributed by Jess Wakeman.
Police in Nigeria use rape as a means of intimidation and torture, Amnesty International reported today.
According to the Associated Press, the report outlines cases of “soldiers raping women ...

Women’s protection bill in Pakistan will be enforced at all costs.

Well we can hope at least. Women in Pakistan have been working hard to get this bill passed and signed in Congress, so if the government is actually going to support its implementation, that will be a good step.

Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz has said that the women’s rights protection bill will be enforced throughout the country at all costs. Talking to media personnel at the PM’s Secretariat after attending the fourth Altaf Gauhar Memorial Lecture on Monday, the prime minister rejected statements by the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal’s NWFP government about resisting enforcement of the bill in the province.
“The bill is aimed at protecting the rights of women and no one can stop its implementation in all the provinces,” he ...

Well we can hope at least. Women in Pakistan have been working hard to get this bill passed and signed in Congress, so if the government is actually going to support its implementation, that will be ...

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