Thanks to Feministing for the reminder that tonight is the premiere of the documentary 12th & Delaware on HBO. This film highlights the intersection in Florida known as "ground zero" for the abortion rights battle because on this corner lives both a reproductive health clinic and an anti-choice crisis pregnancy center, right across the street from one another.



As mad as this documentary will inevitably make me, I'm excited to watch it. I sincerely hope the numerous ways in which CPCs are detrimental to women is apparent in the film because more people need to know the truth: these fake clinics are staffed with liars and harassers who don't trust women to make their own decisions about their own bodies. And sadly, CPCs greatly outnumber abortion-providing clinics in the U.S.

Today is the National Day of Silence, a day in which "hundreds of thousands of students nationwide take a vow of silence to bring attention to anti-LGBT name-calling, bullying and harassment in their schools."

According to a 2007 study done by GLSEN, nearly 9 out of 10 LGBT students report verbal, sexual or physical harassment at school and more than 30% report missing at least a day of school in the past month out of fear for their personal safety.

The Day of Silence is close to my heart, because I began participating in it when I was a wee 9th grader in high school, and it unleashed my then-dormant activist side.

It's a great feeling to participate, and I recommend everyone do it at least once. Even if you aren't a student anymore. But if you aren't comfortable with actually staying silent all day, there are plenty of other things you can do to support the cause, if you visit the Day of Silence website.

Here's what people who walked into the library on my campus were confronted with today:

I wanted to share this with all of you. I was recently tagged in this photo on Facebook that someone took for my campus newspaper. It's from when nutty extremists came to our campus last year to preach hatred against gay/lesbian people, and as a large crowd of students formed around them, I ran back to my room to make a sign that said "GOD LOVES EVERYONE" and stood on a bench in front of them. They were not happy. But everyone else was.

Many of you might have heard about the storm of controversy surrounding the highly offensive "Tranny Alert" website. Essentially, the site would encourage people to submit pictures of what they perceived to be transgendered people and the photos would then be posted, thereby outing those who are trans and insulting those who aren't. It blatantly dehumanized trans people and put them on display like circus freaks.

But thankfully, due to the amazing online activism that took place, led by angry and offended feminists and GLBTQ-rights activists, the site has been taken down.

HELL. YEAH.

You've made me proud, activists. Keep it up.

THE HISTORY

The month of June was selected to celebrate GLBTQ pride to commemorate the Stonewall riots. It was on June 28, 1969 that a gay bar called the Stonewall Inn was raided by New York police. Tensions between NY police and gay residents of Greenwich Village erupted into protests, and within weeks, Village residents had organized into activist groups with the mission of creating a safe place for people to be open about their sexual orientations without the fear of getting arrested. Ultimately, the Stonewall riots launched the gay rights movement across the nation.

TODAY

President Obama is commending Gay Pride Month by once again expressing his commitment to expanding the rights of GLBT people. In a proclamation, he stated:

I continue to support measures to bring the full spectrum of equal rights to LGBT Americans.

The proclamation also discussed his legislative priorities, including overturning the "Don't Ask Don't Tell" policy and the Defense of Marriage Act. He is unarguably more committed to gay rights than any other president the U.S. has seen. From Pride.BarackObama.com:



GAY PRIDE MONTH EVENTS

There are tons and tons of wonderful events for GLBTQ people and straight allies to attend to celebrate the queer community.

• If you're like me and you live in or near New York, you can visit NYCPride.org for the entire list of gay pride events, taking place between June 20th and 28th.


• Pride is also huge in San Francisco, where there are events all throughout the month. The main pride celebration will take place on June 27th and 28th.


• Boston has events from June 5th to the 14th. The Pride Parade will be held on June 13th at noon.


• Washington, D.C. Pride Week takes place from June 5th - 14th.


• But this only covers a fraction of the events happening in every state. You can check out the entire Gay Pride Month calendar, which includes events across the country and in other countries alike, to find an event near you.

Inevitably, anti-choice protesters showed up at Notre Dame to protest President Obama's commencement address. Honestly, can't the guy fucking congratulate college graduates without it being turned into a political issue? He was not there to push abortion rights, and the focus of his speech was not abortion.

Police officers ended up kicking out the protesters for trespassing, and arrested at least 27 anti-choice activists who refused to leave. The protesters are slightly scary and very cult-like.



Still, they made their mark. Over 300 demonstrators gathered outside the school's front gate. Among them was Norma McCorvey, or "Roe" of Roe v. Wade, who was "converted" to pro-life after the Supreme Court case. For the record, though the pro-lifers might use her as a poster-child, Norma's changing of sides, in my opinion, isn't detrimental to the pro-choice movement. Her pro-life stance came from her conversion to Catholicism, and she also claims to have "converted" from being a lesbian to being heterosexual. *Snort*

Regardless, I'm concerned. I'm really concerned. Obama's election, much like Clinton's election did, seems to have served as a wake-up call for our opponents.

