Abortion Doctor Murdered in Kansas

Dr. George Tiller, of Wichita, Kansas, was shot and killed at his church this morning. Dr. Tiller was one of the few remaining late term abortion providers in the country.

The 'sanctity of life' crowd have been terrorizing Dr. Tiller for a very long time. His clinic was bombed in 1986. He was shot in both arms in 1993. They finally succeeded. Operation Rescue issued the obligatory statement about deploring the violence, but some of us have memories.

And:

On its Web site, Operation Rescue refers to Tiller as a "monster" who has "been able to get away with murder." And Operation Rescue founder Randall Terry, who is no longer affiliated with the group, called Tiller "a mass murderer."

"We grieve for him that he did not have time to properly prepare his soul to face God," Terry said in a written statement.

Update: Police have a suspect in custody.

O'Reilly On "Tiller the Killer"

Feminist Politics Gender News Abortion Reproductive Rights Kansas Kathleen Sebelius O'Reilly

Boy Dancers Defeat Susan Boyle in Britain’s Got Talent Final (Video)

Susan Boyle was the favorite to win the Britain's Got Talent contest, but she didn't. A dance group comprised of 3 sets of brothers took first place. See Susan's stunning final performance of "I Dreamed A Dream" in the video clip below.


Feminist Politics Gender News Susan Boyle

About Sonia Sotomayor's Temper

Quote of the Day

“Some lawyers just don’t like to be questioned by a woman.”

-- Judge Guido Calabresi,
former dean of Yale Law School,
sits on the Second Circuit with Judge Sotomayor

Judge Calabresi was defending Sonia Sotomayor from the charge that she is a "temperamental" shrew or a woman with a "sharp tongue." In an article in the New York Times, Judge Calabresi added that the charge that Sonia Sotomayor is too aggressive to sit on the bench with the boy judges is "sexist, plain and simple."

The Times tells us that some lawyers who have appeared before Judge Sotomayor call her a “terror on the bench” who “behaves in an out-of-control manner.”

The boy lawyers say the woman is "difficult," "temperamental," and "nasty."

The article goes on to cite a long list of witnesses to Judge Sotomayor's entirely professional demeanor, including lawyers, judges, law professor Laurence H. Tribe, himself, and the White House vetting team. All disagree with the suggestion that Sonia Sotomayor is a temperamental shrew who is too aggressive to sit on the High Court (with the famously testy Antonio Scalia).

So did the liberal New York Times headline the story, "Sexist Lawyers Attack Judge Sotomayor"?

Why no. The sexists at the New York Times put this headline on the story: "Sotomayor’s Sharp Tongue Raises Issue of Temperament." (!)

Update: Some sharp-tongued women let The Times have an earful. There's a new headline. But Google never forgets.

Feminist Politics Gender News Supreme Court Sexist Liberal Media Bias New York Times Sotomayor

The Bigots at NOM Have a New Anti Gay Marriage Ad (Video)

The bigots at the National Organization for (Hetero) Marriage (NOM) have a new thoroughly bigoted and stupid ad. This one's aimed at New York. And it seems like only yesterday when NOM spent all its time attacking single moms.


New York Gay Marriage Politics Gender News Homophobia Same Sex Marriage Heterosexism

NARAL Uneasy About Sotomayor

The mystery continues. Is the Democratic president's Supreme Court nominee pro choice? Or is the Democratic president's Supreme Court nominee pro life?

We should NOT have to ask this question!

The New York Times has a story about Sotomayor's mysterious position on abortion rights. NARAL is also worried and has belatedly joined the Center for Reproductive Rights in expressing this worry to members. Yeah, NARAL is the same organization that betrayed the woman who spent a lifetime working for women's reproductive rights because it was just so much more fun to endorse the cool dude. The same organization that was the very first (even before Ms.) to tell us that Obama is what a feminist looks like is now worried that Obama's pick for the High Court might not be pro choice.

NARAL deserves this. The women of America don't!

Not knowing Sotomayor's position on reproductive rights is a political advantage for Obama. But for women, there is nothing advantageous about not knowing. Apparently, the civil rights of women are at the bottom of Obama's list of priorities, down there next to the civil rights of gays. No one knows Sotomayor's position on gay rights either. (Meanwhile your favorite feminist cheerleading organization is not worried -- NOW 'cheers' Obama's choice)

New York Times -- [S]ome abortion rights advocates are quietly expressing unease that Judge Sotomayor may not be a reliable vote to uphold Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 abortion rights decision. In a letter, Nancy Keenan, president of Naral Pro-Choice America, urged supporters to press senators to demand that Judge Sotomayor reveal her views on privacy rights before any confirmation vote. “Discussion about Roe v. Wade will — and must — be part of this nomination process,” Ms. Keenan wrote. “As you know, choice hangs in the balance on the Supreme Court as the last two major choice-related cases were decided by a 5-to-4 margin.” .

