California NOW

Women Veterans Convene in Sacramento

The first ever California Women Veterans Conference will be held in Sacramento, on August 8th. California has more women veterans than any other state, 164,000 and growing. Thanks to the dogged efforts of Veteran Affairs Deputy Secretary Barbara Ward, honoring these special women will become an annual event, held in a different location around the state each coming year.

The California Women's Commission, along with Assemblymember Lois Wolk, has also commissioned the first ever statewide survey on women veterans, in an effort to better know their specific needs, if their issues are being met by the VA and how they might better serve the women veterans in our state. Education, child care, PTSD, and the aging issues of women veterans have been unanticipated by the traditionally all male Veteran Affairs Department. The need for female veteran housing is just beginning to be acknowledged.

For the sacrifices they make, women vets need to be honored, valued and care for. Thanks to the California Women's Commission for working to that goal realized!

Get Involved: About-Face Challenges Media Images Dangerous for Women and Girls

Women are bombarded every day with messages about what we should look like, and when we don't (which, inevitably, we won't) we define ourselves based on what we're not. About-Face is working to change how young women see themselves, despite the onslaught. If you'd like to join them in their efforts, check out their volunteer meeting Wednesday, July 16, from 6-9pm, at the Western Addition, San Francisco (exact location will be given when you RSVP)

They're currently planning an action that "takes on our culture's obsession with weight by teaming up with Marilyn Wann, author of the inspiring book Fat!So?, to make and demonstrate Yay Scales. You don't know what a Yay Scale is? Here are three hints: There will be crafts, there will be a public challenging of the status quo, and hopefully, there will be media coverage." Go check out their meeting and get involved!

Check Out CA NOW's Zoe Nicholson's ERA Workshop

CA NOW's own Vice President of Membership, Zoe Nicholson will be presenting at a work shop at the Federally Employed Women National Training Program, at the Anaheim Hilton Wednesday, July 16th, from 1:30pm to 4:30pm. She'll be participating in the Equality Workshop, addressing women’s rights, the Equal Right’s Amendment (ERA), and current court decisions which have negatively affected women, and speaking on her experience with efforts toward ratification of the ERA. Nicholson fasted for 37 days in 1982 demonstrating for the ERA, which failed to be ratified by all the states necessary for passage. She later wrote a book about her experience called, “The Hungry Heart: A Woman’s Fast For Justice.” (Several copies of her book will be distributed during the workshop as door prizes.)

The ERA has a rich and heartbreaking history, full of s/heroes and villains and drama and intrigue. Go hear first hand from Zoe about her experience in the struggle!

Find out more about the conference. Register online through Monday, after that registration is on site.

"What's Your Point, Honey?"

This film follows seven young women who want to be the President of the United States. It's playing in San Francisco on July 31st. Definitely looks worth checking out. I just wonder: will we really have to wait that much longer to get a woman in the White House? These young women are still ten to fifteen years from even being eligible to run!

Here's a Women's eNews article about the film.

Community Convergence for Change

The Big ONE 2008 is a “village of engagement” for healthy body, home, family and community. It’s basically a huge gathering of people, schools, coops, nonprofits, foundations and businesses that collaborate in a dialog and vision of sustainable change for neighborhoods, communities and the world.

This weekend, June 21st and 22nd, from 9am-7pm, be heard and be engaged.

CA NOW Goes on the "Warped Tour"

Imagine this: the state’s largest women’s organization, teams up with the country’s most punk rock music tour, in order to educate young people about sex.

That's just what's happening! The CA NOW Foundation is taking the “I Heart Consensual Sex” campaign on the road with educational tables at California shows on the punk music, extreme sports road show, the Warped Tour. The campaign will be featured at informational tables at Warped Tour shows in Pomona, San Francisco, and Ventura in June this weekend, and Fresno, Chula Vista, Mountain View and Los Angeles in August.

The Warped Tour has invited social issue non-profit organizations to be a part of their Take Action! Area, brought on tour by Unite the United. The CA NOW Foundation table will include stickers, buttons and t-shirts with the “I <3 Consensual Sex” logo, as well as informational literature and resources.

This tour is really taking social responsibility to a new level with their efforts. Sponsored by EarthEcho International, the tour is touting this year’s as the “greenest tour yet,” with efforts to promote carpooling, recycling and taking action for the environment. Rock on!