Yes, Miss California (known for her anti-same-sex marriage views) did receive breast implants paid for in full by the Miss USA pageant. Why? Because beauty pageants, no matter how much people insist it's as much about "personality" as it is about looks, are social constructs that exist to force women to adhere to narrow beauty standards, while dehumanizing and humiliating the 98% of the female population that doesn't fall into this exclusive category. These were the contestants in the Miss USA 2009 pageant:



Not only do many of them look remarkably alike and possess no hint of uniqueness, but there is also a blatant lack of women of color. Why are feminists not doing more to end these pageants that function only to objectify and judge women as if they exist solely to be on display for others? Why aren't we carrying on the plights of the second wave feminists who stood outside the Miss USA pageant and threw makeup, bras, girdles, pantyhose, and other "instruments of torture" into a Freedom Trash Can? Why aren't we sneaking "WOMEN'S LIBERATION" banners into this pageants and flashing them at opportune times? Have we just become so used to our looks-obsessed culture that we've come to accept pageants and stick-thin models as the norm?

I sincerely hope not.

So, I'm sure all of you have heard that the Republicans are having some, ahem, teabagging issues (heh heh... teabagging). The Huffington Post displayed the ten most offensive signs that were held proudly at the protests. Some of them are just unreal.

Did anyone participate in National Crisis Pregnancy Center Protest Day?

I sure did. The protest I held was a definite success. We had, at the most, around 10 people, which is more than I was hoping for. I did a ton of promotion for the protest, but as I've learned in the past, apathy is a plague. Besides, what was that Margaret Mead quote?

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."

We had a couple people come up to us to get more information, and although we lost count, I think our "HONK IF YOU SUPPORT CHOICE" sign received well over 300 honks.



The best part of the day was when an elderly woman came up to us and said, "I support you as someone who had to travel to New Jersey over 30 years ago to get an abortion." I felt really proud at that moment, like I was part of a new generation of feminists working to correct the injustices of the past and today. It wasn't that long ago that even New York, one of the first states to liberalize abortion laws, didn't have an abortion clinic. It is truly our duty as modern feminists to do everything we can to protect what little reproductive justice we have, if not for ourselves then for the feminists who fought for it decades ago, giving their entire lives to the cause.

After the protest, we went into the crisis pregnancy center to talk to the women who worked there. They had heard that we were coming, and so one woman sat down with us to have a discussion. I vocalized my concerns that scared pregnant women will find them in the phonebook or online, see the words "pregnancy support," and come into the center, not knowing that they won't get all their options. The woman shot back with, "We're clearly a pro-life organization." I told her there is nothing "clear" about them being pro-life. I had to dig extremely deep on their website to confirm that they are a pro-life center - I mean, someone like me who is educated on this issue would know right away, but how many pregnant young women are likely to have a BA in Women's Studies? Moreover, their advertisements are the typical "Pregnant? Need Help? Call Us" type deal, without saying anything about being pro-life or not offering abortion referrals. She told me that they don't try to scare women away from having abortions, to which I picked up a pamphlet on "post-abortion stress syndrome" and said, "What's this then?" I told her that the so-called "syndrome" has been disproven by even the American Psychological Association and she had no response.

The one good thing they did offer was free baby clothes, diapers, and food to new mothers. However, I saw that as just another ploy to get women to "choose" life by saying, "Here, look at all we can offer you if you do decide to keep your baby."

Basically, this center and other crisis pregnancy centers know what they are doing. They are extremely sneaky and deceptive. If they are so proudly pro-life, as this woman claimed they were, why not put "pro-life" in their title? Or on the website? Or in the advertisements? Or in their pamphlets? I didn't see it anywhere. All I saw were promises that they can provide loving support to frightened pregnant women who might not know better.

On March 5th, California's Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on Prop 8. The fight is not over yet. From Equality California:

On January 15, 2009, 43 friend-of-the-court briefs urging the Court to invalidate Prop 8 were filed, arguing that Proposition 8 drastically alters the equal protection guarantee in California’s Constitution and that the rights of a minority cannot be eliminated by a simple majority vote.

Be sure to take a minute to sign Equality California's online petition to support overturning Prop 8. Also, if you live in California, you can attend one or two rallies being held by the organization.

Those are PETA activists. Dressed up as KKK members. Protesting the pure-breeding of dogs. I am infuriated.