. . [I]n his briefing to reporters on Tuesday, the White House spokesman, Robert Gibbs, was asked whether Mr. Obama had asked Judge Sotomayor about abortion or privacy rights. Mr. Gibbs replied that Mr. Obama “did not ask that specifically.”

As president, Mr. Obama has sought to avoid being drawn into the culture wars of the last several decades and has encouraged each side in the abortion debate to be respectful of the other’s opinions. But there are clear political advantages to his choice for the court not being perceived as having a strong position on abortion rights.

Judge Sotomayor’s views on abortion rights could still become clear if a past writing comes to light. During Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr.’s confirmation process in late 2005, for example, the National Archives released an old Justice Department job application in which he said the Constitution does not protect a right to an abortion. But at this point, Judge Sotomayor’s views are as unknown as Justice Souter’s were in 1990, said Steven Waldman, the editor in chief of BeliefNet.com, a religious Web site, where he has blogged about her lack of an abortion rights record. . .

TGW: Is Sotomayor Even Pro Choice? Pro Gay Rights? Does Obama Even Know?

Roe v. Wade Feminist Politics Gender News Supreme Court Gay Rights Sotomayor Abortion Pro Choice Reproductive Rights

Obama Faces Gay Protesters At Beverly Hills Fundraiser (Video)

Obama's DNC Fundraiser -- Inside the Beverly Hilton:

The enthusiasm inside the Beverly Hilton was palpable -- the president was greeted with repeated ovations -- and the payoff was handsome: between $3 million and $4 million in contributions to the Democratic National Committee.

But Obama notably sidestepped two of the biggest issues facing California: He said nothing about the state's disastrous financial condition or the issue of same-sex marriage, which heated up Tuesday when the state Supreme Court upheld Proposition 8, a measure banning the practice.

Outside the hotel, about 200 demonstrators chanted and carried flags and protest signs, many urging Obama to take a stronger stand in favor of gay rights.

Outside the Beverly Hilton:

Chanting and carrying flags, gay rights advocates called on President Obama tonight to more aggressively pursue equal rights for all Americans as they demonstrated outside the Beverly Hilton Hotel, where the president was attending a fundraiser.

Although organizers called the event a “welcome” for Obama, many in the crowd of 200 expressed anger that the president has not moved to repeal the federal defense of marriage act and the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy toward gay service members.

During the protest, the crowd chanted, “Out of the court, into the streets, we are ready to fight, we won’t be beat.” It was a reference to Tuesday’s state Supreme Court decision to uphold Proposition 8, which bans same-sex marriage.

And in the video clip below, First Lieutenant Dan Choi -- Arabic linguist, West Point graduate, and combat veteran of the Iraq War, who was fired from the military because he came out of the closet on the Rachel Maddow show -- speaks to the crowd at the protest outside Obama's Beverly Hills DNC Fundraiser. . . Dan Choi said: "A message to President Obama: Repeal Don't Ask, Don't Tell! Stop forcing our soldiers to lie! "


Photo via AlekandSteph
Code Pink was there too.

Gay Marriage Politics Gender News California DADT Obama

Gay Protesters Target Obama At DNC Fundraiser In California Tonight

And so it begins. The honeymoon is over. President Barack Obama, aka Fierce Advocate, will face angry gay protesters tonight as he drops in to raise a little money from Beverly Hills in the bankrupt state of Proposition 8.

And Lt. Dan Choi -- the Arabic linguist who is being fired from the military for the crime of being gay -- will be there.

Look to Rachel Maddow for coverage on tonight's show. [Sorry, I forgot the time difference.] She's got the fairest and most coverage of LGBT issues of all the cable news shows.

From Courage Campaign Events:

Let's take this opportunity, just one day after the CA Supreme Court makes its decision on Proposition 8, to show our President our support for his daring promise to our community and to highlight the growing movement towards FULL FEDERAL EQUALITY. Join us at a rally at 6PM in front of the Beverly Hilton on Wednesday, May 27th.

At 7PM we will be joined by Lt. Dan Choi and other LGBT servicemen & women in opposition to Don't Ask Don't Tell. They will ask for response from President Obama to the letter signed by 136,000 people asking the president not to fire Lt. Choi by ending DADT.

via Towleroad

Gay Marriage Politics Gender News California DADT Obama

Is Sotomayor Even Pro Choice? Pro Gay Rights? Does Obama Even Know?

Does President Obama know if Sonia Sotomayor is pro choice? Does the fierce advocate know where his Supreme Court Justice nominee stands on gay rights or same-sex marriage?

No one else appears to know. Like a lot of folks, I've been googling Sotomayor since yesterday. There's not a lot out there and what is out there is not reassuring. Given how little thought Obama gives to his base, or to bedrock lefty issues like choice and gay rights, we should all be worried.

Clearly hard questions need to be asked by the left. Senate Democrats must be pressured to be more than a rubber stamp for Obama and to ascertain that a Justice Sotomayor will come down on the side of abortion rights and LGBT rights.

