California NOW

What really scares me on Halloween.....

In honor of Halloween, here are a few truly scary statistics about the status of women in the United States:

In 2005, women's median annual earnings were only $.77 for every dollar earned by men. For women of color, the gap is even worse – only $.71 for African American women and $.58 for Latinas. At the same time, in 2006 women comprised 46% of the total U.S. labor force and are projected to account for 47% of the labor force in 2014.

Approximately 78 percent of HIV-infected women are people of color. Although African Americans and Hispanics represented only 26 percent of the U.S. population in 2001, they accounted for 66 percent of adult AIDS cases and 82 percent of pediatric AIDS cases reported in the first half of that year.

One in five children go to bed hungry in our country and good luck finding quality, affordable childcare or life/work balance as a working mother.

And last, but certainly not least, women still hold only 87, or 16.3%, of the 535 seats in the 110th US Congress. Now that’s scary!

Nightmare on Castro Street

Nine people were killed at the notorious Castro Street Halloween Party last year, causing the city to cancel this years festivities. Last year wasn't the only Nightmare on Castro Street, in 2006 I had one of my own.

I lived up the hill in Noe Valley and got dressed up with friends in our adorable Edwardian flat.  I dressed as a sorority girl/dyke in the closet with the letters DKE on my sweatshirt. I trekked down Castro St. with my roommates and girlfriend into the sea of people.

My friends and I were snaking through the dense crowd when I suddenly felt someone's hand grab and hold onto my crotch from behind. Almost instantly his other hand was holding my breast. I started screaming, and the crowd around stepped back, creating a circle of space around us. The guy behind me didn't let go. I yelled at the crowd for help. They just stared back at me. I told them I didn't know this guy, but nobody did anything. They just stared. I finally wrenched myself out of his grip and turned around to face the 6'4" drunk, and he immediately grabbed my wrists. I tried to pull away, but his hands just gripped me tighter. I kept asking the crowd to help, and suddenly someone did.

Out of nowhere, my 5'2" girlfriend seemed to leap through the air. She landed on my attacker and he fell to the ground. She perched on top of him, and began slugging him in the face, over and over again. The crowd stood therein disbelief as this mighty 25 year old woman beat the hell out of this big strong man. I started to get really scared as his friends started yelling at her. I grabbed her by the wrist and pulled her off him. We took of running through the crowd, and didn't stop until we found police on the outskirts of the Castro. They were no help. We sat down on the curb at that gas station on Market St. I asked her how she did that, as I cried and thanked her. Jenn explained she had taken self defense classes, which had taught her how powerful and strong she was. She saved me from that Nightmare on Castro Street.

Britney's Case is Not Rare

Celebrity media tends to be presented in a vaccum. Even common issues like drug abuse and alcoholism are presented like they are the sole property of the rich and famous, without any extension to the general public.

Britney Spears' divorce and custody case--with the double standard around "good mother" and "good father," and the consequent stripping of the mother of her children-- is no exception. It's presented as a rarity, a cautious judge just taking the best interests of the children to heart in deciding the post-divorce custody.

The fact is, like Sandra Kobrin of Women's eNews points out, custody injustice goes way beyond Britney. There is an epidemic in our country's family courts. Perfectly fit mothers lose custody to abusive men, children's allegations are ignored, protective mothers are punished and corruption is rampant. It is but one symptom of a broken judicial system (as we point out in a letter to editor in today's San Francisco Chronicle.)

CA NOW has collected hundred of cases where mothers are discriminated against in family court, usually when a father demands custody, and the court ignores laws, logic and evidence to give it to him. It's part of the failure of the system to adequately protect women from violence, and it is deeply grounded in good ole fashioned sexism.

Family courts fail to see the forest through the trees when they get a father saying he wants his "rights" to his child, regardless of a history of domestic violence, child abuse or sexual abuse. They believe that alone this is enough to grant him access, despite the fact that it puts the child at risk, and denies women due process and access to justice in the process.

Cal Safety Walk...Is It Enough?

Posted by Lani Lee, Berkeley NOW

Last Friday Mandy and I attended a Community Safety Walk organized by students, UCPD and Berkeley city council members. About thirty of us divided into various groups and set out to tackle the Southside, Northside, and Downtown Area, marking areas with poor lighting, uneven sidewalks, and any other impediments to safety and accessibility on a map. The goal was to collectively identify unsafe areas in Berkeley neighborhoods in the hope of increasing awareness and making the streets safer, especially at night, for students and residents.

      As a young feminist, I thought this would be very important to attend because I have noticed that a lot of female students are hesitant about walking alone and there is a growing number of my friends who carry pepper spray with them. Our Berkeley NOW chapter has found difficulty in organizing evening events due to this concern.

So as we walked around and pointed out potential corners for mugs or rapes to occur, we noticed that there were numerous possibilities! Such crimes even occur in broad daylight, so was this really effective? In part it was effective because we identified many broken sidewalks and even some burned out lights in lamp posts. We also were able to talk to others about our personal experiences and set up a committee to organize a safety campaign in early February with a safe defense component. However, when I came home I began to question the layout of the city in general and I started to ask myself some questions.

     First, what percentage of cities in California are walkable or accessible? I mean most of Berkeley is designed with pedestrians and bikers in mind, but many cities are not. There are even some parts in Berkeley where sidewalks lead to nowhere or that public transportation is just not an option. Thinking outside Berkeley, I begin to realize that most cities require a car to get around in. Just think about the many drive thru services that are available these days from fast food to bank ATMs to coffee express windows!