Read our press release here and check out the tour at a venue near you!

"Women Wielding Cameras: Women Power and Politics Film Festival"

Saturday June 14,  11am-5pm at Koret Auditorium, San Francisco Main Library

Hosted by the International Museum of Women , free and open to the public. Some of the films include:

Las Madres: The Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo winner of over 30 awards including an Academy Award nomination, tells of Argentina's "Dirty War" of the 1970s and 1980s in which more than 30,000 sons and daughters "disappeared." It chronicles the mothers who founded a powerful activist movement, demanding to know their children's fate. Dr. Sarah Schoellkopf and Dr. Constanza Svidler conversation regarding the documentary and answer questions after the screening.

Emmy-winning and Academy Award-nominated film, God Sleeps in Rwanda, profiles five courageous women orphaned in the 1994 genocide that left over one million people dead. The film follows these women as they rebuild their lives, redefine women's roles in Rwandan society and bring hope to a wounded nation. Filmmaker Kimberlee Acquaro, Norah Bagirinka, and Jennifer Seibel will discuss the documentary and answer questions after the screening.

What's Your Issue? Bring it to the Commission on the Status of Women

The California Commission on the Status of Women will be holding three public hearings throughout California to learn what issues women and girls are facing and what role the state can play in addressing them. Hearings will be made up ENTIRELY of testimony from individuals and organizations bringing their comments and recommendations to the Commission. Sign up now to come out and bring your issues and speak your mind! Especially if you have had an unjust experience in the family law courts. This issue needs to be brought up at every hearing.

June 19, 2008
1:30 to 5:30 PM
Hiram Johnson State Building
Milton Marks Auditorium
455 Golden Gate Avenue
San Francisco, CA 94102
June 12, 2008 is the deadline for submitting the testimony sign-up form for this hearing.

June 26, 2008
1:30 to 5:30 PM
California Western School of Law
Moot Court Room
225 Cedar Street
San Diego, CA 92101
Deadline to submit testimony sign-up form: June 19, 2008

July 23, 2008
1 to 5 PM
Lewis Library and Technology Center
Steelworkers Auditorium
8437 Sierra Avenue
Fontana, CA 92335
Deadline to submit testimony sign-up form: July 16, 2008

Issues for testimony include, but are not limited to: human trafficking, reproductive freedom, child support, title IX, access to healthcare, childcare, universal healthcare, financial challenges, domestic violence, education, equal pay, Arts, employment, discrimination, stalking, sexual assault, hate crimes, child custody, athletic equity, disability, spousal support, women in prison, CalWORKs, equal rights amendment, feminization of poverty, CEDAW, teen pregnancy, racism, and sexual harassment.

Check out this 3-day film fest honoring the Queer API community

This year's festival includes a featured screening of queer Asian Pacific Islander women's films, four Q&A sessions with filmmakers and a panel discussion with internationally acclaimed British South Asian filmmaker Pratibha Parmar.

Sacramento Dyke March

From the Lambda Community Center;

The 2nd Annual Sacramento Dyke March will be held Friday, June 13. The event will begin at 6 p.m. at the West Steps of the State Capitol with a brief kickoff rally, followed by a march around Capitol Park and returning to the West Steps. Speakers at the event will include:

Hilary Hodge, Sacramento National Organization for women;
Gretchen Bender, Sacramento County Board of Education member and the first out lesbian elected official in Sacramento County;
Marghe Covino, Sacramento Gay & Lesbian Center co-founder and community activist;
Cathy Schwamberger of Equality California;
Kathleen Montgomery of Sacramento Parents & Friends of Lesbians And Gays (PFLAG);
Pam Whiteley, president of Sacramento PFLAG;
Shelly Bailes and Ellen Pontac, marriage equality activists;
Wendy Hill, GSA Network and Stonewall Democrats; and
Melba Duncan, facilitator of the Sacramento Gay & Lesbian Center’s Women On Wednesdays group

The True Colors Women’s Chorus and vocalist Kilee Cooper will perform.

Everyone who is supportive of lesbian equality and visibility, regardless of gender or sexual orientation, is welcome to participate in this free event. Some 300 women participated in the 1st Annual Sacramento Dyke March in June 2007.

Call 916-442-0185, Ext. 105, for more information about Sacramento Dyke March.