But you will be happy to know that the National Organization for Women is not asking any questions, but rather "cheers" Obama's choice. There are a plenty of things to like about Sotomayor, but a feminist organization like NOW should show a little caution and ask some hard questions before fully embracing the nominee. Or NOW could simply trust the fierce advocate. What NOW does best these days is serve as sweetly feminine cheerleaders for Democrats. Scroll down for a message from the Center for Reproductive Rights contrasted with what is, in my view, an utterly nauseating message from your sweetly feminine National Organization Cheerleaders for Women Democrats.

Fortunately, there are other women's organizations:

For over three decades, the topic that matters the most during a Senate confirmation hearing for an aspiring member of the U.S. Supreme Court has remained the same: abortion. . .

[T[he Center for Reproductive Rights signaled some concern on Tuesday, saying that it wants the Senate Judiciary committee to verify Sotomayor's "commitment to the principles of Roe v. Wade." An e-mail message from the group asks supporters to lobby Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy to require "full disclosure."

. . Steve Waldman of Beliefnet.com suggests that the nominee is "an abortion centrist." And some Catholic pro-life bloggers are saying :"We've dodged a bullet. It could have been much worse..."

. . Assuming Sotomayor can gracefully decline to answer questions about abortion rights (and related penumbras and emanations) during her Senate confirmation hearings, Roe v. Wade won't trip up her expected confirmation.

From the Center for Reproductive Rights:

“It is critical that any new Justice empathize with the true plight of women to not only recognize when those protections are being violated, but to take steps to safeguard them. We encourage the Senate Judiciary Committee to engage Judge Sotomayor and any future nominees to the Court on their commitment to the principles of Roe v. Wade. Anything less threatens not only a woman’s constitutional rights, but her life and health.”

And here's your feminist (sic) message from the alleged National Organization for Women (NOW):

"This morning we will celebrate, and this afternoon NOW will launch our "Confirm Her" campaign to ensure the swift confirmation of the next Supreme Court Justice. . What more do women want? We want a swift confirmation in the U.S. Senate, and Associate Justice Sotomayor to join Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the Court before the Senate's August recess."

Update: Dr. Violet Socks has an important post about NOW's upcoming election.

Feminist Politics Gender News Supreme Court Sotomayor Abortion Pro Choice Gay Marriage

Prop 8: Sen. Barbara Boxer Reacts to Ban on Gay Marriage (Video)

"The really awful truth is that - that's really telling all the other people that they can't get married when 18,000 couples did - that sets up a terrible mess and a nightmare. We're going to have to go back to the ballot and, I believe, say to the people of California: 'Listen, whatever your feelings on this, you can't have separate rules, ipso facto, that's separate, but equal and it's not right.'... So it's a tough, tough decision and I'm very disappointed."

"This time I hope that people of good will will come together across party lines across the state and say in our state everyone must be treated equally. And I think that is something I'm going to work on very hard, Rachel."

Rachel Maddow Prop 8 Same Sex Gay Marriage Politics Gender News California Supreme Court Obama

Prop 8: Angry Protesters in San Francisco, 175 Arrested (Video)

San Francisco police line up and surround same-sex marriage protesters who blocked U.S. 101 in downtown San Francisco on Tuesday following news that the state Supreme Court upheld a voter-approved ban. Sirens wailed as news helicopters beat the air above City Hall in San Francisco on Tuesday.

SF: UPDATE: POLICE ARREST 175 PROTESTERS, INTERSECTION CLEARED FOR RUSH HOUR

Mayor Gavin Newsom promised to work to overturn Prop. 8, and in a statement urged every Californian to "please talk to a lesbian or gay family member, neighbor or co-worker and ask them why equality in the eyes of the law is important to every Californian."



Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger issued a statement saying that while he believed "one day either the people or courts will recognize gay marriage," as governor he has to uphold the court's decision.


BBC Video of Protesters Yelling 'Shame on You' to the Court

Video: CNN Newsroom - Battle Over Gay Rights

Gay Marriage Politics Gender News California Supreme Court Obama

White House Response to California's Prop 8 Decision (Video)

It's not pretty.


Gay Marriage Politics Gender News California Supreme Court Obama

Gay Marriage Banned In California, Says Cowardly CA Supreme Court

The California Supreme Court has ruled and shamefully upheld Proposition 8. Same-sex marriage remains banned in California -- except for those who got married while it was briefly legal. Their marriages stand, says the cowardly court.

Maybe Californians should move to Iowa where there is something called freedom. But the LGBT community and allies are NOT going to go away quietly.

Find a protest near you at Day of Decision. Unless you are in California, where you only need to look out the window!


Gay Marriage Politics Gender News California Supreme Court Same Sex

Sotomayor, Feminist

Another thing in Sonia Sotomayor's favor is the number of her rulings that have been overturned by the current rabidly right-wing Supreme Court. And she quotes Martha Minnow, I used to read Minnow back when I was studying feminist legal theory.

