Category: Women’s Rights

A new young couple moved into our neighborhood in south Ocean Beach two years ago and over that time I have had conversations with them. I worked with Heather and taught her to make jam; I called on Mark to help with a few heavy things that needed to be done around the house; I fed their dog treats when Buddy and I take walks together.

So, I was thrilled when she called me and asked if I would like to go the “Women for Filner” fundraiser at the University Club on Wednesday, October 17th. Although there was a $100 donation, (which I could not make) I am not sure how Heather worked it so that I could attend, but attend I did, and had a great evening.

The power in that room was overwhelming. So many of the “big guns (gunnettes?) of the San Diego female world were in attendance

Report from Meeting on Monday Night – October 8th – at Tower Two

By Celeste
Around 30 or so people crowded in the Tower Two Café on Monday’s meeting on creating the OB Citizens Patrol. Tim Nolan, owner of the cafe, had recommended that people who sign up for patrols carry a flashlight. He also suggested having a siren to scare people away. He reinstated several times that the patrol is set up to PREVENT not to PROVOKE and anyone “misbehaving” would be asked to leave the patrol group.

He also suggested that the patrols take place on Friday and Saturday nights in two 3 hours shifts. The first shift would begin at 9pm-midnight, and then midnight-3 am. He would like to have 3 or more people in a patrol group, patrolling a 2 block square (depending on how many people show up). The area that would be patrolled would be Newport Ave to West Point Loma Blvd, and Cable Street to the beaches.

By Kit-Bacon Gressitt / Excuse Me, I’m Writing

It is a no-brainer to predict that the anti-human trafficking ballot initiative in California, Proposition 35, will pass by a landslide in November. The measure’s increased prison sentences and fines for labor and sex traffickers are popular responses to crime.

Even Maxine Doogan, spokesperson for the measure’s primary opposition, said Prop 35 is going to pass: “Everyone is against human trafficking. Of course we need to throw the book at human traffickers.”

But Doogan, the founder of Erotic Service Provider Legal, Educational and Research Project, a sex worker advocacy group, is not at all pleased with the measure’s inevitable success.

Neither are civil libertarians, if the ACLU’s opposition is any indication.

There was barely a seat available at last night’s meeting called by the OB Woman’s Club to discuss the recent sexual assaults in Ocean Beach. Nearly 50 people – over a quarter of them men – crowded into the building at the corner of Muir and Bacon – just yards from a violent sexual assault that took place during the wee hours of August 25th.

Becky Sorensen, vice-president of the club, opened the meeting and welcomed everyone. The meeting had been set up out of frustrations, apparently, at the weak response women had received when they brought up their concerns about the assaults and peeping tom at the OB Town Council meeting recently. A number of individuals approached the leadership of the Woman’s Club that night out in front of the Masonic Hall after the Town Council and asked if a meeting could be held there. Becky and Celeste McClure jumped into the task and printed up a flier and began distributing them around town.

Members of the OB Woman’s Club have created a Facebook group called OB Crime Watch to help create awareness about what’s been going on in the community lately.

They are also hosting a meeting at their club Wednesday October 3 at 7pm.

Brother Posts Wanted Posters About Ocean Beach

By Chris Dotson and Frank Gormlie

The brother of the most recent sexual assault victim in Ocean Beach has posted a $5,000 reward. John Wilson is offering this for any information leading to the arrest or conviction of the assailant of his sister August 25th on the 5000 block of Muir Avenue.

A second sexual assault was reported in Ocean Beach late Saturday night, the 25th of August. This makes the second such assault within ten days in OB – not a very proud mark for the community. This one was called an “attempted assault” but an attempted assault is still an assault, according to the legal dictionary.

The latest assault occurred on the 5000 block of Muir Avenue at about 2:10 a.m. Saturday night. The victim told police she was walking home alone from an early-morning party. According to the report, the man was somehow spooked during the attempt, and took off. The woman was taken to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries.

The victim of the grope attack in Robb Field has now given her description of the assailant to police, and a drawing of the suspect is now public.

In addition, Crime Stoppers has an offering of up to a $1,000 reward for information leading to an arrest in the case.

San Diego police are still looking for thea man who twice rode by a jogger along the San Diego River bike path on August 15th in the morning and groped her.

There are no new updates, according to police, on the OB jogger groped repeatedly by a bicyclist on Wednesday, August 15th.

About 11:30 in the morning, a woman was jogging along the bike path next to the San Diego River in Robb Field, when a man riding a bicycle rode up behind her and grabbed her buttocks. She looked at him and then tried to run away, but he came up to her and grabbed her again twice, before riding off.

San Diego has played an important role in American aviation history. Indeed, some of the earliest attempts at controlled flight have occurring here.

While most historians recognize the pioneering work of Montgomery, Curtis, Ryan, and Lindbergh, most ignored the role women played in San Diego’s aviation history.

Alex Bevil – the California State Parks Historian – will focus on the untold story of San Diego’s female aviators within the broader context of the history of women’s aviation.

The fight for Women’s Reproductive Freedom has been going on in every country around the world. Jane Cawthorne has been a long-time advocate for women’s rights in Canada. She is the writer of the play “The Abortion Monologues”. The play, according to Vicki Saporta, President and CEO of the National Abortion Federation,“…gives a voice to the perspectives of real women who are all too often missing from the public debate. These powerful monologues have the potential to change the way people talk about abortion.”

In the following article, Jane asks us to take a moment to appreciate what our work can accomplish.

By Jane Cawthorne

Calgary, Alberta – These days with women’s reproductive rights under constant attack, especially in the United States, it’s sometimes hard to remember our true goals are in the reproductive justice movement. While we are busy trying to explain what’s wrong with legislating mandatory transvaginal ultrasounds for women seeking abortions, or explaining why it’s unacceptable and unethical for doctors to be forced to lie to women about their pregnancies so they won’t consider abortion, or fighting to make sure women facing poverty can access contraception, we might need a reminder of what winning really looks like when it comes to reproductive rights.

For the remainder of this article, please go to San Diego Free Press

By Kit-Bacon Gressitt / Excuse Me, I’m Writing / July 1, 2012

Warning for the faint of heart: Adult language ahead.

We were a small group, three women and three men, assembled at a coffeehouse last week to talk about a business venture. We were mostly strangers to each other, but for the meeting’s host. Still, the inevitable quests to establish credibility were civil and benign.