Category: Women’s Rights

Women from all over San Diego County will rally in front of the US Federal Courthouse in San Diego on Thursday, March 8th, to support women’s rights to contraception on International Women’s Day. The rally will be held from noon to 1pm, and the Courthouse is located at 940 Front Street, in downtown San Diego.

The rally will address a number of recent attacks on a woman’s right to contraception and family planning:

• US Rep. Darrell Issa convenes a hearing about contraception with 5 men on the panel, and no women.

• Presidential Candidate Rick Santorum touts the “dangers” of contraceptives and that sex is “only for purposes of procreation.”

• Foster Friess, main donor to a super PAC for Rick Santorum, suggests women use aspirin as a contraception method.

• Rush Limbaugh, on a national radio show, calls a young woman a slut and prostitute because she speaks out in favor of birth control.

By Kit-Bacon Gressitt / Excuse Me, I’m Writing / March 4, 2012

UPDATE: ProFlowers is suspending its Limbaugh ads (see comments below).

March is National Women’s History Month, and this year’s theme is “Women’s Education — Women’s Empowerment.” It’s a nice mom-and-apple-pie theme. Educating women is relatively noncontroversial in the United States, as long as students don’t expect affirmative action or public funding to get them past race and class access hurdles. And, unlike gals in Afghanistan, U.S. coeds don’t have to dodge acid-tossers on their way to school; they only have to contend with post-adolescents who want to rape them with the aid of ruffies in their Red Bulls.

From Ocean Beach Mainstreet Association / Feb. 21, 2012

The Ocean Beach Woman’s Club has been a “Hub of Activity” in Ocean Beach for eighty-eight years. The majority of the club’s history from 1924 to 1937 has been lost from the official records. The information that we do have comes from historians and newspaper articles of the time. On September 21, 1997 the building sustained major fire damage. Again much of the club’s records and history was lost or damaged by the fire. It is gratifying that the sons and daughters of old time members are finding and presenting the club with memorabilia of the club in years past.

The Ocean Beach Woman’s Club was founded on November 24, 1924, and is one of the oldest civic groups in San Diego. Forty five charter members are listed as having signed the charter. Many of the club’s charter members were married to the Chamber of Commerce men, so the women had long been involved in public affairs. Records indicate that the club was a member of the National Federation of Women’s Clubs prior to 1936. The club was organized with a Constitution, Bylaws, and its first Board of Directors on January 12, 1925.

By Kit-Bacon Gressitt / Excuse Me, I’m Writing / Feb. 19, 2012

I first saw The Vagina Monologues in 1998. One of my sisters bought tickets for the women in the family while I was back east for a visit from California. We trundled off to Manhattan to see playwright Eve Ensler perform her one-woman show at an off-Broadway theater. It was a stunning celebration of things down there, one that stunned my then 70-something mother into silence, which was a first and, perhaps, a function of her Depression era Southern upbringing. The rest of us cheered all the way home. The play was, as the title indicates, a lot of talk about vaginas. Or, more accurately, about vulvas, labia and clitorises, pubic hair and orgasms, and the grand diversity of women and girls who possess them — with varying degrees of familiarity.

Over the past few weeks a seemingly endless parade of dour old pontificating shriveled up white guys have set us straight on contraception, abortion, sex and even the definition of life itself. They have done it at all levels of government, from the pulpits and on the airwaves.

Now that they have fixed the economy, brought back jobs and lowered the deficits, those who have been aptly described as “the best minds of the thirteenth century” can now turn their attention to what they really seem to enjoy—sex talk and lots of it!

By Kit-Bacon Gressitt / Excuse Me, I’m Writing / February 12, 2012

Cardinal-designate Timothy Dolan, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, seems to have been widely misquoted last Friday, after the Obama administration announced a compromise to the campaign-season conflict between religious liberty and women’s contraception coverage under health insurance plans provided by Catholic employers (hospitals, universities and other agencies, but not churches). With the compromise, responsibility for funding contraceptives was shifted to the insurers, and Dolan purportedly said the resolution was, “a first step in the right direction.”