Tomorrow, be sure to CALL IN GAY! Day Without a Gay is a national movement to show everyone how important GLBTQ people are to society. This day-long protest was sparked by the passing of Prop 8 - since, you know, it's just a tad ridiculous that tax-paying citizens who contribute to society and help the economy are given second-class rights.

Even if you don't identify as GLBTQ, you can still participate! I'm sure allies are more than welcome to join. Don't go to work, don't buy any products, and instead, the organizers of the protest are urging everyone to perform volunteer work. Of course, students are not traitors if they go to class or take final exams. Involve your friends and family so Day Without a Gay really makes an impact. Yahoo! News already covered the protest, so it's already getting great attention.



There are plenty of places to volunteer near you. I'm spending a few hours at a soup kitchen, and they were thrilled when I called and asked to help. Check out VolunteerMatch.org for some nearby listings.

The Prop 8 protest in New York City was wonderful. When we got there, we saw thousands of people spanning several blocks holding signs and donning rainbow accessories. We pushed our way through the crowd until we found a spot where we could hear all the amazing people who gave speeches. Their voices were booming through speakers. When a particularly inspirational line was said, everyone would let out an enormous cheer, hold up their signs, and start chanting.

The unity in the crowd was amazing. And there were so many different types of people there. Old, young, Black, White, Hispanic, gay, lesbian, transgendered, bisexual, heterosexual. Looking at that crowd, I could really see that you just can't generalize an entire group of people. And you certainly can't ignore them. I think that's the major thing that these nation-wide protests proved: you just can't ignore thousands of people. GLBT people are tax-paying citizens who deserve rights and respect. I really think that more and more people will begin to realize that. These rallies were a wonderful start.

And thankfully, we got press coverage. Here's some pictures I took:







This was really an amazing experience. Did anyone else participate?

For Take Action Tuesday, I'm urging all of you to promote the hell out of this Prop 8 protest on Saturday. The bigger it is, the bigger the impact will be. Once again, you can visit JoinTheImpact.com to find your protest location. The organizers urge everyone to do their part in promoting the protest. Spread it through word of mouth, get local organizations involved, announce it in classes if you're a student, and post flyers around your town. If anyone's interested, I created a flyer to post around my campus. You're more than welcome to steal it, just make sure to change the time and the location to the correct ones for your state.

Download Prop 8 Protest Flyer (.Doc Format)

Recently, one of my friends suggested that this backlash against the passing of Prop 8 could be the beginnings of a new wave of feminism, and now I think she may be right. This Saturday (November 15th) there will be nationwide protests against Prop 8 - every single state has at least one protest location, and some have several. The times will be:

West Coast: 10:30 AM
Mountain Time Zone: 11:30 AM
Central Time Zone: 12:30 PM
East Coast: 1:30 PM

Visit JoinTheImpact.com to find your protest location. Please take part if you can! Bring friends! Imagine being part of a national movement. It's a wonderful thing, and I'm so happy that the passing of a harmful and discriminatory proposition is something that we are certainly not going to let go.

I'm ecstatic to hear that GLBT people and their allies are not taking this attack on their civil rights lying down.

Around 1,000 people gathered together on the streets of Los Angeles and West Hollywood, and before the night was through, the crowd swelled to more than 4,000. They blocked traffic, held signs, carried candles, chanted, and banged on doors. Police used force against some who participated in rally, but as far as I know, no one was seriously hurt. Mostly, the rally was peaceful, which is amazing to me. It takes a lot of strength and willpower to remain "peaceful" after your fellow citizens have robbed you of your rights.

Californian same-sex couples and their friends must be fucking pissed. I know I am. Take a look at the photo that accompanies the first article I linked above. How in the world are those people so happy? Is it because they still have an entire group of people to oppress? Because thousands of couples who love each other aren't able to celebrate that love like heterosexual couples are? Because GLBT people and their allies all over the country are devastated? Yeah. Lots to celebrate.

All I can is: thank you so much to the brave people in California who participated in this protest.

"First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win" - Mahatma Gandhi.

In an election ridden with ignorant and clueless people incorrectly labeling Sarah Palin as a feminist and a maverick, this is really refreshing. Over 1,000 women in Alaska banded together to partake in the largest protest the state has ever seen. They were all fed up with Sarah Palin, and they wanted the world to know it. They stood together, holding signs with phrases such as: "Sarah Palin: Undoing 150 Years of American Feminism" and "Palin Does Not Speak for Us." They united to serve a common goal: keeping our country out of the hands of unqualified people who will do more harm than good.

Today in my Feminism in the U.S. class, we started talking about how feminism doesn't seem to be what it used to be, and how "lame" we seem in comparison to the women of the past who chained themselves to the gates of the White House to gain the right to vote. But I guess there is hope for us after all.