There's this:

• At a 2001 U.C. Berkeley symposium marking the 40th anniversary of the first Latino named to the federal district court, Sotomayor said that the gender and ethnicity of judges does and should affect their judicial decision-making. From her speech:

"I wonder whether by ignoring our differences as women or men of color we do a disservice both to the law and society....

"I further accept that our experiences as women and people of color affect our decisions. The aspiration to impartiality is just that - it's an aspiration because it denies the fact that we are by our experiences making different choices than others....

"Our gender and national origins may and will make a difference in our judging. Justice O'Connor has often been cited as saying that a wise old man and wise old woman will reach the same conclusion in deciding cases. I am also not so sure that I agree with the statement. First, as Professor [Martha] Minnow has noted, there can never be a universal definition of wise. Second, I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experience would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn't lived that life." [U.C. Berkeley School of Law, 10/26/2001]

Feminist Politics Gender News Supreme Court Sotomayor Equal Representation

Obama Picks Sonia Sotomayor - Look Out Scalia (Video)

And Obama nominates Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court today! Sotomayor will be the first Hispanic and the third woman in history to serve on the High Court.

Sotomayor is said to be a centrist, but the Family Research Council has hated her for years.

Sotomayor is said to have a fiery temper. Good. Maybe she'll use it on Scalia.

Sotomayor is said to be nobody's shrinking violet. So of course the misogynists were after her as soon as her name surfaced -- "She has an inflated opinion of herself, and is domineering."

A domineering (code for anything less than sweetly submissive) woman on the Supreme Court. Move over Antonio!

Bush I first elevated Sotomayor to the bench. Ahem, that's the same guy who put our liberal darling Justice Souter on the Court. Like they say in the ridiculous extendz commercials, this could be fun.

Sonia Sotomayor is said to be a judicial activist (code for liberal). Here's the video of Sotomayor that's going around, in which the woman states the obvious -- courts make policy/law -- and sends delusional conservatives into fiery temper tantrums. I like her already!

Sonia Sotomayor: Courts Make Policy

Feminist Politics Gender News Supreme Court Sotomayor Equal Representation

Obama's SCOTUS Short List Narrows to 4 Women - Expect No Crusading Liberals

The New York Times tells us to expect no crusading liberals:

It has been more than 40 years since a Democratic president appointed someone who truly excited the left, but Mr. Obama appears to be following President Bill Clinton’s lead in choosing someone with more moderate sensibilities.

I don't expect a crusading liberal, but I do expect a woman. Reportedly, the short list has narrowed to these four women: Sonia Sotomayor of New York, Diane P. Wood of Chicago, Solicitor General Elena Kagan and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano. All of the women are said to be liberal. Diane Wood appears to be the most liberal and she's from Chicago, a city that Obama greatly favors. Obama knows Wood from his time at the U. of Chicago. Reportedly, of all the women on the list, Obama has the strongest relationship with Diane P. Wood.

And so it goes. Republicans appoint crusading conservatives like the sexist and homophobic blowhard Antonio Scalia. Democrats appoint moderates. But at least we will get a woman. Three women appointed to the Supreme Court in 232 years! It will be a record worthy of boasting about in the Middle East.

Pamela S. Karlan is a champion of gay rights, criminal defendants’ rights and voting rights. She is considered brilliant, outspoken and, in her own words, “sort of snarky.” To liberal supporters, she is an Antonin Scalia for the left.

But Ms. Karlan does not expect President Obama to appoint her to succeed Justice David H. Souter, who is retiring. “Would I like to be on the Supreme Court?” she asked in graduation remarks a couple of weeks ago at Stanford Law School, where she teaches. “You bet I would. But not enough to have trimmed my sails for half a lifetime.”

Obviously, Obama is a very big fan of 'trimmed sails.'

Feminist Politics Gender News Supreme Court Diane Wood Equal Representation

Sens. Boxer & Snowe to Obama: Put A Woman on the Supreme Court (Video)

Obama is expected to announce his Supreme Court pick this week, and it may come as early as Tuesday. While I am certain that he will choose a woman, there are plenty of naysayers. Thank the goddess for Barbara Boxer. After all the sickening reports of sweetly feminine spineless women telling Obama that he doesn't have to appoint a woman to the Supreme Court, Barbara Boxer is a sorely needed feminist voice in the wilderness. In the video clip below, Senator Boxer points out that American women are "grossly under-represented." If this is a democracy, that matters. If this is a country that even pretends to be a democracy, President Obama will appoint a woman.

Sens. Boxer (D-CA) and Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) wrote a letter to Obama urging him to appoint a woman and reminding him that: Women make up 51% of our nation's population. Yet only 17% of the seats in Congress are held by women. Only 3% of corporate CEOs are women. And just one out of nine Supreme Court justices is a woman. When 96 percent of all Supreme Court Justices throughout our history have been men, clearly it is evident that we need another woman on the Court. When asked recently how it felt to be the only woman on the Supreme Court, Justice Ginsburg simply replied, "Lonely."