But, oh no, no! What Dolan surely said was that the resolution was “a first step in the right direction — to hell!” and that was made clear when the bishops slammed the compromise later in the day.

Today I received the following letter from the San Diego Branch of the Susan G. Komen For The Cure:

We have a very small office here in San Diego – so that the majority of the money we raised can go right back to the community. Last week’s political firestorm shook each of us to the core. It may also have rocked you. For the first time in my six years here, the integrity of this organization was questioned. Even after we took responsibility for the mistake and moved quickly to fix the problem, some said they would never have anything to do with Komen again.

Okay. I understand that. Everyone needs to make decisions that they can live with and feel good about.

But here’s the truth. While some may leave us, we will never leave you or the uninsured women that we fight for every day here in San Diego.

By Kit-Bacon Gressitt / Excuse Me, I’m Writing / February 7, 2012

The picture is a delightful and humorous celebration of women’s anatomy. It’s been posted all over the ‘net’, including multiple Facebook pages — including mine. But this morning it was gone! And it’s gone from every other Facebook page I know of that had posted it.

Facebook stole the cupcakes!

Yet, countless Facebook pages continue to be littered with content that celebrates rape as humor. If you want to post rape jokes on public Facebook pages, all you have to do is label them as “humor” or “satire“ and you can rap on rape to your heart’s content. Search for “You know she’s playing hard to get when” and you’ll see that Facebook’s policy is

By Kit-Bacon Gressitt / Excuse Me, I’m Writing / February 6, 2012

Last week, a person I admire wrote, “I hate people.” Without missing a beat, I emailed back, “I love that you wrote that.” And that gave me pause. Earlier in the week, I had read a chapter from Maythee Rojas’ Women of Color and Feminism. Rojas wrote about love’s being the fuel of feminist activism, a force for social change. It is through love — of oneself and others — that we build the necessary bridges between the great global diversity of women and their issues, uniting us in action and visionary change. In her book, Rojas made a clarion call for love, but I was feeling hate.

Why This Is Important

Susan G. Komen for the Cure has announced that it will withdraw from partnerships with Planned Parenthood affiliates in response to pressure from anti-abortion activists.

This means Planned Parenthood will no longer receive grants that are vital to its operation, thereby jeopardizing its ability to provide services like birth control, testing for sexually transmitted diseases and cancer screenings.

According to a report by NPR, Planned Parenthood centers performed more than 4 million breast exams over the past five years – including nearly 170,000 as a result of Komen grants.

Susan G. Komen for the Cure is an organization that improves and saves the lives of women. So is Planned Parenthood. It is absolutely vital that they continue to work together.

Please tell Susan G. Komen for the Cure to stop caving under conservative pressures and to continue to protect the health of women everywhere.

How the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation put their corporation-friendly image before women’s actual health concerns.

By Amanda Marcotte / AlterNet / Feb. 1, 2012

It’s probably the fastest-spreading story in Internet history about the relationship between two non-profits. Late Tuesday afternoon, Planned Parenthood and Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure announced that Komen would be withdrawing grants given to Planned Parenthood for breast cancer screenings. Despite Komen’s lame attempts to claim otherwise, it was widely understood that this was about Komen aligning itself with the anti-choice movement, despite the anti-choice movement’s long history of opposing not just safe and legal abortion, but also access to contraception and even the prevention of cervical cancer through the use of the HPV vaccine.

Who has made MAN the guardian of women’s rights? Who has sanctioned other women telling other females that they are wrong because they want to have an abortion. Did you hear a candidate for President of the United States of America say, when it involves a woman pregnant from a rape, “Make The Best Out Of A Bad Situation”. Yes, that is what candidate Rick Santorum said when he commented on his opposition to abortion.

A woman’s body is her own. It does not belong to anyone else except that woman. No one should be able to tell a woman what to do with her body. Not her family; not her husband; not her significant other; not her religion. What she decides to do with it should be between her and her doctor. No one else.