Posts Written by

By boyermelanie • 11 years ago

Sign it.

“If you wouldn’t have been there that night, none of this would have happened to you.”

The words of Judge Jacqueline Hatch to a woman who was groped by a police officer in a bar. The same judge also said that women shouldn’t go to the grocery store after 10 p.m. Too dangerous.

The condescension continued:

“I hope you look at what you’ve been through and try to take something positive out of it,” Hatch said to the victim in court. “You learned a lesson about friendship and you learned a lesson about vulnerability.”

We could go on for many megabytes about the injustice.  Let’s just get rid of her. Sign the petition like your life depended on it. Because it might.
By boyermelanie • 13 years ago

Gag the Gag

Well done, everyone! The Feministing community helped generate more than 700 letters to Congress in response to our call to action about the Global Gag Rule, and now, the GGR just may be on its way to a fortunate end.

Yesterday, the Senate Appropriations committee passed a bill that would permanently overturn the global gag rule. We’re not all the way there; the bill now has to hit the Senate floor for approval, but we’re closer than we’ve been in a long time.

To be clear, the bill doesn’t completely quash the gag rule, but it changes the rules of the game enough that we could breathe a little easier. The bill would make reinstating the Global Gag Rule the responsibility of ...

Well done, everyone! The Feministing community helped generate more than 700 letters to Congress in response to our call to action about the Global Gag Rule, and now, the GGR just may be on its way to ...
By boyermelanie • 13 years ago

Bad Romance: Why is the Obama Administration Still Funding Abstinence-Only Education?

By Mary Beth Hastings, vice president, Center for Health and Gender Equity (CHANGE)

Dearest Obama administration, we need to talk. I know you say you want to change, Obama administration, but please show me. No more sweet talk that you don’t really mean. You say you’re not like that administration that hurt so many in the past, but can I believe you?

Here we are together in romantic Vienna at the International AIDS Conference, and though everything seems new and special, I’m afraid things haven’t really changed.

Yes, Obama administration, you sound really good when you say things about “provid[ing]100 percent of youth in PEPFAR prevention programs with comprehensive and correct knowledge of the ways to protect themselves” and about promoting ...

By Mary Beth Hastings, vice president, Center for Health and Gender Equity (CHANGE)

Dearest Obama administration, we need to talk. I know you say you want to change, Obama administration, but please show me. No more ...
By boyermelanie • 13 years ago

No, Honey, I’ll Wear the Condom Tonight

By Kristen Yoh, Center for Health and Gender Equity (CHANGE)

Think fast: What is the first word that comes to mind when you hear the word ‘condom’? Sex. Penis. Disease. Awkward. Complicated. Fun. These are a few answers I heard after posing that same question to a group of mostly young, female interns at the 2010 Summer Intern Training Series on Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) and HIV/AIDS in Washington, D.C. As the law and policy intern at the Center for Health and Gender Equity (CHANGE), I helped kick off the series last week with a session on female and male condoms. Over lunch, we discussed the social and political context surrounding condoms and explored possible solutions ...

By Kristen Yoh, Center for Health and Gender Equity (CHANGE)

Think fast: What is the first word that comes to mind when you hear the word ‘condom’? Sex. Penis. Disease. Awkward. Complicated. Fun. These are a ...
By boyermelanie • 13 years ago

Overheard at Women Deliver: The Need for Comprehensive Reproductive Health Care and Female Condoms

By Annie Fedorowicz, Center for Health and Gender Equity (CHANGE)

“Reducing maternal mortality”, “investing in women and girls”, “collaboration of AIDS, maternal and child health (MCH) and sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) advocates”–these were all empowering statements echoing through the Washington, D.C., Convention Center during the Women Deliver 2010 Conference. More than 3,000 advocates from around the globe migrated to Washington to declare their dedication to fulfilling Millennium Development Goal 5 (MDG5), reducing maternal mortality by three quarters by 2015.

I tabled with the Center for Health and Gender Equity (CHANGE) for most of the three-day conference. The Expo Hall was lively; filled with people in colorful clothing from around the world. CHANGE had two campaigns they ...

By Annie Fedorowicz, Center for Health and Gender Equity (CHANGE)

“Reducing maternal mortality”, “investing in women and girls”, “collaboration of AIDS, maternal and child health (MCH) and sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) advocates”–these were ...
By boyermelanie • 13 years ago

It’s Global Gag Rule Week

Everyone raise your mighty pens–er, flex your keyboard fingers–it’s Global Gag Rule Week of Action. Here’s the rundown:

The Global Gag Rule: A policy that restricts international organizations receiving U.S. funding from using their own, non-U.S. funding, to provide legal abortion services, advice on where to get an abortion, or to educate the government on the need to make safe abortion available.

Right now: President Obama repealed the Global Gag Rule in January 2009, BUT–

The Policy Problem: The power to repeal or reinstate the Global Gag Rule is left solely in the hands of the president, without congressional oversight. As a result, it’s a game of political football–President Reagan introduced the Global Gag Rule in 1985, President Clinton repealed it in 1993, President ...

Everyone raise your mighty pens–er, flex your keyboard fingers–it’s Global Gag Rule Week of Action. Here’s the rundown:

The Global Gag Rule: A policy that restricts international organizations receiving U.S. funding from using their own, non-U.S. funding, to provide ...
By boyermelanie • 14 years ago

Sexual Rights?

Dear fellow feminists,

At the Center for Health and Gender Equity (CHANGE), we were recently posed a good question–What are sexual rights? What is the difference between sexual rights and reproductive rights? Aren’t they the same?  

It’s a critical and controversial question when you’re talking about reproductive freedom and basic human rights. We’d like to pose the question to you and get your input–

How do you define sexual rights?

How do sexual rights differ from reproductive rights?

What might sexual rights mean to women in the developing world vs. in the U.S.?

Please comment far and wide–your input informs our work. 

Dear fellow feminists,

At the Center for Health and Gender Equity (CHANGE), we were recently posed a good question–What are sexual rights? What is the difference between sexual rights and reproductive rights? Aren’t they the same?  

It’s ...