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Feminist Politics Gender News Supreme Court Ruth Bader Ginsburg Equal Representation

Gender & The Canadian Supreme Court vs. The U.S. Supreme Court

Yeah, four women and five men. That's more women on the current Canadian Supreme Court than have been on the U.S. Supreme Court in the entire history of this male-dominated country. The Chief Justice of the Canadian court is a woman. That's her in the center of the front row: The Honourable Beverley McLachlin, Chief Justice of Canada. Maybe in another five hundred years or so, the U.S. will have a woman as Chief Justice.

Meanwhile, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg sits as the token woman on the U.S. High Court. Reportedly, Obama will announce his choice for the next Supreme Court Justice next week, probably on Tuesday. Surely no one can seriously doubt that sheer embarrassment about the deeply cowboy nature of this country, or the pathetic photo below, is so great that Obama is forced to choose a woman. We hope she will be sufficiently liberal, but mostly we hope she will be the deadly serious feminist that this country sorely needs.


"As often as Justice O'Connor and I have disagreed, because she is truly a Republican from Arizona, we were together in all the gender discrimination cases."

--Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg

"I don't know how many meetings I attended in the '60s and the '70s, where I would say something, and I thought it was a pretty good idea. ... Then somebody else would say exactly what I said. Then people would become alert to it, respond to it. It can happen even in the conferences in the [Supreme]Court. When I will say something—and I don't think I'm a confused speaker—and it isn't until somebody else says it that everyone will focus on the point."

-- Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg,
Lone woman on the U.S. Supreme Court

Feminist Politics Gender News Misogyny Ruth Bader Ginsburg Equal Representation

Pelosi Galore: Cheap Thrills From the RNC Boyz (Video)

I tried to post this video earlier, but it appeared that the RNC had taken it down. It's back. This is the RNC ad that posits Speaker Pelosi as "Pussy Galore," a character from an old (1964) sexist James Bond movie, just the kind of wet-dream movie the GOP boyz get off on, I'm sure. Naked women and guns, what else does a GOP recruiter need? You can briefly see the tantalizingly nude P. Galore at .40. Remarkably, the boyz leave Pelosi's clothes on while centering her image as the target of a cutesy spy gun. Whose hearts and minds do the GOP boyz hope to win with this one? Twenty-one percent of Americans identified as Republican before this classless grade-school masterpiece was released. Don't tell me this party's not dying.


Politico -- [W]hen you see Nancy Pelosi, the Republican National Committee wants you to think “Pussy Galore.” At least that’s the takeaway from a video released by the committee this week – a video that puts Pelosi side-by-side with the aforementioned villainess from the 1964 James Bond film “Goldfinger.”

The RNC video, which begins with the speaker’s head in the iconic spy-series gun sight, implies that Pelosi has used her feminine wiles to dodge the truth about whether or not she was briefed by the CIA on the use of waterboarding in 2002. While the P-word is never mentioned directly, in one section the speaker appears in a split screen alongside the Bond nemesis – and the video’s tagline is “Democrats Galore.”

Previously -- TGW: Sexist Rightwingers Attack Pelosi (Video)

Feminist Politics Gender News Misogyny Speaker Pelosi

Sexist Rightwingers Attack Pelosi (Video)

And see: Pussy Galore? -- Earlier this week, Pittsburgh radio host Jim Quinn referred to the speaker on his program as “this bitch”; last week, syndicated radio host Neal Boortz opined “how fun it is to watch that hag out there twisting in the wind.”

There has also been a steady stream of taunts about the speaker’s appearance, and whether it’s been surgically enhanced. On CNN’s “State of the Union,” Republican strategist Alex Castellanos said, “I think if Speaker Pelosi were still capable of human facial expression, we’d see she’d be embarrassed.”

Feminist Politics Gender News Misogyny Speaker Pelosi

Enforcing Gender: Woman Fired for Refusing to Wear Make-Up

Shenoa Vild was fired from her job as a waitress for refusing to plaster her face with make-up. Don't tell Tennessee lawmakers. They'll pass a law requiring all women to act like ladies and cover our faces with Maybelline. Oh well, it's not a veil. Or is it?

“I always thought I looked silly wearing makeup . . And I don't think I need it,” said the California woman.

Read about it at Feminist Law Professors.


Feminist Politics Gender Ladies First Free to Be You And Me News

Prop 8: California Supreme Court to Rule Tuesday on Same-Sex Marriage

The California Supreme Court will rule Tuesday on Proposition 8. The decision will be posted on the court's website by 10am. A virtual tsunami of marches and rallies are already scheduled. Let's hope they are happy and celebratory rallies rather than justifiably angry and outraged protests.

Gay Marriage Politics Gender News California Supreme Court

ACLU Threatens to Sue CA School for Censoring 6th Grader's Report on Harvey Milk

Well, once again we discover that all the idiots are not in Tennessee. There are idiots in California too! When a 6th grade student did a report on the legendary Harvey Milk, the actual principal of the actual school thought the student was doing a report on sex! Here's some news for you Principal Theresa Grace, if reports about gay people are reports about sex, then reports about straight people are reports about sex too. Duh. How did Theresa Grace ever get out of high school?