     Second, how does city planning affect women? I remember growing up in different suburbs outside of Sacramento and San Jose as a kid and always asking my mom to give me a ride to a friend’s house or to the movies. Nothing was in walking distance to our house. School was also a problem. In 1974, over 60 percent of kids walked to school. Today less than 15 percent bike or walk to school! Instead parents are driving their children to school every morning and picking them up in the afternoon.  And we wonder why we are facing a global health and global warming crisis?

     As a woman, as a world citizen, I want to be able to exercise and be independent from my car. I want to walk, run, jog and skip down my city streets with out breathing in toxic pollution or tripping on cracked pavement. I want to feel safe and comfortable in my environment, not constantly on guard!  AB 437 would authorize local health officers to engage in local land use and transportation planning. The bill is intended to interject public health considerations (e.g., obesity, asthma) into city/county housing, land use, and transportation planning and approvals. Going on this community walk made me realize that the design of our cities directly impacts our health, safety and overall livelihoods!

For the Love of Children!

Millions of children in California have subsidized health insurance through the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, or SCHIP. SCHIP was created in 1997 to reduce the number of uninsured children in the U.S., and its expansion this fall would have extended coverage to an additional ten million children living in low-income families without insurance. On October 3rd, President Bush vetoed the expansion of the program—despite the fact that that an overwhelming majority of Americans support it (81%, according to a recent CBS News poll), and even though the average annual cost of the expansion was less than three weeks of federal spending for the War in Iraq. And where did elected officials from California fall on the issue? All California House members voted to override Bush’s veto, plus Rep. Mary Bono (R-Palm Springs).

Here’s the kicker—Bush claimed that the expansion would signal a slippery slope toward “socialized medicine”—in reality, the same kind of government-funded healthcare that members of Congress enjoy!

NOW to take on FCC

On Oct. 31, NOW President Kim Gandy will be at a FCC Public Hearing on Media Localism, in Washington, D.C., to testify on media ownership and the responsibility of TV and radio broadcasters to serve their local communities. That is, by the way, their expressed charter, as the airwaves technically belong to the people. With increasing consolidation of the media, women's voices, perspectives and issues are marginalized and too often ignored entirely.

Gandy will also speak at the Rally for Better Media outside FCC headquarters prior to the hearing, where activists will demand that our media reflect our democracy.

"Women own a meager six percent of full-power radio stations and five percent of all TV stations in the U.S.," said Gandy. "How can we expect the media to reflect the diversity of our lives and cover issues that impact everyone when they are owned by a handful of rich conglomerates?"

Good question!

Gandy will be joined by Rev. Jesse Jackson, Rep. Hilda Solis, Women's Media Center President Carol Jenkins, Rosa Clemente of R.E.A.C.Hip Hop Coalition and other media reform leaders and activists working on this issue.

This is an issue that affects all of us, and needs all our voices.

Hyde--30 Years is Enough!

This month marks the 31st anniversary of the passage of the Hyde Amendment, the restrictive federal legislation which excludes most types of abortion from the health services provided to low-income women through Medicaid. The Hyde Amendment discriminates against women based on their economic status by denying them their constitutionally-protected right to choose a safe and legal abortion.

A coalition of organizations has come together to create the Hyde- 30 Years is Enough! Campaign and is demanding that Congress repeal the Hyde Amendment. Sign the campaign’s petition. It’s a simple way to make your voice heard—your elected representatives need to be reminded that feminists in California won’t stand for such draconian measures!

CA Students Civil Rights Act Under Attack

We were delighted two weeks ago when Governor Schwarzenegger signed SB 777 (Kuehl) into law, otherwise known as the California Student Civil Rights Act. The Act amends state education codes to strengthen anti-discrimination laws for students; specifically it prohibits discrimination based on a person’s actual or perceived sexual orientation and gender identity.
Unfortunately, right-wing “family values” advocates don’t want GLBTQQI students protected. Today a referendum for the November 2008 ballot which seeks to nullify SB 777 can begin the process of signature gathering throughout the state. Karen England, Executive Director of the conservative Capitol Resource Institute in Sacramento is the proponent of the referendum. The measure’s outrageous website claims that SB 777 “will result in reverse discrimination against religious students and students with traditional family values.” The name of the website for the referendum? Saveourkids.net. Talk about hypocrisy! Californian women are smarter than the Resource Institute thinks—we know how to really save our kids---and we know that anti-gay bias has no place in the classroom!

Women and War

Go now and watch this video by the United Nations Population Fund about the ways war affects women and then tell me you aren't moved.

To think that men--and they are almost always men--devastate the women of a region so completely as a solution to a problem or strategy for gain is sickening. War is indeed the most institutionalized form of violence against women in existence.

California City Gets Safety Zones Around Clinics

The Oakland City Council's Public Safety Committee has recommended that the city have "medical safety zones" around abortion clinics to keep protesters at least eight feet away from patients, staff or escorts. Those entering the zones to harass patients as they enter the building would face jail sentences of up to a year or fines of up to $2,000.

It's not a done deal yet, the full Council will hear the issue November 6. I hope it does and sets the ball rolling for other cities to do the same. This kind of localized policy is what it has come down to, given that federal and state laws which protect clinic patients are too weak, don't extend to staff and are rarely enforced in simple harassment cases.

Way to go Oak-Town!