SAN FRANCISCO -- The American Civil Liberties Union on Wednesday threatened to sue a San Diego County school that refused to let a student present a report on slain gay rights leader Harvey Milk until her classmates got their parents' permission to hear it. David Blair-Loy, legal director of the ACLU of San Diego County, said the principal of Mt. Woodson Elementary School in Ramona violated the free speech rights of 6th-grader Natalie Jones, who was the only student in her class prevented from giving an in-class presentation.

Principal Theresa Grace concluded last month that the subject of the girl's project triggered a district policy requiring parents to be notified in writing before their children are exposed to lessons dealing with sex, according to Blair-Loy and Natalie's mother. After the principal sent letters to alert parents about the "sensitive topic," Natalie was allowed to give her 12-page PowerPoint report during the May 8 lunch recess, but not in class, Blair-Loy said. Eight of the 13 students in her class attended, he said.

In a letter to the Ramona Unified District on Wednesday, the ACLU demanded that school officials apologize to Natalie and clarify its sex education policy. It also wants the girl to be given the chance to present her biographical account of Milk's life and death in class. "It's not about sex, it's not about sex education. It's a presentation about a historical figure who happened to be gay," Blair-Loy said. . . A bill passed recently by the California Legislature would establish Milk's May 22 birthday as an annual "day of significance" in the state, a move designed to encourage schools to discuss his career and legacy.

LA Times: ACLU blasts school officials over sixth-grader's Harvey Milk report

LGBT Gay Politics Gender News California

ACLU Sues Tennessee Schools for Censoring LGBT Web Sites

Yes! This is excellent. Tennessee school districts should have been sued a long time ago for all round institutional heterosexism or homophobia. Many teachers and school staff desperately need the education provided by the banned gay sites. I know that because my children spent some time in these schools, and we had to raise a little hell from time to time.

One of the most disturbing experiences was my kids' discovery of the oppressive institutional bias that led to the most ignorant and offensive of school sponsored programs such as diversity workshops that confined the entire discussion to racial diversity! Never mind gender. And never mind sexual orientation. One idea being that if teachers pretend that gay and lesbian students don't exist, maybe they'll just go away. Some do. Some commit suicide.

NPR: The suit alleges that the filtering software used by the districts blocks access to Web sites specializing in LGBT policy issues, including the Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network and Human Rights Campaign. In contrast, the suit notes, students are able to access Web sites that condemn homosexuality or advocate "reparative therapy" programs that attempt to change a person's sexual orientation. . .


ACLU-TN

Gay Politics Gender News Lesbian Tennessee

Alec Baldwin Banned From Philippines for Sexist Mail-Order Bride 'Joke' (Video)

Here's a remarkable reminder that in some parts of the world the oppression of women is treated as a not-funny deadly serious crime!

MANILA, Philippines - After receiving flak from Filipinos worldwide, 30 Rock star Alec Baldwin on Wednesday apologized for joking that he was interested in buying himself a Filipina wife.

"I apologize for the perceived insensitivity of that remark," Baldwin said in his blog posted at the Huffington Post website. On May 12, the 51-year-old Hollywood actor told David Letterman on the Late Show how he thought of getting, or buying, himself a Filipina bride.

"I think about getting a Filipino mail-order bride at this point or a Russian one, I don’t care, I’m 51," he told Letterman. . [D]espite his apology, the Bureau of Immigration issued an order barring Baldwin from entering the Philippines as he is deemed an "undesirable alien."

Immigration Commissioner Marcelino Libanan said Baldwin appeared to condone the mail-order bride scheme, which is a criminal act prohibited and punishable under Republic Act 6955. "By being in the bureau’s blacklist, Baldwin is forbidden from entering the country as he is deemed an undesirable alien," Libanan said.


Feminist Politics Gender News Patriarchy Sex Trafficking Philippines

'Lying Sack of Dog Mess' Glenn Beck Wants A Damn Apology from 'The View' Women (Video)

When liar Glenn Beck appeared on The View, he responded to Whoopi Goldberg's charge that he is an abject 'lying sack of dog mess' by groveling like a pedophile caught in the act. But back in the safety of his own show, the groveling coward has again taken up the project of defaming Whoopi Goldberg and Barbara Walters. What a pathetic coward.


via Media Matters

Whoopi to Glenn Beck: "You're A Lying Sack Of Dog Mess" (Video)

Feminist Politics Gender News Whoopi Goldberg Barbara Walters

Hillary Urges Women at Barnard to Support Women

This is what a feminist looks like! In an awesome speech excerpted below, Hillary Rodham Clinton urges the graduating class of Barnard to get to work on the enormous problem of women's oppression -- in the U.S. and across the planet. There's much that women of privilege can do. Here's an excerpt from Hillary's commencement speech but you should really read the full speech:

I want to talk about a particular area where I think you can, you should, and you must make a difference. It's important to me personally and it's especially important in my new job, and that is the plight of women and girls around the world. As women with strong voices and strong values, you are in a unique position to support women worldwide who don't have the resources you do, but whose lives and dreams are just as worthy as yours and mine. I have concluded after traveling many miles and visiting many places in the last decades that talent is universally distributed, but opportunity is not. The futures of these women and girls will affect yours and mine. And therefore, it is not only the right thing to do, but also the smart thing. . .

Although not always acknowledged by governments, businesses, or society overall, women and girls bear a disproportionate burden of most of the problems we face today. In the midst of this global economic crisis, women who are already the majority of the world's poor are driven deeper into poverty. In places where food is scarce, women and girls are often the last to eat, and eat the least. In regions torn apart by war and conflict, women are more likely to be refugees or targets of sexual violence. . .

And women’s progress is more than a matter of morality. It is a political, economic, social and security imperative for the United States and for every nation represented in this graduating class. If you want to know how stable, healthy, and democratic a country is, look at its women, look at its girls."

And yet the marginalization of women and girls goes on. It is one of humankind's oldest problems. But what is different today is that we have 21st century tools to combat it. . . Today, women are finding their voices, and those voices are being heard far beyond their own narrow circumstances. And here's what each of you can do. You can visit the website of a nonprofit called Kiva, K-i-v-a, and send a microloan to an entrepreneur like Blanca, who wants to expand her small grocery store in Peru. You can send children's books to a library in Namibia by purchasing items off an Amazon.com wish list. You can sit in your dorm room, or soon your new apartment, and use the web to plant trees across Africa through Wangari Maathai's Green Belt movement.

See more photos at Secretary Clinton

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Whoopi to Glenn Beck: "You're A Lying Sack Of Dog Mess" (Video)

I don't know why they let the creep on the show. It would be a better show if the women simply talked amongst themselves.


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Rachel Alexandra Beats the Boy Horses

I guess you heard about the girl horse who created a sensation by beating all the boy horses in a race called the Preakness. Her name is Rachel Alexandra.

Rachel Alexandra is the first filly to win the Preakness in 85 years. "The previous filly to win the Preakness was Nellie Morse in 1924."

I don't know anything about horse races. I do, however, know something about the custom of keeping girls out of the competition. Even in kindergarten, girl and boy humans are segregated for races on the playground because the most humiliating thing that can happen to a boy in a male supremacist culture is for a boy to lose to a girl. Oh, but that sort of bias could never happen on the racetrack.

In the week leading up to the race, the connections of Mine That Bird got busted for trying to collude with other owners to keep the filly from the starting gate. We now know why.

Preakness 2009: And the Filly Did It!

Feminist Politics Gender News

Pentagon: No Plans to End Don't Ask Don't Tell (DADT)

Rachel Maddow noted this on last night's show, but it deserves a post all its own. For those still holding on to this particular hope, time to let it go.

Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said Tuesday:

"I do not believe there are any plans under way in this building for some expected, but not articulated, anticipation that don't ask-don't tell will be repealed."

Lou Dobbs On Obama and DADT

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Rachel Maddow Interviews Another DADT Victim - Hey Obama, Where's the Change? (Video)

Kudos to Rachel Maddow for going after Obama on DADT and for doing it in such a gut-wrenching, in-your-face kind of way. Rachel Maddow is the best thing that ever happened to MSNBC.

Rachel is giving high profile coverage to victims of Obama's Don't Ask Don't Tell Policy. Yeah, it's Obama's now.

Last night Rachel interviewed Lieutenant Colonel Victor J. Fehrenbach, an 18 year Air Force veteran and combat missions hero, who is being kicked out of the military for being gay. The military has only spent 25 million bucks training this guy! Fehrenbach is fighting back and asking President Obama to fulfill that little campaign promise.

As Rachel said last night after Fehrenbach's segment, "Mr. President, you have a problem."


New President. New Congress. No Change. . . Lieutenant Colonel Victor J. Fehrenbach, a fighter weapons systems officer, has been flying the F-15E Strike Eagle since 1998. He has flown numerous missions against Taliban and al-Qaida targets, including the longest combat mission in his squadron's history. On that infamous September 11, 2001, Lt. Col. Fehrenbach was handpicked to fly sorties above the nation's capital. Later he flew combat missions in Iraq and Afghanistan. He has received at least 30 awards and decorations including nine air medals, one of them for heroism, as well as campaign medals for Kosovo, Afghanistan, and Iraq. He is now a flight instructor in Idaho, where he has passed on his skills to more than 300 future Navy, Marine Corps, and Air Force weapons systems officers. . And the Air Force is about to discharge this guy, a virtual poster boy for Air Force recruiting, because he is gay? Someone has to be kidding.

Also see Rachel Maddow's interview of Dan Choi, an Iraq war vet and Arabic translator (March 19) (Video - Watch it!)

LGBT Politics Obama Gay Gender News Discrimination MSNBC Don't Ask Don't Tell

Sexist Supreme Court Rules in Favor Of Male Supremacy and AT&T

AT&T could have just done the right thing, but why should the fabulously wealthy corporation miss an opportunity to screw women? Lucky for AT&T, their brothers own the Supreme Court and yesteryear's blatant gender discrimination continues as today's Legal AT&T Male Supremacy Policy of 2009.

Yet another painful reminder that this is not your mama's liberal Supreme Court. While it was never a feminist court, the High Court has certainly seen far better, or liberal, days. And yes, a Supreme Court comprised of 8 men and 1 woman is a supremely sexist court.

The testosterone rich Roberts Court ruled (7-2) that when Congress passed the 1979 Pregnancy Discrimination Act, they didn't really mean it. In the view of the Boy Court -- It's not illegal for AT&T to honor the 1960s blatant discrimination against women by sending out small feminine retirement checks to mothers and large masculine retirement checks to fathers.

With so many fathers on the Supreme Court, who is surprised?

I hope no woman who is reading this is a customer of AT&T.

It used to be legal to discriminate against pregnant women in the workplace. If a woman took maternity leave, that time wouldn’t count toward her retirement benefits. The 1979 Pregnancy Discrimination Act (PDA) changed all that: “If an employee is temporarily unable to perform her job because of her pregnancy, the employer must treat her the same as any other temporarily disabled employee.”

But what happens to women who took maternity leave before 1979? The 9th Circuit ruled in 2007 that the new law should apply to these women. However, today the Supreme Court voted to overturn the 9th Circuit’s ruling.

AT&T Corp. v. Hulteen, involved four women who worked at AT&T and took maternity leave prior to 1979. They said that each reduced retirement check they receive is “a fresh act of discrimination.” A seven-member majority on the Supreme Court, however, agreed with AT&T: Because Congress did not make the PDA retroactive, the company had no obligation to pay the women for past discrimination.

Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer were the two dissenting voices. Ginsburg wrote that even though PDA does not explicitly address grievances prior to 1979, it does say that all pregnancy-discrimination in the workplace must cease:

The plaintiffs (now respondents) in this action will receive, for the rest of their lives, lower pension benefits than colleagues who worked for AT&T no longer than they did. They will experience this discrimination not simply because of the adverse action to which they were subjected pre-PDA. Rather, they are harmed today because AT&T has refused fully to heed the PDA’s core command: Hereafter, for “all employment-related purposes,” disadvantageous treatment “on the basis of pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions” must cease. … I would hold that AT&T committed a current violation of Title VII when, post-PDA, it did not totally discontinue reliance upon a pension calculation premised on the notion that pregnancy-based classifications display no gender bias.

Feminist Politics Gender News Misogyny Pregnancy Discrimination AT&T Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Lesbian Sues Hospital for Denying Access to Dying Partner of 18 Years

How do you justify keeping children away from their dying mother? The same rotten way you justify keeping a woman away from her dying partner of 18 years. This breaks my heart. Suing the hospitals is an idea whose time has come! But I wish someone would sue the little bigoted self-absorbed lawmakers who are the ones most responsible for so much pain and grief.

C'mon Obama, there's still time to do the right thing and put a lesbian on the Supreme Court. You want empathy? Kathleen Sullivan's got plenty of empathy for the many targets of bigotry from the likes of Scalia, Thomas, Roberts and Alito.

When a loved one is in the hospital, you naturally want to be at the bedside. But what if the staff won’t allow it? That’s what Janice Langbehn, a social worker in Lacey, Wash., says she experienced when her partner of 18 years, Lisa Pond, collapsed with an aneurysm during a Florida vacation and was taken to a Miami trauma center. She died there, at age 39, as Ms. Langbehn tried in vain to persuade hospital officials to let her visit, along with the couple’s adopted children.

“I have this deep sense of failure for not being at Lisa’s bedside when she died,” Ms. Langbehn said. “How I get over that I don’t know, or if I ever do.”

The case, now the subject of a federal lawsuit in Florida, is being watched by gay rights groups, which say same-sex partners often report being excluded from a patient’s room because they aren’t “real” family members. And lawyers say the case could affect the way hospitals treat all patients with nonmarital relationships, including older people who choose not to marry, unmarried heterosexual couples and single people who rely on the support of close friends rather than relatives.

A similar lawsuit is under way in Washington State, where Sharon Reed says she was denied access to her partner of 17 years, Jo Ann Ritchie, who was dying of liver failure. Although the hospital had liberal visitation policies, a night nurse from an employment agency insisted that Ms. Reed leave her partner’s room, the lawsuit says.

“One of the things her partner said to her was, ‘I’m afraid of dying. Don’t leave me alone,’ ” said Judith A. Lonnquist, a lawyer for Ms. Reed. “That’s why the suffering was so enormous — she felt as if her partner was thinking she had betrayed her trust.” In both cases, the couples had prepared for a medical emergency, creating living wills, advanced directives and power-of-attorney documents.

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